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GCROSS COUNTRY 1990 AMA Wiseco/Yamaha/Yokohama Grand National Cross Country Series: Round 11 ~ .... v ..0 8 v ;> o Z Vet A class winner R ick Kresic (663) leads the combined Vet/200 A class at the Hardrock 100 National Cross Coun try. Scott Summers (far right) ended Ed Lojak's nine-year reign of the National Cross Country Series by clinching the 1990 number one plate at the Hardrock National. Summersadds Cross Country title with Hardrock 100 win By Da vey Coombs RUNNER RIDGE, W" , ocr. 27 ent ucky's Scot Summers scored hi s fifth stra igh t Grand National Cross Country overa ll victory a t the Hardrock 100. Howev er, th e celebrations of the da y were for the 1990 series titl e tha t the Honda XR 600 pil ot cl inched in the process. Sum mers , with seven overa ll wins to date, too k over the titl e from Tea m Ya maha 's Ed Lojak, the nin e-tim e reig ning cha m pio n who has had a K 14 troub le-filled season. The 23-year-old Sum mers ca n add thi s cha mpions h ip trophy to th e o ne he wo n previou sly this yea r in th e AMA Na tion al Har e Scrambles Championshi p Seri es. Su m mers baul ed throug ho ut th e afternoon with Yam ah a-mo unted j eff Ru ssell a nd KTM America/Yoko/ Wheelspor ts/ Acerb is/ Arai rider Ma rk H yde. Ohio 's Ru ssell ac tua ll y led Sum mers wh en the white flag came KTM's Mark Hyde finished third overall and won the O pen A division. ou t, but the Iour- stroke rid er was abl e to o utspri nt Russell over the course of the last 32ยท min u te lap and win by 20 seconds. H yde finished third overa ll while Tim Sh ephard and Frank Keega n rounded out the top five overall. With Sum me rs not counti ng in the O pen A resu lts, Hyd e claimed the class win while Russell accounted for the lead troph y in the 250cc A gr oup. Tea m Gr een 's Du an e Conner won th e 200cc A cla ss while Kentucky 's Carey Stu mp ga thered th e Four-Stroke A win . Honda-m ounted Ri ck Kresi c, junior leader T omm y Harris a nd Pennsylvania 's joe Lojak al so posted A cla ss wins in the three-hour run. T he eigh t-mile long Hardrock 100 co urse was o ne of the most popular of the ser ies. Laid o ut across the rolling hill s of Bun ner Ridge in northern West Virginia , the cou rse was tac ky a nd wid e ' with severa l d ifficu lt cli m bs. Some roc k sectio ns a nd a few creek cro ssings kep t the race interesting from start to fin ish . Ap proxima tel y 200 riders turned o ut for th e penultimate rou nd of the G NCC Series. Ru ssell , Shep ha rd, Lojak a nd H yde all crowded th e first turn toge ther but a t the exi t it was Kevin Brown wit h the hol esh o t, Shephard was last into the woods, havi ng dropped his bike in the corner, while Sum mers was back in 10th having misfired his Hon da on the first kick of the dead-engi ne start. Summers recovered quick ly from his bad stan a nd was a t the head of the pack by the time the first lap was completed. H yde was a close second whil e Russell led She pha rd a nd Oh io's Gary Roach. Nex t in tow were Do ug Blackw ell , Keegan , Duane Conner, Man Sp ige lmyer a nd Eric Weill ande Loj ak was a ll the way back in 14th p lace after ha vin g suffered difficulties co m pleting th e fir st loo p. ' He would , im prove to 10th by the end of the nex t lap bu t was a lready three m in utes dow n o n th e lead ers. Ru ssell was the seco n d- la p lead er with H yde a nd Sum me rs o n his fend er. The lead three flip-fl opped several tim es on the th ird lap with Summers regai n i ng co ntro l j u st before th e barrels. Ru ssell maintained a very tight second-p lace position while H yde fell a bo u t 10 seconds off of the lead time just before the halfway mark. Roach, wh o mangl ed the front fender on his KTM in a fall, was holding on to. the number four spot while Brown, Keega n a nd Sh ephard all rod e in tight format ion. The last four la ps saw H yde di sengage from the lead pair a nd settl e for a well-earned third overal l. Ru ssell , mea n w h i le, wa s tryin g to en d Sum mers' four-race win streak and beco me on ly the second rider th is year to win more than one overa ll. At the fourth- la p chec k he led Su m mers by 10 seconds , h a vin g o ut-p itted the Honda rider as both stop ped for gas . T hey stayed close th rough the next ho ur with Russell leading by one second a t the whi te flag. But Summers was holding out for a late a tta ck and o n th e last la p he cha lle nged Russell early a nd then pulled away for hi s 20seco nd win. Further back Keegan had pull ed to within a co u p le minutes of H yde gn the last lap but cou ld not make more of a dent. In fact, Kegan lost th e fourth overa ll. spot to Sh ephard, who was making a last-ditch effort to wrestl e the number two spot in th e stand ings fro m Russell. Keegan rem ained in fifth , three full minutes a head of the strugg ling Lojak . Ga ry Roach was next in tow with 200cc A lead ers Conner and Onail riding eig ht a nd ninth overall. Doug Blackw ell rounded out the top 10. Earl y co ntender Kevin Brown punctured a tir e and only completed six laps for 17th overall. Dave Fallas a nd Stan Lojak shared the lead posi tion as the 200cc A" rid ers went into th e woods, but by the end of th e first lap it was Conner leading the rest of the small bores. Pennsylvania 's Conner would lead every lap of the way while class points leader Gen e Onail rod e a steady second. In the en d Conner held just over three minutes o n On ail , who all but clinched hi s class titl e in the process o f fini shing sec o nd . Kaw a sak imounted Rob ert Tominello was th ird on the day with Fall as fourth and j ohn Vin cent fifth . Slump's Four-Stroke A win was a runaway of sort s. The big Kentu cky Honda rid er mot or ed off with a n early lead a nd eve n tua lly co m p leted all seven la ps on his wa y to the win. T racy War ring ton was second overall wit h several minutes to spa re o n j oseph La wson. Kresic's Vet A class win was a simi lar runaway as the series cha m p opened