Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ CROSS COUNTRY 1990 AMA Wiseco/Yamaha/Yokohama Grand National Cross CountrySeries: Round 9 e Tim Shep hard began the Buckeye 100 National Cross Country near the back of the pack but crossed the finish line in second place following the three-hour race. Scott Summers, who is seeking his first-ever National Cross Country Championship title. captured the overall victory. two minutes ahead of Shephard. Summers strikes in Ohio By Da vey Coombs WATERFORD,OH, SEPT. 16 o r t he fift h ti me t his seaso n Kentucky's Scott Summers ca ptured the overa ll win at an AMA G rand National Cross Country event, and in doing so cl imbed closer to winning hi s first- ever cross country title . The 23 -year-old. Summers , F 14 posted a two minute-plus win over Yamaha-backed Tim Shephard to win the Buckeye 100 National in Waterford. Summers mov ed into the lead ea rlx in the three-hour ru n a nd was net:~r headed th ereafter. Finishing another four minutes behind ShepHard in third overall was H iPoint/ Scot ti Dunlop/ RK Ch ain 's Jeff Russell. The 200cc A class wi nner a nd series points leader, Gene O na il, placed fourth with upstart West Virgi nian Doug Blackwell a solid fifth overall. Answer/ KK/Maier/Wiseco/Tsubaki/ PSI-backed Shephard captured the 250cc A class win on his way to the runner-up overall ride, while Team KTM's Mark Hyde, eighth overall, was moved into the top Open A class position by virtue of Summers' overall effort. Kentucky's Ha rvey Wh ita ker was the Fo ur- Stro ke A lead er, wh ile series class fro nt -r u n ners Tommy Har ris and Rich Kresic won the Jun ior a nd Vet A divisions, respectively. Ap proximately 200 riders made it to the start ing line for the th ird a n n ua l Buckeye 100, orga nized by the P ioneer Motorcycle Club. The Buckeye is a difficult trail , surrounded by what many ride rs describe as, "T he tightest woods on th e circu it." Making matters even more difficult on thi s year 's sevenmil e long co ur se were a pair of bottlenecks that often had the rid ers push ing th eir bikes through stopped traffic. Several top riders, incl uding nine-time GNCC cha m p Ed Lojak and H yde, had difficulty with the bottleneck sto ps and steep cl im b s that followed a nd lost valuable ti me in the process. Said Summers of the ob stacl es, " O n th e very last lap of the race. after three hours, there still must have been 30 bikes stuck o n that last short hill. " The race began with a dead- engine start in the valley where the p its lay. Russell showed the fastest reflexes a nd charged into the ear ly lead o n hi s WR250 Yama ha. " T hat was my first hol esh ot in so me time," said Russell. " If I cou ld have finis hed like I sta rted, I'd be a hero rig ht now. " Ru ssell 's lead tim e would not measure a full lap as Su m me rs, starting out in seventh on the Am erica n Honda/ PJ I/Supe rTrapp/ Wh ite Bro s./ Fredette/Mai er/ T subak i/Br idgesto ne/Camelbak/ Sprocket Speci alists/ J .T. Racing /Sportstown USAbacked Honda XR600, was into the top position with nine seco nds to spa re at the end of the first 23-minute lap. Russell maintained second with Ed Lojak next on his Sm ith/ Ara i/Metzeler/ Hi Po in t Yamaha. Sh ephard a nd H yde rounded o ut the top five wit h Team Green ' s Duane Co n ne r a nd Do ug Blackw ell nex t. Gene O nail, piloting a Yamaha YZI25 Yama ha, do mi na ted the 200cc A class at Waterford a nd was the on ly rider in the d ivision to post the full complement of eight la ps. Kawasakimounted Ro be rt Tomi nello was secon d overall for the second time in as many weeks, this time placing an impressive seventh overa ll in the process. Along the way he bettered fellow Pennsylvan ian Dave Fallas by severa l minutes. Bentl ey's Suzuki rider Michael Burk placed fourt h with series class co ntender Stan Lojak finis hing a tro u ble-fill ed fifth overal l. In Vet A racing Ri ch Kresic closed . o n hi s first-ever GNCC cla ss title with a no ther win in the 30 years-p lus