Am Pro Yamaha teammates Barry Hawk (right) and Charlie Mullins set the pace and made the Maxxis Penn State Cross-country in Boyers, Pennsylvania their own intra-team contest. After going back and forth for more than two and a half hours on a very technical, tight course with plenty of mud, slick rocks and roots, Mullins overshot a turn a few miles from the finish which let Hawk scoot by and go on for his second victory in the Parts Unlimited Off-road Motorcycle and ATV Nationals. Round eight of the series was co-sanctioned by the American Woods Racing Championship Series.
“We went back and forth, probably, two or three times a lap it seemed like,” Hawk recalled. “It was a lot of fun.”
As they got the white flag, Hawk led by four seconds but got hung up at the very slick, muddy bank after the first creek crossing and Mullins slipped by on his Factory Connection/FMF/MSR YZ250.
“I was feeling pretty good; I tried to pick it up,” Mullins explained, but then, “A lapper fell on me; I got tangled with a lapper.
“[With] about three miles to go, I guess, I came to this corner, and I didn’t hit my back brake or they didn’t work that one time and I blew the corner and he got around me. I got turned around, but by then it was too late.”
Hawk’s second venture into the OMAs this year yielded his second triumph, as he took the checkered flag in two hours, 39 minutes and 48 seconds, with Mullins three seconds behind.
Jimmy Jarrett held a solitary third for the entire race, unable to close the gap on the leaders though remaining well clear of the rest of the pack on his Andrews Cycles/Maxxis/Moose RM250, and he finished almost 10 minutes later in 2:49:31. Most important to the two-time and defending series champ, however, was that he added another three points to his series lead over Justin Williamson and now leads the OMA championship, 187-171”unofficially.
Williamson got a good start and moved into second place early on his Williamsonracing.com YZ250. Unfortunately for him, he hit a false neutral on the muddy bank and dropped way back by the time he got to the top. The speedy teen spent the rest of the race playing catch-up and ended up fourth in 2:50:00.
AWRCS points leader Brett Zofchak rounded out the top five on his Team Green-supported Andrews Cycles/Pro Circuit/M2R KX250.
