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/127971
(Above) World 500cc MX Champion Joel Smets changes a tire after day one . He went on to win the 400cc Four-Stroke class. (Below) Giovanni Sala won th" 250cc class, e but not by much. competition was officially stopped . At that time (ro ugh ly 10 a.m .), the la tenumber ed rider s had just comp leted (or had at least reached) the first test. Most of the riders we re mor e than happy to hear the news. Since man y of the motorcycles had ex perie nced some kind o f wat er dam age du ring the short ride, the even t orga nizers gave all of the riders a 4 p .m . d eadli n e t o re imp ound th e i r mot or cycl es. Ma ny of the rid ers u s ed this six hours of free time at parc fer me to cha nge tires, rebuild top en ds, replace clu tches, clean air filters, cha nge oil, and per form other mainten an ce dut ies. As a precaution, Rodney Smith u sed the time to replace his top end again. "They (the organizers) had really no cho ice but to cancel the day," said club rid er Cu r t Wil cox w hile cha ng ing the front tire on his WR400 Yamaha in the po uring rain. "It's pretty bad ou t there." Summers said that one ri ver was so bad that on ly about the first 100 riders man aged to ge t to the other sid e, many of them employin g the "I' ll-help-you -ifyou-help-me" method of cross ing. "We rode throu gh th e first terrain tes t. It w as n' t timed ," Summers sa id. "Th e n w e ca me to the cross test a n d w ere tim ed, then we ca me to a no the r terrain test and were timed again. Two (Above) U.S. J unior World rider Brian Garrahan found gold in Australia. (Left)This rider from Argentina found himself in dee p trouble in a grass-track special test. (Below) Scott Summers rallied to a gold medal In the 500cc Four-Stroke class. miles later, we came to the river crossing . The wat er was over the airboxes and d eeper. People we re literally helping each other carry their bikes . The cu rrent got so bad , it was scary. I got to the poi n t where I had just roll ed m y fro n t whee l over the bank to cross whe n Kari Tianen yelled, 'No, don 't d o it, so meone's going to drown! We shou ld stop: He convinced everyone else not to go:' Eve n Sal a was g la d th e d a y was called off. , " It wa s good th at th e orga nizers stopped it," Sala sa id. "The course was still good, but the rivers were no t possi ble to cross. Maybe yo u cross, mayb e you get water in you r engine:' Chris Sm ith, w ho was on an earlie r minute tha n Sum mers, mana ged to ride across the river. "At one po int, the w ater went ove r the seat," Smith said. "Th e mo tor came close to flooding but it kep t running." " It was the deepe st riv er I ever cro sse d," said Hawkin s, who , w hile crossing, lost his footin g and, had it not been for a Sw ede w h o grabbed him, mi g ht ha ve be en s wep t a w ay in the swift cu rrent. Smith wa s one of the few riders who did not approve of the stoppage. "My best th in g is the m ud," Sm it h said. "Hey, I can't ride in the dust, but I d id on the first day, a nd w hen it got mud dy , they stopped it. I th ou ght I could've rea lly excelled if they hadn' t cance led the d ay. This really hurts me. I had good tests, and I think that all of the Trophy rid ers' time s shou ld cou nt - after all, they all rod e the tests ." America n club rid er Jason Dahners, .w h o h ail s fro m Wa shin gton , said, "Hec k, w hen it rai ns like this at home, we go rid ing." No t only the rid er s were ha ving a tough time in th e m u d ; so were th e checkpoint personnel, who we re finding it d ifficult, if no t im possible, to drive their four-whee led su ppo rt vehicles (i.e., ren tal cars) to their d estinati on s. The rain continued to fall through the night and aga in in to the next mornin g. Before the su n rose, the organize rs were scrambling to reroute da y four' s flooded cou rse and we re forced to delay the start by four hours. The organizers even tually fo u nd a cro ss te st that wa sn't su bm erg ed in water and ra n the riders directl y to it on most ly paved road s, then ran them back to par e ferme, where they prepared th em sel ves for a nothe r short trip around the 40-mil e loop and cross test. Joh n Hall, the 'cleark of th e course, said: "After all the rain in the last 48 hours, all our plans fro m the past two years have gone . The g uys (course workers) were ou t this morning in the pitch b lack, try in g to get th e co u rs e organized - it was hopeless. The course design ers are really u pset that all their work has com e to thi s - some reallv nice sec tions are not even goi ng to be used after months of work." The first time around the grass track on this wet d ay was a slippery ru n for the rid ers, but by the ti me they ca me back for thei r second tes t, th e sun had busted through the clou ds and, accor ding to Chris Smi th, transformed the dirt int o "lOa-percent tractio n." It was her e where the Euro pea n riders trul y displ a yed thei r grass-tra ck ex per tise b y u s in g un orthod ox lin es through the turns, setting up wide and cu tting in, a nd criss-crossin g over the main-line rut s a n d g r oo ve s, which enabled them to carry speed all the wa y a rou nd th e course . In sha rp con tras t, many of the Am eri can rid ers were unable to resist the inviting berms, only to - at limes - find them selves sucker ed into footpeg-deep ru ts. The resul t? Lessthan-stellar test scores by th e Am ericans. . Rodney Smi th fou nd hi mself fooled 00 0\ 0\ ,- N' ... OJ ,.D E OJ u OJ c 11