Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

o 00 0') ....-4 ~ l!') ....-4 M ~ ~ E tJ o Iittie help from a friend he/they made it to the finish of the day -- looking SO pounds lighter in some sections -- and sta~ on silver. Cranke rode the only SWM in the American contingent. The list of retirements stretched the longest on this day with seven riders adding DNF to their tally making a total of 12 on the sidelillf:S. Along with Davis went Darryl KUf:rlZer after his transmission had the same gear problems as KTM riding partner Stacy. John Fero also went out with tranny problems. His had come apart, been repaired and thm bit the dust again. Somehow he ended up riding a white tank Yamaha on day three when he was mounted on a blue tank model the previous two days and on day four. Mark Hyde fmally had his lucky streak end. He had head gasket problems and thought he finally had them fixed enough after taking the head off three times to finish the day with a makeshift speedy repair job at one check. Unfortunately, while they were repairing the bike no one put gas in the tank and Hyde ran out in the woods. Scratch his ride. Kevin Brown's bike finally gave up and quit. Drew Smith sheared a drive pin in the rear hub of his Suzuki and gambled that he could fmish the loop on gold rather than repair the item and drop to silver. His gamble lost and he sheared the remaining pins somewhere in the woods between sections. Our Trophy team suffered another blow when Frank Gallo unloaded on a road section and put a hole in his arm. "I was cooking along, went to the inside of a comer and the next thing I knew I was sliding down the road holding onto the handlebars," said Gallo. He needed stitches to close the wound. KTM rider Bill Berroth was plugging away in the 17&cc class holding onto his silver medal and trying to keep his lead in class on Mike Rosso. Berroth had run all day with little or no brakes. The highlight of the work session brlore impound was watching both Burleson and Fredette change front and rear tires in about eight minutes. Melton continued as top American scorer with Fredette and Burleson also on gold and Cunningham going in to make it four. Roeseler was actually the second hest American at the end of day four, but in the tough &OOcc class his score was worth only a silver at the time. Italy continued its run away in the Trophy while Sweden moved into the top spot in the Vase. The USA was tenth and 11th, respectively. Day five 18 Day five proved to be rather uneventful for the majority of ridrers. Some were still sick, but plugged on after they plugged up with medicine from the Doc. Rod Bush came very close to houring out as he replaced the swingarm and did a clutch job along with other repairs. He was in to fmish. Dean Joyner felt a oit of vibration when he started the day. It. became progressively worse and finally the bottom end let loose, ending his ride. It was the end to a long list of problems that had him on bronze from day two. Yamaha's Ron Ribolzi called it quits with the flu. "I just couldn't go on any longer. I parked the bike and lay down at the side of the trail. I didn't want to, but I was so sick. " Barry Avery had a hard crash in the first special test which didn't really affect his bronze status. Avery almost didn't get to ride. He shipped his bike on the plane that brought the riders to Switzerland and then lucked out getting into France since he didn't have any transport papers. Bill Berroth lost eight minutes on the trail; Munyon dropped fi~ and Piasecki three. Califomiana Scot Hardm and Jack Johnson rode sick. Ray Cosgrove had his RCOnd good day after a disastrous day three and inched closer to a silver. Carl Cranke was back in the saddle cranking out respectable special tnt scores and moving to tmth in class. John Martin, after losing !l00 points on day one had dropped only an additional 60 through day five and had steadily moved up in the 250cc ranlts from 88th to 18th. Larry Roneler moved into the top American slot and back on gold. The Silver Vase race tightened with Sweden still on top while Ita Iy was going strong atop the Trophy standings. West Gennany lost two of its Trophy team riders and dropped' from third to eighth when Jurgen Grisse and Eduard Hau both crashed on road sections sustaining shoulder/collarbone injuries. It was rumored that the West German team would pull out in protest over the excessive speed required to keep on time, but the move never materialized. Our Trophy and Vase teams continued in 10th and 11th. Day six Make it to day six and you have it made. The trail to the fmal test is 50 miln long, not too tight and only mental errors should take any more points away. Larry Roeseler didn't lose any route marks, but he almost didn't mm the special test. "I was flying down this trail, thin1ting