Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·D YS A IX· : B ~almer yl\rt n case you ha ven 't heard, the International Six-Days Enduro is going to be held in the United States this year; in u lsa , O klah oma, to be exact. Th is ear 's running will mark only the secnd time in the 65-year his tory of the' restigio us event that it will be held on mer ica n soil. The last time the U.S. layed hos t to the Six Days was 21 years go in Massachusetts. I've been a hard-core Six Days fan ver since wa tching Malcolm Smith - in e 1969 m ovie, " O n Any Sunda y" refully pick his way through the fognd rain-filled mountains of Spain durg th e Sp anish Six Days. I was only bout 10 yea rs old, b u t I re mem be r ose scenes as if I saw the movie only esterda y . Iron ically, the fir st ISD E . vent I ever a ttended was also in Spain, 1985, and I haven't missed one since. Flying back home from Sp ain th at rst yea r, I decided I was going to ride e Qualifier series that ne xt season in opes of qualifying for the '86 Italian Six ays. "No problem; I'm an A-elass rider," I ou ght. "Ital y, here I come. " Well, I learned the ha rd way that it's o easy task to qualify for the ISDE - the Iym pics of motorcycling. Needless to ay, I didn't make the team. I wasn't ven close. "Okay," I thou ght. "Next yea r . ranee. No problem." Wrong!!...again, ot even close. I was bummed. But I e ven t u a ll y ccepted the fact that I would likely ever get the opportunit y to ride in hat I beli e ve is th e most awesome rm of motorcycle competition in the orld. Instead, I had to be content to atch and report, sometimes lending a elping hand to the support crews. Having tried to qualify for the ISDE yself, and having seen first-hand over the past nine years just how hard it actua lly is to qualify, I can ap p reci a te th e time, effort, skill and determination each ride r puts forth to make it. Qualifying for the U.S. team is one hell of an accomplishm ent. No w try, if yo u will, to imagine how p eeved I was when, no t lo n g a go, a novice-ranked mo tocrosser I know preten tiouslyannounced that he had decided to ride in the Tulsa Six Days. Need less to say, such an infl ated sta tement irri tated me to no end. This person had never ridden a Qualifier in his life, and up until a few months ago d idn' t even know what a Qu alifier was or what the letters ISDE stood for . In fact, he was still referring to the ISDE as the ISO-T. Errggg!! He just kn ew that the ISDE, eh...T, was a big deal, and that he was going to ride in one. You see, if you want to ride in the Six Days this year, all yo u have to do is fill out an entry form and mail in your $500. That's about it . Since this year's event can be driven to from anywhere in the continental U.S., the event is more or less open to anyone who owns a d irt bike with a headlight. Though all the details have yet to be completely worked out, it looks as if this is how the entire U 'S, qualifying system is going to work this year. The hosting Tulsa Trail Riders club ha s set a rather high 450-rider lim it for the September 20-25 running of the ISDE. As far as the AMA is concerned, this yea r the y will be - for the most part - only concerned with four major U.S. teams, instead of every American contingent. The AMA' s attention will be focused on the premier, six-rider World Trophy Team, the fourrider Junior World Team, and two, three-rider "high-power" Oub Teams. These teams will still be determined by the eight-round AMA National Reliabil- ity End u ro Series, also uno ffi ci ally referred to as the "Qualifier Series." All of the money ra ised by the AMA ISDE Support Fund a n d the Da ve Bertram-ereated Ride To Win Fund will be funnelled into these four teams. This differs fro m the norm. Usually, 'w hen the ISDE is held in other countries, the AMA Support Fund is dedicated to all U.S. riders (us ually to