Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

OFF ROAD. Grand NatIonal C.ross Country Series Round 8: Burr Oaks erties, was difficult in that the long drought that has plagued Ohio for the past few summers made for somewhat dusty conditions. A thin, talcum-like powder covered the track and made breathing - never mind seeing - difficult when riding in traffic. Still, the top riders seemed pleased with the ll-mileper-lap course designed by former ISDE team member and AMA National Enduro Champion Jeff Russell and his father Howard; who together form Ru sell Racing Promotions. Plessinger led everyone at the end of the 3O-minute, 43-second first lap, with Summers a close second place by a deficit of nine seconds. Following Summers' big Honda across the line were Cooper, down 23 seconds on the leader, his Suzuki teammate Randy Hawkins, 32 seconds down, and Andrews, 'who 'was some 40 seconds behind. From there the lap times would drop down to about 28 and a half minutes per loop, which made for a six-lap race nearly three hours long. After two laps, KTM-mounted Plessinger had stretched his lead rid ing the brand-new and very orange '96 bike to more than half a minute. "This orange thing might be in everybody's face for the rest of the year," laughed Plessinger at those who were making fun of the extraordinary coloring on the KTMs. Plessinger's lead cushion would more or less remain throughout the run, and at the checkered flag his lead was timed at exactly (Left) Scott Plessinger recon:led his Ihlrd GNCC victory of the year lIlthe Burr Oaks NlIllonal and with II moved back Into lhe title hunt. (Below) SCott Summers rode • nearly mistake-tree race but iulIl could nol hang with the hlgh-flylng Pleulnger. Summers settled for runner-up honors. , By Davey Coombs Photos by Jim Talkington Mll.LFIELD, OH, AUG. 27 fter a slow start to the 1995 Grand National Cross Country Series, Team KTM's Scott Plessinger got back into the title picture with a convincing win in the difficult Burr Oaks Grand National Cross Country near Athens, Ohio. The defending series champion bettered longtime woods rival Scott Summers by a narrow margin for his third win of the series after eight rounds. "I just rode hard from start to finish and Scott pushed me the whole time," said Plessinger after tossing his goggles to the crowd at the checkered flag. "Scott was riding real good and he kept the pressure on me all day. I could see him every lap and he gave it hell a few times but I was able to hold him off. I gave it 110 percent. I know that I have to put a little bit of training in for the rest ~ 8 of the series, but I feel good about things." "I have to congratulate Scott Plessinger because I thought I rode an almost perfect race and he still won," said Summers as he toweled a mask of mud and dust from his face. "He rode really hard and really fast." Four races remain in the GNCC series and third-place finisher Fred Andrews, of the Andrews Yamaha Racing team, leads with 129 points. However, because only eight of 12 races count toward the final championship standings, bad finishes will start being dropped. As a result, second-place Summers and fourth-place Plessinger should start getting closer in the rankings. Andrews is currently trailed by Summers and Suzuki's Guy Cooper, the two tied at 115 points, Plessinger with 114 and Yamaha pilot Tom Norton at 113 points. This round of the series, held on the Russell family farm and adjacent prop- 34 seconds on Summers. Andrews would check in third overall, but almost five minutes behind Summers. Yamaha-mounted Duane Conner was fourth overall and New Englander Norton was fifth. At one point Plessinger nearly made a fatal error when he took off before his water bottle had been refilled and reattached to his chest protector. "I had to come back in and put another water bottle on," said Plessinger. "With all this dust it would have been impossible to finish without some water to keep me going." In the end, the dust proved to be a problem for Summers in his attempts at catching the race leader, not to mention Plessinger's seeming speed advantage through the trees. "It seems like every time that I would catch him, Scott would just get away from me in the one woods section," said Summers, a resident of Kentucky. '1t was kind of dangerous-out there because of all the dust. You could just kind of see snapshots and you had to go by that. It was kind of scary." Summers had closed the lead slightly on the last lap but had problems with his vision while stalking a lapper and lost valuable time. "I just couldn't see past this guy's dust cloud and I was basically going by memory. I miscalculated a little bit and hit one tree and then bounced over into another. The tree was about five inches in diameter and me and my bike actually bent the whole tree before it threw me back like a spring! I never even fell off the motorcycle but I lost so much energy that I didn't have much left to charge." Third-placed Andrews suffered from a poor start and had difficulty finding the rhythm that would allow him to stay with the leaders, and he rode alone in third until the later stages, when Duane Conner closed in.

• Cover