Whibley, Jarrett 1-2 at Missouri OMA

Mark Kariya | September 21, 2009

Paul Whibley suffered a rare defeat at the Maxxis Moonshine Cross-country National, round nine of the Parts Unlimited Off-road Motorcycle and ATV Nationals. But after a sub-par — for him — start that saw Chris Bach steal the holeshot in his Pro debut this year (after wrapping up the Open A championship at the previous round), the JG Off-road/GEICO Powersports/Monster Energy Kawasaki ace quickly made amends and worked his KX450F into the lead to stay. In doing so, he kept his perfect OMA record alive and needs only to win the finale in Illinois to complete a perfect season.

“I had a little bit of a bad start today, but it came good; I got to the lead just before the open grass fields,” he said. “When we got to the tight stuff, I kind of made some time up there and had a little bit of a lead by the end of the first lap and I was able to ride my own race from there.”

Co-sanctioned with both the MXC Series and the Iowa Enduro Riders Association, the classic venue outside of Memphis, Missouri, saw one of the larger fields of competitors tackle a course that was almost 10 miles long and very diverse, with Whibley’s lap times in the high 28-minute length. While Whibley controlled the pace out front, a number of riders fought to join him on the podium.

After an admittedly “mediocre” start, Jason Thomas put his Fred Andrews Racing/Monster Energy Yamaha WR250F into the mix and moved into second place. However, he came under attack from a resurgent Jimmy Jarrett. “Last week at the GNCC I went as hard as I could until it got too sore that I could barely hold on,” Jarrett confided. “Today, it didn’t bother me at all.” And this was despite a crash that took both him and Bach down on the first lap, forcing him to work hard until he got back up to and then past Thomas. That gave Jarrett his first podium since round three and moved him back into third in points, unofficially. Thomas hung on for third place, his second podium appearance in a row.

Scott Watkins missed the podium for the first time since round three, but his fourth place solidified his second in points, meaning JG Off-road/GEICO Powersports/Monster Energy Kawasaki could very well sweep the first three spots in points at the end of the year.

After running in the top three early on, Jeff Melik was very satisfied with fifth on his Pro-Action YZ450F ahead of Husaberg’s Nick Fahringer who was aboard a week-old 2010 FX 450. Adam Bonneur, Shane Klimek, Lites A winner Chase Bishop and New Zealand’s Adam Reeves rounded out the top 10.