Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I Briefly... Steve Hatch is steadily improving on his new Throttlehead .comlKawasaki Team Green ride. "We made a lot of changes to the bike over the last two weeks, and we're getting really close ," Hatch said. "The Suzuki team and the Yamaha team have been doing this for a long time , and we 're in our first year, so we're really happy with our performance. We've nearly been up on the podium , and we 're still chasing the bike a ton ." At South Carolina, Hatch started strong and stayed in the hunt all day, but he cooked his rea r brakes with just two laps to go , which slowed him co nsiderably. The n one hard crash on the last lap led him to a fourth -place finish. SCR Yamaha rider Robbie Jenks tried to gut it out and race with a shoulder injury that he suffered two we eks ago. Unfortunately, the injury pro ved to be just too much for him, and he pulled out a few miles into the first lap. Chuck Woodford never had a chance after waking up Sunday morning with a bad sinus infection. He still rode but couldn't ride to near his full potential, finishing ninth in the Pro class and 12th overall. The Big Buck facility offered a wide variety of terrain of hard, dry, slippery clay, tight woods and a grasstrack. "It was a great track," Andy Shea said. "It was actu ally pretty tight. And there was a pine tree section that was awesome." The most spectacular part of the track is the Big Buck creek jump, a gap over a small stream . Appro ximately 12S0 riders competed over t he weekend. Virginia's Stephen Edmondson was the top GNCC Amateur, collecting an impressive ninth overall in winning the 2S0cc A class. Am Pro Yamaha's Thad DuVall topped the GNCC Youth Race o n Saturd ay. last. I caught Jason with two laps to go , and what a race we had . We just went back and forth . Jason rode awesome today, and Barry rode a great race to come back from as far as he did. To be honest, I didn 't even care who won. This was such a great race (or the fans today." Raines, who led most of the race, could have been disappointed with second, but he had too much fun to worry about it. "I had so much fun riding my motorcycle today, I wouldn't have been disap pointed no matter where I finished," said Raines, who is trying to take a more lowpressure approach to his racing. "Rodney rode well today, and we went at it hard on the last few laps." The Raines and Smith duel was very similar to their battle at the previous GN CC race two weeks ago in North Carolina. There, Raines grabbed the point midway through the race and pulled away, but Smith reeled him in late and got into the lead when it counted . At the Big Buck, Raines again was the front -runner at the midway point, while Smith was buried deep in the pack . "I just got a bad start," Smith said. " I had to be patient coming from that far bac k. We had a fre ight train going, and I ke pt push ing. Scott Summers actually ke pt me go ing for a while ; he was really hauling through the woods. He helped push me ." Summers, who is makinga comeback bid this year on the Parts Unlimited/Moose Honda CR450F, also had a bad start, wh ich isn't all that out of the ordinary for the five-time GNCC champ. Up fro nt, KTM's Shane Watts and Raines broke away, but Summers was flying by lap two, slicing his way past Smith, FMF Suzuki's Mike Kiedrowski, and finally Throttle head.co m/ Kawasa ki Team Green's Steve Hatch fo r third . But Summers' mo me ntum was interrupted when he stalled his big 450, and then he stopped for good w hen he tagged a ro ck and crashed hard . "I was getting by guys w he n t hey were making mistakes," Summers said. "I wasn't working too hard or using too much energy to move up. The other ride rs were just making mistakes, you know ? But then I made a mistake. I hit a rock with my front wheel. " Unfortunately for him, the crash not only knocked him out of the race but pos sibly out of title contention, as well. Summers landed hard on his shoulder, breaking his collarbone. Meanwhile, Smith continued his charge forward. Watts would eventually tire (rom his relentless pace out front , leaving Raines all alone in the point position. "Yo u never know what you 're going to get from Shane," Raines said. "He was just Breaking his collarbo ne was a bitt er disappointment for Scott Summers, but he is hopeful to get back into the se ries by the next ro und at Lorett a Lynn's Ranch. A press release (ro m O MS Sports, Summers' agency, said that Summers will try to put a rod in his collarbone to help spee d up the healing process. "I'd have to heal fast and ride extremely hard during the rema ining races ," Summers said. "But they say, 'If you're going to be dumb,' - like I was last weekend 'yo u'd better be tough.' So I guess I'll just have to get a little tougher." Am Pro Yamaha's Randy Hawkin s (left) is usually the star of the Big Buck race, since his hometown of Traveler's Rest is just a few miles (rom the track. But this year The Javelin was reduced to the role of spectator, as he injured his hand at the National Enduro the weeke nd before (which he won) and chose to sit the race out . Shane Watts is tryingeverything he can to get back into shape and win races. ''I'm on that mountainbike all day," Watts said. "Going to the post office or to the store or wherever, I just get on that thing. The other day, we went mountainbikingfor a few hours inthe moming, then we went to the gym, then we ran, then we did some Jet Skiing, and then we went indoor rock climbing. That's ali i do is train. I've been doing45-minute motos." on fire on the first lap, and i( he's having o ne of his days , you might never see him again if you let him get away. So I tried to hang wit h him." The du o bu ilt a 17-second gap over third while o ut on the first lap. Watts, who is still wo rking his way back into shape after a slew of injuries, eventually tired, and he started dropping back after the two-hour mark . Raines continued to roll though, and he held the lead until Smith finally caught him. www.cyclenews.com Since the Big Buck course was a little shorter than usual, t he racers would have to complete seven laps instead of the standard six, and all of the teams had to come up w ith new fueling strategies. "I actually caught Jason with two laps to go and got into the lead," Smith said. "But we decided to stop for a splash of gas just in case. We didn't want to ru n out, and I figured two laps would be enough t ime (o r us to malke up for the time w e lost getting the gas." CYCLE NEWS • APRIL 21, 2004 33

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