Screwed

SCREWED

Billy Uhl Takes A Firm Seat On The ISDT Political Shaft

Sam Moses

COMPLETE THE following sen tece: Billy Uhl is (a) a bargain (b)a thorn; (c) a dilemma (d) America's best trials rider; (e) all of the above.

If that question were mailed out to the world, there would be one vote for (a), one vote for (b), one vote for (c) and a lot of votes for (d). The correct answer, of course, is (e). Probably.

But maybe not. Maybe it all depends. Uhl, you see, deserves, as much as anyone, to be recognized as the best trials rider in the country, but then so do Carl Cranke and Jack Penton, since the AMA ISDT qualifying series ended in a three-way tie. But there is no official trials Championship, so your opinion as to who actually is the best is mostly a matter of who you are and what you have at stake. To Can-Am, Uhl is a bargain. To Penton, i.e. Jack Penton, Uhl is a thorn in the side. And to the AMA, Uhl is just another daily dilemma.

It’s relatively simple to see how this bargain-cum-thorn-cum-dilemma became All Of The Above. Can-Am, a new motorcycle manufacturer actively seeking recognition and spending money to get it, is lucky to have Uhl riding one of itiymotorcycles. While Can-Am was out luring Gary Jones with big bucks to çide a prototype 250 in pursuit of the

National Motocross Championship, Uhl ivas knocking at the back door, asking f^r the use of a stock 175 to ride in the lÉpT qualifiers. Can-Am didn’t exactly fill all over themselves to shower Uhl tÄh support, blit they did give him the machine and parts, and later—after the fourth of the six qualifiers—a second bike and a contingency agreement.

Nor did JohnJPenton trip over his trials boots ta put Uhl on a Penton for 1974, despite the fact that Uhl had won a gold medal for Pentort in the 1973 had been the highest-scoring ^menean. But then maybe it was because he was the highest scorer, rather than despite it.

There are no specific personal differences between Uhl and John Penton— other than those arising from each man’s stubborn individuality...but the Penton operation is a one-family show, more or less, and Uhl fell into the “less” part. (Carl Cranke, more easy-going than Uhl, falls into the “more” part. He’s also the service manager at Penton West, which conforms nicely to the propinquity of the Penton team). So at the end of 1973, Uhl waited for Penton to call and offer a team spot for 1974, but

the call never came. It was like an MVP being put on waivers and having no takers.

The AMA isn’t reálly interested in Uhl’s contract tribulations; all they want to do is find a place for him on the 1974 ISDT team, which soqnds easier than it is. The co-best trials líder in the

country not on the ISDT team? How could that be? He wants to represent America doesn’t he? He didn’t break any rules did he?

The problem is one of politics and money. As far as the outside world knows, the AMA controls the ISDT team selection. But “oversees” would be a more accurate description of the AMA’s role; even they make no bones about the manufacturers’ hegemony. Since it’s not in the AMA’s budget to foot the entire bill for the ISDT team’s expenses—and 30 or 40 men in Italy for a couple of weeks ain’t no weekend in Atlantic City—most of the money must come from the manufacturers. With most of the money comes most of the control. Penton, Husqvarna and Rokon each have honorably earned the rig^t to field an ISDT team—the Trophy, Silver Vase A, and Silver Vase B, respectively—and it’s only logical to accept their desire to have only the people they want on their team.

The Trophy team contests the overall prize, so theoretically it should contain the six best riders. Five of those six ride Pentons, but at the top sits Uhl, a number one of sorts, on his lonely Can-Am. John Penton doesn’t want a Can-Am on the Trophy team. John Penton is paying the lion’s share of the bills. John Penton gets what he wants.

But now for Catch 22, a cogent argument. There is nothing in the FIM rulebook that says a Trophy team must be comprised of one brand of motorcycle. So what’s to prevent the Trophy team from including five Pentons and one Can-Am? The defense—or is it the prosecution?—rests, says Uhl.

The rebuttal to that argument, of course, is that without the solidarity of a one-brand team, the supportive logistics would be a nightmare. And although no one will admit it unless they’re hiding behind a tree, the cheating—which is almost as competitive as the riding—would be much more difficult. The unity and team spirit would suffer, they say, and without team spirit you can’t have team victory.

The AMA’s real dilemma was what it dared do about Uhl’s challenge to put him on the Trophy team, to which he earned a position in the qualifiers. Their solution was to find a slot for him on a club team, with the rest of the privateers.

Uhl is only 24 years old, but already a veteran of five ISDTs, with three gold medals. (In Germany in 1969, at 19, he became the youngest rider ever to earn an ISDT gold medal). Experience backs his outspoken yet calm criticism of the team selection system. When he talks, steel blue eyes seem to glisten with determination from behind a red beard.

“If we really want to win the ISDT, it’s stupid not to put the six best riders, regardless of their machinery, on the Trophy team,” he contends. “I can’t

buy the money argument because CanAm will back me financially at the ISDT. I’m not asking John Penton to pay my way. But I’m not going to get in a big hassle about it; if they want me to ride a club team, I’ll ride a club team. The team bit is incidental to me anyhow. I’m going to do the very best I can no matter whose team I’m on.”

There is one thing. After Bad . ck, when Uhl and Cranke and Penton figured in the three-way tie, the AMA made a feeble effort to determine a single Champion. The series scoring originally provided for the best three finishes to count, but the AMA had reduced it to the best two because of the gas crisis, an act that they later conceded as a mistake. An additional error

was to have no provision to break a tie. Feeling contrite but meaning well, they proposed 11 separate ways to break the tie, the most viable being to count each rider’s third best performance after all. But they needed agreement from all three to make the deal work. Obviously the vote was two to one against that idea.

Uhl was the one. His third-best fini was a 2nd place by two seconds point), which would have of made him the best. So the gi saved by the bell. And throug giant-killer remained cool, as i