Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

• 00 0\ 0\ ...... 30 winner Al len Gravitt's KTM traversed the course as if it we re dry and afforded perfect tr action . Gravitt claimed the ov erall win two minutes ahead of the runner-up, Team Green's Ashley Brewer. Wit h Franklin Ramey out of action, th e se ries has bee n a Gravitt / Brewer ba ttle for th e poin ts lead . Well, so mebod y fo rgot to tell H ond a- m oun ted Rod Stuckey tha t. Stu ck ey rod e h ard and ma intained the ru nn er -up position for mos t of the race befor e succu mbing to th e ever-cha rgi ng Brewer. Stuckey turned in his best finis h to date, a thi rd overall. The Greenville Enduro Riders spo nso red th e eve n t and designed a cours e that was fast wit h a few technical spo ts, so me tricky off-cambers an d even a hill or two to climb. After the rains, the fun course tu rned into a q u ag m ire that made the race a quest for survival for so me . After the C-elass race at 11 a.m., hu ge ru ts began to form , and line selection became very important. The AA, A an d B classes raced at 1 p.m., w hen brief showers before the race bumped up the humidity, making goggles useless after about the first 100 yard s of the race. When the flag dropped for the deadengi ne start, Stuckey got the hol eshot, followed by Steve Saunders and Tommy Vea to r. Gra vitt, Brewer and Gri z zl e d idn 't fare as well. It took Gravitt sev eral kicks to bring the 200 to life, and by then he was chasin g everyone . Saunders got stuck so bad during the first lap that he was forced to re tire. Gravitt made his presence known q u ickly and p a ssed Stuckev for the lead while Brewer was still fighting his way through the pack. As they came into the scoring barr els to finish lap one, Gravitt was in th e lead wit h a 22:32 lap, St uckey w as cl os e behind with a 22:47, a nd H u sab ergmounted Grizzle came thr ou gh the barrel s in third wi th a 23:15. Brewer was having his sha re of troubles as he came in at 23:27. La p tw o saw G ravit t s ta r t to pull away. "I was rid ing good:' Gra vitt said . "I th in k my tir e choice really helped me tod ay. I ran a Bridgestone M25 front and a M40 rear for a 250, w hich is a little wider and helped in the ru ts." Grizzle was on his new electric-start Husaberg 501 and had made some carburetion adjust ments on the bike wi thout riding it before the race. The bi ke was sputtering and didn't sound good, and he had to d rop off the pace. When they came into the barrels at the end of lap two, Gravitt ha d put a one- mi nute lead on Stuckev. Brewer was in third and closing th~ gap, now 22 seconds behind St uckey. Grizzle held fourth , nursing the big four-s troke aro u nd the track two minutes later. Gravitt still maintained a 1:30 lead on Stuckey on lap th ree , while the course was getting ru tted ou t badl y an d riders were struggling to make it arou nd the course. Stuckey was riding well in second and Brewer was making u p time trying to catc h the two fro nt-ru nners. He came in to th e sco ri ng area al most a minute behind Stuckey. Tommy Veator had been having an okay day bu t ran in to so me problems and didn' t finish the fourth lap. The sco ring crew saw lots of action on lap five wh en Brewer tried to make a last-secon d pass on Stuckey, and the two rid ers we nt down right at the sco ring barrels. "I thought it was the last lap," Brewer said. "I got a little overzealous when we came to the barrels and wen t to the insid e. We tan gled and both went down. ing pla yed a big factor as the laps wore on, and Holland , backed by Clawson Motorsports, s oo n displaced th ose in front of him and set his sights on Evans. At about the halfway point, Evans pushed his Suzuki a little too hard and went down. "I went into the tu m after the uphill double a lit tle too fast and pushed the front end," Evans said. Holland took advantage of t h e o p portu nity a nd took th e lead, while Evans was able to ge t up in time to hold on to seco nd . Mean whil e, a fierce battle d eveloped for third between Rick Ryan , W ood s and Kawasa ki pil ot Ra cin e . Woods wou ld succu mb to the pressure by going down just before th e whoop s ec tio n , le aving Ryan and Ra cine to duke it ou t. The d uo continued to mirror ea ch other tu m for tu m and , with a few min- (Above) After a few sloppy crashes with Brewer, Rod Stuckey even tually finis hed third overa ll at the Little Brown J ug Hare Scrambles In South Carolina. (Right) Tyler Evans topped the 125cc Pro class at the GFI California Winter MX series North at Oatfield Racewa y. I was just tryi ng to make a pass. I di dn' t mean for Rod (Stuckey) to crash." Both rid ers go t up, with Brewer leading by a few seconds. Grizzle was still hanging on in