1977 – For its 52nd edition of the International Six-Days, the trial returned to Czechoslovakia for the first time in Povazska Bystrica, a town of the Slovak Republic the headquarters of the historic motorcycle factory Povazske Strojarne (literally "Factory Povazska"), producer of the Manet much prized Tatran motorcycles.
From September 5th to 10th 313 riders ranged aggressively one against the other along a very selective six days course of this Six-Days trial, so selective that there were 219 retirements. Only 94 survivors crossed the finish line, winning 40 gold medals, 29 silver and 25 bronze.
Each year the technology was to mark a step forward, more evident in the 50cc class where the wonderful Sachs prototype stood out with a futuristic titanium frame, the swingarm in boxed aluminum, Koni gas shock absorbers.
It was brought to the race in a truly excellent manner by Gino Perego from Bergamo who was also the only rider in his class who completed the entire race, giving birth to a legend consecrated by the small series of famous Replica Peregos, a year later.
On this occasion Italy was represented with the two official KTM teams and SWM to try to win the Trophy and the Silver Vase.
The clash at the summit was, as always, limited to Czechoslovakia, the two Germanys and Italy and ended with an overwhelming dominance of the two iron curtain nations, but there were some glaring twists in the plot.
As is well known, one of the essential rules of the six-day consists of the impossibility of performing mechanical substitutions of any kind, but operating under the auspices of the saying "you do but you don’t tell” it was consolidating the now age-old habit of "assisting" riders in every possible way.
It was even rumored that there was a secret agreement that left everyone free to act but then not to complain if a Commissioner discovered the offence.
This time it was the turn of KTM and its riders. In fact on the third day the much favoured KTM team retired under protest following the disqualification of Gian Luigi Petrogalli.
He had been judged to have received outside assistance, the nature of which was much discussed but without finding an agreed solution.
The protesters emphasized the fact that even a simple tool held down with one foot by a mechanic should not be penalized so exhaustively as to exclude Italy from the Trophy but the verdict was not favourable.
After an entire European Championship spent discussing the past by the Jawa and KTM teams, the Italians hypothesized a conspiracy by the hosts and abandoned the field, as the men of the Zündapp team had done in Camerino, in 1974.
As always there were those who supported the theory of sabotage and those who kept quiet regarding the poor sportsmanship of the Italian team.

On the fourth day it fell to the Team of West Germany to leave the field. Paul Rottler, the young and valued replacement for Büse (stopped by an accident) in the 175cc class, broke the camshaft of his Zündapp, irreparably penalizing the entire team.
The theory of sabotage was again raised over the breakage of the Zündapp motor, whose strength was known to all as legendary.
The episode was soon forgotten however.
The main protagonist of the 5th day was rather the heavy rain which made the route impassable in many places, so much so that only 21 riders ended the day with zero penalties, while118 had to withdraw.
Czechoslovakia proved the undisputed star of the show and the country finished triumphantly
Here is the winning Trophy team - Jawa: Kvetoslav Masita – 310cc, František Mrázek - 250, Stanislav Zloch e Jiri Stodulka - 362, Otakar Toman - 511 e Josef Cìsar - 350cc, while the team composed of Petr Valek – 175cc, Jiri Posik - 344, Milan Jedlicka - 362 and Pavel Cihelka – 511, always on Jawas, won the Silver Vase.
Just behind the hosts in the Trophty competition came the Germania Democratic republic - DDR eand federal Germany - BDR, 4th USA, 5th Holland, 6th Belgium, 7th France, 8th Austria, 9th Great Britain, 10th Sweden, 11th Switzerland, 12th Finland, 13th Italy (on KTM: Mauro Miele - 125cc, Elia Andrioletti - 175, Alessandro Gritti and Gian Luigi Petrogalli - 250, Augusto Taiocchi and Emilio Capelli - 350), 14th Canada.
In the Silver Vase the GDR again came second, followed by Poland 3rd, 4th West Germany, Canada fifth, sixth Italy (on SWM: Walter and Peter Brissoni Gagni - 125cc, Pierluigi Rottigni and Andrea Marinoni - 175cc), France 7th, Switzerland 8th, Sweden 9th, 10th U.S., 11th Spain, Finland, 12th, 13th Austria, Holland 14th, 15th Australia.
The group of winners of the various classes proved equally distributed among the most prominent manufacturers in those years: the 50cc class was won by Gino Perego DKW-of Hercules, the 75cc class by Osvaldo Scaburri Puch, the 100 by Jürgen Grisse of Zündapp, the 125 by Eduard Hau Zündapp, the Frenchman Joel Queirel on KTM, the MZ 250cc of Harald Sturm, the 350cc Jawa with Květoslav Masita, the 500cc class by Harald Strossenreuter of KTM and over 500 by Pavel Cihelka of Jawa.