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/127960
EUROPATROL BYALEX H ODGKINSON ack in' the 1950s, theyraced on the b ea ch at Daytona , th e Big Bea r and the Baja were true adventures, Laconia was a real roa d race, and Ca talina made even the Isle of Ma n look like a cakewalk. Europe had its special races, too . Bu t, apart from the Tourist Trophy, - ju s t o ne s urvives : th e Belg ia n 500 cc Mo tocross G rand Prix, on a sin uou s trac k which wi nds its way around the parkland of the ancien t fort ress over- . looking the Wallonian capital of Na mur - La Citadelle. The very nam e evokes a tingling sensation in th e spi ne com parable to th e m ention of th e Alamo for Wild West freaks. It's a com bination of broken tar mac and grave l tracks, alo ng which rid ers spee d flat out in top gea r straight at the Cllstle wa ll, after slamming past the ga tes o f a child ren ' s pla ygrou nd and ro ad sid e bars fu ll o f Stella -sa tu rated rev elers. Also, there are dirt pa th w ays through the woods, w it h cen tu ry-old trees never more than a few feet away. Th ere' s also a fi na l four-s tep ped hill wit h an average grad ient of one in two for 200 ya rd s, and a star t/ finish arena the Esplanade - where you could lay ou t a Class C s ho rt tr a ck in fr ont o f th e crumbling rui ns of a gra nds tand built in long-di sta nt times by an arc hi tect with an obsession for antiquity . And La Citadelle has a new King Stefan Everts. Like a Roman emperor, the World 250cc Cha mpion cam e, saw a nd co nquered . He not only won both motos in his first race at the track (12 m onths ago, Andrea Bartolini became the firs t rider ever to w in even one moto on his debut at the imposing venue), Ever ts had time to stop in the pit bo x on the final lap to accept a cup of iced tea from his father, Harry, before cross ing the line as w inner . Ten years ago , mighty Swede Hakan Carlqv ist bad e farewell to the sport with a double win at the tortuou s track after stopping midrace to take a beer fro m h. s i brother at the roa dside cafe. But nowadays all spo rts are controlled by faceless B s pod es so that no t even heroes are allowed to be real men who drink beer and brawl in bars. Pr esiden ts can have affai rs with interns, but modern-da y sportsme n are exp ected to be sti nkycl ea n in what is m o ckingl y term ed "political correctness." • I' m no t going to ge t invo lve d too deeply in the Ant hony Gobert affair , for the simple reason that I don' t know the inside line. Per haps he's a dopehead , or perha ps he just likes to have fun every now. an d again. I haven't smoked now for 25 yea rs - yeah, I'm that old - but I'll defend anyo ne's righ t to do so, provided they're no t under the influence when they are actually involved in an activ ity w h ich is en d angering so meone else's health. And a "trace" on a follow- up test does not suggest to me that Gobert was stone d w hen he tu rn ed u p a t Lagu na Seca. We had a case in England a few yea rs ago of a motocross rider who tested positive in fai rly si mi la r circums ta nces . Agai n, it was not for stimulants, bu t for socia l dru gs. It was almost a secon d offense - he had beentested two yea rs be fore and h ad p ut h is han ds u p in ad va nce , ad mitt ing to havi ng smo ked two d ays rlier - but nothing showed up in the now-antiquated testing sys tem used at that time. The token annua l tests always used to take p la ce a t one par tic ular track : Elsworth Moto Pare, own ed by Andy Lee. Lee had a person al reason for wanting to encourage kid s to stay clean afte r . the heartbreak he su ffere d per son all y with the wa y drug s and bureaucr acy had wrecked the caree r - and inevitably carried over int o th e social life - of his son Michael, the 1980 World Speedwa y Champion. And tha t was wh er e this