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/127600
who d ropped a tot al of ni ne minu tes and ama ssed 540 route/penalty points. What ma de Hoess' ride. so incred ibl e was that he was aboard a 12Sec motor" cycle. The other "MXer" on the U.S. Trophy team, Rodney Smith, riding a Suzuki RM X250, dropp ed a to ta l of 10 minutes a t checks thr oughou t the day, which equalled 600 route points. Next in line was ano ther Suzuki RMX250 rider, Steve Hatch, who dropped 12 min utes or 720 route points. The ot he r tw o U.S. Tro ph y rider s Randy Hawkins and David Rhodes had houred out due to mechanical problems. Rhodes, riding a Suzuki DR350 fourstro ke, was relega ted to spectator status before the end of the fir st loop . " For some reason the bike was losing oil and we did n' t know where o r why," sa id Rhod es. "I kept putting oil in it at all the checks but it finally locked u p . I later found out that I had hit something and bent the skid pla te into an oil line and cut it." Hawkins was slowed considerably when his Suzuki RMI25 suffered a topend 'seizure. He managed to rebuild his bike in the mid d le of a com field and ma ke it to the finish - unfortunately, a few minu tes too late. Overall, nea rly half of the total field (incl udi ng C lub -team riders) ha d hour ed out on the day, and tha t was significantly more tha n even the organizers had expec ted. In response, the FIM Jury, headed this year by the AMA's Hugh Fleming, met th a t night and agreed to allow all th ose w ho had houred out to co nti nue, as long as they had cleared all 12 checks . Those who had would be assessed 7200 penalty points, but would still be eligible for a Bronze medal. Ne vertheless, it was st ill a grim day for most of World Trop hy teams . Amon g the countries that lost at least one Trophy ride r for good were Great Britain, German y, Switzerl and, Ita ly and Australia. The Italian team lost There was plen ty of spectator involvement in this years Six-Days. "If it were n't for the spectators helping us u p the sandy hills an d mud bog s, none of us would've finished," said one rider. two of its riders - Stefano Passeri and Paolo Fellegara. The Jury' s decision to let those who had hou red out start day two benefited the Ll. S. Tr op hy team by giving Hawkin s a se cond ch ance, but since Rhod es d idn 't make all of the checks, he could not " re-im poun d ." After all was said and done, it was not surprising tha t Sweden was on top of the leaderboard after the first day of competition. The Swedish team - made up of two-t ime 125cc Wo rl d End uro Champ ion Jeff Nilsson, form er 350cc Four-Stroke World Enduro Cham pions Svenerik Jon sson and Kent Karlsson, And ers Eriksson, former GP MXer Peter Han sson and Bill And ersso n - held a slim 56.36-point lead over France, followed by Czechoslovakia, Holland and Belgium. The U.S. team sat in 13th, with Poland 14th. To make it easi er for the rider s on d ay two, Tu esd ay, th e time schedule w as slowe d down considerably. Plu s, the start time was delayed for an hour, mor e time was given for the riders to work on th eir mo tor cycles, and they 1-4 OJ ~ OJ :> o Z wou ld ri de only one loop ins tead of two. The cou rse was the sa me as day one's but run in reverse. The slower schedule was welco med by all the riders, and unlike the previou s day, very few ride rs d rop ped any route poin ts; the on ly real points taken awa y were in two special fest sections. In the team s ta ndings, the French squad mov ed into the poin ts lead when Swedish Trop hy Team rid er Jeff Nilsson dropped out with a blown engi ne. Thi s relega ted th e Swedish team to eigh th, w hile Holland moved up one notch to second and Finland took over thi rd. Normally uncompetitive Irela nd turned he ads when they climbed to four th, and Czechoslovakia moved u p to fifth . Th e U.S. Tro phy team did n' t lose an y more riders, but sti ll dropped back two more places to 15th, wh ile the Italian team su ffered ano ther major setback when Giorgio Grasso dropped out wi th radiator problems on his Kawasa- J effFredette M. Six .Da¥~ r " I guess I'm a glutton for punishment," says Jeff Fredette. He must be, considering the fact that this year 's ISDE in Holland was Fredette's 14th. That in itself is a remarkable feat , but there's more. Not only has Fredette competed in 14 ISDEs, but he has finished all of them! But wait, that's not all. Of those 14 fin ishes, Fredette has earned a rema rkable 10 Gold medals, as well as three Sil ver medals, and one Bronze medal. Only one Ameri ca n rider - Drew Smith - ha s sta r ted more ISDEs than Fredette. Smith has competed in 15, but hi s results, though ve ry im pres sive, are slightly les s stellar than Fredette's. "Yeah, I might have the quantity but not the quality, " admits Smith, who ca p tai ned the U.S. Junior World Team th is yea r rather than competing. Of the 15 ISDEs Smith ha s ridden, he 's earned six Gold medals/Jive Silver medals and two Bronze medals; he's DNF'ed twice. .Fredette holds the record for earning the most GOld medals (10) of any American rider. Larry Roeseler is second with nine Gold medals, and Malcolm Smith and Dick Burleson are next in line with eight Gold medals apiece . ' Perhaps Fredette's most impressive " C0 ki KX250. Day three featu red a new course and accomplishment of all is his remarkable had any real mechanical problems at the 100 % finishing rate . Jus t what is his Six Days ." Fredette managed to sort things out, secret? "I really don't kno w," says Fred ette. "I and by day six "...the bike was running guess it would be preparation. I think it's better than ever." Of the 14 ISDEs Fredette has ridden, important to be 100% prepared; have the bike dialed-in and be ready for anything he says that this one - Holland - was one of the toughest. " I compare this one to that might go wrong." Ironically, at Holland, Fred e tte suf- Wal es in 1983. Not only was Holland fered his first major mechanic al problem tough on the body, but it was tough on during a Six Days event, resulting in his the bikes, too. Usually, ISDEs ar e physically tough, .not so much mechanically . first Bronze medal. ~ "I replaced the entire cylinder on day ·'l ough." ' l 1 p'7 So how long will Fredette continue three, but the new cylinder th at I had installed, (which) I had already prepped riding the Six Days? .," 1 hear it will be held in Finland in '96, at home - well, I forgot to inst all the reedvalve assembly," admitted Fred e t te. I'v e never been there before," says Fre"Then later on that day, the KIPS power- dette. "I'Il have to hang in there for at valv e broke. The bike barely ran and, at least that one. I've also heard it will be one point in the day, I was close to hour- held in Australia again in the year 2000, ing ou t. That was the first time that I've or something like that. ..hmm." four new timed special tests. It was also the first day of the event that it d idn't rain - at least while the bikes were out on the course - but it was still clo udy and cool. For the second day in a row, none of the top Trophy riders dropped route poin ts, bu t Fra nce was knoc ked off the top of the pedestal.when Trop hy ride r Laurent Charbonn el was forced to withdra w whe n his Kawasaki KX250 seized . The U.S. Trophy team 's efforts to pull off a respectable finish took another turn for the worse wh en Rand y Hawkins' RM125 s u ffe red it s second top -end seizure; this time, the bike couldn't be fixed . "I was going to try and fix it, but the cylinder lining was peeling and there was nothing I cou ld do," said Hawkins. Takin g ad vanta ge o f the Fr en ch team's m isfortune wa s Ho lla nd, who moved into the poin ts lead wi th a seemingly uncatchable 6303.32-point ad vantage ove r the runner-up team from Finla n d . Spain , Ir el and and Po land 7