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GCROSS COUNTRY AMA Wiseco/Yamaha/Yokohama Grand National Cross Country Series: Round 8 e \ Scott Plessinger 's Bucke ye Run victory was his second major win in a row . P lessingerback on track at the Buckeye Run By Davey Coombs W TERFORD, OH, AUG. 25 A ormer National Hare Scra mbles C ha mp io n Scott P lessin ger p icked up hi s second maj or woods race.win in a ro w at the Buckeye Run. T he KTM Am eri ca /KR W C ycl e/ Smith/ Ara il Me tzeler / MS R acin g / T subak i/Du ralub e/D yn o p o rt- supported Plessinger scored his first big win of th e year at a recen t round of the Nation al H are Scrambles Series in New York. Defending GN Cc-Series Cham p ion Sco tt Summers was second overa ll at the Buck eye Run" fin ishing at a one F 26 minute, seven secon d deficit to th e o verall winner. P lessinger 's KTM teammate Jeff Russell was third overall. ATK-mounted Frank Keegan and 200cc A class' winner Stan Lojak rounded out the top five overall. "This feels real good because everything is finally starting to go my way, " said 23-year-old Plessinger, from Hamilton, Ohio. " I had no problems and rode a real smooth race. The bike is working great and I've got my pace and my confidence back up. " Before his recent win streak, Ples- singer suffered numerous mi shaps th is season and has five DNFs in the GNCC Series alone. With the Buckeye win, Plessinger jumped up to l Sth overall . in the series standi ngs but he is already o u t of conte n tio n fo r th e se ries championsh ip . At the to p of the standi ngs a log jam has formed. Penns ylvania 's Duane Conner surrendered the overall lead when he was forced to sit o ut the Buckeye round wi th a severe ,case of mononucleosis. Conner may be ou t until October. HisKawasak i team ma te Terry Cu n ningham, who finished a troubled 13th at the Buckeye, too k over the lead from Co nner by one point, 119-118. West'Virginia's Doug Blackwell holds th ird with 117 while Ru ssell remains fourth, just eight points behind Cunningham. The best nine of 13 finishes will be used to determine the final overall standi ngs. T he Buckeye Run, hosted by th e Pion eer Motor cycle Clu b, was on the GNCC sched ule for the fou rth consecutiv e year. This time the trail was a co mbina tio n of tig ht woods and tall grass areas, with a mo tocross grass sectio n and a couple of short, sha llow creek crossi ngs. Rain in th e days prior to the race left half the track moist and loa m y, whi le o the r sec tio ns wer e turn in g up du st by the end of the day. Nearly' 200 rid ers co mpe ted o n th e eigh t-mi le per lap Buckeye course in near-perfect weather. The sta rt went good and bad for KTM 's top two riders. Pl essinger na iled the righ t-turn ho leshot out of th e first ,ro w of 250cc A/ Open A class riders. wit h Cu nni ngham, Blackwell and Summers in tow. Back on the line sat MS Racin g/EK Chain/ Dun lo pbacked Ru ssell, the victim of a fouled plug. Russell wouldn 't get away for 55 seconds, just in time to lead th e second row of 200cc AlFo ur-Stro ke A class riders into the woods, H e wou ld p lay catch- up throughout the three hour lo ng ru n , ultimately finishing third overa ll. At the end of the first 22 mi nute, 30-seco nd lap , Plessin ger was still o u t fro nt wi th Ch arlie's Cycle / Black's Cycl e-bac ked Blackwell , Summers, Cunningham , Keega n and Ath ens Sport Cycles-backed T im Shep ha rd following. But Summers was abo ut to encounte r the first of ma ny mi nor setbacks that cost him a chance at beating Plessin ger. "My goggles got messed up when I got too close to a tree, " sai d the American Honda/Bridgestone/ Su per Tra pp/ AXO/PJ I-supported Summers. " I had to stop in the pits and get a new set and ended up losin g about five po sitions. 