Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ CROSS COUNTRY 1991 AM! WisecolYamahalYokohama Grand National Cross Country Series: Round II a ~ ~ Bob Sloan scored the Four-Stroke B class win; Robert Murray was second.' , Duane Conner (8) kept his GNCC title hopes alive by scoring the overall victory at the Forest Festival 100. Conner hangs onat Forest F estivallOO By Davey Coombs E LK1~S, II'\' , OCT, 6 ea m Green' s Duane Conn er needed an overall win to rema in atop the GNCC series sta ndi ngs an d tha t's j ust wha t he got at the Forest Festival 100. The 23-year-o ld Kawasaki KX250 rider outlasted fellow Pennsylvanian Frank Keegan in a three-hour mud ru n tha t ma ny considered to be the toug hest race so far of the series. Nati on al En d uro Series poi n ts lead er Jeff Russell was th ird overa ll, wh il e 200cc A cl ass wi n ner Tom Norton and defend ing GNCC Champion Scott Su mmers rounded out the top five, For both Conner and Keegan , they experienced their best fin ishes of the series, and for Conner it could not have come a t a better tim e. " I reall y needed th is one to keep me ahead of Summers," said Con ner, who is backed by Team Green , Pro-Circuit, Du nl op , MS Racin g, Scott Goggles, T subaki, Bell, Renthaf -a nd Factory Connection , " I kn ow that when you throw ou t our bad finish es, Scott and I are practicall y tied, so winning tod ay gives me the mom entum go ing into the last two races of the series," (T he best n ine of 13 races cou nt towards the fin al overa ll cha mpions hip in th e GNCC Series.) As for the 23-year-old Keegan , hi s runner-up fin ish was a career best. "T his was the kind of track tha t I go reall y well on," said Keegan. " I was able to get up front with all of th e fast gu ys and then 1 just rode my own race until I got nervous at th e end an d mad e some mi stakes," Over 200 rid ers attend ed the 2nd Annua l Forest Festival 100. The AMAX Co al Company -sponsored event featured a diffi cult nine mi lesper-lap trail that was littered with rocks and water hazards. Temperatures for the wet run climbed no higher than 45 degree s, . T he riders lined up in rows accord- r 18 ing to class wi th th e Open and 250cc A rider s leadin g th e way . ATK mounted David Dudash and Ohio KTM ride r Martin Kehl meter gra bbed th e ea rly lead , bu t after the pack dropped into the woods, Su mmers, Co nner and T im Shephard were in contro l. Keega n was left on the grou nd in turn 'o ne, but T eam Gre en's Doug Blackwell had even worse lu ck when h is cha in came off in the first rock ga rden and forced him to retire. Summers led the first 34-mi nu te lap. Keegan came back after fall in g and passed Conner just befo re the, barrel s for second, one full min u te beh ind Summers. Conner and T eam Green teammat e Terry Cunnin gh am were next , wi th KTM 's Ru ssell , Shepha rd, Brian Keegan and ATK 's Ed Lojak in pursuit. H alfway throug h the second lap Conner began mak in g tim e on leaders Keegan and Summers. "The trail offered more traction the second tim e around becau se of a ll th e ama teur riders," said Conner. " I felt I was a ttac ki ng mo re, es pecia lly th rough the rocks. I passed Keegan on an off-cambered, two-track roa d. At tha t point I reall y felt confident about ca tchi ng Su mmers and giv ing him a run, I was startin g to hea r hi s engi ne getti ng closer and closer." Conner made up 55 secon ds o n Su mmers on lap two, as Summers' big Honda XR600 began ga theri ng mu d and weight when the trail tacked up, However, Summers' big problem of the day came on lap three, when he pitch ed his ch ai n negot iating an extremely rocky creek bed. "T he chain derail ed and I cou ldn' t get it back on," said Summers. " I lost about five minutes getting back into the race and by then Duane, Cunningham , Keegan and a coup le of others went by me," At the end of the third loop Conner held a lead cushion of more than a minute on Cunningham and Russ ell , who lat er dropped out of contention whe n he got stuc k in a creek-ba n k on lap four. By 'the end of the fourth of what wou ld be