Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eHARE SCRAMBLES · AMA National ChamJlionshiJl_HS S--'- - er_:_o_ l_ _~ _ ies R und_ ~ Nearly 400 riders turned out for th e Bear Creek National Hare Scrambles in Arkansas. Plessinger nips Summrs e at Ba e rCreek thriller· By Tony Orihuela Photos by Josh Barron "T 14 KIRBY, AR,JAN. 26 his is going to be my year," said factory KTM-pilot Scott Plessinger after pulling off a thrilling, come-from-behind win at the Bear Creek National Cham pionship Hare Scrambles Series opener. " I think I was riding faster than I ever have." After swapping the lead many times _ with defendi ng Hare Scrambles National Champion Scott Summers throug hout the eight-lap race, which took three hours an d 20 minutes to complete, Ohio's Plessin ger emerged victoriou s after passing Summers abo ut 20 yards before the ch eckered flag. " It was an awesome race," said Plessin ger, who rode a KTM 250 D/ Xc. " I did n 't think I was goi ng to do so well , because I haven 't ridden a ll that much late ly, main ly because of the financial deal at KT M. I had no idea what was goi ng to happen, and it wasn't until two weeks before th e race when KTM told me I ha d a ride for '92. I really wanted to stay with KT M because they have alwa ys treated me really well. If KTM didn 't pull through, I probably would've had to bu y my own bik e." The runner-up, Summers, wh o was mounted on a factory-backed Honda XR 600 four-stroke, also agreed that it was an awesome race. " It was just incredible," said the two- tim e Hare Scrambles and Cross Co untry Na tional Champion wh o hail s from Kentu cky. " We mu st 've swapped th e lead 15 to 20 tim es. Plessinger is going to be the biggest threat to me in defending my championship. If he's consistent, it 's goi ng to be a ba ttle to the finish." Also putting a wheel in on the battle u p fro nt was Kaw a sa ki KX500mounted Steve McSwain. McSwain , fro m North Carolina, passe d early leader Plessin ger shortly after the start "and held on to the number-on e position for half the race before fading back to third, fin ish ing a p proxi mately three-and-a -half mi n utes be hind Sum mers. McSwain said he simp ly got tired and cou ldn't keep up to Plessinger an d Su mmer's awesome pace. Finishi ng fourth, approximately two minutes behind McSwain , was Kawasaki Team Green's Kurt Hough, wh ile Shad Ricketts, from Lynnvill e, Indiana, rounded out the top five and was the top A class rider. Ricketts is usually fou nd competing in the MidSouth Winter Hare Scrambles Series. Filling out the top 10 overall were Pennsylvania's Duane Conner, Sweden's Jimm ie Eri ksson, New York's Ethan G oodrich , Indiana's Chad Froman and Colorado' s Kelby Pepper, in that order. The event , wh ich was origina lly sched u led to be held in Atla nta, Texas, and was moved to Kirby, Arka nsas, because of land use problems, was hosted by the T exarkana Dirt Riders. More land problems ju st a few days before the event, however, forced the club to, once again, relocate the race site to another nearby ven ue. What eventually transpired was an 8.7-mile-a-lap course that consisted of open hardwood forest and tigh t piney woods sections design ed to slow the pace. By the end of th e day, the course had become extremely tech n ical du e to expo sed roo ts and mud bogs caused by th e heavy snowfall in the area the week before the race. The Texarkana clu b was p leasantly surprised by a large turnout of rid ers and spectators. A club member sai d they were expecting around 250 riders. Instead, nearly 400 riders came out to race, in cluding a rather high nu mber of AA riders - 22 in all. An esti mated 200 specta tors cam e out to watch th e first Nat ion al Hare Scrambles of th e year. The morn ing before th e race, Roger Ansel of the AMA officially. present ed Su mmers with his award for winning the 1991 cha mp ionsh ip. Plessin ger, th e 1989 Nat ional Hare Scra mbles Champion , powered hi s KTM into the early lead and in the process, avoided a first-turn pi leup whi ch in cluded top cont ender, Kawasaki T eam Green 's Dua ne Conner. In the cras h, Conne r's helmet was torn off his head. " I don 't kn ow exactly what happened," sai d Conner. " T h e flag dropped, and it (the crash ) actually all Duane Conn er crashed so hard that his helmet came off. He was uninjured. happened before we got to the first turn. All I saw was somebody come over on Aaron H ou gh, who was on my left. That forced Aaron to come over on me and th en somebody hi t me from behind. My bik e flipped and something taugh t my h elm et and peeled it off my head. I was run over a couple of times before I sto pped rolling. I was 'real ly lucky I wasn't seriously injured, as it was, I was just a little dizzy and stagge ri ng around a little bit. "The handlebars on my bik e were pretzeled, so it took me a coup le of min utes to get go ing again, " said Conner. " Aaron was lucky because he was goi ng down when he hit me, but all I did was keep him up and he just kep t go ing. I think about three gu ys went down altogether." Conner re -en tered the ra ce and motored his