Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

September 18, 1973 Page 14 John Banks before he learned how he finished. Undermanned U.S. Team 4th In the Motocross des Nations By John Huetter WOHLEN, SWITZERLAND, SEPT. 2 The Motocross des Nations IS' a difficult race to fully understand. It IS team motocross at perhaps it most refined level while, at the same time, it is a showcase for brilliant, or not so brilliant, displays of individual talent. This year, under a hot Swiss sun, the Belgian national team dominated and won the twelfth running of this prestige event. Leading the winning effort which did not really surprise anybody too much was World Champion Roger DeCoster who took top individual honors with 1·2 finishes in motos that seemed to each be about 80 minutes long. But the real news, the shock, and the impact was generated by the American team. Four man teams are the standard set-up which, with twelve different countries participating, puts 48 riders on the course. The positions of the top three riders finishing from each team are used to score team poin ts for any given moto and it doesn't have to be the same three scored from each moto. The U.S. team started under a sev~re handicap with only three riders. This meant that there could be no breakdowns, no crashes - that Jim Pomeroy ,(Bul),John DeSoto (CZ) and Mike Hartwig (Hus) would have to finish both motos for the US to have any score at all. The fourth team member, when US teams were designated back in July was supposed to be Brad Lackey. There was no Bradley at Wohlen and his absence was a nearly-tangible thing. The Americans' chances of finishing all three in good position both legs did not appear encouraging. Pomewy didn't arrive until late Saturday morning having driyen all night from Spain with a 400 Bultaco prototype assembled only the day before. When the blue and white CZ van had headed west from Strakonice, it was carrying five factory 380's: four for the Russian team and one for John DeSoto, who arrived in Europe only Friday afternoon and was still fighting 16 hours of jet lag at the end of Saturday's practice. Mike Hartwig was an nnknown factor. It was his first time ever in Europe and his first time on a works 360 Husky in Grand Prix-type' competition. So the U.S. team had two riders unfamiliar with theu: machinery (and Pomeroy with a reputation as a 250 rider) and john D. with a reputation for go-fast crash and. burn, particularly in Europe. It would have felt a lot more comfortable if Bradley had been there to make a full team but Kawasaki had seen fit not to send him to represen t the US at this event. It is even more incredible, then, that the Americans finished fourth overall in the Motocross des Nations, up from seventh last year and edged only two points (71-73) by an experienced Russian team for the show spot. Even more impressive to many was the 8-point gap between the US and the second place Swedish team. If Kawasaki had seen fit to fly their Number I motocrosser with a competi tive machine to Europe, there is no question that we would have been third, If ·Brad could have fiD.ished even one moto higher than eleventh (so it turns out from some involved point calculation), the U.S. would. have been second behind the all-powerful Belgian motocrossers. Fourth was still the best ever and most people left the track Sunday thinking the US had gotten third overall. It was that close. Ironically, Brad Lackey's folks were at Wohlen to watch their son race as part of the American team. So were a lot of other people. None of them could understand where Kawasaki's collective head is at - except that maybe they sell more bikes in the U.S. DeCoster's performance was only what he had to do, so he felt. His narrow margin of victory in retaining hjs .world Championship over Willi Bauer left lots of people talkIDg about luck. Roger was walking around the pits before the start in a golf cap with a "Palm Springs Golf Course" badge on it. He was crackipg jokes in several languages and trying to be relaxed but the pressure was on him to win. He had done it last year. About 50,000 people packed the green hillsides to see if he could do it again on a course that was rutted, dusty and rocky by the time a 250 Support class and a national sidecar motocross had· - finished chewing it up. Each team is allowed two men on the front row. One of the Belgians selected for up front was Sylvain Geboers, the fast Fleming with the erector set leg. He initiated the Belgian bid for domination by leading in to the first turn. A t the end of the first lap, John Banks was in a strong second spot on a new Cheney-BSA that was almost at the weigh t limit. Roger was fourth and Jim Pomeroy was tenth. The dust was a more significant factor than almost anybody had anticipated. No rain since Thursday nigh t and unseasonable heat left it very dry. Sylvain and John Banks started to stretch out a slight lead as John DeSoto moved up to around twelfth. Mike Hartwig (Hus) and Swede Chris Hammargren (Yam) were running t~ther quite a ways back. The two CCM riders, Wright and Aird, were thumping at each other about 14th and 15th. After about 15 minutes of charging the many-turned, up-down course, Roger had ridden into third and Jim into seventh. The flying fist-size rocks had battered Jim's vi~or off his helmet leaving him vulnerable· to giare on the west - facing uphills. With 20 minutes gone, Roger had moved into second ahead of John Banks and the two S u z uki-mounted Belgians were circulating out front about· one or two seconds apart. Two laps later, Roger ran up beside Sylvain on the double up-hill jump and passed him after making the hairpin at the top. 250 World Champ Hakan Andersson was starting to fight through from a bad start. He didn't seem to be going fast on the 360 Yamaba until the last 15 minutes or so of the first leg. Ake Jonsson (Yam) had· moved up into third. The third Belgian, -Jaak Van Velthoven, was alternating between fourth and fifth with a strong John Banks and pressing Ake. Jim managed to stay 'abead of everybody who had challenged him up to this point. The 400 Bul he had never ridden before seemed very strong and very fast. Vic Eastwood (Mal) was racing with DeSoto for a while, then finally pulled out a slight lead giving Great Britain an edge on team poin ts. The last American, Mike Hartwig, was running dependably, seeming.as strong after 30 minutes as at the start, but not going too quickly for the company he was keeping. John D. was trying very hard to catch Eastwood and almost looped it on a rocky uphill. Other than that, John seemed to be riding ve.ry strongly. He moved up a little and started chasing a couple of Russians: Popenko and Efimov, who had machinery much like his under them. DeCoster and Geboers stayed about five yards apart. Then there was Banks back in third with the BSA going as well or better than it had all season, Van Velthoven, and then a big gap back to Ake Jonsson, Gerrit Wolsink (Mai) and Pomeroy. Wolsink ran into problems and dropped back as Van Velthoven passed Banks. A Norwegian rider's throttle stuc k open in neutral and Roger almost cen ter-punched the screaming Malco as he came. around to lap him. DeSoto was holding off Efimov and Heikki Mikkola but couldn't seem to get around the other Russian. It was the Belgians 1-2-3 in front, then Banks, Jonsson, Andersson and Pomeroy. Roger and Sylvain had lapped up to fifteen th place. Surprisingly, after Mike Hartwig got lapped by third-running Van Velthoven, he stayed right behind him for the remainder of the moto. Hmm. A II three Americans were still running at the checkered flag and two were on tbe same lap as DeCoster. There was a protest over Swede Uno Palm's not being scored a lap, then it turned out that John DeSoto really had not been scored a lap; an error which US Team Manager Gunnar Lindstrom had corrected. Jim finished seventh in the first round, John let IYIikt

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