Zimmerman Wraps Up OMA Title Early at Millville

You could certainly excuse Rob Zimmerman for going out and cruising at the Spring Creek GP, presented by Smith and held at Millville, Minnesota's superb Spring Creek MX Park facility. The defending champion in the 10-race 2004–2005 Parts Unlimited Off-road Motorcycle and ATV Nationals, Zimmerman had a commanding points lead, having won four of the previous events and finishing second in the other two. All he had to do, really, was simply finish round seven at Spring Creek to ensure enough points to lock up the title.

But that's not his style.

"I didn't drive 12 hours to just get points," he declared before the start. "There's money involved," he said grinning.

Zimmerman then proceeded to rocket off the start on his Scott/Maxxis/Moose- sponsored TRX450R, trailing only Ryan Smith's yellow YFZ450. As they hit the first obstacle—a step-up on the motocross track—Shawn Hohneke got a bit better drive on his TRX450R and relegated Zimmerman to third.

Things went south for Zimmerman as they hit the first woods section, however. He stalled his machine when the track went one way while he set up to go the other, and nearly the entire pack drove past before he could relight the motor and rejoin the race.

"Ah crap, I'm gonna have my work cut out for me," he remembered saying to himself. "The first lap was just finding people, picking them off here and there. There was one time, Rob Weis, I was following him; he went into a rut and it stopped him—it stopped him so hard his rear end came up! It stopped me, and we ended up having a whole freight train behind us. We got pulled out, and he let me go. He could've pulled out in front of me, but he let me go around.

"I got by him, and I just kept hauling real good, taking people here and there. This straightaway—I was loving this straightaway!"

Meanwhile, Curt DeMay took the lead on his YFZ450 followed by Kevin Tinsley, Hohneke, Jerry Costello and Zimmerman. That changed on the second lap, with Zimmerman taking command and only DeMay able to hang within a few seconds as the laps clicked off. In fact, DeMay made a good race of it until his bike finally overheated, stopping him on the side of the trail on the last lap. (He would get it going again after a long cooling off and be the final rider to complete seven laps, putting him sixth overall.)

Zimmerman also had some overheating problems, and he pulled over to ask another competitor about it. "Jason Gudde was broken down up there so I stopped up there and said, `Hey, Jason!' Jason was actually mooning me at the time.

"He came over to help me and [yelled], `It's just your overflow; don't worry about it!' "

Zimmerman took the checkered flag with a minute and a half over Tinsley and his TRX450R, though the "Tin Man" was satisfied with equaling his best series finish to date—his third runner-up placing. "Hopefully, just like Rob, I'm trying to pull in this series and wrap it up real soon," he said.

Round six winner Patrick Lunde finished third on his Pro Source Motorsports/PEK Performance/Mom YFZ450, like Zimmerman coming back through the pack after a bad opening lap. "I got splashed in the whoops and couldn't see, couldn't hang on—and I took a wrong turn and got stuck in the mud and went from, like, fourth or fifth to dead last. I pitted and got new goggles and everything, tried to go out and keep riding, set a pace. I kept getting people, passing, riding by—it was working out really well so I can't say I'm too disappointed." Lunde obviously has the hang of what it takes to finish now after chalking up DNFs (or nearly so) in the first five rounds.

Zimmerman, of course, was anything but disappointed. "It feels good to win [the championship] with a win—after the horrible start I had so I was real happy," he said. And he finished with a comparatively clean and shiny number one plate, courtesy of Gudde who took it off to check things when Zimmerman stopped to see about his overheating problem. The next lap, Gudde stopped Zimmerman and reinstalled the plate, which he'd wiped clean. Now Zimmerman has another year to make sure he keeps it that way.

With his fifth win of the series to go with a pair of seconds, Zimmerman's point total is an even 200 while Tinsley has 101. DeMay is a close third with 97; Ryan Smith and Lunde round out the top five with 82 and 79, respectively. Each racer is allowed three throwaways at season's end.

OMA Millville Pro ATV Results
1. Rob Zimmerman, Honda TRX450R
2. Kevin Tinsley, Honda TRX450R
3. Patrick Lunde, Yamaha YFZ450
4. Derreck Stratton, Honda TRX450R
5. John Hughes, Honda TRX450R
6. Curt DeMay, Yamaha YFZ450
7. Jeremy Smith, Yamaha YFZ450
8. Rob Weis, Polaris
9. John Stehlik, Yamaha YFZ450
10. Jerry Costello, Yamaha YFZ450
11. Ryan Smith, Yamaha YFZ450
12. Luke Krumenaver, Yamaha YFZ450
13. Shawn Hohneke, Honda TRX450R
14. Jason Gudde, Honda TRX450R