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/126986
Bum knee and a/l, American Larry Roesel., pushes his Kawaseki KX250 up one of the slick, tree root-infested uphills on the first day. gOJ. a ·fIat tire," said N~n, '~So. I , rOde ittb check three to flldt. fstarted it on one side of the check and finished it on the other. I took off and was making up time..on this logging road and right at the end of the road, the main bearing went out, or I broke the piston. It was like it ran out of gas; it feJl right on its face. I got it back going again and tried to nurse it to the next check, but I got about 200 more yards and it locked up for good. I guess it's going to take fi ve six-days before I finish one at this rate." Roeseler's problems continued on day three. "Going into the last check, going down a pretty steep little hill," said Roeseler, "a rock hit the bottom of my fork leg and spit me over the bars before I even knew what happened. I hit my helmet pretty hard, and I tweaked my handlebars good. I guess it's just the way my six-days has been going." Kurt Hough was limping around Park Farme at the end of the day. "I caught a rock," said Hough. "It hit my foot between the footpeg, and now my ankle and knee really hurt. Other than that it was pretty boring today. Sometimes you start losing interest on the trail and that's when you start making mistakes." Hoess had a busy day. He had to replace the complete rear sub-frame section 9f his Husky and did so without losing any time. Hawkins came within 10 seconds of losing his first route point after experiencing three flat tires. He fixed the fIats on the trail and in one check, he arrived 50 seconds into his grace period. - At the end of the day, Hawkins said, "I hope it rains or something. If we hope to do good, then we ~ the trail to get tough and muddy, then we would have a chance." Hawkins got his wish. . Day four 12 FoJlowing day three, a major thunderstorm blew through and it rained all night long. By the start Thursday morning, the rain had stopped but it was doudy, wet and cold. The day took its to.lI and riders began dropping route points in the mud. Only eight Americans managed to dean the course, which induded Kurt and Aaron Hough, Fredette, Hoess, Hines, 'Kadlec, Smith and Bertram. For most of the American Trophy and Junior World riders it was a good day, but for most it wasn't. Although Hawkins didn't have any troubles with the wet and cold conditions, he did suffer a broken chain which cost him seven late minutes at one check. The U.S. lost another rider on day four, and that was Palenske when he got lost and missed a check, which is automatic disqualification. Up until then, he had dropped no route points. "Between checks nine and 10," said Palenske, "we were going really fast down a fireroad, and there was a military truck parked perpendicular on the road. Apparently the course was supposed to turn left there, but there was a. three-way 'Y' i,n the road, and if you went strai~ht, there was a day four arrow. I Just kept going, went another two minutes and ended up at check II eight minutes early. I should've been at check 10." Irwin had the same problem. "I came to the intersection and a marshal pointed me in the wrong direct(on," said Irwin. "I went up the road, hit a main road and there were no arrows, so I cruised up the main road into check 10 and lost two points."