Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

; IIIlI • ~ t t""t""O') ....... CN CN Q.) C ;j -, ~ World Champion: The Roger DeCoster Story Part VII: Nickel-dime disasters and the bitter taste 01 losing By John Huetter t th e beginning of the 1974 Grand Prix season, Roger DeCoster faced an un precedented task. He was a im ing for his fourth consecu tive 500cc Mot ocr oss W orld Ch ampion sh ip . The third one ha d co me narrowly, re- A 6 mindi ng everyone how hard it is to win even one Worl d Cha m pio nship in ra cing. T he re a re ju st a few seasons in a lifetime , maybe on ly one . when the com bin a tio n of rider . m achi nery. experience. a n d lu ck co me t oge th er i n t hat m a gi c co mb ina tion that is so di fficult to co nstruc t a nd so easy to lose . T he the me for that '74 season was set fro m the beginnin g : a t th e first ra ce in th e litt le Aust rian village of Sittendo rf th e new RN Suzuk i bro ke. That first tim e , it was a cracked cylinder hea d on an un pro ven engi ne . T he re were, at least , new fac to ry bikes for th is season . It was clear by the mi ddle of th e 1974 ca mpa ign t hat the previou sly su pe rio r Su zuk is we re be ing eq ua lled a nd surpassed by ot her m akes of m otocross m ach in es ridden by othe r rid ers hungry for glory. Some of Suzuki's research an d de velopmen t m on ey was fin all y d iverted from th e road race sho p int o the motocrosser s whe n it got to th e point tha t som e of th e 250 class riders wou ldn 't even com pe te on the bik es in 1973 Gr ands Pri x. Roger p ressed on th a t seaso n with the ma chinery avai la ble, hon ored his co ntract a nd a voided bad -mouth ing th e bikes even th ou gh he was n't a lways deligh ted . ei ther. But the new works machines weren 't avai lable over the wint er , so in th e cri tic a l pre-sea son train ing and int erna tional motocrosses in Belgi um and Holland , Roger had been ra cing an old '73 model R N Suzu ki. O r , at least he 'd been tryi ng to ra ce it. The bik e ke pt bre aking. That had two undesirable side-effects besides the growing DNF list. DeCost er was not get ting into shape physi call y, since he was not finishing most of the motos, and he was losing even mor e co nfidence in t he ma chin ery. Th ere is a lways th at lit tl e aggrava tio n in a racer's m ind tha t moderates th e th rottle hand wh en he kn ows, or even suspects, th at th e bik e isn't set up rig ht or th at it's likely to lAbove, le ftl Roger won the Trans-AMA series fo r the t hird straig ht year in 1976. He's s hown riding to victory at t he Saddleback round in December, 1976. IAbovel Roger d iscusses race stra tegy with forme r Suzuki teammate and World Championship co ntender Sylvain Geboers in 19n, (Contin ue dJrorn last week) b reak u nder him . It was in Roger's min d a nd th at furth e r . sapped h is co nfide nce a n d th e accompa nying ab ility to p ush to th e edge. Nothing was comi ng tog ethe r right tha t seaso n . In a n omen th at had the ring of self-fu lfilling p ro ph ecy, Heikki Mikkola (who had alread y been id enti fied as th e major co ntende r for th e world title , a t DeCoster 's ex pe nse) won th e Belgi an Easter Trophy, a feat which is usua lly Roger DeCoster's accomplishme nt a nd certai n ly the m ost important mot ocross weekend in Eu rope . Roger crashed whe n he was rammed by a n u ncont ro lled Bu lta co in th e first moto of th e races a nd was inj ured . It wasn 't encouraging . At Sittendorf for th e first G P of th e season , there wer e sti ll reverbera tion s fro m th e snowsto rm and ride rs' st rike of th e p reviou s yea r . But instead of snow, Apri l of '74 was wa rm. clear - even hot. The hillsides go t un ch a ract eri stically dry a nd d usty duri ng pract ice . T he rumo rs and