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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126313
finally retired himself after the th ird day . He finished 54 minutes late rL tha t's an extra 54 marks on top of ob servation marks . He still had six minutes spare before exclusion. but the writing was on the wall. Bloody sha me. because where th e bike did go in sect ions . he was doing prelty good and keeping with the leaders. Day One By Dave Wilcock FORT WILLIAM . SCOTLAND . MAY 1-6 A mentally and physically exhausted Martin Lampkin came from behind to score only the third hat trick in Scottish Six Days Trial history. But it was a -fa ilure to take ' the initiative by Lampkin's main rivals, Rob Edwards and Mick Andrews, that allowed Bultaco's toughest nut to come back from a near-hopeless positi on on the second day when he was sixth. 18 marks adrift. . 8 I've never had to work so hard for an ything in m y life. "ad mitted Lam pkin" a fter beating Monr esa 's best ma n Rob Ed wa rds by [4 marks a t th e fin ish of one of th e stra nges t High land events for yea rs. Go ne were many of th e trad itiona l Flat -our -in -thi rd hills. as Edinburgh cl u b officia ls tax ed th e th inking powers of rid ers by putting un necessary na dgery into the natural st rea ms a nd rock hills. Even Ossa's iron man Mick Andrews who had tot ally dom inated the first da y. on ly to be ed ged out of third pla ce by SWM's J ohn Reynolds on th e run -in . was sha rrered by th e int ensit y of this toughest of H ighland Clas sics. "All th e top lads are drained of strength - so how th e club lads ha ve survived [ don' t kn ow." he sai d . Without any d oubt . th e most popular rid er in an entry of 280 was Debbie Evan s. First gi rl to rid e th e Scot tish for four years (the last was Renee Bennett in 1974 ). she won a place in thousands of hearts for her gri tty performances . She was cleaning som e sections that a lot of males co uld n' t manage. For th e Scottish , Bill Emmison of Be rm Spec ialt ie s . importers o f Ma lcolm Smith and othe r U. S. gea r and goodies - fixed her up with a 175cc Yamaha provided by form er British tria ls cham p Gordon Farl ey. In the final tally. Debbie finished in 109th position . She was among th ose fin ishers - th e top 50% - who ea rned a First Class award . Marland Whaley had a bad time of it. with th .. Honda (not the new one t hat arrived in Californ ia three da ys after he'd left for Scotland) flak ing out with undiagnosed fuel and / or elec trics _ problem . Most likely it was fuel . since th e plu g kept burning whi te indi ca tin g mixture too weak, T he ef fect was th a t the eng ine kept d ying in sect ion s. Marland lost a 101 of tim e strippi ng t ~e ca rbo resett ing th e needl e. etc. He Mighty Mick Andrews blitz ed the start of the Scottish Six Days Trial and left his rivals standing. Back on an Ossa in th e H ighlands for th e first tim e since h is 1972 hat trick win. th e 33-yea r-old Derbyshire ace was in a class of his own as he set out for a record sixth victory. ~ Dropping just five marks during on e of the toughest opening days the Scot - ' tish has seen in yea rs. Andrews became the first rider ever to clean the for midable Blackwater sections beyond Kinlochleven . It was Andrews' day from th e r moment he launched the Ossa into a magnificerg eight-clean sequence at ' Gallart Falls . the opening group. for a,i1 performance that none could equal. ( In stark contrast. Bultaco number one Martin Lampkin let his concen- I tration go to the wind. hitting rock bottom with a five in the double-step first section. five again in the fourth sub when he mistook the begin cards of the fifth sub for the end cards of the fourth and two more prods inbetween to go 12 marks down. " It's my own daft fault. " admitted , Lampkin after regathering his wits for a final total of 20 that brought him back to fifth place at the end of the day. " I was remembering how easy it was I last year instead of thinking about the 1. job." fI'l £ J U .S. champion Marland Whaleyl£ suffered a series of mystery cut-outs 0 the aging short-stroke Honda . The blond Californian reckoned himself .well in contention at the Kinlochleven lunch check. and his tally of 12 provisionally put him into joint sixth with Bultaco men Geoff Chandler, and Norman Shepherd. Rushing the afternoon sections to: make up tim e lost stripping his carburetor and resetting points in his ef forts to track down the cause of his many stops. Whaley counted himself for three at Blackwater and two at Bradileig for a total of 17. But ine vitably . it was 20 -year-old Los Angeles lass Debb ie Evans who stole the hearts of the windswept multitudes at Altnafeadh. There was warm applause for the stylish Am erican , first women to ride the Scottish sin ce Renee Bennett four yea rs ago. as she wiggled Gordon Farley's 175 Yamaha up the ha zards that had defeated hardier males. And she made light work of the d rier ' than usual Blackwater moor crossin g . bu t ca me near to gri ef in bus y Fort William High Street ju st a few yards fro m the fin ish . when a passe r-by almost step ped under her front whee l. Debbie's quick-thinking and heavy brak ing a voided a co llision. Day Two )1 The hal o of inv inci bility that An d rews had worn just 24 hours befo re slip ped o n th is, th e su p posed ly toughest day of th e trial - a nd he could " blame no on e but himsel f. The overn ight leader misread his time-card by 40 minutes after being given an 89- minu te del a y at the badly co ngested gu lly a t Kilmoniva ig - and made on e slip a fte r a not her as he ru shed to make up time th at he hadn't reall y lost. , An d at the finish. Rob Edwards had taken over t he ro le as An drews main riva l. p ulling t he Ossa ma n's lead ba ck to three marks. d espite blowing the seals of his Monr esa 's air forks. H on da ' s A nglo - A m e ric a n