Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127749
,OFF~ROAD: ,', 70th InternationalSix Day Endl!fO ' Jelenia Gora, Poland (Left) Chris Smith (18) was one of only four U.S. Gold medalists. He rode strong all week and finished a respectable seventh In the 125cc class. (Below) Finland's Karl Tlalnen was unbeatable In the SOOcc Four-Stroke class. He led from start to finish and his World Trophy team landed third, behind Italy and France. B,riefly~ .. , (Day Threet, , a r~ck: which. would end up costing him 19 minutes, then, not mQre than a few feet off the start line on day three, the .chain snapped, Goering's f.ather sprinti9d back to the U,S, pits !lnd retrieved a new chain, The whole ordeal cost Goering another nine min" utes, KerJ1. Clark; of the Dirt Diggem North te.am, was, told by the U,S. team doctor not 10 start day three. Clark was sick all day Tuesday but ,still managed to impound his' bike, Howeve'r, later that night, Clark had become so dehydrated that he' required' two' I, V. bottles fa . Ron Schmeizle completed his top,end job on replenish his body's 10st'f1uids, his CR125' Wednesday morning but left the start area '45 minutes late, Later on, he was' Another rider told not'to start was Kevin' Bal-ยท within '10 minutes of houring out when he hif. ,ley,'iNho, had c,oliided 'With' a car the day a roCk that badly smashed his exhaust pipe before, That night Bililey had trouble sleepinfj and would keep popping out Oi the exhaust' and 'was exper'iencing lil1zzy spells, and. was manifold, Schmelzle made the decision 'to forstill feeli~g woozy Wednesday mOrning,' (einhe "e~t of'the day and head straight baqk ' Thill's when, the U.S.. tMm docto'rs aclvised, . to. pare ferme where, he would replace the him not ,to ride, and instead go back to bed, pipe. He reimpounded his 'Honda ,and would 'To add insult to, injury, Bailey'wa's later. start day' four, "This place hates' me," joked issu'ect a citatiQn fOr failing to stop at a stop Schmelzte,' ., sign; which "supposedlY" resulted'in the a~ercation with tlie c a r . ' I.t was anoth,er bad day for the Bremerton ,Cruisers.' Lori T~ylor completed ihe first lo'op John Nielsen, found' an interes,ting way to before havin'g her Suzuki's ignition go oui on 'help start his 6 t 0 Husky four-stroke in the. her. She searched around for a ne~ Ignition ,cold mornings., On Monday mor(ling" it t09k and would later replace',t:ler old one and reim40 seconds for him to start his bike and on' pound her motorcycle, However, accordin,g to Tuesday morning; jl took: 55 seco.nds. So, on the sketchy reimpound rules, only One rider Wednesday morning, !'Jielsen boiled, watE\r at, from each three-person club team can take the hotel ,he was staying at and carried it in a advantage of ,the reimpound policy and Carol large thermos to Pare Ferme, On the start Williams had already reimpounded the day, line, Nielsen poured the hot water on the before because of her injured knee, 'Taylor engine cases to help warm it up. Apparently, impounded:anyway in hopes of, being able to ihe trick worked, as 'his,bike started within 20 contiriue on,' ' ' seconds. ' French Trophy rider laurent Charbonnel Dirt Diggers North's Rodney Goering expe- '. was forced io retire on this {jay with what was' rie.nced more chain' problems on day, three" reported to tie a broken frame on his four' On Tuesday; he broke the chain g,uide off ?n ' stroke'Kawasaki. ay four, Thursday, turned ugly. The rumors of rain proved true and would wreak havoc for the U.S. Trophy team, despite the fact that the squad was made up of notoriously good mud riders, with the possible exception of Southern California resident Zitterkopf, who openly admits he considers himself more of a motocrosser than off-roader and isn't an experienced mud rider. As it turned out, Zitterkopf did toil in the gooey, black mud, and having the flu didn't help matters any. Neither did the grimy water that seeped its way into his KTM 620's carburetor, and jammed up the throttle. "I could barely turn the throttle," said an exhausted Zitterkopf afterwards. "It was like having cruise control. I eventually had to stop and fix D , T""'4 T""'4 '"' Q) 'B u o 16 it which cost me about 30 minutes. I just felt so bad, It wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't have the flu, or whatever it is I have, and I just didn't have the energy. It was really tough out there." Still, with the throwaway rule, the, U.S. was still safe, and things looked okay until Hatch's due time at the final check came and went without any signs of the Suzuki rider. Eventually, he was spotted pushing his bike into Par'c Ferme. "The bike just started running as though it was hot, and making all kinds of noise" said Hatch, "and I was about three miles from the finish when it finally died. It had no compression. A bunch of little town kids helped me out, pushing me about 15 minutes up these hills. Then Kevin (Hines) came up and he pushed me and finally got the bike going - ,somewhat. It barely ran, then died again. I thought I'd hour out but Kevin and I got it in." Hatch removed the top-end to find a big chunk of the piston missing. He impounded his cylinder-less motorcycle but would not start the next day. "Earlier in the day I tore ligaments in my ankle, I'm basically out of it anyway, and I've got a National Enduro at home next week to think about," said Hatch of his decision reluctantly to bow out. Rodney Smith didn't have the best of The Italian shined on what was otherwise a gray, rainy day in Poland. They turned in the best team result thus pulling further away from the French team. Finland maintained third, followed by Great Britain and Germany. The U.5. team fell from fifth to 10th. In the Junior World division, the seesaw battle raged on with a new team taking over the reigns. The Italian Junior World team sailed through the horrendous condition and shot straight to the top of the leaderboard, while the Australians sunk from first to third behind Spain.