ing up for a terrible start on his Yamaha
thumper, moving into fifth place after
coming through the barrels in 14th place
on the first lap.
With Watts clearly in charge up
front, the real battle wa for second,
third and fourth. Entering the last lap,
Andrews moved in front of Smith, but
both riders were only separated by
one second. Hawk came through 20
seconds later but wa showing much
more speed than the former and current champion. Hawk, who had ridden a two-hour National the day
before to ta ke the ATV win, was cutting seconds from the ga p separa.ting
him from Smith and Andrews. Before
fhe end of the lap, Hawk was within
striking distance of his first podium
finish. However, it was not to be. Both
Smith and Andrews turned it up
enough to just stay in front of the
determined Hawk.
As the riders came into the finish,
Watts took the win, but Hawk had managed to cut more than a minute out of
Watts' lead. In the end, Watts would finish 17 seconds ahead of Andrews and 35
second ahead of Hawk.
"Barry really pushed us in the end,"
Andrews aid. "We rode that last lap
really fast. Last year we rode the last
three laps like that."
As Wa tis was presented wi th the trophy for his third Wiseco/Yamaha/Dunlop/Moose/FMF/Klotz G CC win and
his first Hare Scrambles win, he celebrated by performing a tire-smoking,
rubber-melting burnout on the back
deck of the country store at Loretta
Lynn's.
When asked about the display of
enthusiasm, Watts was heard to say,
"Ah, they loved it."
CIII
Loretta Lynn's Ranch
Hurricane Mills, Tennessee
Results: April 11 , 1999 (Round 4 of 13)
O/A: 1. Shane Watts (KTM); 2. Fred Andrews
(Kaw); 3. Rodney Smith (Suz): 4. Barry E. Hawk Jr.
(Yam); 5. Robbie Jenks (Yam); 6. Steve Hatch (Suz); 7.
Mich.el Lafferty ·(KTM); 8. 8ri.n Garr.h.n (KTM); 9.
Scott Mclaughlin (Yam); 10. Randy Hawkins (Yam); 11.
Rodney Judson (Hon); 12. Steve McSw.in (K.w); 13.
Jason Raines (Kaw); 14. Aaron Kopp (Suz); 15. Brian
Keegan (KTM); 16. Joel Dengler (Suz); 17. Chuck
Woodford (!
