Je rappelle qu’il y a un sélectionneur officiel… ^^
Tempêtes dans des verres d’eau du passé, selon We went Fast, les atermoiements de la sélection US de 89…
« Team USA Motocross of Nations selection controversy.
1989 has a message for 2024: hold my beer stein.
“If there is one thing you can predict about America’s involvement in the MXdN, it is that it will be filled with controversy, ego clashes and Keystone Kops antics.”
Motocross Action opened a long sidebar titled “Chronology of Ineptness” with that paragraph. In it they detailed what it took to finalize Team USA for Gaildorf, Germany in 1989.
An abridged version (and remember, this is all according to MXA):
The original team for 1989 was Ron Lechien, Rick Johnson and Jeff Stanton. “But industry insiders didn’t want Lechien on the team”. He was replaced with Jeff Ward. Nobody wanted to ride the 125. Honda said Ward should do it, Kawasaki said Honda is the brand winning lots of 125 races… RJ agreed to ride the 125. Rick Johnson withdraws with a rib injury. Ron Lechien refuses to “bail out Rick Johnson”. Lechien said he’d ride a 250 but not a 125.
Honda says they can’t switch Stanton to the 125 because his 250 is already crated with customs papers filled out. They suggested Ward drop to the 125 (which he did in 1988) and let Lechien ride the 500.
Ward declines to ride the 125. Kawasaki doesn’t pressure him to do so.
The AMA asks 125 specialist George Holland. He wanted to do it but was already riding at 80% because of a shoulder injury.
In what now seems like a “duh” move, the AMA asks the two riders ACTUALLY battling for the 1989 125MX title; Mike Kiedrowski and Damon Bradshaw.
Bradshaw was the current 125MX points leader (the season wasn’t over) but logistics gave the spot to Kiedrowski because Honda already had a 125 crated, papered and ready to ship.
Kiedrowski, Stanton and Ward won the MXoN in Germany, Team USA’s 9th consecutive win.
We recently visited Jeff Ward (project to be released soon!) asked him about all of the 1989 team selection drama. He didn’t recall any of it! «
, le il y a 1 année et 9 mois.