way up through the pa ck, where he would eventually finis h sixth on adjusted time. " It was hard getting through traffi c at first because the course was kind of one-lined, " said Conner. " But I didn 't stop trying." McSwain was the rider to watc h in the earl y stages, as he began pressuring Plessinger right off the ba t. "I go t the holeshot but I didn' t push it, " said Plessinger. " McSwai n caught up to me and passed me; I just let h im go. I cruised until Sum mers came up and star ted in on me." After a so-so start, Summers did, in fact, move in on Plessin ger and began breathin g down the KT M rider's neck. " Once Summers caught up to me, we qui ckly reeled-in Steve and passed him at the halfway point," Plessinger said. "On the fourth lap, we all came in and pitted," said Summers. " I got out of the p its first and took over the lead." Headi ng int o th e second half of the race, all eyes were fixed on the lead trio: Su m mers, P lessi n ger and McSwain. Aaron Hough, who was near the fro nt of th e pack earl y in the race, bega n fading back at thi s point with a sore ankle that he broke about a month ear lier. H ough ended up 19th overa ll. Mean while, Aaron 's brother, Kurt , was gra dually working his way up through the pack after a midpack start. Near the end of the race, Kurt had sett led into fourth bu t had no chance of ca tch ing th e leaders. Sum mers, Plessinger and McSwain were lon g gone out in front. As the race continued, Summers an d Plessin ger began a fierce dogfi gh t for the lead, whi le McSwain began to dro p off the pace ever so sligh tly. Du r in g the h eated b attle, both Summers and Pl essinger developed brake problems . "J ust after the halfway point, I hit a tree bra nc h tha t p u lled the front _ brake cable out of the resevoir and had no front brake," said Summers. "Earlier in th e race, my rear brake pedal got goofed up when it got bent underneath the skid plate. I star ted feeling the brake drag; I stopped and touched th e disc and it im mediately coo ked my glove. Abo ut 10 gu ys got by me while I was fixing that. . "Luckily, wi th the front brake, it was muddy enough th at my bike had enoug h engine-bra kin g to slow me down okay," Summers said. " I was abl e to keep up with Plessinger in the mud, but in the dry stuff I would lose ground." " I ripped m y rear bra ke pedal co m p letely off," sai d P lessinger. "Some guy got stuck in the mud right in fro nt of me and I had to wh eelie my bik e over his. When I did , th e pedal caugh t the guy 's rear wheel and tore the peda l off." Desp ite their problems, Summers a n d Pl essi n ger kept battl ing, but becam e somewhat spread out. With on ly th ree laps remaining, Summers found hi mself enjoying a modes t lead. "O n the seventh lap," said Plessinger, " I was abou t a minute and 40 seconds behind Summers. I figured tha t second was okay, bu t it just wasn't good eno ug h. So I wicked it up and set out after Summers. " H eadi ng into the last lap, I was only 40 seconds beh ind," Plessinger said. " Halfway through the lap I caught him arid passed him." " H e was haulin',' said Summers . "He passed me and I stayed with h im, but I though t that was it. Then he crashed and I got the lead again. At that point, I had hope." Plessin ger crashed whe n he carried too much speed over a rise and lost the front wheel. " When I went down, a tree branch got stuck between the fron t wheel and the fender, and I cou ldn't get the bike ou t," said Plessin ger. " Luckily, Aaro n an d Kurt H ough 's dad , Don , was standing there and he helped me yank "my bike out of the bu shes." At th is point it looked as th ough Summers had the winin the bag, but Plessinger had other ideas. "There were three miles left to the fini sh line and I ju st went ballistic," said Pl essin ger. "I didn 't see hi m (Plessi nger) coming until the last 100 yards or so. Then I saw him out of the corner of my eye," said Su mmers. Throughout the race, a small mudho le located about 20 yards before the finish line had matured into a giant mudbog. It was here where the outcome of th e race would be decided. " It was a big swam p ," said Summers. " You cou ld see all the big holes where bikes had gotten stuck, so I had to try a new line off to the right, while Plessinger went to th e left. He had nothing to lose, bu t I did. He ended up pi cking the better line and started going by me. I tried to move over to cu t him off at the pass. But just as I started to move over, my handlebar caught a vine or somethi ng and I fell over. H e ended up beating me by a bik e length." " I j ust held it wide open; I cou ldn' t bel ieve th a t I ca ugh t hi m ," sai d Pl essinger. " Everybody was go ing wild. It was a great finish to a great race." " H ad I not fallen, wh o knows what wo u ld 've happen ed ," sai d Summers. McSwain , who said he switched over to " survival mode," crossed th e finish line abo ut three minut es lat er for th ird overall; H ou gh , two min utes later in fourth. Crossing the finis h line in fifth after passing H usaberg- rnoun ted J im mie Eriksson early on the eigh th lap

• Cover