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VOL. 55 ISSUE 24 JUNE 19, 2018 P121 riding a Suzuki rounded out the podium finishers. Even though it was the Belgians who swept the rostrum, the '74 event drew an im- pressive field of riders, including Harry Everts, Heikki Mikkola, Joel Robert, Adolf Weil and America was represented by Brad Lackey. Again, very little info on the races preceding the 1982 and '83 des Marques, but there were at least small news items in Cycle News in 1978 showing Brad Lack- ey won the overall on a Honda over Andre Malherbe and Hakan Carlqvist. In '79, it was Suzuki's Harry Everts scoring the overall ahead of Malherbe (Honda) and Gerrit Wolsink (Suzuki). Little was found on 1980 or '81 (except that Vromans won the overall in '81), but then comes the excellent coverage in the pages of Cycle News on the 1982 race by Henny Ray Abrams, who was living in Europe at the time. His coverage helped fill in some of the gaps. In 1982, it was Suzuki winning with newly signed Andre Vromans sweeping both motos on his home track. But it was a nail-biter with Suzuki barely edging out Yamaha (led by Johan Martens) by a single point (13-14). Maico was third with 28 points with its top rider Eddy Sterckx finishing third overall. Ten teams represented seven brands (Suzuki, Yamaha, Maico, KTM, Honda, Husqvarna and Kawasaki) in the '82 race. Americans were part of the 1982 event with Danny LaPorte riding with Yamaha, Mike Guerra with Husqvarna and Marty Moates with Honda. None of the Ameri- cans had good outings. Moates, riding a Honda CR480, ran into visibility problems in the first moto when he lost his goggles. Guerra was caught up in a first-turn pileup in the first moto and dropped out of the second moto. LaPorte DNF'd the first moto when he lost the clutch on his Yamaha. He finished seventh in the second moto. "I was second in the first cor- ner," LaPorte explained, "but the ruts and groove got even deeper in the second moto. You couldn't see very well either. First, you'd go through your tear-offs and then you'd just have to wipe your goggles with everybody roosting you. At least I put in one good moto finish." Yamaha was on the verge of winning the '82 event when the bike of team member Marc Velkeneers ran out of gas just a few hundred yards from the finish while he was battling for second. That opened the door for Suzuki to score the narrow victory. In 1983 Suzuki won the trophy behind the strong performances of Georges Jobe, Andre Vromans, Eric Geboers and Harry Everts. Suzuki dominated the team com- petition, winning by a score of 16- 37 (the lower score wins) over the Yamaha squad, which featured two Americans, and consisted of World Champion Danny LaPorte, Jim Gibson, Hakan Carlqvist and Johan Martens. KTM took third. It marked the fourth time, according to the report, that Suzuki won the prestigious race and the third year in a row. Trophee des Marques allowed riders to race 125, 250 or 500cc machines. Malherbe qualified fast- ed on a new works water-cooled Honda 500cc two-stroke. With the 125cc World Championships starting the following weekend, some riders elected to race their 125 machines to prep, including Geboers and Gibson. So all three sizes of bikes were out on the course at the same time. Gibson found the deep, rut- ted loam and sand difficult to plow through on his 125, He was constantly fanning the clutch and he said he was not pleased with how he rode. LaPorte, coming off his world title, battled a stom- ach flu and pulled out after the throttle on his bike began sticking. Suzuki rider Ivan Van Den Broeck won the first moto in a close one over Martens (Yamaha) and Jobe (Suzuki). Suzuki went 1-2 in the second moto with Vromans win- ning ahead of Jobe and LaPorte (Yamaha) third. Coverage of the Trophee des Marques again went dark after the '83 event. So far, I've found no evidence the manufacturer's team competition continued, but for a golden era the race was a great showcase for brand against brand and was perhaps the most unique of all team motocross competi- tions. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives