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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127600
Garrahan, Smi th and McLau ghlin
managed to mak e it th rough the wet
d ay, but had all houred o ut before it
w as ov er. Like most rid e rs tha t had
houred out, however, they were allowed
to sta rt day two.
Mclaughli n's ride also ended with a
trip to the hospital on the second day.
The Honda CR250 rid er hit a railroad tie
that was buried in the mud and went
fly in g over the hand lebars. McLa ughlin's helmet came off in the crash an d he
wa s taken to th e hosp ita l w ith a mild
concussion .
"Another ride r was ahead of me an d I
didn 't ha ve tim e to react," sa id
Mclaughlin, wh o was sporting a gnarlylooking black eye. "My helmet came off
w hen I hit the tie an d I endoed without
my helmet. At least that's wha t the spectators said - I don 't remember a thin g."
Mclaugh lin believed tha t he had forgo tte n to strap on h is helmet after he
ha d tak en it off to work on his bike at
the p revious check.
Day three saw things get even worse
fo r the U.S. sq uad. Chris Sm ith, who
w as a m emb er of the wi nni ng U.S.
Junior World tea m in Czechoslo vakia in
1991, was forced out p rematurely when
his Su zuk i RM X250 o ve rh eated and
seized. This left Ga rrahan as the so le
rep rese ntative of the U.S. Junior World
tea m at the halfway poin t.
Garra han, rid ing a Honda CR125 in
his first-ever Six Days, continued to ride
well and click off res pec table tim es in
the special tests. He managed to keep
his screaming CR125 running and make
it to the final MX speci al t~t. His spectacula r ride, however, came to a screeching en d when his bike suffer ed a topend seizure while he was competing in
his final MX moto. According to ISDE
rules, though, if a rider fails to finish the
final MX special test rnoto, he is
assessed the sa me number of penalty
points that the slowes t rider in his class
accrues. Despite not finishing the moto,
Garrahan ended up finishing 12th overall in the ,125c c cl as s a nd ea rn ing a
Bronze med al.
The Dutch Jun ior World team ended
up scoring a st art-to-finish win with
1080.93 points to spare over the runnerup team from France. Czechoslovakia finished a d istant third, followed by Spain
a nd Sw ed en . The U.S. team end ed u p
11th ou t of the 12 teams that compe ted.
Club Team division
This year ' s Six Days was brutal on
club rid ers, ma inly due to the fact tha t
they had to ride beh ind the 160-p lus
Trophy and Jun ior World Trophy Team
rid er s, so by the ti me th e Cl ub rid ers
arrived at so me of the mud bogs, the
trails were nearly impassable. Of the 27
U.S. Club riders th at started the eve n t,
only 12 made it to the finish.
The main goal on d ay one was to not
ho u r ou t, but only five U.S. Club rid ers
accompl ished th is fea t: Jeff Fredette
(Kawasaki KDX200); Dan Ha rte (Husqva rna WXE610); Pau l Krause (Kawasaki
KX500), Jaso n Da h ners (Suzuki
RMX250) an d Ste ve Sil vestri (Honda
CR 500 ). H ow e ver, those who h ad
houred ou t wer e let back into the eve nt
the follo wi ng day, excep t for si x U.S.
rid er s who di d n't make all the checks :
Curt Wilcox, Tommy Ady , John Moody,
Marc Grossman, Jim Walke r and Kevin
Benne tt. Excep t for Bennett, who we nt
h ome ea rly with a brok en leg, all of
thes e rid ers had dropped o u t with
mechanical problems.
Mark Lambert and Mark Ruble both
broke d own on day two, while Don
Knapp wa s the only U.s. rider to drop
out on da y three.
Rainy da y four took out a large num ber of U.S. rid ers: Ron Law son, Doug
Deaton, Kerry Clark and Robert [ohn- :
Sweden (50008.92) ; 6. Italy (65478.75) ; 7. Canada
(10 1008.30); 8. Germa n y (137281.16); 9. Portugal
(165007.99); 10. Great Brita in < 956.90); 11. Uni ted
=
Slates (236293.33);12. Finland (273922.45).
80: 1. Roman Michalik (TM ) Czechoslovakia ; 2. G.
Marco Ro s si (TM) Ital y; 3. Sebastian Kryw ult (TM)
Poland; 4. Madej Wrobel (TM ) Pola nd ; 5. Marek
Dabrowski (TM) Poland ; 6 . Wiktor Iw an ski (TM )
Poland; 7. Herbert Wagner (Suz ) Ger ma ny; 8. Marc
Puigdemont (G-G) Spain; 9. lsidre Esteve Pujol (G-G)
Spain; 10. Richard Pullen (1M) The Netherlands.
125: 1. Henk Knuiman (](a w) The Netherlands; 2.
Paul Edmondson (H us) Gre at BritAin; 3 . Patrick
lsfordink (H an ) 1he Netherlands; 4. Thierry Godfroid
(}(aw) Belgium; S. Dominique Costes (Yam) France; 6.
Vincenzo Lombardo (IM) Italy; 7. Maurizio Canninari
(KTM) Ita ly ; 8. Fre d Hoess (Hu!O) USA ; 9. Xavier
Puigdemo n t (G-G) Spain; 10. Marti n Gottva ld (Suz)
Czechoslova kia ; 12. Pat Garra han (Ho n) US A; 28 .
Rand y Dubois (Hon) USA; 41. William Rush (Suz) USA;
42. Jason Edie (Kaw) USA.
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