Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~.if ","----::::-==-=:-=---:-=0 ~.~;:l.._ o F -R ACross Country Series Round 4: Brownsville O F. O D . AMA Grand National , ~VG o - . , . - - ------, 0 0 , e~~ln .eroa ~. aove rown~vl emn "When I'm on a motocross track that is l8-feet-wide I bounce from banner to banner, so when I get in the 4-foot-wide woods I'm just bouncing from tree to tree." "I had such a big lead earlier that [ decided to take it a li ttle easy," sa id Plessinger of his late race slacking. "But you either go fast in this stuff or you don't go a t all. I made some mistakes, and [ knew that Andrews and Cooper would catch me if I didn 't get going again." So Plessinger refocused on getting to the finish line as quick as possible, settled back into a fast pace and reached the checkered flag just more than a minute ahead of Andrews . Cooper had los t touch with a lap to go and ended up check ing in five minutes after Andrews. (left) Winner Scott Plessinger (1) grabs the hol eshot ahead of Guy Cooper (in the proces s of crashing), Doug Blackwell (6) and Fred Andrews (2). (Bel ow) Fred Andr ews rode well in the mud, fi nishing secon d overall. By Davey Coom bs Photos by C.J. Russell BROWNSVILLE, PA, APR. 30 e fen d in g Gra n d Na tional Cross Country Cham pion Scott Plessinger proved himself to be the best.mudde r in tow n whe n the GNCC tour stopped in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Plessi nge r, piloting a KTM 250, bett ered Team Yamaha's Fred Andrews, Suz uki-mounted Guy Coo per and nearly 300 ot her diehards to cli nc h h is first overall win o f th e season iri terrib le cond itions. "I was having a lot of fu n tod ay," sai d Plessin ger, a reside nt of Hamilton, Ohio. "I w as slinging mud all over the place, every chance 1got. 1 fell about five times, but 1 th in k th at eve ryone in th e race prob ably fell a bunch of times. 1 d on 't kn ow wha t it is abo u t the mu d - I've jus t always rode well in it. I jus t kep t a go od pace and d idn 't let anyone ge t to D me." "I could hear Sco tt most of th e d ay but I jus t cou ld n' t qui te ge t back up to him," said runner-up Andrew s, w ho, like the winner, posted his best finish of the series to date at Brownsville . "I just ke p t p lu ggin g a way, trying to stay u p and keep the bike going until the finish." Round in g ou t th e top five overa ll were SCR Yama ha's Dou g Blackwell an d Terry Cunnin gham, w ho, by vir tue of his Vet A class sta tus, was also the high pla cing non-P ro in Brown sville. Seri es points lead er .Scott Summers su ffered his firs t bad da y of the season when he burned out th e clutch on hi s Honda XR600. Tha t opened the door for Suzuki's Cooper to take ov er as points lead er, ha vin g turned in hi s se co n d straight top three overall finish. A t otal o f 286 rid ers en tered th e Eighth Annual Brownsvill e GNCC, but th e number wou ld h ave been sever al d ozen high er if not for the fierce rainstorm that touched on wes tern Pennsylvania that morning and sent many ride rs home be fore th e race even sta rte d . A steady dri zzl e contin ued th ro ughout the afternoon, turning Brownsville ' s Luzerne Park int o one big slip-tn-slide. Several reroutes were employed by the Racer Pr odu ct ion s staff du ring the course of the race. Lap times on the nineand-o ne-ha lf-mile-long trail that hovered aro und the 30-minute mark all day long . An exam ple of just how horrid the con. di tions we re could be found on the lap sheets of the 250/ Open Novice riders. Of the 54 riders entered, only 23 - less than half the class - were able to comp lete more than one lap: And 14 competitors neve r made it to the scoring barrels once . After the first row of Pro class riders left the wet, grassy starting chu te, Cooper was charging across the motocross track in "!' early bid for the lead and was do used with mu d and water a few times by the riders he was at tempting to pass. "W he n [ look back at that, [ maybe sho uld have waited because I got roosted on pretty b ad," said Cooper of the tough conditions. "By the time I got into the lead I was completely covered with mu d and 1 obviously stayed like tha t for the rest of the day." Cooper held the lead at the end of the first lap with Honda of Troy's Tom Ca rson breathing down his m u ddy neck. Following in close order we re Plessin ger, Tea m SCR Yama ha's Dua ne Con ne r, A n drews, West Vi rginia's Blackw ell , Summers and Ge ne Onail, who was makin g his first appearance of the series after breaking his foot practicing before the opener. However, by the end of the second lap Plessinger had the lead and was completely in control of the race. Within the next half-ho ur the highly reg arded m ud rider was more th an a m inut e a head of Cooper, Andrews, Conner and Summers. "Actu ally, Scott and 1 had some goo d racin g goi ng on out in th e trees but it pr obabl y d idn't look like it because we we re always ap art when we came into the mot ocro ss tra ck," said Cooper. "A t one point [ was leadin g on a downhill bu t 1 fell whe n I hit a root. 1 was tu rned aro und backw ard s and I saw Scott comin g d own th e tra il right at th e sa me place. He saw me lay ing there an d he was lookin g right at me when he hi t the sam e root ! He slid do wn in to me and we wer e both just sitting ther e in the mud next to each other." o " It was d ef'irrit el y a to ugh tr a ck today," said Plessinger, 27. " It was slippery all over the place and 1 had a few falls, including one right in front of the ba rrels. But the rain gets me fired up and 1don 't get tired when I'm fired up." Also firing Plessinger up might have been the spectac ular pass he made on the first lap whe n he jum ped past Summers on one of the park 's road cross ings. " On an end u ro trail that is four feet wide [ have my share of problems ," said the 33-year-old Cooper, who's initiation into the woo ds racing elite has not gone wit ho ut so me of h is infa mous crashes. "I know tha t 1 need to ge t my d rive for the champion ship going a little earlier than I did last year," said Plessinger, who DNFed the first round of the series an d s tar ted ou t 20 points in th e h ole. "Scott (Summers) alrea dy has tw o wins and a second, so I've go t my work cut ou t for me. 1 need another w in to get back up wi th him and tod ay obv iously help s. The competition is ge tti ng a lot stiffer and every point counts." "Last year it seeme d like it wa s just Summers and Plessin ger an d I u p front, and maybe Duane Conner every now and th en," said Andrews of the risin g

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