PARTS UNLIMITED OFF-ROAD MOTORCYCLE AND ATV NATIONALS
Rockstar Energy/Lucas Oil/
Johnny Campbell Racing Hon-
da's Chris Bach finished two
minutes and 10 seconds behind
Whibley in his first OMA in a few
years with DirtWise/Maxxis/Klim
KTM's Jason Thomas third on the
day.
When Whibley and his FMF/
Kenda/Monster Energy-backed
YZ450F rocketed off the start
to grab the $100 FMF Holeshot
Award, more than a few thought
the five-time series champ was
gone, but the more open woods
on the hilly Mills family property
almost guaranteed no one would
get away that easily.
Indeed, Whibley found himself
on the ground a few times, with
several of his competitors more
than willing to take his place out
front, including Bach, four-time
champ Jimmy Jarrett, last year's
series number two Nick Fah-
ringer and current number two in
points Thomas.
"I let everybody ahead of me
on the first lap," Whibley said. "I
got the holeshot and was in the
lead, then when we first hit the
woods, I hit a log or something in
the leaves and went over the bars
and everyone passed me.
"I pushed pretty hard and
made some passes and got back
into the lead again. Then at the
end of the lap, I hit another log
in the leaves — I missed the ar-
row or something and went down
again and went back to fourth or
fifth again by the end of the lap.
"Yeah, I gave everyone a
chance! I made it hard work for
myself."
And that was just on the first
lap!
VOL. 51 ISSUE 24 JUNE 17, 2014 P105
Briefly...
After the race, Jason Thomas ex-
pressed his frustration about riders
straying off the marked course in
search of faster lines and lambasted
his fellow Pros and Pro 2 riders. "To
me, a race is following the arrows,"
he said. "I don't want to be the one
complaining about it — everyone
knows that it's going on — when is it
a [cheater line] and when is it not a
[cheater line]? It's getting a little bit
out of hand, and it's not just this se-
ries — it's the GNCC series as well.
I think riders have just got to start
respecting each other and follow
the arrows instead of cutting off the
corners and trying to straight-line ev-
erything. We'll see. I guess I'm going
to be the one who speaks up about
it. I don't really care what they think
about [me speaking up]. They know
who they are. Everyone's doing it
because 'that guy cheated in front of
me so now I've got to cheat.' It's just
a case of let's all not cheat!"
A number of Pro 2 riders got on Sat-
urday's ATV course on the first lap
and found themselves in front of the
Pros who'd started a minute ahead.
To rectify the situation, officials ad-
justed the lap times after adding
more track tape and arrows to the
area in question.
This could very well be the last OMA
on the property owned by Robert
Mills. He plans to start logging about
half of the old oaks on the land,
which, of course, wouldn't lend itself
to further woods racing. Looking at
that prospect, Paul Whibley said,
"It's definitely a different round [here]
because the woods are so open, it's
not your usual OMA track where it
continued on next page
Paul Whibley — here leading
eventual fourth-place finisher Nick
Fahringer — nailed the $100 FMF
Holeshot Award.
