Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eCROSS COUNTRY e AM! Wiseco/YamahaIYokohama GNCC Series: Final round Jeff Russell (left), Scott Plessinger (107) and Doug Blackwell (9) share th eholeshot. Scott Summers clinched his second consecutive GNCC Championship in Tennessee. Summers wins, clinches title By Davey Coombs GREENEVILLE, TN, NOV. to onda 's Scott Summers put the finishing touches on his second straight AMA Grand National Cross Country title by winning the series finale at the Dallas-Ricker Racing Complex's Volunteer 100. Summers needed either a first - or second-place finish in order to defeat the title efforts by series-long rival Duane Conner. Summers responded by winning his fifth GNCC event of the series and clinched the championship with two points to spare. 'TId like to say that I never lost hope for another title," said Summers,'who also successfully defended his National Hare Scrambles Championship title earlier in the year . "But there was a time after all those early DNFs that I thought it was too far out of reach. I'm just glad I got all of the bad luck out of my system early in the series ." The GNCC Series began in March . and included 13 rounds, with the best H 20 nine scores counting towards the overall championship. Summers and his Hondaline/Oakley I PJ I/Bridgestone/White Bros .lSprocket Specialists/Camelback/Tsubaki /Fredette Racing/Maier /CTi /Power-Mist l Arai /Bloomington Honda-backed Honda XR600 won five races but also finished 10th twice and DNF twice. Conner finished second overall on the day and in the series. Having finished in the top five overall in II of the l2 series events he competed in, Conner was easily the most consistent rider in the series. But having won only one race, Conner did not have the first, place finishes to match Summers on the points chart. "I just came up short at the end," said Conner. "I wanted to ride consistently all year long and leave it at that, so I'm very happy to have even been in contention. If I had started to worry about winning every race , I might've not ended up as well as I did." Earlier in the season, Conner missed out on also finishing second overall by one point in the AMA National Championship Hare Scrambles Series. . Rounding out the top five at the cold and wet Vounteer 100 were Team KTM 's Scott Plessinger, newly crowned National Enduro Champion J eff Russell and Yamaha veteran Tim Shephard. The Dallas-Ricker Racing Complex saw terrible weather for its first -ever National off-road event, but the facility 's hot showers were a welcomed relief to the riders, who suffered through three hours of racing in freezing rain and sleet. The course began as an eight-mile-per-lap circuit, but after two early reroutes, the trail was cut down to about seven miles in length. Kawasaki KX500 -mounted Steve McSwain pulled an extraordinary holeshot from the outside of the starting grid, leading all the 250cc and Open A class riders through the early motocross section. After a half-mile sprint around the course McSwain led Plessinger, Russell, Conner, Summers, Kawasaki's Doug Blackwell and Terry Cunningham, and ATK's Frank Keegan , respectively. "I was so muddy on the MX track I was afraid that I would lose my vision before we even got to the woods," said Summers. "I used up my tear-offs and then tried to race clear of the traffic as soon as possible." Summers did just that, but joining him in the breakaway were Plessinger and Conner, as McSwain slipped back to fourth. Russell was next, while mediocre starter Shephard climbed up to sixth after the first 22-minute-Iong lap. Cunningham, who had an outside shot at the title coming into the finale, was back in ninth and would later pull out with a bruised thigh. He finished the series third overall. After one lap, a difficult offcambered section was rerouted when it became virtually impassable. Summers, Plessinger and Conner were all pointed in the new direction, but Russell, Shephard and McSwain somehow missed the turnoff. After struggling through the original trail they fell approximately two minutes behind the leaders. In order for Conner to clinch the championship, he needed to win the Volunteer 100 and hope that Summers finished no higher than third. Plessinger, who was out of the overall series picture after an early string of DNFs, was ' in a position to play the spoiler. For the first hour of the three-hour long race, he engaged the ti tie contenders, much to the dismay of Summers. "Scott (Plessinger) went ballistic on me there for a while," said Summers. "It was like he didn 't want to let me get by him. He might've been trying to save his goggles, or maybe he wanted Duane to win, more than me. Either way, on the third lap, he banged into me when I tried to pass him on the .ou tside and took me down. I got going again in about 30 seconds time and needed a lap to catch back up, and then in the exact same corner I tried the same thing and he knocked me down again!" At that point, Conner, who seemed to be riding his own race without trying to mix it up with the others, was in position to claim the overall title. "We were changing the lead back and forth for the whole first half of the race," said Conner. "The track was really breaking down and there were lines everywhere. I didn't make much contact with the other two but we were always together. I was just hoping that Plessinger could beat Summers' to the checkered flag." At the end of the fourth la p, Conner was seven seconds ahead of Pl essinger with Summers nearly 40 seconds back. If the race had ended at that moment, Conner would've become the first Kawasaki rider ever to win the GNCC series. Before Summers set out for his fifth lap, he made a quick pit stop to take on dry gloves, goggles and fuel. That left him even further off the pace, but both Conner and Plessinger had dismal fifth laps, each falling more than a minute off their earlier pace . At die same time Summers was on the move. "After the 'p it stop I really got going," said Summers, who moved into the lead before the completion of the fifth lap. "Everything fell into place and I really took off. The trail wasn't very crowded, my lines were all clear, and the other guys messed up. After that, I just hauled ass towards the finish line."

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