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than a minute dear of Davis, who conceded th e w in so mewhere in the last
four miles of the race. Summers crossed
the finish line with a lead of 63 seconds
on Davis, who in tu rn was more than
two an d a half minut es clear of Hatch.
Following at app roximately one-minute
in te rva ls were Sm ith , Andre w s and
Plessinger. Seven th overall Coope r wa s
nine full minutes behind the lead er, followed by Johnson, Hawkins and Tom
No rton.
0
(Left) Rodney Sm ith , here banging bars
with a lapped rider, fin ished fourth.
(Below) Guy Cooper was an early leader
but physically ran out of gas before It was
all over. He would end up seventh.
(Left) Steve Hatch
(10) passed
teammate Rodney
Smith on the last lap
for third at the
finish.
along and lapped riders were getting ou t
o f th e way for. us , bu t once I h it th e
lapped rider and hit the tree those other
tw o guy s w er e gone. Lapped riders
wouldn't get out of the way after that. I
think that Scott has a big ad van tage in
those situa tions becau se they he ar him
com ing and they get ou t of his wa y. I
was fighting and fighting to get by them
but they just wo uld n' t m ove." Once
Smith lost sigh t of what was left of the
front-runners, the race broke do wn into a
fin al two-ma n duel betw een Summers
and Davis. Smith wo uld lose th e fin al
podium spot to a late-charging Hatch.
. As th e tw o lead ers began their last,
franti c lap of just over 24 minutes, Summers made a loud statemen t by staying
right on Davis' fender all the way aro un d
the fast, slick. hard pack Ocala motocross
track. The 28-year-old Kentuckian. never
a motocros ser, even double-jumped his
way over a 7o-foot downhill d ouble that
only a few riders in the field were dearing.
"I was wa iting for the last lap," said
Summers. "You can save energy by followin g people, and I was actually getting
a ridi ng lesson on the mot ocross tr ack
each lap by following those guys. I don't
ride that much motocross, and some of
these other guys do. I watched the lines,
wa tched what th ey were d oing, saved
some energy, and then just let it all go on
the last lap . My bike might have had a little bit of an advantage on the track at that
point because it's so much heavier. I get
traction on th e slick stuff whe re th ose
guys can't."
Havin g m atch ed Davi s through th e
section tha t should have been to Davis'
strongest advan ta ge, Summers w as in
control because the race woul d be settled
back in th e wo ods where Summe rs
thri ves. Within a mil e th e big Ho nda
w ould po w e r in to the lead . Within
another m ile Summer s was th e clear
lea de r, having pulled a handful of seconds on the Kawa saki off-road wizard.
" Ty came up on a lapper and went
w ide, an d I wen t o n th e insid e a nd
passed both of them," said Summers of
the final pass of the day. "I picked it up
a nothe r not ch, and I in st antly pulled
away from him. I figured that if I could
just lu nge out from Ty and get away a little bit, he would ha ve a har d time catching up," said Summers. "I thought th at
he migh t make a mistake at that poin t,
w hich was exactly what hap pened . He
disa ppeared from behind me and I took
off. I'm really happy that he wasn't able
to stay with me."
-"On ce he got in front of me he took
off, " ad ded Davis. "I was ready to go
with him and see what happened at the
end, bu t a couple of lappers got between
us and that was it. In a race like this the
lappers are as big an obstade as anything
else . You ha ve to be a little lu cky out
there.",
In the wan ing mom ents of the race,
Summers made an impromptu pit stop
in on e of th e sa ndy fiel ds to give his
Honda a quick dri nk of gasoline to make
su re he mad e it to the finis h line. The
b rief pi t stop was both necessary and
meaningless, as Summers was now more
Ocala Motorsports Complex
Ocala, Rorida
Results: March 5, 1996 (Round 1 of 12)
0Ik. 1. Scott Summers (Hon); 2. Ty Davis (Kaw) ; 3.
Ste ve H at ch (Suz); 4. Ro d n ey Smith (Suz); 5. Fred
Andrews (Ya m) ; 6. Sco tt P lessinger (KTM); 7. Gu y
Cooper (Suz); 8. Keith [ohnson (Kaw ); 9. Randy Hawkins
(Suz); 10. Tom Norton (Yam); 11. Fra nk Keeg an (Yarn);
12. Brian Keegan (Yam); 13. Scott Phelps (Yam); 14. Tim
Shephard (Yam); 15. Daryl Conner (Yam); 16. Gene Onail
(Kaw); 17. Todd Morain (Yam); 18. Mike Morri s (Yam);
19.)an Hrehor (Yam) 20. R.J. Bennett (K1M).
PRO: 1. Scott Summers (Hon) ; 2. Ty Davis (Kaw), 3.
St eve Ha tch (Suz); 4 . Rodney Smith (Su z); 5 . Fred
Andrews (Yam).
.
200 A: 1. Jim Iarrett (Yam); 2. Heath Bennett (yam); 3.
Sh awn Mason (H on); 4. Kenneth Law (Yam); 5. Lee
Daley (Yam).
2SO k 1. Daryl Conner (Yam ); 2. Gene Onail (Kaw );
3. Todd Morain (Yam) ; 4. Mike Morris (Yam); 5. Ashley
Brewer (Suz~
O PEN A: 1. Rodney Judson (Hon); 2. Harve y
Whi taker (Hon); 3. Micha el Amede (Ka w ). 4. Rodn ey
e
Hastin (K1M); 5. Jeff veatey (KTM).
4-STRK A: 1. John Shaffer (Suz); 2. Craig Borders
(Hon~ 3. James MitcheD (Hon ); 4. Ralph Thorn (Suz ); 5.
Donald Bigley (Suz) .
VET k 1. T un Shephard (Yam); 2. Jan Hrehor (yam):
3. Van", Earl (Yam); 4. Tom Carson (Suz) ; 5. Steve Ezell
(Yam) .
SR k 1. Rick Kresi c (Suz); 2. Terry Mealer (Yam~ 3.
Scott Woldersberger (Yarn); 4. Jeff Harris (Suz); S.Jerry
Randall (Hus).
SlSR k 1. Emmett Cox J'. (Suz); 2. Harry Greenlee
(Yam ~ 3. Dennis Wegner (Kaw); 4. Uoyd Widener (Hon);
5. Joe Lojak (Yam).
200 B: 1. Chris Gallt (Kaw~ 2. Terry Spencer (Yarn);
3. Craig Copeland (Hon~ 4. Randy Hale (Kaw); 5. Kevin
Callahan (Hon).
2SO B: 1. Chris Hicks (K1M);.2. Michael Oamratosld
(Hon ); 3. Pete Sebelski (Hon~ 4. Mickey Frantz (Yam): 5.
Doug Masencup (Yam).
OPEN B: 1. Robe rt Ledford (KTM); 2. Robert Lich
(Ka w ); 3. W. Robi n McCl a in (l