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CROSS COUNRTY AMA Grand National Cross Country Championship series Round 12: Li'l Beaver Park • • eSSln er I Sa[ ose one "There had to be 50 lead changes out there," said Summers, who has six wins in 12 races to date. "Every time one of us would get a lead we'd run into traffic or make a mistake and let the other guys get right back in it. It was a great day of racing." With one round to go in the long series, Summers carries an insurmountable 157 points to 154 for Plessinger and 150 for Hatch. (In the GNCC Series only the best eight finishes for each rider count toward the final ran~ings.) Andrews and Conner are tied for fourth at 137 points apiece going into the final round on October 26 in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Other class winners in Lisbon field on 254 riders included Yamaha-mounted Daryl Conner in the 250 A class, Vet A winner Jeff Russell, Heath Bennett in the 200 A division, ATK-mounted Rodney Judson in the Open A's, and FourStroke A leader Ronnie Burnfield. The GNCC Series, sponsored by Wiseco, Yamaha, Dunlop, Answer, Braking and FMF, was visiting Li'l Beaver Park in northeastern Ohio for the first time, and a huge crowd came out to watch the off-road action. The course was designed in a spectator-friendly "cloverleaf" pattern that placed the pits and starting area in the center of the sixmile-long track, giving pit crews and fans several chances to watch the riders each lap. By Davey Coombs Photos by Kim Clough LISBON, OH, ocr. 13 ven though the chase for the 1996 AMA Grand National Cross Country Championship has already been decided in Scott Summers' favor, Team KTM's Scott Plessinger has kept trying to carry his old #1 plate with pride. Plessinger overcame a cold and a fierce charge from Suzuki's Steve Hatch to win his second straight round of the series last Sunday at Lisbon, Ohio's Li'1 Beaver Park. The win moved Plessinger into second place in the series rankings behind American Honda's Scott Summers, who clinched the overall title at the previous round. The Lisbon win was the late-starting Plessinger's third of the season. Finishing second overall in Ohio was Team Suzuki's Steve Hatch, the man that Plessinger replaced as runner-up in the current rankings. Local hero Fred Andrews was third, followed by Yamaha teammate Duane Conner and the four-stroke-mounted Summers, who spent several scary moments on his bike wnile punch-drunk from a crash, but more about that later. "It was just good racing all day long," said Plessinger, who mixed it up with steady GNCC rivals Hatch, Andrews and Summers all day long. "Steve (Hatch) would get around me, I'd make a mistake, Scott (Summers) would pass us and then fall, Freddie E \0 0\ 0\ ,...., o C1') aJ E u o 26 (Above) Suzuki teammates Rodney Smith (231) and Steve Hatch (10) lead eventual winner Scott Plessinger (1), Jason Dahners (168) and the rest of the field into the first corner of the AMA GNCC held in Lisbon, Ohio. (Right) Fred Andrews (3) and Hatch (10) battle through one of the spectatorfriendly viewing areas. Hatch passed Andrews to finish second, while Andrews held on for third. (Andrews) was there all the time - it was just that kind of day. 1 didn't think I had it won until halfway around the last lap, but then my bike started running out of gas and 1 had to flip in on reserve! Luckily some guys out there had a gas can and they hooked me up." "Congratulations to Scott - that's why he's got the #1 plate," said Hatch of the close loss. "We had a great time out there, that's for sure. It was a good race to be a part of:' The highlights of the course were the strip-mine highwalls and spoil piles of outcrop coal that were left over from the area's mining heyday. Race day was a dry day, and lap times on the fast track measured right around 17 minutes. The overall leaders put in a total of 10 laps in the 2 1/ 2-hour-long race. As expected, the quick-starting Suzukis of Rodney Smith and Hatch made it to the first turn first after the fron t ro"; of Pro class riders igni ted from the dead-engine starting line. At the end of the first loop Hatch was still the leader, followed by Andrews, who lives just down the road in Salem, Ohio, and Plessinger. Yamaha's Doug Blackwell, on a recent upward spiral this fall in cross country racing, was fourth while Pennsylvania's Conner led Summers for fi fth. As for Smith, the AMA National Reliability and National Hare Scrambles Champion, the Suzuki rider dropped out after a bizarre chain of events left him laying in a creek. While following Blackwell and Summers into a ravine, Smith did not see Blackwell fall in the creek that lay in the center of the ravine. Summers was able to jump over the downed Yamaha pilot, but as Blackwell picked his bike up, Smith did not see him and committed himself to jumping the creek. He augured into Blackwell and aggravated a rib injury. "The whole day 1 was blowing my nose in my helmet," said Plessinger, who seemed to be on cruise control for much of the early going. "1 couId hardly swallow either because the dust was getting in my throa t. It's weird how 1 actually do better when I'm sick, maybe because 1 load up on vitamins." "I was just cruising around for most of the early laps, just watching Scott Summers, Plessinger and Andrews do their own thing, checking out their lines and all," Hatch said. "They were having a hard time getting by lappers, so I just hung out, Sipped from my Camelback, and waited for something to happen. Then they started malcing mistakes and 1decided to go." Just past the halfway mark, Hatch made his move for the lead, and after six laps he was seven seconds ahead of Plessinger, Andre~ and Summers. With three laps to go, Summers crashed just before exiting the woods into the finish Ene area. Summers banged his head so hard that it disoriented him enough to lose track of time and place. But he was able to remount his bike and ride toward the finish. When the scoring barrels were in sight, Summers started a slow celebratory wheelie into the barrels, then actually flipped his bike. Then Summers stood with his arms raised over his head as if he'd won the race, because at that point he mistakenly thought he had! "I was behind Steve (Hatch) and 1 was eating a lot of his dust when 1 hit a tree with my handlebars and it hurt!" said Summers of his almost comical actions, at least comical after it was discovered he was all right. "1 "knocked myself stupid. One of the officials stopped me at one point and asked me who I was, and once 1 shook my head a little 1 started to come out of il." As for the bizarre wheelie, "1 thought it was the last lap - that's how cuckoo 1 was! Even after I crashed 1 thought 1 won. I knew what was going on enough to ride, but 1couldn't figure where 1was. It was like a dream." "1 went back into the woods after the pit area and. carne into a turn too hard and flipped over," Hatch related. "It bent bars down and my thumb probably back to my wrist. 1 sat there for about 30 seconds and then thought, Better keep going. I just made that one mistake. Sometimes when you're going for it you