GO GORGOT
Imagine just how much the riders on Italian machines wanted to win in Italy. It was a close call as Spain’s Toni Gorgot, on the Spanish Ossa, took the win to deny them the glory. He recorded his first world round victory on a tie-break decider with SWM mounted Gilles Burgat.
Found at the entrance to the Locana Valley, Cuorgne was at the north of Turin. It provided two laps of 24 sections based around the small town. Everyone knew that the Schreiber/Italjet combination would be on form as he just lost out to the fight between Gorgot and Burgat.
For the first time in an FIM World Trials Championship round, Great Britain’s Martin Lampkin did not start after he went down with a severe virus before the trial had even begun.
SPANISH CHALLENGER
Introduced in 1980, the Spanish manufacturer, Ossa, saw its yellow-coloured 350 ‘Gripper’ model as the machine to take the company back to the glory days of Mick Andrews in the European Championship in the early ’70s. With its radical design, Toni Gorgot now had the machine at a point where he could challenge for the top positions in the world championship. He was on top form in Italy and took the lead on the first lap, closely followed by Burgat and American Schreiber. Schreiber was riding more like we had seen in the past, knowing that his world championship aspirations for the year were now over, barring a disaster, after his two non-scoring rides in Ireland and Great Britain. Burgat, on the other hand, was slowly turning into the one to watch in the world championship race and had the well-developed SWM aiding his world championship challenge.
ONE HAND
With one hand on the win, Gorgot remained calm and in control to record his first win. Burgat had ridden at his very best to try and give SWM the ‘home’ victory, but it was not to be. Schreiber tried all he knew to fight for the win, missing out by just four marks. It was damage limitation for Eddy Lejeune as he defended his championship lead, taking fourth position on the tie break from Charles Coutard on the Montesa.
As in France, the most significant championship loser in Italy was Ulf Karlson; he slipped to third after his eighth-place finish.
Making up for his Uncle Martin’s non-start in Italy was John Lampkin on the SWM. Still out of the points, he scored another 13th place, just nine marks behind Great Britain’s only points-scorer Malcolm Rathmell and a single mark behind Manuel Soler.
ROUND 6: CUORGNE, ITALY 24/05/1981. ENTRY: 60
RESULTS: 1: Toni Gorgot (Ossa-ESP) 67; 2: Gilles Burgat (SWM-FRA) 67; 3: Bernie Schreiber (Italjet-USA) 71; 4: Eddy Lejeune (Honda-BEL) 76; 5: Charles Coutard (Montesa-FRA) 76; 6: Yrjo Vesterinen (Bultaco-FIN) 82; 7: Christian Desnoyers (SWM-FRA) 85; 8: Ulf Karlson (Montesa-SWE) 93; 9: Malcolm Rathmell (Montesa-GBR) 95; 10: Jaime Subira (Fantic-ESP) 100; 11: Danilo Galeazzi (SWM-ITA) 102; 12: Manuel Soler (Montesa-ESP) 103; 13: John Lampkin (SWM-GBR) 104; 14: Adamoli Fulvio (Fantic-ITA) 108; 15: Timo Rysey (Bultaco-FIN) 109.
1981 FIM WORLD TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER SIX ROUNDS OF 12
POSITIONS: 1: Eddy Lejeune (Honda-BEL) 60; 2: Gilles Burgat (SWM-FRA) 50; 3: Ulf Karlson (Montesa-SWE) 40; 4: Toni Gorgot (Ossa-ESP) 39; 5: Yrjo Vesterinen (Bultaco-FIN) 30; 6: Bernie Schreiber (Italjet-USA) 30; 7: Manuel Soler (Montesa-ESP) 29; 8: Malcolm Rathmell (Montesa-GBR) 25; 9: Martin Lampkin (SWM-GBR) 24; 10: Charles Coutard (Montesa-FRA) 23; 11: Danilo Galeazzi (SWM-ITA) 13; 12: John Reynolds (Beamish Suzuki-GBR) 12; 13: Christian Desnoyers (SWM-FRA) 9; 14: Jaime Subira (Fantic-ESP) 5; 15: Bernard Cordonnier (Bultaco-BEL) 3; 16: Chris Sutton (Montesa-GBR) 2; 17: Alberto Juvanteny (Ossa-ESP) 1; 18: Timo Rysey (Bultaco-FIN) 1.
FIM World Trials Championship points were only awarded to the top ten at each event.