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.. ... ..... .. . . ~ Czechs top S3rd International Six Days Trial, USA racks up 27 Gold Medals / By larry langley Photos by Charles Morey and Langley The 1978 International Six Days Trial was won by Czechoslovakia for the second consecutive year as their six man trophy team swept to a convincing victory over runner-up East Germany. The U.S. Trophy team of Rod Bush, Jack Penton, Ted Leirnbach Kevin LaVoie Jeff Hill and 'Frank Gallo ended up a . . credible fifth but placed as high as third for two days during the grueling event. The 53rd running of the "Olympics of M.otorcycling" was headquarter~d at High Chaparral. a western ,tourist town similar to our Knotts Berry Farm, in Southern Sweden. Visiting . tourists were treated to an international event along with cowboys and Indians, Swedish style . Bikes were impounded ยท on Friday and over 320 bikes were parked in the Pare Ferme for viewing by the public, under close watch of the Swedish Army who was providing support for the event. The small bikes attracted considerable attention , especially the 50 and 75cc classes. There was even a water cooled 75cc bike entered! The favored Czech Jawa Trophy Team bikes were equipped with Preston Petty fenders front and rea r along with Sachs gas shocks. no springs . Very unusual for a manufacturer whose reputation is for buildin~ heavy, reliable motorcycles. Suspension trave.l on. the Jawas looked to be around mne Inches, not a lot compared to some of the competition. B~t the Czechs know just how much will be enough. They do not leave any detail uncovered. The Italians rode Sachs in the very small displacement classes and SWMs in the larger displacement classes. The 250 and 350cc SWMs were equipped with the so-called obsolete straight leg forks. The East Germans were on their trusty MZs, bulky looking but fast and reliable. The West Germans were on Zundapps. The U.S . Trophy Team rode KTMs, with the Vase Team mounted on Huskys . The opening ceremony was held Sunday _ afternoon . Each country marched into High Chaparral to be welcomed by the Swedish Organizing Committee and the F.I.M. The U.S . Team showed up in yellow team jackets, except the Trophy and Vase T eams. They were in their KTM and Husky jackets. What patriotism. The inter -team politics had already started. The British team looks spiffy .in their British racing green suits. There's Team Mexico. Team 1'Y!exico' But that's Lars Larsson. Jim Simmons and Fred Cameron! In huge, oversize sombreros to bootl It seems that Lars wanted to ride this year's ISOT very badly since it is being held in his homeland. The only problem was that he only qualified 45th and only 37 could go. So Lars tried to get on the Canadian and Australian teams without success. Finally he hit upon the idea of forming Team Mexico and arranged for Mexico to enter him. Fred and Jim heard about it and volun~eered to go along since they were In the same boat qualification wise as Lars. Now it's not exactly kosher for them to enter like they did but their entry did get accepted and the AMA chose not to make a fuss (which they could have), so they were allowed to ride. Next year no way , says the AMA . Sunday night it rained hard. Just what the nervous riders needed. Many got no sleep at all. They were worried a bou t. how the rain would affect the terrain . Day One Finally the anticipation was over . The long qualification process and personal sacrifices had paid off. But first the unanswered question of whether the bikes would start after sitting out in the rain overnight. By the 7:00 a .m. start time. the rains had backed off and the first 50cc bikes were zipping their way off into the distance. The first American rider due out was I25cc class rider Tom Krehbiel (KTM) and he received a healthy cheer from the many Americans in the start crowd. That became the pattern when an American started. There were enough Americans on hand to vocally SUPPOTt .rhe team in a very enthusiastic manner. Swedish' law required that headlights be on at all times so each rider had to make sure his light was on before they let him leave the start area. Finally all the U.S. riders made it off the start without incurring the 50point penalty for not starting within one minute . Soon. however. word filtered back in that Carl Cranke (Yam) was already out of the race! Carl hit a rock while riding through the woods and damaged his side case. Unfortunately the side case made contact with the clutch basket and destroyed it. Tough luck for one of the U.S.'s premier ISDT riders. The rain didn't affect the terrain that