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HARE SCRAMBLE . AMAt4ationaIChari1piQns~ipH~re~mbleSertes· • R d5: K h k N t' I ouo a 0 a a'Iona ------------------------------=- now," he said. "It was pretty hot and real humid, so I didn't really want to lead. It's usually more work to lead than to follow, and I knew I didn't have any energy to spare: My original plan was to just stay close to the front, save my energy, and try to be there at the finish, but," he grinned, "sometimes things don't go like you plan them." The start of the race saw Rodney Smith lead the charge into the woods, leaving the other 269 riders entered in the race to battle dense dust on a very dry starting-line straightaway. Summers and Plessinger were right on Smith's rear fender, dodging the worst' of the dust cloud by tucking in close behind. A mix-up with course markings gave Plessinger the lead just before the threE! riders dived into the thick Missouri woods after a non-scored trip through the barrels.. '1 was leading on the first lap," said Smith. "Things were looking pretty good, and then I got messed up by the course markings. They had ribboned off part of our course for the ATV race on Saturday, but forgot to take it down for the motorcycles. I was sick all last week, and hadn't felt healthy enough even to prewalk the course, so I got messed up trying to figure out where I was supposed to go. Plessinger just rode right through it and took off, so Summers and I had to play catch-up." The three riders blasted down wood-' ed trails still muddy from rains that had fallen several days before. Any trail exposed to the blistering Midwestern sun was soon dusty and rock-hard, but shaded portions of the trail. were, at By Dan Anderson KAHOKA,MO,JULY9 cott Plessinger "accidentally" took the lead on the first lap and cruised to the overall victory at the Kahoka National Hare Scrambles. Series points leader Scott Summers and Californian Rodney Smith pursued Plessinger for the entire race, but a first-lap crash left them nearly a mile behind the KTMmounted winner. Plessinger's winning time was two hours and 53 minutes, while Smith came in second with a time of 2:55:07, and Summers took third at S 2:56:14. 24 Plessinger, who had been sick with the flu the week prior to the race, admitted after the race that):le hadn't planned to take the lead so early. "1 missed out on some training last week and still don't feel all that great (Above) SCott Plellll!lnger stops for a splash of gas en route to the Kahoka National Hare SCrambles win In Missouri. (Right) Rodney Smith was the early race leader but a firat-lap crash effectively coat him the win. The defending champ atlll finished second overall. best;tacky. In places they were outright slimy. . "I like riding in the mud," said Plessinger, "so the slimy trails at the beginning of the race didn't bother me at all. There were a couple of mudhoIes that got ugly, and some uphills that rutted out real bad, but overall it was a good course." Smith quickly got back on track after the course marking mix-up and chased after the fast-disappearing Plessinger. Just as he was making major progress, Smith crashed and got hung up on a log. While trying to free his bike, he inadvertently pushed it in front of the hard-charging Summers. "It was an accident," said Summers. "Rodney was trying to get his bike off the log before I got there, and I just got there sooner than he expected. He kind of pushed it out in front of me, we got tangled up, and neither of us could get our bikes restarted. We were both kicking like crazy because we knew that Scott (Plessinger) was really putting time on us." Plessinger suddenly found himself all alone in the lead on only the first lap and decided to capitalize on his good fortune. Fearing that his bout with the flu would leave him short on endurance, he proceeded to put as much distance and time between himself and Summers and Smith as possible. "I was kind of surprised to get the lead so soon," said Plessinger, "especially when I didn't really want it so early in the race. It didn't seem like anybody was pushing real hard on that first lap. Compared to some nationals, it was