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/125802
lXl g. ... '" M ll. _ed N ~ " o ~ w Z W -J U > U '. t~a~c;;oT)oo;jfttiihee~Sr;:p;;;a;;;nr,isiFhi'TTrCro)ipiih;;y;-'iT';;e;;a;:;m;"'i';le;;;a:ddlt;;;h;;;e:;t:;ro;;'o;;'p;;'s;;-.----~---"---"-:.....""'"--"l:!:.---------l On the sl ick paveme nt. Wieczorek of the Pol ishl Trophy team (Jawa land Gorne z (B uti by Ron Schneiders Photos by Charles Clayton, Tom Culp and Ron Schneiders Although there were a number of personal triumphs in. th is year's Czechoslovakian Six Days, the performance of our team as a whole'was disappointing to many of those who were most concerned with the trial. In some ways, the U.S. team had far more than jts share of the "good breaks" that are always necessary to do well in the Six Days Trial. To begin, two of the top east European Trophy Team members were unable to compete due to injuries received shortly before the trial began. Kvetoslav Masita, Czechoslovakia's best known rider, who curr~ntly has five individual championships to his credit, was out with a broken arm. East Germany's star) Werner SaJewski, was also unable to compete. His injury occurred so late before the trial that a special jury decision was necessary to allow a substitute, R. Fisher, a Vase team member, to take his place. Then, on Tuesday, came the electrifying news that H. Brinkmann, one of the powerful West German team, had arrived .at the "" Through the mud and pines of a dark Czech Trophy Team on a 250 Jawa: second check seven minutes late, drawing four penal ty marks for his Trophy Team. The terrain was favorable to our riders, being very similar to the Berkshire country, with maybe a bit less deep mud and somewhat sqarper rocks. 'Our Trophy Team had virtually no serious mechanical problems, while our most serious competitors, the Italians, were plagued with several serious problems. Their road racing star, Farioli, came close to retirement several times because of a rear wheel that had a tendency toward disintegration. . THE TROPHY TEAM There was never any re'mote chance that our Trophy Team would win this year. Our riders are still several orders of magnitude slower in the special tests than the best of the European countries. With no "breaks" for anyone, we could have expected a tough, three way battle for fourth place among ourselves, the Italians and the Russians. The East Germans, the West Germans and the Czechs are in solid command of the top three spots. When the West Germans impossibly dropped the ball on Tuesday, it then became theoretically possible for us, or our level of competitors, to take third. But it was not to be. With our real potential lying somewhere between third and sixth, we wound up in sixth. Three incidents con tributed to our unspectacular placement. If we were to beat the Russians and I talians, it had to be done on the basis of bonus points. Bonus points ~an be accumulated in a number of ways: by failing to get started on time, by failing the sound test, and by slow times in the acceleration tests, the cross-country tests, and the final day's road race. Our times in the races would have allowed us to beat the Russians and have a fighting chance against the Italians, but for some reason Dick Burleson consistently flunked the sound test, accumulating 20 points each day. 1n Six Days competition the sound test is not the Mickey Mouse business that it is in many stateside even ts. The sound level is measured in the middle of the acceleration test when the machine is revving high and putting out maximum power. The poin ts system is arranged so that if the rider backs- off the throttle, he loses more points in the aCGeleration test than he would gain by passing the sound test. There are some techniques that the rider can employ to pass the test if his bike is marginal, such as staying as far from the meter as the rules allow and shielding the engine somewhat with the arm and. body while passing"l:he meter, but none of these helped Burleson. He was riding a Penton identical to that of the rest of the team bu t for some reason his would not pass, while theirs did. Since, as yet, no one knows why his machine wouldn't" pass, it would be unfair to blame him for it. Near the end of the week, most people seemed re~igned to the fact that we were going to lose to the I talians on the basis of bonus points but the team was still all on gold medals (no penalty pointsj and seemed to have a secure lead over the Russians on tke basis of bonus points and the West Germans who had four penalty po.ints. Then on Satu·rd.ay, just a few miles from the end, there came a combination of even ls that finished us. First, Jack Penton had a fiat tire which he had to change on a tight ~ection in a pouring rainstorm. In fixing Lt, he used up all his extra time and was very close to being late. Then, just after he restarted, he came upon the unlucky Dick Burleson who had broken a chain. Jack stopped and asked Dick if he '\ needed help. Burleson. knowing that Jack was close to the limit, told him to keep going; 'that he'd get it fixed. But in stopping, Jack had fouled a plug. His tired engine continued to foul plugs, a total of four or five of them until finally jack was ten min u tes la~e. No gold for Jack. In the meantime, Burleson was accumulating blunder p.oints. First be had inexplicably starled the day with neither spare chain nor master link! Then he refused Jack's offer of help. Jack had a complete new chain!