, Conner was followed in close pursuit by
newly crowned GNCC 250cc A champ
jimmy Jarr ett on his Andrews Yama ha
Racing YZ. Sampson co n ti n u ed o u t
front un til, near the end of lap two, he
hit a hidden stump an d crashed when
he w en t to pa ss a lapped rider. Blackwell was close e no ug h to pa ss , a lon g
with Co nner a nd Sa m p son. Sampson
cam e through in third by the end of the
first lap, while Pless inger closed the gap
and was in fourth , with Jarrett in pursuit.
lJIackwell remai ned ou t front until
lapped traffic s lo wed his cha rge, a nd
Conner keyed o n his mi sf ortune a nd
made th e pass. Sampson had another
ge t-o ff th at put him bac k to s ixt h .
Plessinger also bobbled , and jarrett was
there to seize the oppo rtunity and make
the pass . At the end of the thir d of four
laps, th e o rder wa s Conner, Blackwell,
jarrett and Plessin ger, with Husaberg
rid er Rodney judson mo vi ng into th e
fifth spot.
Conner pitted for fuel as Blackwell
sho t into the lead with visio ns of a lastlap sp rint in his head. It was n' t to be,
though. Conner got back o n the gas and
ran him down, and Plessinger did likewise about halfway aro und the Tl -rn ile
course. Plessinger continued to lead the
last four miles of the race, with Conner
and Blackwell glued to each other as the
three jockeyed for posi tion whi le cutting
corners and blasting thro ug h saplings.
As they came down the lo ng wood s
stra ight, Co nner we nt left and Blackwell
we nt ri ght to avo id a la pped r id er .
Blackwell lun ged ou t in fro nt, but it was
too lat e - Plessin ger had already crossed
the line for the win. Blackwe ll took seco nd and Co nner ea rned th ird . [a rrett
held on for a well-deserved fourth in his
first AA rac e . Sa m p so n ca m e from
behind to salvage fifth at the checkers.
"I guess I just finall y got warmed up
on th e la s t lap and things sta r ted to
click," Plessinger said . "The extra purse
mon ey was probably in the back of my
mind, bu t it was fun. The last lap had
some,p rett y in tense racing."
" It wa s just one of th ose th in gs ,"
Conner sa id. " Do u g (Blackw ell) ju st
returned wh at I had done to him th e
previous lap . It was good racing ." .
Jarrett w as pretty happ y in the
knowledge that he had ridden with and
sta yed within stri king distance of so me
of the fastes t com pany in the country j n
his first Pro race. Sampson, on the o ther
hand, wasn't so elated, knowing he had
a 3O-second lead on the first lap and had
lost it - but he vowed to be back.
'"
Mid- So ut h Winter Hare Scrambles
Lynville, Indiana
Resuls: November 11. 1997
AAiPRO: 1. S. PI ~5in8{'r (KTM); 2. D. Blackwell
(Ya m); 3. D. Conner (Ya m); 4. J. Jarrett (Ya m); 5. M.
Sampson (J(.Jw).
BEC: 1. B. M.ub (Hvn ); 2. T. Syman~kJ (Hon); 3. C .
wither ( KolW); 4. M. Wilhoit (KTM); S. C. Mattingly
(H o n).
(Above) Scott Plessinger worked up from
a midpack start and made a last-lap pass
to win the second round of the AMA MidSouth Winter Hare Scrambles series, held
In LynnVille, Indiana .
(Right) The muddy conditions at the
Lembo Lake Hare Scramble in Modena,
New York, made for a challenging race.
Runner-up Todd Levesque (shown)
crashed hard on the third lap. He would
finish some eight minutes behind race
winne r Josh McLevy.
1258: 1. J. Still (S u ~ ) ; 2 . J. Hymn (Yam); 3 . I.
Slwrwnn,J (Yam) ; 4. J. Gldu.' Il<.\wl;5. n. Duvall (Ya m l.
200 A;. t . K. CrtTkmur(Yam); Z. T. ~a~ (Kawl;3.
J. Wynn (Kawl; 4. I . Scott (K.1w); 5. D. Durkee (Ho n).
200 B: 1. M. McC ITa lKawl; Z. A. Wotertidd (J(awr.
J. R. Hicl5 (Kdw); 01. D. Ridseway CJ(.,w); 5. C. Kirby .
CHon).
200 C: 1. R. F~t (Kdwl ; Z. D. BratchlT (l«Iw); 3. S.
Sim mon .s O(01w); 01 . R. Ch.'t."TllKaw); 5. R. Doon.-s { Ka w ) .
250 A: 1. C. Hendricks (Ya m); 2. 1. Crq;;g ( K.1w); 3.
C. Hicks (KTht I; 01 . P. Allen O; 5. M. Stinnett (y,lm).
250 8: 1. R. Zyonhur.>t II-Ion); 2. I. Shields (Suz); 3.
C . Winters (H on); 01 . J. Ket chum ( KTM); 5. 8 . Cooper
(! (K.:iw); 2. T . A!>hhy (5uz'); 3. J
HdU (Hu n); 4 . S. CiII....pie ev.ilm); 5. M Elliutt CHon).
SR A: 1. r. MidM·l" (ATIO ; 2. L 1 01"'"'11 (Hmo); 3. J
...
Ct~ltmdn
(Kdw).
S R B: 1. R. UdC~ril (So7.); 2. B. Frd_r (Ka w); 3. L
ssn (Hun); 4 . L rdr~l'" IHo n): 5. J. Millican L';uz).
4· STRK A: I. W. Short (Honl ; 2. E Tay lor (Hll n); 3.
