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,through the riders. Bersano, .a 250cc
expert, was second off the line in the secoDd wave of riders at the start of the race.
Be quickly outdistanced the rest of the
250cc class and slowly started picking off
the slower AA riders.
By the time most of the AA riders
paid any attention to Bersano, it already
was too late for most of them, as by the
end of the third lap, Bersano sat just in
back of Mashbir for eighth overall. On
the final lap, Mashbir and Bersano locked
horns and did a little jamming as the line
each rider had been following streamlined into one with neither rider giving
aninch.
In the end, Mashbir proved the more
aggressive of the two as Bersano yielded
to his tactics. Mashbir's glory was shortlived as a few seconds later Bersano completed a pass on Mashbir that stuck and
left the AA rider eating dust.
Lap four, the final lap, was do or die
for Smith and time to settle the battle of
the Suzukis between himself and Hatch.
"He got away from me when I
crashed on the third lap and I knew that I
had to reel him back in again," Smith
said. "We rode the whole last lap together. I knew it was too tight in the woods to
really try to get by anywhere, so my
whole game plan was to pass him in the
last sand whoops section at the finish.
For once the game plan came out."
Out of the woods, the pair emerged
side by side, hitting the power lines and
sand whoops for the final run to the finish. Smith pulled by Hatch, as planned,
in the whoops, but Hatch pulled right
back by on an inside corner. And it all
came down to a lapper who - in his haste
to clear hirnsel f of the track - bogged his
bike in the deep sand right in front of the
madcap duo.
Hatch was forced to back off for just a
breath as Smith cut a new line around the
lapper. Smith jumped over a berm, back
onto the track and the win was his as the
chute to the finish line was now only a
few hundred yards away. It all happened
so fast that spectators and course officials
were still scratching their heads long
after the pair had raced from sight.
"For the last 17 miles, we just went for
it," Hatch said of the final dash. "We
raced along, pas ed a lot of lappers, and I
knew that I had to make some time on
him. The only spot that 1 know that he
might have a good chance to pass me
was the sand whoops at the end. We
came to there and I had it pinned and he
had it pinned. We were both sideways
and praying for the best. We were riding
over our heads and could haye crashed
so easily. It was a good race right down
to the wire."
Despite Smith winning the war, it was
Hatch who actually ended up with a
faster lap time of 42 minutes in one lap.
Third place wept to Dahners, who
rode a lonely race to the end after passing
Garrahan earlier in the race. Kopp was
next in order with Bersano right on his
tail. Garrahan trailed in almost a minute
later with a noticeably rear flat tire.
"1 just kind of toughed it back to the
end," Garrahan said. "I was just happy to
finish where I did. Besides that, my
clutch adjuster kept coming loose so I
had to keep slowing down to adjust that
during most of the race. 1 actually pulled
into the Suzuki pits where they fixed it
forme."
When the final time differences were
accounted for, it was actually Lancing
Cycles' Bersano placing fourth overall
with Kopp in fifth.
There is still one final round of the
series slated to be run, November 3 in
Millfield, Ohio. With the championship
clinched, Smith was rather doubtful that
he would be in attendance. It seems
Suzuki would like the veteran to try his
hand at the Veteran Motocross Nationals,
slated to run in California for that same
weekend.
(N
Sl Joe's Slate Park
Park Hills, Missouri
Results: October 20, 1996 (Round 8 of 9)
O/A: 1. Rodney Smith (Suz); 2. S'eve Ho'ch (Suz); 3.
Jason Dahners (}(TM); 4, Blair Bersano (KTM); 5. Rob
Kop? (Kaw)j 6. Brian Garrahan (Kaw); 7. Chris Thiele
(!