Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

EVENTS EDfTEDBY KEITH BUSH Hare SCrambles Series, Round 3 (Left) Big rocks? No problem for Tom Norton, whoeasUy won the New Hoot Hare Scramble in MasslK:huselIs. In the Expert Vet class, there was a battle to the end between current champion Russell Bain and Michael Pydych. The two riders swapped positions throughout with Bain, blown clutch and all, taking the win with six seconds in hand over Pydych. Once again, it was Brian Lawson taking the Amateur-class win with five minutes to spare over the next rider. One more good finish will move Lawson to the Expert class. The Novice and Junior events were held earlier in the day with tbe Juniors going first and running two laps on the 10-mile course. After just one hour of racing, it was Jesse Berthiaume taking the win by 30 seconds over Nathan Kanney. Robert Bowe Jr. ran away with the Mini class, finishing almost 10 minutes ahead of Robert Langenback. Shawn Whalen, meanwhile, won the Novice class on his Honda 250, edging 125cc" mounted Chris Downie for the overall by 45 seconds. The team event came down to Super Senior rider Jerry Shinners. Shinners won his class, as usual, giving Team Rydher the two points they needed to edge out the Hoot Owls for the firstplace trophy. Pub Racing ended up third. £N The New Hoot Hare Scramble Uxbridge,Massachusetts Resuhs:May11,1997 By Cheri Allx Photo by Jay Chittenden UXBRIDGE, MA, MAY II M's Tom Norton proved how much he enjoys riding in the rock, ud and root-infested trails of New England by winning the New Hoot Hare Scramble. The New England Hare Scramblers took over the farm country of Southern Massachusetts in the third round of the AMA/NETRA Series. Almost 350 riders descended on the Richardson's Farm for the second running of the New Hoot, with this year's course extended to 10.5 miles. Much of the first four miles ran through low-lying, rock-infested wetlands and 11 water crossings/mudholes were so bad that bridges had to'be constructed to allow passage. Those venturing off the bridges got to spend the rest of the day trying to dislodge their machines from the bottomless mud. The remaining six miles of the course consisted of some rock- and rut-infested mudholes but there were some fast cornfields, cart roads and a few pine groves thrown in to keep it fun. Eleven AA riders lined up for the start and, once again, it was Manchester Honda/Link/Tech Tube's Josh McLevy grabbing the holeshot. Close behind came Kawasaki-mounted Luke McNeil and ciiff Cycle's Brian Tucker as the riders funneled through the motocross track before crossing the dirt road and heading into the woods. At the first mudhole, the pack went right but Torco / Dunlop / Cliff's Cycle-backed Norton, who was second to last off the start, went left and passed half the pack. By the second rocky mud section, he'd passed the remainder of the pack and was running second. KE At the end of four miles, riders crossed back over the dirt road and along the back of the pits before heading into the woods. By this point, McLevy was still out front with 15 seconds over Norton. Less than 10 seconds behind Norton was RPM/Scott/Torco-backed Todd Levesque followed by P.J. PecuUs, Partick Timothy and Jerry Madore. As the riders hit the six-mile mark, Norton and Levesque had closed right in behind McLevy, who had some troubles in a rocky section that allowed them to close the gap. Less than 100 yards later, McLevy's chain fell off. This allowed Norton to take over the lead with Levesque right behind. By the end of the lap, it was Norton out front with two seconds on Levesque while McLeV)4 was back under way in third place, some 13 seconds behind. Peculis was holding down fourth and had opened a gap over fifth-placed Timothy. As the second lap began to unfold, the gap between the top three riders increased. "Making good line choices was key today," McLevy said after the race. "1 just made some bad judgments and got stuck too many times." The errors cost McLevy time and allowed Norton to pull away, increasing his lead to over a minute by the