VOL. 54 ISSUE 24 JUNE 20, 2017 P53
BACH WINS BUCK RUN OMA
W
hen the OMA Nationals Se-
ries rolled onto the Robert
Miller Farm in rural Newark, Mis-
souri, June 17-18, in preparation
for the Buck Run XC, presented
by DP Brakes and co-sanctioned
by the IERA, trail conditions
looked promising. Then the rain
began to fall.
After approximately seven
inches of rain during the week,
including over an inch accumula-
tion late Friday night, the person-
ality of the racetrack changed
completely. With numerous uphill
and downhill sections, and a
significant amount of off-camber
trail, the course turned in to a
monster. In fact, only 50 of the
nearly 90 riders that started the
afternoon race completed more
than one lap, and only the top
five riders managed seven laps
on the day.
Chris Bach would ultimately
tame the monster, taking home
first place, beating out his RPM
KTM teammate Mike Witkowski
and FMF Holeshot winner Cody
Barnes (Yamaha), who took third
place in the Pro class.
Mark Heresco and his SRT
KTM topped the Pro 2 class
along with nabbing fourth place
overall. Cody Bollinger and
Brandon Forrester, both Yamaha
mounted, rounded out the Pro 2
podium.
"It was definitely a bit wet,"
said Bach. "It actually wasn't that
bad though. All things consid-
ered, it was actually pretty good.
It was super tacky, single
track, one-rut stuff. The
bottoms were a little nasty,
but it was pretty good."
According to Bach, the
early stages of the race
held some close battles,
but he was ultimately able
to pull a gap on the field,
finishing five minutes
ahead of second place.
"I had a pretty good
race going with my team-
mate Mike [Witkowski]
there," Bach said. "The first cou-
ple laps we went back and forth.
I led most of the way. I think he
actually rode a really smart race.
He didn't want to lead and take
the chance of getting stuck or
making bad decisions, so he let
me do that, which was fine."
Bach recalled an issue midra-
ce that allowed him to finally sep-
arate himself from the field. "Just
after halfway, Mike made a pretty
big mistake on one of the more
technical hill climbs, and had to
give it another go. He had to go
back to the bottom, turn around
and come back up. So, once I
didn't hear him behind me, I was
able to put my head down and I
pushed a little bit and got myself
a pretty comfortable gap. Then
I pretty much just made sure I
cleaned the sections. It wasn't
really about going fast today. It
was about not getting stuck, not
crashing, and keeping the big
450 together. She was a handful
today—60 horsepower under the
hood. Actually, I think there were
times when I think the weight of
the 450 helped with how slip-
pery it was. Just being able to
use that really low rpm."
John Gasso
OVERALL
1. Chris Bach (KTM)
2. Mike Witkowski (KTM)
3. Cody Barnes (Yam)
4. Mark Heresco (KTM) Pro 2
5. Adam Bonneur (Suz)
6. Cody Bollinger (Yam) Pro 2
7. Brandon Forrester (Yam) Pro 2
8. Colten Zuidema (KTM) A
9. Bryan Johnson (Kaw) Pro 2
10. Andrew Smith (KTM) Pro 2
Chris Bach soaked up the
wet conditions to take the
win at the Buck Run OMA
in Missouri.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
JOHN
GASSO
