Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DAY SIX .By Kit Palmer '. t was September; 1991, and the us, Jun ior World Trophy team ha d just won the Gold Medal at the 66th International Six-Day Enduro in Povazska Bystrica, a small town located in the heart of eastern Czechoslovakia, or wha t is now called Slovakia, It was a hap py ending to a more or less long, de pressed, and a seemingly neve rending two-week stay in what was, just prior to that time, a totalitarian-run country. It's hard to explain the feeling you get while d rivin g acro ss a country w he re ' every town looks id entical to the las t, where every building that was built after WW II has the exact same dimensions and is painted in th e same shade of g ray. Absolut ely no imagination here. Some of the bigger towns looked deserted; there we re few people on the streets and few cars on the roads. Very eerie. This was p retty .m uch the scene driving from the ·Austria /Czecho bord er near Bratislava to Povazska Bystrica. Despite the fact that the ISDEhad been one of the better events in recent memory, I was more than ready to hightail it back · home. Come to think of it, it doesn't really seem to matter where I've been, even if I was vacationing on the sandy beaches of Hawaii, after abou t two weeks anywhere, I'm usually ready to go home. But in this case, I was more than ready! After Czecho, my room- and rent-a-carmat e, and long-time friend, Ron, had a fligh t ou t of Vienna , Austri a, first thing Sunday morning, the morning after the last day of the event I, on the other hand, wasn't scheduled to depart until Monday morning along with the rest of the American contingent, but, despite the fact of having to cu t the victory celebratio n short, I didn't mind the idea of leaving Czechoslovakia one day earlier than planned, an d spending an extra day in Vienna. • That Satu rday night, we grab bed our bags and passports, handed ou t ourlast •sticker to the local children, hopped in our Skoda ren t-a-racer, and after two qu ick stops at a restaurant and the ISDE headquarters to pick up a set of resul ts, Ron and I were jamming down the road aimed ~or the border. Finally! I After about three hours, up ahead in the darkn ess, the lights of Bratislavia could be .seen. Yes! It was only a matter of minutes now. It was about that time when I reached in to t he back pocket o f m y jeans to retrieve my passport, only to discover that it wasn't there! Talk about an adrenaline rush! I didn't even think for a moment that I might've misplaced it. That thought never even crossed my mind. No, I distinctively remembered slipp ing my passpo rt into my righ t back pocket of my jeans, and it was now gone - stolen, no doubt. Somebody must've wanted out of this Godforsaken place even more than I did . Ron imm ediately stopped the car on . the side of the road and , just in case, we proceeded to strip the car. We yanked out the sea ts, th e carpeting, unloaded th e I trunk and went through our bags with a fine-toothed comb. To no surprise of mine, my passport was gone. Vanished. . We had no choice but to continue on to the border. "Maybe they11 let ya through without it," said Ron, knowing good and well that I didn't have a snow ball's chance in hell of making it across the border. "You look like a nice guy." Needless to say; I was denied access into Austria and was pointed in the direction of the American Consulate in Bratislava. We drove around aimlessly for a while until we saw a small emblem of the American flag on the comer of the Consulate building and, aga in, to no surprise, the building was locked tigh t and wouldn' t reopen until Monday, the day I was supposed to be on a 747 bound for Los Ange• les. By this time, it was past midnight and Ron was left with just one option - to drop me off and continue on to Austria to catch his early-morning flight. "Good luck," said Ron as he drove off. So, here I was stuck in Czecho, alone, with hardly any cash (I had purposefully spent most of it a few hours earlier, thinking I was leaving the country), and no passpo rt . Luckily, I found a small hotel that accepted plastic, and I at least had a bed to sleep on. I'll never forget tha t night. The ho tel I room was small and cold, offering only a bed, a small table and a reading