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/127857
OBSERVED TRIALS
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OBSERVED
. TRIALS SERIES
Doug Lampkin wrapped up the
Observed Tr ials World
Championship with a pair of
second-place finishes in the
Czech Republic.
By John Dickinson
f]
B
~
.~
I'-..
0\
0\
.....
1'-..
'
.....
....
Q)
..c
E
....
0..
Q)
Q)
(f)
40
NEPOMUK, CZECH REPUBUC, AUG. 30-31
aug Lampkin is the 1997 World
Trials Cha mp ion. Th e 21-yearold British star has totall y domi na ted thi s yea r's se ries on his
factory Beta, winning every single individ ual round until th is round. Lampkin
carried a massive 53-point lead into the
Czech Republic round, and in reality no
one was even goi ng to ge t within sni ffing distance - no t even defending cha mpion Mar c Colomer, who has been totally outclassed all year.
Suddenly, tho ugh, Lam p kin forgot
a ll abo ut his pl oy of "just ta king eac h
round as it com es" and decided that he
wanted the title sewed up at this ro und .
Winnin g the even t wo uld be nice, of
course, and wo uld also keep that yea r. long unbeaten s trea k going, but winning th e title wa s more important. In
fact, it wa s th e only thing that mattered
to him.
And s o it w as a different Do ug
tim e just to get to th e fina l
climb-ou t up a barkless, sli ppery log, Lampki n arrived at
the end sho rt of time, ru sh ed
i t a nd ha d a treme ndo u s
'crash .
Colo rner had wa tched his
rival's form with inte rest on
th es e two sect io ns a nd he
rubbed salt into the Lampkin wound by cleaning
bo th in a bsol utely faultfree st yl e . In co n tras t to
Lampki n' s se lf -i m posed
pressure, Colo mer kn ew
th at h is tit le had go ne
away a nd th a t he w as
a lso in a solid secon d
p lace for the c hampio ns hi p th is yea r . As a
re sul t, Colome r was
a b le to enjoy himself,
co nseq uen tly flowing
throug h th e sections in
a rel axed, n o-pressure
situatio n.
Th e Lampkin tea m
knew that the situation
w as n ot g ood a;d
that somethin g ma jor
needed to be pulled
out of the bag. And as
th ey have d on e so
often this seaso n, th is
is exactly wha t
th ey did . Lampkin
re la xed enough to
kn ock off the ne xt
s ix sections w i th a
JQHNOICKINSON
loss of only two
FllEPHOTOBV
mar ks. M ea n while,
Colomer lapsed and took a sur p rising
Lamp kin who lined
five on the relativ ely easy 10th section.
u p for the sta r t in the tow n of NepoColorner, however, led at the end of
m uk. The sta rting draw ha d ce rtai nly
th e openi ng la p' s 14 sections w ith 10
no t been kind to the Beta rid er - he d rew
marks. A relieved Lam pki n finished off
the o pening ride, while .Colo mer was
wit h 13, s ha r ing secon d place wi th
the very las t man to start. Mon soon-type
Takahisa Fu jinami. The Ja panese tee nrain the previ ou s tw o days had turned
ager was making a big effort as third
the pr evi ou sly dusty, gri p py rock secpla ce in th e series is still up for grabs,
ti ons into sli p pery mud baths, but a
and it's coming down to a battle between
br ight s u n a nd st rong breeze we re
Fu jinami an d Ken ichi Kuroyama .
rapidl y d ryin g the sections out. Even so,
As the y wen t in to t he fi na l lap,
the advantage lay with Colome r at this
Co lomer knew that it was ind eed all
stage .
over. He migh t easily win the day, but
Th e first two sections we re n't really
Lampkin was going to score heavily,
up to snuff and in fact merely served to
whatever Co lomer did. Lam pkin in fact
give the stars a workout on their riding
had o vercome th e worst of his nerves
techniques. The third section was d ifferand settled down well - thou gh he was
ent, th ough, being a man-made conangry w he n the Beta backfired on the
s tr uc tio n of roc ks a nd tre e trunks .