halfway point. Levesque, meanwhile, was able to stay dose for the first half of the second lap. "I followed his every line and just stayed glued behind him," Levesque said. "He had the good line choices and 1 knew if I lost sight of him 1 would get stuck." Less than five miles into the second lap, it ended for Levesque as his clutch broke, ending what had been a very promising day. It was now halfway into the race and Norton had further increased his lead over McLevy. Peculis was now third, another three minutes behind, followed by Tucker, Timothy' and Crispin. Expert 250cc rider Kris Mooney had moved himself into the top 10, less than 30 seconds behind sixth place. As the final two laps unfo'lded, it was obvious that this was Norton's kind of track and he took the overall by a comfortable nine minutes over McLevy. The battle for third, however, wasn't so easy. Timothy had moved ahead of Peculis, Tucker and Madore on the opening lap, but fell in a mudhole. "My hand was covered in mud," Timothy said. "As 1 tried to get up Madore and Peculis got by. 1 spent the rest of the lap trying to wipe all the mud off on my shirt. It was so hard to hold on, 1ended up with arm pump." Early on the third lap, Peculis hit a rock and endoed, breaking off one of his bark busters and tweaking his triple clamps - making the remainder of the race a challenge. This allowed Timothy to catch up and he passed both Peculis and Madore on the third lap to end up third on the day. He was some three minutes ahead of Madore, who was followed in fifth by Tucker. Peculis managed to hold on after smashing his nowunprotected hand several times to finish sixth. Yamaha-mounted Kris Mooney stayed in the top 10 all day and ended up ninth, taking the ,Expert-class overall win. Battling with Mooney for most of the day was fellow 250cc rider Brian O'Neil. O'Neil finished just outside the top 10; but earned himself the Expert 250cc-class victory. GRND CHMPN: Tom Norton (KTM). OIA: Kris Mooney (Yam). OIB: Brian Lawson (Kaw). 010 Shawn Whalen (Han). AA: 1. Josh McLevy (Hon); 2. Patrick Timothy (Kaw); 3. Gerald Madore (Yam); 4. Brian Tucker (KTM): 5. P.J. Peculis (Yam). 250 A: 1. Brian O'Neil (Kaw); 2. Bruce Yuill (Yam); 3. Dave Simcock (ere); 4. Jeff Staples (Hoo); S. OJ Lis (Hus). 200 A: 1. Erett CostellO (Yam): 2. Glenn Brigham (Han); 3. Hans Neff (KTM): 4. Steve Fonnanek (Kaw); 5. Jim Edmonds (KTM). VET A: 1. Russell Bain (Han); 2. Michael Pydych (Yam); 3. Scott Raymond (Kaw); 4. Fred Goldberg (Hon); 5. Stephen Anowou (Kaw). OPEN A: 1. Ken Valentine (KTM); 2. Jim Simcock (KTM); 3. Mike Burdick (KTM). 4-5TRK A: 1. Mall Jalbert (Han): 2. Charles Burdick (Han). SR A: 1. Steve Formanek (Kaw); 2. Fred Burnham (KTM). 250 8: 1. Robert Carlson (Suz); 2. Josh Hockett (Hon); 3. S'eve Deyo (Suz); 4. John Cardozo (KTM); 5. James Bourdon (Yam~ 200 8: 1. Eric Rougeau (Yam); 2. Jess Berthiaume (Yam): 3. David Bradley (Yam); 4.. Drew Carpenter (Suz); S. Sroll Harwod (Hon). VET 8: 1. Lam" Loner (5uz); 2. Bob White (Cre); 3. Cra..ig Pratt (Suz); 4. Dave Dzenutis (Hon); 5. Eric ReinhanI (KTM~ OPEN 8: l. Dan Salomone (KTM); 2. Chris Cramer Pa' Fogarty (KTM); 4. John Brown (KTM). 4-STRK 8: 1. Gus Bender (Hon); 2. Bryan (Hon~ 3. Liesbenthal (Hon). SR 8: 1. Rob Foster (Hon~ 2. Chris Fahan (Hon). SlSR: 1. Jerry Shinners (Kaw). 2SO C: l. David Hence (Hon); 2. Mike Fallon (Yam); 3. Vincent Leonardo (Hon); 4. Craig Benner (Yam); 5. Gordon MuJJavey (Hon). 200 C: 1. John Matte (Kaw); 2. Richard Lessard (Kaw~ 3. Jeff Duchame (](aw); 4. Daniel Duda (](aw); 5. Keith Roberts (Kaw~ 125 C: 1. Chris Downie (Hon); 2. l.uke Vogel (Hon~ 3. Tony Muschello (Kaw); 4. David Harris (KTM): 5. Brian Pirro (Kaw). VET 0 1. 5'even Popl.sky (Han); 2. Doug GaUey (KTM); 3. Russell Harper (Kaw); 4. Chris Anderson (Suz); S. James Menard (Yam). OPEN C: 1. Carl Jepson (Hon); 2. David Rubendunst (KTM); 3. Jim Walsh (Hon); 4. Robert Rinquette (Hus). 4-STRK 0 1. Bill Reiss (5uz); 2. Woody Carpen'er (Hon): 3. George Diedrich (Hon); 4. John Thompson (Hon); S. Brian Cook (Han). SR 0 1. Mark Jolley (](aw); 2. Paul Saquelle (J

• Cover