Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127860
H es s and Wa s hington s tate's Scott
McLau ghlin were jus t off. o f th e pa ce
and at the rea r of the Pro class .
Throug h the ba rre ls a nd h ea d in g
on to the fa med Hi gh Point natio na l
motocross track for the firs t time, Summers had taken the lead and held a fivesecond adva ntage over Ha tch. Th e two
archrivals would break from the pack at
this early stage of the race and set the
scene for anothe r epic Su mmers /Hatch
showdown . A very distinctive contrast
in both riding style and machinery, the
po ints lead ers ha ve found themselves in
this situatio n m ore th an o nce thi s sea so n , racin g away early and preparin g
for the all-important fina l lap. Sum mers,
elbows d own, bull back and four-stro ke
boo ming is an ano ma ly on the circui t, as
is Ha tch , w ho rid es wi th a Wid e-open
find -a n-ex tra -gea r-where-others-don' t
approach. Both sty les obviously work,
as th e two r iders were tied o n poi n ts
when the day began .
Nea ring the midpoin t of the ne arl y
th ree- h our ra ce, And rews w as w ell in
com mand of third by the fourth lap after
a rocky first few lap s. After pi tting to fix
his fron t brake, Andrews revea led tha t
"(The da y) started out pretty good, but
m y front bra ke came loose and I hit a
tree. I had to sta rt pla ying ca tch-up, as
usual." Dahners had outlasted Brian
Keegan in a well-fought battle for fourth
a nd had 15 seconds on th e Kawasaki
rider. Conner, Hawkins and Smith were
evenly s pac ed , ~O seconds apart from
the top five. For the third race in a row,
Plessinger retired ea rly and was ba ck in
the pits with a KTM suffering from suspension problems. Unable to account for
the bad luck that has seen him retire
fro m five races while rema ining healthy,
Plessing er' s typi cal late -season hot
streak ca n no t sta rt in tim e for him to
claim a fifth national off-road title.
Plessinger did return to the track for a
few laps, unscored, on his '98 machine,
to ge t in some testing time.
Conner would also soon re ti re, hi s
hand not ye t healed from an ea rly-season in ju ry. (He received multiple fractu res in a p ractice acclden t.) Thoug h
able to han g on for a su rprise fourt h at
the previou s rou nd in Ohio, he was in
no shape to take the beati ng hand ed ou t
by the High Point course on this day .
Lap six of the nin e-lap event wou ld
provide the turnaround of no t only this
one race but the entire season for Hatch .
Aft er ce n te r- p u nching a tree at high
speed after And re ws had caug ht up to
the lead duo, Ha tch wa s slow to his feet
and feared serio us damage to his back.
Hatch recounted the incident afterw ard .
" 1 was going down this fast, gras sy
straightaw ay in fifth gea r, a gea r high er
than I' d eve r do ne it, a nd m y hand
came off the bar s," Hatch said . " 1 go t it
back on, and I hit these braking bumps
tha t had go tten a lot deeper as the day
w en t on, a nd then they tore the ba rs
out of my ha nd again. Th er e were two
trees about five or six feet apa rt tha t we
had to go bet w een and [ h it one ju st
like a dart with my helmet. lt w as probab ly 3 or 4 feet around, a nd it knocked
me out for a coup le of seconds. [ was in
se vere pain. and w hen rid ers as ked. me
if 1 w as okay, th is time I h ad to te ll
them no."
Med ics w er e im me d ia te ly on the
scene. From his home in California so me
d a ys a ft e r wa r d, Hatch w ish ed to
ex p ress gra ti tude to th e p romot er s for
their efforts to increase rider safety.
" I really want to thank Racer Productions and the Coombs family for having
such a well-run se ries," Hatch sa id . " If '
th ey didn't have co u rse m arsh als all
a rou nd the track wit h radi os, it could' ve
(Above) Fred Andrews took up t he chase to catch Summers, but he
1ell two minutes short at the f in ish, settling f or second overall .