about the final test and other things that I shouldn't have had on my mind,:' said Roeseler. "There was a rock partially hidden in the shadow of a tree. I hit it and went over the bars and down hard. I think the bike hit me because I bruised my chest, dinged a couple of ribs and generally hurt myself all over. It was one of those things that shouldn't have happened, but did." The final test was run MX style in individually timed 20 minute motos. There wasn't a jump in sight, in fact, there wasn't even a hill. The track was table top flat -- a twisting, tight grass course that deteriorated into two miles of dust, dust and more dust. The only strategy was to be out front because from third or fourth on back you were riding blind or nearly so. The West German Silver Vase team excelled in their motos, gobbling up the 2& point/seconds lead that Sweden had going into the event and came out on top of the standings. Eleven motos were scheduled and American riders -- in varying numbers - appeared in nine. Rusty Reynaud, the lone remaining 125cc team member, gave the American contingent something to remember as he holnhot his and led the first lap. Class winner Harald StrOSRllreuther of West Germany was having none of that and blasted by for the lead and win with Renaud slipping to an eventual eighth. The next moto found Trophy team member Mike Rosso as our lone entry. Rosso gave it hell, but he was lodged in a mid'pack position from the dead engine start and eating dust every foot of the way. He managed to fight his way to seventh by the end of the 20 minutes. A multi-rider tangle in the next moto brought Rod Bush and Matt Cullins to a halt and relegated them to the rear of the dust bowl. Bill Berroth got off about last, but soon was working his way up through the dust trailed by Cullins and Bush. Cullins wasn't about to give up. He had paid his own way to compete in the ISDT and was going to give it everything he had. Berroth finally got a couple of breaks in his favor and moved into sixth with Bush ninth and Cullins tenth. Dick Burleson was the only USA rider in his moto, but he had plenty of company in third as Czechoslovakian Trophy team member Zdenek Belsky and Burleson traded spots. Belsky got by, leaving Burleson to hold off the charges of West German Silver Vase team member Bert Zitzewitz. He also got by. leaving Burleson fourth at the end. Both Silver Vase team member Jeff Fredette and Trophy Team member Ed Lojak slipped through a massive traffic jam in tum one of their contest. Fredette was 'one of the first off while Lojak had been slow in starting and was caught in the dust. Fredette grabbed the lead about halfway through the frrst lap and then stretched it out on each additional lap until the finish. Lojak, in his haste to catch up, took an off course excursion on one or more occasions, slipping back each time he gained ground. Lojak finished seventh. "I wish I had someone pushing me," siad Fredette afterwards. "If I had then maybe I would have picked up that eight seconds Mike (Melton) beat me by for the top spot in class. " Mike Melton wanted the holeshot badly in his event. So did John Martin, Terry Cunningham, Barry Avery and Rick Munyon plus all the other riders. Melton t09k the lead off the line, but apparently went into the first tum a little too fast and went down in a cloud of dust. Eight more riders went down with him. One who didn't was Martin and, given that lucky break, he took the lead and never looked back although pressured closely in the opening laps. "I don't like riding in the dust, I never have," was Martin's reply to the secret of his win. Melton, quickly up, cut some very quick laps and worked his way from about eighth on the opening lap to Sf:CODd at the end and closing on Martin. Cunningham, in sixth, led eighth place Munyon to the flag while Avery fought the dust in tenth. The next to last moto featuring American riders saw Steve Van Watermeulen take fifth place with Jack Johnson seventh and Larry Roeseler . - very sore from his crash earlier .. tenth after a race long midpack duel. Carl Altier, Bruce Ogilvie and Frank Piasecki clocked in at 15th, 16th and 17th. Piasecki's finish was still good enough (time-wise) to move him from a bronze to a silver medal. Italian Guglielmo Andreini was the winner and when he took the checkered flag the Italian contingent in the crowd went wild for it crowned the Italians as World Trophy winners for the second COl1Sf:Cutive time and meant they win be defending champs on their own homeland when the 56th ISDT is held in Italy. Andreini's win also gave him the 500cc class title which he took in the fmal tnt from fellow Trophy team member Giangelo Crochi, who had led days three, four and five. Our final tum on the track looked like it might just be the best American showing of the