Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

•• -;:-j: .",fig' "It's kind of a relief being here after day five," said Cycle Gear Racing club rider Jeff Kirchner, who rode a TM 250, Getting past the third day was my wall I had to get through, I could barely limp in. Day four was good and today I stayed on schedule. It's amazing how your body gets torn down and then rebuilds itself and comes back strong again. I've been riding on bronze on all week - the beginning of the week tore me apart." U.S. Trophy rider Randy Hawkins :':/ii' earned his ninth . career gold medal. >~;, He finished ,.'.·gi seventh In the ;::, f 125cc class. . /.g' W ',ftr ., /~~< '-.:.\~.:~~ Dirt Rider MC's Brian Bennett was stung by bees three times on this day. "This one bee went down my jersey," he said. "and there was this Finnish guy on my minute. I kept telling him to punch me On the back), but he didn't know what I was saying. 'Hit me in the back, right here, right herel' He must've thought I was nuts." "I've been pretty lucky so far," said another Dirt Rider MC rider, Dan Harte. "Everything's gone pretty well. I don't think I'm setting the world on fire, but I'm getting through it, I guess. It's been brutal. I've only lost one route point so far out of stupidity. I melted a Moose, came into the check with plenty of time, and I changed it. used my grace minute and pushed across the line one second late. Frustrating. The whole idea is to ride and clean th~ whole thing (six days). I think I'm capable of doing t~at. Brain fade." The third member of the Dirt Rider MC team. Ken Tomeo. was still cruising despite suffering many minor mechanical problems along the way. "So far so good," he said. "It does feel good to be here (day five), but there's one more day left so I'll be careful. I've always followed one of my coache', advice· one game at a time, one day at a time." After dropping 40 minutes on day one, Mike McCarren was happy to finish out day five. "It's been one mechanical failure after another but nothing serious, just enough to slow me down," he said. "Just 'after the start this morning, I knocked the chain off the sprocket, lost eight or nine minutes. There's 30 miles left and I'm not taking anything for granted. I'm 39 years old and looking for the finish." "I'll be glad when it's over,· said Trail Riders of Houston's Rip Woodard. "If I ever· come to Finland a9ain, I will never brin9 a motorcycle. I almost houred out the.first two days, just having (mechanical) problems or on the trail· stuck. Day three, I got lost. ran into some foreign little town, that put me about 20 minutes late. But it feels good, now - starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'll tell ya what, though, I'm flattered to be in the company of some of these guys here." Woodard added that this will be his last race for quite some time. "I'm in the Air Force and when I get back I start training for a new aSSignment. This is kind of my farewell ride." Despite a crash on day one, Eric Koeller of the Cycle Gear Racing team, was having an uneventful ride - that is, until day five. "In the first special test, I cartwheeled on a woods trail and smashed my throttle to pieces," said the TM 250 rider. "I dropped about 20 minutes to fix it. At first I taped it together, rode to the next check, they telephoned ahead and got me another throttle at the next check." "My body is sore and bruised," said Jer· aid Brownell of the Boise Ridge Riders. "The first day I was trying to conserve energy - I've never ridden one of these (ISDE) before - riding slow, too slow, it was wearing me out. I was coming into the checks (saying) 'This sucks.' So then, day two, I went out rode hard all day and was eariy at checks and figured out that's what I needed to do - Just ride hard all day, not worry about saving energy. After that it's been great." Brownell, riding a Husky in the 500cc Four-Stroke class, had the dubious honor of being the last U.S. rider in every day. -;:.~'{' _.i:}( ll that was left now was the final MX special test and many were hoping to top things off with an American win in at least one moto, but it was not to be. With Rodney Smith out, Davis and Cooper were the two main riders the U.S. team was counting on. The first moto to get under way was the first of two 125cc motos and would include Cooper and all of the top-placed 125cc riders. French rider Marc Olivier Joriot jumped into the early lead, but Cooper would pass him on the second lap and open up a seemingly uncatchable lead in the five-lap race. But, on the next lap, Cooper went down and dropped to seventh, ending any hopes he had of winning the moto. "I went way too hot into a turn, grabbed the front brake and washed out," said Cooper. " Slovakian Ivan Jakes, on a Husqvarnaf won the moto with Cooper ending up fifth. Pretty much the race everyone was' waiting for was the first (of three) 250cc motos that would include the top 250cc riders, such as Davis, Sala, Edmonson, Peterhansel, Watts, PellegrineIIi, Laaksonen and Hatch. When the gate dropped, Davis outjumped everyone but carried too much speed into the first tum, went wide off the course, and saw about 10 riders go