Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ CROSS COUNTRY AMA Wiseco/Yamaha/Yokohama Grand NationalChampionship Cross CountySeries:Round 4 e Johnny Robbins (173) and winner Scott Plessinger (10) fought for the lead at the start of the Pro division. Plessinger stops Summers at Brownsville By Davey Coombs P h otos by J ay Chittenden BROWNSVILLE, PA, APR. 26 eam KTM 's,Scott Plessinger pu t the skids to Scott Su mmers' per fect ser ies wh en th e Ohioan captured the overall win at the Brown Jug National Cros s County Race. The win marked th e thi rd time in five years that the KR W Cycle / Ar ai /MSR/ Smi th lTsubaki/Dural ube /Dyn-Por t! Temp-Guard-backed Plessinger has won the event. Plessinger's winning margin over runner-up Summers was three minutes and 20 seconds; Honda XR600 mounted Summers was delayed in the late stages by a smashed gear shifter. Third overall went to Honda CR250mounted upstart Joel Andrews, th e older brother of professional motocross racer Fred Andrews. " I told my mechanic, Kirk Bataille, this morning that I felt like I was going to win toda y," said the 24-year-old Plessinger of Hamilton , Ohio, " I felt good all week long and when it started raining this morn ing I was reall y pumped because I know I'm a better mud rider than anyone else out there." Plessinger was right ab out the mud being a factor. A,weekend-long rainy cold front kept the area damp and cold and tran sformed th e race into a sur vival run, Two of last year's top four GNCC series fin ishers , vice-champion Duane Conner and AMA National T 14 Enduro Champion Je ff Ru ssell , did not finish the thr ee-hou r race. Behind Plessinger, Su m mers and Andrews, Team Green 's Terry Cunningham and early race leader Johnny Robbins rounded out the top five. The top 200cc A rider ' was local favorite Robert Tominello . Kawasakimounted Gen e Onail was the 250cc A class winner, while Yamaha pi lot Ron Pal ermo put in a winning performance in the Open A ca tegory. For the second race in a row , T im Shephard won the Vet A division and Joe Lojak topped the Senior (45) group. Honda rider Jared Green eked out the FourStroke A class win, while Terry Mealer led everyone in Senior (40) action. The Brownsville event was held on th e grounds of Luzerne Pa rk. The facility has hosted local and National off-road events since 1979 an d is famous in racing circles for having once been a golf course. But thi s year's Brown Jug National was no walk in the park. The seven-mi le-per-lap trail . suffered under the conditions and had to be rerouted i n se vera l pl aces, including one steep powerl in e climb that became almost com pletely impassable after just one lap of competition. "The routed sectio ns were good becaus e th e trail was getting really bad in places ," said th e 24- year -old Su mme rs, who is the GNCC an d Nati on al Hare Scrambles Series Champi on two year s running. "The course didn 't actually break down as bad as I thou ght it would but it was still pretty difficult to get around in some places." Robbins, a 21-year-old National conte nder from Columbus, Indiana, led everyone off the start after the green £lag dropped on the 12-rider Pro class. Ples singer, Conner, MS R /Team Green-ba cked Cunningham, and Andrews all grabbed good starts, while Summers and KTM facto ry ri der Russell were mired in the back. Within 10 minutes Russell would be back in the pits with another painful foot injury. "This is the second time I've hurt myself without crashing," said Russe ll, wh o banged his previousl y , injured right foot on a rock , while trying to pass ATK's Frank Keegan at the three-mile marker. " I didn 't fall but I was in a lot 'of pain, so I found an access roa d and wentstraight back to the pi ts. By th e tim e I got th ere my too t was almost too swollen to get the boot of£. " Russell later repo rted th e injury to be minimal and would not be mi ssing any races. After the first of seven laps, Pl essin ger positi oned himself in front of the pa ck with Summers attached to his rear whee l. Andrews was a surprising third, pacing himself 15 seconds slower than Plessinger and Summers. " I foll owed everyone for a whi le because I wasn't sure just how fast these guys go and for how lon g," said Andrews, who was ma king h is '92 GNCC debu t after several weekends of beating up on his local competition. Th e Pro -Circui t/ An sw er /Smi th backed Andrews was considered to be Ohio's fastest you ng motocrosser in the earl y 1980s but had h is career derailed by injuries. H e has spent the last few years working as a mechanic for the T eam Pe ak/Honda 125cc su percross team. After find ing his rh ythm, Andrews began an ear ly charge that carried him into the top spot by the end of the second lap. Plessinger lost two spots to the Honda riders after gettin g himself stuck in a mudhole. "I came int o a creek crossing with a bank on the other side and tried to wheelie through it," said Pl essinger of his second-lap er ro r. "The bike stopped dead and was su nk abo ve the axl e. I had to get a cou ple of spectators to help me pull it out and I ended up losing about 45 seconds." Ples singer wasn 't th e on ly o ne expe rie nc ing problems on the difficult course, as Summers crashed, Conner dropped out after a series of falls, and Cunningh am injured h is sho u lder while traversing a log-filled pow erline sectio n . , Lat er in th e race, as th e ruts in the off-ca mbe red woods sectio n s grew deeper and deeper, all three of the leading contenders would fall prey to the bike-eating course . " I led for a cou ple of laps in the middle part of th e race an d felt pretty good ou t front, then I hit a tree in a rut and detuned myself for a wh ile," said Andrews. Summers engaged Plessinger in a spirited due l for th e victory once Andrews faded from th e pi cture, but with two laps to go he pretzeled his shi fter. "T here was a stu mp covered with mud on a straigh taway an d I never saw it, not even when I cart wheeled over it," sai d Summers of his third-hou r fall while ch asing Ple ssinger. "I smashed the sh ifter so bad that I thought it brok e off and I was stuck in third gear . Turns out that it was crushed under the foot peg and covered up with mud." Summers' breakdown came just as Plessinger turned on the afterburners. "I knew that if I could just stay in front of Summers after we gassed , I could pull away from him," said Plessinger of his late-race, breakaway, but the track soon took its toll on h im as well. He needed a last lap rebend of his shifter, that was bunched up in the same fashion as that of Summers. "I bent the gear shifter all the way back to the foo tpeg like Scott did but I was abl e to straighten it back to where I could change gears for the rest of the race." Plessinger received the checkered £lag at the end of his seventh lap. By that time he had lapped up to the ninth-place overall finisher, Hondamounted Gary Roach. The win was Plessinger's first sin ce the seasonopening AMA National Hare Scrambles in Arkansas. "It seems like I've been sick ever since I won that race," said Plessinger, who now trails Summers in the GNCC point sta ndings by three points after four rounds . (T h i rd -ran ked T om Norton did not att end the Brown Jug race.) " It seems like th e £I u com es and goes every week for me. Now I feel like th at 's over and everyth in g is fallin g into place for me. I th in k tha t I'm faster than Scott in some races, like today,

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