America's Top Trialers Ready For 1982
AMERICA'S TOP TRIALERS READY FOR 1982
Curt Comer Jr. has finally arrivedhe's 1981 AMA/NATC National Observed Trials champion. He did that by winning five of the year's eight events.
Comer’s championship ended the decade-long Lane Leavitt/Marland Whaley/ Bernie Schreiber stranglehold on national honors.
Comer, 23, found 1980 so frustrating that he considered quitting the sport aftep finishing fourth in the National series. While weighing an attempt at professional motocross, however, he accepted an offer to join Cosmopolitan Motors, importers of Montesa motorcycles, as a sales manager.
Curt’s trials riding dates all the way back to the first AMA sanctioned series in 1974. He was supported by Kawasaki during the next three years. His rankings rose from 16th to 11th to sixth.
Comer switched to Montesa in 1978 and finished fourth. Encouraged, he migrated to England in 1979 for six months of intense competition.
Returning to American trials in 1980, he began the series promisingly, winning the opening event. Subsequently, he was plagued by several bizarre crashes.
Curt’s American championship earned him an invitation to ride a few world events this year. If all goes well, he plans to tackle the entire world championship schedule in 1983. If that happens, Comer will be shifting to the battleground of America’s best known trials rider, Bernie Schreiber, the 1979 world champion. Schreiber has experienced two frustrating seasons since his success. In 1980 he set a record by winning six of 12 events, but finished runnerup in the series to Sweden’s Ulf Karlson, winner of just one trial.
Bernie began the 1981 season with a record of 10 wins in his last 22 world starts, including the final four trials of 1980. Nothing jelled. He failed to win a single event, finished sixth in the standings, then quit Italjet at year’s end to sign with SWM.
One other American competes full time in Europe. He’s Scott Head, 19. Italjet signed the Californian after he finished second in US competition in 1980. Several other Americans are expected to see some international action this year. The cast includes Morgan Kavanaugh, Jack Stites and Dwaine Walters, who finished second, third, and fourth in the nation last year.EB
Len Weed
