Hawk Flies at Muddy Ohio OMA National

Barry Hawk may be a veteran racer, but even he makes mistakes once in a while, both on and off the track. For instance, he got lost en route to the Pirelli Coal Miner Cross-Country near Rio Grande, Ohio, round four of the Parts Unlimited Off-road Motorcycle and ATV Nationals, after leaving his road atlas at home. "It should've been three hours and 30 minutes [to drive here, but] it ended up it was four hours and 30 minutes," he admitted.

Once there, however, he found himself right at home in the muddy, slick conditions, got a great start and stayed in front for nearly the entire race—run in conjunction with the American Woods Racing Championship Series—which took just over two-and-a-half hours. Am Pro Yamaha teammate Charlie Mullins stayed close but chose a bad line and got stuck in a creek section just past the halfway mark, and after that, Hawk cruised comfortably to the win on his Factory Connection/FMF/MSR YZ250.

Despite getting stuck, Mullins hung onto second place—until he got hung up again on the final lap. That allowed two-time and reigning OMA champion Jimmy Jarrett to slip past—similar to what happened in similar conditions at the previous round in Indiana—and the Andrews Cycles/Maxxis/Moose RM250-mounted rider stole the runner-up spot with Mullins finishing third.

Paul Whibley on a CRF250R and local hero Travis Green on his KX250 rounded out the top five.

"Yeah, I got the holeshot," Hawk noted. "That's the best start I've had in—I don't know—years.

"All day, I just tried to ride mistake-free, not do anything stupid."

While Hawk stayed out of trouble in front, those behind him tended to get into it the harder they tried to stay with him.

"It seems like every race, [on] the last lap, something bad happens to me every race," Mullins lamented. "The past three or four weeks it's been like that. I don't know if I'm in a slump or....

"I'm still happy with second or third, but it's like I want to win so bad that it seems like I'm trying too hard."

Jarrett admitted, "I was content in third; I was ahead of the people I needed to beat [in the series like Justin Williamson and Shane Watts]. Something happened to [Mullins] on the last lap—I'm not sure. I know there was a bottleneck, and I got through it pretty clean.

"I couldn't have run Barry down today anyway. He was riding awesome; Charlie was riding awesome. I'm just happy I finished where I did."

OMA Pirelli Coal Miner XC Pro Results, Top 10

1. Barry Hawk, Yamaha YZ250
2. Jimmy Jarrett, Suzuki RM250
3. Charlie Mullins, Yamaha YZ250
4. Paul Whibley, Honda CRF250R
5. Travis Green, Kawasaki KX250
6. Jason Thomas, Honda CR250R
7. Justin Williamson, Yamaha YZ250
8. Brett Zofchak, Kawasaki KX250
9. J.T. Bennett, Yamaha YZ125
10. Aaron Branham, Honda CR250R