Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

m Jason Raines recovered from a backward start, just l ik e Watts, to finish a strong third. Own Race Ste ve Hatc h 6th "I thought I was done: said Hatch , who ended up sixth. "About two miles out after gas , , washed out in a third-gea r co mer and bent my thumb back bad. It hurt - especially un der br ak ing . So we'll see. I' m gl ad to have been up front, tho ugh . and leading. " 71 Mike lafferty 5th ~@ Scott Sum mers 4th ~ 7l@ Nathan Kanney 10th The N ation al Enduro cham p led early, as usual, but co uld only cla im a top -five fini sh. "I was good until the end: Lafferty said, "I'm always goo d until the end. I need to ho leshot the fini sh, no t the begi nning." Th e New J ersey rid er was also slowed since he had to sto p for gas twice on his 250, whereas ma ny others only gas once . Sti ll, he was headed for a thlrd -pl ace fini sh until he crashed with a lap to go and lost a lot of time. eac h o ther be fore t h e se c ond start , said . " I plann ed my attack fo r lat e in b ec ause if w e had all tu rn e d different th e race ." direction s , we wo uld h a v e had a big pi leup rig h t th er e!" "S in ce he hasn 't be en up the re at th a t pace all y ea r, I thoug h t h e m ig h t T he race was r e s t a r t ed , but t h e get ti red ," Hawk said , "so I pushed fo u r gui l t y p a r ti e s - Watts, Smi t h, hard , but I c o u ld n ' t shake him . I wa s Ra in es and H a t c h - h a d to turn t hei r Th e 250cc A rider decided to turn Pro for St. Cla irsville, and he rode well early , actually passing Barry Hawk and running second, behin d Lafferty, for a few miles. T hen nerves and arm pump set in, and a few falls sent him back ward . Eve ntually, he cras hed dodgin g a squirrel and bent his chain guide, endi ng his day near the front. tempted to pull over and let h im by bik e s around a nd start b a c k w a r d . It Fo r the first time, Sum m ers didn 't race a big , heavy XR, but instead rod e a CRF4 50R. He has n't had much time to develop th e bike, but he still rod e hi s best race in years. " ' was ha pp y with my result for the fi rst time on the 450: Summers said . "It has a lot of powe r, and it's a motocross bike , so the suspension is a little stiff. But once we get the rig ht setu p , I th ink we will have someth ing for those guys ." Sum mers' debu t on the machine didn 't go too well, as he sta lled in the fi rst turn , and then stalled a few more times after that. On ce he got moving, thou gh . he was able to follow then Jason Raines throug h the pack for a fourth -pl ace fi nish. so he c o u ld n' t see the lines , but then d idn't m a tt er , though , b e c a u s e t hey z ipped t h r ou g h the first f ew grasstrac k tu rn s qui ck ly and got t o the lead ers b e fo re long. Lafferty , t h ou g h , had the ea r ly lead , and h e battled with Hawk . T h e p a ck starte d sh u ffl i ng be h ind them, as Ra in es got stuck b ig -ti me o n a hill climb and h a d t o take sev era l ru n s t o get u p i t. Smit h th en t a g g e d a t r e e ha rd and elect ed to ca ll it a d ay . T h e ma n o n th e m o v e , h owe v er , wa s Hatch , as h e t o o k the lead fr om Lafferty in th e g r asstr ack and started c ha rg ing . B y th en , W atts h ad m ov ed up , t oo , and h e made a qu ick pa ss o n Hatch t o gr ab th e l e ad . Hawk f ollow ed h im th rough , a n d th en H atch c rashed hard a nd inj u re d his thu m b . This le ft Ha w k a nd W atts to du el , a n d di d th e y ever! A lapper crashed i n to W att s a n d co s t h im t h e lead . he probabl y w ould h ave sto pped , too ! I c o u ld hea r him o n th e grasstrack , a nd he had passed m e th e re ea rlie r. So I knew where h e was going to go , and he was going fo r b rok e - e i th er h e w a s go ing to p a ss or cras h . And h e made