Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

rather than tes ting stamin a and the abiIi ~~ to function under in tensely difficult conditions. The en du ro- tra ined U.S. team, it seem s, would have better prepared if they:d. race~ professional MX instead of stressing woods riding abili ty over the pa st year. ' But while the Vase team attempt was hurt by the A ustrian course, indiv idual American performances were impro ed _This year , U.S. riders brought home 29 Gold Medals, two Silver Medals an d two Bronzes. Only four of our riders failed to finish the run, as a reference point, co nsider that last year on -the Isle of Man only eight Americans were awarded Gold "Med als, Three took home Silvers, 14 settled for Br on ze Medals, and 15 of the 40 American starters d id not finish the event. . Our World Trophy team was a question m ar k .rill' t h from the begin ning. Eve ryone seemed of the opml.on th at while the riders had all shown superior indi~idual potential in the Two Day series, th.e. te~ lacked the necessary co hesion to be co,,!,petltlV ~ tn Six Days. But although there was no cornpanson between the U.S. team and the Czechoslovakian and German teams organization-wise, our six independently supported men performed admir~ly. Leading the team in experience was KTM rid er Lars, Larsson. ' Lars' past record, four Golds, one Bronze and two DNFs in Seven attempts, was approached ' only by Hercules ace Billy Uhl 's four Gold, one Bronze, one DNF total. Next. was Connecticut Rokon rider Jim Hollander who'd ridden fo r the U.S . on three previous oc casions (plus on ce for Canada) racking up a one Silver , one Bronze and one DNF score. Penton riders Kevin LaVoie and Gary Younkins both rode their first ISDT last year. Gary had taken home a Gold, and Kevin, following a run in with a British mail truck on d ay six , had settled for' Silver. Bultaco's Mike Hannon rounded out th e team, and was the only m ember who had not yet competed in an ISDT. The 3 7 U.S. riders arriv ed in Austria well in advance o f th e op enin g day, and for some of th em, it was fortun at e tha t th ey h ad. Pro blem s aro se but were so lve d in ti me for the start. Team Pen to n was kept busy rep lacing fourth g~ ar in all m ach ines larger th an I 75cc. Faulty he at treating had spoiled a prod ucti on ';U n of the parts, and th.e team exchange d theirs for new o ne s JUst to p lay It safe. Team Bultaco , on ly a d ay befor e the plane le ft, 'd isco vered Ch arlie Bethard's bike. It had been lost in tr an sit and stay ed in Cleveland and in the back ofva tru ck.' An unconfirmed rumor had Mike Hannon 's bike seizing before the event whil e making jetting changes to suit the alt itu de. in Styria, ';'laking ~e World Trophy rider late in having hIS machine impounded. Hercules riders Billy Uhl, Mike Ro sso and Drew Smith re ceiv ed their new, "super en gine d " machines when they go t there and had to spend s~me time setting them up. Independent Penton nder Harry Heil emann jetted his b ike ou t for the high altitudes and it seized "I just sanded everything down and pu tit back to gether, " he said Then wen t ou t and scored a Gold Medal in his first Six Days. Sufferin g an even greater setback was. the Po lis~ Silver Vase team. Ridev Zenon Plesov ski broke hIS arm prior to th e start, and with n o one to replace him, the team was forced to drop ou I. On day one, 15 six-man World Trophy teams set out with the intent to make this year a winner, but by the time the day had ended, four teams had lost a man and were out of the running. Italy:s Elia Andrioletti was the first to fail. with ele ctrical problems, and he was followed later m the day by teammate Auguste Taicochi. With two men out and 30,000 points against them, the Italian World Trophy team filled 15 th p lace throughout the week. Likewise, when three other Trophy teams lost one man each on day one, th ey were relegated to places 12 (Sweden), 13 (Switeerlandland 14 (Finland) for the remainder of the trial. • On the to p end of th e da y one ;esults wer~ th e seemingly inv incible Czech s on their J awas WIth a total score of 35.1 class ification points. West Germany . foll owed with 68.7 and in third was East Germany with 85 .9 points. The United States t~ am had acc um u la ted -a 400.3 sc or e and held down sixth place. In the Silv er Vase compe tit io n , no teams had lost men , but th e name at th e head of th e list re ad th e same : CSSR. T he Czech s too k contro l of the Vase race on day one, and wo uld m aintain th at con trol for the duration. Again , West Germany held s econ~ plac;:e bu t this time th ey wer e foll owed by the Italians In third. John Penton 's U.S. Silver Vase team filled the fourth slo t. .All fo ur teams maintained their positions for the entire six days. U.S. World Trophy team After a solid start in sixth place after day one, our six -man, five m otorcycle brand U:~. World Troph y team m oved up into fifth after British Troph y team rider John May dropped 180 cou rse marks on t!;e first lap of day two. And th at, as fate would have It, would be the best placing the team would h old. On the nex I. day, Kevin LaVoie dropped .ou I. . "1 noticed it earlier, " Kevin explained, re ferring to the motor noise which foretold of a rnainbearing's imminent destruction, "but it wasn 't too noisy. It's just one of those things where it w asn't anyone's fault. " The day three DNF added 15,000 points (per day) to the team total, i,;,stantly . converting the short-lived fifth pl ace to the final pla cing o f tenth. Lars Larsson felt the presence on day six when , with no margin for error, he faced the motocross spe cial test knowing that if anything went wrong. from th e dead engine start to the end of the moto, he could lose his Gold. When it had ended, his 824.2 ti me tu med ou t to be sufficien I. Time, not the type th at ISDT scores are ';'lade of, but the type that you accum u late on the tr:

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