Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eOFF·ROAD AMA Grand National Championship Cross Country Series: Round 3 ~ m ~ ~ .., ~ ~ ~ u:: Czechoslovakian Jan Hrehor overcame the flu to score his second-lltraight win of the series. Fred Andrews led several limes dUring the race, but slipped to second overall at the finish. Hrehor powers down at Whiskey Ridge National track on Friday and 1 knew where to go." But Andrews must not have seen the rock bed that caught his front wheel and jerked the bars from his hands. The longtime pro motocrosser lost positions to Conner, Hrehor, Blackwell and Norton before getting oack on track. Summers was now more than 30 seconds ahead of this five-bike parade, but the first of several on-trail mishaps was about to slow the leader's drive. "1 must have been half a minute ahead after a lap and 1 felt really good," said the 26-year-old-Summers. "But then I got to the first big bottleneck of riders on the second lap and my lead diminished to nothing. Andrews and Blackwell caught me while 1 was sitting still, so once we got going again 1 worked really hard to get 30 seconds up again, then hit another bottleneck! I was working too hard building these leads, only to lose them because of lappers." While Andrews and Blackwell charged after the Honda pilot, Hrehor seemed content to wait for the lead battle to thin out before throwing his hat in the ring. "1 thought it was best to stay a little behind and watch the other riders and their lines," said Hr$or. "1 like to wait for half the race to see how fast everyone is going. Duane Conner. and 1 rode together for a while just waiting to see what happened up front" Conner's presence in the lead ba ttIe was extremely satisfying for him. And his eventual podium finish marked the first time since Ed Lojak's championship season of 1988 that a Husqvarna has made the top three overall at a GNCC event '1t feels good to be up here," Conner said. "It's been a pretty serious adjustment for me. The bike is good and I'm starting to get used to the way it works. 1 had a couple of unfortunate incidents at the first couple of Nationals, things getting bent on rocks like the shifter or a rotor or whatever. But everyone has had some up-and-down races in this series so my chances are still good." Conner and Hrehor were soon sharing the trail with Blackwell as they collectively watched the leaders from a short distance. What they saw was a ferocious battle between Summers and Andrews. "1 think Scott was surprised when I caught him on the third lap," said By Davey Coombs SHARPSBURG, MD, APR 18 or the second GNCC race in a row Team Yamaha's Jan Hrehor secured the top overall finish, this time at the Whiskey Ridge National. The 28-yearold Czechoslavakian import beat fellow Yamaha pilot Fred Andrews by 43 seconds after nearly three hours of racing in the area near the Antietam National Battlefield in western Maryland. Team Husqvarna's Duane Conner posted a season-best finish of third overall. Three-time GNCC champ Scott Summers and Team Green's Doug Blackwell rounded out the top five overall in the 262-rider field. "1 did not expect to do so well because 1 have been sick for two weeks:' said Hrehor, who also won the Loretta Lynn's GNCC race three weeks prior to the Whiskey Ridge event. "Winning makes me feel better but now 1 probably need to rest 1 did not go so fast early in the race in order to save energy. At the end, 1 saw that Summers was out with a bad (front) wheel and Fred was not too far ahead, so 1 thought 1could catch ~ and win." "Too many trees jumped out at me - I got more beat up today riding this woods race than 1 ever did in a supercross:' joked Andrews. "1 passed up the Pontiac Supercross this weekend, because 1 really want to do well in this series and concentrate on being a better woods rider, but I'm riding too erratic right now. You have to be smooth in the woods. I'll hit one tree, then another and another and 1 get the domino thing going until 1 go down. That cost me at the end today, but I'm going to work it F out." 40 Andrews won the series opener in Florida but failed to finish the second round of the series in Tennessee. KTM's Scott Plessinger, the series points leader in the AMA National Championship Hare Scrambles Series, . failed to score any points after having to stop early in the race to repair a broken shift lever. He lost too much time to the leaders and just cruised around to the finish. The course was located just below Sharpsburg and measured eight miles in length, and the leaders completed eight laps on the day. The trail was a consistently wide yet not extremely fast trail with plenty of rocks and roots lining the way. Summers called it "a 24 miles-perhour trail; perfect for this kind of racing." He added, "It was the kind of track where the physically, mechanically and mentally best prepared rider wins. Unfortunately, 1 wasn't that rider today," said Summers. The Pro class riders occupied the first of 12 starting rows. Upon the wave of referee Russ Bennett's green flag, the front-row riders fired their engines and started into the first right-hand comer. Blackwell and Summers led the pack out of the first tum after Summers used a questionable inside line around the large, comer-marking bush. The rules state that riders must stay within 15 feet of the official markers; a banner that was previously attached to the bush on the inside had been broken and refastened shorter. Tha t left room for Summers, who got a bad initial jump, to squeeze ahead of everyone between the bush and banner and still be within the prescribed 15 feet. Andrews, aboard a Y<\maha YZ250, started fourth but was soon able to catch and pass Blackwell. "I passed Blackwell when we came to a tree-rooted section with four or five lines through it," said Andrews. "1 just chose a better line, 1 guess. 1 walked the Andrews of his two-lap charge to retake the lead. "We had a real dogfight after that. I passed him, he passed me back, again and again. We were sticking wheels into each other, blowing trees down, whatever it took. A woods rider is a woods rider - I didn't expect that kind of aggr~ve riding from him - at least not that early." "1 was riding too aggressively. 1 should've chilled out," said Summers. "He came out of nowhere to pass me and slammed me, so I slammed him back and actually knocked him off the bike once. After that 1 really took off, trying to prove a point, I guess." That's when Summers made his last mistake. "1 made one more mistake, but unfortunately I was in fifth gear when it happened," said Summers of his wheelcrushing endo on the sixth lap. "1 was in a section by the river where the whoops were getting deeper by the lap, but I felt like 1 was going faster each time through. 1 just goofed up and hit a square-edged hole in fifth gear. It crushed the front wheel on impact and also jammed my neck. 1 made it back to the pits and mechanic Fred Bramblett changed the wheel while 1 took some aspirin. 1 just couldn't go very fast after that" Tom Norton, who was sporting a Kawasaki KXI25 after three months riding a KX25O, suffered a similar fall that cost him any chance of reaching the lead. "1 was going too slow on one of the steep downhills because 1 was following some guys," said Norton. "My front end planted on a rock, my feet came up, and over the bars 1 went. 1 just pushed myself away from the bike and hoped it wouldn't land on me." Norton rebounded from this fall to finish a season-high fifth overall. "1 was 15 or 20 seconds behind Scott on the fifth lap, then 1 saw him on the ground in a rock section," said Andrews. "He got going right before 1 got to him, but 1 could see his front wheel out of whack. 1 passed him and figured that 1had control of the race, but I had to stop for gas on next to last lap and Jan was right behind me. 1 got out ahead of him. 1 thought, 'be cool and calm and I'll be okay: but five or six tums out of the pits 1 caught a tree root, got thrown into another tree, and that was it for me. 1 should've slowed down to go faster."

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