Concentrating on racing this year is starting to pay off for Justin Williamson, as the young man from Florida picked up his first Pro-class win at the Moonshine 100, presented by ITP, round six of the Parts Unlimited Off-road Motorcycle and ATV Nationals.
Held outside of the small town of Memphis, Missouri, on a warm, sunny day, Williamson got off the line well on his Yamaha and tucked in behind defending series champ Jimmy Jarrett and rookie pro Chris Robertson. Both of them ran into mechanical problems early on, leaving Williamson in front, alone and pulling away.
“I just kept thinking, ‘push as hard as possible.’ I wanted to get as big a lead and cushion as possible, because I knew somebody was going to try to make a push to get me,” Williamson said.
Shane Watts quickly worked his way into the runner-up slot on his KTM 200 EXC, but he was unable to cut into Williamson’s lead.
“I was riding nice and easy, but my brakes were going out on me,” Watts said. “I kept a nice, cruisy pace, and it was the quickest two-hour race ever, it felt like no more than an hour. I was stoked about that.”
Chris Bach found himself in third place on KTM 250 EXC and anxious to match his series-best placing of the previous round. He, however, faced the prospect of holding off hard-charging Brian Garrahan who was coming back from a mediocre opening lap on his Suzuki.
“I knew Brian would be coming like a freight train, man,” Bach said. “It was kind of inevitable that he’d be up there.”
Though Garrahan felt a bit off the pace in the tight stuff, he successfully reeled in Bach to claim the final spot on the podium. Bach was quite satisfied with his fourth, and series newcomer Dustin Gibson rounded out the top five on his new KTM 250 SXF.
