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(Left) Australian Shane Watts saw his modest two-race
win streak come to an end, but he still finished second
overall.
(Above) Fred Andrews finished out the race on the
podium in third.
(Below) Defending champ Rodney Smith took fifth
overall.
this series. "I just started passing people
wherever I couJd and trying to get to the
front before anyone got too far away."
Andrews still held the lead after the
second of six laps, but Lafferty was just
one bike length behind at the electronic
scoring tent. Watts jumped up to third.
Then there was a gap of 15 seconds back
to fourth-placed Summers.
With Edmondson already out, Suzuki's Smith and Hatch were left to carry
the yellow flag. However, neither rider
was having much luck moving forward
in the field on the choppy Big Buck
course, and they wouJd spend the three
hours on the track swapping the fifthand sixth-place positions, with Smith
holding the higher spot at the finish line.
"My suspension setting just didn't
work out on this track," said Smith, who
won seven rounds of the series in 1998
after a similarly slow start. "Last year I
didn't put together a win until the
fourth race as well, but I wouJd still like
to have had a tJetter finish today."
Smith did not finish the first round of
the series in Florida but was a strong
runner-up to Watts at round two in
Georgia.
A the third and final hour of racing
started, the quartet of Andrews, Lafferty, Watts and Summers had cleared
from the rest of the pack and was beginning to pick up some speed in anticipation of an all-out sprint to the finish.
Summers took the white flag first and
had picked up his pace from the previous lap by 35 seconds; his fastest lap
was yet to come.
On the last lap, Watts lopped off a
few more seconds. As it turned out,
however, it wouJd not stand up as the
fastest lap of the day; that belonged to
Watts durin,g his frantic ride through
the pack. However, Summers' best lap
wouJd be enough to capture the overall
win.
.
Watts' modest two-race streak was
now over.
"The pace today was so much faster
than the last two races," Watts said.
"These guys really picked it up today."
"Shane rides the wheels off that 125,"
said Andrews. "I'm just glad to be back
up there in the lead pack. There's a lot of
top guys out there that weren't with us,
and next time it will be someone else."
As Summers led Watts into the last
mile of the race, the KTM rider gambled
on the long straight and ended up on his
head, effectively ending the battle for the
overall. Summers wheelied across the
finish line with the win in hand. Slightly
ba ttered and bruised from his crash in
the waning moments, Watts came
through 19 seconds behind the leader.
Andrews held on to third, 41 seconds
behind Summers.
'1 did the same thing at this race last
year," Andrews said. "I wa right where
[ wanted to be on the last lap and then I
• threw it away. When Lafferty went
down on the last lap, we were all so
close together that Scott ran into the
back of him, and I went by both of them.
I thought to myself, 'Okay, here we go you're in the lead and it' real tight, so
no one can get around me. Take your
time in the slow stuff because they can't
get around, then fly through the fast
stuff and I'll be okay: Maybe I was tired
or wasn't thinking or something,
because I got on the gas too much and
tile bike went right out from under me. I
fell down and everybody went by. I
caught back up to Lafferty and made the
pass, but Scott and Shane were gone.
"Anybody could have won this
race," Andrews concluded. "So my hat
is off to Scott for winning it (the Big
Buck) two races in a row."
Lafferty was fourth overall in the Pro
class, followed by Smith and Hatch. Finishing seventh overall was South Carolina's own Randy Hawkins, a multi-time
AMA
alional Enduro Champion.
Rounding out the top 10 overall were
South Carolina's multi-talented Barry
Hawk Jr., who also won Saturday's
quadcycle event; Andrews' Team Green
teammate Jim Jarrett; and Suzukimounted Scott Plessinger.
After three of 13 rounds, Watts has
an n-point lead over his KTM teammate Lafferty, 59-48. Hatch is third with
47 points, followed by Smith with 38
and a tie for fifth between Summers and
Edmondson with 37 apiece.
CIII
Big Buck GNCC
Cross Anchor, South Carolina .
Results: March 21, 1999 (Round 13 of 13)
O/A: 1. Scott Summers (Hon); 2. Shane Watts
(KTM); 3. Fred Andrews (Kaw); 4. Michael Lafferty
(KTM); 5. Rodney Smith (Suz); 6. Steve Hatch (Suz); 7.
Randy Hawkins (Yam); 8. Barry E. Hawk Jr. (Yam); 9,
Jim jarrett (Kaw); 10. Scott Plessinger (Suz); 11. Robbie
Jenks (Yam); 12. Steve McSwain (Kaw); 13. Chuck
Woodford (Kaw); 14, Andy Shea (Suz); 15. Heath
Bennell (Yam); ]6. Joel Dengler (Suz); 17. Steve Leivan
(Yam); lB. jason Raines (Kaw); 19. Allen Gravitt (KTM)'
20. Gene O'Nail (Kaw).
'
200 A: 1. Allen Gravitt (KTM)i 2. John Bennett
(Yam); 3. Joey Ambrosini (Kaw); 4. Benny Leonard (GG); 5. Curt Wilcox (](aw).
200 8: 1. Justin Maxwell (Kaw);).. David Keith
(KlM); 3. Thomas Derby (Suz); 4. joshua Knapp (](aw);
5. josh Nowell (Yam).
250 k 1. sreve McSwain (]