Mint Four Hundred

MINT FOUR HUNDRED

THE TIBBLIN/GROSSI HUSQVARNA LED THE WAY

IVAN J. WAGAR

BIG ROLF TIBBLIN, although retired from active competition for the past six years, partnered with young motocross star Bob Grossi to lead three other Husqvarnas into the first four finishing slots of the fifth Del Webb Mint 400 desert classic.

The win was a victory in several ways for the evergreen Swede. Not only did the Mint prove that Tibblin still maintains the title of “Iron Man from the North” that he gained in European motocross a decade ago, when he became the only man ever to win both 250 and 500 world titles, but also gave an indication of his ability to pick a winning co-rider. Until the Mint win, Grossi was an unknown quantity as a strong desert racer. He just could not be reckoned to be in the same league as J.N., Malcolm, Switzer, Patrick and Berquist.

But Tibblin is dedicated to creating an American motocross world champion, and a Mint win along the way simply added frosting to the cake.

Hardly had the dust settled from the world’s dustiest race than Tibblin left for Europe with Grossi and fellow protege Mark Blackwell to begin training for this year’s title series. It should be remembered at this point that it was Tibblin who spent the whole week helping our teams at the ISDT last year on the Isle of Man, and much of the credit for our success in that event must go to the Iron Man.

Although they won by 7 min., the Tibblin/Grossi duo did not have things all their own way throughout the event. At the halfway point, which we will call 200 hundred miles for sake of argument, there were no less than six bikes in really serious contention, with a matter of minutes separating the leaders. The drama was unreal.

The race was billed as six laps of a 68-mile course, rather than eight laps of the old 50-mile loops. Most riders, however, felt that this year’s lap distance was about the same as before because lap times were almost identical. Be that as it may, there is little doubt that the Mint is a toughie, even if it is less than the claimed distance. Unlike the longer races at Baja, the Mint course has miles of fine, talc-like dust that hangs in the air for minutes after a machine passes unless everyone is very lucky and there is a breeze about. Not only does this fine dust hamper visibility, but it also hides some very bad holes that destroy wheels and riders. One of the first to fall (literally) victim to a hidden hole was Malcolm Smith’s partner Blackwell, and he lost 15 minutes putting himself and the bike back together after a really bad high-speed endo.

On movie location in Arizona, J.N. Roberts did not pre-ride the course, but was the first rider in with a time of 1 hr., 13 min. Starting later, however, Rich Thorwaldson came in 2 min. faster and turned the 400 Suzuki over to mighty. John DeSoto. The biggest surprise of all, and the one that worried Malcolm, was a 1 hr., 10 min. lap by local boy Terry Clark on a 250 Husky. The taste of victory was short-lived, however, as Terry’s partner, Mitch Mayes, dropped out on the second tour.

Billy Silverthorn ran into one of those Mint blunders during his first lap. The loudspeaker announced that Silverthorn had > broken a rear wheel at checkpoint four and needed a replacement. Co-rider Gene Fetty jumped on a spare bike and headed cross-country with a wheel, only to find that Silverthorn had cleared the check and had not encountered problems. Fetty could not make it back to the pits in time to take over the machine for the second lap, and a tired, dehydrated Silverthorn was left to do a second consecutive tour.

With Switzer cutting a real trail after taking over from J.N., and DeSoto getting with it on the big Suzuki, the Patrick/ Bowers team forced their Yamaha to within a minute of the leaders in an attempt to make it three Mint wins. A broken gear shifter, however, put the Yamaha out at the halfway mark.

This year’s race featured three separate displacement categories for the motorcycle class, and all categories were closely contested at mid-distance. The little Carabella was running away with 125 honors, but expired shortly thereafter, leaving one of the very best scraps of the day. The privately entered Penton of Davidson and Davis was running neck and neck with the father/son team of Earl and Larry Roesler on a dealer-entered Harley-Davidson Baja 100. Although giving away a displacement advantage, the Roeslers gave no quarter as they charged on for more than 200 miles to lose by a mere 9 sec., the closest finish of the day. >

In the 250 class, Malcolm was letting it all hang out to make up the time lost by Blackwell in the opening lap. Hard on his heels, though, came the Yamaha of Quade and Harper. Their machine was a very standard looking DT-2, and they were making time on the Husky.

While some of us thought that tension would decrease in the final closing stages, the battle heightened in all classes. Naturally all eyes were on the big boys, particularly the DeSoto/Thorwaldson Suzuki, and there was lots of secondguessing about whether the loner could hold off all those Huskys; but the other two classes were as dramatic, especially considering overall honors. The little lOOcc Baja, for instance, looked like it might find its way into the top 10 finishers of a 106-entry field.

Rather than decreasing, tension grew. And even Malcolm Smith, usually the coolest guy in the world, was pacing and growing impatient as he waited for Blackwell to finish the fifth lap. There was even more concern in the jubilant Suzuki pits during that fifth lap as smiles turned to increasingly longer faces as the minutes ticked by. The loudspeaker (this time correct) had announced that Thorwaldson was in need of a rear wheel at checkpoint 5. Local Suzuki dealer Terry Greeble, an accomplished local desert racer, jumped into his truck with a wheel, to find that Suzuki had stashed some wheels around the course, and that Rich was underway by the time the check was reached.

The failure had cost almost a half hour—an agonizing half hour for DeSoto, who stood around fully dressed and ready to go on a second’s notice. But it was an even more hectic time for John’s lovely wife, as she calmly quieted a restless baby and an impatient husband. Although knowing all hope of getting his hands on the $6000 overall purse had disappeared, John leapt onto the Suzuki without giving Thorwaldson time to find neutral, and gassed it out for the final lap with only the hope that all those Huskys might break. Fat chance. Last year’s winner Max Switzer was in full command as he started his last lap. On home ground, and knowing that the Suzuki and Yamaha challenge had faded, Max felt confident of shaking off the “Iron Man from the North” as he started the sixth and final lap.

But it was not to be Max’s day. Last year he finished with the rear brake clevis pin barely holding the brake rod in place. This year the rear axle nut lost itself somewhere around the halfway mark on the last lap. Max knew there was a problem when the bike got super squirrely, then the chain came off. Six times during the last lap Max was to lose the chain, and have to stop to put it back on.

While Max replaced the chain on the sprockets on one occasion, he was shocked when Tibblin slid to a stop and volunteered to help get the machine going. As Max put it, “There aren’t many guys around that will stop to help a rival when there is a $6000 purse at stake.” That was the last Switzer saw of Tibblin.

In the pits all eyes awaited the arrival of Switzer, riding number 10, but it was number 20, Tibblin, that crossed the checker first. Obviously, by virtue of his 2-min. starting disadvantage, the Swede had won. [Ö]

FOUR HUNDRED RESULTS