Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

;'C O SCOUNTRY:' ' ~>: :': ' : ' :". Round 5: Whiskey Ridge National RS AMAWisecolYamahalDunlopmrakingGNCC:Sliries'.. (Left) Tom Norton (5) tries to hold off eventual winner Scott Summers early In the Whiskey Ridge Grand National Cross Country race. (Below) Summers (left) and defending champ Fred Andrews (1) battled to the end with Summers scoring the win by mere Inches. By Davey Coombs "N SHARPSBURG, MD, MAY 8 ow that was a war!" said a satisfied Sco tt Summ ers after emer ging fro m a fierce three-way battl e to claim the Whiskey Ridge Grand National Cro ss Co untry ove rall wi n by on e bike length over Team Yamaha's Fre d Andrews and KTM's Scot t Plessinger. "Tha t was as close a race as you will eve r see. Every time one of us mad e a pass on on e guy, the oth er gu y wo uld get us both. It was a really good race, a really great race!" "We were so close together that last . la p it was hard to concentrate," sa id Andrews. "I d idn't want to get too close to make anyone think 1 was going to take him down. We did some bumping. but there was nothing wrong with what we did. 1 did the best 1 could but it didn't work ou t " Summers, a six-tim e off-road Na tional Champion from Petersburg, Kentucky, raced across the finish just inches ahead of Andrews, who in tum was just a few seconds clear of Plessinger. By most accounts, it was one of the closest three-man cross-country battles ever. And for Summers, the one-man wrecking cr ew for Team Honda's off-road effort, the victory could not ha ve come sooner. The Sharpsburg, 'Ma r yla n d event marked his first national w in of the 1994 season. Sidelined since the last we ekend of March w ith a busted arm, Summers badly needed a win to keep pace with the ever-eonsistent Andrews, who has now finished in the top three in . each of the five series rounds to date. But even with the Whiskey Ridge win, Summers trails Andrews by a considerable margin in the point standings. Summers' declaration that the race was "a war" was fitting. The course for the Whiskey Ridge GNCC skirted his- toric Antietam Battlefield, the site of the bloodiest single-day battle of the Civil War. The course measured just six miles per lap and was filled with short open sections of pine trees and ravines. Saturday afternoon rain showers had the riders strapping on the we t weather gear, but the rain stopped and the sky star ted to clear Sun day morning, ma king for a fast, tacky tra ck. A total of 245 rid ers started the race. ,While th e holeshot was being sha red by Team Green's Doug Black w ell , Hond a of Troy's Tom Carson and Suz uki's Steve Ha tch, KTM enduro specialist Jeff Russell was gettin g a ta rdy st art. Russell was piloting a four-str oke KTM in preparation for the Six Days later in th e s u m mer, but the b ig w hite b ike wouldn't start with the first kicks. "I had trouble kick-starting this bike all day long. " said Russell after the run was over. "With all the bottlenecks and ruts, 1 s talled out more ti mes than 1 w oul d have liked to , especia lly on a thumper. 1 think my leg is going to fall off." At the fron t of the pa ck, Plessinger too k o ver on his MSR /EBC /B ridgestone/Arai /Power-Bar/ Tsu baki-backed KTM. Yamaha-mounted Duane Conner, Hatch, Blackwell, Andrews, Honda riders Steve McSwa in and Summers, and Kawasaki KX125 pilot Tom N orton filled in the spots behind the leader. "I did a big endo at the end of the little motocross section," said Norton. "It was the second or third lap and 1 was in fourth gear, wide open. It shook me up , took my back fender off and hurt my left wrist pretty good. 1 got going again and pretty soon 1 was right there with everyone ." For three exciting laps, the le adchanged hands countless tim es as the Pro class riders took turns lead ing the pack. Then, on the third of 10 laps, Summers busted a foot peg in a rut The peg was sticking straight up and required a quick repl acem ent b y m echanic Fred Bramblett. "I was battling Tom Norton and 1just -nailed something sticking out of the ground," said Summers of the incident "When 1 got back around by the pit area 1 told my mechanic to ha ve another foot peg read y because 1 didn't know what kind of damage 1 had . We made the swi tch on the next lap as 1 gassed, and 1 got out of the pits pretty quick." Even wi th a full-service stop - ga s, goggles and peg parts - Summers only lost half a minute in the pits; he made up 23 seconds of that in the next fast lap . " Guys don't go as fast up. front as they d o from behind because the pressure is on you," reasoned Summers of the slow lead pace. "When you have the lead you have something to lose. When you 're behind someone you have nothing to lose, so you can push a lot harder." While the AA riders were dancing around with one another in an effort to avoid riding in the lead, 200cc A class contender Craig Jones was putting in a remarkable ride at the front of his class. Jones, th e defending 200cc champion actually held the overall lead - based on elapsed time - for the better pa rt of an ho ur. "I had a few Snickers bars before the start so 1 had extra energy! " joked Jones, who is backed by BT Racing /Race Tech, Pirelli /MSR. "I didn't know 1 was winning until 1 made my pit stop. 1 started a minute behind (the Pros ) on the second row, so 1 gues s any time 1 can get closer than a minute to the first-place Pro rider I'm in the overall lead." Jones lost the unofficial lead as the seco nd hour was getting underway. But he held on for a wel l-ear ned sixth overall an d the 200cc A class win, which may have been the m ost co mpetitive class on the day. Including the 125cc mo torcycle of Pro class rider Norton, a total of six small- bore bikes finished 18th overall or better. Honda-mounted Kevin Bennett was also making great progress towards the front as he led the Four-Stroke A class. But on the th ird lap, Bennett pounded his bike and body into the ground while dropping into a G-out. "I was kind of beating my brains out up until that point," admitted Bennett, who quit the race after his accident with a bruised left shoulder. "That had to be the crash of the da y." (It was.) "After 1 wore myself out trying to lead at Brownsville, my dad told me I'd better not be ou t front until after the gas stop," said Conner, who's recovery from early inju ries has his s tamin a a notch below what he needs to stay with his rivals for almost three hours. "No one wants to lead because all of th e other guys will key off you and get your best lines. It's better to stay calm and steady and save your energy for the end. First couple of races this year, everyone was banzaiing it early trying to get the lead; now no one seems to want it anymore." Conner's energy gave out with about two laps to go, though he maintained a

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