AVIEW FROM THE FENCE
BY ERIC JO N O
HS N
would you like to show up at a
ph ee des Nations - and from the minu te
major inter national motocross race
the y arr ived a t the tra ck, t hey were
an d h a ve 31,000 frig hteningly
laugh ed a t.
en thu s iastic p eople wa n ting nothin g
"You g uys are seco n d r ate ," th e
m ore than to watc h yo u lose? An d if
Europea ns - es pecially th e Belgians you flailed aro u nd a nd s trugg le d in
proclaimed. "Am erican mo tocross is a
doing so, all the better.
jok e. You are no match for the heroes of
How wo uld you like to show u p at a
Belgium! Hah, ha h, hah. Go home! You
major internation al mo tocross race and
don't belong her e! Hah, hah , hah,"
ha ve vir tually every o ther rid er on the
Ten hours la ter , the Belgian con tintra ck d o e ve ryt h ing in
gen t - th eir riders , proth eir power to beat you?
m oter s a nd fa ns - were
Sure, they would all like
left standi ng slack-jawed
wl!Y rJu:y did rlwr ro
to defea t ea ch ot her, but
and speech less . T hey
Ir was a totD1 mad
you were a special case.
had just had their asses
In practice, then they mlUle
They all hated yo u.
kicked by the Yo ung
ft'en worse for the race. I'm
How wou ld yo u like
Am er icans. In fact, from
not making excuses or any·
to s h o w u p a t a m a jo r
that very day forward,
thing, but I th ink it was aD
international motocross
they we re no longer conrealJy weird ."
race a nd have the p ro sid er ed th e wo rld's pr eSteve Ltlmson,
mo ter d es pise yo u jus t
emi ne n t
m o tocr oss
Nismes, ~lgJum
because yo u were from a
p o w e r . In fac t, in the
cer ta in nation ? As pa rt
s p an of o ne afte rnoo n,
of his lam ent towa rds you, he a nd his
the ir entire kin gd om was reduced to a
lackeys would pull out their Machiavelpile of smoking rubble.
li-influ en ced ins tructio n book of tr ack
That' s whe n the jealousy and hatred
prepar at ion, and do everyth ing in their
began.
collective power to ensure that the track
Cu t to N is rne s, Belgi u m, in 1997.
was your worst night mare.
Whe n the America n contingent arrived
Sounds kind of spoo ky, doesn't it?
at Nismes, they were shocked. The track
Well, m y frie nds, welcome to the
that lay before them was like some thi ng
1997 ve rs io n of th e Mo toc ross des
ou t of a gu t-wrench ing nig htma re.
Na tions in N ismes, Belgium. Ahh h, Bel"The track looked like o ne big congium : the lan d o f mo tocross supers tructio n site · whe re was the Belgian
heroes; th e land w he re mo tocross her 'beach of sa nd ' w e expected?" said
i ta ge run s dee p; th e lan d of Wo rl d
Ame rica n jou rnalist Da vey Coom bs,
Champions; th e land of Duvel and [upilwho was on assignment for Cycle News
er beer and pornm es frites; the lan d that
in Nismes, "It look ed just like the place
hates American motocross raci ng - and
wh ere Fred Flin tstone worked . No ne of
racers - wi th a bitter, jealou s passion .
us cou ld believe it."
Where is a ll thi s coming fro m? I
Fro m th a t p o int fo r w a rd , i t a ll
guess it all stems back to Lommel, Belsee med. to tak e a big downward spiral.
giu m, in 1981, where a yo u ng , ragtag
O n Satu rday, Jeff Em ig cam e off th e
Ame rica n tea m (a tea m th e Belgia ns
track and sa id it is was the wo rs t track
scoffed a t) - co nsis ti ng of Jo h n ny
he'd ever ri dden on," added Coombs .
O' Ma ra, ",: Do n n ie H anse n, Da n ny
"From that very po int, it qui ckly became
laPorte an d Chuck Sun - showed up a t
apparent that we were in trouble. I had a
th e mo tocross ci rcui t a lo ng th e Bel very bad feeling about the race. It seemed
gian / Du tch borde r, a circuit so Saharalike everyone was agai nst us - again."
like it wou ld have mad e Lawre nce of
All thin gs considered ; we shou ld
Ara b ia nervous . Afte r an absence of
have kn ow n better. Liste n as Coombs,
m a n y yea rs fr o m th e World Team
no stranger to motocross track creation
Championship of Motocross event, th e
and pr eparati on , d escribes th e fun ky
Yanks were there to compete in the Trotrack on w hich we had to go to wa r.
