Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

~rwinnin9 me last twa, Raines finished second. : aving a track built on ski slopes behind a posh resort in Maryland with lakes, golf courses, luxury suites and gourmet meals all within wa lking distance is a far cry from the location of many other off-road races . But round nine of the Grand National Cross Co untry Series isn't just any off-road race . The race is held at the Wisp Ski and Go lf Resort and is one of the most scenic races of the year. However, once the green nag dropped, the race was the same as just about every other one in this year's GNCC series. FMF Suzuki's Rodney Smith and Am Pro Yamaha's jason Raines waged war for three hours . And at the finish, the gap between the two wasn't much larger than it was at the start. "I told jason on the start today, 'Hey, it's going to be me and you today,' and it was," Smith said. "jason rode awesome. I got a bad start and moved up early, and we passed each other a few times on the last lap. The fans were really pushing us today." The bad start Smith got forced him to H make a few risky passes out on the rocky Wisp course. "I have to apologize to Shane Watts ," Smith said. "I kind of missed a turn and used him as a berm. I waved him back by me, and he told me to go on. I didn't mean to do it." Once Smith caught up to Raines, the battle was on . The two riders were never more than a few seconds apart, and Smith even passed Raines to lead the first six laps. "The past few years here at the Wisp, it's been a battle between me, Barry Hawk , Jason Raines and Mike Lafferty," Smith said. "So I knew with Barry and Mike out [With injuries], it would come down to me and jason, and that's exactly what happened . We basically went back and forth all day, and I just happened to be out front when the checkered nag came out ." "Both of us were pushing really hard," Raines said. "We were coming down these roads just really pushing it. I'm sure we both saw the sides of our motorcycles many times." The fans sure ly enjoyed the close rae- ing as much as they did the nice setting , and they responded by cheering the duo on mile after mile. "The fans are unbe lievable out there," Raines said. "This is one of the few races where there are fans everywhere on the track . Usually, there are fans in the pits, and maybe some out in the woods. But here it's like there are fans everywhere you go ." That probably has something to do with the Wisp's ski lift chairs, which hover over the course and give fans a unique view of the action. It also gives them access to the Wisp's gnarly, rocky trails, ones that many think are the toughest on the GNCC tour.. . allowing a different rider to appear on the podium for once. This time the other rider was just as happy to be there as the two leaders. Thro ttlehead.com Kawasaki's Steve Hatch finally landed his KX2S0 in the top three, surviving a bad start, a broken brake pedal and a strong challenge from SCR Yamaha's Robbie jenks to take th ird. "It's been a long time coming," Hatch said. "The team never gave up o n me, and I never gave up on them. Our motto has www.cyclenews.com been 'What ever it takes,' and we worked really, really hard for this." Midway through the race Hatch , with Robbie jenks in tow, was actually running down Smith and Raines out front. But he just cou ldn't quite close the distance enough to put the pressure on . "I had a great battle with Robbie [jenks],' said Hatch. "He's a little more aggressive than me in the slick stuff, and I'm a little more aggressive in the open stuff. We pushed each other, and I heard we got to about 15 seconds back. We never saw them [Smith and Raines]; I think we just saw their dust." jenks settled for a strong fourt h. The Ohio pilot has put his early season shoulder prob lems behind him and is once again a podium threat at every round he competes in. Fifth and sixth went to the FMFSuzuki duo of Doug Blackwell and Fred Andrews, who followed each other through the pack after bad starts, And both were able to get by their teammate Mike Kiedrowski on the last lap. Kiedrowski was a contender early, and in fact, he was the only rider to get C Y CL E NEWS • JULY 14,2004 43

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