SPECIAL FEATURE
PAUL MALIN 1994 YAMAHA YZ125 CAN YOU BELIEVE IT’S BEEN THIRTY YEARS SINCE TEAM GREAT BRITAIN LAST WON THE MONSTER ENERGY FIM MOTOCROSS OF NATIONS? IN FACT, IT WAS SO LONG AGO, THAT BACK THEN, IT WAS REFERRED TO AS THE MOTOCROSS DES NATIONS! ANYWAY, ON SEPTEMBER 11TH 1994, HISTORY WAS MADE WHEN THE BRITISH TRIO OF KURT NICOLL (500CC), ROB HERRING (250CC) AND PAUL MALIN (125CC) ENDED THE AMERICAN WIN STREAK WHICH HAD STRETCHED BACK TO 1981. FURTHERMORE, IT WAS GB’S FIRST VICTORY IN TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS. TO MARK THE OCCASION, THE BIKE THAT WE WILL FEATURE IN THIS ISSUE OF MXGP MAGAZINE IS PAUL MALIN’S YAMAHA YZ125, WHICH HE RODE TO THE 125CC CLASS VICTORY IN SWITZERLAND, THIRTY YEARS AGO.
The Motocross of Nations is widely considered as the biggest motocross event on the planet, an event where the top three riders from thirty-six nations go head-to-head on the same track, on the same weekend, in the hope of lifting the Peter Chamberlain Trophy in front of their wild, enthusiastic fans. Prior to 1994, Team Great Britain had won the event a staggering FIFTEEN times during a twenty-one year period (1947-1967). But then, something crazy happened! From 1968 to 1993, not only were there no wins, GB had only taken a further ten podiums, the last of which just two years earlier in Australia in 1992. Heading into Roggenburg, Switzerland, for the 48th edition of the MXdN, it’s worth noting that there were a few backstories which would play out in a way which may, or may not have had a bearing on the overall result.
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First up, defending champions, Team USA selected Mike Larocco to race in the 500cc class, with Mike Kiedrowski (250cc) and Jeff Emig (125cc). However, Kiedrowski came into the event nursing an ankle injury. As for the 125cc choice, the AMA elected to overlook the newly crowned FIM 125cc World Champion, Bob Moore in favour of the AMA 125cc outdoor champion, Emig. Nothing wrong with that, except many believed that the Swiss hillside circuit was more of a perfect fit for Moore, who’d lived and raced in Europe for nine years.
Team Belgium also had issues with their selection, opting to run Jacky Martens in favour of Stefan Everts, in what supposedly had something to do with one of the team’s sponsors preferring one rider over the other. Apart from that, the word on the street was that the American team was still the team to beat, as they looked to make it fourteen consecutive victories. On paper, heading into MXdN ’94, Team Great Britain was the most successful nation with fifteen victories, followed by the USA (13) and Belgium (9), and this was probably the biggest backstory of all. In 1994, Kurt Nicoll was racing in the 250cc world championship along with Rob Herring and Paul Malin, and for the first time, the British federation (ACU) decided to bring in the recently retired three-time world champion, David Thorpe as the Team Manager, who thought the best way to select the team was by inviting a shortlist of riders to a series of ‘try-out’ days, in order for him to get a closer look at how they all operated. At that time, GB had several riders competing in all three world championship classes, and as a result, Thorpe invited all those riders to take part in these ride days. The real spanner in the works though came from Steve Dixon, who was also Malin’s mechanic, who hinted that Paul was available for 125cc selection as well as a possible 250cc candidate, something which Malin himself was initially unaware of, as he points out: