Six Days: the Elusive Prize
Six Days: The elusive prize
RACE WATCH
Americans have tasted ultimate success in most forms of motorcycle sports. Whether in roadracing, motocross, speedway, even observed trials, at least one world champion has regarded the Stars and Stripes as his banner.
Not so in the world of enduro racing, and particularly not its premier event, the International Six Days Enduro. The 75th edition of the ISDE-based this year in southern Spain-found the U.S. World Trophy Team heading home a frustrated 10th out of 21 countries. Unfortunately, this was nothing new for America, which has never won the definitive enduro prize. In recent history, a third-place finish in 1996 is the only bright spot.
For the uninitiated, the ISDE is a sixday competition requiring teams of riders from countries around the world to traverse an average of 120 miles of trail per day, ranging from picturesque village streets to muddy, rocky, first-gear, case-busting sections. It’s a game the>
Europeans invented and have been playing for decades, and the game in Spain belonged entirely to them. Italy was the overall winner, while Sweden and Spain took second and third, respectively.
So what makes the Six Days so difficult for Americans? That’s long been the focus of the U.S. off-road community, and plenty of theories abound. We asked ISDE veteran Randy Hawkins, who’s ridden in the event 17 times. The six-time AMA National Enduro Champion explains, “It’s like bringing a bunch of marathon runners and trying to race against sprinters. It’s something that we don’t do, and we need a little more practice at it.”
American off-road racing, you see, tends to involve lots of tight, technical riding all day-as in our enduros-or is a faster but still three-hour-long event, such as GNCCs and hare scrambles. Either way, endurance is the name of the game. Enduros in Europe, however, are all about special tests, which are onelap blasts around undulating, ribbonedoff courses often set on hillsides. The average test time is around 5 minutes.
“It’s frustrating, because if we had these guys on our turf, we could beat them,” Hawkins insists. “If Destry Abbott had the Europeans out in the desert, it wouldn’t even be a race. I think if I had ’em in the woods back East, same thing.”
On the bright side for Team USA, all >
six American Trophy racers finished and earned coveted gold medals. “The Six Days is such a unique event,” sums up desert racer and this year’s U.S. fast guy Russell Pearson. “I thought it was a lot of fun.”
Still, you know he’d have had more fun if the U.S. team was more of a threat to the dominant Europeans. But until an American is willing to sacrifice a year or three to racing in Europe, chances are that they won’t discover what it’s like to beat the home teams. -Mark Kariya
