Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

CROSS COUNTRY' Round 7: Starvation Point : Grand NaIIonaI Cross CoUntry $erles . Pretty soon Plessinger passed Hess and set after Smith. Summers went with Plessinger to chase the leader, but then Plessinger lost a considerable amount of time after an ill-timed pass attempt on Smith. Summers saw the incident. "I was in third, Scott was in second and Rodney was in first," said Summers. "Scott went around this hill to try to get around Rod[ley, but he went off the trail into a bunch of brush and it probably took a little while for him to get going again." .. "That cost me a minute and half," Plessinger said. "Once 1 got going again 1 was about 30 seconds away from the leaders and fell two times right in a row. That took a lot of my energy out of me, and it took me a little while to get back going. Once I got going again 1 mellowed out and caught back up." Summers saw Plessinger's mistake and was about to have some problems of his own. "I hit a rock out there and all of the oil drained out of my bike," said Summers, who suffered his first DNF of the year at Starvation Point. "I was just sitting there looking at my bike and Scott Plessinger stopped as he came by and asked me if 1 was okay. 1 thought that was pretty cooL That's why 1 was kind of pulling for him after I was out. At the end of the second lap, Black1I By Davey Coombs ELIZABETH, WV, JUNE 16 s expected, defending Grand ational Cross Country Series Champion Scott Plessinger began his annual late-season charge early by winning the seventh round Starvation Point GNCC. [t was Plessinger's first win the series after a di sastrous openi ng to his second straight title defense that saw him fail to get into the winner's circle in each of the fi rst six series events. The narrow Father's Day win over Suzuki's Steve Hatch kept Plessinger alive in a series in which the best eight of 12 races count towards the overall championship. "This one feels good but to tell you the truth, I actually think I should've won the last three races," said Plessinger. "Things kept happening and 1 ended up losing all three by a combined 15 or 20 seconds. Hopefully, 1 got it all sorted out and 1 can win some races. I'm ready to go." Rounding out the top five overall behind Plessinger and Hatch were Rodney Smith, Duane Conner and Doug Blackwell. Hatch moved back to the top of the GNCC series leaderboard with his sixth podium finish in seven races. Hatch capitalized on a DNF by previous points leader Scott Summers, who saw a rock embedded in the trail punch a hole in the cases of his big Honda XR600. This marks the latest date in the history of a GNCC Series that a Suzuki has led the points standings. Hatch has a total of 128 points and two overall wins, while Summers carries 111 points and four race wins. Conner (99), Suzuki's Randy Hawkins (93) and Plessinger (92) round out the current top five. "I have to say I'm right where 1 want to be, though 1 would've definitely preferred a win today," said Hatch, who is concentrating primarily on the GNCC Series this year while also competing in the National Hare Scrambles and National Enduro events. "A Suzuki has A (Above) Steve H8tch (10) and Rodney smith (131) get the lump on the pack at the start of the Starvation Point GNCC In West Virginia. Hatch and smith went on to finish MCOnd and third, respectfvely. (Right) SCott Plessinger pulled off his first win of the year, keeping his hopes of another championship sllve. never won this series and 1 would really love to be the guy who finally gets a title for them." The Starvation Point GNCC has been on the AMA Wiseco/ Yamaha / Dunlop / Acerbis / Answer/Braking GNCC Series schedule for the past four years, taking the place of the late, great Blackwater 100, which was held on the other side of the state. The Starvation Point GNCC is only a fraction of the event that the notorious Blackwater race used to be, though the fan base has grown noticeably each time the G CC tour has made the Elizabeth, West Virginia, stop. This year the fans grew a little rowdy in a creek crossing during Saturday's quadcycle race, which prompted event organizers to reroute the course away from the water in an effort to avoid some of the crowd problems that carne with the Blackwater 100's popularity. For this year's race the Starvation Point GNCC trail was nine-miles-perlap long, made up mostly of rolling, wooded hills. There was an abbreviated trip around the Starvation p.oint MX track, and throughout the day event organizers did their best to keep the motocross track from getting too dusty in the hot afternoon sun. The average lap time was right around 24 minutes. Some of the series regulars felt that this event - with the heat and a very chal- lenging trail - was the toughest round of the series to date. The Suzu1cis of Smith and Hatch made it to the first turn first after the lead row of Pro class riders left the dead-engine starting line. Plessinger tucked it inside to stay near the front, while Yamaha-mounted Fred Andrews, local hero Blackwell and relatively unknown Virginian Brian Hess made up the first batch of chasers. At the end of the first lap, Smith was still at the front, while Hatch had some problems and dropped all the way down to 10th. Even further back was Conner; he was 12th after a lap. The Kawasaki-mounted Hess was a surprising second, racing just a few bike lengths off of Smith's fender. The American Honda-backed Summers was next, followed by the usual -suspects: Plessinger, Andrews, Blackwell and Brian Keegan. well, urged on by a very vocal crowd in what is basically his hometown race, shot into the lead, while Hatch made a remarkable recovery to hold second. Smith was third, then Andrews. But the Yamaha rider was about to join Summers on the DNF list. After waking up with a stiff back, Andrews felt the pain getting worse the more he rode and elected to withdraw from the competition after the first hour. Hess would also drop out after four fine laps near the front. For laps three and four Smith controlled the race. After passing his teammate Hatch and then wearing downBlackwell, he opened a lO-second lead after the third lap and then kicked it out to more than 20 after four laps. By this time Hatch was in second, while Blackwell began a slow fade that would land him in a respectable fifth overall posi-

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