After a five year absence the FIM Trial World Championship will make a much welcomed return to the USA, as the Trial Training Center at Sequatchie, Tennessee hosts a round of the series for a third time in its history. The purpose-developed facility was last a part of the championship in 2008, two years after having organised its inaugural Trial Grand Prix back in May 2006. The Repsol Montesa pairing of Toni Bou and Takahisa Fujinami will be just two of many riders who will be pleased to see this venue back in the calendar with them having shared a win a piece when they last visited Tennessee.
Whilst the US Trial GP has been missing from the series in more recent seasons it has enjoyed a long association with the FIM Trial World Championship and was part of the initial campaign way back in 1975. British rider Malcolm Rathmell was the first ever winner in America on that occasion, before his compatriot Martin Lampkin matched his feat at Gold Bar, Washington a year later. France’s Charles Coutard was victorious at Port Huron, Michigan in 1977 before America’s very own Bernie Schreiber scored a hugely popular win at Roaring Branch, Pennsylvania twelve months later.
Schreiber was to repeat this achievement the following season as he again won in Pueblo, Colorado which was one of three victories in a year when the American would create history becoming the first and only ever FIM Trial World Champion from the USA. Although Bernie was never able to either win his home GP or take the title again in the future he remained a contender in the series throughout the early to mid-eighties. During this period Giles Burgat, Eddy Lejeune, John Lampkin and Thierry Michaud all enjoyed success in the USA.
1986 saw Jordi Tarres record his first US Trial GP win at Mount Vernon, he would then go on to win a further four times on American soil, his last coming at Stepping Stones, Rhode Island in 1996. Fellow Spanish rider Amos Bilbao and the late Diego Bosis were the only other two riders to taste the winner’s champagne in the USA over this decade. Bilbao’s Stateside win was one of just three during his long career that came to a close in 2001. Dougie Lampkin was then to dominate the FIM Trial World Championship when it visited the USA from 1997 through to 2005. Lampkin was to notch up a record of seven wins over this prolonged period, which was only interrupted on occasions by Marc Colomer in 1998, Steve Colley in 1999, Adam Raga – Gas Gas in 2001 and Takahisa Fujinami in 2002, 2004 and 2005. Dougie recorded two-second place finishes in Sequatchie in 2006 on a weekend when Raga was to claim two wins on route to claiming his second FIM Trial World Championship.
Five years ago when the USA last hosted a Trial Grand Prix Fujinami topped the podium on day one and was joined by Bou and Albert Cabestany – Sherco on the box respectively. Then twenty-four hours later Bou turned the tables on his Japanese teammate to become the last winner of the US Trial GP. Fujinami and Raga finished second and third respectively behind Bou on that day in late April 2008. Ironically it is the same trio of riders who occupy the top three places in the current general standings after the initial round of the 2013 season in Japan, as action shifts Stateside this weekend under the watchful eye of Bernie Schreiber who will be a warmly welcomed spectator.