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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127262
9HARE SCRAMBLES AMAN ational Championship Hare Scrambles/Cross Country Series: Rounds 5/4 ~. T he Winter Place 100, which is held at a ski resort in West Virgi n ia , saw the combined National Hare Scrambles/Cross Count ry attract a horde of off-road racers. Honda XR600 -mounted Scott Summers bagged his second win of the year after a race-long duel with defending Hare Scram bles Champion Scott Pl essin ger. In spite of a late-race crash and brake problems, Plessinger finished second. Summers outduelsPlessinger at Winter Place National the way back to 15th ," said Summers. " I kept having those lit tle spi lls wh ere a bad line or a wet rock kn ocks you off your wheels." At the end of the first 19·minute lap , Naylor led Plessinger by 20 seconds with McS wain , H yd e and Lo ja k foll ow in g. . On lap two, Naylor came up short on one of the climbs and was forced off of hi s AT K, allo wing Plessinger a clear path into the lead. A lap later, Naylor sho t back into fifth, as McSwain, Loj ak and Summers pu shed throu gh . Plessinger's lead measured 30 seconds on McSwain at that point, with Lojak rig ht on the run ner-up 's tail. Wh en the race passed the one hour mark, it was sudden ly Summers at th e front of the pa ck, having cha llenged and passed Pl essinger in o ne of th e thic k woo ds sectio ns. The two th en swapped the lead several ti mes over th e next co up le of laps; the score sheets showing that they were within th ree seconds of each o ther at the barrels each. tim e through. . " When Scott first pulled up behind me, I figured we were going to have By Da vey Coombs FLATTOP, WV, MAY 1 3 ent ucky's Sco tt Sum mers won a day -lo ng battle agains t defen ding Nationa l H are Scra m bles Ch ampion Scott Plessinger for th e overall victory a t th e co m b ine d Na tio na l Championship Hare Scrambles and Cross Country Series event. It wa s the Honda XR600 rider's second consecu tive Winter Place 100 win and hi s .second overall combi ned victory of th e season. Summers topped Plessinger by ju st over fo ur minutes after breaking o ut of a two-ho ur duel with one lap to go in the l l -lap, three-hour contest. T eam Yamaha's Ed Lojak finished ' K 18 th ird overa ll j ust ahea d of teammate J eff Russell and KTM -mo unt ed Steve McSwain . KTM 's Mark H yde and AT K's Ron Naylor were first off the 16-rider AA line with Plessinger in third. Su mmers was fifth , but halfway through the first loo p , he du mped his Honda in a bog and lost three positions to Yamaha ri de r T im Sh ephard, AT K's Greg Zitt erkopf and Hyde, who had also d ropped back . Two mo re cras hes relegated Summers even farther back at the end of lap one. " At one po int I must ha ve been all a good race," sa id Plessinger. " I might have gotten away there in the middle when I pitted a lap befor e Scott, bu t my crew didn 't get the ta nk filled and I had to sto p agai n o n th e next lap." T ha t blunder ma y have cost just a few seco nds to Plessinger's efforts, but by allowing Summers' to sta y close on the Honda fo ur-stroke, he was asking for tro ub le. As the race went on, with hu nd reds of riders ma king lap afte r lap o n the rela tively sho rt 6.7-mile course, the wet trails were getting ro ug her by th e mi nu te, th e type of condi tio ns that favor Su mm ers' hea vier mach ine. . "The XR just worked flawless out o n thi s track ," said Summers. As Summers and Plessin ger engaged one an other o ut front , the action behind them was equall y as intense. Lojak was goi ng at it with McSwain in the .race for thi rd, as Ru ssell rode fifth with a ban ged up exha ust pipe. T he overall Hare Scrambles Series leader, Summers, seemed to be havin g trouble with his brakes as well , and was trying to hold Zitterkopf at bay. Shep har d and Hyde, mean whil e, were also in the thick of thi ngs , a nd at th e h alfway point, postions between thi rd and eig hth were filled by Lojak , McSwain, Zitterkop f, Cross Country Seri es points lead er Ru ssell, H yde and Shep ha rd. Naylor had qui t after four laps . . As th e leaders began th e last three laps, the bat tle up front was still close, as Summers went into th e woods with just seve n secon d s to spare o ver P lessinger. Three minutes behind the leade rs was Loj ak . Russell eventually go t past Zitt erkopf and was soon tra iling McSwain by just one bikelen gth . A coup le mor e lead changes took place on lap nine, and wh en they surfaced to be scored, it was Plessin ger back in the dr iver's seat, but his KT M was ha ving problems. " I lost my front brakes righ t about tha t time," said Plessinger. "Scott went back by when my front brak e pad s got cocked si deways an d stopped working." Plessinger's cause was helped by yet ano ther fall by Summers, this time wh en he rear- ended a lap ped rider. " Wit h two laps to go, I smashed into , the back of a guy and yo ucould hear . metal gri nd, " said Summers. " I was goi ng twice as fast as he was wh en he ju m ped over into my line. I co uldn 't' miss him. Sco tt passed me and I thought th at was it." Plessinger was right back in the race at that point but made one too many