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26 - A detailed career interview with 3 x World motorcycle Trials Champion Yrjö Vesterinen |
A detailed career interview with 3 x World motorcycle Trials Champion Yrjö Vesterinen photo Reijo Niemela
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A detailed career interview with 3 x World motorcycle Trials Champion Yrjö Vesterinen photo Iain Lawrie
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And Don Smith?
And Don Smith, but he was a special case. Lampkin, Rathmell, Thorpy, Rob Shepherd, I never saw them smoke. I think back then is the same as now and I think having a couple of pints the night before the trial has no effect. I think at the most it is in your mind that it might affect you, anybody's body can cope with a pint or two if you can't then there is something pretty badly wrong, but I had heard that sometimes, during the National trials, some riders had actually gone to the pub, I've never witness that but I've heard of that. ha ha ha and they would have a pint or 2 during the trial that to me sounds pretty outrageous. It is only hearsay.
What do you remember about your win in 1976? Was that the favourite win of your 3? Is that the win that you most cherish?
Of course, the first is always the most precious one, but I did start the year not so well. I think from memory, I won the first round at the Hurst Cup and I think the 2nd round was at Belgium and I remember having a new bikes. This was a brand new ultralight bike done by Valter Luft and the factory were pretty upset about this because on my behalf they have paid a lot of money for Walter to make a special bike for me and when the standard bikes were well over 90 kilos, Valter head saves you just over 10 kilos so mine was just over 80 kilos.
And Don Smith, but he was a special case. Lampkin, Rathmell, Thorpy, Rob Shepherd, I never saw them smoke. I think back then is the same as now and I think having a couple of pints the night before the trial has no effect. I think at the most it is in your mind that it might affect you, anybody's body can cope with a pint or two if you can't then there is something pretty badly wrong, but I had heard that sometimes, during the National trials, some riders had actually gone to the pub, I've never witness that but I've heard of that. ha ha ha and they would have a pint or 2 during the trial that to me sounds pretty outrageous. It is only hearsay.
What do you remember about your win in 1976? Was that the favourite win of your 3? Is that the win that you most cherish?
Of course, the first is always the most precious one, but I did start the year not so well. I think from memory, I won the first round at the Hurst Cup and I think the 2nd round was at Belgium and I remember having a new bikes. This was a brand new ultralight bike done by Valter Luft and the factory were pretty upset about this because on my behalf they have paid a lot of money for Walter to make a special bike for me and when the standard bikes were well over 90 kilos, Valter head saves you just over 10 kilos so mine was just over 80 kilos.
A detailed career interview with 3 x World motorcycle Trials Champion Yrjö Vesterinen
At first glance and having the first ride around the car park the bike felt really interesting because the bike was so light and I could manhandle this really well, but unfortunately the results were not so good and the reason for this became very clear. The balance of the bike was not right if you weigh the front of the bike and the back of the bike. Valter had managed to shave a lot of weight from the front of the bike then the back of the bike so the bike was riding on the back wheel everywhere. I don't remember the result I got in Belgium but it wasn't brilliant and I realised when I was trying to go on the back wheel everywhere up the roots and steep hills that this bike does not feel right at all. Then when I got to Spain I spoke to Oriel and I said to him I am very sorry but I am unable to ride this bike at all. Oriel said what, we have just paid the bill do you understand how much we paid for this bike and I said yes. I said I want to go back to riding the standard bike. I cannot ride this bike. The next thing that I saw was this special bike being cannibalised. Immediately the bike was stripped of all the special bits and I later saw them appearing here there and everywhere. Manuel took some, Charlie took some and it was just a skeleton of the bike left. I then said to Oriel, there was something I was going to tell you, I wouldn't have minded trying the bike again with a bit more time, but now is not the right time because we are right amongst the world rounds and I cannot do the testing on this bike and try to understand what is wrong with this bike.
A detailed career interview with 3 x World motorcycle Trials Champion Yrjö Vesterinen
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A detailed career interview with 3 x World motorcycle Trials Champion Yrjö Vesterinen
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A detailed career interview with 3 x World motorcycle Trials Champion Yrjö Vesterinen
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In 1976 you achieved what you set out to do and won the World Championship but you have been having difficulties at the UK round, why was that?