a six-lap race, th e course was in serio us decay. A day-lon g drizzle tu rn ed to rain and at one point into sleet, which mad e several water crossings almos t impassa ble. Keegan began a strategy of wat ch -and-cross after Russell displ aced him for second. "Jeff's a rea l smart rid er and I kn ew that if I stayed with him he would show me h is lines," said Keegan . " He was pic king the goo d lines everywhere, bu t then I bent up my chain guide with two laps to go and dropped my chain , I lost sigh t of J eff; and Summers went back by me as well. " When th e wh ite flag ca me ou t Conner led Russell by one minu te a nd 10 seco nds. Su m mers was a no the r minute and a half back with Keegan shadowing him. It was at this point that the trail took over as th e decid in g facto r in th e race. Less than one mil e from the pit area the riders enco untered a difficult, 30foot cli mb through the trees onto a str ip mine ro ad , A mudhole had formed at th e bottom of the incline and , den ied the rid ers any type of run at the h ill. Conner was th e first to attempt the clim b and made it to the top with the help of some spectators. Ru ssell was next but the hill got the better of the 27-year-old rid er. Summers an d Keegan also had probl ems on the h ill , though Keegan was able to paddle past the two-time National Hare Scrambles Champion. " I beat him up the hill becaus e he was stuck pretty bad," said Keegan, who scored the Open A class win, "and then when I got up to the top, Russell was right in front of me. H e was back on the trail , but I could see that he was trying to get the mud off of his gloves after pushing his bike, Then he hit a rock or something and went off into the woods long enough for me _ to get past him." Keegan immediately went after the leader, Conner, wh o shortly thereafter was kn ee-deep in another trouble sp ot. " I came up to a mudhole before the second check and ' there were a dozen guys sitting in it," said Conner, " I tri ed to go right wh ere there were no tracks . but then I found out why no on e was going over th ere . . . it wa s quicksand!" , One of the stalled riders hel ped Conner dig h is bike out, but the series points leader lost thre e minutes in the .process, Keegan got him in sight across the hol e, but Keegan, too , would use up abou t 30 seconds getting through the bog. After that th e ATK rider se ttle d into second overall , while Co nner sprin ted home with his firs t win of the series. Russell clocked in 30 seconds beh ind Keegan, wh o was more than a minute beh ind Conner a t the fin ish. Summers crossed th e finish line fourth but would be relega ted to fif th by Norton on ela p sed tim e, Cu nn in gha m, J ones, Murgel , Sh ephard and Tominello rounded out th e top 10 overall, respectively. Only 14 of th e 200-plus competitors put in the full comp lement of six laps. When the 200cc A class went off, Kawasaki' s Craig Jones and Norton sh ared ea rl y lead hon or s. Norton needed to finis h ah ead of J on es to seal up th e class series championsh ip and effectively respond to cross coun try critics who called his 1990 Blackwater 100 win a fluk e. "T he track was perfect for me," said Norton, wh o in fact did clin ch the . 200cc class cha mp ionship. " I loved the rocks and creeks and everything, I didn't get stuck one tim e today," Jones fin ished nearl y 10 minutes back in second (and seventh overall ), while fellow Kawasaki rider Robert T ominello placed third in the class (10th overall ), In other class actio n, J oe Lojak and Davey Coombs collided a t the start of the Junior/ Vet/Senior line and found themselves at the back of the pack. But with in th e first hour each was at th e top of th eir respective classes. Loj ak went on to win the Senior (+40) class, while Coombs outlasted ATK rider Donald Bigley and John Vincent for his.sixth Junior (+25) class win of the serie s. In th e Vet (+30) division, Honda pilot Jeff Murgel dominated by amassing an incredible 19-minute lead on defending class champ Rick Kresic foe

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