Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

, .- ~. . . 'o thers, and just really heavy and hard to 'rid e in. We don't ha ve dirt like this in th Sta tes. I don't rea lly' know w ha t to I 'ay. My bike was so heavy when I got tuck that I cou ldn't even lift it up on t hl! stand afte r the race. I tried as hard as '1could - I know we all did - but a lot of 'i~" ngs went wrong for us, I guess. It was !!i really weird race. It didn't even feel lik e a race. It wa s jus t lik e roIling th e dice. All kinds of goo d rid ers were ou t there, just stuck. It was awful." v .."I had fun and all, but it w as d efinite)y ~a tough day," said Carmic hael, th e jun ior member of the team. "We all gave ) t .1 10 percent, but th e conditions just were terribl e. We d id the best tha t we "coiz ld , bu t, on a day like th is, there's a )ot that can go wrong:' , J "I think everyone tried their bes t, bu t we had too mu ch bad luck," sai d team manager Roger DeCoster late r. "Henry's bike wou ld not restart in the last moto. Dowd 's shifter ben t and he go t stuc k on Th e Hill in th e secon d ra ce . Carmich ael' s number p la te fell off. It . was just a lot of things that wen t wrong, "and the Belgian s rod e a good race and > had good luck: ' .The we ekend d id not sta rt w ell for the Americans. Because the team did not finish in the top thr ee ove rall last year at ,Nisrn es, Belgium, each rider had to part ticipate in a heat rac e, along with the other nonqu alified countries. The 18-year-old Carmichael was first up with the 125cc class, and the butter, flies showed as the Kaw asaki Kid tumbled tw ice on his wa y to a 'third -p lace finish behind a very fas t Brian Jorgensen (of Denmark) and Dutchman Remy Van Rees. But Carmicha el could take comfort in the fact that he po sted the fastest lap of the 2D-minute moto: 2:28.513. Dowd wa s next, bu t the 33-year-old New Englander seemed off his game as the rai n s tarted fa lling harder. He finished seventh, and the race was wo n by German hero Pit Be ir er, followed bv Frenchman Mickael Pichon, who wa's making his first MX d es Nations appea rance for his native France since moving to t he United States in 1995. Do w d could only mu ster a seventh, almost one minute behi nd the Pamo Honda-backed Beirer. It was hoped th at H enry wo u ld be able to get a heat-race wi n for the Ame ricans in th e Open moto, bu t it w asn' t even necessa ry fo r th e 250cc Na tio na l Champion to rid e becau se Team USA had already locked up a spot on the grid by virtue of Carmicha el' s and Dowd' s ste ady top-10 rid es. (The best tw o o f ' three fini shes for ea ch tim e cou n ted .) Regardless, Henr y wen t ou t a nd gave the YZ400F a s ha ke dow n ride before . pulling ou t in the lat e go ing . Th e race was wo n by Ne w Zea la n d's Darryl I King , th e 500cc GP vice cha mp ion this 'summer. Su nd a y m orn in g dawned we t and r cold . The track saw little improvement, (Above) The winning Bellum team : (Left to right) Marn lcq Bervoets, Stefan Everts and Patr ick Caps. (Right) The U.S. team got 011 to a good start, with Doug Henry winning the first moto. Things went downh ill from there. (Below) At one po int, the tra ck had deteriorated so badly that the course had to be rerouted through the Infi eld and spec tato r area. even th ough th e Foxhill crew did their best to get some of the mud off. It was obvious to all that what would have been a fast, high-flyin g affai r in the d ry was going to be a free-for -all in the m u d . An d when th e allimportant ga te draw was conducted to see w ho started wh ere in all three mote s, Team USA pull ed o ut a solid 16, w hic h meant th e 16th a nd 36th posi tions from the outsi de in. On the sha rp, 90-degre e righ t-hand er, th o se po sitions w e re as good as one could hope for in such conditions. Th e Am erican s decided to put Henry on the inside rather than Carmichael to at least assure a good start for the Open bike - a move th a t ca us ed some to raise th eir eyebro ws, becau se it wa s obv ious that th e 125cc rid er wo u ld b e d eep in the field. Wh en the sta rting ga te dropped , it w a s G rea t Britain ' s own Open-cl ass e n try , Rob H errin g, w ho to ok th e hol esh ot aboa rd a CR500 H onda, fol lowed by Husqvarna-mounted Darry l King a nd Henry: Swedi sh en try Peter Johansson wo u ld have been up there as well, but the Yamah a pilot hit a wa ll of mud th at had been pushed off to th e outsid e of the first turn and d id a terrifying car tw hee l in froni o f th e en tire p ack. Th e Swed e lay on the trac k fo r much of the race before being carried off on a stretcher with what was believed to be a broken pelvis. Fur the r back, Carmichae l was mired jus t ou tside th e top 20, but he woul d figh t to 18th by the end of the first lap on a track th a t was quickl y brea ki ng down. Amo ng the 125cc riders ahead of him were Chiodi, Van Rees, Jorgensen , 00 0\ 0\ ,...... -<:i ,...... l-< IlJ ,.0 o ..... u o 37

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