Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

CIl al ::2 o o u > w > « o > al o lo J: 0. w ..J u:: Kawasaki 's Scott Plessinger battled through int ense dust to captu re t he overall w in at the Su n Valley GP National Hare Scrambles in Idaho. AMA National Championship Hare Scrambles Series: Round 8 Plessinger shines to Sun Valley GP win By Mike Thuleen HAILEY, ID , JULY 1-2 T eam Green's Sco tt Plessinger triumphed through the intense du st of the 1989 USA Promotions' 7th Annual Sun Valley GP. T h is year' s course was almost identical to that of · the 1986 even t. Thirty-fi ve miles long the • ' course began on a motocross track then shot u P . several 12 ridges. before dr opping onto a fast ro ad that led up to a 7200-foot high su m m it. After a fast descent down to th e bottom of a ca nyon the co u rse passed through th e out-ch eck a n d up . into th e wooded portion al ong a high mountain stream. Cresting another su m m it, ..the riders aga in found th e m sel ves in the higheleva tio n desert typified by the sharp, sandy and sh ale-in fested ridges. T he racer s us ed whooped trail sections th at led them up, down , and around th ese ridges into can yo ns filled with trees a nd th e.occasio na l mudhol e. P leas for divine intervention in th e form of rain for this year 's even t again went unanswered, with 90 degr ees o f bright su ns h ine a nd th e promise of in~amous Su n Valley dust greeung th e riders. After Bob " Mo tom outh " Ca vaki s ' " Mome n t o f Sil en ce" th e riders began staging to begin th e event using th e Virginia City Grand Prix format - 10 riders per ro w, a t 15 second interval s. Duke Dowell , starting on th e front row illustrated th e b eginning mom ents of th e eve nt , "Cork y Maughan and I ran into th e first turn sid e-by-sid e into th e sandwash , and there wa sn't enough room for both of us, so I overshot th e co rne r and he div ed by on th e ins ide. I went arou nd th e brush a nd dropped into th e creek in front of him. Theil I oversho t abo u t the third co rner an d h e got m e o n th e in side a n d I followed him ou t." . For th e seco nd row, th e sta rt was equally as inten se. " I pulled the h ol esh o t on my wave ," said Kevin Brown, "but it was so dusty th at down there where we mad e th e turn I stuffed it up. Three riders got by m e here. I just laid back a nd rode; it doesn 't make sense to pass th em and rid e h ard whe n yo u . ca n't see. But so me bad lu ck a t th e right time co u ld really help a rider's sta rt, as another seco nd ro w starter C urtis Dice indica ted, " I was las t o ff th e sta rt - I just sat and sp un. But th en everybod y p iled up in th e first co rner, so I go t bac k by abo u t h al f m y line. When I head ed ou t of th e m o to section , I was beh ind Todd Peu gh , a nd th ey say he ended u p leading o ur row." . P ilo ting an ATK 406 off th e third row , Ron Naylor a three-time winner o f th is even t, co m me nted on his in it ial minutes of th e race, " Sco tt Su m mers passed m e right off th e ' start, a nd down th ere in th e san dwas h he go t into a bunch of people a nd I go t a ro u nd everybody. I got up to probably 10th right aw ay on th e rid ge. I walked it before th e race a nd had a lot of good lines up there. But it was sti ll so dusty I'd have to sto p. One time, I stopped for IS or 20 seco nds wh en I didn 't know which wa y the co u rse went. The wind wo u ldn' t blow. I was jus t sitt ing th ere, loo king around. Finall y, I co uld p ick ou t wh ere I was going." Maughan wa s o u t in front with Dowell and Pl essing er fur iousl y cha sing a fter him. " T h ere was a sha le roc k face that we ca m e d own la st year, " sa id Maughan , "and th ere was two wa ys · to go , b u t I co u ldn ' t decid e whi ch way, a n d I fell down in th e process, letting Pl essinger a nd Dow ell by." T he dust was obvio usly worse for th ose riders not out in front , but still in th e to p 10. Jimmy Lyngar described so me o f th e more exci tin g mo me nts, " I wa s just following helmets. In th e back sectio n it was Brown, m e, Ni el sen , an d th en Ed Loj ak came . We were a ll clipping al ong and I saw Kevin m ak e th e turn wh ere th ey had cu t a section out of so me logs. But I didn't think it was th at sharp and I ran stra ig h t through th e logs into so me more logs. I went over the bars and landed in th e cr eek u p s id e-d o w n a nd impacted my fanny pa ck into my back. I was n ot happy. " Br own a lso h ad so me down moments on th e first la p , "The exhaus t pipe plugged up on me and I had to sto p and unplug it. Seven guys got by m e wh en I did that." At th e close of th e fir