OMA Maxxis Penn State XC victory captured by Charlie Mullins
Article and photos by John Gasso

Round seven of the OMA Nationals series ended with AmPro Yamaha racer Charlie Mullins ahead of teammate Barry Hawk and KTM national enduro super star Mike Lafferty. After a grueling two hour and twenty three minutes of racing the trio crossed the finish line with only twenty three seconds between first and third place. Conditions at the Boyers, PA race course were tough at the start, and gradually became worse as the race progressed. A steady rain began before the start and continued throughout the event. Brian Garrahan, who finished eighth, summed it up best when he said “it was kind of scary. It was kind of dangerous and dark.”

Charlie Mullins (AmPro Yamaha / MSR / Bridgestone) took the hole shot but had an early problem. “A stick hit my seat or something,” said Mullins. “It got caught in between my seat and my air box. I don’t know, it got in there jammed good. I tried to get it out, and once I did I dropped back to maybe tenth or eleventh.” The Hamilton, Ohio racer eventually cleared the stick and began a hard charge toward the leaders. “I just plugged away and I think by the end of the first lap I got up to fourth,” he recalled. “I kind of hooked up with Barry (Hawk) and (Mike) Lafferty for the whole day.” Mullins ran in the lead pack and took an opportunity to pass Lafferty when the two came upon a couple of down riders at a hill. The next target would be veteran racer Barry Hawk. “I had a spot picked out where I was going to make my move on the last lap,” said the FMF, Deluge Sport Drink backed rider. “But, we came to this lapper and Barry went wide. The lapper took the shorter line and I got around Barry. I just held on to the end.” It appeared Mullins would have the race win in the bag until he reached the last creek crossing. According to Mullins, “at the creek crossing I got stuck, so it took three guys to get me out. I was kind of like panicking. I thought I threw the race away, but, luckily they were there and they helped me out. I got going. I held it off through the end, and I’m pretty happy.”

Barry Hawk (AmPro Yamaha / MSR / Bridgestone) rolled in just sixteen seconds later to make it a one two finish for team AmPro. The veteran racer said the race was “definitely a lot of fun. I had a good day.” Meanwhile, Mike Lafferty was just seven seconds behind Hawk to capture the final Maxxis podium spot. Lafferty was aboard his big Red Bull KTM 450xc. The multi time National Enduro champion said “I had a great time. You know, racing Charlie and Barry is a lot of fun. It’s good racing guys like that. It makes it fun for me. Plus the track was a lot of single track, compared to a lot of stuff we race, so I had a great time.”

Local racer Joe Scherer (Yamaha / MSR / Bridgestone) grabbed fourth place aboard a Yamaha YZ250. The racer from Renfrew, PA said “people would make a wrong turn or, you know, just go down. So I ended up running second for a little bit. I went down and ended up back in the back, probably about mid pack. Then I just tried catching back up and started picking some people off here and there and just tried catching the leaders.” Scherer came up just over four minutes short of his quest to catch the leaders. “I’d see them every once in a while in the beginning, then they pulled away,” he recalled. “I was hoping for it to rain a little more. It got greasy on about the third or fourth lap, so that was good. I like a lot of mud.”

OMA Nationals regular Chris Bach (Cycle Shed KTM / Moose Racing / Maxxis) broke his streak of bad luck with rear brakes and pulled out a fifth place finish. The youngster from Indiana said “I was kind of hoping for a good start. Coming in I knew it would be slick and stuff. Right off the line I had a good kick, but I gave it a little too much gas and it started spinning. I kind of got pinched on the start a little bit, but I was able to squeeze through in the woods.” Once in the woods it was training day for Bach. “I got behind Jimmy (Jarrett) and Barry (Hawk) and Charlie (Mullins) and Mike (Lafferty), and I was kind of worried they were going to check out on me a little bit. The first couple laps I just wanted to stay smooth and watch and learn from them,” he said. “I learned a lot; How to ride in this kind of terrain. They checked out a little bit and I just put everything I learned from those guys to use.” Bach said “the rain kind of slowed everything down. I was doing fine, the rain started coming down, and once the track started getting slick I just kind of put it into survival mode a little bit and stopped trying to push so hard and just tried to finish.” According to Bach, the only real problem for him was “some lapper hit me and broke my front brake line.” He completed the last lap and a half without front brakes on his KTM 250xc.

