Up Front

UP FRONT

ISDT IMAGES PAST AND PRESENT; A FITTING END TO THE BILLY UHL CONTROVERSY; AN OPTION FOR FUTURE SIX DAYS SELECTION

ONE YEAR AGO the International Six Days Trial was held in the United States. Massachusetts to be exact. It was our first try at hosting the event, and because of that we had some problems with scoring. We solved those problems quickly enough, but it left some Europeans leery. Leery, that is, until now.

This year’s ISDT was held in Italy and it was literally riddled with problems. Upon arrival, some teams (Canada, in particular), had trouble clearing customs. A day and a half and some $200 later they secured their bikes and headed for scenic Camerino.

As usual, the trial began at a parc ferme. But, unlike most trials, a minimum of land was used. Several small loops, run forward, then backward, made up the course and this created more problems.

The compact loops made it all too easy for riders to notify support personnel of broken parts. It was equally easy for those personnel to deceptively replace whatever might be needed. A great shot in the arm, certainly, for the already legendary ISDT cheating.

A tight course also means that Trophy and Vase riders must constantly repass other less skilled competitors. It’s kind of like a good American Hare and Hound. Accelerating this problem were unrealistic averages (they had to add time to the B, or slower, schedules to allow riders to make it!). The fast ones could cut it, the slow ones couldn’t.

Skill is necessary to make the schedule in the ISDT, but in Italy more was necessary. You needed luck, because the staging clocks for several checks were not synchronized with the check clock itself. This meant that riders could arrive at the proper place on time and check in either early or late. This is inexcusable in any international event!

And finally, the Italian ISDT was dangerous. The fast averages forced entrants to ride road sections flat out. This is fine if you can see clearly ahead, and it’s fine if normal traffic is controlled. But around Camerino 90 percent of the curves are blind and they occur every couple of hundred feet. And there were far too few road guards to warn car drivers of the speeding bikes. More than one car was hit as a result.

Some trails were also dangerous because spectators on bikes were riding the course backwards, forcing some evasive action on the part of the riders. Add to this the fact that numerous trails were rocky cliff-hangers that had to be taken at speed, and you can better see the extent of the problem.

I don’t know exactly how many were injured as a result of these shortcomings, because I stopped counting after the 19th rider went to the hospital. And I stopped following up at the hospital after learning of the improper care there. Check this out. One of Joel Roberts’ Belgian riders ended up with blood poisoning after an Italian doctor told him that an injured finger was “nothing.” The West Germans’ Christel, who hit a car, was not looked after properly, so a Czechoslovakian team doctor was persuaded to care for him.

So the Italian round has become an example of how a tough event should not be run, and in so doing, it has made the American round of a year ago look surprisingly good.

THE UHL CONTROVERSY AND FUTURE OPTIONS

Billy Uhl, if you’ll recall, is the guy who turned in the best overall performance of the American ISDT qualifying rounds. He proved he was best, but politics kept him off the World Trophy team because he does not ride a Penton. He rides a Can-Am. And, John Penton puts a good deal of money into the ISDT effort. Get the picture?

Well, to make matters worse, Billy did not comf^k on the Vase A team either. Instead, he rode on a clul^eam, which, in every other country but ours, is made up of the least proficient guys who qualify.

Bill Uhl rides a 175cc machine. And in that class he finished behind only one other American, Tom Penton. Moreover, the two riders’ scores were separated by a scant 55 points.

What I am leading up to is the fact that the qualifiers mean something. Billy proved it. He turned in the best performance in the American qualifiers and followed up with one of the best American performances in Italy in his class.

So, because of Billy Uhl, we have two options for the future. We can continue to view the Six Days as a means for the manufacturers to prove their products to the public, or we can compete as a country against other countries.

If we choose the former path (the path we are on now), we should eliminate the qualifiers, because they are, and will be, a waste of time. We should simply leave rider selection up to the manufacturers who wish to send teams. The most prominent manufacturer/team with the most experience should compete in the World Cup divisio^The next team down should compete in Vase A, etc.

If we choose the country versus country approach, the qualifier should stay, and the top four riders determined by it should compete in the premier World Cup category. The next four should compete in the Vase A category, and so on. The machine brand should be up to the competitor, and he should stick with what works best for him, i.e., that on which he qualified. Displacement, however, might need to be altered by the AMA in order to assemble a competitive team.

I for one favor the country against country approach, complete with qualifiers, because I would like to see America win the World Cup. And it can’t be done as long as the best riders are kept out of the running just because they’re not riding the biggest contributor’s product. I think that the American ISDT can be freed from such unfair restrictions and still remain financially capable of competing for and capturing the World Cup if all of the manufacturers, if all of us in the industry, and if all of you enthusiasts who can afford it are willing to chip in.