Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eCROSS COUNTRY AMA Wiseco/YamahaIYokohama Grand National Cross Country Series: Round 3 ~ Defending champ Scott Summers made it three for three by scoring the Sta teline 100 Natio nal Cross Country victory. Summers scores at StateLine 100 By Da vey Coombs P hotos by Paula Thorn SHELBY, NC,APR. 1 2 or th e third time in as man y tries, Kentucky's Scott Summers earned an overall win in the AMA Grand Nati onal Cross Country Series. This time the American Honda-backed XR600 pilot rode into th e winner' s circle at th e StateLine 100. " T h is is definitely the best start to a seaso n that I've ever had," said 24year-old Sum mers, the National Cross Country and National Hare Scrambles Champion for the pa st two years. " Last year I won II Nationals. This is my fifth win of '92 and it's o nly April!" Sum mers, who is backed by American Honda, HondaLine, AlpineStar, Oakley, Bridgestone, Throttle J ockey, T -Pro, Arai, Sprocket Special is ts, T subaki , White Brothers, Power Mist, and Bloomington H on da , has fini shed first five tim es and seco nd twice in seven '92 National Hare Scra mbles and Cross Co unt ry starts. Second overa ll at th e StateL ine race was KTM' s Scott Plessinger from Ham ilton, Ohio. Plessinger · holds down seco nd in the GNCC standings with a pair of second-place fin ishe s and a th ird so far in the series. Third overall in North Carolin a was Team Mirage/ Arai/ Acerbis/Valley Motorsports-backed Tom Norton, hi s highest GNCC showing sin ce winning F 18 1990 Bla ckwater 100. Norton was aboard a Honda CR2 50. Fourth and fifth in th e fin al tally went to Czechoslovakian J an Hrehor and Sweden 's Jimmie Eriksson, mark in g the first tim e that two foreign competi tors have finished in th e top five at a GNCC event . The top rid er in the 200cc A class for the second race in a row was Indiana' s Chad Froman, who beat . Tennessee's Kevin Brand on in a racelong duel tha t carr ied bo th Kawasak i ride rs into the top 10 overa ll. Mark Hyde gave America n Suzu ki its first Four-S trok e A victory of the series wh ile Yamah a-m ounted Tim Shephard topped the Vet A class . Ohio's Gen e Onail won the 250cc A grou p and Husqvarna 's Ch ris Smith again proved himself fastest in the Open A catego ry. . A total of 175 riders gathered o n woods racer Buren H am rick' s farm for the 3rd Annual Statel.ine 100 and were greeted rudely by vandals. On the eve of the event, tho usands of roofing tack s were poured on to the p it roa d and the star ting line. It was not immediately known if the act was in pro test · of th e race. Once th e starting line was relocated the riders were placed in sta rting row s acco rd ing to class for the dead-engine start. T he 15-rider Pro group led the way ou t into the woods for the first of 10 la p s around th e seven -m ile co urse. Ed Lojak, mounted o n a Yam ah a for the first time since the 1990 series , eru pted from the lin e with the hol eshot an d shared earl y lead honors wi th Plessinger and T eam Gr een 's Dou g Blackwell. Norton and Summers held fo urth and fifth in th e early stages wh ile Kawasak i riders Duane Conner and Terry Cun ningham were near the mi ddle of the pack. Lojak;an eig ht-ti me Nat ional Cro ss Cross Cou ntry Champio n, showed hi s old form as he battled with Pl essinger all the way to the end of the first lap. Lojak had been raci ng aboa rd an ATK for the past seaso n and a half bu t went bac k to a Yamaha YZ250 aft er a stri ng of ~ediocre results ear ly in this year's senes. "I th ink that the switch back to Yamaha ga ve Ed a lot of confidence today," said Summers of Loj ak , a rid er he still cons iders to be one of his heroes. " He looked like the old Ed Lojak o u t there." Lojak 's ti me at the front didn't last lon g, however, as th e 31- year-o ld Pennsylvanian cra she d hard while ju mp ing one of the many creek cross- in gs on th e track just before th e co m p le tio n o f th e sec o nd lap. Summers was dose enough to see the acci den t, wh ich he la ter described as " tremendous" and repo rted the fall to Lojak 's crew o n hi s way th rough the pit area . Lojak didn 't rejoin the race after hi s crash. A t th e end of the seco n d la p , Summers held a lead of abo ut two bike lengths on Pl essinger with Conner and Blackwell sha dowing both riders. But within a lap Conner was ou t of the race as well. " I got a little ou t of shape jumping across a log and I went down," said Conner. " I ban ged my knee on a rock when I fell and I tho ught I might have brok en something, bu t now it feels a litt le better." Co nner 's DNF dropped him from fo urth to e ig h th in th e GNCC sta ndi ngs . . Ano ther rider wh o su ffered an early spi ll was Norton. The 29-year-old New England er was controlli ng the fo urth pos itio n after a lap but could n't find hi s rhy thm on the dusty StateLine trai l. " I'd mak e up a few seconds in one sectio n and then dro p a dozen in the next," said No rton , wh o dropped all the way back to eig h th at on e point. " I finally crashed goi ng th rou gh a creek and J an (H rehor) passed me. T hen he go t stuck in another creek and I rear -ended him and went up to my elbows in mud." O nce back in th e race, No rt o n decided to relax and j us t fini sh, a strate gy that proved successful o n the techn ical track. " After I coo led down a little, everythin g started clicking and I put in my best laps; ma ybe I shou ld try that more often," he said. For three laps Cunni ng ham stayed on th e frin ge of th e top five, but the T eam Green pilot seemed to know that he would be in for a tou gh race from the start. Cunningham, th e former National Enduro Champion , has had end urance problems in recent years wh en co m pe ti ng in warm-weather events. The temperature was near 90 degrees and Cunningham dropped down to a KXI25 in order to keep from using up too much energy. Still, the heat got the better of him and after three laps he was forced to retire with severe dehydration. Up front, Summers and Plessinger were engaged in a game of cat and mouse. After the first of three hours Plessinger held the lead but Summers was using hi s time beh ind wisely. "Scott had some ' really good lin es across th e creeks and stuff and I just stayed back and watched everything he did, " admitted Summers. "T urns out a lot of hi s lines were better than mine. " Blackw ell maintained a steady third after four laps while Hrehor held fourth on a Suzuki RMX2 50. The Czech u su ally rides a four-stroke DR 350, but that was o n the work bench getting a new motor and was not ready for Sta teLi ne. Eriksson cha llenge d Norton for the next position while KTM Am erica/Cycle Shed/TempGuard/Yoko-ba cked J ohnny Robbins followed. Rounding out th e top 10 aft er an hour were Gary Roa ch , 250cc A class lead er Gene Onail and Open A rider Rich ard Moyer. An un even p it sched u le sa w Summers move into the lead after five laps as Plessinger took on fuel. " I real ized that I had a cha nce to put (the race) away so I reall y cha rged that lap," said Summers. " I stopped on the next lap and made a quick pit stop of my own but Plessinger was still o u t of sigh t wh en I went back into the

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