International • 1982 FIM WTC
1982
FIM WORLD TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP A strong, consistent season in 1981 would witness 19-year-old Frenchman Gilles Burgat becoming the youngest rider ever to win the FIM World Trials Championship, a record which still stands. As 1982 opened, however, it would be a change of power in the world championship for both riders and manufacturers. With the lure of more Italian Lira than SWM would offer, Gilles Burgat moved to the new 240 Fantic model as the Italian manufacturer raised its financial involvement in the world series. American Bernie Schreiber ditched the struggling Italjet project and moved to the vacant seat at SWM with a tried-and-tested machine. As the well-documented financial problems hit the mighty three manufacturers Bultaco, Montesa and Ossa in Spain, their world championship-winning riders, including Yrjo Vesterinen (Bultaco-FIN) 1977–1978 and Ulf Karlson (Montesa-SWE) 1980, were coming to the end of their careers. The old guard of English riders, including the first FIM World Trials Champion, in 1975, Martin Lampkin (Bultaco) and Malcolm Rathmell (Montesa), were in the same boat. This new generation would see other younger names joining Burgat and Schreiber, including 18-year-old Thierry Michaud (SWM-FRA) and another Lampkin, Arthur’s son John, on the new two-stroke Hiro engined CCM trials machine. As the trick riding, which included the ‘Pivot Turn’ and BunnyHop’, became more familiar, a new sound was beginning to have an impact at the very top of the sport; a young spectacle-wearing Belgian rider by the name of Eddy Lejeune on the four-stroke Honda. He had already tasted victory in 1980, with three wins, before winning again in 1981 in Belgium and Ireland. As we take a look at the first six rounds of the 12-round 1982 FIM World Trials Championship, Eddy Lejeune would lead the way, winning four rounds, followed by Schreiber and Burgat on one win each. Were we about to see a Japanese manufacturer with a four-stroke trials machine win its first-ever FIM World Trials Championship? We would have to wait and see. Words: Classic Trial Magazine • Pictures: Mauri/Fontsere Collection and the Giulio Mauri Copyright
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Autumn 2022 • Classic Trial Magazine
