Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cross Country Round 9: Hard RockG C NC AMA GRAND NA TIONAL CROSS COUNTRYSERIES BUNNER'S RIDGE WV, JULY 11 , ea m Su zuki 's Rodney Smith .. claimed his fou rth straight win of the 1999 AMA Grand .' Na tio na l Cross Country Series an d firmly es ta b lis he d himself as th e favo ri te to win a seco nd consecutive series title. Smith d id the job this time at the hot and dusty Hard Rock GNCC in th e w oods of north-central West Vir ginia , beat in g back Team Green's Fred And rews and Suzu ki teamma te Steve , Hatch by half a minute to keep his eurrent winning s treak alive. Smith's win came d espite having difficu lties getting on tra ck in the rocky, d ry West Vir ginia cond itions . Earl y in the race he struggled to stay in the top five, bu t once he worked the kinks out of his form, it was on. "I jus t settled down, sta rted read ing the course and forgot abo ut everythi ng else," s ai d Smith . "Th a t turn ed m y who le day around, and with my Suz u ki wo rking so well , 1 just rod e smart and fast and let the race come to me." Andrew s spent so me time in the lead as well, but not when it counted . " It wa s re all y du sty o u t th ere ," sum med up Andrews of his day. "It was really rocky ou t there, too, .and I cou ld catch guys in some places becau se 1 think my bike was workin g bett er, bu t th en we w ould hit th e dust a nd th ey would be gone. I would have to start all over again . "A lot of things were happening ou t there," ad ded Andrews. "I wo uld be in the lead , then 1 would go back to third , then 1 wo uld be in the .lead again. You T 0> 0> 0> 46 just never knew what was going to happe n ou t ther e, and it was exciting and all, but I suc ked wa y too much d ust." . As for fini shing second overa ll on such a tou gh day, And rew s wasn't com - ' pletely sa tisfied . "Like I'v e said befor e, it's like kissin g you r sister." Ha tch was not completely sati sfied, either. "Rod ney and Fred just ro de b et ter than me," Ha tch stated matter-of-factly. wit was one of those days where yo u wou ld be leading and all happy that the o the r guys fell or some th ing, a nd th e ne xt th in g you k now yo u ' re upsid e d ow n a n d ba ck w ard s yo u rself a n d they're laugh in g. 1 wa s thin king, 'Man, n obod y w a n ts t o w in th is tod a y ,' because we all kept ha vin g ou r prob lems. I saw Rodney on his head three or four tim es - the sa me for Fred di e and myself. We were spun aro und all diffe ren t ways ou t there." Fou rt h overa ll was six- time AMA Grand Nati onal Cross Cou ntry Champion for quad cycles Barry Ha wk [r. , who continues to impress mor e and more on mot orcycl es. Ha wk w as in conte ntio n for a pod ium finish all day long. "It see med like my bik e was working reall y g oo d, es peci a lly in th e rou gh stu ff," said Hawk, who eve n tua lly finished 30 seconds behind third-placed . Hatc h after a big get-off in th e closing stages of the two-hou r-and -55-minut elong race . "I was making a lot of time .on them in the rocks, and pretty soo n I was' racin g with St ev e for th ird . We w ere only a mile away from the finish and I hit a rock that was about as big as me." Hawk crashed hard but only lost one , place in the mishap. "I had third but I gav e it away." Fifth overall went to d efending AMA National Ha re Scrambles Champion Doug Blac kw ell, w ho was directing a Yamaha throu gh the midsummer d us t of his home sta te. Round ing out the top 10 ove rall was risi n g ISDE fa vorit e Ja s on Raines o f Washing to n Sta te, Rob bie Jenk s, KTM en duro sta r Mike Lafferty , New Eng lander Josh McLevy, and Ca lifo rnia KTM rid er Patrick Garra ha n. By virtue of his fourth straight wi n, Smith, a nati ve of California and a former G P-Ievel facto ry motocross sta r, now tak es co ntro l of the point s of the highly competitive GNCC Series . Whil e , early pace-sett er Sha ne Wa tts continues to sit ou t due to his knee injury of early May, the slow-starting Smit h has fou nd the form tha t carried him to seven wins in th e 1998 G N CC Seri es . Wit h fo u r races to go , Smit h holds as ma ny wins (four) as Wa tts does, thou gh Wa tts has faile d to sco re poin ts in the las t th ree rounds . With a rider's best nin e finishes of 13 even ts cou nting tow ard the final points tally, and Wat ts having used all four of his "throwaway" races, the Australian will have to compe te straight up w ith Smith in the stretch run to take the cha mpionsh ip . With h is knee s t ill a qu es tion ma rk, co nven tio na l wisdom poin ts to Smith as the favorite. "I wa n ted to wi n' th is race because it's th e last one befor e I ge t married ," said Smit h, who celebra ted an ou tdoorsthemed bachelor party the week before Steve Hatch (2) leads Rodney Smith (1), Fred Andrews (3), Robbie Jenks (10) and the rest of the 23·man Pro class out of the gate at the Hard Rock GNCC. After nearly three hours of racing, Smith ended up first, with Andrews and Hatch joining him on the pod ium. th e even t w i th m a n y of hi s fr ie n d ly rivals on the white-wa ter rapi d s of the Mountain State. "It's one step close r to the title, bu t there's a lot more wo rk to do." The Hard Rock cou rse rests a top a sma ll West Virgi nia mountain nam ed Bu nne r's Rid ge, in h onor of a World War On e military hero named Col. Jack "Hard Rock" Bunner. The cou rse measures jus t less than nine rocky miles and is often considered a favori te am on g the GNCC regulars. However, a su m merlon g drought made for te rrib ly dus ty trails . Re g ardl ess, n earl y 3000 fa ns spread ou t over the hills of the Bunn er 's Ridge area - an d ga thered at its centerpiece coun try -western mu sic stage, the Sa g ebru sh Roundup - to w at ch the eve nt. "The s pec ta to rs m a y n ot think it means much to u s for th em to be ou t there cheering for us, but every person who yells for you gets yo u pumped up and ready to go faster, so I wou ld like to thank them for cheering for me;" sai d Hawk of th e always en thus ias tic Hard Rock fans. With a sho rt sprint of just 100 feet up to the firs t right-ha nded hairpin tu rn , the Hard Rock course features the short-

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