II th section , o ne that cost hi m a ma xiLam pkin, w ho was a pp lyi ng so much
mum score - and com pleted the lap with
in ternal pressure that he said, "I feel like
a score of nine marks. Colome r was even
my legs are made out of wood," made a
better, wi th a nea r-perfect four-mar k cirgrave mis jud gment , and it too k all of his
cuit as the numbers one and two in th e
father' s voca l encouragement to stir his
world underscored their leading roles as
limbs sufficiently to sa ve a three from
the only tw o rid ers to co mpl ete the 14
turning into disaster .
sec tio ns with si ng le-fig u re sco res .
And then on the fourth sub he made
Frenchman Bruno Ca m ozzi regained
an ev en more telling erro r. Through a
some of his lost form to post a score of 10
tri ck y ro ck section tha t to ok a lot o f
marks along with Finn Tommi Ahvala as
they finished fourth and fifth. Fujinami
did en o ug h, with a 13-mark loop , to
secure third on the da y. Kuro yama had a
nigh tmare da y with laps of 18 and 23,
finish ing way down in J !th.
'
For the seco nd d ay, three sections five, nine and 10 - had been stiffened up
a bit, but it was really only a toke n gestu re and scores in ge neral took a tumble.
Lam pkin was in a mu ch more relaxed
mo od a nd clea ne d the o peni ng three
subs almost withou t effort. He pu t plenty of effort into the tricky fourth sec tion,
thou gh , an d forced o ut in his in imitable
style for a clean that brought the crowd
to life. For once, Colo mer had no answer
and wa s lucky not to hurt him self as he
tried unsu ccessfully to match Lampkin's
effort.
But the Lamp kin effort came unstuck
o n the ninth section, just as it looked like
he had set up a winning op po rtunity.
Lampkin go t his rid ing boot snagged in
the sec tio n marking ta pe, an d the tape
broke whe n he tried to wriggle free .
. O nce agai n he trailed Colomer on the
opening lap - by jus t on e point. The gap
remained constant o n the fina l loop of
the w eeke nd until th e fift h -s ection ,
wher e a mom entary lapse of concen trati on, as th e title flashed th roug h his
head agai n, saw La m p ki n take a b ig
crash . Lampkin was destined to finish
w ith hi s second ru nner-up position in
tw o da ys.
As Lamp kin clea red the final step in
the final sectio n to sign off with a clean
ride, he knew tha t the World Champ ionship was his, and he shared. an emotional moment wi th his fat her and min d e r, M a rti n , be fo r e acceptin g Ma r c
Co lomer's generous hand shak e.
Lampkin's championship eclipsed all
else on the day, as Ahva la came good to
sn atch a pop ular podium placing ahead
of Ku roya rna, who im proved im measu rabl y o n hi s previ ou s d ay's form. Th e
Bet a rid er goes into th e fina l ro und in
Germ any ho ldi ng a narrow seven-poi nt
lead over h is frie nd a nd co u ntry ma n
Fujina mi. Their battle for th ird pla ce
ough t to be th e hi ghlight of th e fina l
round - which Lampkin can now enjoy
as a ceremo nia l lap o f honor!
f~\
Czech WorldTrial
Nepomuk, Czech Republic
Results: August 30-31, 1997 (Round 9 01 10)
DA Y ONE: 1. Ma rc Colo me r ( Ma n); 2. Doug
Lamp kin (Be t); 3. Takahisa Fujinam.i (Hon); 4. Bruno
u mozzi (C-C); 5. Tomm i Ahvala (Mon); 6. Graham
Jarvis (Sco); 7. Amos Biltuo (C-G); 8. Steve Colley (G-G);
9 . }ord i T.ures (C -G); 10. David Co bo s (G-G); II.
Kenichi Kuroyama