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/126843
60th International Six DaY..s Enduro Sweden wins, USA fourth in Spain By Kit Palmer AL P. S PAIN. SEPT. T h e Swedish Trop hy team co nsistin g of Peter H ansso n , P er Gonberg , Dick W ickse ll, . Sven-Erik J o n sso n , H aka n Lundberg a n d Tomas G u sta vsso n won the 60th run ni n g of .... - -I " ..0 o -' u th e International Six Da ys Enduro by taming th e dry , dusty a n d rocky trails of the Pyrenees Mountains in Spain. ยท0 Drew Smith fi ni shed 10t h overall in the 500cc class and picked up a gold m edal. (Below ) Fred Hoess also nailed a gold on the Junior World team. 12 so-ocr, 5 What was th e Swedish team 's secret for success? " It's th e p anca kes, " sa id one member of Sweden 's support crew. "We . give our drivers pancakes at every che ck, the y a re good for our drivers, makes them go fast . Maybe the American drivers should C' It pancakes, too." . It wou ld 've taken stacks and stac ks of pancakes for the U.S. Trophy team to catch the Swedes, who topped the seco nd-p lace Spanish team by 996.57 p oints. Third overall went to East G erm any, followed by the U.S., Great Britain , Austria a nd Czechoslovakia. Indi viduall y, eight American riders picked up gold medals whi le 12earned sil vers. Brian Mull (l25cc Husqvarna ), J ohn Martin (250cc Can-Am ), J eH Fredett e (200cc Kaw asaki ), Geoff Ba lla rd (500cc Can-Am ), Dave Bertram (500cc Husqvarna Aut o) a nd Larry Roesel er (5 10cc four- stroke Hu sqvarna ) mad e up th e U.S. World T rophy team that ear ned a respecta ble fou rt h ov erall during wh at was sai d to be o ne of th e toughest ISDEs in rece n t hi story. Rocks and dust mad e the si x days in Spain very cha llengin g to bo th rid er and ma chine, with n at tires ca us ing havoc througho u t th e event . A n at rear tir e ca use d Rocsel er to lose three min utes on th e trai l d uring dav two and it en ded up costing him th~ Fo ur-St ro ke class win . Roeseler did, h ow ever, take second in the cla ss while earning th e honor o f being Am eri ca's top indi vid ual r ide r. For th e seco nd time in three yea rs, Frenchma n Gilles Layla y, riding a CR250 H onda, wa s the ISDE's to p o vera ll individual. T he Junior w a rid class wa s. \~o n bv th e East Germ an tea m ridi ng Ge rman -ma de MZs.T he team included Mike Heidenreich , J ens Gruner, Andrea s Cyffka and Udo G rellman. Spa in took seco nd ah ead o f Swede n, Czechoslovakia, Ital v a nd Fin la nd . T he .S. effort had 'a major turnaround for th e worse o n da y three wh en Honda CR 500-mounted Ron Na vlor dropped o u t o f th e event with ele~trica l probl em s. leaving th e team wi th o n ly three ride rs to finish th e event - 250cc H usqvarna ri ders Randy Hawkins (si lver). J eff Rus sell (go ld) and Fred l~ o~ss ( ~o l d) . T he tea m pers isted to [in ish eigh th o vera ll. T he to p U.S. cl u b t ea~, .Bent Wh eels Motorcycle C lu b, finish ed fo u rt h o vera ll with three 500cc m o unt ed rid er s: Les Wolfe ( H us, sil ver ), Mik e Too le (H us, silver) and Kevin Brown (Yam. silver). A hi g h ' a ttr ition rat e p roved tha t dav o ne wa s one of the toughest. Fi ftv-o ne ride rs d idn 't even fin ish the firs t' day and included in tho se casua lt ies was th e en rire Portuguese team. T wo Portugu ese rid ers qui I at th e first check, wh ile th e rest o f th ... team a lso bail ed o u t before th e end of th e da y. One of Portugal's T rophy riders Ant onio Silva. said, " Po rt ugu ese rid er s are not used to thes e hills and ro cks; there ar e no h ills in Po rtu gal , We need much mare practice. Nex t yea r in Ita ly, a ll we're going to do is try to fin ish ." Most o f the Port ugues e rid ers q u it after geuing cau g h t in a bottle ne~k tha t form ed on a steep, dusty 1 1111 before th e first check. T he U.S . Trophy team fared reasonably well with the h ill because th e bottleneck formed after they had made it th ro ugh , but most of the Junior World riders and club teams had it rough . " It was the worst bott leneck I've ever seen, " sa id Wolfe at th e en d o f the day. " I dropped 15 minutes th ere. I got stu ck about ha lfwav upa nd th e water started boiling o u t o f my radiator: so I had to rid e to th e n ext chec k without a ny wat er in m y radiator. Every now and th en I had to stop a nd let th e eng ine coo l o fL" A m ember o f Can-Am 's ma nufacturers team , ISDE veteran Bob Pearce (500cc Four-St roke) sai d, " I lost 30 m inutes on th e hill. I had to go ba ck down th e hill th ree times before I co u ld m ak e it to th e top. There were bik es laying everywhere." Shortly afte r th e hill was a ~arrow goa t trail a longside a stee;p 11111 thaI claimed o ne Czechoslovakian Trophy rid er. The team manager for th e Czech tea m, Radek Stodulka , sa id , "Our 125cc rider, Petr Kvech, went ov er th e side o f cliff and lost 12 minut es." This wa s a major blow for th e team (wh o were mounted on cc,> bbylooking sing le-shoc k jawas) as It put th em in seven th a t th e end of th e day . Am eri can silver meda list Ray Munge nast (Co lum bia ~nd~ro Riders , O pen Husq varna ) sa id, ~ven goa ts sho u ld n' t be o n th ose trail s - one mistake, a nd th at 's it. " T wo Am er ican ride rs drop ped o u t durin g the fir st da y. o ne o f whi c;h was J a ck Pen ton (KT :\I T eam ) with a n ignition fa ilure. "I g uess it's better than rid in g five da ys a nd th en brea~ ing down." Dave Cr ain (Co lu mbia End uro R iders, Open Husk y) als o h oured- ou t with a broken clutch bask et. " It broke rig h t a fter th e first loop. I th ought, ' tha t' s it for me, ' " sai d Crain . " I hop... it doesn 't happen to th e rest o f th e g uys ." T roph y rider Fritz Kadl ec a lso had a few p roblem s o n th e first da y. " I got lost on ce, tore off all th e knobs on m y rear tir e, had so me problem s on th e h ill , m y brake rod ca me ~ff twice (onc e during th e first specia l lest ), sq ueak ed th e motor o nce, bu~ I ,~idl~ ' t lose a ny po ints o n th e tr.III, said Kadl ec. "If th is is the ex ten t o f all my problems, I' ll hav e i.t 1 .lude." Dave Bertr am , rid ing a Husky 500AE Automati c, didn' t lose all Y route points. bUI his day one-ride was n ot tro u ble free. "Today went o kay , I guess," said Bertram , " hu t I had problems with th e brake ma ster ry lin der , The front brake lever had to be pulled all th e way 10 the handlebar