att itudes th at had been building for mont hs beca me set in th eir respect ive patte rns a t th e first GP - whil e still re ma ini ng sensit ive to t he shifts in popul arity a n d o pinio n th a t co n di t io n m o t orsp ort com pe tition . It is, at base , a very persona l co ntest. DeCoster was rep uted to be in poo r ph ysica l a nd menta l co ndit ion wit h u n p ro ven m a chi nery. Mikkola . a fierce Finn who in a ny other cent u ry would ha ve been a warrior rat he r th an a racer , was sup pose d to be in top ph ysica l co nd ition , riding a t horoughl y relia b le H usq varna, a nd hav e that extra edge of hun ger for th e cha m pio nship t hat Roger had held for th ree yea rs . Besides, th e gossip went , Mikkola was you nge r . (T ha t is true. b ut only by one yea r.) Then there was the spoi ler, a sent imenta l fav ori te wh o allow ed m a ny ' p referring to th ink of th em selves as co ld ly rat iona l to induge in senti ment: Ad olf Wei!. At 36. th e oldest rider co ntes ting G ra nd Pri x mot ocross a nd on e of the best. T he W est Ge rm an Maico fa cto ry had switc hed Adol f back int o th e 500cc class whi ch the y consid ered to be ea sy pickings for th e quick , crafty German a fte r Ba ue r's very near miss on a Ma ico in 1973 . Wh en all th e specu la tion and idl e cha tter were ove r . the reality d id seem to fit everyo ne's precon ce ived pattern . Roger's bike ha d th e cylinder head crack in th e first rnot o of the Au st rian GP , To co mpou nd th e fail u re, it wasn't not iced until it was too lat e to ge t a new engi ne in t he bike a nd still m ake th e sta rt of th e seco nd he at. DeCo ster sta rted the ra ce la te , then worked up to sixth on ly to have a flat tire , whi ch drop ped him b ac k . out of t he points-paying position s. Heikki Mikkola won the Gra nd Pr ix by passing Ad olfWeil on th e last lap. Unfort una tely, the mechanica l pattern and, too ofte n . th e exact parts and players wer e to be repeated t hrough t hat season. Roger was at th e point of a ver y serio us crises de m orale. Mikkola co nti nue d to dominate th e ea rly season u ntil finall y, at th e It a lia n Grand Pri x . Roger fir st led . a nd , later th at day, won a mot o . But even as he grabbed th e holesh ot a nd sta rted ru n ning away with t he firs t moto of th at G P. he co uld tell some thi ng was wro ng with th e engine . O nly a lap lat er , th e Suzu ki rattl ed to its dea th a nd seized . A piston rin g had b roken a nd snagged in t he cylinder ports. T hat kin d oi b rea kage is an im po nderab le but t here's a stro ng possibi lity it co uld have been a mechan ic's erro r in re-r ingi ng th e piston for that ra ce . As th e season wore on , it became clea r th at th e ba tt le was drawn between Heikki Mikkol a a nd Roger DeC oster . No ot he r rid er really figu red in thi s title cha se. Said Roger lat er , "T ha t was part of the prob lem . T he re was no ot her rid er to win , to ta ke th e points a way from Heikki, if I broke or had some othe r trouble . So wh en I wou ld b reak down . he would automa tica lly win . Ge rri t was su p posed to be of some hel p but it seems he raced against me as. much as all th e other rid ers ." And Rog er did b reak . A broken shock abs or ber sha ft wh ile leading th e Eng lish G P: a wh eel that started (a nd nearl y co m p leted) com ing apart whil e fig hti ng for the lead of the U. S. G P: a n ex ha ust pipe m oun t that sna ppe d off and too k th e pipe with it whi le leadi ng in Denm ark : and , fina lly d ism a lly. a broken co nnec ting ro d in that last G ra nd Prix in Lu xem bo urg . Roger was a lso leadi ng when that happened . It was his last chance to reta in t he Worl d C ha mpions hi p:

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