not-par ticularly-talented other kid got caug ht. He had sm ok ed a ki nd of cocktail during th e w eek. Well , h e go t away w ith it b efore , but th is tim e h is intak e w as probabl y somew ha t s tro nge r in su bs ta nce; and th e testing pro cedure had become mo re sensitive. We 've all heard o f mu rd er ers w ho ha v e g otten away with th eir crimes because of 'proced ural errors. Well, that is how this kid, who is still racing, got aw ay wit hout penal ty. The aut horities eve n realized their mistake fairly quickly and w ithdrew their initial ban , but before they co uld issue revised corresp ond ence, a lynch mob took ma tters into thei r own hands and ca u sed so ' much embarrassment for th e sport in ge neral that all cha rges eventually had to be dropped. T he ly nc h m ob was a n un h ol y a llian ce , too. Th ere were t h e u su a l spod es w ho have never even p ut their ha nd in the ir trouser s, if you were to believe their word for it. Plus, the more lively characters o n the scene, w ho had bee n roped in w hen the accuse d tried to save his ow n scalp by ra tting on them in a n atte m p t to w)n th e grace o f t h e ju d ges by turnin g w ha t we h ere ca ll "Qu een' s evidence." Now, I personally believe he shou ld have been banned for bein g a rat. Tha t rat es low er , mu ch lo wer in my book, than being a dopehead. Eve n if we turn to conside ring stimulants, the cu rre nt situatio n is lamen table. Okay, we need a lin e to save a th letes fr om th em s el ve s a n d p reven t th em u sing po ten tially ha rmful drugs, but the Oly mpic Committee list is a joke - a very bad joke. Even though he's now retired, I wi ll not name the rider involved , but he wo n GPs , wa s a Natio na l Champio n and worked hi s ass off to get fil. I h a ve kno wn him well enough for nearl y tw o d ecad es to know that he would never kn owingly have tak en an y performanceen ha nci ng drugs. Th is guy told m e a few years ago - as we cha tte d socia lly one Saturday evening - that back in the ' 80s, he us ed to buy a cough mi xt ure from a lar ge High Street drug store and kep t it in the cu pboa rd of his truck in case he go t a sore throat .or a head cold . One da y about 10 years ago, he was sippin g his a ftern oon coffee and, ha vi ng re centl y re ce i ve d th e late st li st of ba nn ed substances, he innocently compared it with th e ip g red ie n ts of h is co ug h m ixtu re. That coug h mi xture whose only positive effect was to clear his h ea d a nd throat and ma ke him a safe r rider on the track because he cou ld co ncen tra te better - in clu d ed ban n ed substances. You didn' t need a doctor's prescription to obta in it, just a cold and a couple of do llars. . I don't know w hat yo u ca ll it in America , bu t in Germa nic countries over he re, they g ive infa n ts a thing calle d "Tr aubenzu cker" (drea m sugar) as sweets. 1 first encou ntered these kids ' sweets back in the mid-'80s and, purely by chance, I discovered tha t, w hen you start to get near tha t 4 a .m , "dead ho ur" state of co lla pse durin g a n a ll- nig h t d riv e fro m one race to the next, on e of th ese lozen ges sha kes you out of yo ur se m is tu po r for 10 or 15 minu tes. As I sai d, w e give these to kid s as sweets . Ev er wo n de re d wh y s o m e kid s a re hyperact ive? What makes the situa tion su rro undin g th e "ba n ned su bs tances" list ev en more int olerabl e in my eyes is tha t the self-righteo us cre tins w ho compile and in si st on e nfo rceme n t of th e li st a re invaria bly geriatrics who need a la rg e person al daily intake of man y of those subs tances, not to menti on the gin cocktails they sip at their gen tile parties, jus t to stay alive. Yea h , life is ha r d . "N ice peop le" applau d the actions of "our boys at the fro nt line" in conflicts