Whibley Captures OMA Crown

Mark Kariya | August 31, 2009

JG Off-Road/GEICO Powersports/Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Paul Whibley wrapped up his second consecutive Parts Unlimited Off-Road Motorcycle and ATV Championship after winning the Johnny Signs Cross-Country National near Bedford, Indiana, Sunday.

Round eight of the series, co-sanctioned with the Kentucky Off-Road Hare Scrambles Series and held for the first time on the Martin family farm, saw Am-Pro Yamaha’s Thad Duvall on his WR450F challenge Whibley in the early going, but a crash sent him home early. That left KX450F-mounted Whibley alone out front for his eighth straight win in the series, giving him 240 points with two rounds remaining. Since teammate Scott Watkins finished third Pro on the day, he has 162 points and can’t mathematically catch Whibley.

Jason Thomas turned a good start on his Fred Andrews Racing/Monster Energy YZ250F into a good finish, two minutes and 15 seconds behind Whibley’s 2:23:41. It was Thomas’ fourth OMA appearance this year but his first since round three in Ohio.

Despite a good field of Pros, a couple of A riders made their way through the pack after tussling with each other the whole distance. Chris Bach and Jordan Ashburn never seemed to be more than a few seconds apart, despite numerous lappers and extremely dusty conditions in many places. But Ashburn finally got his break when the chain derailed on Bach’s bike and got a cushion he kept to the finish; both rode KX450Fs with Ashburn fast enough to earn third overall, while Bach ended up fourth overall, less than a minute behind.

Watkins put his KX250F into fifth overall but third Pro over Am-Pro Yamaha’s Barry Hawk, Husaberg’s Nick Fahringer, Gieson Motorsports’ Adam Bonneur, Open B winner Morgan Moss and 40-49 A winner Fred Hoess, who borrowed a pre-production 2010 Gas Gas EC 450 FSE that was on hand for the press intro and dealer show.

“It was always a goal to win the OMA series again,” Whibley said. “It’s cool that I’ve done it so early; it takes a little pressure off. Now, I can kind of maybe concentrate on the GNCCs a little more.”