As the Six Day turns 100, defending World Trophy Team Italy heads to Portugal as odds-on favourite. But conditions could prove ideal for Australia
The traditional form guides for the International Six Day Enduro are the EnduroGP and the GNCC, while our home-grown ProEnduro results seem of little significance north of the equator. This year all that could change.
Reports from the FIM World Rally Championship, held in Portugal earlier this year – and won conclusively by Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders – indicate the terrain around the Alentejo region is not dissimilar to northwestern Victoria. And information published by the Six-Day organiser – Moto Sports de Santo Andre – is that the entire course consists of fewer, but longer, cross-country tests, as opposed to the sodden paddocks and short, snotty hill climbs of the previous year.
Should this be so, the conditions will prove perfect for back-to-back Hattah Desert Race winner Korey McMahon, a seasoned Six Day competitor and Australia’s absolute master in cross-country racing. Another Hattah hero, USA-based Angus Riordan, is currently leading America’s Grand National Cross Country Championship (GNCC) and is well primed for his second stoush with the Europeans.
While yet to become a world champion, Tassie Tiger Kyron Bacon has already claimed two EnduroGP victories in Portugal, amassing multiple special test wins at every venue on the calendar. Second in category at last year’s Six Day, Kyron has what it takes to go one better in Portugal – a venue that will mark the 10th ISDE for veteran Josh Strang. A member of Australia’s World Trophy winning team in 2018, Strang is a bloke keen to enjoy the same accolades again in what may well be his final Six Day campaign. The Italians may be World Trophy favourites but all carry big targets on their backs.
JUNIOR WORLD TROPHY
18-year-old Will Dennett had an exceptional debut in the Six Day, followed by a round win and a seventh outright in the 2026 Junior EnduroGP championship for Johansson Triumph. Both Will’s Six Day teammates, Max Midwinter and Kogan Lock, finished top 10 in our ProEnduro series but have yet to face the intensity of international rivalry, making victory in the Junior World Trophy a big stretch. But the young Aussies are more than capable of a result that will put them on the podium.
WOMEN’S WORLD TROPHY
Focussed on four successive wins, Team USA – Brandy Richards, Korri Steede and Rachel Gutish – will use their experience to dampen Aussie hopes from the outset. Realistically our only real chance of victory relies on Danielle McDonald setting world-beating times in each and every special test, with veteran Jess Gardiner and rookie Madi Simpson needing to grab a few special test podiums over the five days before the final motocross. Make it that far and the impossible becomes possible.
GOING FOR GOLD
Bringing home any Six Day trophy would be a remarkable coup for Australia. However, it’s almost a certainty that all 10 official Australian Team entrants will be awarded a gold medallion; and there’s every chance one of our clubbies, such as Scott Noble and Ray Borg (Dandenong MCC), Damien Scurlock and Zac Anderson (Oyster Bay MCC) or Stephen Crosby (WA Trail & Enduro MCC), might jag a gold medallion. Six-time ISDE veteran Mick Todorovic (Dungog MCC), will certainly do his best as he shepherds father-and-daughter team Ash and Kaitlynn Sprenger through the gruelling event.
There are larger enduro events, but none held in higher regard than the Six Day. FIM-MOTO.TV has live streaming.
ISDE PIONEERS
Australia’s first Six Day competitor of record was Doug Williams, contesting the 1948 ISDT in Italy where he won a trophy as the youngest Six Day competitor. After a six-week voyage, living on corned beef and cabbage, he would have won the longest-distance-travelled trophy had one been on offer.
Our first Gold Medal was claimed by Tim Gibbes riding a 1956 factory AJS in Bavaria. The following year – thanks largely to AMCN editor George Lynne – the first Aussie ISDT team sailed to Czechoslovakia. Tim Gibbes (pictured below) and John Rock would ride 250 Jawas and Les Fisher a 125 CZ, while Roy East would connive with newfound Czechmates Cerney, Platch and Zimmer in the illicit supply of much-needed spare parts.
Fewer than 40 per cent of riders completed the 2000km trial across Bohemia, Gibbes and Rock both scoring Bronze on their adventure behind the Iron Curtain. The AMCN reports reawakened Australia’s interest in the Six Day – although two decades would pass before another Aussie team saddled up for the event (also to be held in Czechoslovakia). On that occasion, Australia failed to record a single finisher. And while Phil Lovett won individual gold with top-10 placings in 1978 and 1979, our Six Day teams never threatened the podium until winning the 1995 Junior World Trophy. Since then, despite the tyranny of distance, Australia has fielded the most feared non-European teams in the ‘Olympics of Motorcycling’.
