OBSERVEDTRIALS· '. F"lnal round"" F"lnland
.
..WqrldChall!piOnshjp Qb$ervecl Trials Series
-----------------------"---------
(Above left) Marc Colomer won a protest
and emerged the winner of the Finland
series finale. It was a bittersweet win for
Colomer - he won the event, but saw his
title chase fall.
(Above) Jordl Tarres wrapped up his
seventh World Chemplonshlp with a
runner-up finish. He would have been the
winner, had Colomer's protest been
denied.
- .I
It)
~
. By John Dickinson
HELSINKI, FINLAND, AUG. 19-20
ordi Tarres has done it again. The
super Spaniard from Rellinars,
near Barcelona, clinched his seventh World Trials Championship virtually without breaking a sweat, finishing
a controversial second place at the last
of this year's IO-round series which took
place in Helsinki, Finland.
And the 'first thing Tarres said after
celebrating his win was, "Next year I
will be back 'for number eight. I won
four World Championships on Beta and
when I moved to Gas Gas many people
said that I was finished. One more win
will make it four for Gas Gas also."
Just what Tarres' rivals wanted to
hear.
But the Tarres/Gas Gas victory celebrations were spoiled somewhat by
rival Spanish pairing Mark Colomer and
Montesa who, after Tarres was initially
posted as the trial winner, made a successful protest, got a five removed from
Colomer's total, and claimed the final
victory of the year.
The five had been given in the seventh
section when Colomer broke a section
marker tape with his foot while balancing.
Tarres, disgruntled at having been robbed
of what would have been his 59th World
Round win, banged in a counter-protest
about an incident in the very same section. Tarres had been given a five for dislodging a marker and was ordered out of
the section by the observer. As he had not
completed the section, there were no real
grounds for a protest. What Tarres - rightly - wanted to know was, why had he
been ordered out of the section while
Colomer had been allowed to complete it?
An.d while Tarres' protest was
thrown out and Joan Pons and Doug
Lampkin never got officially into the
action, it was an unfortunate, farcical
end to what has been a truly exciting
World Championship season.
And the final round in Finland was
as good as any, with the winner likely to
be one of five riders as they jostled for
