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/127152
Ron Lechien won both his motos leading the American team to its eighth-straight MX des Nations victory. On the victory stand. the U.S . team of Lechien. Jeff Ward and Rick Johnson sprayed the crowd with champagne. Motocross des Nations Lechlen leads American team to victory in Franc·e By Nate Rauba VILLARS SOUS ECOT, FRANCE, SEPT. II Ron Lechien led the American team to its eighth straight win in World Championship team competition at the Motocross des Nations wh ich was held at L a Verse n ne, ju st outside the small village of Villars Sous Ecot in northeast- I ern France.on his Kawasaki in Lechien won both times ou t the 500cc class, while teammates Rick J o hnson and Jeff Ward backed up his performance wi th 1-2 and 2I finishes in the 250 and I25cc classes, respectively. With the lowest two scores logged by each team thrown out, the Americans scored a perfect low four points to easily outdistance the 12-point ·score of the French team , which consisted of Jacky Vimond, Yannig Kervella and I25cc World Champion Jean Michel Bayle. Mika Kouki led the Finnish team to third with 5-2 finishes in the 125cc class, whi le Jeff Leis k's pair of runner-up finishes in the 500cc class paced the Australian team to fourth. Australia, Holland and Sweden all finished the day with 17 points apiece, just one point shy of Finland, but Leisk's excellent finishes earned fourth for Australia. " I' ve been waiting for this (the Motocross des Nations) and working up for it , and everything went exactly how I wanted it to ," said Californian Lechi en . The annual competition calls for three-man teams from each nation. One rider competes in the I25cc class, one in the 250cc class, and one in the 500cc class. The first rnoto in France involved the 125 and 500cc rid ers, th e second rnoto the 125 and 250 competitors, a nd the third and final moto th e 250 nd 500cc en tra n ts. While Lechien cruised to victory in his two rnotos, both Honda 's Johnson and Kawasaki's Ward had tougher times in the motos they didn't win . Johnson, competing in the 250cc classs, easi ly won the first 125/250cc rnoto, but in his second outing h e started in the second row of the two -row start and had to work his way up near the front. H e ended up third in the race, which Lechien won , and second in class to England's Rob Herring. Ward, America's representative in the 125c c division, battled with Bayle in the first 125/5OOcc rnoto until Bayle got by and then worked through 500cc riders to pull away from Ward for first in class and an amazing a nd crowd p leasing second overall. Ward, second in the 125cc class, was sixth overall. Ward took the top spot in the I25cc ranks, eighth overall, in the second rnoto when Bayle crashed early in the race. Bayle was the favorite of the estimated 30,000 to 40,000 partisan spectators and his first outing performance helped keep the French team close to the Americans since it was coupled with · tea m m a te Vimond's third in the 500cc competition. But Bayle's fall in the second mota, along with Kervella's eighth in the 250cc class, took the drive o ut of the French as the Americans took an insurmountable lead into the final moto. Lechien iced the title for the Americans in the fina l moto by taking the 500cc and overall wins, while Johnson fought through to third overall and second in the 250cc class behind Herring. Leisk's second in the 500cc class assured Australia of fourth, while not even Hakan Carlqvist's fourth in the 500cc ranks could get Sweden past Holland in the fina l standings. Unli ke last year 's Motocross des Nations which was held at Unadilla in the rain , this year's event was run on a smooth, dry track under a sunny sky. The track was fast and, according to Johnson , not very difficult, " There is nothing yo u can do to be better than the next gu y, it 's so smooth and fast, " said Johnson. " Itdoesn't take a lot of skill to ride." When the first moto, consisting of the 125 and 500cc classes, got underway, Holland's Kees Van der Yen led the charge off the line and through the right-hand sweeper towards the first turn. Lechien was close behind the KT M rider and it wasn't long before he had the lead. Leisk and Carlqvist followed Lechien and Van der Yen, while most of the 125cc riders who had started on the second line were several positions behind the front running quartet. Bayle led the smaller class with Ward right behind him, while England's Mark Bennett trailed in third in class. By the second lap of the 30-minute p lus two-lap moto Lechien had put a couple of seconds on Leisk, who ha d moved by Van der Yen on the first lap . Carlqvist held fourth in the 500 cc class a nd was trailed b y Vimond, Belgium's Jack Martens, England's Kurt Nicoll and Denmark's O le Svendsen. At lap end Ward set Bayle up and stuffed him in a tight corner just before the finish line to take over the 125cc class lead. As Lechien began to pull away from Leisk, the Australian also began to lea ve a battle invo lving