1 passed everyone back, but the time wasted allowed Scott (Plessinger) to get away from me early." Summers was bac k up to seco nd at the end of lap two, bu t Plessinger was still nea rly 20 seco nds a hea d. L ike Pl essinger, Team ATK's Ed Lojak has had h is sha re of p ro blems th is year, and at the Buckeye Run th e eight-time GNCC Cha mpio n saw hi s rear brake system go up in n am es on the first lap. " Air had worked its way in to the line and 1 stop ped to bleed it," sai d Lojak after dropp ing o u t of th e firs t lap. " I loosened th e bl eeder to fix it bu t when the fluid ca me o u t it ignited o n the met al disk, whi ch was almost red h ot . 1 had to throw dirt on it to ' put it O Ul. " Fortunately, Lojak famil y honor was uph eld by Stan and J oe Loj ak. Metzeler /Sco tt / GearlTsuba ki / Ya ma ha backed Stan Loj ak won the 200cc A class go ing away. The 33-year-o ld ser ies veteran o u tdis ta nced cu rre n t class po int leader Craig Jones by more than four minutes on his way to a remarkab le fifth overall. Jones' second-place finish proved beneficial as well ; the absence of rival Thomas Norton allowed Jones to gain valuable ground in their '91 title bou t. Third in the 200cc A class was Ohio's own Gene Onai l. Joe Lojak scored yet ano ther GNCC class win and has po sitioned himself to clinch the Senior A class champion shi p a t the nex t ro u nd. Lojak bettered Georgia' s Terry Mealer in a close race, crossi ng the finish li ne just 23 seconds ahead after more tha n th ree ho urs of racing. Kawasaki-mounted Lenn ie Rhoades placed th ird in the class. At the fro nt of the field, Su mmers made a push for the overall lead after the third lap. " I started catching up and made a pass when Pl essinger hi t a log and wen t sideways," said Su mmers of his mid-point move into the lead . "Un for tunately, it didn' t last very long. " " Aft er he p as sed m e, Sco tt (Summers) blew the next two com ers and 1 went back around hi m," said Pless inger of his only th reat of the day . " H is time o ut fro nt only lasted about 13 seconds , bu t it was enough to get me go ing again." . After the fifth of eight laps, Plessinger led by more than one minute and 30 seconds. Just behind the battle for the lead Cunningham suffered a terrible fifth lap. The four-time National Enduro Champion posted a 34-minutes Iong lap and seemed to be suffering from exhaustion. Also dropping way off th e pa ce was Cunningham 's Kawasaki Team Green teammate Aaron Hough, who has been experien cing kn ee problems throughout the summer. According to one of h is rivals, Hough rode a KXI25 in the Ohio race because he couldn 't kick start a 250. At any ra te, Hough dropped out after the sixth lap and was eliminated from conte ntion for the GNCC overa ll championsh ip. Whil e Summers battl ed ba ck towards the front ab oard h is big Honda XR600 four-stroke, two more thumpers were working their respective ways irito the top 10 overall. New Lex Honda/O'Neal Pro-Vue/Yokohama-equ ipped Gary Roach and Andy's Honda/Thor/Shoei-backed Harvey Whitaker turned a Four-Stroke A class battle into a historic event. Roach's ninth-place and Whitaker's 10th place overall finishes marked the first time in GNCC history that three thumpers placed in the top 10 overall. "This is a testament to the newfound popularity of Iour-strokers in the woods," said GNCC series organizer Dave Coombs, Sr. "I think it comes on the heels of Scott Summers' success against two-cycle machines out here ; they just needed someone to show them they could compete." With two laps to go, Summers made one last attempt at Plessinger's lead position. The Honda rider closed to within -\0 seconds of the KTM before another minor mishap snagged his hopes of winning. " T he bike was slowing, down everyone and it finally came to a stop," said Summers. " I could almost see Plessinger before my bike slowed down and then wouldn't go anywhere. 1 stepped off and dropped it, and then 1 real ized that the rear brake pedal was stuck down. Turns out a small rock had wedged itself between the kickstarter and the brake pedal and it locked the brakes completely." Summers was able to free the rock but Plessinger was long gone with his first GNCC overall win since 1989. Summers finished just over a minute behind Plessin ger with Russell finally up to th ird, six minu tes off of Ples-. singer's winn ing time. ATKIShoei/