th e pass ." H a wk h a d o ne m ore cha nce a t the f i na l mudh ol e , but W a tt s picke d a bette r lin e an d got away. eN Power Une Park 6NCC St Clairsville , Ohio Results: October 5, 2003 [Round 12 01 131 O /A : I . Shan e Watts ( K TM); 2 , Barr y Hawk ( Yam ); 3. Ja son Raines (Y am); 4 , Sco tt Su m m ers (Han); 5 . M ic hae l La fferty (K TM); 6. Ste ve Hat ch (SUl ); 7. Robbi e Jenks (Yam ): 8 . Jim Jarrett (Yam ); 9. Brian Garrahan (KT M ); 10. Natha n Kanney (Yam). AMA GRAND NA TIONAL CR O S S COUNTRY SERIES POINTS STANDINGS (Round 12 of 13) : I. Barry Hawk J r. (303/5 wins); 2. Jason Raines (237/1 w in) ; 3 . M icha e l Laffe r ty (210/1 win ) : 4 , F r e d And rews (17 5/1 w in) ; 5. Ro bbi e Jenks (168) : 6 . (TI E) Rand y Haw k in s ( 152)/Steve Hat ch ( 152 ); 8. Rodne y Smith (129) ; 9 . Dou g Blackwe ll (87): 10 . Chuck Woodford (8 5/2 wins). Th en W att s fo llo wed H aw k fo r th e fin al two laps . "I wa nted to lea rn h is li nes," Watts Scott Summers m ade his CRF450R debut a good one w ith a fourth-place fi nish in only his fourth race back. M ike Lafferty ran at the tail end of the t op f ive after grabbing the h ole sh ot . Upcoming Round: Round 13 - Crawfordsville, Indiana, Oct. 18·19 BRIEFL y ••• • Kawasaki Team Green's C huck Woodford was unable to race his hometown GNC C due to a wrist injury, but he still worked hard. The Woodchuck joined Jeff Russell and the GNCC track crew to build the track, and he was on patrol all weekend, pulling out stuck riders and feeding scou ting repo rts ove r the rad io . But W oodford 's n ot p la nn ing o n b ui ldi ng a ny m ore tracks soon, because he will try to race ogain at the final GNCC in Indiana, W oodford cruised around on a Kawasaki KX250F all weekend, and drew a lot of attention, "The bike is awesome," Woodford said. - I"m going to race the GNCCs on it next year,• Shane Watt s added some exclamation points to his win when he tried to surf his bike across the finish line, He fell, but then he pumped his fists to the cheering fans. Then, on the podium, he took the microphone from GNCC announcer John Ayers and taunted the crowd by yelling: " Do you want to see a burnout!? Do you want to see a burnou t!? He unleashed a huge fourth-qear M burnout on the podium, laying rubber all over third-placed Jason Raines, who was next to him, FM F Suzuki team manager M ike Webb made it all offic ial In Ohio: Fred Andrew s will join the team next year, "We' re really excited," Webb said. "We' ve been doing this a long time, but we 'll take any experien ce we can. And Freddy has experience, We're coming bac k so stro ng next year," As proof, Webb and the team will do their off -season testi ng in Missouri this year, whereas they normally do it in Califomia. "This is the first time in 12 years we didn't win a nurnbet -one plate, and we don't want that to happen again." Scott Summers decided to race a CRF450 R in Ohio, but he hasn't had much time to develop it. "I'm actually wo rking on kind of a shoestring budget right now ," Summers said. - I have no income from racing, so I'm just taking parts I have laying around and putting them on. I was up at 12:30 a.m. last night. putting the forks on." Summers has some help from The Honda Riders Club, Pro Honda Oils and Genuine Honda Parts, How bad does B arry Hawk want to win races? The new GNC C champ was upset after taking consecutive second-place finishes. "I wanted to win this one so bad,' Hawk said, " I was pretty upset over getting second at the last one, but I think I felt a little bett er because I won the championship." Yes, even the most prestigious title in off-road racing could barely console Hawk. FMF Suzuki's Mike K iedrowski was absent from the race due to some tissue damage to the hand he injured at the previous GNCC. cue. e nevvs O C TO B ER 1 5 , 200 3 29

• Cover