Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eCROSS COUNTRY AMA Wiseco/Yamaha/Yokohama Grand National C Country Series: Final round ross m Duane Conner ended Scott Summers' win streak at the final National Cross Country of the year. The win moved Conner up to eighth in the final point standings. Two days after finishing fourth at the Baja 1000. recently crowned Cross Country Champion Scott Summers pulled out of the race in Ohio after a couple of falls. Conner wins in Ohio finale By Davey Coombs ATIiENS, OH, NO\'. 4 went y-twO-year-old Duane Conner sn apped re centl y cro wne d Nati onal Cross Country Champion Scott Summers' wi n streak at five, when he won the series-ending Burr Oaks National near Athens. The Pennsylvanian, Conner. pulled off an upset of sorts, as he bettered a string of fast Ohio riders in their own backyard. Yamaha-mounted Jeff Russell followed the Team Green /MS Racing/Metzeler/Scott/Pro-Circuitl Bell /Factory Connection /Moose Racing-sponsored Conner across the finish line to claim second overall in both the Burr Oaks run and the final ch a m p io nship standings. ·T ea m KTM 's Mark Hyde was third overall, while 200cc A class winner Terry T 12 Cunningham. gri n ded o u t a so lid fourth. Tim Shephard rounded out the top five. Other class winners included FourStroke A class leader Tracy Warrington, Junior class pilot Ted Fischer, Vet A front-runner Wally Wilson, and Senior A class champion Joe Lojak. Russell picked up the 250ccA win after Conner was declared the overall victor; Hyde was the Open A winner. The JTM-promoted Burr Oaks race was on the GNCC schedule for the first tim e th is year and race organizers Russell , Shephard, and part-time com petito r Mik e Frazee had th eir hands full in ' both promoting and competing in the event. " It was much more difficult than I th ou gh t it woul d be," sa id JTM Promot ions' Ru ssell. " Every o ne th inks it's a real advanta ge to have help lay out the course and th en race on it, but it's not. I was relucta nt to try new lin es becau se I was so familiar with the or iginal design . When the track got worked up after an hour I was mo re lost than anyone!" The 8.5-mile-Ion g course was con sidered one the best of the series. Lots of tig ht woods and a short specia l test sectio n tha t allowed the spectators a prolon ged loo k at the rid ers were the highl igh ts of the course. A sunny da y in the mid-50s made for great racing, though an in ch of rai n two days before th e run meant that the track would be forming deep ruts earl y. Approximat ely 200 riders attended the race. When the first row of 250cc and Open A riders bolted from the gra ssy starting area, it was Russell snatching the holeshot from KTM rider Kevin Brown . Shephard and Ed Lojak were next with Conner, Hyde and Doug - Blackwell following , as the pack headed for the opening of the trees. Ru ssell, how ever, would not be the first into the woods. " I fell right before we went into the woods. The front end just washed out and I went sliding down," said Rus sell. At the comp letio n of th e first 24minute lap, Brown was holding the lead position with . Rus sell, Hyde, Loj ak , a n d Conner a ll bunched toge the r a t a 20-seco nd def ici t. Summers was mired back in 18th place. " I just couldn 't get things togeth er out there," said the Nationa l Har e Scrambles and GNCC champ. " I n ew back from the Baja 1000 last ni ght and I just couldn't cope with the cha nge.. Racin g 100 mph across the desert one day and th en cra wling through these trees the next was not a good idea. After I crashed abo ut 10 times on the first two lap s, I realized that my day might be bett er spent just watching." Ind eed, Summers was ou t of th e run before the end of th e first hour.: Cunningh am 's 200cc A class effort offset th e series-winning performance of Gene On ail. The Yamah a-mounted On ail record ed second overa ll to win the division titl e after a year-long struggle with riva l Stan Lojak, As Cu n n ingha m fo u ght fo r overa ll honors aboard his Kawasaki, Onail situated himse lf in second to secure the championship. Dave Fallas bette red Robert Tominello for th ird. whi le John Vincent occupied the numberfive position a t the fin ish. The third Lojak in the field. Joe, captured th e Senior A class championship wit h his sixth win of the series. Lojak tied the