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est take-off on the circu it. As the series points lead er, Smith had first choice on the starting grid . He chose the far ins ide, a n d se co nd -ra nked Hatch pi ck ed the se co nd Closest. It was a good stra tegy for both rid er s, a s th ey sho t into the g rassy first tu rn 'a he ad of eve ryone, Hat ch first. Andrews, Yama ha -mounted Robbie Jenks, a nd off-road newcomer Joel Dengler, a part-time professi on al motocrosser from Ne w Jersey, followed. At the back of the pack was the third mem ber of Team Suzuki, fo rmer FlM World En d u ro C ha mpio n Paul Ed mo ndson. The British ride r has been struggling of lat e in the series, and he mad e a d ecision to return to the smaller motor cycles wi th which he had so m uch success in Europe in years past. Unfortuna tely, Edmondson failed to fire h is Suz uki RMl25 on the firs t kick, and he began dead las t from the Pro-class line on the dusty West Virginia circuit. The smaller mo tor suffocated in the d us t, and the h ig h es t Edmondson would cl im b in th e field was eight h pl a ce before eventually falling a lap down and finishing outside the top 20 overall . Even though the Suzukis of Ha tch and Smit h ga rne red the ho leshot , it was th e KTM of AMA Na tional En du ro Cha mpion Mike Lafferty in the lead at the end of the first 25-m inute-long lap. Lafferty held an advantage of four seconds on And rews, who was in turn followed a t a d istance of 15 secon ds by Ha tch. Smith ro de in fift h, behi nd th e qui ck-starting Jen ks. "I was having all kinds of trouble se ttling in," sai d Smith of his ea rly slide . backward in the field . "I just wasn 't rid in g very well and I wa s ma kin g a ll kinds of mi stakes. At one po int on the fir s t lap, I w e nt th e w ron g w ay and Ste ve followed m e, a n d so d id a few other guys! And whe n I got up there a little bit, I took the wrong route on the big hill s a nd ended u p going on th e long, easy one, and the next thing, I was back in fifth again." Lafferty continued to ho ld the advantage up fro nt until th e th ird of seven la ps . At that po int , Sm ith stea mrolled past and took the advantage . Ha tch an d Andrews also overcame the ew Jersey residen t to chase the eve ntual winner. " Abou t h a lf w a y into t he ra ce , I wicked it up and the next thing ( knew, I was up into first place," said Smith . "As dusty as it was, I d idn't wa n t to be in the .back, and un fortunately I was. That made it really im portant to get up there. I wis h ( had don e it a little earlier." "There was one uphill back there that wa s reall y dusty, and every lap I wo uld be behind Rodney and Steve when we got there, and that cost me 10 seco nds each time: ' sai d Andrews. "It was just a give n. I would ride as hard as I cou ld to catch them an d then ge t ther e and lose them, and it wo uld start all over again." When the w hite flag d rop ped on the . leader, Smith , his cus hion on And rew s was just nine seconds. Ha tch was 25 seconds adrift a nd co ming under heavy p ressu re from Hawk and h is Yama ha YZ400F. . "Barry actually go t by me on the las t la p and he did a big cartwheel;' said Ha tch afterward . "I was looking to see if he hit an y trees or anythi ng, beca use I (Left) Rodney Smith approaches the scoring tent en route to his fourth s eries win in a row. After nine of 13 'rounds, Smith now s its atop the points board. (Below) With the AMA National Enduro Series on a midsu mmer hiatus, Michael Lafferty came to the Hard Rock and led briefly before falling back to ninth. .. was behind him, and I en d ed up cras hing in to his bike. I looked at him getting u p, an d he looked at me and sai d. 'Well, if nobod y is going to try to get in third in this, maybe I shou ld go ahea d and get . back up.' I was like, 'Uh oh, I wai ted too long to get going.''' "Luckily, I somehow flew through 10 trees a nd never hit one of them ," said Hawk of the massive crash. "I was just sitti ng there, trying to ge t my h ea d togeth er, and I saw Steve sitti ng ther e, too. I figu red I shou ld ge t my bike up and go , but his bik e w as s till running and he go t u p and go ing befor e me. It scared me pretty good, and I was lucky to finis h fourth." CHard Rock GNCC Bunner's Ridge, West Virginia . Results: July 11, 1999 (Round 9 of 13) O /A: 1. Rod ne y Smhh (Su z ); 2. Fred Andrews (Kaw ): 3. Stew Hat ch (Suz); 4. Barry Hawk Jr. (Yam); 5. Dou g Blackwell (Ya m); 6. Jason Ra ines IKaw) : 7. Ch uck Woodford (Ka w): B. Robbie Jenks (Yam) ; 9. Michael Laffe rty (KTM); 10. Steve McSwa in (Kaw}, 11. Joshua McLevy (KTM ); 12. Patrick Ga rra han (KTM); 13. Rand y Hawki ns (Ya m); 14. Brian Garr ahan (KTM); 15. Ronnie Bumfield UaM); 16. Jim Jarrett (Kaw): 17. Jason Ca pe r (Ha n) ; 18. Rodn ey Ju d son (Han); 19 . Ste phen Edmon dson (Kaw); 20. Ryan Rod gers (Kaw). Upcoming Rounds: Round 10 - Millfield, OH, August 29 . Round 11 - Mount Monis, PA, September 26 47