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
Czech World Trophy Team: Winning again were the unbelievable Czechoslovakians Iclockwise from abovel Jiri Stodulka 12881. Frantisek Mrazek 11381. Jiri Posek 1231. Kvetoslav Masita 12221. Stanislav Zloch 12611 and Josef Chovancik 11671, 8 r e ce ived a sev e r e setb~ck when Eberhard Weber broke a cha in on his Zundapp in the special test and took 40 minu tes to fix it! The misfort une pu t the W est Germans b ack to l Sth a nd mo ved th e Italians into first. The Czec hs moved in to second and the U .S. Team to th ird! T hi ngs were look in g up . W eb er was a strong seco n d in th e 125cc class a t the time of his m i~fortune . T he Italia ns sta rted to burn up the spe cia l .tests. W ith Sachs in th e sma ll displ acem ent classes a nd SW Ms in the larger classes they were sta rt ing to look like th ey just migh t ups et th e Czechs. At the end of th e day . Kreh biel a nd Lamastu s moved up to gold status. Dr ew Smith (Su z) hel d down to p Am erican in th e 175cc cla ss a t 14th as teammate Mike Rosso fell in th e secon d test and lost a bunch of points. . mo ving him back to 21st. In th e 250cc class Ted Leim bach (KTM) was firs t American ju st a head of Jack Penton (KT M) a t sevent h a nd eig h th . Dick Burleson was a stea dy 10th whil e fav oring a ve ry sore sho u lder wh ich he inc u rred in a crash during a Nat ional Endu ro earlier in th e yea r . Am eri can hop es were high . Day Three A new co u rse and a new special test. It was laid out in a farm er 's sprawl ing p asture . It was exa ctl y what I had a lways pictured a ISDT special test to be in m y mind . Nowhere on the co urse co uld th e riders ge t into sixth gear. It was a trick y. rider's skill co urse . Qu ite unsim ilar to th e b all s-t o -th e -wall specia l tests the U.S . q ua lifiers are fond of running . The small bikes slip ped a nd slid on th e wet grass u nt il fina lly th e b igge r bikes d ug through the grass to the loamy soil beneath. Primo traction . The Italians were not as wild as I had preconceived them to be . They wer e going very fast and very smooth. You ca n tell a Czech without looking up his number. They have a cert ai n style. Exc ept J iri Stodulka . He 's got hi s own unique r id ing tec hniqu e . Gallo's ba ck was hurtin g him but not slowing him down much . .T ed Worrell's (Suz) kn ee was bothering him . He fell do wn in th e specia I test with th e bike landing on th e kn ee. An observer pred ict s he won 't last a nother day. Ted ha s had fO U T operations on the hurt knee. Swedish rid er Torbjorn Jansson (Hus) took over th e 500cc cla ss lead over the Czechs . The Swedes had something to cheer about since they lost a trophy team member on Da y One. The word got around that the King of Sweden was at th e speci al testl Sure enough, there he was l Not too shabby. I cou ld n 't imagine Carter com ing if it was in the States . The Swedes publicized the ra ce well . It was in th e local papers and on th e TV news each night . Ba ck on the co u rse, a strange obstacle loomed in the form of a 2" x 6" plank cross a dra inage d itch. One slip and int o three fee t of water. Mike Rosso slipped . Luc kily there wer e peop le there to hel p him out. Frank Gall o crashed and crac ked his gas ta nk. Some epoxy and duct tape pa tc he d things u p . . Fish back was learning q uick . He bea t Gallo in t he second specia l test. And he was staying with Ga llo on th e trail. Bruce Kenny (Hus) had a flat and the air bottle wouldn't fill the replacement tube. He dropped three points at a time check. Fishback got stuck in a mud section and lost a minute at a time check. He tried to go around the mud bog and that was worse . The extra 60 points dropped him to 21st in class . Fishback and Gall o were both on the Swedish News , Gallo pulling a beautiful wheelie for th e cameraman. The Italians met disaster. Trophy T eam member Pietro Gagni (SW M) lost his electrics for 40 minutes . T here was a hot TUmor that the Italians changed the whole engine. But no matter. The Czechs were now in first place . The East Germans climbed past th e U .S .A. int o second while we maintained third. The woods were full of "su p po rt" riders. They don't like to crll it cheating. Support is a better word . The U .S. had the-fewest support riders but we do it too . It's expected. T he Czechs knew where each course marshall was at all times . They were very organized . Gallo was still top American and fifth in the 500cc class . Day Four Our Trophy Team hopes went out the window when word of Jack Penton's troubles filtered back. He had a flat rear tire and stopped to cha nge it. The tube he put in went fla t. .Pinched? Jack says no, it had a hole in it. He ca rried it on th e back of his bik e . Vulnerable. A rider drops him a tube . Jack was 20 minutes late to a tim e chec k. T he special test was th e reve rse of Day Three and just as cha lle ngi ng . Fishback be at Gall o in both spec ial tests and moved up to 16th. It looked like he was really enjoying himself. If he hadn't lost the 60 points he wou ld be ninth in class . Tom Krehbiel' was barely on gold but hanging in there. All of our 175cc riders were solid gold. Ted Leimbach was sixth in the 250cc class with Burleson 12th . Kevin Piasecki (KT M) was 21st and riding a steady race, making few mistakes. Kevin LaVoie was seventh in the 350cc class and doing very well in the special tests, turning the same times as Gallo . Gary Edmond is impressive at l Sth on the 1'£251 Suzuki. He was beating former World Motocross Champion Jeff Smith (C -A), who was riding for Canada. Smith was 15th. Trophy Team member Jeff Hill , whose ' dad was running the KTM pits , was riding a very smooth, mistake free race . And Barry Higgins moved up to a solid gold medal status after a poor start by staying upright in the special tests. "Slowed down and went faster ," said Barry. Dennis Reese was barely on gold but hung in there. Larry Roeseler rode conservatively due to a gimpy knee but was well into gold. Fellow desert racer A .C . Bakken was also on gold but didn't have any cushion to make a mistake with. Russ Powell (KTM) was solid silver and was five minutes late to a time check. U.S .A . dropped to seventh in the Trophy Team standings. France moved into th ird place behind Czecho and East Germany with England fourth . Holland slipped into fifth with Poland sixth in front of the U.S.A. Isn't anything sacred? Ted Worrell finall y dropped out with a very gimpy knee. He cou ld n't take the chance on inju ring it further.