Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·OFF-ROAD . AMA 'Grand Nat,ional Cross Country serills By Davey Coombs Photo by Kim Clough CRAWFORDSVILLE, IN, OCT. 26 merican Suzuki-backed Rodney Smith beat American Honda's ., Scott Summers by just one second at the Ironrnan GNCC in Crawfordsville, Indiana. The Ironman GNCC, the final event of the 13-race 1996 Grand National Cross Country tour, was of no conse-quence to the championship equation as Summers had already clinched the overall title two rounds earlier. Still, the event turned out to be one of the closest battles of the season as Smith, the AMA National Hare Scrambles and AMA National Reliability Series Champion, went head to head with his cross country counterpart in a pride-only duel. Third overall went to SCR Yamaha's Duane Conner, who finished the GNCC Series fourth overall for the second year in a row. "There was no pressure for either of us today," said Smith, who hails from California. "We were having a lot of fun, waving back and forth at each other, and just having a good time racing with one another. You don't often get to go out and race together like that with A Final 'round: Ironman GNCC someone like Summers, at least not when it's a high-pressure deal" When reminded that it had been more than a year since he last won a GNCC event, Smith joked that it felt like it had been longer: "I almost felt like riding the Vet class today!" "That was .the most fun 1 had racing all year long." said Summers, who came up just one half of a bike length short of taking his seventh victory of the cross country season. "Rodney and 1 were just jamming and it was a lot of fun." "I had a good day today and 1 did what I had to do," said Conner, who finished just more than a minute behind the overall leaders but also edged out fellow YamaKa pilot Fred Andrews for fourth in the s-tandings. "I wanted to get up there with Scott and Rodney, but then Fred caught me with about three laps to go and I was more worried about that than catching those other guys.'" Rounding out the top five overall in Indiana were outgoing GNCC Series Champion Scott Plessinger of the KTM team and West Coast visitor Jason Dahners. The next five in the final overall results were Yamaha-mounted Doug Blackwell, Pennsylvania's Frank Keegan, Steve Leivan, rising off-road star Barry Hawk and Vet A-class champion Tim Shephard. The Ironrnan GNCC was on the cross country schedule for the second straight year. (The race is held in honor of the late Bob Sloan, a GNCC quadcycle series champion and a long-time motorcycle competitor.) The central Indiana course measured about eight miles per lap in length and had a complete mix of hills, bogs, extremely tight woods and creek crossings. Lap times were right around 24 minutes in gray, gloomy conditions. After a dead-engine start, Smith fOUhd himself in the early lead ahead of Summers, Plessinger, Conner, Andrews and the rest of the GNCC regulars. Smith's Suzuki teammate Steve Hatch, an early title confender for the '96 series, did not participate but had already clinched third overall in the rankings. Smith would lead at the barrels for all but two of the eight laps. At the halfway mark, a surprising Dahners was iJ;I front of the seven-bike freight train of leaders that also included, in order, Smith, Summers, Conner, Plessinger, Blackwell and Andrews. One lap later it was Summers who led the pack into the barrels with Smith right behind him. Eventually Andrews would bow out with a broken case and Blackwell and Rodney Smith won a close battle with series champion Scott Summers at the final round 01 the Grand National Cross Country $erles. Dahners would fall off the pace. At the front of the pack, Smith and Summers would begin pulling away from everyone else. "Plessinger caught me with two laps to go and he really helped my pace, too," Conner said, "but he went down when he hit a lapped rider, which is something that could have happened to any of us. The track was fast and fun and 1 was motivated to ride hard and beat Fred in the standings." "I started getting tired those last two laps after I caught Duane," said Plessinger, who will carry the numbertwo plate in the GNCC next year after two straight years carrying the number one. "This lapped rider wanted to race with me and I tagged a tree and endoed trying to pass him. So after that I just rode in the rest of the race. It was a pretty bad break because 1 had cut into the lead (of Summers and Smith) to the point where I was just about 30 seconds. back when 1 crashed. 1 don't know if 1 would have been able to actually catch

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