Plessinger rode a strategically flawless
race right to the end.
Back in the ranks, the fifth lap saw
Hatch overtake Dahners for the final spot
on the podium. Hatch was to have one
final tale of woe as, on the final lap, he
overshot a steep downhill and landed up
in the "boonweeds." The end result was
a tangled mess in a vine which took him
about 40 seconds to free himself from.
The end saw the diligent New Yorker
only a little over a minute behind the
leaders. Dahners cruised in for fourth
and Indiana's Sampson was fifth.
"My Kawasaki is totally stock and
was' really set up for a motocross track,
.but it worked all right and I just took it
easy," Sampson said.
"At the end I knew that I didn't want
to end up leading for the last two laps,"
Plessinger said. '1 tried to go slower to
'let Rodney take the lead. It's easier to follow than it is to lead. After I passed him
back and it was the last lap, I figured I
had better get going. I really need to
thank my pit crew as they did a heck of a
job keeping me up to date where I was."
Even though Plessinger may have
been the top AA rider for the day, the
real race jockey award should go to 18year-old Blair Bersano from Michigan.
Bersano pulled a spectacular holeshot in
the 250cc A class. After that it was the
last time anyone in his class saw him all
day. Bersano just put the hammer down
and took seventh overall, despite starting
two lines back from the AA riders.
"1 just got so pumped once I started
passing all those AA riders," he said. '1
had all this energy and got into this noman's-land mode of thinking and riding
harder and you don't really even think
about what you're doing."
(N
Bl8ck Coal Hare Scnunbles
Lynnville, Ind*Results: October 6, 1996
(After 7 of 9 rounds)
OIA: 1. Scott Plessinger (KTM); 2. Rodney Smith
(Suz); 3. Steve Ha.ch (Suz); 4. Jason Dahners (KTM); 5.
Mike Sampson (Kaw); 6. Eric Mashbir (Suz); 7. Blair
Iler.lano (KTM); 8. Brian Garrahan (!
