Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

;HARESCRAMBLES/CRO.SS"COUNTRYseries Round 3/3: Loretta Lynn's Dude Ranch . '. A National C Hare Scrambles Series -Grand National C Country MA 'shi roSs By Davey Coombs HURRICANE MILI.S, TN, MAR. 27 t was too close to call - almost. Team Su zu ki's Rodney Sm ith and Team KTM standout Scott Plessinger cras hed together in the last tum of the Loretta Lynn National, going down in a heap just a few feet from th e fini sh line. Plessinger, who had been leading, called "Foul!" because it .was Smith who initiated the collision and Smith who got to his feet first to take th e checker ed flag. Plessinger was understandably frustrated about the whole incident, but the MotoWorid cameras showed that Smith, entering the corner on the outside of Plessinger, was more or less even with the KTM rider wh en he drove into his inside line . In the words of announcer John Ayers, that gave Smith "fighting rights" for the inside of the corner. Event officials decided to forego handing out an y penalties - Plessinger got some ou tside help to pu sh across the finish line in second - and let the results stand. "That was obviously a pretty exciting finish," said the victorious Smith from the Suzuki pits. "I got Scott in my sights and then he messed up a little in the last G-out before the finish line. He was on the inside and we were almos t side by side. In fact, when we came into the tum I thoug h t I w as in th e le ad . ·1 was alread y making the tum when he hit me from the side. That 's racing. I mea n, I didn't even know wha t was comi ng. Th e next thing I kn ew we we re both lying on the ground . I got up first and I got lucky." . " I go t a li ttle bobb le and some wheel-spin going, down at the bott om of the last hill, but I still had the inside line and I st ill had the lead," sai d a flustered Plessinger. "Rod ney rammed me right in the side and knocked me down. I don't think he was out of control. The only way he was going to be able to win the race was to ram me and knock me down. I don't feel like I lost; I feel like I should have won the race." Th is con trove rsi a l win marked Smith's second-straight overall victory in the 1994 AMA National Hare Scramb les Seri es and went a long way towards helping him in the point standings . The event was a combi ned AMA Nati onal Hare Scrambles / G rand National Cross Countr y Series eve n t, and GNCC Series points leader Fred Andrews, who finished third ove rall, made a clean break in the point standings from bitter rival Scott Summers . Team Honda's Summers, who entered the Loretta Lynn National tied in GNCC points with Andrews, su ffered a broken arm when he crashed while leading in the first hourof the nearly threehour-long race. The weekend marked the 12th consecutive year that the central Tennessee Ranch has hosted an offroad national. Unfortunately, the racers were greeted by a steady, da y-long downpour th at turned the normally fast and competitive tra ck into a complet e me ss. The trails were practically underwater and bottlenecks formed all over the hilly, nine-mile-long circuit. Course marshals we re forced to ma ke several alt era ti ons to the trail, but by the end of the day the condi tions were only worse . "Wha t can you do?" questioned the American Su zu ki / Cycl e Gear / Bel- Ray/ FMF/ Thor / Dunlop / Smith/ Bieffe/ Ans wer /Race Tech/Power Bar / Acerb is /Slavins/l000/0/DeVoI/RK/DG/ Braking-sponsored Smith. "It's going to be a wet, mud d y day for everyone." The first tum proved disas trous . for local favorite Robert Patterson. The Kawasaki pilot skidded across th e front of th e AA pack and ended up dead-last, along with off, road newcomer Tom Carson . Patterson had to find his pit crew for new goggles and did not get started again until the second row of . Open/ 25Occ A riders wa s almost up on him. "I think 1 had the holeshot going into the first tum, but Rodney came in under me an d caught my w heel, so down I went," said Patterson. "I got run over by a bunch of people and I think I might need my arm stitched. 1 made it about five miles ou t, but my handlebars were bent, my forks were tweaked and there was no point in going on. 1 just called it a day." While Summers, Plessinger and lancaster Sport Cycles' Duane Conner rode near the front of the pack, Andrews was way in the back after a four-kick start. He battled through the roosts for seventh by the end of the first lap, bringing (Above) Rodney Smith and his father Elwood await the start. Extremely wet conditions made for a challenging race. (Left) Scott Summers (1 N) and Robert Patterson (6N) started out front, but both crashed out of contention. In falling, Summers broke his arm. ..... 1-< 0..- ~ ' 10 up the rear of a very tight lead train made up of Plessinger, Kawasakimounted Sw ed e Ulf Orrvik , Norton, Summers, Smith and Doug Blackwell. Three laps into the rac e, Andrews came out of the wood s and into the open motocross area with a four-second 'Iead on Plessinger; Blackwell, Norton and Smith followed a short time later. Both Andrews and Plessinger made their first pit stops at that point and departed for the woods together. "The water was practically up to yo u r gas tank in so me spots," sa id Andrews of the weather-beaten track. "1 . was tr yin g to pass people everywhere but it was just black, muddy water. You could hardly see after someo ne splashed you, and going through a few puddles it practically pulled my feet off the pegs." . "Fred had a real good race going at that point," sa id Plessinger, who was competing in his first round of the Hare Scrambles Series s inc e suffering an injury in a local Mid-Sout h race. "Up until the second -to-last lap it was really just Fred and I, at least until Rod ney came along." While the crowd watched the lead pack splas h by, Summers rod e into his pits from an access road, and required help in dism ounting from his Honda XR600. 'T his is not good . I may have broken my arm," said Summers with a painful ex p ression . "1 wa s goi ng down th is whoop ed- out fir e road that was just covered with water. 1 felt like 1 was jetskiing! Anyway, 1 hit a bump or a rock . or some thing under the water and it catapulted me face-first - and maybe armfirst - into a tree. I was going 35, maybe 40 miles an hour when it happened, so I feel lucky to have gotten away with just a busted arm . Riding was not an option after that. " For the next tw o lap s, Ples singer, Andrews and Smith carried their threeway lead battl e awa y from the pack to

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