Day 2SENSATION! Sweden's Trophy squad snatched the lead from Czecho after Vladimir Janous (Jawa) lost three minutes following a double puncture on Tuesday's second stage.He changed the tube quickly enough but didn't spot a small stone. When his front tyre went flat again, a lesser Jawa rider was ordered to give up his wheel for his countryman to continue.Despite the illegal switch, Janous still dropped 180 points. His patriotic saviour dropped a lot more!Past masters at the noble art of fiddling, the Czechs overcame another problem when Josef Chovancik (Jawa) broke his front fork. As if by magic, the fork was intact at the finish! Poker faced Czechs admitted: "We did have a steering problem." In wooded country stiff with Jawas, nobody could prove he had bent the rules by changing a marked part. Or that he rode a spare bike pending completion of the dirty deed. In the ISDE, the biggest crime is to get caught!Third in France, three years ago, the Swedes were overjoyed.Thomas Gustav-son, on Husqvarna's fourstroke, was top of his class after super quick special tests. "This is my fifth ride in the six days. It is certainly the hardest. But there's a long way to go."Having failed to persuade the organisers to scrub the first day sector where they claimed Eddy Hau (Yamaha) was baulked, the West Germans winced when Euro champion Klaus-Bernd Kreutz (Zundapp) crashed and gashed an arm. But they were still third in the Trophy. and camera clicking spies from both sides of the Atlantic were gunning for Czech fiddlers! Britain picked up a place in the Vase as Czecho held a slender lead over their East German neighbours.But our Trophy sextet was mauled by the loss of Bob Room (SWM).Having survived punctures, an engine seizure and a broken throttle cable on day one. Room ran out of time after he flattened his exhaust.Zembrzuski (Maico) was delayed by a broken low tension wire; Alan Brick (Gori) was on tablets for a tummy upset; and Doug Kerr (Kawasaki) wished he'd previously stripped the cam of his gritty front brake.Welsh first timer Plain was still riding like a veteran. But, along with Brick, his exhaust was on the blink. Slick welding and re-stuffing to meet noise test requirements was high on the British priorities.
Day 3ROBERTON out! Britain's Vase effort folded when the former moto cross champion collided with a Skoda car at a course intersection during Wednesday's halfway stage.Nursing a dislocated left collarbone as he rode to nearby Horna Marikova time check, he was in too much pain to continue. Bang went his gold!"A policeman held up his baton to stop the car. He waved me on but the driver didn't stop. I caught the car a glancing blow," he said.It was a repetition of his only previous six-day ride at Camerino, Italy, 1974, when he ran into a Fiat. He aggravated his injury when he fell again on the way back. And there was more aggro at the local cop shop when the law tried to pin the blame on him. Till then 22nd out of 76 in the 250 class, ahead of Edmondson, Roberton was the seventh Briton to drop out. Three days wiped out 66 riders.One of two Scottish teams was hit when Keith Bruce (Kawasaki) wrecked his back wheel. But all was over shadowed by a tremendous Trophy struggle.After Zdenek Belsky (Jawa) bit the dust at the moto cross, his mishap was offset by Bob Lindbom (Husqvarna) stopping to mend a puncture. So the Czechs regained the lead from Sweden. The organisers again stuck to the "B" time schedules. But Edmondson had a nasty moment after being wrongly informed the time between two controls was seven minutes shorter than the previous day. Going like a bat out of hell, he ran out of brakes down a steep hill, hurting a leg as he crashed over the edge, and reached the check five minutes early!New kickstart gears gave Vase survivor Buttery a new lease of life but Trophy Scot Kerr was in trouble at the start.A misfire sounded like slipped timing but a new coil and condenser did the trick and he set off an hour late. He gained six minutes by the first check and clocked back with time to spare.An afternoon storm caught John Kitchener (Gori) napping. He slid off a track as greasy as icewhile fellow Liverpool clubmanMike, Jones (Gori) kept his hand in at mending punctures after two flats.
Click for Days 4 to 6
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Report of ISDE Event in West Germany 1982.
Welsh Six-Day Team History.
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