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eOBSERVED TRIAL Trial des Nations ~ Spain wins again, but Bit Colleyspanks 'em all in Ireland r 0\ 0\ ~ (Left! Five-time World Cha mpion Jordi Tarres led th e Spanish tea m to their thirdconsecutive Trials des National wi n. (Below) Amos Bilbao join ed Tarr es on th e winning team. By Lyndon Luhman KILBRONEY, IRELAND, OCT. 2 ew ly-crow ned English National Champion Steve Colley turned in a brilliant performance and came away the individual winner with an incredible two-point day at the Trial des Nations. Colley'S score was low enough to insure the British team second place, with a total of only 33 points. This was the British team's best-ever finish, but as well as Colley and his cohorts did, the real heros were again the winning Spanish team. For the third year in a row and the fourth time in five tries, Spain came away the top dog. This year, five-tim e World Champion Jordi Tarres, Amos Bilba o, Marc Colomer and Juan Pons guided the Spa nish squad, and together, had a low- tea m total of 30 points. The British team had a close 33 points, while the Ita lian team finished third with another close score of 34. France, who used to dominate the Trial des Nations a N 6 few years back, was a d istant fourth with 58. While the achievement of individual riders should not be discounted, the Trial des Nations is a team ev ent, and each participating country se nds their best four riders to compete togeth er. The top three scores count towards the teams' overall standing, with the fourth - and lowest - score being thrown out. The Trial des Nations originated in 1984, and was held in Poland in its inaugural year. Since th en, th e even t ha s been held in a different cou n try each year. The American te am, m an aged by Marilyn and Wick Wicke r, was represented by Geoff Aaron from Connecticut, Raymond Peters from New York, Ron Como from Ve rm ont and Je ss Kempkes from N eb ra s ka . While th e Americans d id their best, they co u ld only manage a 12th-place finish. With only 12 teams entered, this wa s the first time the U.S. has taken the red caboose position. As a consolation, the U.S. team was beaten by the 11th-placed Austrian team by only one point, and if the Americans had tied Austria, they wou ld have beaten them on cleans, 16-14. This year's Trial des Nations was held at Rostrevor, which is about 45 miles south of Belfast and 10 miles sou th -east of Newry. The trial headquarters, 'p add ock and three of the sections were at Kilbroney Park, just outside of Rostrevor. The scenic park is a heavily wooded, hilly recreation -area situated in the Mourne Mountains. It is used by recreationists for hiking, camp· ing and horseback riding. The remainder of the sections were close together, about three miles away on the Batt estate. The Charles Hurst Group-sponsored trial was put on by the Knock Motorcycle and Car Club, and dubbed the Charles Hurst Cup. The club was wellorganized and did an excellent job of keeping the sections at a sane level of difficultly, since many of the riders in attendance don't normally compete at the World Championship level. The difficult loop was 9.3 miles long with 12 sections, and riders made three laps around the loop. The time limit imposed was six hours and one minu te, which proved adequate as none of the teams incurred any time penalties. The first team out at 9:00 a .m. was the squad from the Netherlands. Each team was sent out onto the course in 10minute intervals until the last team, the Italian squad, was gone at 10:50. The U.S. team was sent out about midway at 9:50.