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/127720
CROSS COUNTRY . AMA Grand N tional Cross Country Series a Round 1: Florida Motorsports Complex After a qu ick lap around th e motocross track Davis sho t back into the wo od s all alone. Left behind in the pits was enduro specialist Hawkins, who suffered a bu sted fro nt wh eel on the very first lap and had to make a qu ick stop in the Suzuki pits for repairs. Hawkins lost just a couple of minu tes but was passed by dozens of rid ers . Hawkins never gave up charging and eventually made it back up to ninth overall by the checkered flag. The first real drama of the race came after the second lap when Davis slipped into the Team Gree n pits unannou nced . The leak in his front brake line left him with no choice but to give up his huge early lead. With technician Jeff Cham.bers' help, Davis was back on the track within a few minutes but h is lead was long gone. At the end of the third lap he was only back up to eighth pla ce as .former KTM factory motocrosser Johnson took control of the race on a Kawasaki KX250 . Andrews, Summers, Smith, a recovered Cooper, National Enduro champ Hatch and Plessinger separated Johnson from Da vis. Plessinger, though, would soon be out of the race. . " This place and I d on't get along much," said Plessinger after quitting the race around the halfwa y ma rk. "Actually, I've been really sick this winter. I real. ly tried to rid e hard today but my body just could n' t take it anym ore." Plessinger wasn' t too up set about not getting any points in Florida. He missed last year's round all together with a broken foot but s till went on to w in th e championship. Johnson's presence at the front was a su rp rise to man y fans, but the Pembroke, Massachusetts resident ha s some offroad experience. " I comp eted in a co u p le o f local woo ds ra ces back up in New England By Davey Coombs OCALA, FL, MAR.7 hen off-road superstar Ty Davis went to the starting line for the first round of the 1995 Grand National Cross Country Series, he was already the points leader in the '95 AMA National Hare Scrambles and National Enduro Series. Three ho urs later he was also the leader of the GNCC Series after an inspiring come-from-behind ride. Honda's Scott Summers finished second to Davis with GNCC rival Fred Andrews third. Suzuki's Rodney Smith and Guy Cooper rounded out the top five in the field of more than 400 riders. Davis overcame a self-inflicted threeminute deficit that was caused by a front brake line that was leaking fluid throu gh a loose bolt. After having built a lead of more than one minute in the first 43 minutes of the race, Dav is was forced into the Team Gr een pi ts to ha ve th e p robl em fixed. As a result, approximatel y a dozen ove rall contender s passed him, and the ove rall su ddenly seemed out of reach. "I didn't think that I w as in the pits that long, but once I got back out on the track I couldn't believ e the number of guys that I had to pa ss to get back up there," said Da vis, who hails from the desert comm unity of Hesperia, Califor nia. "The track was really crowded with lapped riders in the middle of the race, and it seemed like the trail never opened up. It wasn' t until the end wh en the amateurs got off the track that we could really go." The GNCC series or ganizers are trying out a new sys tem where all amateur classes are flagged off after two hou rs of racing while the pro and expe rt classes continue for two more additional laps on a clear trail. With lap times right around 22 minutes, the overall leaders raced for just less than three hours. The e ig h t -mi le -a- la p course wa s d esi gn ed b y fo rme r AMA Nation al Enduro Champion an d Racer Production 's Jeff Russell. The trail featured more tight sections than in years past, and the centerpiece motocross section; Much of . the trail was hard-packed an d lined with straight-edge bumps. .Hor weather and a large crowd of riders ad ded to the difficulty factor . The 28-rider Pro class included ju st about every top name in American offroad racing, plus a few pro motocrossers and international stars to boot. World 500cc MX competitor Joel Smets from Belgium and enduro star Anders Eriksson from Sweden were on hand as Husaberg teammates. Former pro mo tocrosser [o [o Keller was joined by younger competitors Keith Johnson, Greg Rand and James Eickel. And former GNCC . regular Jan Hrehor was back fro m the Czech Republic to compete under the Suzuki banner. Unfortunately, Hrehor suffered a broken leg midway through the race and will be out of a ction for .some time . When the star-studded Pro class left the starting line, first from a dead-engine lineup, it was Davis, Team Suzuki's St e ve Hatch, North Carolina' s Steve McSwam and Andrews up front. Ocala '94 winner Cooper made the first mistake . of the day. W (Above) Suzuki's Steve Hatch (256) leads the start of the Pro wave. He is close ly followed by winner Ty Davis (181), Steve McSwain (169), Scott Plessinger (1), Doug Blackwell (7) and Fred Andrews (behind Davis). (Right) Davis (181) and Scali Summers (5) get a lillie close while dicing for the lead late in the race. Su mmers ended up finis hing se cond . " I 'w a s fly ing out across th e field about a quarter-mil e away from the starting line and I got crisscro ssed on some tree roots," said Cooper.ยท"All of the sudden the bike and I are cartwheeling over one another and the whol e pack is racing around me." "When Cooper started tha t crash I was right behind it," said Thomas Norton, who was making his GNCC debut aboard his new Mirage-backed Yamaha YZ125. "I got brushed by one flying bike but it wasn't enough to knock me off. It scared the hell out of me, though." With radio reports coming back to the motocross spectating area from course marsha ls, it was apparent that Davis was on th e ga s from the sta rt. H is lead on early pursuers Andrews, off-road newcomer johnson, defending GNCC champ Scott Plessinger and National Hare Scrambles Champion Rodn ey Smith was growing with every repo rt. By the time Davis raced into sight of the gran dstands he was alrea d y 40-seconds ah ea d of Andrews, who in tum had the aforementioned riders freighi-training behind him.