by underneath him, Davis played catchup but had little time in the five tapper. Edmonson smoked everyone. Watts ended up second, followed by Laaksonen, Davis, Sala and PeterhanseI. In the only 400cc Four-Stroke moto, Eriksson took the checkered flag going away over fellow Swede Martin Lind. Knapp, a former motocrosser, finished a respectable seventh in the moto. The homecountry crowd was hoping Tiainen could cap off the event with a win in the 500cc Four-Stroke moto, but Slovakian rider Jaroslav Ka lrinak and Italian Fabio Farioli made sure that did not happen. Tiainen did finish third, then took a celebration lap with the Finnish flag in hand. A What was supposed to be an easy cruise to the motocross special test was all but that for U.S. Junior World rider Brian Storrie. After five days of competition, his ride nearly came to an end during the 25-mile hop to the MX test when his chain broke. "When it broke, the chain bent the shift shaft and the bike wouidn't shift," said Storrie. "I managed to get a new chain and make it to the final check with nine minutes to spare." Creative use with a hammer on the shift shaft got Storrie's Kawasaki • shifting again so he could ride the MX test.' The broken chain dropped Storrie from a silver to a bronze. . Little-known fact: Over the course of the week, the U.S. team spent over 40,000 Finnmarks on gasoline to keep the entire U.S. team on the trail. That translates into approximately $9300. Following six days of competition, Guy Cooper had nothing but praise for the top European riders. "I'm really impressed how fast these guy go - the top guys. When you watch motocross, or almost any motorsport that I've done, I can look at it and watch the good guys, and I go 'I can relate to it,' maybe I can't do it. but I can relate to the speed. Here, I'm taking chances and riding very hard. I'm really pinning it, and those guys are beating me by 40 seconds. It baffles me how fast these guys go. I know a couple of straightaways where there are trees on both sides with those big holes with roots and stumps in it. I back off because I know how hard a tree can hurt you. Those guys, I don't know how they can continue to do it every day like that. I take chances but I know I couldn't do it day In and day out. They're taking big chances, just seems like it to me. I'm slowly getting there. Instead of getting beaten by 60 seconds, it's now down to about 20 or 30 seconds on my good tests." For the first time since 1991 when the United States won the Junior World class - Steve Hatch, David Rhodes, Chris Smith and Jimmy Lewis - in Czechoslovakia, the United States partiCipated in the awards c.........n... following an ISDE event. The U.S. Trophy team members were awarded a trophy for their third·place performance, as were the Daytona Dirt Riders for winning the club team division. The American National Anthem was played in honor of the winning club team. The AMA's Hugh Fleming had the honor of awarding the winning Finnish Trophy team the perpetual world trophy. A fireworks display capped off the ceremonies. . During their celebration moments after win~ ning the Junior World class, the four members of the Finnish team got together and lifted one of their team member's four-stroke Husqvarna for the cheering crowd and cameras. Right about that time, Scott Sum" mers rode up on his Honda XR600 - he couldn't resist. With some encouragement from his fellow U.S. team riders, Summers got off his bike and singlehandedly picked up his big thumper in one clean jerk and held it against his chest for about 15 seconds. The crowd loved it. all the volunteers who spent their own money and vacation time working checks, standing out there all day, pouring gas, getting dirty· there is absolutely no way we could do this without all the awesome support. " Intemational Six"Dey Enduro Hameenllnna, Finland Results: August 12-17 WORLD TROPHY, 1. Finland (909.25); 2. Haly (1096.26); 3. USA (2173.50t 4. Czech Republic (3224.32); 5. France (3247.39); 6. Slovakia (3545.32); 7. Sweden (4277.94); 8. Netherlands (5059.09); 9. Ge,many (5225.94); 10. Australia (5478.94); 11. Portugal (7767.49); 12. Spain (31401.23); 13. G,eat Britain (32932.49); 14. Mexico (52C1Tl51). JUNIOR WORLD TROPHY: 1. Finland (1920.39); 2. Sweden (2084.27); 3. Italy (2106.94); 4. Funce (3341.86); 5. Czech Republic (4799.43); 6. Aust,alia (6555.36); 7. USA (7208.14); 8. Netheriands (7784.57); 9. Mexico (53660.01); 10. Spain (67672.13). O/A INDIVIDUAL: 1. Giovanni Sala (KTM); 2. Paul Edmonson (G-G); 3. Petteri SUvan (Hus); 4. l.'y Davis (Kaw); 5. Jani Laaksonen (Hon); 6. Rickard Larsson (Suz); 7. Mika Ahola (TM); 8. Fausto $covolo (Hon); 9. Stephane Pete,hansel (Yam); 10. Shane Walts (KTM). 125: 1. Petteri Silva" (Hus); 2. Rickard Larsson (Suz); 3. Mika Ahola (TM); 4. Fausto $covolo (l-fon); 5. Xavier Puigdemont (G-G); 6. Juha Salminen (Hus); 7. Randy Hawlcins (Suz); 8. David F"";gne (Hus); 9. Pekka Viljakainen (I<1M); 10. Radel< Mat05ka (Hus); USA 15. Guy Cooper (Suz); 19. Fred Hoess (Suz); 41. Bri.an Bennett (Yam); 44. Kerry dark: (Yam); SO. Jim Conner (Yam); 55. Brian Storrie (I

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