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> R S O N Y .• Round 8: Starvation Point 100 C O SC U TR :.. :AMAGrandNatiClnalCrOS$ Country Series By Davey Coombs Photos by Jim Talkington ELIZABETH, WV,jUNE 19 eam Sport Cycles Yamaha's Fred Andrews regained the pO .ints lead, that he lost briefly to Tom Norton, with a dominating overall win at the Starvation Point 100 . Andrews, the defending champion, posted his third victory of the series by nearly thr ee minutes over teammate Duane Conn er and Team KlM's Scott Plessinger. Rounding out the top five were Honda XR600mounted Scott Summers and 250cc A class winner Gene Onail, who rides a Kawasaki. . "I knew it was going to be d usty today, so I just tried to get the lead early and stay there," said Andrews, who hails from Salem, Ohio. "That turned out to be a good idea, because there was more dust out there than I thought there was going to be." Andrews was right. The Starvation Point race, which took the place of the in-limbo Blackwater 100, was besieged by dry, hot weather. The course was T covered by a powdery dust tha t made vision d ifficult and kept race speeds slow . Approximately 250 riders contes ted the event. _ New England hero Tom Norton was . the points leader ahead of Andrews going in to the event, having been th e beneficiary of an Andrew s DNF at round seven. But Norton's moment in the spotlight did not last long. A leg injury incurred in a practice crash, combined with the dust, caused Norton to wi thdraw from the race just three loops into the six-lip event. "I was back in 15th place, five minu tes down from the leaders," said Norton, who dropped to third in the standings behind Andrews and Plessinger. "I figured it was better to pull out before I did something stupid and hurt myself again." The first lap lasted more than 31 minutes, and saw Andrews emerge from the woods with a lead of about a dozen seconds over Kawasaki Team Green's Doug Blackwell, Conner and Honda of Troy's Tom Carson. Summers, deeply affected b y the death of his friend the previous day (see "Briefly..."), made several first-lap ntis- (Left) Defendi ng champion Fred Andrews col lected his thi rd win of the series , and rec laimed the points lead. (Abo ve) Duane Conner (14) was Impres sive at StarvaUon Point, finishi ng a distant runner-up to Andrews. > 34 takes and was back in 10th place. The three-time series champion never seemed comfortable at Starvation Point, and finished a distant fourth overall, six minutes behind the winner. Blackwell stayed close to Andrews for the first hour of the race, but then seemed to start slowing down in the heat. By the third lap he was just over a minute behind, and fadin g fast. As the white flag flew, Blackwell was out of the race, lying in the back of his trailer with ice packs and towels covering his body and head. Conner took up the charge in second, but had no chance of catching the longgone Andrews. Still, a nmner-up finish was Conner's best o f the year, and it . allowed him to move into the top 10 in the points for the first time this year. "I had a terrible start to the series - to the whole season, I guess," said Conner, who hails from Washington, Pennsylva- nia . " I've finally got th ings goin g my way, and the heat hasn't been a problem for me this summer like it was in the spring. I'd like to get into the top five in points by the end of the season, and win at least one race." Third overall was Plessinger, who like Summers never seemed to feel at ease in the race . He finished a minute and a half behind Conner, who himself rode past the checkered flag a lm o s t three minutes behind Andrews. "I've always said that winning this series means being consistent," said Andrews, who has suffered just two DNFs in his two years of cross country racing. "They only count the eight best scores, which means the championship will start taking shape now that we've reached the eigh th race. I figure that a couple more wins and some top-three finishes will be enough to win the title again." 0' StBrvsUon Point 100 Elizabeth , West Virg inia Results: June 19, 1994 (Round 8 of 12) O/A: 1. Fred Andrews (Yam ); 2. Duane Conner (Yam); 3. Scott Plessinger (KTM); 4. Scott Summers (Hon ); S. Gene Onau (!<.aw); 6. Tim Shephard (Yam); 7. Brian Hess (!<.aw); 8. Tom Carson (Hon); 9. ' eff Lauth