Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

: iiiiiI 1 Round 7 OFF-ROAD My Scott Summers con tinues to impress vio 0 fourth-place finish. OWN RACE 16 Scott Summers 4th Now over a month remo ved from havinga plate installed over his broken collarbone , Summe rs w as back. fast and strong in Pennsylvania. But he wasn't lucky. "I was a victim of a few bad circumstances," Summers said. "I had a bad start , took two or three kicks. I caught up to second, and I was going up a hilland there was a lapper who had stopped . I didn't see him and I hit his back tire. I didn't fall , but I came to a dead stop and it cost me a lot of time trying to get back going. A few guys passed me. Then I hit a log and got it caught between my chainguide and my whee l. It was a tough track. I felt like I rode as fast as I could, but circumstances kept me away from the lead group." 5 Fred Andrews 5th After a podium finish at the Loretta L ynn's GNCC, Andrews was back racing amo ng the leaders for most of the day in Pennsylvania, "I felt good and strong, but there were some parts where I didn't want to push it on the rocks," Andrews said. "One [lapped] guy in between you is all it took . I don't reallylike rocks, so fifth is okay." 1 5 Nate Kanney 6th The RER Motorcity privateer finallyput it together for a hard-earned sixth. "I worked so hard to stay in there," the New Yorker said. "I had this one hill where I was just chugging up it in, like, fifth gear at almost stall speed . I made up a lot of time there." Kanney battled Chuck Woodford for most of the race and was about to settle for seventh when Woodford made a mistake with just a few turns to go. "He got three lappers in between us in the last mile , and I figured it was over," Kanney said. "T hen 1came around a corner and there he was. I just got around him." 12 Chuck Woodford 7th Woodford has had some struggles this season, but he felt he was back to his old self in Pennsylvania. "Speed and stamina were good , I just didn't have any luck," said the Kawasaki rider. "Igot stuck behind a lapper going up one hill, and he fell into me. His bars got stuck in my spokes. I just had to keep pulling and pulling to get it out, and the guy was just standing there, watching." lap, when Isaw Iwas close to Rodney, I just blocked it out and pushed. Then we got into a technical section, and he went down." At this point in the series, Smith has won four out of the seven races. He holds a 10-point lead over Raines, with Hawk in third. Much like the point standings suggest, Raines has fo und himself chasing Smith o n more than a few occasions, and he did just that in the early stages of the race. "I actually had the holeshot, but before we got into the woods, I didn't know which line to take, and Rodney and Freddy [Andrews] got by me ," Raines said. "So Rodney and I went back and forth the whole first lap." Raines not on ly had to deal with his competitors, he had to worry about a challenging hillclimb that awa ited riders each lap. '~yone that rode this race knows what I'm talking about," Raines said. "T he re is 40 this one hillclimb- it's just absolutely atrocious. It's two miles of nothing but rocks, JUNE 2, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS and it's really loose , Rodney passed me up there, and I was all sideways, and Barry got by me , Scott [Summers] was right there, too, I just tried to keep having fun. I was able to make a few good passes and get back into the lead," Raines led a tight pack, with Smith, Andrews, Summers and Hawk in pursuit , But at the halfway mark, after most of the field had stopped for gas, Raines upped his pace and 40th Anniversary broke away, His lead stayed between 20 and 30 seconds for the next three laps, Meanwhile, Hawk was trying to make up for lost time. "I think I'm being too nice early in the race," Hawk said. "I need to be more aggressive and get up to t he fro nt early. I made mistakes, That's how I got behi nd. And once Jaso n got out front, he put a little time on those guys, and he was too far away for me to catch him," With Raines leading and Smith

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