talling no more than 35), while the Ride To Win Fund is designated for the two U.S. Trophy teams. Riders from foreign coun tries are guaranteed starting slots in the Tulsa Six Days, as long as their entries are tu rned in to the AMA no later tha n May 15. Assuming that 150 to 250 riders from the rest of the worl d will enter, this should leave anywhere from 200 to 300 spots open for Ameri can riders who are willing to pay the $500 en try fee. In the slim cha nce tha t mo re than 450 en tries are filled ou t, tho se who participated in a t least on e round of th e Qualifier series will be chosen before those who haven't ridd en any. As a result, this year's Qualifier series w ill, for all intents and purposes, only affect a few riders, other than the handful (i.e. Larry Roeseler, Rodney Smith, Steve Hatch, Randy Hawkins, Gu y Cooper, Fred Andrews, etc.) who will be vyin g for a spots on the Trophy and high-power club teams. So the bottom line for everybody else is, send your $500 to the Tulsa Trail Riders right away, ride at least one Qualifier this year, an d you're essentially assured a spo t. Simple enough, but too simple for my liking. I can sym pa thize with the Tulsa Trail Riders and the AMA. What else can they do ? If the AMA limited the U.s. entries to the usual 35 or SO riders, a nd only about 200 Europeans came over, th e re jus t wouldn't be enough competi tors to make the event pa y for ' ·. it self. Ev e n if the AMA selected only those riders who had competed in a certain number of Qualifiers, the Tulsa event wo uld still end up in the red. Some peo ple say that this year's system is a great way to give more people a chance to ride the Six Days. Okay, fine. But I'm sure that every little-leaguer who ever th rew a baseball would like the chance to play in the "Bigs ." Some get that chance, bu t not by writing out a $500 check. Instead, they work for it by paying their dues and proving their abili tie s through the mi nor leagues baseball's version of the Qualifier series . I gu ess w ha t I' m tryi ng to say is that hard work and de d icatio n is what mak es the Six Days so special; without the se qua lities it wo uld just be another event. How would Carl Lewis feel if alii needed to compete in the Olympics was $500? Yeah, I know this is p robably my only cha nce to accomplish my d ream of rid ing the Six Days. I sho ul d probably jus t send in my 500 bucks, so that on e d ay I can tell my grandc hild ren I rode in the ISDE. But I jus t ca n' t ge t myself to do it that way. It's not ho w the Six Days is meant to be. After all, wo uld Malcolm have d one it this way? I guess I'll have to accept the fact that anyone can ride in th is yea r's ISDE. I jus t hope tha t those who do buy their way onto the team d on' t we ar the traditional blue-and-white "skunk" helmets in Tulsa - th at, I could n 't d eal with. Onl y the U.S. Trophy, Junior World , and the two "high-power" Club Team riders, or any rider who has ridden a pre vious Six-Da ys, should have the right to sport the prestigious striped lids. These people got their helmets th e old-fashioned wa y - they earned 'em! a :IN:·T H E· WIND~, · · •.) COntiniJed frompage 3. . ORRECTION: In the January 19 iss ue f Cycle News, we ina dverten tly rep ortd in an In the Wind item tha t Kawasai wo uld be offering conti ngencies at e 1994 Cell ular One Sou nd of Thuner Four-Stroke MX Series. Kawasaki ill not su p port the series, but contin- 5 YEARS AGO EBRUARY 4,1969... ic k Smot h e rs , of the famed Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour TV show, ii as featu red on the cover of - - -.::ycle News issue #3 of 1969. The helet-Iess Smothers was pictured aboard new Montesa street scrambler while lm ing - in Dana Point, California - an pisode for an up coming show . Smothrs was joined inside the iss ue by race ar drivers Dan Gurney, Swede Savage, ameIli