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/127852
(Left ) A 4-3
weekend allowed
Gas Gas rider
Dav id Cobos to
solidiiy his hold
on fift h in po ints.
(Right, from the
left) J ordl Tarres,
Lamp kin and
Takah isa
Fujinam i. Tarres
rode a bril liant
second loop
Saturday to
cla im runner-up
honors. Lampkin
won the Wagner
Cup. Fujlnaml's
second place on
Sunday was his
best of the year.
(Below) Tops
among the
AMAINATC
regUlars was
Ryon Bell.
no more than a one instead of the traditional five. That change to the program
has resulted in lots of gru mb ling by top
riders, as they we ren't, as a grou p, consulted when the rul e was pro posed, and
they object that it is similar to "d umbing
.down " the sport. However, the ru le has
its share of supporters as we ll as d etractors. FInnish rider Joachim Hindren , the
19th-ranked rid er from la st yea r,
ex p lai ne d , " I th ink it' s quite ea sy to
learn to use it, but actually I do n't like
that ru le. It makes trials look a bit stupid. For sure, it's easier for observers to
judge the riding, but I think for the public and the riders it's not so good ."
Sp a n is h sta r Am o s Bilbao put it
bluntly : "We don't like it. Nobody likes
it. We try to (get the rule) cha nged , bu t
the FlM doesn 't wa nt to change. Nex t
year, we want to go to the old rul e.
"Before, there was a lot of di fference
(in scores) bet w een rid ers," Bilbao said.
"No w, we are 20 people with only 10, 15
poi nts between us. For the older riders
(used to the traditional ru le), we alwa ys
try to make (the section ) clean . When we
make a mistake, normally we five. We
never think, 'If I make a mistake, I can
roll back (with a foot d own)' - we never
think that. We either make it or we take
a five."
For the Americans and others notin
the upper echelons of the spo rt, however, the "footing" rul e seemed quite tolerable, if not openly we lcomed.
"I loved it," Neb ra ska 's Kempkes
ad mitted af terward . " I used it all the
ti me . It saved me a lot of times . That
sto p-dab thing is pretty cool; I like it for
a World round . As far as our Nationals
go, I hope they do n't (adopt it). I don 't
really like it for that. If you' ve got rea lly
hard events like this, it comes in handyd efinitely."
"Actually, I didn't understand it too
w ell; so meone had to explain it to me,"
Bell said . ':On ce I figured it out, it helps
you out definitely for a thr ee; but going
ba ck to the Nationals, it'll be tough to
switch back."
Saturday sta rt ed out w it h
th e top World rid ers clea ning
or getti ng ones in the initial sections . Lampkin stayed clean, in
fact, until sectio n seven (Maid en 's Wra th by A va lanch e
Sno w boards), which was also
used in '94. A two there and a
five in the fo llowing se ct ion