Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Okeechobee. FL . Ma("'ch 7. 20CXJ AMA Grand National Cross Country Series Round 1 : Kirton Ranch By MARK KARIYA '@~~iiliO;;a_",,"&"''''',;;;,jil\:l_ lo.;.;lI:;I;I...io.;~;;";:~ IAbove) This looks like a holeshot, but it's m not. Still, four-time AMA National Motocross Champion and virgin Team Suzuki GNCC going when their competitors pitted rider Mike Kiedrowski 130), was close to the after three laps. That would be their front of the pack before getting stuck in a ustralian Shane Watts began his 2000 campaign for the AMA Grand National Cross Country Series Championship just as he had last year: winning. "Once again, I think I've quite convincingly won here today," he said. "Hopefully, I can go through with the whole year now and win the championship." That championship, of course, eluded him last year when, after a rocking start to the series, he suffered a knee injury that required surgery. Watts didn't lead the entire threehour race on his MSR/FMF/Scottbacked, Josh Marlo-prepped KTM 200E/XC, though. Team Green stars Fred Andrews and Paul Edmondson led most of the first half on their KX250s, with Team Suzuki OffRoad's Rodney Smith lying in third and Watts sitting in fourth after a mediocre start. "We just had fun," Andrews said. "That's just where I wanted to be - us three together. It's not won in a couple laps; you've got to be there at the finish." Pre-race testing assured the Kawasaki riders that getting an hour and a half of riding out of their bikes would be no problem, so they kept on A 36 MARCH 22, 2000' cue • undoing, as both Kawasakis ran out of fuel just short of their goal, putting them out of the race. Ironically, Team Green desert star Destry Abbott squeezed the four laps from his tank _and remained in contention. "They stopped for fuel, and I thought I could make another lap," Andrews admitted. "I ran out about a mile short. 'Eddy' had six-10ths-of-a gallon more than I did, and he ran out before I did, so he must really be hard on fuel [mileage]. It was my own fault. I made a mistake." Watts reported, "We'd only had one tank of gas through the bike before the race, so we didn't know how far it was going to go. That's why we were pretty cautious there and ended up coming in after the third lap. We knew it would make three laps no problem, and we weren't going to push it to four. Either way, we were going to hav to stop twice [for fuel], so might as well do it cautiously. "I fueled up and they went past me. They had the opportunity to stop. They didn't and paid the price. That left me out in front, and I just kept riding a nice, smooth race, and I just kept putting time on the rest of the field. You can't argue with that." e n e vv s mudhole. IBelow) Shane Watts was buried back in the pack at the start, but that did not stop him from working his way up to the front to claim yet another GNCC win. Indeed, after Watts got the lead, no one could get close enough to argue the point. He completed eight laps of the 10.5-mile course in 3:04: 11, a healthy lead over runner-up Smith at 3:07:25. A piece of safety wire securing the left grip broke loose on Smith's bike, and the wire quickly began digging into his thumb. "I led the whole first lap," Smith said, but he lost it to Edmondson when a stick prevented him from being able to use the rear brake, but the broken wire bothered him just as much. "Actually, the first lap it wasn't too bad because my glove wasn't ripped yet. Then it ripped a hole right in my glove and started bleeding." Sticks kept getting caught in his brake pedal, and he stalled the engine four times, too. "\ stopped when I gassed on the third lap and fixed the safety wire," Smith said. "The next lap, Paul and Freddy were on the side of the track out of gas. Shane had a pretty good lead on me [at that point], so I just rode strong, stayed in second. I wasn't going to try to reel him in. He was out there on his own riding good laps. "I just wanted to come out of here with some good points and go on to

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