lamp. I'll never complain abou t Holiday Inns ever again. Even though this was a relatively minor predicament, my imagina tion that night went wild and blew everything way out of proportion. I'll never get home. I'll be here forever. I'll never get ou t of Czechoslovakia, I thought. What a terrible feeling this is, not having the freedom to come and go as you please. I had never been denied access across a border before. I felt trapped. I even contemplated snea king across the borde r in the darkness. "Yeah, right." For some reason I couldn' t help bu t think what it must've felt like when, not all that long ago, the people of Czechoslovakia basically woke up one morning only to find armed guards, barbed wire and mine fields surrounding their country . No longer could they leave. Or how the pe0ple in Germany felt when the Berlin Wall went up in just a matter of day s. And the Great Wall of China. What if my governmen t decided to build a giant wall around my country, my state or my home town, and told me that I couldn't leave? How would I have reacted? I thought about this guy I met at the French Six Days in 1988, who told me how he had scaled the Berlin Wall. He was shot during his darin g escape, but said it was well worth the price for freedom. He told me that his brother had tried to escape, as well, but hadn 't survived. That night the word "freedom" took on a whole new meaning. I finally calmed down, told my imagination to take a break, and fell asleep. The next morning, some friends that I had called the night before picked me up and drove me approxima tely 300 miles to Prague, the beautiful capital city of (at that time) Czechos lovakia. We miraculously found the American Embassy (we paid a taxi driver to lead us there). Since it was Sunday, the Embassy couldn't issue me a passport, but instea d gave me traveling papers. "These will pro bably get you out of the cou ntry, but we can 't guarantee they'll get you all the way home," they said. "You 'll mos t likely have to go the American Embassy in Vienna on Mo nday a nd catch a flight out on Tuesday." "Well, it's better than nothing," I thought. We immed iately tu rned around and drove back to Bratislava, and I was sure that this ma rginally official-looking piece of paper with my mug shot on it wouldn't get me across the border. After sitti ng in line at the border for wha t seemed like hours, we finally drove up to one of the bord er pa trol people. I hand ed her the pape r, and she looked at me suspiciously. "P lease, please, please, ple eeeas e, let me th roug h," I thought. "Ahh, this isn't going to work." She shook her head slightly as she read the paper. Obviously, she had never seen traveling papers before. "That's it, I'm dead. Now, how am I going to get back to Prague?" While she was trying to decipher the _papers, a male guard casually walked up behind her and began nibbling and kissing the back of her neck! I couldn't believe it. "Yes!" I thought. "This is good." She half-heartedly pushed him back. "No, no. Don't give up , buddy. Don't , give up !" , Luckily, he was persistent and kissed her on the neck again. "Yes! Go, go, go, go. . ." She again relu ct antly push ed him back, but at the same time, she also shoved the papers back into the car and waved us on through! I breathed a huge sigh of relief. An hour later or so, we rolled up to our hotel near the airport, where the rest of the • American con ti ngen t had long since arrived, and were drinking fine Austrian brew and bench racing in the lobby. The victory celebration was still in top gear. David Rhodes, one of the gold medalists on the winning U.S. Junior World Trophy team , saw me walk in and had that "Where-have-ya-been" look on his face. "Don't ask," I said before he even had the chance to ask. Well, at least I won' t hav e to worry about a passport this year. ex ILO OKINGBACK... 