M. Ilo~b.tch ()'Ihg) .
4·STR K B: 1. D. Zanet CKdw); 2. B. Profh tt C
Hon); 3.
W. Wr~ le rfid d ( Ho n) ; 01 . M . Mic hel:; IHon): S. M .
Bostian (H us) .
AMAINETRA H reScrambles Series,R d16
a
oun
Lembo
Lake a
cruise for
McLevy
By Che ri Alix
Photos by Nina Hallett
MODENA, NY,NOV.9
a nches ter Honda ' s Josh McLevy
p ut as id e h is tradema rk Honda
125 to test out hi s abilit y o n a
Honda 250, and it proved to bea very
positive move, as McLevy completely
domi na ted the field, lappi ng all but
eig ht riders at the mu dd y Lembo Lake
Hare Scramble.
The weekend 's nor-east er put a serious d amper on this even t, which usu all y
attracts more th an 300 rid ers. The pr omoters were lucky if 200 riders showed
M
up. The co ndi tio ns W~T~ horrible, with
rain falling most of Saturday and all of
Su nday. Th e rou ghly.S imile tra ck was
com pletely und er water.
Half of the track was run in an apple
o rc ha rd, with the re ma ini ng se ct io ns
run through tig h t, ro ck y woods. The
club also built a small motocross section
wi th a few sma ll tabl etops and a cou ple
of d oubl es; th is was the dri est section of
the tr ack . The woods are usually wet
and muddy, but this time it was just one
bi g lake. The na st y, seemingly nevere n d i ng r ock ga rde n w a s fully s ubmer ged, makin g it extre mely treacherous . Seve ral riders ended their day early
in this section.
Six AA riders lined up on the front
row. To everyon e's dismay, the club
cha nged th e race from se ven to eig h t
laps due to the fas t lap times of the previous tw o races . The rid ers were given a
three-minute warning for the-start of the
eig ht-lap event. Muc h to everyone's su rpr ise - excep t fo r Mcl.evy's - th e flag
was dropped in 30 seco nds.
"I was looking at the flagm an, and he
looked like he was read y to drop th e
flag: ' McLevy said ." ] just go t my goggles on when he started th e race ,"
N o on e el se on the fro nt line was
read y, giving McLevy the holeshot and
a go od IO-second lead before anyone
else even go t off the line,
By the end of the first lap, the Spectro / Axo/ Scott's-backed McLevy had a
on e-minute lead on second-pla ced
Tod d Lev esqu e . Luk e M cNeil and
Ar thu r Menzel were ba ttling it ou t in
thi rd a nd fo ur th, resp ectively, w ith
Dave Gunn in fift h. Not far behind was
Open Expert rider Ken Valentine, who
took over th ir d pl ace o n th e second
lap.
McLevy was tearing up the track o n
his 250, post ing lap times of 13 minutes.
Levesque w a s hanging on to second
pla ce , and wa s s t ill down by on e
minute, but not far into the third lap he
hit a ro ot a nd went d owil h ard . He
ended up sitting alongside the trai l for a
few minutes, trying to regain his compo sure. After a quick glo ve cha nge, he
was bac k at it - bu t d own several min u tes. This m ish ap a llo we d the thirdp laced Val en tine to m ov e to w ithin a
minut e of Levesque. McNeil was now in
fou rth, followed by Menzel.
With the fourth lap co mpleted, it was
obv ious that McLevy was well-suited to
th e 250, as he s ta rted to click off laps
that w ere a minute faster th an secondpl a ced Levesq ue. Val entine was now
comfortably in third place, with Expert
250cc rid ers Brian O' Neil and Ben Asaff
moving into fourth and fifth. .
Even with the steady rain, the track
never d eter iora ted , and th ere w ere no
probl ems with bottl en ecks. There wa s
also nothin g to stop McLevy from running a way with the race, as he finished
th e eig ht laps in just under tw o hou rs,
takin g th e win by eight min utes ove r
second-placed Levesque.
"T h e 250 w as awesome: ' McLevy
sai d after th e ra ce , " It was so easy to
handle. I never went down once. It wa s
just a smoo th ride the whole time."
Valenti ne came arou nd on e minute
later to take third o ve r a ll and th e
Exp ert-class win. O'Neil took fourth
place and the Expe rt 25Occ-dass win by
just 40 seco nds ove r fifth-p laced and fellow 250cc rider Asaff.
In th e Expert Vet clas s, Th o r /
Cla rkie's Russell Bain needed to fin ish
in fron t of Sco tt Raym ond to tak e the
cla ss championship. Bain a nd Mark
Wute battled for mo st of the race, each
crashing in the roc k garden and cha nging p laces several times. As th e riders
headed ou t for their fourth lap, Raym ond was right on Bain's rear wheel.
making it a three-way battle. The riders
h u ng toge the r for th e ne xt two la ps
before Bain and Whit e were ab le to pull
away from Raym ond. Bain lost sight of
White on the sixth lap after going down
aga in in the rock garden . White went on
to tak e first for the day, with Bain taking
second a nd the year-e nd class champio nship.
The Novice dass ran four laps o n the
5- m ile track earlier in the da y, with
Min i-class cha mp ion Rob Rowe taking
the Novice overall win . Rowe also won
the day's Mini class with a comfortable
margin of four minutes over secondpla ced Robert Langenback. In the Junior
class, it was Natha n Kanney taki ng the
wi n after three laps in the po uring ra in.
Bo yd Brower took second pl ace, d own
by just over one m inut e. Heid i Landon
was the only one in the Wom en's class
to co mp lete all three laps, ea rn ing her
,~
the class win.
r-,
...
c0
0\
0\
....
ClJ
,.!:l
E
ClJ
u
ClJ
c
35
