  ff-Road racing in America is bigger then ever. The U.S.A.’s two premier series, the World Off-Road Championship Series (WORCS) and the Grand National Cross Country Series (GNCC) are both televised this season, posting record entries, and are in the midst of nail-biting battles for the pro Championships. America’s other top series like the National Enduro, Hare Scrambles, Hare & Hound, and OMA are just as hard fought with top riders battling every week for a shot at the title. Here are the standings as of press time:  rounds beginning in January/ending in October; five rounds down, five to go. Current points leader is Ricky Dietrich with 117 points and two victories.The season began with defending WORCS Champion KTM/Red Bull’s Kurt Caselli taking the win in Phoenix, Arizona. It was Kurt’s first race with the #1 plate. He was coming off an incredible season where he won the WORCS Championship and then got on a plane to the ISDE where he became the first American to take an ISDE class win along with his Gold medal. It looked as though Caselli was on track to defend his title, but rounds two and three fell to Zip-Ty/Moose Racing rider Bobby Garrison in the sands of Mesquite, Nevada and Lake Havasu, Arizona, where Caselli took a second and a fifth. Also popping up on the radar was Bobby Bonds, who showed up for the season well trained and with a new attitude hoping to escape the oil fields of Bakersfield through racing. Bonds kept getting poor starts, but scored in come-from-behind performances for three second place finishes that landed him into second in the points by the halfway mark. The fourth player in the title chase is Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s Ricky Dietrich, who finished a distant 10th in the opener, but then came back with a third and a second place finish. Training with former rival Ryan Hughes, Ricky vowed he had nowhere else to go but up and proved it by winning the fourth and fifth rounds to take over the Championship points lead. After five of the 10 rounds the WORCS series has Ricky Dietrich in the points lead with 117 points/2 wins, Bobby Bonds with 107 points, Bobby Garrison 105 points/2 wins and Kurt Caselli with 93 points/1 win. |
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  rounds beginning in March/ending in October; six rounds down, seven to go. The current points leader is David Knight with 159 points and 4 wins.Many consider Red Bull/KTM’s Knight to be the best off-road racer in the world today, but he struggled a bit with the GNCC series when he came to the U.S.A. full-time last year. He won the title after an up and down season, but came out swinging for 2008 by winning the opener in grand fashion. Knight was dropped to third in round two when Team FMF/Suzuki Off-Road’s Charlie Mullins scored his first victory of the season. Then Knight went out and won three in a row to establish himself as the dominant rider in the series. Knight dropped to a fourth place finish in round six when Paul Whibley, another Team FMF/Suzuki Off-Road racer, took the victory, his first GNCC win and the first major win for the Suzuki RM-Z450EFI. Whibley’s win put him strongly into second in the standings followed by a list of his FMF/Suzuki teammates; Joshua Strang, Charlie Mullins and Jimmy Jarrett. After six of the 13 rounds Knight enjoys a comfortable points lead with 159 points/4 wins, second is Whibley with 118 points/1 win, Strang is third in the points with 108 points (via three second place finishes in a row), fourth falls to the only other man besides Whibley to beat Knight this year, Charlie Mullins with 106 points/1 win, and fifth is Jimmy Jarrett with 102 points.
  rounds starting in January and finishing in October; six rounds down with only two to go. The current points leader is Destry Abbot with 131points and three wins.Monster Energy/Kawasaki rider Destry Abbott is one of the nicest guys in all of motorcycling. He is also one of the fiercest competitors once he puts a helmet on. He has won the Hare & Hound Championship four times and appears to be on track to take home the title again in 2008. So far this season he has won three of six with two seconds and a third place finish. Defending H&H Champion David Pearson is the only rider to seriously challenge Abbott this year by winning the other three races that Destry didn’t win. But Pearson has suffered a few DNF’s this season and is effectively out of the hunt. Destry’s closest competitor as far as points are concerned is David Kamo, but Kamo is more then 30 points back and Abbott seems to only get faster each race. With only two rounds left and Destry healthy, it is practically a lock for Abbott to bring home his fifth career Hare & Hound Championship in 2008.
 rounds beginning in April and ending in October; two rounds down and eight to go. The current points leader is Charlie Mullins who, at press time, had won both of the events run so far.Team FMF/Suzuki Off-Road’s Jimmy Jarrett has practically owned the OMA series since its inception, winning four titles in a row in the last four seasons. But Jarrett has some competition this year from his new teammates–Charlie Mullins and Paul Whibley. Mullins has scored two wins in a row with Whibley coming in second in both events. Jarrett has been third and fourth respectively and sits third in points. Mullins and Whibley are also the only two riders besides David Knight to win a GNCC so far this season. But the OMA series has only really just begun and Jarrett always finishes the season strong, so it’s still anybody’s championship to take. After two rounds Mullins holds the points lead with 60 points and two wins, Whibley is second with 50 points and Jarrett third with 39 points making it a Team FMF/Suzuki Off-Road sweep of the top three spots in the title chase.
 rounds beginning in January and ending in October; four rounds down with six to go. Current point’s leader is Russell Bobbitt with 101 points via one victory, two seconds and a third place finish after four rounds.The AMA National Enduro Series has been owned by Red Bull/KTM rider Mike Lafferty for over a decade and he is the current defending Champion. Of late, his closest competitor has been his teammate Russell Bobbitt. Bobbitt took the title from Lafferty in 2006, with Lafferty taking it back again 2007. So far this season Bobbitt, with 101 points and one victory, two seconds and one third, holds the advantage over Lafferty with 81 points, two victories and one third. The only other player in the hunt is Cole Kirkpatrick who took the win in round four and is third in points with 72. As the season goes on off-road racing only gets better. Some of these championships will be decided in a few weeks and others won’t be final until the last race of the season. All of these racers are top athletes who have earned a place in history, a place we won’t know until the last checkered flag of 2008 waves. |
