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ยท:CROSS,COUNTRY:: . .. Round 2: Manchester State Forest ' '. 1 AMA Grand National Cross CountrySris 994 -~;drews bounces back (Lett) Defending champ Fred Andrews (1) and Scott Summers (2) went at it wheel-towheel for the lead several times throughout the race , with .Andrews coming out on top. (Below) SCott Summers (2) finds out what It's like getting stuffed by a former motoc:rosser. Ty Davis (147), the 1990 West Coast 125cc Supercross Champion, rams Summers on the fi rst lap. Davis would later crash and drop out. By Davey Coombs SUMTER, sc, MAR. 13 efen d ing champion Fred Andrews emerged victorious in round two of the Wiseco/ Yamaha/ Dunlop / Braking/ ITP GNCC Series on the sandy course of Sumter. The 28-year-old Andrews survived an intense three-way battle involving himself, Team Honda's Scott Summers and Team Gree n's Ty Davis. Andrews, piloting a Yamaha YZ250 with backing from Pro Circuit, was the only on e of the three to finish the extremely rough race without incid ent, as Summers flattened a rear Moos e tube and Davis cra sh ed himself out of the race. "Man, it ' s ro u g h ou t there a n d I knew m y bik e was lighter and faster," said Andrews after claiming the overall. "I just went as ha rd as I could to see if anyone cou ld stay with me . When it came down to just Scott and me, I tried to just run him to death , or at least get his bike to fall apart, or something. I have to sa y he 's pretty damn good to ride that (XR 600) like that." " I guess I was just doing my job," sai d Summers of his inspired effort on th e heavier bike. "I 've been working with some new suspensions with Eric Crippa and Bruce Ogilvie out in Baja and that was the perfect set-up for this tra ck. I didn't really feel as many of those bumps as you might think." With Davis departing the race around the halfway point, hard-charging 10<125 rider Thomas Norton inherited the third overall position for the day. Rounding out the top five were Tea m Green superstar Larry Roese le r a nd Team KTM's Scott Plessinger, w ho just came off the injured list. The Su mter GNCC, o rga nized by Buren Hamrick and Racer Productions, was hel d in the spacious and sandy Ma nchester State Forest in the central part of Sou th Carolina. The eight-milesper-la p race t ra ck was "incredibly rough," by Andrews' own account. "The D sand whoops were everywhere. It wa s one long washboard where you had to pi n it a n d jus t try to keep goin g straig h t." . But the pin-it-and-go s tyle p roved costly for seve ral top competitors. Joining California's Davis on th e side lines du e to serious crashes were Team Green teammates Dan ny Hamel and Doug Blackwell, Yamaha pilots Duane Conner and Terry Cunningham, and 250cc A race leader Tod d Mora in. "The track was ju st bruta l," concurred Norton, the 31-year-old Kawasaki rider. "You couldn't sit down for two seconds. It just never let up." As usual, Blackwell blasted into the lead when the first row of 19 AA class riders were given the sig nal to fire up and fire off into the dense pine woods, bu t by the time the first 2D-minutes-plus lap was complete, Summers, Davis and Andrews were already free and clear of the pack. The race speed they were setting seemed mo re like a last lap sp rin t than a first lap pace, and in the last corner Davis actually went under Su m mer s, nearly slamm ing the big XR600 Honda and rider ou t of the deep inside berm. "We were all goi ng toge ther, p retty 1-2-3 for the first few laps," said Davis. "I was keying off Summers and I ha d no intention of passing him until we got to the motocross sections. I was happy staying behind him, but he started going a li tt le s lower in the whoops and I p assed him." A s h o r t time later Andrews approached Davis up fro nt and the Californian waved the numberone Yamaha into the lead . "I wanted to follow Fred to see his lines, but he just pulled away . I though t, 'Oh shit, I' m going to lose hi m.' [ tried to go after h im, b ut th en here comes Summers again . H e rides tha t big bike so da rn good in the whoops - jus t bam-bam-bam off every single whoop. Man, that guy's tough." "I was going to try and make a run from everyone, but Scott Plessinger hit a