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blett were well-prepared for the mud.
"We stuffed foam in all of the Uttle orifices to try to keep the thing from accumulating any weight," said Summers,
who hails from Kentucky. "I'm probably
50 pounds heavier on the starting line
than those guys are and when I add
another 50 pounds of mud it gets much
harder to ride. The bike worked really
good today and the suspension was
great and I didn't get tired at aiL I basically just didn't make any mistakes and
I think those guys made a couple and
that was the difference, really."
Several other riders were having
problems with the mud, including SCR
Yamaha's Tom Norton and Team Suzuki's Guy Cooper. But two guys who
thrived in the mud were Yamaha pilots
Duane Conner and Doug Blackwell,
each of whom played roles on the early
leaderboard.
"It went pretty good right away,"
said Conner of his day. "But I guess
once those guys started racing with each
other they really started pushing me,
and I ended up wrecking two laps from
the end. After I got behind it was too
hard to catch up. I'm not really in the
championship chase and I don't really
want to affect those guys' chances, but
at the same time I would like to beat any
one of them today. After all, I get paid
for top three also."
"Summer and I had a good battle,
and Duane Conner," said Andrews of
the midrace skinnishes. "1 followed
Summers up a hill that everyone was
stuck on. I thought, 'weIJ maybe he has
a good Une: and he had no idea where
he was going and jumped off this little
ravine and lan<;led on these big logs and
a log kicked up, hit me and shot me off
the track and I hit Duane wide-open.
Luckily, I didn't knock him down."
"Duane was riding really good and I
was glad to see it," added Summers.
"Duane is a good friend of mine and he
could do nothing but help me out, if he
got in there and got in front of
Plessinger and Andrews or Plessinger
especially, so I was giving him the
thumbs up everytime I got a chance. I'm
happy for him. He rode really good."
"The motocross track was an advantage to nobody because it was so
muddy," said Andrews, a former professional motocrosser. "It was really a
good race for everybody because I don't
think anybody had an advantage today.
It got really rutty back there - a lot of
one-Une stuff. When it gets like that you
are at the mercy of the people ahead of
you."
"In the beginning, I was going all
right there but I wound up smashing
into Tom Carson like five times today,"
said a frustrated Norton. "1 always seem
to get behind him. He is really fast on
the motocross track and the fast stuff,
but he is really not that fast in the
woods. He is always holding me up, so
this time I decided I was going to get
around no matter what. I just tried
everything. Then I hit him when I didn't
even mean it. We were going up a hill
and he must have lost traction. I
grabbed a big handful, hit him in the ass
end and we both fell down."
Towards the midway point of the
race a pivotal moment occurred when
Andrews and Summers sprinted
towards an opening in a fence that held
room for only one bike at a time.
"I think Scott thought that I was Conner or something because I kind of
snuck up on him as we were starting
down through the field:' said Andrews
of the improvised game of chicken. "He
looked over and saw it was me and then
he pinned it, but I know my bike is
faster than his and I was already mov-
(Lett) Defending champ Scott
Plessinger finished third and
basically finds himself In a
must-win position going into
the next, and final, round of the
series.
(Below) Guy Cooper struggled
In the mud and finished sixth.
ing over on him. He had no choice but
to shut off."
But Summers got back into the lead
as the race entered the last half hour and
he pointed his big Honda towards the
checkered flag. Andrews overtook a fading Conner for second while Plessinger
did his best to salvage some points on
the day.
"1 caught up to Summers and them
early and just rode behind them, but
then I think about the third lap I bit the
big one pretty hard on one of those
rocky straightaways:' said a disappointed Plessinger. "I got back up and took
off again and just rode as hard as I
could. I didn't catch up to Summers, but
I caught up to Andrews and with two
laps to go he was about 10 seconds in
front of me - but I never could catch him
after that. I fell again about two miles
before the finish and I decided to ride
in."
When asked what was bothering him
the most, Plessinger said it was problems with the rear suspension that made
tracking hard on the muddy, rocky
trails. "Th.e hills, I couldn't go up them. I
don't know what the problem was
today, but I'd catch them on the section
after the motocross track but then after
that they would get away from me over
here in this last section."
In the end, Suinmers held his pace
and won with room to spare. Andrews
was an easy second after Plessinger's
late crash while Conner came through a
couple of minutes later in fourth.
Rounding out the top five was the rookie Jones.
"1 had a lot of fun actually and everybody was like, 'you're going to get
tired: but I got more tired and pumped
up the first five minutes because I was
nervous and didn't know what I was
doing," said Jones, who will carry number 49 in next year's AMA Supercross
and ational MX Series. "After that I
relaxed and started following (Guy)
Cooper around. The first lap I went the
wrong way and about the third lap I
high-sided in probably fourth gear at
about 50 miles an hour, so that wasn't
exactly fun either. Other than that I had
a lot of fun and hopefully I get a chance
to try it again.
"1 just came out just to do the best I
could and finish the race. I had a lot of
people telling me, Oh, you can beat
these guys, you can beat these guys, but
I knew how fast they were. Maybe if
the track was a little bit drier I could
have done just a little bit better, but I
think top five and beating Guy Cooper
and some of the other guys was definitely a good finish for my first time out."
Jones is backed by Feroce Sports, Honda
of Troy, Arai Helmets, Smith Goggles,
Sidi and FMF.
"My life is really one-dimensional
right now:' said Summers after the race.
"1 work out, train, eat, and sleep and
ride my motorcycle, and that's about it. I
want this thing really, really bad. If I
don't win it's a huge investment that I
don't get a return on, so it's something I
think about all the time. I want to win it
for me and for all my sponsors and all
.the fans."
"1 don't know what I need to do
now:' said Plessinger in anticipation of'
the all-important final-round showdown. 'Tm going to have to look at the
poin ts, bu t I think Scott is one poin t
ahead of me now. It's going to be close. I
think he has one more second on me. I
just have to win and hope it works out:'
When asked how he felt about his
chances at the last round in Indiana,
Andrews, now third in the standings,
shrugged: "] just come to win. If I win, I
win. If I don't, I don't. You know what
they say: You're only as good as your
last race."
l'N
Mount MorrIs
Mount Morris, Pennsylvania
Results: OCtober 15,1995
OVERALL: 1. Scott Summers (Hen); 2. Fred
Andrews (Yam); 3. Scott Plessinger (KTM); 4. Duane
Conner fYam); 5. Mike Jones (Ron); 6. Guy Cooper
(Suz); 7. Tom Norton (Yam); 8. Tom Carson (Han); 9.
Gary Roach (l