Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

sc'" ~ Cl) ,.0 o ~ u o In th is shot from t he earlier Trophee d es Nations, D anny Chandler and Jim Gibson are among the leaders. Johnny O 'Mara (not seen ) is already in front . By Henny Ray Ab ram s Team H o n da 's Danny "Magoo" Ch an d ler led his American teamma tes - David Bailey, J im G ibso n an d Johnny O 'Mara - to victory in Sunday' s Motocross des Nations._ It marked th e second year in a ro w th e American tea m h as won the prestigio s event U . Chan dle r made m o tocross hi sto ry by winning bo th mot os. Co u pl ed wi th h is two rn o to wins in th e previous wee ken d 's T ro p h ee des Na tion s, Cha n dler is the first racer to win all four motos in the Wor ld Championship tea m com petition. The America n H onda team made it four wins in a ro w ove r two year s by outpointing the Belgian tea m of Andre Vromans, H a rr y Everts , J ean Claude Laquaye and Ge orges jobe, 24 to 40. The British tea m of David Thorpe, Nei l H udso n a n d J erem y Whatley finished third afte r los ing the services of former World Champion Graham Noyce earlier in the week. " Magoo" was untoucha ble o n the rock covered Wohl en co urse. He grabbed the holesh ot in both 40 minu te plus two la p rn otos and, except for a brief time in th e secon d m oto, led every lap. His main su p port ca me from Bailey who carded 4-2 finishes on the big bore H onda, wh ile Johnny O'Mara finished 12th in th e first moto then seventh in the secon d mota while breakin g his toe o n the last lap. Jim Gi bson was eighth in the first rnoto , but had a flat ten min- utes into the sec~m~ ~ne and finishe? fourteenth . In individual honors It was Chandler's 1-1 besting Bailey's 4-2 and Vromans ' 2-3. The mood arou nd the Honda pits, a nd especially th e mood of J oh nny O'Mara was not all joy. O'Mara was ri di n g wi th a bad ly bliste red left ha nd tha t had gotten infec ted . He al so was th in kin g abou t tea mma te Don n ie H ansen who is in a h ospi ta l in H eid elberg, W. Ge rmany, as th e res ult o f a p rac tice crash th e week befo re the Trophee des Na tions. Hansen 's fa ther-i n-la w , P res ton Pett y, came to Wohlen on t ace day an d ga ve a progress report on the Nat iona l 250ccandSupercross cham p. " H e' s a wa ke a nd th ey moved hi m o u t o f intensive care. H e recognizes L isa (h is wife) an d won 't let go o f h er an d he's do in g a lo t better. T he doctor gave us the OK to fly h ome on Septem ber 20," Petty said. Doctors sa y hi s recovery may tak e a few months a nd th at it was too soo n to tell if h e wou ld be a ble to race again next year. Tea m com p lexi ons changed befo re and during qual ificat ions. No yce aggrava ted ea rlier inju ries in a practice cra sh bac k in Engl a n d a nd didn' t ma ke th e tri p , gi ving England a three man team. G eorges J o be broke hi s foot in th e second qualifying moto, but still ca me from last to finish fourth. J ea n-J acq ues Bruno won that moro with David T h orpe leading Andre Vromans home in the first one. As soon as the fog burned off on race da y, the sun ca me out with a vengeance an d it soon became hotter than expected with the mercury hitting the high 70's . "Magoo" was hot too and blasted to the fro nt of the field of 32 riders to ta ke im mediate command of the first moto. The res t of the American team di dn 't far e so well wi th Bailey tenth, G ibson 18th , and O 'M ar a 25t h . Most o f th e team had problems with the gate which fell forwa rd . Behind Chandler ca me T horpewho,likeChandler, was using a disc fro n t brak e, Gerard Ro n d , H a rry E vert s a nd J ean -C la u d e Laquaye. Belg iu m 's Vro ma ns was seventh, but J obe suffered yet another ear ly rnoto crash. " I cra she d soo n after the start and got aw a y dead last," said the former 250cc World Champion. " I had to continue because of th e points, but m y foo t hurt so much . I broke it coming off a j u m p yesterday and they took x-r ays at th e hosp ital and put a small cast o n it. " J obe had to be carried piggyback to h is bike to start the race and carr ied ba ck to the pits after the. race . He remounted just behind his teammates so it looked like Belgium wa s th ird th ro u g h sixth , although Jobe was a la p down. Things were looking up for Belgium with Vromans taking third on the third lap. Chandler and Thorpe were still out front , but behind Vromans came Everts a n d Jean-Claude Laquaye. Bailey was methodicall y cutting through traffic and on the sixth lap moved into seventh. But it wasn 't easy. " I got hit by a rock so hard that it knocked the breath out of me even wi th the chest protector, " he said. All of the American team were heavilyprotected and "Johnny 0" was using hand protectors. He'd blistered his hands th e previous week and doctors sa id tha t he'd developed tendonitis a nd infections below the skin. Still, he gutted it out. At th e halfwa y mark the top three were th e sa me, bu t a lap later Thorpe was back to thi rd wi th Vromans movin g in to seco nd and Everts in a hol ding pa ttern in fourth ahead of Lacq uay e, who had the on ly H onda o n th e Belgian Su zuk i team. T h orpe had lost a piece of h is rear brake o n the Kawasaki and cou ldn' t keep u p wi th Ch andler who was bu ildin g a comfort able cushion on his way to th e fini sh . H e wasn 't getting the requisite su p port because, although Baile y was up to sixth, Gibso n wa s back in l l th, a nd O 'Mara was 16th. Bail ey would co nti n ue his charge a n d in the last five laps moved u p to fifth , then fourth, as Lacq ua ye faded to sixth beh in d Evert s. Chandler had a n eas y eigh t seco nds on Vromans at the end with T horpe 12 back. Gibson took ninth with O 'Mara 12th. The top nine places were taken by the top three teams of the USA , the U K and Belgium. When the numbers were added it showed Belgium out front wi th 13 to 14 for America and 18 for Great Britain. "I didn 't think I'd ever shake him, " Ch an d ler said of T h orp e. " At the start I hit the gate as it was falling 13

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