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eCROSS COUNTRY AMA Wiseco/Yamaha/Yokohama Grand National Cross Country Series: Round 5 ~ Scott Summers crossed the finish line with a three-minute lead to record his fourth GNCC win this year. Summers takes High Point again By Davey Coombs Photos by C.J. Coombs and Jay Chittenden M MORRIS, PA, MAY3 T. merican H onda's Scott Summers returned to the site of h is firstever National victory, H igh Point Ra ceway , and won hi s fou rth 1992 AMA GNCC Series event in five tri es. KTM America 's Scott Plessinger, the on ly rid er to beat Summers in the series thus far , was second overa ll with last year 's series runner-up Duane Conner placing third overall. " I always look forward to racing here , not just because 1 won for the first time here in 1988, but because it's such a different track from the others on the circuit," said 24- year-old Summers from Petersburg, Kentucky. "The track has a lot of fast trails, open fields, the motocross sections, and just A 18 a few tight woods areas. My bik e works best when 1 can reall y open it up." Summers is sponsored by Ameri can Honda, HondaLin e, AlpineStar, Oakley, Arai, T-Pro, Sprocket Specialists, Tsubaki, White Brothers, Bridgestone, Throttle J ockey, Camelbak, Power Mist , and Bloomington H onda. Rounding out the top five overall were Team Greenl Answer /Bel l.' Smith/Maier lSunstar-backed Doug Blackw ell and Ohio's Gary Roa ch , who ride s a H onda XR250 with support from O'Neal, Maier, and New Lex Honda-Suzuki. The event was originally scheduled to take place at the popular WinterPl ace Ski Resort in so u thern West Virgin ia , but the faci li ty recentl y changed o w ne rs h i p a n d th e n ew operators expressed a reluctan ce to hos t a mo torcycle event. Ra cer Prod uctio ns, the organ izing bod y of the event, were able to salvag e th e weekend by mak ing an II th- hou r sch edulin g adj us tmen t that saw j he race moved n o rth to Pennsyl vania . The n ew Wi nt erP lace owners reconsidered their anti-race stance and are discussing a ยท return engagement to the resort later th is year or in 1993. T he H igh Point track was used late last seaso n and many of the trails were recycled for this event , tho ug h the direction of the course was reversed . Another new feature were a dozen wooden bridges, pl aced across a small creek th at winds th rough the off-ro ad area . Local Department of " Natural Reso urces officia ls were 'conce rned abo ut eros io n that ma y be caused by off-roa d vehicles and th e bridges were put up volun tarily by race officials. Th e battl e for th e ov erall win effectively ended within 200 yards of th e starting lin e when a handful of th e top rid ers missed a tight right-hand corner and pursued the wrong trail. Summers was there to capitalize on th e oversight. "That's why 1 walk the track at every race 1go to," said Summers, who made th e bend and inherited a 10-second Pro class lead . " I was so far out front so quick that 1 had to keep reminding myself that those guys were coming. 1 could hardly hear them in the trees, but o nce we went throug h the tunnel to th e motocross track 1 saw tha t 1 was on ly abo ut a dozen seconds ahead." " I walk ed that section of the track th is morning and 1 kn ew wh ere to go bu t n ob od y else seeme d to ," said Con ner of the early chaos. "S ummers saw the rig h t trai l and dro p ped down on to it. Frank Keegan was j us t ahead of me and he stop ped to see which way to go. 1 was too close beh ind him and I h it h is wh eel and went over th e bars. By the tim e 1 got go ing th e whole group was back on the right track bu t I was dead last." Summers' closes t pursuer was fellow four-stroke rider Roach , with ATK 's Keegan and Plessin ger leading the pursuit of Roa ch . Con ner and Blackwell wer e midpack , whil e J oel Andrews and Johnny Robbins were also slightly off th e pace afte r tangling in the Iirst mile. A short course kep t lap times near the 22-min ute mark, and at the end of the first loop Summers was 20 seconds clear of Plessinger, wh o pa ssed Roach for second just before the barrel s on his KRW Cycle/MSR/Metzeler I Arai-backed KTM D/XC250 . Blackwell reco vered ni cel y for an early fourth-place as Andrews worked into fifth ah ead of T eam Mirage p ilot Tom Norton. " I was hav in g a little trouble earl y becau se of my kn ee," adm itt ed Nort on, wh o sat o u t th e previous ro und of the series after da maging hi s kn ee wh ile trai ning . " It never rea lly felt righ t today and I did n ' t wa nt to p ush myself into go ing too fast. I' ll be better by the next ro und ." Nort on ended u p ninth in the Pro class and j ust 14th overa ll and dro pped fro m th ir d to fifth in th e 'GNCC standin gs. An oth er ride r havin g early diffi cul ties was Suzuki's J an Hrehor , a Czech im port wh o rid es a Suzuki DR 350. Hrehor had problems on the second lap with a traffi c jam that sp ru ng up in an extremely tight tree sectio n. " I was stuc k on a tree that was down and many people passed me," said Hreh or, wh o played ca tch-up througho ut the day and fin ished sixth overall. "T hen 1 could not start th e bike when I got stuc k. It was not a diffi cult section but too many rider s wer e h avin g pro blems ahead of me. After tha t I fell too many tim es." By the completion of th e second lap , Summers had doubled h is lead to 40 seconds and was already hammering through lapped traffi c. Second-place Plessinger held a simi lar adva ntage on Blackwell and Andrews, though by this time Conner had caug h t u p to the pair, T hei r three-m an du el carr ied them away fro m Roach and Gea r/ Metzeler l Acerbis/Motul-backed Keega n, wh o blam ed the motocross track in part for hi s slide. " I was having a hard tim e with my lines and stu ff on th e motocross track," said Keegan , a 23-year-old from nearb y Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. " It was al so start ing to get a li ttl e dusty, so I cou ld n' t reall y keep up with any one wh en we'd get to the motocross section." Keegan still salvaged eighth overall on his ATK 406. Just as th e three-hour-long race reached th e one-third mark, Andrews rea ched third a nd was with in 30 seconds o f Pl essinger's runner-up' . position. For the next two laps he gathered space on Pl essinger until he was just three seconds behind at the end of the fifth lap. But Andrews misj udged his fuel level and ran out of gas before the completion of the next lap and slipped out of the top 10 . overall and would eventually finish 13th.