Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

HA'RE SCRAMBLE,' . AMA ·NaIiotI,a1 Championship Hare Scramble Series Round 5: Berkshire Hare Scrambles (Right) Barry Hawk, a multi-time four-wtleeler champ, rode among the leaders before dropping back to eighth. By Cindy Lemere BERKSHIRE, NY, JUNE 30 n a hare scrambles which turned out to be a test of survival, KTM's Scott Plessinger miraculously found himself king of the "mud men" after a nail-biting down-to-the-wire battle that marked Plessinger's first victory in the series this year. Current series points leader Rodney Smith fought his way up to runner-up despite several mishaps, and fellow Suzuki rider Randy Hawkins was on board to claim the remaining spot on the podium. The Ithaca Dirt Riders - under the direction of trail bosses Charles Davis and John Stupke - used much of last year's course with the usual tight woody sections, a few jaunts through some open field sections, a·creek crossing and a few off-camber spots in the woods. What the club hadn't planned on when they laid out the 10-mile loop was the torrential downpour that the area had received over the past several weeks. The day before the event it rained heavily all day, and in the earlymorning hours the heavens just opened up for over two hours and totally saturated the already rain-soaked earth. The end result was a mud bath that the infamous "mud fleas" of Blackwater would . definitely have envied. The small 6-inch-deep creek crossing had now turned into a 2-foot-deep raging set of rapids; the woods and fields had the makings of small ponds throughout what were numerous in depth, and the off-camber sections became a slip and slide to the bottom of the hill to the woebegone rider who fell out of the rut on the low side. The slick conditions also made it nearly impossible for the rider to climb back up the hill to the trail And at the bottom of all this lay mud - thick, black, oozing mud which covered every one of the 250-plus riders on the course. Pit crews were in big demand to keep fresh goggles and clean water available for their respective riders. (Above) SCott Plessinger came alive at the Berkshire National Hare SCrambles in N_ York, winning his first National HS of the year. (Right) Series points leader Rooney Smith led much of· the race before settling for second. The game plan for the day was that the Novice and Amateur riders would be called in after two hours and the remaining classes would be left out on the course to complete another two laps. Club officials estimated an average of 30 minutes to complete the loop. Official start time was 12:30 when the Pro class left the line and it was Plessinger leading the nine-man class through the first field section of loops and into the woods. Dodging through the muddy roost of Plessinger was Smith, who was in tum spraying up a thick smattering of mud onto the famed multi-time fourwheeler champion Barry Hawk. Behind Hawk were Duane Conner and Jason Dahners who were now completely caked in mud just from the roost being thrown up from the first three competitors. Thirty-five minutes later the first of the Pro riders emerged ou t of the woods, and it looked to be American Suzuki / Moose / Acerbis / Dunlop-sponsored Smith in the lead with Plessinger nipping at Smith's back tire. Freighttraining right along was Sport Cycles Yamaha/ Answer/Dunlop-backed Con'ner with Jason Dahners, Hawk, Hawkins and Robert Bennett. All seven riders were completely encased in mud making it virtually impossible to know who was who. Scorekeepers at the barrels relied on the riders to yell out their numbers to accurately identify them. As the Pro riders started into their second lap, complications already began to arise with lappers. The last wave of riders had actually le.ft the starting gate 20 minutes or more after the Pro class, and with track conditions rapidly deteriorating minute by minute, it didn't take long for the AA riders to catch up. Smith was the first to encounter bad luck. "On the second lap, I ran into a lapped rider and might've broken a couple of my fingers, so I just had to bear the pain and try to forget about it till the end. I then crashed two more times on the lap and got quite a way behind," said Smith. . Plessinger fared li ttle better on his second lap. "I tried a different line and got a big tree stuck in between my handlebars and the triple clamp," said Plessinger. "It got locked in there, and I couldn't move till everybody had passed me. I finally got it out, but I was now back. about seventh. I caught back up to Smith in about two miles and he kind of handed the lead to me. Nobody seemed to want the lead. There were so many lines in the mud and everyone would just sit back to see if you made it through." . Some sections of the course now had as many as 15 lines running through it as the riders tried to find a way through ruts that were now over 2-feet deep. What was once a good line on the one lap would turn into a deep, muddy, rutted-out line with roots and rocks trapping the bike deep into the rut. So the game of following the leader began for the front-runners. Plessinger, Smith, Dahners, Hawkins and Conner had pulled some time on the remainder of the class and were swapping the lead sporadically whenever the lead bike became stuck in a rut. Hawkins said, "The guy who was in the lead was actually at a disadvantage because the other guys could see if you made a mistake and go around it. There were just so many different lines and you couldn't always pick the right one." At the end of the second lap Smith was first, trailed by Dahners, Conner, Plessinger and Bennett. Hawkins and Hawk carne through a few minutes behind the lead pack after struggling through some bad line choices as well as getting stuck behind the multitude of lappers out wallowing in the mud. . At the start of the third lap, Conner made a successful push for the lead and came out ahead to lead for almost the entire lap. Plessinger slipped by Conner as he was trying to pick his way out of a bad line only to hit a log which sent bike and rider sprawling into one of the numerous deep puddles dotting the course. "I got up and my hands and the grips on my bike were completely covered with mud. It made it so hard to hold on Smith and Hawkins then went by me, and I just struggled to stay in fourth," said Conner. KTM-backed Dahners, who had been in third, had now slid back to fifth as his battle with the ruts began to get the most of him. "It seemed like the faster I went, the slower I got. I tried to crisscross the ruts, but then I would get cross-rutted and I was fighting it, and it just wore me out. On the last lap, it seemed that those guys turned it up, and I just got left behind," said an exhausted Dahners. The end of the third lap saw the white flag, and there was no way that the Experts would be running the additional two laps over the rest of the field as their 35-minute lap times had now turned into almost 50 minutes. The last lap was now do or die for the forerunners. Hawkins was the first to try the go-for-broke-method, as he pushed past Plessinger and Smith. Hawkins ended up in a horrific crash which shattered his knee brace and a few other items. As Hawkins was picking himself up, Plessinger and Smith passed him by. Hawkins resumed the pace and passed the two leaders back only to end up in another crash that left his head spinning. "At this point I had pretty much. used everything up and I was still a little bit out of it," Hawkins said. "This wasn't even my series so I just decided to follow Rodney in." The last lap saw Plessinger using a new strategy also that ended up giving him the go-ahead win. Plessinger tossed aside his goggles. "The difference was

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