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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126014
it RESULTS American 6·Days GOLD MEDALS Gary Youn kins Dick Burleson Jac k Penton Rod Bush Dane Leimbach Danny Young Carl Cran ke Malcolm Sm ith • • ~ 50thlSDT Ohio Oh io Ohio W. Va. Ohio Ky. Cal. Cal. TROPHY TEAMS (G-MAN) 1. West Germany 2. Italy 3. Czechoslovak ia 4. Holland 5. Poland 6. U.S.A. 7. Austria 8. Canada 9. Sweden 10. Great Britain 11. France Pen Hus Pen Pen Pen Pen Pen Hus SILVER MEDALS Don Cutler Ron Lamastus Kevin LaVoie Conn. Ind . R.1. Ossa Ossa Ossa BRONZE MEDALS Je rry Harris Frank Piasecki Eric Jensen Max Marko witz Lars Larsson Andrew Sm ith Gary Ed mond J im Hollan der J im Fogle Dick Mann Chris Carter Ed Schmidt N.Y. Ohio Cal. Conn Cal. N.J . Conn. Conn. Oh io Cal. Cal. Mo. C·A Hus Pen Ossa KTM Herc C·A Rokon Rokon Ossa Yam Hus s om ewh e r e , " T eam Manag er Larry Maier s insisted after th e ISD T h ad ended . "We 've used the foam before, a n d t h ere' s pl en ty of air flo wing t h ro ug h between th e pipe and t he box. I do n' t be lie ve th e heat of th e pipe start ed t he fire , althou gh we still h aven't , h ad the chance to cl osely ex amine the bike , ye t." Wha tever the cause , the loss of a Wor ld Trophy Te am rider, p recluded any possibility o f th e U. S. taking a top placi ng in t he T rophy race unless, o f co urse , each of t he o th er ten t eams lost at lea st one m an as w el l. While th e shoc k of our instant dump fro m th e T ro p hy race still cl ung to co nversa t io ns leavin g every American and many non-Americ an fan s in th e doldrums, w ord of an eve n greater loss returned from the co u rse. For th e fir st time in ISDT his tory, an American rider had lost h is life . Bren Moran from Ne w York, riding as a Canadian en try, lost control of his bike on a sec tion o f aband o ned railroad bed and was killed instantly in the fall. The tragedy, hard-felt by those who had co m peted with Moran in previous even ts, cast a sob ering shadow of reality over th e a tt i t u d e o f those who rode the remainder of th is one. In the days th at followed, th e Canadian team riders wore black armbands in sympath y with h is wife Suzanne and in m emory of a good competitor and friend. , And th a t wasn't th e en d of th e American hard lu ck sto ry for the op ening d ay (la ter referred t o as " Crazy Monday " by many bearers o f the sad news) . Max Markowitz , ridin g o n O ssa 's U.S. Silver Vase T eam , su ffered a flat tire , got lost , and was hit by a ca r from beh ind wh en he pulled off to th e side of a n arrow Isl e of Man road . Although nearly at th e end of h is allo wed ho u r behind sch edule, and in o bvi o u s p ain fro m th e co n tu sio ns t o hi s left leg an d pelvis, Markow it z co ntinue d to finish th e day taking 3360 point loss in co urse m arks. Hi s sco re in th e sp ecial tests fo r Monday, th e acceleratio n an d cross country te sts, w as a strong 385 .0 , an excellent showi ng wh en you co n side r wh at he'd already been th rough th at day . One final kicker fo r the day skidded th e U .S. Sil ver Vase effort one more s te p downward wh en Don Cutler's silenc er cam e lo ose in hi s Os sa's ex haus t pipe and slid fo rward to almost sti fle the mo tor. The fr e a k occurance happened right in the m iddle of Cutler's cross coun try tes t, a highl y critic al tim e , and it dropped what w ould likely have been a good 380 ride down to a score of 507.9 . E 10 r- 0) ........ '<:I" ~ Q) ..0 S Q) > 0 Z VASE TEAMS (4-MAN) 1. Italy 2. West Germany 3. Holland 4 . U.S .A. 5. G. Britain 6. Czechoslovakia 7. Sweden 8. Ireland 9. France 10. Belgium 11. East Germany 12. Spain 13. Canada Other members o f bo th U.S. teams fared well o n "Crazy Monday", bu t th e damage h ad b een done. When th e scores w ere p os te d th at eveni ng , bo th American t eams sa t at the bottom of th eir re spect ive lists ; the T ro phy T eam in 1 1th an d the Vase Team in 13th. Problems were n o t co nfined to team memb ers, of course, no r wer e th ey dealt a u t on an Americans-o nly basis. Seve ral U.S . p rivat eers ran into problems (see The American s section lat er in this article) as d id rid ers fr om the Trophy and Vase T eams fr om o ther countries. Only a few h ours fo llowing th e lo ss of Tom Penton from our Trophy T eam , Eng lan d su ffered a sim ilar loss wh en rider Ni ck J efferi es fell and broke a co llarb o ne. J efferies , in true ISDT sp irit, attempted t o continue but was fo rced out a t mid-day at the Point of Ayre checkp oi n t, no longer ab le to bear the p ain. The nearly invin cib le Cz echs lo st th eir ch an ce at taking top Trophy Team honors when Kvetoslav Masita's 344cc J awa threw and broke a chain on the cross country special test. The enclosed chain on the Jawa hindered his work, but Masita removed and repaired the ch ain, incurring a 1194.0 point loss. Czech Vase Team rider Petr Val ek made a mistake on d ay o ne that would eventually obliterate his team's chances to do well in th e trial, although his los s didn't sh ow up until th e day three results were p resented. Valek rode into t he Point o f Ay re checkpoin t te n minut es earl y, gave his card to the t im e keepers, then realized his mi st ake an d tried t o grab it back. He re trieved th e card , looped b ack on th e co urse, th en rode through on h is minu te and was ch ecked in aga in. On Monda y 's resul ts listi ngs, he sh o wed a perfect ze ro loss of course marks. Again on Tuesday, th e Czechs scored high , in fact, th ey took over firs t p lace in the V ase standings. Then, a t a Wednesday nigh t m eeting, the jury rul ed th at Valek b e d isqualified for th e en ti re six d ay s, starting ri ght fro m day one. In addi ti o n to hi s su per quick 35 0 sp ecial te st scores, Valek w as give n 15,000 p oints per day , th e p en al ty for th e loss of a rider , and th e Czech team h it th e b ottom of the Vase T eam list. F r om " Cr azy M onday " throug h "Th an k-G od·it' s-Saturday " , the Wes t German World T roph y Team headed the list. Led by the three 97cc Zundapps o f Josef Wolfgruber , Peter ,Neu m ann and Eberhard Weber, who ran in single fil e formation for all six days , finishing within t icks o f each other o n the sp ecial tests and taking the final day's road rac e test almost side by side within .8 Mann in the motocross special t est. sec onds of o ne another, th e six m an team was in vin cible. T h ose three , ' p lus Rolf Witthoft, riding a 124cc Zundapp, zeroed every chec k and turned in some good sp eci al test sc ores as well. The remaining p air , J urgen Grisse l124cc Zu n d a p p ] and Eduard Hau 174cc Zundapp) picked up a combined total of only six ty cours e marks (one minute) fo r the six day ride. It was truly a remarkable performance. Running in a solid second pl ace in the Trophy standings at the end of the six days, the Italian team would possibly h ave b een ab le to run heads up with the West Germans but for a fir st d ay loss. AIlesandro Gritti, riding a 25 0cc KTM, showed up six minutes late at th e Port St. Mary checkp oint which, at th at time was enough to put Italy in eigh th place. On th e second day.rthe Italians moved up to fourth, and on day three: they slipped into second where they'd remain for the duration. A t eam Manager's meeting was called Monday night where an ultimatum was delivered b y the' Clerk of the Course, Stanley Basnett. "You were spoken to last night but you d id not listen," Basnett told the managers, "W e have h ad enough your riders are riding like lunatics. They are « Dave (24 6) Munge nast and Kevin LaVoie check in o n time. 9