1975 – To celebrate the 50th edition, the International Six-Days Trial returned home to England, again on the Isle of Man, from October 13th to 18th, starting at 7:30 each morning. There were 17 nations present, with 11 competing for the Trophy and 13 for the Silver Vase.
The route, which took place over all the roads and trails of the island, was inevitably monotonous, but with the rain which was common at all times of the year it became difficult and selective.
There were yet more regulatory amendments, this time to the criteria of awarding penalties, similar to those existing in the European Championship, should have made for a more equitable allocation of merit, but of the 307 starting riders only 71 obtained the gold medal, 25 the silver medal and 71 bronze, while all the others, 140, had to withdraw.
The big news of the season was represented by three Wankel motorcycle rotary engines fielded by the Hercules-DKW, entrusted for the occasion to the Brescian Ivan Saravesi, and to the German Fritz Witzel and American Doug Wilford.
These had already been successfully tested in the championships at home and in Europe.
Entered as 294 cc from the factory in the 350 class, they were reclassified officially as 588cc, and then assigned to the highest class, as was already happening for racing cars.
In the same Team Hercules, two powerful seven-speed 50cc were assigned to Heinz and Bernhard Brinkmann, a 125cc model, the no.151 was given to Franco Gualdi, while two more 175cc, over 30 hp, were assigned to Reinhard Christel and Gerhard Bayer.
These together with Lorenz Müller and Herbert Schek of Maico 500, formed the team of West Germany, competing for the Silver Vase.
Curiously, the Tom Penton’s KTM, a veteran of the ISDT, caught fire following a fuel tank rupture a few miles from the start, but the event was marked by a tragic occurence.
After a heavy fall on the first day, the American rider Bren Moran on the Canadian team, lost his life.
The four most powerful nations in those years, the only ones that had the men and means to take victory were Czechoslovakia, the two Germanys and Italy.
After Gilera retired from racing, Italy could still count on the official KTM teams and SWM, then on a great upturn and with world class riders and bikes.
The big favorites were the Czechs and they were almost immediately off the scene because of a disastrous chain failure for Masita in the Special Stage. The resulting 20 minute penalty cancelled out any hope of victory.
The representatives of the DDR were not even present because of a generational question.
The older riders had been pensioned off and the youngsters were not believed to be up to competing for the Trophy but only for the Silver Vase.
The whole week was enlivened by clashes between the Italians and Germans but well-founded hopes of victory led to some disappointment for both nations.
Italy could have won both trophies, but already the first day Gritti was delayed by a small mechanical failure, possibly due to petrol, which cost him 5 penalties and forced the entire team to a thrilling and frantic comeback.
Moments of high tension were experienced when Neumann jumped a control, but to avoid the unpleasant events of the previous year, with 7 votes in favour and 8 against, he was reinstated by the Jury.
With this hurdle overcome the West German team led by Erich Messner found no other obstacles in its way and were awarded a clear victory in the Trophy. Josef Wolfgruber, Eberhard Weber and Peter Neumann won the first three places in the 100 class, Rolf Witthöft and Jürgen Grisse arrived first and second on their 125s, while Eddy Hau arrived 2nd on his 175.
Three Zündapp also took the top three speed tests on the last day, marking man to man their Italian opponents like TT riders.
Italy defended himself with spirit and generosity and the KTMs of Gugliemo Andreini, Andrioletti Elia, Emilio Capelli, Alessandro Gritti, Augusto Taiocchi and Imerio Testori ended the test in a well deserved second place.
The Czechs came third, followed by 4th Holland, Poland, 5th, 6th USA, Austria 7th, 8th Canada, 9thSweden, England 10th and France 11th.
Even in the Silver Vase clash at the top, the battle took place between Italy, Czechoslovakia and Germany, but the fall of Reinhard Christel and the exclusion of Petr Valek, for regulatory issues, on Day 4, favoured the Italians, who crowned their justified ambitions of victory.
Walter Brissoni, Pietro Gagni, Attilio Petrogalli, Pierluigi Rottigni and their excellent SWM prevailed over all their competitors and won the Silver Vase.
Behind them were classified the Federal Republic of Germany, Holland 3rd, 4th U.S., Great Britain 5th, 6th Czechoslovakia, Sweden 7th, 8th Ireland, 9th France, Belgium 10th, 11th DDR, Spain 12th, 13th Canada.
Now among the riders the use of 4-stroke engines had declined compared to the net dominance of the 2 strokes and only a handful of four strokes took part in the 50th Six-Days Trial.
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