Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DAY Palmer ·' SIX B yKit Ow that the Tulsa International Six Day Enduro is behind us an d, for th e mo st part, as is all th e postrace faultfinding and finger-p ointing as to wh y this year's ISDE was such a dis aster - at least from a spectator's po int of view - we can go on and look to the future. Unfortunate ly, it's hard to forget that the Tul sa Six Days wa s, for ma ny people, the only ISDE they'll ever get to - or perhaps no w w ant to - see and instead of going away from Oklah oma with fun stories to tell and good things to sa y, many returned to th eir hom es w ith horror sto ries, and perhaps hav ing negativ e feelings towardthe sport in general. This is a shame, since the Tulsa ISDE wasn 't a good illust ra ti on of a "true" Six Days. While the event might have been good from a rider's point. of view, the spectators at Tulsa were basically treated as though they were a nu isance, rather than welcomed guests, as they should've been . To me, one of the greatest aspects of the Six Day s is the spectators themselves. They are hardcore ISDE fans and will hike for miles to a particularly nasty section of trail. ISDE rider Jeff Fredette said that in Germany one year, that they would ride for nearl y 200 miles a day and never rid e more than a mile without seeing at least one spectator along the trail. For those of you who planned your vacation around the Tulsa ISDE and were in all practicality turned awa y at the gate, you might be happy to know that you weren't the only ones dissatisfied with how the event was run; the folks at the FIM, the European motorcycle federation, weren't satisfied either. After talking about it for quite so me time, the FIM recently decided to fine the organizers of the Tulsa Six Days , 6000 Swiss francs (approximately $4200) for an assortment of reasons. Not only is the fine a small punishment, but it's also ba sically a message to other countries planning or hoping to host future ISDEs not to "screw up" like the U.S. did . After all, the ISDE is the FIM's "baby." Anyway, no sense beating th e proverbial dead horse. with a stick, the whole Tulsa ordeal is now hist ory, and we now can go on and look forward to this year's ISDE, which will be held in [elenia Cora, Poland. If you want to see a real Six Days, one that's done right, then Poland is th e N place to be. Obviou sly, the FIM agrees. It was just eigh t years ago, in 1987, that the small town of [elenia Gora in sou thern Poland, near the former Czechos lovakia/Poland border, hosted the ISDE. I have the feelin g it' ll be more than eigh t years before the ISDE returns to Tulsa, or anywhere in the Ll.S, for that malt er. I was fortunate enough to attend the ISDE in 1987 and, des pite getting off to an inau spi ciou s start- just getting to Jelenia Gora was a nigh tmare - it was one of the best ISDE's I've ever attended, and if I go again this year, this will be my 11th ISDE in as many years. There were many reasons the eve nt was so good. One of wh ich was/ is that Poland isn't considered to be one of the ISDE powerhouses when it comes to fie lding a World Trophy team, e ven though Poland did tak e home its firstever prestigious World Trophy in 1993 when the event was held in Holland, the year that Poland wa s one of only two cou n tries that managed to field a full team after all six m iserably wet and muddy days of competition were over . While Poland ha s many exceptionally good riders, they are better known as a survival team . Their main priority is getting every one of their riders to the finish , and if they succ eed, then they are nearly guaranteed a good finish. When it comes to the mighty Italian , Swedish and French teams, on the other hand, well, their.goal is to not onl y finish and do well, but to win. They don't compete just to finish, which is a major accomplishment in itself, but they onl y ha ve on e intention when they compete, and that 's to take home the prestigious World Trophy cup. Nothing els e will do. And, as a result, usually one of these three teams do just that - win - especially when one of them has the home-court a dv a n tag e. But in Poland, th e " Big. Three" - Italy, Sweden and France - are competing on equal ground. This makes for good racing. The terrain in Poland is very diverse, too. There are pl en ty of hills, two-track and single-track trails, excellen t special tests, and the weather can playa major role in the outcome of the event. In 1987, rain thinned out the field considerably late in the event. Unlike in Tulsa, spectators can wa tch th e event from wher ever th ey pl ea se, excep t for the few usual restricted areas in parc ferme (start/finish / im pou nd area) . But do n' t think Poland is the only pl ace w here spe ctators ha ve n ea rl y unli mited access at an ISDE event - the see mingly "a nti -specta tor" beh avior in Tulsa was a bizarre an d unusual exception to the rule . Specta tors in Europe are welcomed wi th opened arms. / I have man y mem ories e tched into my hea d from the '87 Polis h Six Days, most notably the trip just getting the re. Unfortunately, it wasn' t one of the better memo ries. Tra veling from California to Europe is simply a lon g hau l no matter w ha t. But I had a s top-o ver in New York to cove r th e Mot o cro ss des Nations at Unadilla, so at least I had a sho rt traveling break. But I would pay for it in the long run. After spe nd ing the da y sloshing arou nd in the mu d a t Un adilla, I 'stayed up all night writin g my story for m y 9:00 a .m. dead line. A few hours later, I caught a flight from Syracuse to New York's LaGuardia airport; from . there, flew to Frankfurt, German y, .and then to Warsaw, Poland . H ere, our scheduled two-hour layover turned into seven hours, and by then I was cC!mpletely hammered by the