Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126332
iTom Krehbiel (47) scored a Gold Medal in the 125cc class. Jim Fishback (312) was on Gold until he crashed. hitting a tree and breaking his arm . Larry Roeseler (302) got his Gold Medal. Day Five 00 The riders were ti red . The cou rse ll. · worn th em d own . Day Five was !pp.,?sed to be a lon g . hard day. It was . P.~g , but hardly hard . The riders t ~ought it was th e easiest day of th e event . A new spe cia l test . loca ted in a gra vel quarry. was mostly sand . They laid ou t a two mile course in a ha lfm ile-square a rea l Again sixth gear was useless beca use it was tight with a lot of tu rns. Steve Hess (KTM) arrived a t a tim e che ck a nd discovered a brok en mo tor mount bo lt. Lo an d behold he "dis co vered" one in his fanny p ack . At th e specia l test Mike Melt on ca me lim p ing in wit h h is Husky looking like. a wei rd trials bik e . He h it a tree and severely bent th e forks back . He limped a round the specia l test and we yelled a t him to hang in there, try to finish . Mike crashed at a bl ind c urve o n a fas t dirt ro ad . Unfortunatel y Fishback also crash ed th ere. But Fishback hit a tree with his a rm a nd broke it. The 'a rm . not th e tree . A Swedish Army Helicopter arrived and a irlifted him to th e hosp ital where they determined it was not too bad of a break and didn't ca st it . telling Jim to wait till he gets home to do it. Melton said th e crash loca tion was bad; whi le he was la ying th ere John Fero (Ya m ) ca me flying th rough' t he. a ir a nd landed on him! Lu ckily neith er was hurt . Ted Leimbach a lso la id it down at t he spot but d idn't di ng himself or the bike . Fishback was d isappointed . he had really started to ge t the hang of th ings . H e plans on being back nex t year. Tom Kr ehbiel was rid ing go od a nd providi ng himself wit h a cus hio n . He wa nts th a t gold! The It ali ans were . lea di ng th e 50cc , 75cc , 250cc and 350cc classes. The 350c c class leader, Gu glielm o A nd re in i . was leading t he ISDT overa ll on his 350 straigh t-leg-fork SWM . The Czech s, .Sta nislav Zloc h a nd J ir i Stodulka , were leadin g th e 500cc class o n the ir a ir -shoc ked J aw as. Lor d , were .they srnoothl O ne of the Czech club tea m members brok e a n ai r sho ck and just . pumped twice as m u ch ai r int o th e other and motored right on ligh t not hing had happen ed . Barry Higgins was starti ng to hope t his will be his year to finish . Day Six The last day is traditionally a short d ay with heads up mot oc ross. As the rid ers arr ived from the sho rt 70 ·mile ride for impound before th e mot ocross it started to ra in. It was just a d rizzle a t first but th en it rained harder. It didn't let up. The motocross was la id ou t in a grass field , which turned to mud. The riders with enough tim e ch a nge d the rear ti re for bet ter traction in the motocross. Jeff Hill cu t it a little too close and got int o im pound a few seconds out of his grace. He was mad at himself for th e unnecessa ry 60 point penalty he ju st accrued, His d ad j ust shook his head . All of our rid ers go t in so th ey are considered official fin isher s. How eve r , they co u ld win or lose a go ld a t th e motocross. By the tim e the 50cc and 75cc heat got off, the course was very muddy and slip pery. It got worse as die day went on. Our riders didn't seem to handle th e mud very well and some of them were falling do wn . In the 350cc hea t , Kevin La Voie fell twice a nd was just circulating . You could tell by just look ing at him that he felt he ha d lost his go ld . By th e time the 500cc class sta rt ed, the course was a mess but rideable excep t at on e d rainage di tch which beca me a qu agmire . Frank Gallo led his hea t much to the cheers of th e America ns. However , riders were becomi ng stuck in th e di tch and #299 , West German Paul Ro ttler who was fourth in th e 