the wo rld over w ithou t rea lizing that many o f them , certain ly the sp ecial commando units , are on speed. These same people, however, tut-tut at a gu y who has been prepared to just cros s over a thin line and take substances that are no thing more than an integral part of a complete trai nin g program in search of perfection in his chos en sport. But then aga in , w e live in a world nowadays where a loud motorcycl e can pos sib ly lose yo u th e World tit le and our champi ons ar e no t supposed to dri nk anythi ng s tronge r than iced tea. Hah - I jus t hope the preservative and th e stabilizer in the can are n' t on th e 0 Olympic list. [ LOOKING ~ACK... c: 3 E SAGO... 0Y AR R3, O TOBE 1968 C 104 New s read ers go t a ga n der at th e ne w inlin e tr iples be in g offered by both BSA and Triumph. In o u r s nea k pee k, we told you tha t the BSA Ro ck et III boasted 740cc and 61) bhp, w h ile the T ri u mp h Trid ent o ffe re d a t op-end speed of mor e than 11 7 m p h .. . The Gr ea t We st ern Canadi an MX Ch ampi on sh ip s w e re held in Aldergrove. : British Columbia, Ca nad a, with Was hin gton rider Norm Kopp (Mail pu lling off a win in the 500cc Senior class, and a runner -up in the 250cc Senior class while aboard a Bultaco... Dusty Coppage (Tri) bagged wins ' in his Exp ert heat, the trop h y dash a nd the main eve nt at the Ascot TT... Triumph rider Mark Brelsfor d wa s given credit for his victo ry at the Salina s Eight-Mile Amateur National in a Triump h win ad ... We tested the Maico X4A 360cc motocrosser, calling it "one of the fines t pieces of out-of-the-crate racing hardware ava ilable to the American public toda y." " 10Y AR E SAGO... SEPTEMBER 14,1 988 20 YEARS AGO ... SEPTEMBER 20,1978 R Oberts dominates Lagu na Seca" was the headline of ou r lead story, which told how "King Ke nn y" (Yam) roosted th em in bo th legs a t ro und ni ne of the Formula 750 World Cha m pio ns hip Road Racing Series a t Laguna Seca Raceway in Mon terey, California . Wes Cooley (Suz) wo n the Superbike Pro d u ctio n class... Brad La ck ey (H on ) a nd Da rrell Sh ultz (Mail earn ed a moto win apiece a t the Dirt Diggers Motorcycle Club's $10,000 Coors Cup Motocross in Trabu co Canyon... Jay Springsteen (H-D) wo n the rain- '1~~rl~Ji~~ la y e ~S~yracuse Mile in ednd Nat iona l d~e~~ ~ :d Gra ft and rega the se ries IIIPIl1III points lead over St eve Eklund (H-D), wh o was d isqu ali fied for exceed ing the tw o-minut e time limit w hil e m ak in g repairs to his motorcycle befor e the ma in eve n t... Ru s s ia won th e Motocross des Na tions in Ge r m a n v , w ith Team US A pl a ci n g four th .. . Am erican speed way ace S co tt A u t r ey fi n is hed th ird to Ol e O ls en and Gordon Kennett in the World Speedway Fina l at Lon do n's Wembley Stadi um. ay n e Ga rdne r (Ho n) wo n th e Czech 500cc Grand Pri x road race, but Eddie Lawson (Yam) was crowned as World Cham pion... Scott Parker (H-D) scored a hu ge wi n at the Labor Day Weekend running of the Springfield Mile and padded his points lead as he worked tow ard what wo uld be his first AMA Grand Na tio na l Cham pionship Se ries cro w n . Dan n~~I~n~g:a:m:, (Hon) and Bubba Shobert r r (Ho n) fini sh ed seco nd a nd thi rd , respectively ... We intervi ew ed AMA 125cc Na tional MX Cha mpion George Holland and tes ted t he 1988 BMW K100RS Spe cial... Gert-Jan Van Do orn (Cag) sco re d the overa ll w in at the final ro und of the World Cha mpi onship 250cc MX Ser ies, held in Tibro, Sweden, bu t John Van den Be rk (Yam) was able to lay claim to the 250 cc wo rld title .. . Forme r 500cc MX Na tional titleholder Rick Burgett (Kaw ) won the Vet Pro class at the Washouga l Ama teur Motocros s in Wa shing ton State... We took an inside look at the wickedly qu ick Fas t By Feracci Ducati 851: I~ W fj71:i")"";j...