Whibley Tops Tennessee OMA

Mark Kariya | May 9, 2011

A rocky, hilly course proved too much for a number of competitors at the Motion Pro Hangman Cross-country National, round three of the Parts Unlimited Off-road Motorcycle and ATV Nationals, near Hanging Limb, Tennessee, on Mother’s Day. But when it was over, AmPro/FMF Yamaha’s Paul Whibley proved stronger and faster than everyone else to notch his second win in a row, followed by teammate Thad Duvall and Obermeyer/AmPro Yamaha’s Jordan Ashburn.

Things didn’t start out so well for the three-time and defending series champion, though, as he sat on the line with a few others and could do nothing to prevent KTM-mounted privateer Dustin Gibson from stealing the $200 FMF Holeshot Award.

But Ashburn took the lead not long afterward, giving it up just before the end of the first challenging lap of 11 miles to New Zealand’s Rory Mead, who borrowed a YZ450F from Whibley in order to try a few weeks of American racing. Mead surprised quite a few by leading for over an hour.

However, his pit strategy of pitting when Whibley did failed to consider that he might be leading so he set out on a fourth lap without refueling while Whilbley and others came in after three circuits.

Predictably, Mead ran out of fuel on the furthest reaches of the course, turning the lead over to Whibley. Though Duvall made a run at him, he’d damaged the rear wheel severely and downshifted to survival mode on the last lap, gladly settling for second while Ashburn claimed third for the third round in a row. American Honda/GEICO Powersports/JG Off-road’s Scott Watkins (whose teammate Jimmy Jarrett crashed out on the second lap) and Husaberg’s Nick Fahringer rounded out the top five.

Afterward, Whibley summed it up: “It was just one of those days where you’ve got to keep plugging away because there was so much rock and danger out there that anything could happen, anything could take you down. I think people had a lot of problems. It was a bit of a survival run.” And Whibley was once again the fastest survivor.