He took delivery of his first bike aged ten and had his first race shortly afterwards but his racing activities were restricted to his native Belgium until 1973 when he collected his license to race the European 125cc Championship, which he won, first time out before repeating the feat the following year in 1974. Ironically, it is this Zundapp MC125 that we will feature in this issue of MXGP Magazine.
ANDRE MALHERBE IS A THREETIME FIM 500CC MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPION AND ONE OF BELGIUM’S FINEST ATHLETES TO HAVE EVER THROWN A LEG OVER A MOTOCROSS BIKE.
In 1972 whilst competing in Belgium, Malherbe was racing production CZ machinery but when he entered the 125cc European Championship the following year, he did so armed with factory bikes from Zundapp, which were produced in Munich, Germany. His teammate was Fritz Schneider and both riders had identical machinery.
In 1973, the championship was run as an eight-round qualifying series; the riders were split into two groups, A and B, raced on different tracks on different weekends and the title was decided in a winner-takes-all, one-race final at the end of the year which featured the top twenty riders from both groups. Tarao Suzuki from Japan won Group A; Malherbe won Group B. At the final in Yugoslavia, Malherbe was victorious with a 1-2 to claim his first European title with Tarao Suzuki taking second ahead of Fritz Schneider. Rule changes in 1974 though meant that the two-group system was replaced with a one-group format, with riders competing over fifteen rounds, in a title chase that could not have been closer. Malherbe was victorious to claim back-to-back titles, only this time it was his teammate Fritz Schneider who placed 65