This was down in the South West, you know I was very close to lodging a protest about this trial but I left it because I realised I have no hope really. I'm not getting anything out of it other than getting a bad name for myself but what happened was that again through lack of experience, Charles and I both ended up in the same mess. We both started the trial at let's say 10 o'clock in the morning, but we didn't know that just at the time of 4 o'clock it was getting dark. Nobody told us what time it gets dark and we are well within our allocated time. We didn't lose any time penalties but it was pitch dark, we couldn't even see the sections anymore and I thought how amateurish is this. We were allocated a specific six hour time limit or something but within the six hours it has already gone completely dark, we had no lights on the bikes and we were illegally riding the bikes on the roads with several groups to go in complete darkness. How, at some of the sections, we have no idea what to do because he couldn't see anything and I was thinking how is it possible that the organizers have made this possible or at the very least, not even warn us it is not our business to know that this might happen. We are just thinking about how to use the 6 hours to the best of our ability. How would I know what time it gets dark in England in mid-February, it was an absurd idea for them to expect that we would know this. The English riders somehow knew this but did not tell us. As a consequence of this Charles and I were desperately out of the points. That was the first year when not all of the rounds counted so it didn't really matter but earlier on in the trial I was riding pretty well and was well in the points, until it became a total disaster. But it was too late, because half the bike already gone, so I then went back to the standard bike and started to go ok again but then also at that time I was that much wiser from the previous season and when I had an off day I try that much harder to solve, the 3rd place will become 2nd place and the 4th place would come 3rd place and it went quite well really and when we are at the last round in Switzerland and it was between me and Malcolm. I remember the first section was a really really hard section, with massive tree roots and bad camber. I decided to take a massive risk and see how Malcolm's nerve would cope with it. I thought that if I could make it at this difficult point then Malcolm would realise that the game is over and I managed to get through. I didn't clean it but I managed to get through and Malcolm 5 and everybody else 5 and Malcolm never recovered. The last round was in Czechoslovakia but I've already won the championship so the last round didn't really matter. It was a nice position to be in.
This was down in the South West, you know I was very close to lodging a protest about this trial but I left it because I realised I have no hope really. I'm not getting anything out of it other than getting a bad name for myself but what happened was that again through lack of experience, Charles and I both ended up in the same mess. We both started the trial at let's say 10 o'clock in the morning, but we didn't know that just at the time of 4 o'clock it was getting dark. Nobody told us what time it gets dark and we are well within our allocated time. We didn't lose any time penalties but it was pitch dark, we couldn't even see the sections anymore and I thought how amateurish is this. We were allocated a specific six hour time limit or something but within the six hours it has already gone completely dark, we had no lights on the bikes and we were illegally riding the bikes on the roads with several groups to go in complete darkness. How, at some of the sections, we have no idea what to do because he couldn't see anything and I was thinking how is it possible that the organizers have made this possible or at the very least, not even warn us it is not our business to know that this might happen. We are just thinking about how to use the 6 hours to the best of our ability. How would I know what time it gets dark in England in mid-February, it was an absurd idea for them to expect that we would know this. The English riders somehow knew this but did not tell us. As a consequence of this Charles and I were desperately out of the points. That was the first year when not all of the rounds counted so it didn't really matter but earlier on in the trial I was riding pretty well and was well in the points, until it became a total disaster. But it was too late, because half the bike already gone, so I then went back to the standard bike and started to go ok again but then also at that time I was that much wiser from the previous season and when I had an off day I try that much harder to solve, the 3rd place will become 2nd place and the 4th place would come 3rd place and it went quite well really and when we are at the last round in Switzerland and it was between me and Malcolm. I remember the first section was a really really hard section, with massive tree roots and bad camber. I decided to take a massive risk and see how Malcolm's nerve would cope with it. I thought that if I could make it at this difficult point then Malcolm would realise that the game is over and I managed to get through. I didn't clean it but I managed to get through and Malcolm 5 and everybody else 5 and Malcolm never recovered. The last round was in Czechoslovakia but I've already won the championship so the last round didn't really matter. It was a nice position to be in.