DAVE MORRIS proved a strong ambassador for English motor cycle road-racing when he competed in the big Ducati Club of the Netherlands event at Assen.

The racer/tuner from Swanwick near Southampton powered to a brace of second places in the SuperMono and Super/Twins events on the famous old grand prix circuit.

The three-times TT winner had the extra bonus of setting the quickest lap of the SuperMono event - 153.04kph as he swept past former German champion Frank Reiski on the penultimate lap.

Morris gambled by riding his new 700cc Chrysallis BMW after ingition problems in his last British Championship event at Pembrey.

It meant he had to nurse the engine through the warm up lap with the result that he started the race on relatively cold tyres.

But, once he had the grip, Morris, who started from the second row of the grid, moved through the field, passing and shaking off two of his fiercest English rivals Darren Barton and Steve Marlow.

He passed Reiski's factory-supported Yamaha a lap from home to finish six seconds behind the race winner, Sweden's Per Ogeborn on a Rotax.

Morris rode the All-Ways Surfacing-sponsored Ducati in the SuperTwin category, again moving up from the second row of the grid. The race was two classes within one and Morris took second to German Ducati rider Heinz Platicis in the twin-cylider category in which the Southampton man averaged 155.40kph.

The BMW rider now contem-plates the serious business of defending a 36-point lead in the British SuperMono Championship which concludes with back-to-back rounds at Brands Hatch on September 11 and Croft on September 19.

It sounds like a big lead but with 25 points for a win and 20 for second, Morris knows there's no margin for error and that a DNF could be really costly.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.