fourth. Gravitt was way out fron t and took the win by more than two minutes, bu t the last lap was close to a repeat of the prior one , as Stuc key and Brewer tangled again. Stuckey had passed Brewer somewhere d uring the final lap, bu t Brewer sta ye d rig ht on him. As the y approached the final grass track befo re the scori ng tent, Brew er mad e a pass and bot h riders hit the dirt once again. Brewer was able to get up first and cross the finis h line for second overall. Stuckey fi nished eig h t secon ds behin d in third. "Whe n Rod (Stuckey) got around me, I knew I had to stay with him an d try a n d get a ro u n d h i m ," sa id Brewer, again. "I knew we were getting close to the finis h. I tried to pass and we got tangled u p. I go t up first and, luckily, my bike neve r cut off. Rod rode a good race. I'm sorry we got tangled up those two times." l~ Little Brown Jug Hare Scrambles Clinto n, South Carolina Res ults: November 30, 1997 O /A : 1. AIIen Gravitt. AA ' J. As hley Brewer: Z. Rod Stuck,")'. OPEN A: 1. Charlie Thompson. 2. Steve Hardeman. 2SO A: 1. Dustin Beaty; 2. Dou g Masencup, 3. Do n Baxley. 200 A: 1. lee Stephens. 2. Brian Noff e. SR k J. Mitch McRee; Z. Terry Hugh, ., 3. Terry . Mealer; 4. Phillip Doy le. SISR A: 1. John Kealey; 2. Re bert Brend le. MS TR A: 1. Wa yne Beaty ; 2. Dan Freeman. OPE.~ B: 1. Billy Chapman; 2. Timmy Edwards; 3. Allan Ma rtin. 250 B: 1. Daniel Broc k m a n; 2. Micha el Noff z; 3. Brien Wrig h t. 200 B: 1. Brandon Noffe; 2. Ge orge Mille r; 3. Bub Sievcnpipen 4. Frank Da venport. S R B: 1. Bu ren Hamrick ; 2. j .T. Go rdy; 3. j er ry Calvert, SISR B, 1. Larry Bollinger. MST R B: 1. Micha el Th om pson; 2. joh n Snyder. 4· S TRK B: 1. Dan iel Mun sru d ; 2. Br o adu s Th ompson; 3. Jay Irv in. O PEN C: I. Ch ris Dor an ; 2. Bill y H umbert ; 3. Ke ne th Sm ith; 4. Mark Benson. n 250 C: 1. Andy Ga jew ski, 2. Craig Garrett 3. Hugh Moo re ; 4. Sta cy Hadaway. 200 C: 1. Rick McEveen; 2. Sam Ne lso n; 3. David Keith. 4. Tim Gree r. .J..STRK C: I. Henri Turne r; 2. Da rren G roves; 3. Lelan d Scruggs. S R C: 1. Pooner Powell; 2. Da vid Srra who rnc: 3. M e I Sm ith; 4. Steve Alley. S/S R C: 1. Steve Falls ; 2. Lonnie Dra pen. MSTR C: 1. K,,,, I<.1se1. WMN: 1. Karen Nelson; 2. Dani elle Hadawa y. G California Winte FI rSeries,Round1 Evans, Holland rule By Jim Enos TURL OCK CA, DEC. 28 Vler Evans dominated the 250cc Pro class and Rusty Holland did the same in the 125cc Pro class , as the duo proved to be too fast for the competition at the opening round of the GFi California Winter MX Series . Wit h the tra ck prep ped by AMP, the Oatfield Racewa y had ne ver looked better, as more than 400 rid ers look to the loamy soil in the firs t of five northern series races. The 125cc Pro class race started off wi th Suzuki / FMF/Smith-backed Evans taking an early lead. Holland , wi th a mid pack start, wasted no time in d issecti ng the 19-rider fi eld a nd slo wly began reeling in Evan s. However, Holland had to get past the likes of Scott Davis, Natha n Woods and Brett Racine, w ho were a lso o n a m iss io n to hunt down Eva ns. With a sing le 2D-minuteplus-two-la p forma t in plac e, cond ition- T utes left in the moto, Racine made a flying pass over the finish-line ju mp. However, he could n't ma ke the pass sti ck as Ryan mad e a gu tsy repass on the ou ts ide of a tri cky turn sec tio n. Ra cin e failed to coun ter and, in the closing laps, the battle for third ended up in Ryan 's favo r. - As the checkered flag fell, it was Hoiland pu tti ng in a flawless ride for the victory, followed by Evans. Ryan wo uld ta ke third , followed closely by Racin e and a ha rd-charging Aaron Cheselske, "I got a pretty bad start - arou nd eighth, I guess" an exhausted Holland said. "Tyler got an early lead, but I felt good the whole ra ce, and think I was fas ter through the ruts" . With the same single-moto format in place for the 250cc Pro-cl as s race , Hollan d ju m ped ou t to an early lead and ap peared to have pla n ned on an easy vic tory. Evans, however, had differe nt plans, as he quickly passed Dea n Ma tso n in the first lap to move into thi rd , bu t found Suzuki-mo unted Ryan a little tou gher to pass. Evans followed Ryan for about four or five la ps, seemi ngly unabl e to gain ground on him. How eve r, Ryan m ad e a cos tly b obble a n d Eva ns took advan tage to temporarily secu re second place. As Holland continued to maintain the lead, Racine and Jeff Pes tana m oved up in th e field to d ispl a ce Mats o n fo r fo u r t h and fifth, respecti vely . Wit h abo u t five minutes left in the moto, it ap pea red Holland wa s on his way to another victory - until he went down on a rutted rig ht -hand

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