Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127600
GOFF ROAD AMA WisecolYamahaIDunlo Grand National Cross Coun Series: Round 11 ! Andrews crowned champ at Starvation Point 0\ . ---.:::,----.,r---,-----, ... after the race. "I fell down twice just trying to walk it on Saturday because it was so slick. Halfway through the race it was just plain mu dd y." Andrews ap peare d to ha ve a good ju mp on the Pro class when the official starter waved the green flag in the air, but the Yamaha pilot slid ou t in the first r ig h t- ha n d V-t u rn and w as nearly plowed in to by Summers. " Fr ed s li d ove r a nd I was right beh ind him, so I basically came to a dead s top waiting for him to get out of the way," said Summers. "Tha t was iron ic because two lap s later I was getting center-pun ched by him after I we nt out of my way to avoid him. " "From the beginning of the race we we re las t a n d seco nd to la st," sa id Andrews, who is backed by Yamaha, Andrews Racing, Pro-Circuit, Smith and Wiseco. "We went right through everybody until we got to Plessinger, then he me ssed up and Scott and I went past him together. Jus t after the end of the first lap we came to the creek and wheelied through it side by side. The trail funnelled into some trees and we both went for it but he had the upper hand. The ('fJ l-t (l) ~ (l) :> o Z Fred Andrews clinched his firs t-ever Cross Country National Championship w ith a runner-up finish at Starvation Poin L Andrews and former champion Scott Summers were involved in a rough-rid ing controversy. By Davey Coombs ELIZABETH, WV, OCT. 17 n his firs t ride back from an injured left knee, Tea m KTM' s Scott Plessinger claimed the overall victory a t the l I th ro und of the 1993 AMA Grand Na tional Cross Country Series, but Yamaha rider Fred And rews clinched the National Championship with a controversial second-place finish. Andrews, a rookie of the National woods racing circuit, engaged three-time GNCC champ Scott Summers in a fierce midrace battle that saw the two title contenders make contact on several occasions. At one point Andrews came in underneath Summers and the impact may have caused the Honda rider to lose function of his rear brake. "I was leading on the second lap and Fred center-punched me in a corner," said Summers, who needed to win the last three rounds of the series to retain his championship. "I know it wasn't an accid ent because he ne ver let o ff th e throttle or touched his brakes. He mad e an effort to disable me or my motorcycle ins te ad of tr ying to beat me on the I course." 14 "That's hogwash," retorted Andrews. "I wa s on the inside coming in and he was on the outside cutting across me. He brake-checked me. If I hadn't let off the gas and hit my brakes I wou ld have leveled him. We hit and he went off one wa y and then cut back in front of me. The next tum he d id it again, so I hit him again. I was the one who fell down." The next time through the pits Summers had to s top to replace his rear brake asse mbly 'and lost more than 10 minutes on the side of the track. Andrews ended up finishing second overall, mo re than a m inute behi nd Plessinger, who steered clear of the ramming that was going on between the others. "I'd rather just stay out of it, " said Plessinger. "I'll let those guys d o their thing and I'll do m ine. Actually, it worked out to really good for me, since I got the win." Team Green's Doug Blackwell finished third overall at a d eficit of one minute, 57 seconds to Plessinger. Yamaha-mounted Jan Hrehor and KTM pilot Jeff Russell rounded out the top fiv e overall. Summers returned to the race and scratched out a seventh-place overall finish, , Starvation Point Park was hosting the cross country regulars for th e sec ond consec utive year. The central West Virginia facility is surro unded by thousand s of acres of thick wo od s and steep hills and incorporates a permanen t motocross track into the cross coun try design . The weather was cool and rainy throughout the weekend of the GNCC, makin g for extremely slick conditions in the ea rly stages. However, the nine-mile-long trail became thick with mu d after a few laps and became a survival run of sorts. Sev·eral areas had to be re-rou ted in the middle of the nearly three hou rs-long run . "The track was a lo t better tha n I thought it would be ," said Summers