Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125732
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Kenney Meets Fellow -Van ks In European Mf
Hello AMXT followers.
The little band of team workers,
Bryan Kenney, his wife and me, Just
passed an action-packed week with two
races in Italy the 30 May and the 2 June
followed quickly by a race way up in
the North of France the 6 June. We are
now all tuckered out, but it was well
worth it.
We had our first taste of Italian
motocross at Pinerolo, a town in
northern ItaJy not far from the Alps.
The track was made up of some
enormous hills that even I had a time
going up and down. But what really
pleased us in I taJy was the spectator
enthusiasm. They numbered in the
10,000's on Sunday, a large part of
whom were stars and stripes fans.
The AMXT had a good day in
Pinerolo. In practice Bryan had the
fastest time for a foreigner. Because of
th e large n umber of riders engaged in
the 500 class, there were two 45 minute
qualifying heats, with half the group in
each. Only the top 15 of each heat went
into the final. Bryan took 7th and first
non-Italian in his heat, and Dave Bickers
bested the foreigners in the second heat.
An
American,
Tom
Volin,
also
participated in the second heat, but not
accustomed to such long races under the
m eridjan sun, it was no picnic for him.
Rustignoli, the Italian king of CZ,
captured the final. Myoid man finished
8 th and second foreigner to DeRoover
from Belgium, a placing that seemed to
please th e I taJian organizers.
The next day we drove to the other
side of Turin to Casale Monferrato, the
scene for the June 2 race. Again the
Italian competition was stiff. Guiseppe
Cavallero came through with top
honors. My provider was 5th in his heat
and 8 th in the final. This was enough of
a success to place him in the winner's
circle to receive a fancy cup. With this,
"il Americana" wore hiniself out signing
autographs. I was even propositioned by
a dashing I talian who wan ted to keep
me on his farm!
By Thursday we were on the road to
a race in Brittany. This race is famed for
its purse - 1200 dollars first and little
less than 200 dollars last. Consequently
all the top names tried for an entry. The
presentation resembled a Grand Prix
with
Christer
Hammergren,
Jan
Johansson,
Keith
Hickman,
Vic
Eastwood and Vehkonen on the line.
America had two representatives, Bryan
and John Barclay, a Californian riding
his first race in Europe.
As John and Bryan were being
introduced to the crowd, they noticed
that some well meaning worker had
hung our flag upside down! The stars
were flying in the bottom comer.
Without wasting any time, they stepped
out during the rider's presentation,
lowered the flag, turned it around, and
sent it back up before the next man was
introduced. This little scene merited the
French national television.
Off the starting line, it was the sharp
hairpins connecting the hillclimbs that
gave most riders an uneasy momen t.
Even Hamrnergren stalled in one of the
corners. The overall winner was
Vehkonen the Finn with Hammergren
running a close second place. Hickman,
Wiertz, and Eastwood rounded out the
first five. Bryan managed another 8th
place on his trusty Husky after dicing
back and forth with Eastwood.
With this rugged week behind, the
month of June will be relatively calm.
We have only one race a week. This
should give us some extra time to fix up
the arrangements for Bob and Barry.
We're still hoping for some sort of
transport for the team bikes. For now
this is Station AMXT signing off for the
week.
--Snowflake