Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128347
National Cross Country Series ~]JJ By Pro Y amaha's Barry Hawk may have wo n his first Grand Nation a l Cros s Cou ntry Series bik e t it le over one ear ago , but he probably wishes his title defense was only start ing now. Hawk is now the man to beat in the GNCC Series afte r notching his secondstraight win, this time at the Powe r Line Park GNCC in St. C lairsville, O hio. But it' s a little too late for the Penns ylvania rider as the GNCC Series started in Febru ary , and tha nks to injuries and accidents, Hawk has long since be en e liminated from this year's title chase. "I feelgood right now; in fact, I feel bet ter than I did last year when I won the cham pionship," Hawk said. "I rode the 'OS A ) JA SON W EIGANDT YZ2S0 tod ay and it worked awesome. I've been training really hard and riding a lot. On ce I came back from the injury, it really lit a match under my butt. I'm fired up." The rider who has best taken advantage of Haw k's early-season misfortune is, of course, FMF Suzuki's Rodney Smith, who has ridden brilliantly all season long and came into O hio wit h great odds of locking up the championship one race early. Smith's championship rival, Jason Raines, was riding injured, and with Smith on ly needing to put five po ints more on him to clinch the title, the cham pagne was on ice for the Suzuki people. But like Hawk, Smith found winn ing another GNCC title a litt le tougher th an he expected, as Raines, riding with a 32 OCTOBER 27, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS PHOTOS BY RAy GUNDY broken shoulder soc ket , hung tough for a fifth-place finish, while Smith cou ld only get a fourth afte r ge tting tangled up in a fence early. "O nce I saw Jason right beh ind me, I knew I would have to wait until [the final round in] Indiana," Smith said. "O n the last lap, it was kind of fun. We were hollering at each ot he r and everything, just having fun. I th ink the pressure is off of bot h of us right now." "My goal was to get th is series to go the distance," Raines said after his mission was accomplishe d. "That' s tw o weeks now where anyth ing can happen." Wh ile Smith and Raines were fighting over a championship, two other riders were bat tling for their best finishes of the 40th Anniversary seaso n, and they got them. FMF Suzuki rider Do ug Blac kwell and Kawasaki Team Gree n's Chuck Woodford collected the ir first podium finishes of the year by tak ing second and third , respectively It was a . long time coming for both . "It' s been way, way too long. Actually, it was in 2000," Blackwe ll said of his last visit to the GNCC pod ium. "I won the National Hare Scram bles last weekend. Ho pefully, I have everything going again. I've been working on this little by little , but the big thi ng is for the last few weeks I haven't had to work so much. [Blackwell works for a co ncre te com pany during the week.] I actually got to do some riding and tra ining du ring the week. It takes a great team be hind you to get up here , and