Welcome to The Weekly Dirt. This week "Dirt" comes to you from the site of the Cajun National Enduro near Alexandria, Louisiana, where factory KTM rider Russell Bobbitt got his second win of the year. It was a close one, though, as defending series champ Charlie Mullins was breathing down his neck heading into the final test.I may have mentioned before that Russell Bobbitt had a bad year in 2010. After winning three-straight national titles, the Georgia rider managed only one national win all of last year and finished out the season in third overall. Certainly not where he wanted to be. According to Bobbitt, it made for a long winter and he thought every day about what he wanted to do differently in 2011. At the 2011 series opener in South Carolina, Bobbitt came in fit and ready to go and he walked away with an impressive win. He carried that momentum over into Louisiana, although Charlie Mullins and Cory Buttrick were laying in wait.
The enduro regulars found a much faster course in Louisiana from what they had ridden in South Carolina. Fast is what Mullins and Buttrick like, although, Bobbitt can skin back a throttle with the best of them. From the start, Mullins jumped out to the lead, and he held it through the first three checks, although the first check was ultimately thrown out due to a mix up in loop marking. Bobbitt found the later tests to his liking, though, and picked up the pace. In the end, Bobbitt took the win by 14 second over Mullins.
Mullins admitted that he might not have been as focused as he should have been in South Carolina, and he aimed to make up for it at the Cajun Enduro. Mullins might well have won the event had he not tangled with a "lapper" in the fourth test. After winning the first three tests, a rider went down in front of Mullins in the long fourth section and Mullins was tapped out in third with no where to go. The end result was not pretty and it took Mullins most of the fifth test to get back up to speed. Understandably, Hot Rod was happy with how he rode but unhappy with the outcome. Out of four races (two GNCCs and two National Enduros) Mullins has a win, a second, and two sixth-place finishes.
Texas rider Cole Kirkpatrick made his return to the series in Louisiana after having shoulder surgery during the off-season. Over the winter Kirkpatrick inked a deal with Gas Gas Off-Road, which will see him riding the new Gas Gas XC 250 in national enduro competition. Kirkpatrick was 10th in Louisiana, but look for him to be a front-runner when the series hits the Lubbock, Texas round on April 3rd.
Two-time World Motocross Champ Trampas Parker was at the Cajun Classic, riding on row 42. Originally from the Shreveport area, Trampas is now living in Oklahoma, although he still runs his motocross track and holds schools there in northwestern Louisiana, at DeSoto Motorsport Park. Trampas finished 16th in the Pro division.
