Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·H R A ESCRAMBlElGNCC . . AMA N ationa Hare Scrambles Series; AMA GrandN tional Cross Country Series l a Round 3: Hurricane Mills,Tennessee ee in a row for ummers (Left ) Scott Summers Is on fire. The Honda XR600 ace has won the first three GNCC rou nds , Incl ud ing the Lo retta Lynn's event in Ten nessee. (Above) Team Suzuki's Steve Hatch got away with the hol esh ot and ran a strong race to fi nish secon d overall . By Davey Coom bs HURRICANE MILLS, TN, APR. 14 o r t h e th ir d time in as man y races American Honda' s Scott Summers captured th e overall win in a r o u n d of th e 199 6 AMA Wi se co / Yamaha / Dunlop / Br aking / An swer / Acerbi s Gra nd Na tiona l Cross Country Series ', which al so gave the Kentucky rider a victory in th e th ird round of th e Nation al Ha re Scrambles series as the even t counted toward thi s cham pionsh ip as w ell. Summers d omi nated the proc e eding s all a fte rnoon lon g, m oving into the lea d on th e first lap an d racing away for the rest of the five-lap Loretta Lynn 's Ranch run in central Tennessee, "Th ree in a ro w fee ls really, reall y great," said Summers, 28, of Petersburg, Kentu ck y . "I' ve been w or kin g rea lly hard and thebike is working really well and I'm comfo rtable out ther e. I'm havin g m ore fu n now th an I' ve h ad in a lon g. lon g time. 1 thi nk it shows in m y results." Finishin g secon d overall after tw o s t ra ig h t third -pla ce fin ishe s in th e GNCC series w as Suzuki's Steve Hatch, from New Yor k, who took advantage of the absence of Team Green 's Ty Davis to secu re second in the cu rre nt sta nd in gs . Hatch' s spo ns ors include Am erican Suzuki, FMF, Trell ebor g Tires an d Moose. "1 rod e about as hard as I cou ld, so I have to be satisfied with second," said Hat ch, who is competing in bo th the GNCC a nd AMA N atio n a l En d u r o Series this season . "This was abo ut as much as I' ve had at a cross country race . I just need to impro ve by one more position an d I' ll be really satisfied ." F fun A p air of su rp rises filled third and fourth overall as Yamaha rid ers Duane Conner and Frank Keegan, both from , sou thwestern Pennsylvan ia, put in their best rid es in quite some time. Rounding ou t th e top five ov erall w as Su zuki' s Rand y Hawkins, who pa ssed an ou t-ofgas Rodney Smith just before the finish line. A total of 473 ri d ers a tten ded th is combined round of th e G NC C and AMA N ational Har e Scra mbles Seri es, but a long and rough tra il o f over 14 miles per lap eased the usu al burden of lapped traffic. A day-long rainsto rm on Saturday saturated the Hurricane Mills ar ea, but Sunday was wa rm and breezy and th e track conditions were almost p erfe ct. Th e Ra ce r P roductio ns design ed trai l featu red seve ral m iles of new trail, but wi thi n two laps the w ho le loo p was ch u rne d u p like a rocky motocross track. Cou ntless braking and acce leration bumps d otted the woods and fields of the ra n ch p r ope r ty of Lynn, th e fam ous country singer w h o has also been a gracious host to off-road race rs s ince 198 2: (Lore t ta h er s e lf cooked spaghe tti sauce for competito rs cam pi ng at th e ran ch for Satu rda y evening dinner.) "This place get s really chop py and it's a tough trail," said Summe rs of the Lo re tta Lynn ' s tra ck . " You' r e eithe r going up a hill or d own a hill or d odging trees the whole time, and at the end of the da y it' s as rou gh as can be: ' Summers' sponsors are Am erican Hond a, Answer, Pirell i, Oa kl ey , Alpin e star, Yoshi mura, Arai, Silk o len e, W ise co , Ts ubaki, Ca melbak, Braking, White Bros . Twin Air , Specialized, UFO and SRC. With so many riders on the starting gri d, it wa s determined that 16 rows of classes wou ld be needed for the deade ng in e s ta r t, with on e row leaving every 60 seco nd s accom p an ied by th e reb el yells of the more than 2,000 fans wh o atten d ed th e race. The first row wo u ld b e th e 33-ri d er Pr o (AA) class, and Suzu ki's Steve Ha tch got the jump on everyone, with Yamaha-mounted Fred Andrews following closely in second . Summers was righ t around 10th , but th e big Honda pilot quickly aimed his four-stroke at the front of the pack. " I didn't reall y get a good start, but th e tr ail was single -file an d that kept every bo dy close," said Conner, "You couldn't really jump out int o the bushes to pass any bo dy, so every bo dy stayed togeth er. I w ould wait until so meo ne mad e a mi sta ke and then just pass them and start in on the next guy. Pret ty soon [ was u p there in contention:' " I got a pretty bad start because my b ik e d id n' t fi re o n th e fir st ki ck, " ex p la in e d Keega n of hi s 20th -place start. " I jus t s ta rte d pass ing peop le everyw h ere, goi ng cra ~ y, and ev erything wo rke d out perfectly : ' At the end of the ' first lap Keegan was up to sixth behind Sum me rs, Hatch, a fast-moving Jason Dah ners of the KTM team, Suzuki' s Rodney Smith and Andrews. But Sum mers, with a lot of crow d su pport behin d him, w as moving away from eve rybo dy . "There was a lot of peopl e out there in the w oods tod ay jus t screaming and yelling and cheer ing me on , and th ere's no wa y I wasn't going to give them 100 p ercent, " sai d Sum mers, w ho h a s emer ged as one of th e m ost p op ul ar woods racers o f all tim e. "Bu t I think the ·fans ac tually h urt me one tim e because I got so fired up I hit a tree an d did a big crash in fron t of abo ut 20 peo ple! They were lau ghing, so I guess tha t I was good en te rtainment for th em. " Su mmer s broke h is fro n t fender and injured his sh oulder in the fa ll; h e bri efly thought that he m ight have sep- , arated the shoulder again. Af ter just two laps, Summers' lead was climbing toward the one-m inu te mark while Hatch held second in front of the surp risingly fast Keegan . Then cam e team Green ' s Ke ith Johnson , Andrews, Dahners and Yama ha-mounte d Tom Norton . Smith, a pre-race fav orite after winning here in"94, was slid ing backward in the field . "I just had some bad bike setups and I couldn't even hang on," a fru strat ed Smith said later. "I was all over the trail. I took a couple of big crashes on the second lap . I was trying some new sus pens io n se tt ings a n d th e b ik e was jus t pogoing me everywhe re. I had no control of the bike, and that w as the worst race I've ever done in m y life." To make matters worse for Smith, he fractured a toe on his left foot and ran ou t of gas on th e last lap. "Th e only lu ck I had was that I had to rid e so slow ly that eve ry one else got tired and I had energy left at the end to ge t som e po ints: ' Summers' big crash occurred on the third lap and his lead was trimmed to just 16 second at that point. Hatch was still second and Keegan w as an addi tional 16 seconds back in third. "Sometimes I get this feeling tha t I'm invi ncib le or s om e t h in g a nd I keep pushi ng it and p ushing it," said Summ e rs o f h is crash . " O f course, that's w h e n you ge t the reali ty check. The cras h took my fender off and I was real luc ky I di d n't hurt m yself: ' . "I was try in g to m ake a good push

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