500 cc class became stu ck . He was furiou sl He d ecid ed to la y down in the on ly line a vailable and cr eated a huge bottleneck! At one point th ere were over a do zen rid er s stuck . T he' mud ha d made the scoring a mess anyway. As it turned out , the jury decided to th row ou t th e motocr oss in th e sco ring and i he event was fin all y over. Six da ys, 1000 mi les , II special tests, five ac celeration tests a nd ap proximately 50 time checks . If you handled it well, you got a gold medal , a sym bo l of su periority a nd well deserved . If you at lea st fin ished , a bronze med al was you r reward. Many riders will treasure thei r bronze. Mik e Melton go t th e on ly bronze medal for th e U .S, team this year. Considering that on day five h e didn't know if his bent up bike could possibl y make it to th e finish he was prett y happy to receive th e bronze. O ur silver medal winners eit h er had bad luck which cos t t hem poin ts (jack Pen ton for ex a m p le) or just weren't fast en ough in th e special tests to rate a gold . Ou r "ro okie" crop o f riders pe rfo rmed well and most will be b ack next yea r wit h a yea r's exper ience behind th em . Ba rry H iggins deserves specia l mention for his firs t fin ish and a well deserved gold a fte r a poo r start. Ted L eim b a ch en ded up to p Am erica n in the 250cc class and deserved it , he ro de a very sm a rt, fast ra ce . T ea m Suzuki was im pressive as the Yellow Zonk er s ra n like clockwo rk an d m ad e Team Ma nager John Morgan very happy. Rea listica lly we probably can't ch allenge for the trophy yet. Bu t th ere's no d oubt we are one of th e . world's th ree b est teams. Al Eames did his usual good job as Team Manager , travel agent a nd babysitter. Kathy Wanta go t very little sleep d u ri ng th e week a nd re p resent ed the U.S. on the j u ry extremel y well . And a specia l note of apprecia tion should go to the m any volu nt eers who m anned checks , sloshed through m ud to pull our -riders ou t, and pro vid ed moral su pport. Without them , the re certainl y couldn't be a U.S . effort at a ll. • I Results . GOLD: Tom Krehbiel IKTM 27th 125cc; Drew Sm ith IS uzl 9th 175cc : Dave Hut.. IS uzl 13th 175cc: Alan Deyo lYaml 14th 175cc; Mike Rosso ISuzJ 15th 175cc; Tom Penton ISuz) 17th 175cc; Don Cich ock i IS uz) 18th 175cc; Rod Bush IKTM) 20th 175cc: Ron Lamas tus ISW MI 22nd 175cc: Ted Leimbach IKTMI 7th 25Occ: Dick Burleson (Hus l 10th 250cc; Jalf Fredon. IKTMI 19th 250cc; Kevin Piasack i IKTM) 23rd 25Occ; John Faro lY.m) 27th 25Occ; Steve Hess IKTMI 40th 25Occ; Dennis Vandecar IHus) 45th 250cc ; Kevin laVoie IKTM) 7th 350cc; GlIfY Edmond ISuz) 13th 350cc; Fr.nk Gallo IKTMI 5th 500cc; -Jell Hill IKTM) 18th 500cc; Larry Roesaler IHus) 22nd SOOcc Barry Higgins ; IM.il 25th 500cc; Frank Piasack i. Jr . IKTMI '32nd 500cc; Bob PopiellHus) 33rd 500cc; A.C. Bakken IHusl 37th 5OOcc; O.n Schuler IHusl 38th 500cc; Denn is R.... lY. m) 40t h 500cc; SILVER: Steve Whitwonh IHus) 66 th 25Occ; Jack Penton (KTM) 67th 25Occ; Brues Kenny (Husl 47th 5OOcc; Russ Powel l (KTMI 59th 5OOcc; Mike Melton IHusl72nd 250cc. TRDPHY TEAM: 1. CzechosJowki. ; 2. E. Germany: 3. England: 4 . Holland: 5. U.S.A. ; 6. PoI.nd; 7. Italy; B. W . Germany; 9. Ausu alia; 10. Swi tzerland; 11. france; 12. Belgium; 13. Seden; 14. AustrUi; 15. Finland; 16. Canada. VASE: 1. Italy; 2. PoI.nd; 3. Czechoslovakia: 4. Holland ; 5. W. Germany; 6. Engl.nd; 7. Spain; 8. Canada; 9. Sweden ; 10. Belgium; 11. Australia; 12. Finland; 13. Swi tzerl.nd; 14 . E. Germany; 15. U.S.A. 16. franc e. . CLUB TEAM; 1. Mot oclub hali. A; 6. CATRA IJell Fredette, Gary Edmon d. Fr.nk Piasack i. Jr .1; 11. Fl. Hood Dirt Riders ITom Krehbiel, Steve Hess, Dennis vencecarf 17. Cycle Nuts and Bolts (Ron lamastu s, Russ Powall , Dan Schulerl; 18. Uniled Enduro Assn . (Kevin Piasecki. Steve Whitwo rth, Bruce Kennyl; 19. Perry Mtn. M.C. (Mike M elton, Barry Higgins. A.C. Bakken ). 9