Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 8: Black Coal National .HARE SCRAMBLE AMA National Championship Hare Scramble Series Plessinger pours it on By Davey Coombs LYNNVILLE, lN, ocr.22 ust last week we reported how Scott Summers had peaked at the perfect moment in his quest for the AMA Grand National Cross Country Championship. This week it's another off-road series and another Scott that has hit his stride. Team KTM's Scott Plessinger used a last-second pass on Suzuki's Rodney Smith to move closer to the 1995 AMA National Hare Scrambles Championship title. Plessinger captured the Black Coal National Hare Scrambles near Lynnville, Indiana, after passing Smith just 50 yards from the finish line after three hours of nip-and-tuck racing. "This one feels great!" said 28-yearold Plessinger from Hamilton, Ohio. "I've got my confidence back up where I need it. I was really down after 1 got beat in the cross country race at Mount Morris last week, but today 1 rode better than 1 have in quite a while." The win puts Plessinger in the driver's seat in the 1995 title chase. With one round remaining in Washington state, Plessinger needs only to finish third if Summers wins in order to clinch his third career AMA National Hare Scrambles title. For defending champion Smith to claim the title it would take a finish of sixth or worse for Plessinger and Summers, tripled with a Smith win. '1 think that I'm in a pretty good position right now," added Plessinger.. Summers finished third at the Black Coal after riding in contention for the win all day. Fourth overall went to enduro legend Randy Hawkins, while Pennsylvania's Duane Conner scored fifth overall The Black Coal National Hare Scrambles was produced by the Indiana-lllinois-Kentucky Enduro Riders. The dub set up their nine-mile-long trail in a reclaimed coal area. The consensus among the top finishers of nearly 300 entries was that the course was fun and unique. "It was really bizarre," said Summers. "The course was in an area where they pUshed all the dirt aside to get the coal and then pushed it back to make all these ridges. The whole time we were either on a ridge or down in a valley. The banks were so steep we can't ride on the sides. It was fast and a little narrow, too - probably the hardest track to pass on all year long." The weather conditions for the run were perfect. After a few days of rain early in the week, race day was dear and warm. Washington state off-roader Jason Dahners grabbed the early lead as the , first line of AA riders left the starting line at the blast of a shotgun. Suzuki's Smith, Hawkins, Conner, Summers, Plessinger were fU'rther back in that order. Smith seized the lead after a short time and tried to take advantage of Hawkins' runner-up position. "I made a quick run when r saw Randy behind me," said Smith. "I got about 15 or 20 seconds away, but I missed the course! I had to tum around and get back on it and that gave the pack a chance to catch back up. I took off again, but this time I ran into lapped riders. This is such a hard track to pass J lappers on because it's so narrow. There's nowhere for them to go. It was especially bad right in the middle of the race." ;'For the first two hours you could've thrown a blanket over the five of us," said Summers. "At first Smith was out front and he and Hawkins pulled away a little. Eventually we caught Randy and each of us passed him and then we all caught Rodney when he got to the lappers. Every time someone tried to pull away, lappers or a checl o Z 19

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