Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Perhaps Su mmers' best move all year as his decision to stick with h is o n da ride a fte r receiv ing man y mpting offers from other rna nufacurers a fter last year's season. " I rode all the bik es after the seaso n s t year, but I reall y wanted to rid e e Honda, even thou gh I had bett er ffers from everybody else. I li ked th e onda an d I knew I cou ld win races n it. Basicall y, right now , I' m g lad stayed wit h the H onda. At that poi nt Cou ld' ve do ne somethi ng else and I robab ly wou ld've regretted it. " Man y people associate the nam e tO ll S u m mers wi th th e H o n da R600R. Summers is one of the first i'ders to successfully campaign the 'a tional H are Scrambles/Cross Coun ry Series' on the big fou r-stroke, and esp ite the XR 's, reputati on as bei ng eavy and. perhaps, lackin g in the usp en si on department, especia lly ompared to the lighter two-strokes hat most of the compe titors rod e, ummers changed a lot of people's ipirrions about the XR600. , " My XR worked so good that you in ' t say th at they're too hea vy, nd erpowered or hard to ride an ymore. think that if people rode these bikes, h~y would understand tha t I'm not uch a hero. The bik e was the hero, was just in th e righ t pl ace at th e right ime, One of th e best th in gs abo ut the R is its durability. I'm n ot one of e best mechanics, nor do I have th e esire to be one, and the bike held u p el l." Summers gave Honda its first offoad Nati on al Cham pi on sh ip title(s) in ce 1970 when J ack McLane won the ;\MA Na tion a l Cham p ionsh ip nduro titl e on a Honda. It is a lso the first time th at a nyo ne has wo n ' a National Cross Country or Ha re Scram bles Ch ampion sh ip aboa rd a four-stroke. ' As ,is the case with many off-road compe tito rs, the Summers race team pretty mu ch consists of two peopl e h imself a n d fr iend / sponsor Fr ed Bramblett . " Fred practicall y went to a ll ' the races with me th is year. Basica lly, Fred is my p it man. making sure I have ga s, " . . . I'm not such a hero. The bike was the hero, I was just in the right place at the right time." Gatorade and stuff. He 's good for my motivation and he ma kes sure I keep my priorities straight. I p retty m uc h did my own wrenchi ng, bu t I never had to do any engi ne work, but when it comes to changing tires and keeping th e cabl es lubed and all that kind of stuff, I did it all. " As far as expe nses, most of that comes out of hi s wall et, ''' I have II sponsors (Spo rts T own USA, American Honda, Super Trapp, White Bro s., JT Racing, Fred ette Racing Products, Brid gest on e, Sprocken Specialists , Tsubak i, Maiers Manuf,a cturing and Camelback) and th ey've reall y helped me out a lot , and I do almost all of my travel ing in my van. I flew to th e Ca lifornia Natio na l (Hare Scrambles) and dro ve to all of the other Scott Summers gave Honda its first off-road championship title since Jack McLane won the Enduro National Championship in 1970. Twenty years later, Summers claimed the Ha re Scrambles and Cross Country National Championships. races. We racked up a lot of mi les on the van th is year." To make a bus y year even busier, Summers recent ly teamed up wit h American Honda 's Bruce Og live and Chuck Mill er in the .Baja lOOO last month. Then, immediately following Baja, Summers hopped on an airliner and flew to Athens, Ohio, to compete in the fina l National Ha re Scrambles of the year, even though he had a lread y clinched th e title. " We got fourth down in Baj a, whi ch was a disappointment [or us sin ce we were looking for the wi n. T hose desert guys are tough. It's a lot different down there; you ha ve to ma ke decisions rea lly quick and read the terra in twice as fast as I'm used to. You average about 60 mph down in Baja , we prob abl y on ly average abo ut 30-35 mph back here. I flew back to Ohio th e day after Baja to rid e th e last round of the H are Scrambles Series. I didn 't do very well there, but luckily it didn't matter for me. I went just for the sake of being there; it always looks good to try to win th e last race of the season. At least I made an effort. " When Summers isn ' t racing, he has plenty of interests to pass the time away. " I lik e to Jet Ski in the summertime, ride my mountain bik e a little bit , I have a (Honda) Intercept or street bik e, and I lik e to ru n abo ut every other da y. I like race tra ining oriente d kind of stuff. " Life isn 't a ll fun and gam es for Summers. Like most of us, he ho lds " do wn a full -time job. "We got fourth down in Baja, which was a: disappointment for us since we were looking for the win." " My fa th er is a manufacturer 's representative in a' sma ll family-owned business here at o ur hou se, we do co n tract processin g. I'm the vice p resident of the corporation. I p retty much oversee what happens here at the house. Luckily, my work schedu le is real flexible. I have a lot of time to spe nd tra in ing or riding. We have 100 acres here at the house and I have my own p ractice cour se. I can spe nd a lot , of tim e on my bike and that makes a lot of diff erence." , As far as .next year 's plans are concerned, Summers will defend his titl es, but doesn 't pl an on mak in g too many cha nges, excep t that he'll be carry ing th e number one plate. .You might say that Scott Summers is now the ha re that everyone wants to catch . 01 37

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