H
OW
.,
LdZ
30 Y AR
E SAGO...
O TOBE 2, 196
C
R1
7
t was a determin ed Fred Nix
who won the 9-Mile Na tional
C ham p io ns h i p Di rt Tra ck
race in Okla ho m a City, Oklahoma, but it was fellow O klaho m an Gary Nixon who
locked up th e 1967 Gra nd
National Cham pionsh ip wi th
hi s se con d-place finish o n a
Triu m p h . Sammy Tanner
rod e o ne of N ixon 's s pa re
Tr i u mp hs to thir d p la ce .
Ge orge Roeder fi nis hed
fo urth and, u nfo r tu nately,
finis hed in the ru nner-u p spot for the Cha m pions hip for the third time in his caree r. The 14-lap Ama teur final was all Harl ey-David son as Dick Woods beat
Gary Waldo and Danny Dysart... Dan Haaby piloted
his BSA to the win at the 15-lap Expert half mile fina l at
Asco t Park in California, followed by Sammy Tanner
. It was Haaby's 28th win
at Ascot that season and extended his Asco t po ints lead
ove r Lacher. Phil Todd returned to racing afte r taking a
month off to recuperate from a IT accident and wo n th e
l O-lap Amateu r final over newcomer Joe Brown. Rick
D urkee co nt inued to break 250cc lap records on his
Suzuki en rou te to winning the eight- lap Novice final .
I
20 Y ARSA O
E
G ..,
OCTOBER 5, 1m
" In Ameri ca, we no lo nger have a
European vers ion of motoc ross, "
explai ned Coombs. "It' s mo re a hybrid
of su percross a nd mo tocross. I guess I
would describe it as ' fa s t cross.' It's
more of a mad e-for-TV spectacle wi th
big jumps, big whoops and grea t technical attribu tes - it's a bette r pr oduct, in
my o pi nio n . You see, in Eu ro pe, they
g p.ve u p o n su percross because th ey
could n't beat us . They we nt back to the
drawing board and reve rted to very oldschool motocross. Like at Nismes - the
jumps were in th e sha pe of a s teep le.
Ou r guys, who are used to accelerating
off of ju mps, had to hit the brakes and
slow down for them . If yo u accelerated,
yo u w ould be la unched way too high
and land too hard."
Th en ca me Su nday morning, and a
w ho le new se t of p ro b le ms . If thi ngs
w eren't a lready bad e no ug h for th e
Americans, the Belgian promot ers took
it upon th emsel ves to give th e sc rew
anot her tu rn.
"On Sunday morning, the promo ters
drenched the track w it h wa ter before
practice," claimed Coombs, incred ulously. "It was so mu ddy it was ridiculous.
It wa s as muddy as Mou nt Morris wa s
this yea r.' Ironi call y, the weather was
be a u tifu l, as it was su n ny a n d 70
degrees. After p ractice, the track was a
complete wastela nd . Then, to all of ou r
amazemen t, th e y d renc hed it again
before the first mo to. Wh y? The ru mor
in th e pi ts and all ove r the In tern et was
that Marnicq Bervoets (Belgium's 125cc
rid er ) and Joel Smets (the O pen-class
rid er) requested that the track be soaked
in order to help their cause."
It wasn't just the track, however, that
had the Ame rica ns back on their heels in
Bel g iu m . It wa s a lso a case of being
strangers in a very strange land.
"O u r guys were so far ou t of their
e le men t over the re," phi lo sophi z ed
Coombs . "T he m ornin g of th e r a ce ,
Em ig was worki ng o u t of the back of
some g uy's ca mper; Lamson was station ed in a big va n; and John Dowd was
operating in Mike Brown's big Yama ha
of Eu rope truck. Ou r guys wer e doing
the best that th ey co ul d, but by th en
there was a foreboding feel in th e ai r,
and despite the fact that the re wasn't a
cloud in the sky, a dark cloud seemed to
gat her over th e team."
From there, it all wen t wro ng . Th e
America ns struggled to come to terms
wi th the track an d th e m ind-boggling
amount of bad luck they experienced no dou bt helped o ut by th e swam p in
wh ich they wer e rid ing - haunted the
squa d the entire woeful afternoon.
While the Eu ropean argu ment claims
that everybody had to ride on th e same
track, th e scheme actually goes muc h
deeper than that.
"The Europeans have figured out
h ow to bea t us," cl aimed Co ombs .
