Throwback Thursday: The Gloomiest Winner
Larry Lawrence | June 14, 2018
Henny Ray Abrams photo
In this week’s Throwback we dial it back to 1983 and the FIM 500cc Motocross World Championship finale in St. Anthonis, Holland. After first glance you might wonder why overall winner Andre Malherbe looks so dejected standing atop the rostrum. But dig a little deeper in the record books and you suddenly realize this Henny Ray Abrams photo tells a story. Malherbe had in fact just won the race on his factory Honda, but he narrowly lost the world championship that day to Yamaha’s Hakan Carlqvist. Suzuki’s Gerard Rond, who was runner up in the overall, appears to empathize with Malherbe’s situation. Carlqvist, standing next to Malherbe, is trying to remain calm, but realizes he is the new world champ and looks to be trying to contain his emotions. It marked the second world title for the “Super Swede”. Carlqvist had previously won the 250cc MX World Championship in 1979.
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