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/125829
Page 12 October 9, 197.3' ear an • ." oVlng In ISDT revisited------,-------:.---------c,--:-----By Richard Creed Get this. It's twenty-six degrees and wet as a well digger's shoe tops, with frost covering the ground for as far as the eye tan see. The sun is just coming up, and steam is boiling off the New England landscape and its interlacing streams like a roaring fire. Have you got the picture? Not yet. O.K. It's six "o'clock in the morning. ft's the first daybreak of ihe rlrst International Six Day Trial ever held in America. So have about seven thousand other bike fans, camp foUowers, and strangers who have dutifuUy paid out a buck each' to enter the hallowed "Pare Ferroe" (hereafter known as the "Soup de Jour") where competitors from twenty-one nations have assembled to tortur< themselves with s;ontinual kidney pounding; thrash, bash, and crash their machines through the greenery while ripping up' trails, churning up creeks and trying to stay on "Gold" time. If you need a full explanation of what the ISDT is all about you will have to go elsewhere for your information. That won't be a problem since everyone and his cousin have done a special ISDT issue, story. foldout, wad-it-up-and-throw-it-away sample copy and souvenir program. Think about .t. How many trees were pulperized so you and I could read the same words over and over? Which is -great. Right? "An informed public is an involved pub ... " And so forth. The only problem is that the people who needed to be informed most were right here in Dalton, and it wasn't until the second or third day that they really grasped what the hell was going on. Many were confused about the words used to describe the event. What was a "Trial" anyway? Wasn't it a race? How did anyone keep score? Who was here? Can my boy enter it, mister? A million and one unanswered questions every day. Many people were suspicious, even hostile at first, mainly because they did not understand what all the activity was about. After all, the summer season is over, what are all these...strangers. doing in town? A number of local folks said it was the r....t time they had seen large numbers of motorcyclists and the old ghost of gang lerror sprang alive. The locals were ill prepared to distinguish between Sonny Barger and Malcolm Smith. But, once the event was explained, the'ir . fears diminished and their enthusiasm soared - Especially when you told them about the American Trophy Team and John Penton and how they'were going for broke to beat the rest of the world. Nothing fired their enthusiasm more than an appeal to their patriotism, for' this is New England, home and heartland of the first dissen ters and hattiefield of the Revolution. The first open breach between Mother England and The Colonies happened at Great Barrington just a few miles down the winding road from Dalton. The American Legion is still a strong force in community affairs and statues and plaques commemorating New England's faUen sons abound throughout the region. But, New England patriotism is somehow different. It is not the vulgarism of the southern "red neck" nor the cold eyed cynicism of opportunistic Texas power, but the clear, steady vision of a people