Jimmy Jarrett put in his best ride so far this season in the Parts Unlimited Off-road and ATV Nationals, but it ended up just a few seconds short of victory as his Team FMF/Suzuki Off-road teammate Paul Whibley dug deeply to steal the win at round five, the DP Brakes Wolverine Cross-country National near Copemish, Michigan.
Winless to date, four-time and defending series champ Jarrett jumped out to lead immediately on his Maxima/Dunlop/Moose RM250 to earn the $200 Vemar Helmets Holeshot Award over YZ250-mounted privateer Trey Verardo, Whibley, Adam Bonneur on his Fun Mart Cycles YZ250 and Storm Lake Honda.com’s Chris Nelson. But by the time they hit the first woods section at the Twisted Trails Offroad Park a half-mile later, Whibley and his DP Brakes/VP Racing Fuels/Moose RM-Z450 had latched onto Jarrett’s rear fender.
That’s how it would go for the rest of the afternoon, as the two teammates battled between themselves for the lead, neither able to gain a decisive advantage. “I could gain time [in the fast, open sections], but it was really hard to pass him in any of that stuff so I had to be really creative and kind of brave to get past him,” Whibley noted. “I had to go through the weeds a little bit and risk hitting stumps and stuff!”
Both took advantage of minor mistakes or lapped traffic in order to push to the front; officially, each led four laps out of the eight they ran. As the race wound down, Jarrett found himself with the lead a lap before the white flag.
“I was kind of planning on passing later in the race, but I got around him [sooner] than I wanted to, then as soon as that happened, man, the race was on!” Jarrett exclaimed afterwards. “I think on the last lap we passed each other back and forth like four or five times”like full commit; both of us didn’t want to back off and we were banging into each other and it was fun! But he got me at the end in one of those fast, sandy straights.”
Despite one last desperate lunge where Jarrett cleared a road jump before the last turn, the champ lost the front end as he dove into the corner while Whibley motored away to his third consecutive OMA victory. Officially, the Kiwi completed eight laps of the approximately seven-mile course in two hours, 23 minutes and 45 seconds, with Jarrett picking up his bike and coming in 12 seconds later.
Their battle carried them far from the rest of the pack, with Valli Motorsports/Maxxis/Answer YZ450F-mounted Brian Garrahan coming through for third in 2:31:46, putting him 23 seconds in front of Bonneur’s FMF/Fastway/Moose YZ. Local favorite Aaron Wegner rebounded from taking a swim on his Spastic Designs/Polisport Plastics/ProMoto Billet YZ250 to take fifth, just 10 seconds behind Bonneur. Blistered and beat, Nelson persevered to finish a best-to-date sixth on his CRF450R while Michigan enduro ace Chris Gallt claimed seventh overall and the Lite A victory on his Lansing Cycle/Enduro Engineering/Maxxis KTM 250 XC-F.
Nelson’s teammate Cooper Bailey, Open A winner Derek Spangler and Open A runner-up Ryan Lenth rounded out the top 10 on a nearly perfect day in the sandy Michigan woods.
