Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

said Sanford. HI wasn 't on the gas or anything; I just can' t believe DNFing the Six Days because of som ething as simple as a spark pl ug." American Trophy rider Randy H awkins, riding a modif ied Suzu ki DR350 four-stroke, rolled into the Pare Farme (start/finish/impound area ) at the end of the day with engi ne oil sp lattered all . over the ou tside of his motorcycle. A cylinder head bolt had stripped loose, which required the gas tank and headsta y mount to be removed before Hawk ins coul d replace the stock bolt with a longer bolt which wou ld util ize the remaining unstripped threads in the head. With time rapidly running o u t, H aw kins impounded his Suzuki before he could finish the job. Hawkins event uall y completed the minor surgery during the 10-minute work period before the start of the second day. At the end of the first day, Sweden enj o yed a commanding lead with four o f its Trophy riders topping their respective classes. Jeff Nilsson headed the 125ccclass, Kent Karlsson the 250ccclass, Peter Hansson th e 500cc class and Jimmie Eriksson the 500cc Four-Stroke class. The rest of the team , Sven -Erik Jonsson and Dick Wicksell, finished the day second and third in the 250cc class, giving the Swedish Trop hy team a super low 10.39 tally. The next best score was turned in by the Czechs with 315.44 points, followed by Finland with 523.05 and Fran ce with 588.64. A late start penalty (20 points ) by Hawkins and less-than-spectacul ar specia l test scores relegated th e Ll.S, Trophy team to seventh with 829.68 poi nts. Day 2 After a fairly easy day o n the trai l Monday , the clerk of the course bumped up day two to the H schedule, which A" meant a slightly faster trail pace for Tuesday 's rid e. Desp ite th e quicker schedule, most of the T rop hy riders made all the checks on time, although the mud and rocks were beginning to wear down some of the ri de rs, as well as th e motorcycles. The day marked the demise of the U.S. Trophy team when " . carne to a halt halfway through the day. H just seized." said Hawkins. " I'm It not sure what happened bu t i t lost compression. I think the piston let go ." Further inspection of the bike a cou ple o f days la ter revealed that a broken valve guide had knocked Hawkins ou t of the event and the U.S. Trophy team oui of conte ntion. Club rider Wayne Keezer was the th ird U.S. rider to drop out of the event Keezer crashed and bent up his KTM 250 so bad that he could not con tin ue. The U.S. almost lost its fourth team member wh en Senior rider Gary Doerr arrived late a t the Pare Farme at the end of the day with a blown water p ump seal on his Kawasaki KX250. Doerr, however, man.aged to replace the seal just minut es before houring out Meanwhile, the Swedish Trop hy team con tin ued clicking off some of the fastest special test times, with Wicksell an d Hansson toppin g the 250 and 500cc classes. Sweden 's scorecard at the end of day two read 81.51, which gave th em a total of 91.90 points. The second best tea m score of the da y belonged. to Czechoslovakia with 706.74, edgi ng Finland 's 707.71 tally, a nd giving th e teams a tota l of 1022.18 and 1230.76 poi nts, respectively. Czech oslo vakia held down second place, j ust 208.58 po in ts ahea d of Finland. The U.S. Junior World team moved up to third from seventh in th e overa ll results column after two days, with Sweden still leading the way. U.S. Club rider Drew Smith, who was competing in his 13th ISDE, which is The U.S. Trophy and Jr. World teams: Hatch, Lewis, Stavish, Bertram, Halcomb, Hawkins, Rhodes, Drafs, Hines and Pepper. more than an y other American rider , said after the second day, H tough out there. it's The rocks and mud are endless, but the scary part is that it' s sup posed to get a lot tougher tomorrow." And it did. Day 3 Day three saw most of the competitors switch to survi val mode. No longer was arriving at the checks on time the top priori ty, keeping from houring ou t was. A much tougher tra il and an "A" schedule caused many riders to drop from gold medal status to silver or bronze. The tou ghest section of the day was a 4O-mile trail between checks two an d three that was full of rocks, roots and m ud. Only a handful of the riders rolled into check three without drop ping any route points. Instead, most riders arri ved at check. three from anywhere between one to 20 minutes late, and since the trail pace was so quick, it was hard to make . up for lost time tha t was dropped at check three. So when the riders came around on loop two, they would lose another one-to-20 m inutes, and man y riders were in da nger of houring out . By the end of the second loop fatigue . had taken over. At the checks, one of the U.S. riders was heard saying, "I 'd rather jump out of an airplane without a parachutee than keepgoing." Ano ther 'd. l ' en, I wo uld n't ride mo torcycles." And one rider perha ps summed it up best: H bru tal, man." It's Kevin H ines, Jimmy Lewis, Kelby Pep per and Dave Bertram were the only U.S. riders that didn't drop any route po ints o n th e da y. U. S. cas ualt ies incl uded Club rid ers Robb Mesecher, John May an d Gary Doerr. Mesecher retired on the second loo p when he crashed and broke a radia tor; May had awakened in th e morning feeling ill and cal led it quits duri ng the first loop, and Doerr houred out Perha ps the mo st dramatic finish of the day involved desert racer Pau l Krause who had to rep lace a slip ping clutch in his ATK 406 four-stroke. With a crowd of approximately 30 specta tors looki ng over his sho ulder, Krause tore down his engine and finally reached the clutch assembly seconds before houring out Kra u se had th e maj o r tas k of reasse m bling his AT K the following morn ing. The Swedish Trop hy team ru led for the third straigh t day by topping three classes and finishing second in another. In doing so, Sweden increased its lead to an almost insurmoun table advantage over Czechoslovakia and Finland. Fran ce held do wn fourth, while West Germany was fifth. Great Britain lost any chances of a top finish when Trophy team rider Alan Bates dropped ou t with mechanical probl ems. T rophy rider J i mmy L ewis wa s one o f onl y three riders . on th e en tire 36ride r U.S. teamto earn a gold medal at the gruelling Sw edish Six Days. . . The U.S. Jr. World team dropped from a possible second place finish to fourth when David Rhodes' Suzuki threw a chain in the final MX test on the last day. Day 4 Everyone knew what day four had in store, as it was the same challenging trail and time schedule as the previous day. 17

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