medal in the [SUE in West Germany
butthe stanof the 1980 season brought
an injured wrist sustained in a riding
accident - a nagging injury that
severely reduced his impact on the
off-road 'cene for more than a veaL
While he didn't compete 'in as
rna n y events d u ri ng the 1980 season,
Smith was kept plclllY busy in his fulltime position as a developmelll rider
mechanic for the uzuki enduro team,
He did ri Ie enough ISOE Qualifiers early in the season to qual ify for a
slQt on the U.. team for the French
IS DE. After running at a gold-medal
pace in France through the firslthree
days, mith's ride came to a disappointing end on day four with a destroyed rear hub on hi PE250,
By mid-19 I, mith had fully
shaken the injuries and was back on
the trail of the National Enduro circuit- too late to do any real damage,
the ti tie chase na rrowed- down to
Team Husky's Burleson and Terrv
Cunningham, Cranted a position Ol~
the U,S, team for the [SOE in [tall'
-thanks to the cOlllroversial injury
clause provision - Smith proved he
wa' still able to ru n heads up with the
world's best by collecting yet another
gold medal in the 250 cranks,
But things were not all well at
Suzuki, The powers that be decided it
was time to abon the elllire enduro
team effon, and mith was left high
and dry, No ride, No'support, No job,
Kawasaki, however, had entered
the enduro team game shortly after
Suzuki, and W
