Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

In the Junior World division, it was another close finish for the win; unfortunately, it d id not involve the Stars and Stripes. Once again, Sweden was leadin g (by 13.86 second s) go in g into the final d ay of com petition, onl y to lose out again , this lime to Spain by just 4.74 second s. Australia ag ain took third, fo llowed by Fran ce and Italy. Th e United States Junior World team - Brian Garrahan, Jason Raines, Robbie Jenks 'and AMA Nat ional End uro Cha mpion Mik e Lafferty - finished sixth. Op ening day got und er way beneath gra y skies, but the sun would soon br eak th rough the mist and clouds and shine bri ghtly on the rain-starved trails . Dust wou ld be the topic of the day for the 403 riders who started th e two-loop, 200plus-mile, da y-one course, which included 13 lime controls and four timed specia l-test sections - two cross tests and two enduro tests , each run twice . None of the American Trophy team rid ers, how ever, got off to particularly great starts in the event' s firs t timed specia l test: a cross tes t th at was laid out over a grassy hill sid e, as were most of th e tests. Sma ll ge t-offs and slid e-ou ts h in d e re d m a J;l y of the overanxious A merican Tro phy rid e r s, in cl u d in g Davis. "Actually, I was feeling rea lly good," Da vis sa id . "I gu ess I was a li tt le too . co nfi den t, p ushi ng too ha rd, and lost the fron t end. My first time was pretty ugly." . Davis quickly bounced back and set times in the rem aining tests tha t riva led classma tes World 500cc MX Champion Joel Smets and Swede Bjorne Carlsson. Li ke Da vis, Ro d n e y Snii th also crashed in the fi rst test but later re bo unded . (Top) American Trophy rider Chris Smith placed sixt h in the 250cc Four-Stroke class. (Above) U.S. J unior World rider Mike Lafferty smokes through the sound test dur ing tech ins pection. (Right) More than 400 motorcycles filled the inpound area. . "In the first test, the way the banners (tha t lined the course) w er e set up, it looked a s th ough the co u rse w e n t straigh t," Smith said. "Bu t wh en I realized it mad e a tu rn , i t was too lat e . I b lew rig ht throu gh-th e bann e rs and crashed pretty good." Bu t th e cra s h en ded up being th e leas t of Smi th's problems . Shortl y ther eaft er, his RM125 started losing power, and by the end of the d ay, he limped into parc ferme with a motorcycl e that barely ran . . "I firs t started noticing it towards the end of the firs t loop," Smith said. "By the end of t he d ay , there wasn't any compression left , and I had to b umpstart it ou t of the last three checks. Then I had to push it u p so me big hills - it just had no power." Sm ith had about 10 minutes at parc ferme before having to impound hi s bike, an d he went to work to replace the cyli nder and piston. He couldn' t quite comple te the rebu ild before having to pus h his bike into the impound area. "The locat or p in in the pis ton came ou t," Smith said later w hile d isp laying a badly scarred and gouged piston. Smi th ma naged to complete the topen d overha ul during th e 10- minute wo rk per iod the next morning. A me rica n Tr ophy rid er Rand y Ha wkins, rid ing a WR400 Yamah a, was con tent with h is day-one rid e, but he d id ad mit to making one mistake in the endu ro test. "I stalled the engi ne, and that cost me a few seconds," Hawkins sa id . "A nd th in g s didn 't ge t any b e tt er when I caug h t up to ano ther rider and had to d eal with his dust." Like a ll the rid ers, Hawkins co mplained about the dust. " It w as like rid ing with d uct tape ove r your goggles," he said . Kawasaki KX250-mou nted Des tr y Abbo tt rode well, but he still was n't sati sfied with his times, either, sim ply saying, "I rode like a spade." Sco tt Summ ers, on th e o ther ha nd , go t off to a good start in the 500cc FourStroke class. In two of the tests, Su mmers turned in th e se cond-best class times on his XR600 - on ce finis hing second to eventual cla ss w inner. Anders Eriksson and once to Tianen . De spite stopping the clocks with d ec en t test scores , America n Trophy rid er Chris Smith was depressed about being a ssess ed 20 la te-s ta rt pena lt y points wh en his Honda XR250R refused to start wi thin the morning's allo tted 60second start wi ndow. "The bike fou led a plug - kind of a wacky deal," Smith said . "I had to pu sh the b i k e a cro ss t h e s ta r t line, th en cha nge the spark p lug." T he many sma ll an d untimely falls by the Am erican Pro Grip Trophy team riders in th e sp ecial tes ts cost pl enty. After the first d ay, the team was ranked sixth, and the y had a lot of catching up to do . Led by Husqvarna fou r-s troke rid er Eri ksson, Team Sweden was on top o f th e lead erboard , fo llowed by France, Finland, Italy and Australia. The United States Jun ior World team d idn't fare much better on opening day. They, too, su ffered small crashes in the special tes ts, hampering their ques t for gold. Like th e Trophy team, th e United States Ju nior Wo rld team finis hed ou t the day in sixth place. Leadi ng the wa y was Sweden, followed by Spain, Fra nce, Italy and Australia . Riders were introduced to a new trail on day two . Two 85-mile loops, including one cross tes t and one endu ro test (each timed twice) , we re on tap for the da y. Ear ly on, however , rumor s reached th e America n p its th a t Abbot t w as in trou ble with a possibly se ized mo to r. Later on, Abbott co n fi r med these

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