|
|
|
72nd
International Six Days Enduro Brescia, Italy
August 19-24, 1997 We arrived in Italy on Tuesday and the news was that
the container was not in Italy and could not be located.
Since we were riding KTM’s that were already in Italy we were not that
worried. The next day we decided to
take a train to Venice while we had the opportunity to do a little touring.
The sightseeing was great, there were tons of beautiful Italian legs,
also some churches, moats and stuff. After
our day of touring it was time to go get our motorcycles.
We were both going to be riding the new 1998 KTM 250s. The new bikes are much more visually appealing this year with
gray sidepanels and rear fenders and a darker orange front fender and radiator
shrouds. We had five days to work
on the bikes since the container was rumored to arrive on Monday and the FIM
jury gave the US riders an extension until Monday, the day before the race, to
impound their motorcycles. We
didn’t have very much to do to the bikes before the race.
We cleaned up the jetting, put on pro tapers, used foam inserts, put on
our steering dampener, put on a brake snake, and checked to see if everything
was tight. We didn’t have time to
test suspension but it seemed to work all right on the potholes we hit in town,
so we ran it and decided we would adjust it as needed. We realized about this time that Brian did not have paperwork
for his bike so we went back to KTM to get it.
It must have been misplaced so what ended up happening is that we had to
put Brian’s bike back to stock and get another bike that did have paperwork.
On Sunday we walked all of the special tests that we would be riding on
day one and two. The first terrain
test was very good consisting of fire roads and trails with some rocky sections.
The terrain tests were marked for distance in Kilometers so you knew
where you were in the test. The was also a test in a gravel pit along with two grass
tracks; one which had a neat layout but had half of it in a freshly cut
cornfield that still had ridged stalks in it that the 125’s would have to mow
down. After that we went to opening
ceremonies. The ceremony was in Italian and boring, so boring that our Trophy
team sent there girlfriends saying that they were walking special tests at six
at night. We still were not sure
the container was going to show up and we were joking with the other riders
without bikes that if the container did not come we would have to ride with the
stock pipe and silencer instead of the FMF combo that was on the container.
The did not think that was very funny.
The container actually did show up on Monday but the crane that they had
to lift it was not strong enough so the container had to be unloaded by hand and
then lifted off the truck by the crane. This
was a good time for us to go out to lunch because of all of the commotion going
on. Working on the bikes was crazy because everyone was
scrambling to get what they had on the container.
We were supposed to be able to impound from 5 until 11 o’clock, but the
Italians decided that we would have to be done by dark at 8 o’clock.
We finished the last couple of things on our bikes and went to impound
and suddenly Brian’s lights would not work.
He brought his bike to KTM and they cut out his whole wiring system and
replaced it in half an hour so he got into impound.
The biggest problem was with Randy Hawkins.
He had his lights running off batteries so the Italians would not let him
pass and mumbled something about Oklahoma.
They let him go through impound but said he would have to have his lights
powered by his motor by the time he started in the morning, which is just a ten
minute work time. Day One
Now the fun begins.
The first day is scheduled to be about 150 miles in length.
Brian had number 129 being on the Junior team, but was behind all of the
other US 250 riders and was without a chase rider.
Patrick was back on number 373 bunched with a group of other US riders.
We rode all on pavement roads to the first check but after that we went
on a trail and found out it was extremely slippery and rocky.
Our bikes were working very well, we softened the shock up all the way
and added four clicks of rebound to the shock.
About halfway around the loop we got to an uphill that was solid rock and
so slippery it was nearly impossible to ride up.
Brian made it up with relative ease but when Patrick got to it there were
riders stuck everywhere. He waited
for an opening but there was none so he had to ride into the bottleneck and get
stuck then begin pushing his bike up the hill.
The bikes began to overheat and we were breathing antifreeze.
Patrick made it through the mass of riders and got to the top.
We quickened the pace fearing we may be late due to the bottleneck on a
neat downhill section but at the next check we arrived with fifteen minutes.
All of our special test went well on the first loop.
When we encountered the hill on the second loop there were course
Marshalls directing riders to go up one at a time to avoid a bottleneck.
Patrick found a good line around a bunch of riders and took his turn
before the group, didn’t get stuck and got to the next check early again.
Soon after the clouds rolled in, the thunder started, and it started to
pour. Brian had already made it
through the special tests but Patrick had to wait in line to get into a test in
the rain. Because of the line to
the test he lost six minutes of trail points.
There was another special test that was dry for Brian but had up to a
foot of standing water on the back corners for Patrick.
After the test he came to a stream crossing that was six inches deep the
first time but now two feet deep and the water was moving so fast it was
impossible to ride across. Patrick
looked for a way around but couldn’t find one so he got some help from two
other people and carried the motorcycle across the river.