Grove City, PA racer Brian Guenther captured sixth in the Pro class aboard a 2006 Yamaha YZ250 backed by Stiller Motorsports of Kittanning, PA. Guenther said “It went pretty well. I got a real bad hole shot, but I was able to pick it up after that. The first laps guys are bunched up pretty tight so it was hard to pass. After a few laps it thinned out and I was able to move up.” Next up was Brett Zofchak (Kawasaki), who pulled out a seventh place finish just sixteen seconds ahead of Brian Garrahan (Valli Construction Yamaha / Moose Racing / Maxxis). “My race was very uneventful today,” said Garrahan. “I had the wrong tire choice on today for sure. I had, you know, hard terrain tires and the rain came, and I had that big 450. It was just a lot of bike for me today. I just kind of struggled a little bit with all the bike. Bad start and bad tire choice, a couple mistakes, and I never could put it together.” The likeable enduro champion remarked, “I had a good time. The race course was pretty good. So I just kind of tried to be smooth, just take my time, and not get hurt. That’s all that really matters to me.”

Fenton Illinois racer, Fastway, Bel-Ray sponsored Adam Bonneur (Fun Mart Yamaha / Moose Racing / Maxxis) wrapped up his race with a ninth place finish. “I actually got a pretty good start in there,” said the young man being interviewed after the race in his underwear. “Just a one kick this time, and I took off with everybody else. It was probably, you know, top ten. So it was kind of a decent start for the day and it kind of gave me an upbeat perspective on things, considering all the rain. It was real slippery today, I mean, this miserable, slimy conditions, and the tree roots and the rocks didn’t help at all.” Bonneur raced mid pack with for most of the race. “For a while there I hooked up with Bran Garrahan and Matt Crouch and Aaron Wegner,” he said. “We kind of swapped some spaces. I made a mistake and lost them, and Garrahan kind of snuck away. I caught Wegner first and I put the pass on him. Me and him had a pretty good battle going, but I ended up pulling away from him.” Bonneur also passed Matt Crouch (Yamaha / MSR / Maxxis), who said “ I hit a log and endoed down a hill (near the) end of the third lap and boiled all of the water out of my radiators. I didn’t really realize it, but after I did that I came back here to fill it back up before I went out, and I crushed my radiator on one side. I came back, put water back in it, (and) went back out. It still didn’t run good. That ended my day.” The Texan collected thirteenth place for his efforts. Crouch’s younger sister Ashley picked up third place aboard her YZ85 in the day’s earlier event. She said “it was fun.”

Storm Lake Honda sponsored rider Tracy Bachman ( Honda / Moose Racing / Kenda) finished the event in fourteenth place. The important issue for him was that he actually finished. “For, like, the last two or three races I haven’t finished just because mentally I wasn’t having no fun, but today was a lot of fun.,” said Bachman. Regarding the difficult race course conditions, Bachman commented “I loved it. Because it just makes you concentrate more, I guess. It was dangerous, but still it was a lot of fun.” Bachman also had great things to say for his new clutch setup. “The rekluse clutch was awesome in there. It’s hard getting a good start no matter what you have on a four-stroke. I fell so many times, and that thing stayed running. It never faded out, so, I tell you what, I’ll never ride without one again. That’s not a promotional thing either, I’ll never ride without one again.”

The Lite A Class saw another Mullins at the top of the stack. Ryan Mullins said “I just got the hole shot, then I just rode my own race till the end.” Charlie’s younger brother acknowledged the support he receives from his older brother and father. Another Lite A racer, Lucas Statom, rode his Plessinger Cycle KTM 200 to a fourth place finish, just ahead of Ryan Lenth of Geneseo, IL. Statom commented “It was good at the beginning, till the end, it started raining pretty hard. The hills started getting a little trouble. Other than that it was pretty good. I crashed a lot.”

David Swanson, Sr. came all the way from Harvard, IL to ride his big Yamaha 450 in the 40-49C class. He completed one lap of the roots, rocks, and ruts in one hour and forty three minutes. When asked what it was like for the old guy, he said “you don’t want to know,” with a big grin. “You know, with glasses it’s kind of tough to see out there. If you could see, then you could ride the rut, and life wasn’t so bad. Right up to the last creek crossing, I had a good time up to that.”

For more on this weekend see Dirt Bike Magazine-Cycle News-ATV Riders.com- Dust Magazine-Trail Rider Magazine-Parts Magazine!

Congratulations to all Rd 7 winners! Thank you for a great weekend of racing! Special thanks to PARTS UNLIMITED/MOOSE RACING - MAXXIS - and AWRCS!

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