combination of the lack of quality sleep and "real" food . And things onl y got worse from there . After hanging out in the airport terminal all day - and it must be noted that the terminal for domestic flights in Warsaw isn't what you'd call en tert ainment city - we were finally led onto a rather large, ru sted out turbo-prop airliner. Our group of die-hard Six Days enthusiasts and riders formed at the boltom of the steps that led up and into the plane. Standing at the top step was an armed guard from the military watching our every move. "After you, Bevo." After ha ving to ju m p -s ta r t the plan e' s eng ine with a giant battery, we were off to Wraclaw , Poland. There was nothing but dead silence o n th e airp lane. No one sa id a wo rd, that was until Bevo For ti mentioned some thing about the engines sound ing "funny." We landed safely at about 11:00 p.m. an d we all gathered at the bottom of the plane, wh er e we basically had to pull ou r luggage out of the cargo hold ourselves. Lighting wa s provid ed by the headlights of two cars that drove up after th e plane had rolled to a s top . After we .sorted out o ur lugga ge, a bu s came an d transport ed us to a la rge ho te l, w here we p icked u p o ur re n ta l ca rs . Here, we found a ni ce-looking res ta uran t, so a few of us decided to break away from the g roup , s tay, and h a ve w ha t we thoug h t wo uld be our "last" good meal. By the ti me we lef t it -r as jus t abou t midnigh t and the six of us, in three di fferent cars, spe nt the next four hou rs w ha t sho uld've been abou t a two-hour drive - wand er ing arou nd the Po lish countryside, in the dark, trying to find our hotel nea r [elenia Gora. Frustration nearly got the best of us, as we all wer e abo u t to "s na p," es pe cia lly when we stu mbled upon armed military guards on a da rk roa d in th e m iddle o f the w oods - it turned ou t to be a rem ote border cross ing in to what wa s then Cze choslova kia. Obviou sly, We missed ou r turn-off. We fina lly located our hotel abou t 4:30 a.m . At th is point, I was sp ent and was shaking from exhaust ion. It was quite a trip, to say the least. Desp ite survi ving the trip from hell, the rest of our stay in Poland was downright pl easurable and fun . We enjoyed the local s, who are extre mely friendly; the food wa s much better than we had anticipated, and the exchang e rate definitely ben efited the American dollar, so we could n't help but have a good time. Try ing to spend $50 in two weeks was very difficult to do; unfortunately, I've heard this isn't the case anymore. A lot h as chang ed politicall y in Po land s ince 1987. As a resu lt, I've heard some good things, as well as no tso-good . But I'm sure the airports and airplanes have improved, and since this year' s AMA tour package will include a trip to the Motocros s des Nations, which is be ing' held in Sverpec, Slov aki a, on Sep tember 10, a week before the scheduled start of the ISDE, travel plans will be much diffe rent (read: better ) th is year. If I return to Poland this year, it certa inl y will be in teres ting to see th e changes, but no matter what, I can coun t on seeing a good Six Days, just like I did in '87. But maybe this time the U.S. Trophy team w ill win . Stranger.things have ha ppened, you L' know. I.LO K GBA·CK. O IN 25 YEARS AGO... March 31,1970 ik e Patrick and Phil Bowe rs mad e the co ve r after winning the Mint 400. The pa ir . accom pl ished the deed o n a Yamaha MX360 ... Dave Aldana storm ed to the main even t win a hea d o f d efend in g G ran d Na tio nal Champion Mert Lawwill a t the Man zanita Speedway half mile in Phoen ix, Arizona ...Dave Rodgers mad e the news for scoring his sixth straight win a t the Hallman-sponsored CMC finale MX in Font ana , California...Bob Grossi topped Brad Lackey at a CMC mot ocross in M Sacramento...MZ factory rid er Werner Salevsky was competing in th e U.S. according to an article on page 26. ~a~c~2~~1~~~'" ~ : §fJOJj ! - 5;;;; -;;- '" e n e Woods wheelied his .lMrr e Way l way on to our ~~ cover as the Southe rn Ca li forn ia ::!:..'= speed w ay season 1;, T go t und e r w a y wi th th e Spring $:.:::: Classic Series at D,!~ Cos ta Mesa , San Bernardino and Ascot. Dennis Sigalos, Bruce PenhaII and Alan Christian took Scra tch feature wi ns in th e se ries.. .Dick Burleson w o n th e Turkey Track Creek Nat ion al End uro for the second year in a row and his sec- G f!!::.:;' E_ on d w in in as man y r o u n ds of the series...Dale Brown in terviewed Larry Roeseler on pa ge 20...A pr eview of the 1980 AMA National MX Series appea red on page 24...More Daytona '80 res ul ts: Scott Pearson nabbed the final r ound of th e Harley-Davidson Dirt Track Series in Tampa, Florida, w hile Mike Kidd wo n the short track race at Daytona Memorial Stadium .Teddy Leimbach won the Alliga tor End uro . 5YEARS AGO... March 21, 1990 a ve Sadowski ro de a Va nce & Hines Ya maha to victory ove r Common wea lth Honda ' s Randy Renfrow during the closest finish in history at the Day tona 200 by Arai ...Rich Oliver topped a crash-mar re d 250cc Gran d Prix final...Thomas Stevens wo n the AMA/CCS 600cc Sup ersport eve n t, D . II ' \ a n d Doug Chan- . ~ h ; ~ IIJ....., dler the 750cc " .. i:J. . .'. ; .,-~~_. • ~ Sup er spor t - - -. . -." r ac e ... Jeff • • Stanton won h is sec on d s t raig h t D a y ~ tona Sup ercr oss on the Dayt ona In t ern a ti onal Sp e e d w a y infiel d w hile Brian Swink d o m inated th e Ama teur portion ...Dan Ingram finished behin d Scott Parker at the 600cc National bu t posted the wi n a t the AMA Grand Na tio na l s hor t t r ack at M un ici p a l Stadi urri...Randy Hawkins won the Alliga to r End u ro ...A 1980 Honda RS125 road racer was advertised in the Want Ads for $240. L' •

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