Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

never been that co nsistent in Six Days but he 's a n extremel y ca pa b le rider. Dane is the most consistent of the Penton riders . He's a lwa y s got a gold! lie's no t the fa st est bv an y means but he alwa ys finished o ~ ti';'e. Carl has always fin ished o n go ld, Malco lm h as a Iway s been ver y consis te nt , I've finished co nsisten tly, Lars has ne arly al wa ys fin ish ed. The sixt h o ne there wa s kin d of a loo p hole . . . a lo t o f po ssibilities there. CN : You thin k th ey sho u ld have the most co nsistent riders and let them ride whatever the y wan t ? BU: Let 'em rid e w ha t th ey qualified on! Sure. ma ke t h em q ualify to sh o w t heir in te rest b ut le t th em ride an d let each ma nufa cturer put the money up. T h is would divide th e fina ncial b urd en uf the S ix Day s. You 'd sti ll h ave o ve r ha lf th e team o n Pen tons but that wo u ld b e a lot less th an th ey h ave to pu t o ut now . It's very, very e xpen sive. have h in t ed around about it, but he never came o ut and asked me if I wanted to ride. I felt that I deserved that co urtesy a nd I didn 't get it. I fel t th at th at wa s a n indi ca tion th at they didn ' t want me to ride and live here so I went looking. I cam e up wi th Ca n -A m . Off to Can-Am CN: Did yo u just kinda sit tig h t a nd wait o r write le tt e rs or wha t? BU: Well , yo u ca n si t tight a n d wa it but tha t d oe sn 't usually get you anyw he re be cause people th in k yo u 're still tied up with the co m pany y ou were with. You have to c o n tac t pe ople, spend a lot of ti m e an d money trying to find out.who to talk to. Eve n t ua lly I got to talk t o Gary Robinson a nd Jeff Smith of Bombardier Corporation. We worked o ut a d eal o n a ver y small sca le. Their b udget w as a lrea dy pl anned then but they cou ld se e th e ad va ntage of running _ in the T ria l so I went w it h Can-Am this year on a ver y conserva tive e ffo rt . C. ': Do they h ave a T ro p hy T eam lined up? BU : I d on't know what the y h ave for Ca nad a . CN : You 'll be riding o n a Canadian 'tea m ? BV : I don't know y e t . I'm s la ted o n a U.S. team right now but I don't know wha t I' m go in g to do. C N: Is it up to you to decide for whom y o u rid e? Btl: O h , y eah . I've got my free c h oic e. I don't h ave to ride for the U.S " if I don 't want to . CN: You co uld ride as a privateer if y o u wanted to, co uldn't you? BV: Sure . . . and if Canada would accept me, I co u ld ride o n the Canadian te am. C. ' : You won Bad Ro ck this year. What was your s ta tus at that event ? BV : Jus t a private individual, N : And y ou b e at t he en ti re Penton te am on a 175. Let me ask y ou this: Vere there ever an y feelings over the act that you usuall y rode a 100 or 125 or Penton a nd it 's fai rly well kno wn hat a rid er on a small machine doesn 't lave ne ar the chanc e to win or place ell Overall in an even t as long an d rick y as the Six Days ? V : Yeah. It 's kind o f a p aradox I uess. The co nditio ns and terrain have a ot to do with it, but yo u h a ve to have a ertain amount of acce lera ti o n and ower to get the special test times y o u reed t o win. Yo u see , a ll of the rid e rs in he top four o r fi ve arc usually verv, ery close. In a lot of the race s, the vinner is dec id ed by j us t a few se con d s. n fa ct, the re w as o ne this ye ar that wa s lecided by just two sec onds. ' N: T ra sk Mountain ? U: Trask Mounta in , w on b y Jack enton o n a 2 50 that weekend. It's very lose. Two seconds is the twitch of the y's finger wh o's runn ing the cl o cks. 'arl had the biggest spre ad in Texas. I hink he won by O '\'(' T a minute. :N: You w on two Qualifiers, J ack en ton won two and Carl Crankc won w o ... so yo u sha re d the Trials .h ampionship with th e two of them ? U: Right .. . b u t it re all y isn 't valid. I c an . y o u ca n' t have th re e N ati onal . a m p ions. The A:\IA could h ave taken e thre e best race s o r four races o r y th ing , o r e ven had t h e last race o un t li ke a mot o cross where t he last O Lo de cides the t ie , T here are many 'a ys the y co u ld ha ve decided in vance to score i l. T hey co uld see the Tit ing o n th e wall gu ing into Bad Ro ck t here was al re ady a tw o -wa y tie and a t I could p ossibly w in it an d there -o u ld be a three-wa y tie . But th ey id n o th ing. Th ey j us t wa it ed , hoping I o uld n't win. They sc re wed up. ol itics in team selection N : Do you feel th at th e A ~ IA loo ks o n ru differently now that yo u're 110 nger a Team Pent o n ride r'? U: There are po lit ics involved . ~ : Do you yourself su b sc r ib e to t he :tt y politick in g ? ~ : I do n 't th ink t h at it 's necessary . rst like t hi s year . .. in t h e ru les fo r Zundapps and stockers "I just love riding motorcycles." the Si x Days. it d efinitely states th at you ma y have more th an o ne b rand on a Trophy Team . We ll, if I qualified as tying fo r National Champion in the Trials ser ies , th at sh ould mean th at I'm one of the three b est riders in the natio n. Yet I'm not e ve n riding on th e Troph y Team because the y don 't want to break up the bra nd. CN : Why's that ? BV: I wa s to ld th at a t t he las t mee t ing with the A1

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