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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127372
eCROSS COUNTRY e AM! Wisero/Yamaha/Yokohama Grand National Cross Country Series: llound I Steve McSwain (17), Chris Caplinger (IS) and overall winner Scott Summers (middle) chase leader Scott Plessinger's roost at the start of the Open A division'.' KTM 's Jeff Russell finished second in the 250cc class and third overall. Summers strikes at StateLine By Davey Coombs 14 SHELBY, NC, MAR. 10 efendi ng Grand National Cross Scott Country , Champion Summers began hi s defense of the number-one plate with a resounding D overall victory a t the StateLine Nat ional Cross Country. Summers, the 23-year-old Kentu ckian who is also the current AMA National Hare Scrambles Champion , simply outclassed the competition on the difficult, rutted trail aboard his Honda XR600 fourstroke. Four-tim e National Enduro Champion T erry Cunningham crossed the fini sh line a little more than four minutes beh ind Summers after the three-ho ur race. KTM's Jeff Russell scored third overa ll, respectively, and was foll owed by Team Suzuki's Kevin Hines, Yamaha-mounted Tim Shephard and 200cc A class winner Craig Jon es. With Summers scoring the overall win , AT K-mount ed Tony Hendon, wh o fi nish ed eighth o vera ll , was officia lly named as the Open A class winner. Team Green 's Cunningham wa s th e 250c c A victor; Hondamounted Michael Cornett won the Four-Stroke A divis ion, while Yamaha YZ490pilot John Vincent captured the Jun io r 25-P lu s win . Other class win ners included Rick Kresic (Vet A), J oe Lojak (Sen io r A) and Harry Greenlee (Super Senior ), each of whom are defending champs in their respec tive classes. .- The Carolina course, laid out on the farm of series competitor Buren Hamrick, was a 6.2-mile-a-Iap affair, lined with tight woods and more than a dozen difficult creek crossings. The banks of the crossings gave out earl y and made for deep ruts and lots of bike pushing. Even Summers had difficulty with the banks. " I got stuck a few times out there du ring the race, but on the last lap 1 buried it for more than a minute," Summers said. " I was lucky that a couple of other riders jumped in to help me, or 1 would've been there for a while. It was a gnarly race." One other obstacle that made for an interesting run was the abundance of old fences strewn across' the hills. " Wire in the wheel ," was the most commonly heard excus e/complaint after the event. More than 300 riders attended the second running of the StateLine event. When the first row of Open A riders left the start area , Ohio's Scott Plessinger held the early lead; it was the former title holder's first GNCC race since last July. "I dislocated my shoulder and broke a bone at the top of my arm racing out West last summer," Plessinger said. " It cost me six months off the bike. I'm still working on getting my timing back." For the first 20-minute lap, Pl essin'ger 's tim ing looked just fine, as he opened a short lead on runner-up Summers, who had started 10th. Local hero Steve McSwain was running third with ATK 's Ron Naylo r, from California, leading teammate Hendon in fourth . Both Naylor and Hendon ran into difficulties early in the race and were forced to play, catch-up for the better part of the day. Kawasaki teammates Duane Conner and Aaron Hough led the second combined 200/250cc A start. Cunningham, KTM 's Kevin Brown and Russell were also riding toward the , front. Hough's bid for the win, however, would only last into the second turn, where he crashed his Kawasaki KX250 and fell back to last. Nine-time GNCC Champion Ed Lojak was also in the thick of battle early in the race while making his series debut on a Yoko/Smith/Arail Lojak's-backed ATK 406. But Lojak's day ended before the halfway point when the Pennsylvanian cracked his thumb on a pine tree. The 200cc A race looked to be a Tommy Norton runaway. The newly