much. The soil was quite sandy and actually provided better traction when wet. But the sand did dig up rather easily, exposing roots and rocks for the unwary or carelss rider. The U.S. Trophy Team received a jolt when Rod Bush came to a railroad crossing with the traffic stopped for an oncoming train. Rod didn't want to lose any time so he looked and couldn't see a train coming so he circumvented the crossing guards and walked his bike across the track. However, there was a police car in line on the other side and the police stopped him and wrote him up. Then they notified the Clerk of the Course, who felt he 'had no alternative but to disqualify Rodl Kathy Wanta, the U.S. jury member promptly protested and Rod was allowed to ride on but with a big question mark. Rod was feeling pretty bad about the whole thing as he was a last minute replacement on the Trophy Team, replacing Gary Younkins who was injured just a couple of weeks prior to the event and couldn't ride. The jury was scheduled to meet Tuesday night and Kathy did an excellent job of behind the scenes politics. Luckily a precedent was set two years ago in Austria when a Swedish rider was cited for the same offense but was allowed to ride. The final verdict: Rod would pay the $75 fine and be allowed to ride. A huge sigh of relief from all concerned. The Vase Team didn't fare as well when Greg Davis hit a stump when he went to pass another rider and endoed. He broke his collarbone and a couple of ribs. A U.S. Support rider rode Greg's bike into the noon check hoping that Greg wasn't hurt too bad but had to abandon the effort when Greg's injuries were determined and he was unable to continue. Dane Leimbach (KTM) became the next U.S. casualty when he was forced off the road by a car coming the other way. The car had to swerve wide to avoid a bicycle and left Dane no place to go. Dane suffered a compressed vertabra and was also out of the event. Good griefl In a matter of a few hours we had lost three of our best riders. Things weren't off to a very good stan. The course each day was an approximate gO -mile loop which the riders rode twice. A special test was laid out in each loop so the riders repeated the 'test each day. Also an acceleration test was run once each day. The Day One and Two special test was located near the MX course where the Swedish Grand Prix is held. So after traversing some woods (via a bulldozed trail), the riders came out on the MX course where they made a loop and then back into the woods to the finish of the test. The area was very sandy and some of the riders were having problems turning in the sand. The bulldozed portion of the course presented problems - after a few riders had gone through , the hidden root~ and rocks became exposed caUSIng more than one crash. At the end ofthe day West Germany led the Trophy Team standings with Italy second, Czechs third, U .S.A fourth and East Germany fifth . We were looking pretty good . Most of our riders were on gold but a few were just off. Tom Krehbiel and Ron Lamastus (SWM) ended the day about 10 points off of gold. Rookie Steve Whitworth (Hus) from Texas had a few problems and dropped two minutes at a time check which dropped him down into the Silver medal category also. Gary Edmond (Suz) led Kevin LaVoie in the 350cc class by just three points. Barry Higgins (Mai), who was shooting for his first finish after five DNFs, found himself on silver after falling down in both special tests. Barry was just trying too hard. Jim Fishback (Yam) found himself on the same minute with KTM flash Frank Gallo who was a top contender for top American. Frank finished the day in fourth place in the 500cc class while Fishback learned to ride in the woods . 'o f which he had had precious little exposure. being an ex-desert racer along with Husky riders Larry Roeseler and A.C. Bakken who -a ll looked smooth and were on solid gold in their first ISDT. Before impound the Husky riders removed their exhaust pipes for next morning's replacements. It wasn't a big deal but the factory had welded double wall head pipes onto single wall cones and they were leery of vibration cracking so they wanted to replace the pipes with all single wall systems. Day Two Dennis Reese (Yam) changed a bent sprocket the previous night but still kept throwing chains. It didn't cause him any late points and he finally got the problem straightened out. Tires seemed to be holding up well in the sandy terrain but most riders planned on replacing them at the end of the day. The weather was cold and overcast with rain during the night. Good riding weather. The West German Trophy Team 7