group. Kresic pu t in seven la p s to win by a co m fo rta ble margin over Yama hamounted David Molnar. Kresic's perform ance was good ' enough in the whol e scheme of things to allow him an impressive 10th overall. Behind Molnar finished Piml Michels. ' The first real con troversy of the da y eru p ted ea rly when Summers and Ru ssell fo und themselves on an alterna te path going up a steep climb. The orga nizers had p laced a slow er alter nate route in case bottlenecks formed or riders had difficulty with the shorter, steeper pa th. Summers and Russell used this alternate lin e for the first th ree laps - a t a loss of about 20 seconds - while the ot her riders hi t the main line. O bservers though t this was a sho rtcu t for the lead pair and complaints were heard before the trail bosses let the fans know the situati on. In fact, Summers lost the lead on lap two when Gary Roach surprised him with a quick sprint up the main line. "I came around a corner a nd Roach wa s ri ght i n front o f me ," said Su m me rs. " I thought I was lapping him already until Fred Bramblet t's mec ha nic sig na lled to me that I was o n the lon g line. I though t tha t the path I was usin g was the real o ne and th e o the r wa s th e ' wussy' path." , Summers would retake Roach befor e the second lap was co m p le te a nd would not be overtaken again. After two laps th e scor esheets read Summers by a minute wi th Russell , Conner , Hyde, Roach , Lojak and Blackwell all bunched tog ether. Shephard, dead last off th e start, was up to ninth pl ace but more than two minutes back. T om Harris moved closer to th e class title in Junior +25 action, winning the da y with a seven -la p runaway. Harris fin ished on the same minute as runnerup Donald Bigl ey but was one full lap ahead. Ohio's Jim Kalleker and Ken tucky's Mark Mehuron ran third and fourth in the class. Another bluegrass rider , Honda-mounted Harv ey / Whitaker, was the Four-Stroke A winner , bettering steady rival s Tracy Warringto n a nd Carey Stum p to win the day. The Sen io r A winner was Geor gia's T erry Mealer o n a Spectro / T RacingT ba cked Yamaha . Meal er reg istered seven laps to beat class co nte nde r Joe Lojak a nd West Vir ginia 's Randy Duckw orth. Towa rds the middle part of the race Conner began making waves o n the A r a i / Re n th a I/ Ke i h i n / H i P oi n tsponsored KX250 and was within a minute of Summers after four la ps. However , o n lap five Conner hit trouble on th e tr ail big time a nd dropped five minutes and five position s off o f the pace . He would eventua lly finish sixth overall. At the same time as Conner's decline Shephard was o n ' th e rise a nd after five laps held the shotgun position , 90 . seconds shy of the lead er. Loj ak 's u p a nd-do wn da y had h im back u p to third bu t bo ttl eneck wou ld delete hi m from contentio n o n the next la p an d he would fall to 11th overall at the checkered flag. Once into second Shephard could not make a move o n Su m mers. " I think the bo tt lenecks rea lly did me in," said She p hard, the cu rre nt series leader. " Every tim e that I started to catch Scott (Su mmers) I wo u ld hi t a traffic ja m o n o ne of those hi lls." She p hard wo uld neve r get Summers' ta ill ight in sig ht and would finally fin ish just over two minutes behi nd. Summers had one last moment o f exci tement with two laps to go when he came around to a bottlen eck where severa l riders wer e sta lled. A club member pointed Summers a nd th e riders that followed , around a no the r altern ate route a nd agai n questions were raised by other riders in the field. The club members explained that this was necessary al1 day long and riders 'were pointed around the impassable lin es whenever possible. Late in the race Summers would get stuck o ne last time and this time found help from an u nlikely source - race co ntende r Mark Hyde. "Mark was sta nding there hel~ another guy up the hill and then he a

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