Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GNCCIReliability Enduro Champion Rodney Smith .. -' !.. \ .. / .... " I ., i - ... ' "\ I - I -, (Above) For the first time, Californian Rodney Smith brought the GNCC number-one plate to the West Coast. (Below) SmitlJand his Moose/FMF Suzuki won more tha n half of·the GNCC races this year . , I By Kit Palmer Photos by Jim Talkington and Palmer R ad ney Smith wasn't sup posed to win the Gra nd N ati onal Cro s s Country Se ries ti tl e : He's a nat ive Californ ian, and Califo rni ans sim ply aren 't su pposed to beat Eastern off-readers at their own ga me. Afte r all , in the 18-yea r history of the GNCC Series, no one fro m west of the Mississipp i has eve r come close to winning the title. Su re, a few Wes terners have won G CC races here and there, bu t never th e whole thing . But the 34 -yea r-old Smith finalIy did it, and he even mad e it look easy. "I finis hed on the pod ium in every race but one," says the new and rightfully proud C l CC cha mp. " In th e other race, my bike had clu tch p roblems and ( didn 't fini sh. Wh e n . vou include the throwaway rounds, I had alI first -place finishes and on e second-p lace finish - I wa s only two po ints off the maxi m um score." As easy as it may sound, the forme r GP m o tocr oss er a n d ha re scramb les cham p actua lly had to co n que r ma ny obs tacles thro ughou t th e lon g 13- rac e GNCC season before taking all the loot. One o f th ose hurdl es was the trav el. While most of the GNCC series regu lars we re load in g up th eir trucks and box vans a nd dri vin g a few hours to eac h eve nt, Smith was flying back and forth acro ss the coun try , fighting off jet lag and dealin g wi th all the hassles that go along with traveling. a fun . .. 18 And then there was the fact tha t once he got to wherever it was he was going, he had to famili ari ze himself with the terrain and the racecourse on which he would be racing that particular weekend . Most of the other riders were .already well-acquainted with the courses, some of them knowing th e tr acks better than the backs of th eir own hands. But perhaps the biggest challenge of alI for Smith wasn't so much the location of the series, the courses, nor the travel, but the co mpetition . Going up aga ins t GNCC greats such as Scott Summers, Fred Andrews, and Smit h's ow n Suz uki teammates Steve Hatch and Pau l Ed mondson wou ld be a mon um ent al challenge for the Oakley, Californ ia, resident. Long befor e Smith ever reached this point in his caree r, he spe nt, as a kid , m any weeke n ds trai l-r idi ng nea r his No rt hern California ho me w ith his da d, who in troduced the you ngst er to mo torcycles. But , like most kid s, motocro ss soon caugh t his attention, and he 'Nas soon testing his motorcycle-riding skills-against other mo tocrossers on the track. Unlike most kids, however, Smit h was exceptionalIy good at motocross, and he eventua lIy fo und hi mself moving to Europe, w he re he spent mu ch o f his career com pe ting on the GP motocross circuit. In the late 19805 and early 19905, Smit h was a serious threat for the 250cc title. Even though a World title eluded him , he did win mo tos and overalled mo re than one GP . He finished as high as thi rd in the championships before calling it qu its on mo tocross racing as a career, but not on racing . "I was read y for something else," says Smith. "I was getting older and just wasn ' t ha ving fun anymo re. All th e training and racing burned me out." Sm ith returned to his rea l passion off-roa d ing - and has since made a successful career out of it. He' s won tw o AM A Har e Scra mb les Cha m pionships and he has earned man y gold medals at the Six Days - as w elI as ea rn ing "Top America n" honors a co u p le of times and just this yea r he picked up an AMA Nationa l Reli abili ty End uro Cham p ionship, and, of course, the GNCC title, arguably this cou ntry's most pre stigious off-road championship. "Mos t d efinit el y, th e G CC is th e bigges t cham pions hi p fo r me ," sa ys Smith. "I think it's the most pr estigiou s ou t there. But, wh en I wo n my first hare scra mbles cha mpions hip, that was really. nea t, too, beca use guys like Scott Summe rs and Scott Plessi nger were rid ing it. I liked the hare scrambles series beca use yo~ ran into differ en t terrain. Ou t wes t, you have more wid espread trails and it is fas ter; ba ck eas t, it's usually more tigh t. I like the har e scra mbles because it is a li tt le more wides p rea d, b u t th e GNCC have good races and good promo ters, and it is well-organized ." Tw o years ago, Smith got his fi rs t tast e of GNCC racing while competing in a few eve nts, but he focused most of his a ttention o n the ha re scram b les cha m p io nshi p . La s t year, Smi th follow ed both series but with the em phasis on har e scra mbles; then he go t the wo rd fro m his team man ager a t Su zuki that 1998 w ou ld be s pent en tire ly o n th e GNCC Series. "A t first I w as kind of bumm ed ," says Smith of leavin g the hare scra mbles series, "because it meant more traveling for me. I·was forced to go race in Summ ers ' a n d Pl e ssin g e r ' s b a ck ya r d . I knew it wa s going to be tou gh. 1 kind of kn ew what to ex pec t as far as the ter rain, but they really kn ow the tracks . 1

• Cover