75th Internationa l S ix D a y E n d u r o
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By P AU L CLI PPER
P HOT OS BY S T EVE B E RK N ER
GRANADA, SPAIN, OCT. 31· NOV. 1
o r the second yea r in a ro w , t he
Internationa l Six D ay En duro was
t runcated une xp ec t edl y , v ict im of
poo r p lann ing b eh ind t he w or ld' s
greatest off-road experi en c e. In a m ir r o r image of la st ye a r in Po rtug al ,
w hen the fi nal m otoc ross was c all ed
off due to excess mud ( sco re rs we re
un able t o re ad t he numb er p lates) ,
this y ear's final test was can cel ed du e
t o lac k of mud. Sp a in 's fina l
motocross test wa s la id ou t in a giant,
F
6
N OVEMBER 22 .
2000·
cue
mown hay field on army-base property in A rmilla . It was a flat, feat ureless,
mil e-someth ing of ribbon ed -off turns
and sixth -gear stra ightaway s bro k en
up here and th ere w ith abrupt m an made jumps. In a land very similar to
Southern Californ ia , where real rain is
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race was started . then black -flagged
afte r o ne lap . A leng th y announce ment fo ll owed , bas icall y ind ic at i n g
that the Six Days wa s o ver, thank y ou
for coming. And tha t wa s it.
T he loss of t he fi na l m ot os neither
the exception rathe r than t he rul e, th e
mystery of th e day was wh y the tr ack
hadn 't been watered duri ng t he wee k.
helped nor hu rt th e Am er ic an effort .
M ired m ost of the week in 10t h pl ace,
all six Amer ic an T rophy T eam rid ers
were st ill in th e ev en t, but rid ing just
At the st art o f the first r ac e , it was
obv ious that something would ha ve to
a n otch slow er in th e spec i a l te sts
than t he fo rm id ab le cro wd of Euro -
be done, and after five ra ces had been
run, a lon g d ela y began . F in all y , at
nearly 3 :00 in th e afternoon , th e sixth
e
n
eVIl's
pea n r i de rs i n fr ont of them . Our
tea m of Hu sq v arna -moun t ed Fred
H o e s s . K a w a sa k i T eam Gre en ' s
Russ Pe arson cruises through a
Spanish village during a transfer
se ction. The desert racer was right at
hom e in the dry, fa st conditions,
fi nishing as the top American.
D est r y Abbott . Yamaha ride rs Ru ss
Pears on and Rand y Hawkins , and
KTM -rid ing broth er s Brian and Pat
Garrah an , spent th e we ek rid in g th eir
b est and racin g m ore like a t eam
th an a ny other Tr ophy Team in
re c ent y ears, but con sist ently ca m e
up sh ort by scant seconds in eac h
test. Th ey finishe d in 10th, trailing th e
triumphant Italians by 22 m inutes, 49
seconds by the fin al t all y.
