PUTTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

Ongoing research into the history of trials continues to throw up some surprises. The first one was when we found out that Finland’s Yrjo Vesterinen had used Michelin tyres for his winning ride at the 1980 SSDT on the Montesa. We were always under the impression that he had used Pirelli tyres, but then he informed us that it was Michelin rubber that was used on the Cota 349. We had previously stated that French rider Gilles Burgat was the first Michelin winner on the SWM in 1981. So it is time to apologise to Michelin and Gilles Burgat for getting it wrong!

Looking into the 1990 FIM World Trials Championship we also found another error. In the ever-changing world of motorcycle trials development we had overlooked the fact that Fantic were still using air-cooled models in 1990.

We had previously stated that the last winner of a FIM World Championship round on an air-cooled machine was in 1989 with the Thierry Michaud (Fantic-FRA) in Ireland. It was in fact at the final FIM World Championship round of the 1990 season in the Czech Republic, with Italian rider Donato Miglio on the Fantic 307.