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.OBSERVED TRIALS·.. Round 6: Italy . World Championship Observed Trials Series (Left) For the third time this year, s ix-time World Champion Jordl Tarres emerged victorious aboard his factory Gas Gas. (Right) Italian National Champion Donato Mlgllo rose to the occasion at his home event and was second overall, his highest finish of the season thus far. By John Dickinson l!) 0\ 0\ ...... 42 SAN GEMINI, ITALY, JUNE 3-4 ordi Tarres eased to the head of the World Championship Trials Series poin t standings for the secon d time this year with a blistering win at the Italian World Round, staged in redhot conditions which mat ched the form of the six-time World Cham pion . The season-long see-saw battle between the Gas Gas factory rider and his young Montesa-riding compatriot Marc Colomer once again tipp ed his way as Tarres used his experience, not to forget his wealth of talent, to the full. "I needed to win this one to avoid falling too far behind Marc," said Tarres. '1 think maybe I have a little more experience than mos t of the others." Wh il e Tarre s d az zled , C olomer see me d to struggle. After en tering th e competition with a six-point cha m pionship point lead, Colomer left Italy in second aft er finishing a d isap p ointing fourth. The Italian trial was staged in a picture postcard village called San Gemini, some 60 miles north of the capital city of Rom e. It w as a rad ical change for the Italians to ru n the trial so far south - usually the event takes pla ce in the north, near the industrial city of Milan , where mountain ous terrain lends itself to many natural ~on s. . It a lian jo u rna li s ts had vo iced th e opinion that the venue wouldn't be good for a World Round, and with three of the sec tions to ta ll y m a n mad e and a furth er four h a zard s h a v ing been given a fai r h e lp ing of man -m ad e help, if th ere was mor e than a hi nt of indoors rath er than a conventional trial. More an d more Wo rld Rou nd s are b ein g "sh a p ed " by ma n, rather than bei ng totall y natural. Both Luxembourg a nd Belgium now sport ma ny man-made sections - albeit out of natural rockery, If experience really is to count in the '95 series as Tarres is certain it is, nothing will prove him mo re right than the resul ts last weekend when the statistics say everything . Tarres dropped just a single maximum penalty over the 12-section whic h was lapped three times - once on Saturday and twice on Sund ay, as is the norm. This is in direct contrast wit h his a rch rival Colom er, w ho h ad five maximums. And ad ding weight to Tarres' "experience" theory is the fact that he made no fewer than 11 single-dab rid es. Compare this to Colomer' s five and you can easily see wh ere Tarres is gaining his edge. Yet you still can't dismiss his success as sim p ly p layin g th e percentages, he still p osted 24 brilliant cleans over th e weekend , bea ten only by Colomer's 25. But wh en it. comes to safety, the Wor ld Champion has it down to a fine art. Second and third places in Italy both w ent to unusu al so u rces . H omeboy Donato Miglio is a very neat and precise rider, and h is style ideally suited th e neat and precise sections which predomina ted . Miglio rode a 350 Gas Gas, losing all of his opening lap five ma rks on the natural loose-earth a n d rock outcrop ha zards which nu mbered sec tions six through 10. French ace Bruno Camozzi was easilv the top Beta rider in Italy, as he continued to return to form this season. He, like Miglio, set his weekend up with a five-mark sco re on Saturday when he drop ped just two jabs in the set pieces, p lus a three in the loose sixth section, o one else was even in the hunt after that opening lap - excep t, of course for Tarres, wh o was almost perfection itself as he di smi ssed bo th natural and man-made obstacles w ith equal brilliance. His single mark, wh en it eventually came, was a bigger surp rise than a clean lap wo uld have been , as the entire eventua l top 10 - wi th the exception of Tarres and Cam ozzi - cleaned the 11th section that was close by the parc ferme. The F1M Jury step ped in to action in Satu rday eve ning - as th ey have several tim es this yea r in fact - and stiffened up seve ra l sections. For Sund a y ' s two loops, a lte rca tio ns for sec tions fi ve, se ve n and nine m ade th e going a bit more difficult. Five was mu ch hard er, as Colom er (Above) Fourthplaced Marc Colomer lost the series point lead to Tarres. He now trails his arch rival by a s ingle point (Right) Homecountry rider and defending event champion Diego Bosls could only muster a 12th-place finish.