Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ISDE U.S. Qualifier Series I Inn By Steve Berkner ith the ope ning round of the AMA National Champ ionship Reli abil ity En d u ro se ri es , perhaps better know as the "Qualifier Series," set to get under wa y in N ew Waverly , Texas, th is week , th e ques tion always arises - what is it go ing to take for the u.s. team to take horne the gold for the first time? Could this be the year? Some seem to think so, mu ch of which has to do with a cha nge in thi s yea r's World Trophy Team selection process, w hich could ul timatel y lead to the valuable su pport needed to ge t the job done at this year's International Six-Day Enduro in Finland . Rece ntly, th e Am er ican mo tocross commu nity has had to corne to gri ps with w hy it has corne up short during the las t tw o Motocross des Nations . After w in ning 13 consecutive MX des Nations tit les, the Un ited States has found itself out of the driver's seat with a pair of ru nner-up finishes. While the rationa les for Team USA's back-to-bark second-place finishe s are many, the real reaso n may lie w ith the ab sence of America's top motocross rider, namely Jeremy McGrat h . Meanwhile, a similar problem has plagued America's team at the other usagai nst-the- wo rld motorcycle compe tition - the ISDE. Here, our top off-roaders have been trying to break a record th a t pu ts t he U.S. be hind th e wo rld something like 0 for 30. The closest the United States ever came to winning the prem ier Wo r ld Troph y class w as in 1982, wh en they plac ed second beh ind host country Czechoslovakia. In a su rprise move, this year America's Finnish ISDE Tr ophy Team w as announced six months in ad van ce, long before the start of the Qua lifier Series, which traditionally is used to det ermine each year's team . Hand-picked for this year's team are Randy Hawkins, Rod ney Smith, Steve Hatch, Ty Davis, Scott Summers and Chris Smith. To better understand the history beh ind this rad ical move, on e nee ds to take recent ISDE his tory into consideration. Since 1913, the ISDE (up until the ea rly 1980s, the event was called ISDT, the "T" stan ding for Trials) has put the world's best motorcycles and their rider s to the test 70 tim es in a m arath on six-day reliabili ty endu rance contest. Not since the late 1960s has the United Sta tes regularly fielded a team, and not once have the Americans won the event. The only rea l success has corne from America n's B-t ea m effor ts. In 1973 , w hen th e U.S. first hosted the ISDE, in Dalton, Massachusetts, the U.S. won the Sil ve r Vas e, a n d again in 199 1 in Czech osl ovakia in th e Junio r World d ivision. (Befor e 1985, ea ch cou n try's" W top six rid ers competed on the World Trophy Team while a separate comp etition for a four- mart team competed for the Silver Vase. Then in 1985 the Silver Vase became known as the Junior World Trop hy for riders 23 and un der, sort of a minor league for up-and-com ing riders). Eight-time Nationa l End uro Champion and eig h t-ti me ISD E Gold Med al winner Dick Burleson, wh o rode in the 1973 Silver Vase Team, said, "Back then the Six Days was abo u t a team effort. Sure you still needed talent to get selected. But it was the fina ncial and technica l backing tha t mad e the team successful. The su ppo rt mad e the difference. Back then I wo rked and rode for Hu sqvarn a and they had the resou rces to win." Burleson's 1973 ISDE teammate and one-time ISDE Silver and eig h t- time ISDE Gold Medal winn er M alco lm Smith said : "Up until 1966 the ISDE was only a d ream to me. It was something that I had only read about. Even though I was considered one of America's top riders, I d idn't have th e means or th e money to ever consider it. Huskies had jus t started to be imported to the u.s. and they need ed someone (on the West Coast) to ride for them. The y told me that if I was to ride for Husk y (here), they would give me an opportunity to ride in the Swedish Six Days. Instantly I became a factory rider. I even stayed at the Husky factory in Sweden. It was a dr eam come true ." Burleson explained th at today things are different: "Of course the event has changed. Back then th e Six Da ys was more about reliability and basically saving the bike. First you had to stay on (time), and the n second, yo u rode the special tes t. The b ikes were n't as d ependable as th ey a re today. It was tough just to keep them running. (Right) Ty Davis will return to ISDE competition this year at the Finnish Six Days in August. " li tera lly, in t hose day s, th er e we re no m istak es a llowe d . If you or a teammate fell off the (trail ) pace it was all over. It took a real team effort . If you had one weak link your team didn' t fin ish. "Toda y the emphasis is more on the special tests, because the bikes have gotten better. Today it 's more like a six-d ay trail rid e that h as four motocross tests each da y. The priority is m ore on world -class speed in the special tests because the bikes are more reliable. "They' ve even added this exclusionary ru le that lets each team throw out its worst rider's score each day. So if one rider seizes or blows up while ragin' on a specia l test, they throw out his score. If he' s lucky he can reb uil d an d be back tom orrow . It's a different event w ith a different p riority. "But it sti ll comes d own to your team's weakest link. Each year you hear a lot of talk about wh o does or does not mak e the team. I'v e nev er really had any problems with who gets selected as long as they have the proper support or backin g to win. That basic idea was how we won when I rode in '73, and how we almost won when I helped manage the team in '82. That should be our priority today." Six-time ISDE rider an d 1982 Trophy Team rider Mark Hyd e concurred with Burleson: "Back in '82, we had an allHusky-sponsored Trophy team . We had a good gro up of riders. But more impo rtantly we had complete factory support for the entire team." 1984 Silver Vase Team ri der Dave Bertram said: "In '84 (in Hollan d) Randy Haw kins and I were riding in ou r first Six Days. We couldn't believe the lack of organization in the United States' ISDE e ffo r t . H ere we were competing as Ameri cans at the wo rld-elass level, and

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