Once more Team Geico presents Paul Whibley and Jimmy Jarrett for another 1-2 sweep for their 3rd consecutive Parts Unlimited OMA Round 3 held in Rio Grande, Ohio. Presented by DP Brakes and co-sanctioned with Craig Lucas' Extreme Dirt Series, the Team JG Offroad Geico Kawasaki mounted Whibley and Jarrett are dominating the series once again.
Off the start Paul Whibley (Monster Energy/Moose Racing/Sidi/RG3) and Jimmy Jarrett (Monster Energy/Moose Racing/Sidi) went head to head for the $100 holeshot award, reaching the line simultaneously. Whibley's training regime has been providing him with strong stamina and it continues to work as he pulls away from the pack each OMA event. Whibley now has a 15 point cushion over Jarrett in the point standings (90-75)
"It'd be nice to get a comfortable [points] lead for the second half of the season and not have to stress too much," Whibley said. "But it's still a long way to go and Jimmy's riding great."
Although Jarrett charged and closed in on Whibley to 19 seconds, Whibley ultimately checkered the race with just under a minute over Jarrett.
"I chased him all day, but come up short", Jarrett said.
With his focus on charging towards Whibley Jarrett realized on the last lap he had OMA newcomer, Thad Duvall (AmPro Yamaha/MSR/FMF) charging towards him.
"Yeah, I saw him coming," Jarrett said. "I wish that kid had stayed home, he definitely put a charge at the end, and I didn't realize he was that close 'til the last lap, so I just put my head down and made one last push and luckily got to the finish line before him."
Duvall ran with Jason Thomas and Scott Watkins for the first half of the race, on the second half young Thad impressively decided to take it up a notch and go after the top two.
"(I felt) pretty good, the first half I made a few mistakes; I crashed like 5 times the first lap, towards the second half I got in a pretty good pace and put my head down and charged to the other guys, and then I started catching Jimmy on the last lap," Duvall said.
After a little coaxing, 4th place overall Jason Thomas (Andrews Yamaha/Monster Energy/Maxxis/Moose Racing) obliged with his post race interview.
"It went good, I got a mediocre start, then pulled away through the tight stuff and had a big crash in the creek, got going again passed Scotty, and he just followed me around. Then we went back and forth battling to the finish," Thomas said.
Rounding out the top 5, JG Offroad Geico Team member Scott Watkins (Monster Energy/Moose Racing) exposes what really happened out there.
"It was good, got to the top of one of those hills and had a couple Busch Lites with everybody and figured I would just let Jason go and get a head start. No it was good, I couldn't run with Jimmy and Paul but, Jason, Thad, and I were running together there for a while. Gusse laid out another good track, a little bit of everything, the track fast then tight, creek crossing, a little bit of mud, it was good," Watkins said.
Top 10 Overall
1 (1) Whibley, Paul, Pro MC 8 02:21:15 Kawasaki
2 (2) Jarrett, Jimmy, Pro MC 8 02:22:11 Kawasaki
3 (26) Duvall, Thad, Pro MC 8 02:22:27 Yamaha
4 (17) Thomas, Jason, Pro MC 8 02:27:56 Yamaha
5 (15) Watkins, Scott, Pro MC 8 02:27:59 Kawasaki
6 (4) Bonneur, Adam, Pro MC 8 02:31:45 Yamaha
7 (14) Williamson, Justin, Pro MC 8 02:31:51 GasGas
8 (24) Melik, Jeff, Pro MC 8 02:32:22 Yamaha
9 (12) Fahringer, Nick, Pro MC 8 02:33:26 Husaberg
10 (25) Gilbert, Kenneth, Pro MC 8 02:35:48 Kawasaki