(Above right) Rodney Sm ith had to make a qu ic k sw itch to a .
clapped-cut practice bike after his race machine broke a cylinder
stud just minutes before t he start of the race . Nonetheless, the AMA
Nati onal Hare
Scrambles
Champion rode t he
wh eels off it and
taken five or ] 0 m inu tes to get to me.
fin ish ed th ird
They were there right awa y to help.
Thank God for radios. I'd also like to
thank Chuck, who was at the scene, and
the hundreds of people who have called
to make sure that I was okay, including
Summers and Bramblett (Su m mers'
man in the pits)."
With Ha tch out of the mix, Andrews
secured second posi tion but would not
be abl e to challenge for the lead . Dahners held a 3O-second lead on the trio of
Smith, Hawkins and Keegan, wh o held
a one-minute advantage ov er Lafferty
and the rest of the pack.
just prior to the white flag. Smith and
Hawkins bot h overtook Dahners, who
had begun to fade .
" 1 got caught in lappers and took a
ba d line an d Rod ney ju st walked by,"
Da h ners sa id. "The same thi ng h appened wit h Randy. I hung with them for
a co uple of miles, and then I jus t go t too
tired."
At the finish, it wa s Su mmers pu lling
o u t w ha t a p peared to be a re latively
easy victory, given all tha t wa s happening behind him.
" My XR wor ked so goo d on tha t
hard, slip pery stuff," Su mm ers said. " 1
felt like (the bike) really wo n the race - I
was just rid ing it! I jus t tried to relax and
get in the rhyth m because the track jus t
kept gelling bet ter and better, and I figured early o n tha t the la st la p w ou ld
probably be the fas test one, so I w as
conservi ng energy for late r on. 1 felt like
I had an other gear if I needed to use it,
but on the last lap there wasn't a nybody
th er e (cha llen gi ng), so I ju st s lo w e d
down a little bit and took good lines."
Two m inu tes be h ind Su m me rs w as
Andrews, who congra tu la ted the wi nner.
"Scott rode a heck of a race, and he
rod e the wh eels off of tha t heavy th ing,
is all I can say, " And rew s said. "Some
people call it a play bike, but Scott sure
doesn't pla y around on it."
Ov er three m inutes behin d And rews
was Smith and his very ti red Suzuki,
w hich had end ured ov er five hou rs of
racing on this day. Exhibiting the tena ctty that h as ga rne red many c ha m pio ns h ips and national and international
race wins , Smith' s p erse verance was
rewarded with th ird -p la ce p o ints .
overall.
(Right ) Rand y
Haw ki ns contin ued
to ru n well In the
ser ies. The form er
AMA National
Enduro Champio n
fin ished f ou rth
overa ll.
Hawkins, encountering la p pers on the
final lap , was unable to challenge Smith
a nd settled for fnurt h. Dahners finished
si x m inu tes behind wi n ne r Su m mers to
comp lete the top five.
Finishi ng sixth for the second race in
a ro w was 250cc A r id er, Hi gh Poi nt
local and G NCC quad cycle cha m p ion
Barry Hawk on h is Bro mley's Suzuki.
Br ian Keega n a nd Mi ke Lafferty finished seventh overall and eigh th ove rall
at the fina l tally. Then came 250 cc A riders ji m my jarrett and Darryl Conner,
who ro u nd ed o u t the top 10 on thei r
Ya ma ha s . With his n in th ove ra ll and
second in class, jarre ll secu red the 1997
250cc A title and plans a jum p to the AA
class a t the next event on October 4 in
<0'
Crawfordsville, Ind iana.
Hi gh Pai nt Raceway
Mount Mo rris. Pennsylv an ia
Res ults: September 21, 1997
(Round 10 of 13)
OIA: I. Scon Summt>No (Hon); 2. Fred An dre w s
( Y~ m); 3 . Rodn" y Sm ith (Suz) ; 4. IU ndy H~wlin 5