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... Italians dominate, Roeseler leads American effort ~ By Dale Brown LAGER STEGSKOPF, WEST GE~MANY, SEPT. 10-15 Italian riders led the way a t the 54th running of the International Six Days Trial, winning the World Trophy team competition and sixof the 10 displacement classes. Czecho~lovakia won the Silver Vase, with U.S. teams placing sixth .in both Trophy and Vase standmgs. Of the 40 Americans who started, 33 finished. Nineteen of them took Gold medals, with 10 Silver and four Bronze medals going to the remainder. The number of Golds taken by Americans was down from the 27 earned in last year's IDST in Sweden, due primarily to a rule change which awards the honor to riders finishing within 10% of the leader's score instead of the 15% of previous years. Also, the 'Yest Ger~an event was rated by nders 'r bemgL tougher than Sweden. as ., C a Ihornla s arry R oese Ier, n'd' 109 a 390cc Husky as a member of the H usqvarna /KTM -b ack e d W or Id T rophy team, led all American scorers on his way to a sixth overall placing in the 500cc class. Roeseler topped the class on the final day's special test to move from seventh to sixth. KTM-mounted Trophy team member Ted Leimbach topped the Americans competing in the 250cc ranks, finishing ninth in class. ISDT rookie Darryl Kuenzer put his KTM into ninth place to lead the Yanks riding in the 175cc ranks. Greg Davis, riding a Husqvama, was top American in the 125cc class at 14th; while the sole U.S. 350cc class rider, KTMmounted Kevin Lavoie, finished 18th in class. The Husqvarna half of the U.S. World Trophy team, Roeseler, Dick Burleson and Jack Penton, were the highest U.S. manufacturers team, placing 10th in the standings. A West German team of 100 and 175cc Zundapps took top honors. In club team standings, the Perry Mountain M.C. trio of Mike Melton, D:wight Rudder and Ray Cosgrove wound up ninth. An Italian team finished way out front in the final standings. The U.S. World Trophy team's chance for a high placing suffered a setback before the trial even started. KTM's Frank Gallo, top American in Sweden a year ago, withdrew before the start due to tendonitis in his right wrist. "He rode some hard practice, and did some three and a half minute tire changes, but his wrist just hurt too much," said American KTM team manager Bob Hill. Jeff Hill replaced Gallo on the World Trophy team and rode to a Gold, while Frank worked hard in the pits, helping where ever he could, getting tools, inflating tires and making himself thoroughly useful. The event, put on by the Motorsports Club Frier-Grunde, was centered on the West Germany military training area of Lager Stegskopt in the Siegerland area, which was the site of the pare ferme and the first five days' special tests. ~any U.S. riders g~ve .this Six Days hi~~;;:!o~rt~~g~r:::e~~~~:riders was excellent. John Greenrose, the American team manager, worked hard coordinating people to man gas stops, time checks and" just keeping things running s~oothly. The Ameri.can effort was aIded by several Amencan servicemen stationed in Europe, who were brought together by Chuck Niedzialkowski, who w«,>rks for the Department of Defense 10 Germany. Day one The end of the first day, an easy run on the slower "B" schedule, found the W est G ermans Iea d'ng the World I Tro h standings b 12 points over the .p y y h I aki Italians. East Germany, Czec os ova, Belgium and the United States followed. Silver Vase standings also found the host country's team leading, this time with Czechoslovakia in second, and the Suzuki-mounted U.S. team in sixth. The Czechoslovakian Trophy team, favored going into the Six Days, lost two of its origjnal members, Jiri Stodulka and]iri Posik, due to injuries incurred in a Czechoslovakian National Championship event two weeks before the start .of the ISDT. They were replaced by Vase team members Miroslav Pokorny and Josef Cisar. All 40 of the U.S. team finished the day, 25 on Gold. But ISDT veteran Dane Leimbach, r·iding a 125cc SWM,. had smashed his foot hard on a rock in the second special test. He finished the day still on Gold, but X-rays confirmed that the foot was broken, and he did not sta rt day two. Two Suzuki riders got knicked for a 50-point .penalty on the start: Silver Vase team member Jeff Fredette did not get his bike going within the 60second limit, and Don Cichocki started his machine a few seconds too early. The points acquired put both on -------------------------------- Trophy team members Larry Roeseler lapp. page) and Ted Leimbach (balow) tackle muddy sections. They were the fastest two Americans. -----.." Silver, though their special test scores were in the Gold medal range. Roeseler fell in the first special test and came up with a mediocre score, but gassed it up on the second tour of the circuit. His second special test time was seventh fastest in his class, and he closed out the day ranked 13th. But he wasn't the fastest of the Americans yet. World Trophy teammate Jack Penton turned in a strong performance to put himself in 10th in the 250cc class with a score nine seconds faster than Roeseler's. Drew Smith, leading Suzuki's Silver Vase effort, was just .seven seconds off Penton's pace. While most competitors had a rela· tively easy day of it, Maico-mounted rookie John Ayers was having a hard time. Out on the second loop he lost a footpeg, then a rear tire went flat. He changed the tube at a time check and got the tire more or less back on, pushed it through the check on time, and then finished the job. He lost about seven minutes getting everything back together and the tire filled with air, but made that up before the 'next check. Bob Pearce, riding the sole 125cc Kawasaki in the field, was struggling with carburetion problems. The bike was running too lean and nothing seemed to cure the problem. Though Bob didn't lose any route points, he was down to Silver status. Michigan's Darryl Kuenzer had come to the Six Days with the intent of putting it to some of the established European stars_ He got a good start on that, leading the Americans in the 175cc class from his 16th in the rankings. Mike Rosso was just nine seconds behind Kuenzer. Greg Davis turned in special test times less than one second apart from each other and came up 11th in the 125cc point standings to lead the Americans running in that class. "That's one less day they can throw a tough one at us," grinned Silver V~e team member Dave Hulse at the end of the day. Though Hulse was running on Silver, it wasn't by much - less than a secondl Day two Trophy standings remained the same at the end of the second day, with the West Germans leading the Italians by about 15 points. The course was the same as Monday's, with only the special test differing. The course was roughly 115 kilometers in length - about 70 miles - and 'run twice. The special test - a two and a half mile grass track - was also run twice a day, with an acceleration test at the start of each day's second loop. Our Silver Vase team dropped from sixth to eighth, with the West Germans still leading Czechoslovakia. The drop was due to loss of 300 route points by Dave Hulse. Hulse ran into a boatload of misfortune on Tuesday_ First, during the special test, he hit a rock and got out of shape. Though he didn't crash, when he landed he wrenched his back severely. 'Tve I!ad a bad back since I was 18, but it was a freak thing. I could have done it with a good back," said Dave later. The American team physician, Dr. Richard Meyer, treated Hulse later with medication and a 7