Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

tiiiiiiI Round 6 OFF-ROAD OM A National Off-Road S eries Shane Watts closes in on Jarrett a nd Kan ney STORY AND PHOTOS BY STEVE BERKNER hane Watts kept his tit le hopes alive by winning roun d six of the O MA National O ff-Ro ad Se ries. The KTM rider has had an up-anddown series thus far, but he's still hanging w ith the two riders ahead of him in the series points race. Jimmy Jarrett, who had a race that he'd just as soon forget, is currently out in front, fo llow ed by Nathan Kanney and Watts. With just two rounds left, Jarrett enjoys a modest I l -point lead over Kanney and a 2S-point cushion over Watts. The Moonshine 1 00, as this race was called, was made up of mostlygrasstrack and Single-track sections, and seven inches of rain leading up to the race left all of it muddy and very technical - right up Watts' alley. Jarrett actually led from start to finish after nailing the holeshot, and he actually crossed the finish line ahead of Watts, but Jarrett would not get credit for the win because of an incident on the last lap. On S 40 SEPTEMBER 22, 2004 • Justin Williamson fought hard for second overall. tha t lap, Jarrett ran out of gas but still managed to get to the finish line in first place, whic h mystified Watts. After crossing the finish line in second on his Fox/G PR/One Indu st ries/Fastwaybacked KTM, Watts said: "I'm still not sure what happened with Jarr ett running out of gas and st ill beating me to the finish. I know we were about three minutes apart going into the last lap, and when he runs out of gas and still wins the race, you know something is wrong. He was the better rider for the first six laps, but the race was for seven, and if he ran out of gas... and cut the course... then he deserves to lose one lap." Watts questioned what had happened, and Jarrett admitted that he had mistakenly cut the course after taking on fuel. "I'm not arguing with anyone that I shorted the course," Jarrett said. 'M e r running out of gas, I pushed the bike about a quartermile to a clearing and looked for help. After I got some gas [from another rider) . I rode CYCLE NEWS Tim Taber took the fina l position a n the pod ium. back to the tree grove where I had just pushed the bike from . T he grove wasn 't that wide, maybe I00 feet across , so I went around the other side and picked up the first marked trail I saw. I thought I was back on the course about right where I w o uld have left it. When [OMA promoter) Bill Gusse called me about there be ing a problem, I immediately took respo nsibility for my actions . I feel kind of stupid about the whole thing right know." Jar re tt's fue l problems stemmed fro m his underestimating the actual time left in the race. '~t the end of lap three, I stopped for gas:' Jarrett said. "We only put in about two gallons, thinking we were at the halfway point. When the race went another lap, it never crossed our minds that I might run out of gas." O nce all that was resolved, Watts was credited with the win. "I actually had a good ride going all day," 40th Anniversary Bad luck forced Natha n Kanney to the ba ck of the pack . Watts said. "The first lap was kind of a bugger. I got a bad start and had to deal with traffic and mud. It was hard to pass anyone and not get roosted, so I just kept my distance. By the e nd of the first lap, I had en ough of that crap , so in the last woods section, I made a coup le of aggressive moves and worked my way up to third and eventually into second. With all of the mud , it was hard to stay out of trouble. Each lap, it seemed like some mistake would cost me 30 seconds." Actual lap times concurred with Watts' observation, w ith the Australian losing ground to Jarrett's pace at about 30 seconds per lap. Despite what happened on the last lap, Jarrett was the rider everyone was chasing all day. "I never really had any pressure from anyone all day: ' Jarrett said. "I got the holeshot and didn't have to deal with any roost. That made it easy to set my own

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