25 YEARS AGO... Septem 9,1969 ber h e first pro fessi onal motocross race was held in front of the grand stands at Ascot Park in Gard ena, California, and a ph oto of Montesa mounted Tim H art g ra ced the cover. The photo was taken by none other than ' Cycle News National Accounts Manager Terry Pratt. Gary Bailey and his brot her _Bob Bailey p romoted the even t; Ga ry also rode to a firs t-place finish in the 500 cc Senior class. . . A $1200 purse lured man y d irt trackers to the professional half-mile dirt track race at Santa Clara County Fairgroun ds in California. Rob ert Morgan wo n the Novice main; Do n Castro topped th e Ama te u r fea ture, and Ji m Rice topped the 650cc Expert main . . . A tw o-page pi ctorial was featu red on the 21st An nual Bonneville "Speed Wee k '69." Don Vesco joined the "200-mp h club" on a twinengine, 696.7cc Yamaha. He had bro ken 200 mph before, but this was the first time he d id it on two wheels . It was also the first time tha t a two-stroke-powered motorcycle broke the 200-mph barrier . _ Vesco powere d down the Salt Fla ts at 214.026 mph . Th e fas test bik e a t th e m ee t was a 750cc Triumph Str ea mline T ridden b y Ga ry Ric h a rds a t 221.742 mph. The motorcycle speed record back then was 245 mp h... Avon mo torcycle tires announced that Paramount Studios in Hollywood would use its tires in a forthcoming movie about mo torcycle racing call ed "Little Fause & Big H als y," sta rring Rober t Red fo rd and Michael Polla rd. f71~_ _ i 15YEARS AGO... September 5, 1979 collage of p ho tos from the Sturg is 39 t h Ann ual Black Hill s Rally was on the cover. Approximately 30,000 m otorcyclists participat ed in the. popular street bike extravaganza in Sou th Dakota. . . The final rou nd of the AMA 125/ 500cc National Championsh ip MX Series came to Sunshine Speed way in St. Petersbu rg, Flo ri d a, a n d Team Suzu ki ' s Dann y LaPorte w rap ped up the 500cc title, despite Team Yamaha's Mike Bell winn in g th e event. LaPorte, o n h is Pat Alexander-tuned RH500 Suz uki, went 1-5 to close out the season jus t three points ahead of series-rival Bell. Suz uki's Mark Barnett won both 125cc Na tiona l motos ahead of Yamaha's Broc Glover, w ho had alrea dy clinched th e title a week before... Andre Malherbe A won the series fina le Luxembourg MX 500cc GP, while American Brad Lackey finished second . Malherbe came up one point short of matching Gerrit Wolsink for second place in the series stan dings.. . Scott Parker won the Grand National Champ ionship Indy Mi le over Hank Sco tt and Jay S pringsteen . . . Kevin Davis was the big winner at the SCORE Off-Road World Cha mpionshi ps a t Riverside Internationa l Raceway in California. . . Eighteen-year-o ld Ded e Cates ea rned the n u mb er -on e plate at the Wome n's Motocross Nationa ls at Carlsbad Raceway; Cates wo n bo th 125 and 250cc Expert classes . Mercedes Gonzalez topped the Amateur class.. . Kenny Robert s wo n th e British GP road race over Barry Sh eene. .5YEARS AGO... Augusl30, 1989 ~ . ~ r~:lB:JJ:IJ ~ iii;:'::; d d ie Lawso n lead - . l.t~ ... . .~ ing Wayne Rainey at th e Sw ed ish GP ....;:;;j appeared on the co ver fi ve years ago . Lawson, aboard a Rothm ans Honda, won the event w hile Ra iney, aboard his Lucky Strike Roberts Yamaha, crashed , giving Lawson th e se ries points lead with two rounds rem aining. Wayne Gard ner was third. .. Jeff Ward E "'-ibriii; .I and Damon Bradsha w s ha red overall victories at the Spring Creek 125/500cc Na tional MX in Mill ville, Minnesota. Bot h Ward and Brad shaw won both motos in th eir respective classes. Ron Lechien finished second to Ward in the 500cc class, while Ron Tichenor was the runner-up to Bra dshaw in the 125cc division . . . Randy Hawkins and Kevin Hines battled at the Speedsville Na tional Enduro in New York; Hawkins scored th e win, edging ou t H ines b y tw o po ints . Jeff Ru ssell was third... Chris Carr won the 600cc Nat ion al Championshi p D irt Track r ound a t Sturgis, South Dakota, with Steve Aseltine finishing seco nd . .. Ji m my Bu tton an d Ro bbie Neeley were so me of th e big winners at the Loretta Lynn 's Amat eur Na tiona l MX Cha mpionships at Hu rricane Mills, Tennessee. Ezra Lusk topped the 85cc Stock class, while Craig Decker won the Modifie d d ivision. Other class w inners incl uded Ste ve Lamson in the 125cc A Modified; Jeff Emig in the 250cc A Modified, and Robbie Reyn ard in the 85cc Stock (7-11) class. Jeremy McGrath finishe d th ird in the 125cc A Mod ified class.. . Da ve Th o rpe cli nc he d the World Championship 500cc MX title by w inn ing the Luxem bourg GP over Billy Liles and Kurt Nicoll. ex

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