day. Carl Cranke grabbed second at the start followed by Kevin LaVoie and Jim Fishback with John Ayers in sixth and Ray Cosgrove in seventh. Scot Harden, the fmal American rider, had gone down on the first lap and eventually worked his way from 24th to 18th at the flag. Fishback then came on strong taking second before the first of three short off-track rides in the same corner. A slowing bike dropped Cranke to 11th at the end with Cosgrove taking sixth. LaVoie seventh, and Ayers tenth. Fishbac.k bauled to stay in third. Cosgrove, via his ride, moved from bronze to silver. The moto was won by French ridS Patrick Drobecq amidst the cheers 01. decidedly partisan crowd. "We tried to make a course where .. gold medal was truly earned," said assistant clerk of course Michael Chirouu after the event. "I think we suc~. However, I acknowledp the problem of day three. To start a , new route you .hould start off on the B schedule and not the A. It was • mistake. Still, I think we accomp~ what we set out to do and that was make every rider earn his medal. " Trophy team managerJohn MorgaIl had a few ideas of his own on how we fared in this year's ISDT. "I believe that we had as unified an American support effort as we've ever had. There's still room for improvement and I hope in years to come that we can finally come in with a 100 percent committment for the American effort. "As for our preparation," continued Morgan, "Some of the veteran riden with four and five ISDT's under their belts know what to expect. However, our Qualifier Series donn't prepare the first year rider mentally for what he should expect. The only way for a rider to know what to expect is to ride the event two or three times. "This year's event was probably the worst organized that I've ever seen. The course'was not a reliability triala, it was a road race. This is not a test 01 man and machine to determine how fast they can ~ and whether they can ride the terram. We would have been better off getting a bunch of road racers to do what the organizeril expected our guys to do. "In the terrain and the tight sectiom; I believe American riders fared bett« than many countries because __ definitely have guys that can ridr: terrain and ride it fast. We were at a disadvantage because the Italians and Czechs probably others were running two support riders for each of their Trophy and Support team members and the riders were advised of what to expect so that in a couple of cases their riders zeroed checks where we lost" points becaUSl: they didn't know they were going to have to run a !IOO kilometer hare scrambles. I "Until the United States reaches the point where they are supporting a Trophy team or Vase team 100 percent and the riders can train !l6& days a year along with the supponJ people, we will never be 100 perce!1t competitive as far as the ISDT is' concerned," concluded Morgan. .- I I Results 125cc: SILVER: Rusty R ~ IHuoI6629.6115lh. ~. W... CLASS WINNER: _ Gormony lKTMI4707.01. 175cc: SlLYER: Mike _ lSuzl 5666.19I9lh; BiI - . IKTMI 5946.1tn4111. BRONZE: Mm CuIino lYoml9216.63121at; Rod Buoh CKTMlll,270.59I27'lh. ClASS WINNER: Bernard Kreutz. West Germanr lZunl481 B.36. 2SO<:c: GOlD: Mike Melton IHuoI 483B.56I5lh; Jeff.. Fredette lSuzl 4lI5O.0116lh; Did< B . . - lHuIf' 4863.96I7lh; T.-ry CumingNm lHuol e50.82I121h. SlLYEA: John Menin IC-Al 5094.«lI15lh; Ed l.ojok lHuol 5310.42119111. BRONZE: Riel< Munyon lYlII1l 7004.64I34lh; IIoriy A-V IC-AlIO.734.83I52nd. ClASS WINNER: EJio Andrialelli. hBIy 1Kl'llG 4605.48. 500cc: GOlD: L.arry R _ lYlII1l 4798.34181\. CIInIoe SILVER: Jim _lYoml4972.72I9lh; 15WMI 5049.92110111; .l8cll J""'-n lY.,. 5186.68111111; _ Ogilvie lYlII1l 5212.23112111; S _ V... W - - . 5240.42114111; John A.,.. 5262.34116Ch; Scot Hor_ lHuoI 583UII28lIl; .... - . . IKTMI 8036.84128111; Rer 6230.2413Olh. 8RONZE: e.t AItior IKTMI -.17; Kevin t..V,*, IKlIwI1l919.06I32nd. ClASS WINNER: Guglielmo Andreini. hBIy 15WMI4464.75. TROPHY TEAM STANDINGS: I. hBIy 1424.401; 2CzechoslovaItia 11140.791; 3. Swederi 15471.031; 4. France 114.861.231; 5. Switzerllnd 136.099.381; 8. e.r Gernul"V 164.127.231; 7. HoIlInd 167.0n.581; 8. West Gemulnv 161.829.981; 9. G,_Britain 193.7371; 10. USA 11 08.364.851. SILVER VASE TEAM STANDINGS: I. West Germanv 11825.081; 2. Sweden 11986.521; 3. C _ k i a 13378.181; 4. East Germany 15532.341;· 5. HoII1nd 18820.191; 8. Frlnc. 17040.nl; 7. Poland 149.8881 8. Switzerland 171.057.901; 9. Conadl 176.302.901; 10. USA 176.756.391. MANUFACTURER POINT STANDINGS: Yamaha 11 14111; Suzuki USAI19lh; H_ma USAl2II11; Co"",,",, USAl27lh; KTM USAI37lh; ~i USAl45tIi; Y_III49th. CLUB TEAM STANDINGS: Six Pence M.C.I3rd; Bamev Larson', Trail R_,h; Dawn _ M.C./10lh; P.-ry Mounllin M.C.'14111; Norsemen M.C. c.r e-- cs.-. /16l1l.

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