st loo p , Pl essinger had nearly five minutes on Dowell. In third, Maughan was busy h olding off a determined Naylor. Mounted on a KTM 250 from Nevada, Dav e Port er led th e next seri es of riders including Todd Peugh and Scott Summer s on ope n bikes. Washington's David Rhodes led th e Four-Strok e A class in eighth overa ll aboard his Husqvarna, with another Washington rider, John Nielsen pursui ng him. Brown, Dice and Fritz Kadlec, in 12th and working his way up from a fourth-row start, made up the next group of rid ers . Back up on the co u rse, Lojak had seized his 250 Yamaha and was in th e process of returni ng to th e pits. H eading out o nto the second la p , Na ylor made his move on Maughan, th en captured seco nd from Dowell while powering up a ridge towards the first summit. Maughan repassed . Dowell shortly thereafter on th e "Too Much Fun Club Hill" a lon g , brutal precipice of shale and sand whi ch o n ly Sunday's riders were a llowed to con q ue r. " Abo u t halfway around the seco nd lap I just faded ," exp la ined Dowell, " I haven 't had II • a lle rgies in years, but for some reason I have hay fever this year and I'm taking medication - and I was just zonked." Kadlec went to work on the seco nd lap. " Sta rt ing from th e fourth row, I did as best as I co u ld ," said Kadlec. "I just didn't ever ra ce until the beginning of th e seco nd lap. So, before th en I just drove around in the dust for 30 mil es. But a fter that, I started pi cking peop le off." He also had so me help, as a ttritio n co ntin ued to claim its victims . " I lo st m y ax le nut a nd some parts fro m m y axle," said Nielsen . "T h e th e axle sp u n aro u nd and knocked m y d isc ro to r loose, so I just ca lled it quits." KawasahKX500 pilot Peugh held seven th overall lat e into th e secon d lap, but th en encou ntered a flat tire. At th e pits h e ch a nged i t, and rocketed back o u t onto th e co u rse, but fell severa l times a nd concerned about hi s sti ll-hee ling a n kle, decided to call it a day . H ow ever, anothe r victim of fla t tir es, Dice m aintained his persevera nce , " Well , I got three flat tires, so I changed a tire at each p it. T he n I got a fla t front tire and I'd just keep crashing - it was a ll rutted o ut u p there. I left my brain in the motel room - I ran into that stupid mudhole twi ce! The seco n d time it jammed up m y ch ain and discs so bad I couldn't even spi t it out with my bike. I had to p ick m y whole bike up, push it out, th en fire it up to clean a ll th e junk out of it and get goin g. T he n , wh en I took off my gogg les, I pulled th e .1en se right out o f th e frame, a nd I h ad to stop an d put it back in . It wa s a wonderful da y!" . . With Pl essinger h eavily on the gas in first, Nayl or spe nt th e seco n d a nd third laps attempting to ch ip awa y at his lead. " O n th e la st lap I wa s 35 or 40 secon ds behind Scott," said Nay lor, " An d I got a no ther flat. Then I was just dead tired after rid ing with th a t flat, and I kn ew I wa sn't going to catch hiin, so I started slo win g down. Th e bike worked reall y good , though. .The third lap wasn't anything lik e th e firs t lap - the first lap was like a freeway; the last lap the re wer e ho les three-a nd-four feet deep. You could on ly get ou t of shape about six inch es because there was a groove. This is the toughest race they've ever had here." . Plessin ger took the overa ll win just ov er two minutes ahead of Naylor on ela psed time. 'Eigh t minutes la ter , Maughan rode his 250 · Suzuki through the finisher's chute. Kadl ec managed to pass yet one more rider on th e final lap - Kentuckian Scott Summers. " My foot is injured right now, but it's not broken," explained Summers while removing th e bandages from his foot, " It wa s so dusty and you couldn't see th e danger marking until you were at th e danger itself. One lap, I ca me to a giant creek crossing with steep banks just before you cross a road. I cou ldn't even see it a nd I cleared the whole thing in fourth gear. " Brown a lso managed a late race pass on R hodes w hi ch a llowed h im to capture sixth overall and fourth 250cc A. Dowell fin ished in eigh th , with Dan Rich ardso n using the la st lap to vau lt h imself into the top 10 ahead o f Worland, Wyoming 's Mik e Birds ley. . The 125cc A class became jumbled u p right off the start, as Ca lifornia's Tim Morton re lated, "J ust after the start, some guy bailed over th ere in the whoops. I couldn 't see anything because of the dust and I ran over his bike. It made me cra sh and our bikes got tangled together. So, I went

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