1976 – The 51st edition of  the ISDT was held in the heart of the Austrian Alps from September 20th to 25th with arrivals, departures and parc ferme at Zeltweg at the famous race track.
Thanks to good weather conditions, and following numerous closures imposed by the "green party", which began in those years to make its adversity to the sport of off-road felt, the route did not prove to be particularly difficult.
Of the 340 riders entered at the start, some 273 crossed the finish line, with a very high percentage of gold medals, while the heated confrontation at the top of the charts was entirely concentrated in the Special Stages.
Timidly at first, Globalization, started to make itself felt by the unusual presence of Japanese Toshi Nishiyama, however in the saddle of a very European KTM 250.
After the break last year, the Trophy team again made its appearance with new bikes and riders and a new green and silver livery.
The East Germans lacked experience but made an excellent collective effort.
The struggle for supremacy was therefore limited to Italy, West Germany and Czechoslovakia, whose dreaded Jawa appeared with Preston mudguards and Japanese tyres from Sun or Did.
The Italian flag was given to the well tested team Farioli and its official KTMs who had already dominated the European Championship.
Despite an impressive Alessandro Gritti and his amazing KTM 250 riding who was ranked first overall, winning all the special stages in line and even outperforming the noble Jawa with Jiri Stodulka, Italian hopes were wrecked on the first day because of small gearbox problems and followed closely by Augusto Taiocchi, while on day 2, for the same problem, Emilio Capelli was forced to retire.

For the first three days, Jawa and Zündapp fought head to head but following a horrifying crash by Masita on day 4 the Czechs were sidelined also.
Under the motto "Never change a winning team", the red Zündapps of Eberhard Weber, Peter Neumann, Josef Wolfgruber, Rolf Witthöft, Jürgen Grisse and Eddy Hau (three 100, two 125 and 175), repeated to perfection the double win of the previous year, including the top three places in the last special stage of the cross.
The Trophy was taken for the second consecutive year by West Germany, followed by Czechoslovakia and DDR, 4th Great Britain, Austria 5th, 6th Poland, Belgium 7th, 8th Canada, France 9th, 10th USA, Holland 11th, 12th Sweden, Switzerland 13th, 14th Finland, Italy 15th (Andrioletti Elia, Emilio Capelli, Roberto Capelli, Mauro Miele, Alessandro Gritti, Augusto Taiocchi).
As in 1975, the SWMs represented Italy for the Silver Vase, but despite reaching the podium, they missed the first place but the quartet (Pietro Gagni, Walter Brissoni, Pierluigi Rottigni, Pier Luigi Rottigni and Luigi Laureati) had to settle for third place.
In the Silver Vase the Czechs excelled -  Sedlicka, Kuchar, Cinelka and Toman of Jawa, followed by West Germany and Italy, 4th U.S., Finland 5th, 6th East Germany, Belgium 7th, 8th Austria, Canada 9th, 10th Switzerland, 11th Holland, 12th Sweden, Spain 13th, 14th France, England 15th.
Eventually Zündapp took three classes, the 50cc, with Erwin Schmider, the 100cc, with Josef Wolfgruber and 175cc, with Eduard Hau.
The KTM won its other three, the 125 with Harald Strossenreuther, Alessandro Gritti with the 250 and 350 with Heino Buse.
The Simson won the 75cc class with Gerhald Haatz, the Jawa Stanislaw Zloch won the 500cc class, while the class over 500cc was won by Gorgos said Ladislaw, of Maico.
Also in this edition there were controversies about the flagrancy with which the official teams gave immediate assistance which was absolutely prohibited, such as the complete replacement of broken parts. No authority could sanction this misconduct but it was a winning element.