That excursion dropped him back another eight minutes.
When back at the Parc Ferme both of us changed a rear tire and a set of
rear brake pads that had wore out in the mud.
It was also announced that the route points assumed would be dropped
since it was beyond the riders control. Brian
ended the day 31st in the 175+ class and Patrick was in 47th.
He figured that riding those two special test in the rain had cost him an
important 200 seconds. Day Two Day two was the same loop that was used the first day
except that the big uphill was removed. The
conditions dried up quite nicely. This
combination made it an easy day with lots of time which we took full advantage
of to eat the food at the checks. The fun hilly section of the terrain test was also cut out
making it easier and shorter. The
Europeans like the special test to be easy so they can be ridden wide open
without too much fear of getting hurt. The
grass track that was a swamp the day before dried up and was in perfect shape.
Brian had some minor falls in special tests that dropped him to 34th
in class. Patrick had a good day
and moved up in class to the 40th spot. Day Three Day three was the longest day of the race at 180
miles. We did the same loop three
times. The loop was easy, it
consisted mostly of pavement, but featured a famous 3.2 mile downhill that wound
its way down to the Parc Ferme. We
would also be using different special tests during the next two days.
The first test was in someone’s back yard in town and was pretty weak.
The terrain test was under a bridge and was a good test with some hills
in it and a rocky creek bed section. The
other two tests were grass tracks, the first one being the best grass track that
we have ever done. The other one
was a good grass track that featured grassy steps in it that you could jump and
try to double. On the first time
down the hill Brian spotted someone that had gone off the cliff, he then
realized that it was his Junior Teammate Scott Stretch.
Brian and another rider helped grab Scott’s bike and pulled it back up
to the trail. Patrick also got to
see many nasty crashes including Kevin Bennett who crashed and fell directly
into a tree. Within three seconds
he was back on his bike and on his way. On
the third loop the skies began to get dark again so Patrick started to bump up
one minute on the last two checks so he would not have to ride the special tests
in the rain and loose time like on the first day.
It worked because he got through the special tests before the rain.
The other concern was doing the downhill in the rain.
It ended up not being a problem because they stopped riders from doing
the hill in the interest of safety. Again
we both changed tires at the end of the day.
By this time both of us were able to change both tires in 12 minutes. At the end of the day Brian moved up to 30th in
the 175+ class and Patrick was in 38th. Day Four Normally the forth day is the toughest both mentally
and physically. When you are done
with day four you can almost see the finish.
This year, day four was made easy. We
did the same loop as the day before but only rode the loop twice.
The downhill was also cut in half because the bottom half was still very
slippery from the day before. The
rumor was that since the Italians were leading the race they did not want to
risk anything and loose a rider so they made the race easy so they could cruise
to the finish. The rain the day
before made the course very slippery for the first riders.
In the first grass track even Shane Watts fell three times. This finally gave an advantage to the club riders.
Patrick had his best day of the week and finished 16th in the
class for the day and finished a best of 12th in a test.
Brian had another good day and was now in 29th place and on a
gold medal. Patrick was working
towards a gold but still on silver with high hopes of getting the gold.
He moved up in class to 35th. Day Five Day five was around 150 miles long and had the best
and the most trails of the week. We
went over a big mountain and at the top we had a killer view of the countryside.
For special tests we had to first ride day’s three and fours terrain
test, a new grass track, a fast terrain test, and a hardpack rock quarry test.
Both of us did well on all of the special tests this day.
We each changed another back tire meaning we both changed a back tire
every day and Brian changed two fronts, while Patrick only changed one front.
We moved up in class to Brian in 29th and Patrick in 32nd. Day Six On the agenda for day six is the final moto.
The moto was at the Italian GP track.
It was a neat track with some big tabletops, some whoop sections and a
generally fast track. Both of us were in the fast 175+ moto along with fellow
Americans Rodney Smith, Ty Davis, Steve Hatch, Mike Lafferty, and Destry Abbott.
On the start Brian tangled with another rider and they both went down.
Brian’s handguard was caught on the other side of the brake lever so he
had to pull that out. After that
the switch flipped and he was railing. Patrick
didn’t get a great start and was caught in some blinding dust. He was very close to a gold medal so charged through it
hoping for the best. Patrick got to
see a nasty wreck where a rider’s bike was fifteen feet up in the air,
flipping, and flew over a fence. We
both passed new enduro champ Mike Lafferty in the moto and finished in 25th
and 27th. This put us
finishing the week with Brian in 29th and on gold with 10974.39
evaluation points. Patrick
disappointedly finished on silver with 11032.11 evaluation points.
He missed the gold by 32 seconds. The
Junior Team finished eighth in the world and the Merced Dirt Riders which
Patrick was a member, finished 12th club team and the second American
team. |