Jarrett Takes the Pot at Arkansas National

Mark Kariya | April 23, 2007

Team FMF Suzuki Off-road’s Jimmy Jarrett dominated round two of the Parts Unlimited Off-road Motorcycle and ATV Nationals to both move into the series points lead and grab every single bonus dollar available at the Motion Pro Wildcat Cross-country race near Decatur, Arkansas. Fun Mart Cycles Yamaha racer Jason Thomas ended up a solid second overall while Josh Weisenfels from nearby Fort Smith passed Fun Mart Cycles Yamaha’s within sight of the finish for the final podium spot after almost three hours of racing through the rocky, technical yet varied Arkansas course.

Jarrett started out his big payday by grabbing the holeshot by a bike-length over Fun Mart Cycles Yamaha’s Adam Bonneur. Add $1000 to his bank account.

Though he took a momentary off-course excursion early on the first lap, Jarrett and his Works Connection/Dunlop/Moose RM250 then proceeded to move to the front of the pack to lead every lap that followed. In doing so, the three-time and defending series champ picked up another $600; six sponsors (Bentonville Honda Powersports, AOK Springdale RV, Greenland Composites, Precision Graphix, The Tire Shop and Sunrise Honda & Shawnee Honda Motorsports) each paid $100 to the lap leader for the first six laps.

But even with no lap bonuses for the final two laps, Jarrett didn’t budge from the front, and by the time the checkered flag fell for him after two hours, 27 minutes and 53 seconds—worth $1000 from the purse itself—he was more than two and a half minutes ahead of Thomas’ Maxxis/FMF/Moose-backed YZ250 which spent most of the race alone in the runner-up slot (though he also led for a short while early), stopping the clock in 2:30:35.

The battle for third on back was much more entertaining. Garrahan came back to move into third in the closing stages on his Valli Construction/Maxxis/Moose YZ250, but Weisenfels caught his scent and dogged him through the final stretch of woods. As they broke out of the woods and headed into the last few turns before the finish, Weisenfels forced his way inside of Garrahan to seal the last podium position, 2:31:55 to 2:31:58. Bonneur, who’d held the lead for a stretch on the opening lap, would end up fifth in 2:34:23 after taking a tumble on his IMS/DP Brakes/Moose YZ250.

“I was lucky enough to get out front early and kind of run from those guys,” Jarrett said. “It was a fun day.”

On moving into the points lead after finishing third at round one, he insisted, “You never know what’s going to happen. I might not even finish the next race so I want to get as many points as I can.”