AMA Grand National Cross Country Series
Round 7: Sunday Creek MX Park
(Above) Jimmy Jarrett (16) and Bany
Hawk (6) get out In front early at the
Jack Penton GNCC in Ohio.
(Left) Chuck Woodford was bound an
determined to win his "home" race.
He came from behind to score a hard
fought victory.
STORY BY JASON WEIGANDT
PHOTOS BY RAYMOND GUNDY
MILLFIELD, OH, JUNE 1
Vawasaki may build bikes in
~ Japan, but the KXs campaigning
the AMA Grand National Cross Country Series seem at home in Ohio.
With team riders Chuck Woodford
and Fred Andrews calling the state
home, the green team can be counted on for wins in the Buckeye State.
And it was no different at round
seven of the 2003 GNCC Series, the
Wiseco John Penton GNCC in Millfield, because the duo battled for the
lead all day until Woodford finally
took it for good and won his first race
of the season.
"It felt great to be back out front,"
Woodford said. "I got wounded at the
beginning of the year and got off to a
slow start. But now I feel like I'm
back."
Woodford won the John Penton
last year, as well, but this year's race
was run under entirely different conditions. While the '02 event was
plagued with dust, this year's running
was nearly drowned out after torrential rains invaded the area early in the
weekend. The sun came out for Sunday's race, but the track was still a
quagmire of deep ruts, which fell into
36
JUNE
11, 2003'
cue
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the hands of Woodford, a master of
tough, rutted conditions.
Andrews was no slouch either,
keeping his teammate honest the
entire race and nearly passing him
late in the game in an attempt to take
his second win of the season.
"I didn't want to push the issue
with my teammate," Andrews said.
"We ride together all the time; it was
like practice."
There are a lot of theories as to
why the Ohio boys are able to be so
dominant in their home state, but the
key may lie with the fans.
"Today was a day where it would
be easy to just give up," Andrews
said. "Your bike feels like it weighs
35,000 pounds. But we have a lot of
fans out here cheering; they keep us
going."
Things were not so easy for the
rest of the field. Am-Pro Yamaha's
Barry Hawk finished third to extend
his series points lead, but he admitted
the race was difficult.
"It was one of the
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