"Next yea r th e rac e will be held o n a
hi gh-speed , rock -h a rd tr a ck wit h no
berms. Th e Europeans kn ow th at these
types of circu its are now completely foreign.to us. It's all politi cs. And un til we
ge t it sorted out, we may kee p losing."
An d as if all this isn't enough, the site
of the 1999 running of th e Mo tocross des
Nations, which was promised to Ame rica yea rs ago, has been pull ed in favor of
Brazil. As a result, we're not eve n provided wi th a chance to defend ourselves
and race in our ow n back ya rd, w ith the
subs eq uen t home-field advantage th at
goes along wit h it.
With all tha t we nt on in Belgiu m last
week, it's enough to make me won der if
it's all wo rt h it. O ur guys are put in a
position whe re the deck is co mpletely
stacked against them , poli tics appear to
have tainted the wonderful even t, and
now we don't even ha ve a chance to
bea t them a t the ir own game on o u r
own w hoo ped-out soil. Hell, let' s face it:
There is no Motocross des Na tions wi thout the Uni ted Sta tes of America. And ,
as my wife said to me on Sunday afternoon as she wa tched me wa lk around in
a deep- b l ue fu n k, " Maybe Ame r ica
sho u ld sk ip it for a yea r and see ho w
those cheaters feel abou t that."
I don' t know if tha t's the answer, bu t
maybe l etting us hold the event in 1999
cou ld be a start. Perha ps we could hold
it in th e Los Angeles Colise u m . I bet
Tea m Belg ium wou ld just love that,
wouldn't they?
'"
~Wi""::n'"'rT":-....... 10 Y ARSAGO...
E
LiZ
OCTO R7, 1987
BE
eam Suzu ki' s Roger DeCoster
':-:70i",, ~1
J'irJ,;J
Taylor was o n th e cover of Cycle News,
was on the cover, grabbing the
rece ivi ng her new Harley-Dav id son Hu gger
holesh ot in th e 500cc Int erna fro m pu b lishing tycoon Malcolm Forbes .
tional class at the opening round of
The purp le bike was custom-painted by Willie G.
the Tra ns-AMA Motocro ss Series in
Davidson himself... Ha rley- Davidson's Chris Carr
Lexingto n, Ohio. DeCoster took the
wo n the Asco t, California, Ha lf Mile Grand Na tionoverall win w ith a 3-1, bes ting
al Dirt Track and the Tro phy Dash. It .was Carr's
Marty Smith ' s 2-5 an d J i m
first Na tio nal Half Mile win. Ted Boody rode his
Pomeroy' s 6-2. Team Yama ha's
Hond a to second place and Scolt Parker finis hed
thi rd . Tea m Honda's Bubba Shobert was th e
Bob Hannah look ed to ha ve the
overall win in han d afte r winning
biggest wi nn er of all, however, as his fourth -pl ace
the first mota, but a broken chai n
'
fin
'1 l in ro:n "r-;-;;-;-,.,...::: ish ea rned him his thi rd con']
secu tive AMA Grand Na tional
gu ide held him to 17th place in
the second m o to . H us qvarna 's
Champ ions hip . Bryan Villella
Chuck Sun won the 250cc Support class , topping
qu a li fied for his fi rs t Exper t
Warren Reid and Broc Glover... Skip Askland pas sed
ra ce and fini s h ed 13th in th e
Gra nd Na tio nal.. . Kawasa ki's
Mike Kidd and Hank Scott on the last lap and held
them off to win the 25-lap San Jose Mile, which was
Tommy Watts, Yama ha's Jeff
Stanton , Honda-mounted T y
his first-ever AMA Camel Pro Series Grand National
Davis' and Buddy Antunez won
victory. Scott finish ed secon d, but series points leader
the 500, 250, 125 and 80cc Expert
Ja y Springsteen slip ped under Kidd to snag third
classes at th e third ro und of th e
p lace at the checkers . Ti tle contend er Ted Boody
CMC Trans-Cal Mo tocross Series
failed to make the prog ram after losin g o ut on a
in 'Ad ela n to, California .. . Cycle
transfer spo t by inches to Kenny Roberts in a semi.
News cond ucted an int erview w ith
Ed d ie Lawson won the Ju nior Invitational race...
Larry Roeseler wo n the "end uro-s tyle" District 37
1986 Speedway Na tiona l ChampiHare and Ho un d in California City, Califo rnia .
on Bobby Schwartz.
'"
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