injured Terry Mealer in both points and number of wins bu t was awarded the overa ll after win ni ng the all -important final event. Yama hamounted Dave Coo mbs was second on the day. On the second lap Ru ssell rep laced Brown for the top spo t bu t was unable to make a break from th e pack. New to th e front were Shephard and Gary Roach. Conner was back in fifth , . nearl y a minute off Ru ssell's lead pace. The Kawasaki rid er was readjusting to his Kawasaki KX250 after spending a few weeks on a 125. . "I had been having problems in the rocky, muddy races on my 250," said Conner, "so I tried my brother's KXI25 just to see if it was me. It turned out to' be great therapy, because the 125 made me ride much more aggressively when I jumped back on the 250." Conner made his move on the third lap , passing Roach , Brown , and Ru ssell to hold second behind Shephard. The gap between first and fifth after more than an hour of racing was just 25 seco nds. Ed ' Loja k, like Su mmers, was having h is share of problems on the Burr Oaks trail. Just after the halfway mark of the th reehou r run Loja k retired to th e pits and called it a season. Warr in gton 's Four-Strok e A class win was not enoug h to take the title away from Harvey Whitaker, who fin ished third overall. Splitting th e difference between th e two Hon da riders was Mike Scho ll. In the Junior class Yamaha-mounted Ted Fischer put in the da y's top performance, but it was T ommy Harris' year. The sixrace winner was a no-show at the final e, ha ving pr eviously clinched the titl e. The 250cc B class cha mpion, Ron Palermo, fini shed second in the Over. 25 division . Michael Cornett, Jim Kalleker and Yamaha-mounted Mark Mehuron rounded out the top five. KTM-mounted Wall y Wison picked up the Vet A class victory, but the .number-on e plate for th e season had already been awarded to Rick Kresic. Paul Michels wa s seco nd behind Wilson at the race and second behind Kresic for th e series. Third through fifth on the day were David Molnar, Mike McCarren and Gallie Ward. A surprise of sorts occurred on the fourth of eigh t laps when Roach surfaced first from the woods in the overall lead po sition . The KTM rider had di splaced both Shephard and Conner towards the end of the lap. The other . rider towards th e front of the pack wa s Kevin Brown , but his machine's ignition broke and his day was over before th e fifth lap was comp leted. Conner held second just off of Roach 's flank , while Shephard was just seven seco nds back in thi rd. Russell and Hyd e followed at 30second interval s with Cunningham next. The 200cc A leader was beginning to emerge as an overa ll contender after starting one-min u te behind the 250/0pen A ro w on the dead-engine take-off. Things finally began to fall int o place on the next lap as Conner moved around Roach a nd began to open some breathing roo m. "I hung around in th e top five for a wh ile to see how things would set up," said Conner. "After th e halfway po int the tra il started to clear and I found a really good ryth m. Over the last co u p le of laps no o ne really challenged me." Roach 's fifth lap was disasterous. The former lead rider went down and then had tro ub le with his bike, as well. He lost seven minu tes to the leaders on the loo p and wou ld ultimately finis h seventh beh ind Doug Blackwell. Shephard was figh ting exhaustio n after the two-hour mark, the early fat igue resulting from the combinatio n of racin g and o rga n izing a Nat iona l-caliber event. He would slip back to fifth by the time the checkered flag fell , more th an 10 minutes off of the winning time. The last rider to go by Shephard was Cunningham, who posted a stro ng fourth overall in his first finish of the series. H yde's day would end in thi rd overall, on e of his best finishes of the series. However, even though the four time Blackwater 100 winner posted several top placings throughout the year, the class championship belonged to Summers. The rest of the Open A resu lts read Greg Holden second with Charles Rogerson third and Robert McClelland fourth . Russell overtook Hyde just before the wh ite flag for second overall but had no legitimate chance of catching Conner for what would've been his second overall of the series. (Summers, with seven overall victories, was the

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