Jo nes a nd Richie Gi n ther... welve-year-old Marty Tripes won the 25cc Junior class at Carlsbad Racewa y n 11 100cc Penton. At the sam e race, usqvarna-mounted Lars Larson beat aico rider Tom Rapp in the premiere OOcc Expert division...Tr iumph took ut a two-pag e ad featuring its new Trient Triple /T150, high lighting the otorcycle 's 60 horsepower, three-eyliner motor, AMAL concentric carburers, four-speed built-in unit w / engine gencies will be offered by Honda Husqvarna, Husaberg,KTM and ATK. ENGAGED: Honda factory team member Steve Lamson, to girlfriend Cammy Albate. The two have set September 3, 1995, as the wedding date. gearbox and telescop ic hydraulic-type fork... , J.1 !J.!:4..1.J.:lJ • .. [is:i, ~'"'=-f 15 YEARS AGO ~:RNUA:k:;1:~: f'..# it! Staten was shown 011 the :.~~ "!;,::&::-: co ver leading ~- ---::::::.:. Danny "Magoo" Chandler at the third round of the CMC /Suzuki Golden State MX Series a t Indian Du nes. Je ff Ward topped the 125cc class over Brian Myerscough; Chandler beat Billy Grossi in the 250cc division, and Danny laPorte finished ahead of Scott GiIlman in his 500cc class debut...The issue featured a ridin g impression of the 1978 AMA Superbi ke Championship-winning, Yoshimura-prepared Suzuki G SIOOO, ridden by Wes Cooley and Steve McLaughlin...Canadian MXer Jim Turner d iscussed in an interview his failed attempt to form the first professional riders' organization in Ameri can motocross...A How-To article d iscussed the fine art of enduro time- CORRECTION: The Troy, Ohio, Na tion- . al MX and Lima, Ohio, Grand National Championship race, will no t be held on the same weekend, as we reported in a previous issue. The MX will be on July 24, as will the popular Dayton Air Show, while the dirt track will be on June 25. AU TOGRA PH S I G N I N G: A t the SRAC awa rds banquet in Denver, Colorado's Holiday Inn, on February 5. Suzuki off-road team member and former 125cc National MX Champion Guy Cooper will be on hand. For more information, call 303/988-7722. Q keeping ...An n ou nced was the new restrictor rule for AMA Junior-ranked d irt trackers that would go into effect in February...Yamaha rider Bruce Ogilvie won the Sled Riders hare scrambles in Lucerne , California...Tommy Croft and Tony DiStefano wo n Pro MX races a t Saddleback MX Park...Enduro rider Mike H annon signed a one-year d eal w it h Kawasaki to ride a KDX400 in the AMA Na tio nal Championship Enduro Series... florid a; Bob Hannah finis hed th ird in the 250cc c1ass...Dan Ingram won th e AMA Invi tational Indoor Pro Ice Race in Peoria, Illinois...Mike Kiedrowski, Jeff Ward, and Tyson Vohland wo n the 125, 250 and 500cc Pro classes, respectively, at round two of the CMC Golden State Nationals at Sandhill Ranch in Brentwood, California; the top 80cc rider was Buddy Antunez...Dan Smith edged out Paul Kra use to win the Gold Stri ke VI desert race in Nevada...The controversial "spec tire" ru le, requirin g all competitors to use the same brand and model of tire, was proposed for the '1989-'91 AMA -a:. Championship Cup Ro ad Race 0\ Series...Jean-Michel Bayle and Donny ,..-l Schmit top ped 250 and 125cc classes, respectively, at the Scottsdale Supercross exhibition race, held at H orse World horse park in Ariz ona...Terry Cunningham signed with Kawasa ki after having campaigned H usqvamas for eight years in the Nati onal Enduro Series...Ed Lojak also left H usq varna, sw itching to Team Yamaha... Q 5 YEARS AGO JANUARY 25,1989 ick Johnson g r aced th e cover of issue #3 R for ou r 1989 Camel Supercross Series Preview, which featured an interview with Johnson, as well as a look at all th e supercross r ider s .. .Mike La Rocco won the 125 and 250cc Pro classes, while Jeff Frisz topped the 500cc class at the second rou nd of the florida Winter AMA MX Series in Tallahassee, 47

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