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ENDURO. 71st International Six Days Enduro. I (Above) For only the second time In 71 years, a U.S. Trophy team made the podium In the .: International Six Days Enduro. In Finland, the ;': U.S. team finished a " sold third behind the winning team from Finland and Italy. (Right) Italian . Giovanni Sala was . the overall individual: " .,. winner. (Below) Guy Cooper,.f' ," Fred HoeS8 and John Nielsen, of the-' Daytona Dirt Riders, won the Club team division, a first fOi'~.; an American team. 30 By Kit Palmer· Photos by Steve Berkner HAMEENLINNA, FINLAND, AUG. 12-17 And the U.S. Trophy team? They too ure, the Finnish Trophy team was celebrated afterwards. a favorite to win this year's InterFor the first time, the Urilted States national Six D.ays Enduro, after all, was considered a serious threat for a they had riders such as Four-Stroke rostrum finish going into the event. Enduro World Champion Karl Tiainen With the likes of National Enduro and 125cc ace Petteri Silvan on their Champion Ty Davis, five-time National team, plus they also had the home field Enduro Champion Randy Hawkins, advantage. But beat Italy? A country National Reliability End'Uro Champion overflowing with seemingly unnatural Rodney Smith, former enduro ch~p off-road talent with the likes of multiSteve Hatch, multi-time National Hare . time World Enduro ChamScrambles and Cross Counpions Giovanni Sala, Tullio -.'NTaRNAT,oNAL. try Champion Scott SumPellegrineIli, Mario Rinaldi, '" mers and Chris Smith, a Arnaldo Nicoli and Fabio _ .... ~ U R ~ member of the winning U.S. Farioli? A country that has 12.-17.8.1996 Junior World team in 1991 won three of the last four in Czechoslovakia, making ISDEs, and five of the' last up the U.s. Trophy team, the 10? No way. threat was indeed legitiWell, yes way. . mate. And the U.S. squad Stellar performan ces did not disappoint. put in by Finnish riders For only the second time Tiainen, Silvan, Mika· in ISDE history, the United Ahola, Pekka Viljakainen, States scored a podium finJani Laaksonen and Vesa ish, grabbing third behinc;l Kytonen put an end to 10 ,£1 Fin1~nd and Italy. ) Italy's two-year win streak, ~~ ~, "We were considered a nipping the Italians by a fairly ~ factor in this race, and that close margin of 187.01 ".. was a really good feeling for points/seconds, roughly three min• me," said Dave Bertram, ~eaqt utes, after six. grueling days and approxmanager for the U.s. Trophy team. ";r imately 1000 miles of competition. know none of these guys (U.s. Trophy "The feeling - to win in Finland, in squad) want third place, all these guys front of the home crowd, you can only are champions and won't settle for any' imagine," said a very happy Tiainen thing less than first place, however, we moments after officially wrapping up set our goals realistically. We came over the title following the last MX special to get a podium finish and be a factor 4J test moto on day six. "It's perfect, realthe race, not just hope that through attnlY." tion or through other team's failures And how would Tiainen and the rest we'd luck into a top-three finish. We of the Finnish squad celebrate their first· ""ere a factor right out of the chute. This ever victory, "Party all n;.8ht - Finnish (finishing third) is definitely a big .step style," said the home country hero, in the long term of dominating this Tiamen. .~ race." S lIlIOIi