Do you know if in 1978, you won the championship with many rounds to go?
I started very strongly yeah. I won in Ireland and I won in Wales in Rhayader . This Rhayader event was held after a very frosty night and there was frost, maybe even flakes of snow on the ground in the morning. I remember taking this hat with me, you may have seen it in some pictures. It was a big fur hat, I took it out with me, but I don't quite remember why, maybe it's because I'll be sleeping in the back of the van whilst my brother was driving and it would be comfortable to have a fur hat, but anyway, in the morning of the trial at Rhayader, there was a sharp frost and it was very cold. I took my fur hat out and rubbed my hands together and said oh what a wonderful day and the others looked at me like you can't be serious. I said what's the matter with you guys and they replied its cold and I said so what we got a job today somebody has just been to the first stream and it's all frozen over. I said it's no problem then I overheard some of the other guys say, today is going to be an absolute disaster and I thought to myself, it all sounds as though I could have a very easy day today. I won by a mile as the others have given up hope. Before the trial started and I think when they saw me in my hat, they realise that I come prepared. It wasn't intentional, it was just a fitting hat for the occasion. Later Bernie Schreiber took a liking to this hat and a swapped it with him for a watch of his.
I started very strongly yeah. I won in Ireland and I won in Wales in Rhayader . This Rhayader event was held after a very frosty night and there was frost, maybe even flakes of snow on the ground in the morning. I remember taking this hat with me, you may have seen it in some pictures. It was a big fur hat, I took it out with me, but I don't quite remember why, maybe it's because I'll be sleeping in the back of the van whilst my brother was driving and it would be comfortable to have a fur hat, but anyway, in the morning of the trial at Rhayader, there was a sharp frost and it was very cold. I took my fur hat out and rubbed my hands together and said oh what a wonderful day and the others looked at me like you can't be serious. I said what's the matter with you guys and they replied its cold and I said so what we got a job today somebody has just been to the first stream and it's all frozen over. I said it's no problem then I overheard some of the other guys say, today is going to be an absolute disaster and I thought to myself, it all sounds as though I could have a very easy day today. I won by a mile as the others have given up hope. Before the trial started and I think when they saw me in my hat, they realise that I come prepared. It wasn't intentional, it was just a fitting hat for the occasion. Later Bernie Schreiber took a liking to this hat and a swapped it with him for a watch of his.
The next round was in Belgium and I was leading there after the first or second lap and it was going very well. This would have been my 3rd win in a row but I was using these air shocks and I showed you earlier, one of the shocks failed on one side and no one had considered what happens when the air shock fails. The outcome was that the back end dropped completely and the back tyre was rubbing against the rear mudguard and the bike was un rideable. Obviously I was on my own and quite far from the start place, there were no mobile phones at the time and there was nothing I could do. All I could do was rush back to the start place and hope my brother will be there with the keys to the van, because also we haven't discussed about where to put the keys of the van. He knew that he had to be there when I came back for more fuel in between laps. That is all anyway. I found him and we change the shock and I rushed back but by the time I managed to get back I was so desperately late and I don't remember where I finished, I think 3rd or something, it was still quite respectable. Later on in the year I continued using the shocks and it became quite clear they weren't good for dry grippy going. Bernie had already abandoned the shocks because he claimed that he couldn't do proper bunny hops with the shocks on. Martin and I were still using them. I abandon them as well and then it started to go ok with the traditional rear shocks. I won in Finland and I think I was 2nd in Sweden. We got to the final round and it was between me and Martin Lampkin to take the championship home and at the time there was always a ballot. All of the riders were put in one hat, you would be number 1 to 100 and that would determine your start time.
Sure enough I drew number one and then I realised I had a really big problem because in Czechoslovakia they don't have any local riders and all of the first sections were stream sections, completely slimy and totally unridden. I thought about my position long and hard and realise that this wasn't going to work out. I need to look at my records to find out what I needed to do and what position I needed to get, but it's Martin one. I needed to be so high to still win the championship, but I realise that wasn't going to happen and that I was going to blow it in the first section. Straight away I could see Martin was smiling as he realise things were going his way and I was thinking what shall I do, what shall I do, what shall I do. When I spoke to my brother, we made a decision that we kept totally secret. I was going to start as planned, as the first rider out, before I get to the first section I'm going to deviate into woods and I'm going to look at my watch for half an hour. Second by second for half an hour, then I was going to surface from there. In the meantime, most of the riders would have thought that I had already gone through because I was so pissed off or something, after the half an hour waiting, I got to the first section and saw that about 30 riders have gone through and that it was no rideable, so I rode the section and then I got to the second section and I saw Martin Lampkin there. Martin Lampkin looked at me, smiled and I could see him mutter bastard ha ha ha ha ha.
SSDT photos - 1979 at Altnafeadh and Pipeline
From then on I was desperately late but it didn't matter because I knew that I was as fit as I've been, training like crazy for the physical fitness and I knew that I'll be able to go flat out for the rest of the trial. So, I went completely flat out and I won the championship and this situation resulted in the picture with Martin Lampkin in the middle and me on his left and Bernie on the other side of Martin. Martin looked really miserable. There were two photos that I saw, one is where we are shaking hands, me and Martin and I'm smiling and Martin is not looking happy at all. Bernie is looking like he is thinking, I am 3rd in the world so I am happy. There's another photo from the same time where we are all sitting on a van roof and Bernie and myself are sitting on either side of Martin, the face of Martin says it all. It's as if he is thinking I can't believe it. On that day I felt happy that I'd learnt to compete and I learnt to cheat within the rules of the competition.