Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

International Six-Day Enduf"'O Tf"'Ois Pf"'Ovince Hall out trying. Back at the parc ferme after washing his bike, he noticed he had a little hole in his magneto cover, which ruined the stator pickup, killing the ignition. John Bennett also had bike problems when his countershaft sprocket sheared off the splines, and without assistance he went over his hour. The Swedish team had lost one of their riders on day four, and on day five another rider, Peter Bergvall, who had been winning the 250cc FourStroke class all week, suffered engine problems and lost 38 minutes making repairs. The problem knocked Sweden out of second place and into eighth. With all the shuffling, the Italians, who had given up hope for even a podium finish, found themselves in second place, with Spain right behind them. The U.S. Trophy team jumped up to seventh. On the Junior team, U.S. riders John Beal and Ben Hale had trouble with the course, and the extra time pushed the Juniors down to 11th. The grass tracks were all new for the day, which meant slick, green grass to race on, at least for the first lap. Many of the riders were having trouble, but the American riders seemed to take it all in stride. All three of the Pearson brothers were putting in good times - very credible for guys from Nevada who rarely ride in the rain. "I was really happy with everyone's intensity today," said Smith. "We had some really competitive times today, and everybody looked like they were out there on the track, stretching the wire on their throttle cable. That's what I want to see. We have some more work to do as far as finesse, technique, you know, training for sprints and aII that. That's okay, but when we're all here giving this thing 110 percent, that's when I can say we're here making this thing work the best we can for what we have now. We can go back and improve our qualifier series, improve our training, and we'll improve our chances for next year. We're going to come away fror;n this thing a couple spots better than we were last year, and I'm going to consider that a victory." Though the Trophy team riders made it through fine, it wasn't an easy day for everyone. At the second grass track of the day, Shane Watts brain-faded and hit a jump wide open. He was pitched over the bars and knocked himself silly, losing six or seven minutes before getting going again. The official doctors had heard he was injured and went off looking for him, one of the doctors arriving at one of the Australian checkpoints and announcing, "I am a doctor, I am here to examine Shane Watts." In their usual dry fashion, the check crew looked up and one of them said, "He doesn't need a doctor mate, he needs a psychiatrist!" That wasn't the end of trouble for the Aussies. Stefan Merriman had his Husky rumble to a stop for reasons that weren't specified, but it took him 55 minutes to get it going again. Since only five team members are counted, his score was thrown out for the day, but with Watts' extra seven minutes, the boys from Down Under were knocked down to fifth in the team standings. "Looks like him and me scored the day-five maggot," Watts said afterward. Junior team member Craig Wesner ran into trouble after the third special test when his rear axle nut decided to disappear. He nursed it to the next check but didn't find his chase rider there. With zip ties and a cotter pin, he held it together to the next check, where he scored a new nut and fixed the problem. Club rider Kevin Bennett crashed in some rocks and couldn't get his bike restarted, and he houred 42 SEPTEMBER 19, 2001 • cue DAY SIX With a 40-mile (mostly road) ride to the final motocross, it was hoped the last day would be problem-free, but it wasn't for everyone. Kevin Bennett and John Bennett (not related) weren't allowed to ride that morning under the re-impound rule (where riders are allowed to repair and ride without possibility of a medal), so their week was done. Paul Edmondson made a tactical error that ruined his chances of anything other than a plane ride home. Arriving at the final motocross, he mounted new tires and put a non-FIM tire on the front of his Kawasaki. He was just a little too close to the star French riders for something like this to go unnoticed, and when he tried to start with that tire, he was excluded on the spot. The fmaJ motocross was set up on a track that was neither tight nor wide open, but the most distinguishing feature was that most of the jumps had no landings, unlike most modern motocross tracks these days. Some of the jumps were launchers that could catapult riders 75 feet or more, but the landing was flat and brutal. Care would be necessary. In the very first moto, Junior Trophy rider John Beal brought glory to the States right away, looking perfectly comfortable on the motocross track and pressuring for second place through the whole 20 minutes. Each race seemed to have an American up front, but the competition was fierce and we went without a win until the second 250cc Two-Stroke moto, when Trail Riders of Houston club rider Mark Faulk jumped out front and never backed off until he took the checkers. • • ne"'s "First time I've been on a motocross track in a year and a half!" he proudly declared. The highlight of the final motocross had to be watching Shane Watts and Stefan Merriman in their individual races. Both started back in the pack and worked their way out front within a lap, and then absoLutely walked away with the win. Watts moved so far out front that he wasn't even visible to the second-placed rider, and he drew massive cheers from the French audience. Merriman put it in overdrive and never backed coff, until he was tapping riders as if they weren't on the track. The Kiwi/Aussie who won last year's Six Days overall lapped up to 10th place in the race before the time was up. Both put on an amazing display, both won their classes for the day, and their low scores helped ensure the Aussie team fourth place in the Trophy competition. Good race times by all the Americans helped give the team one last boost, and we finished the week in sixth place. Good enough? Not for Trophy rider Brian Garrahan, but he was philosophical about the event. "My week was pretty disappointing, actually," he said, "I crashed every day - I think day five is the only day I didn't crash. I've never crashed so many times in all my life. I don't know, my goal here was to get top 10 in my class, and going into day five I was 11 th, so we'll see where it comes out for me. "I had a good time, though. To me, this is the funnest race of the year. You get to go to a different country and you get to race the whole countryside. It's a dual-sport ride - you get to ride down the highway and into all the little towns. It's a good time. A lot of the guys don't corne because they don't Though Jeff Fredette was listed on the official roster as a KTM rider (hIs signature Kawasaki barely showed up In time and had to ba Impounded late), the Six Days legend ended up taking his KDX to a 60th-place ftnlsh In the 250cc division. get paid, or they don't get paid enough if they do good, or whatever the reason is. Me, I do it because I like to ride motorcycles and it's a fun event, and I'll pay the money and do it." eN Troll Pnnrince Hall lrive .. &.Im.rde, France Results: August 27-SepteIDber 1,2001 TROPHY TEAM: 1. France (Mere Germain, Olivier Rebufie, Eric Bernard, David Fretigne, Sebastien Guillaume, Cyril Esqulrol); 2. Italy (Fausto Scovolo. Jamo 808no, Mlltteo Rubin, Mario Rinlllldi, Alessandro Botturi, Giovenni Sllla); 3. Spllin (Isidre Esteve, Xacob Agra, Miki Arpa. Xllvier Colomer, JOlin Roma, Mllrc Comll); 4. Austrlllla (Demien Smith, Shllne Watts, Brlld Williscroft, Damien Grabham, Ben Grabham. Stefan Merriman); 5. Czech Republic (Zdenek Gottvald. Martin Malat, Roman Michalik. Milen Baros, Martin Gottvllld, Mllrtin Macek); 6. United Stlltes (Nick Pellrson, David Pearson, Russ Pellrson, Fred Hoess, Brian Garrahan, Patrick GalT8han). J

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