Pro Diaries: World Off Road Championship Series Race Reports

This week's Pro Diaries come from Mike Alessi (Alessi Weekly), Destry Abbott and Russell Pearson who all raced the Lake Havasu WORCS, round three, where Alessi along with Brett Metcalfe, blew the competition away on the rough, whooped out course along the sandy beaches of Lake Havasu's. Hear all about Russ Pearson's holeshot and Destry's numerous "soil samples" and unfortunate DNF. See? Pros have bad days, too—just like the rest of us mere mortals!

Alessi Weekly - WORCS Off Road, Lake Havasu

"This was the hardest thing I ever have done" is all Mikey boy had to say after winning his first ever WORCS off-road race!

The race was held on and around the beaches of Lake Havasu, a very, very awesome place. The track... well... it was like riding over the Millville whoops without stopping for two hours!

The lap times were in the low six minutes, and the riders went over 20 laps!

It was with out a doubt the roughest track I have ever seen!

Mikey boy took the lead at the 11 min mark, swaped spots with "Metty" then went on to win with a comfortable margin.

Did you know? In Lake Havasu, quads and golf carts (if made street legal) can drive the city roads! And did you know that motor bikes under 50cc can be ridden on the city streets WITHOUT A DRIVER'S LICENSE (i.e., young children like 12-year-olds )?!

—Tony Alessi

This time it wasn't just Jonny and I. I took Cooper out of school today (bad dad), so he could come over to the race with us. Charlotte and Kelsey (wife and daughter) will be driving over Sunday morning, so Kelsey doesn't miss her volleyball tournament on Saturday.

Coming into this race, I've been working on riding my sand track. For some reason this place has never been really good to me. I feel like I'm better prepared then the previous years so I'm hoping for the best. This is one of the toughest races of the year. They usually have a great turnout for this race, but the downfall is the course gets that much more hammered. It's one of those places where you never get into last gear or can find any smooth ground to relax on. Havasu has a lot of little hills with car-size sand whoops around the course. Sounds like fun! Today we have practice on the upper part of the course and that should be a lot of fun.

Saturday:

Today was pretty easy. I watched a lot of friends race and then it was time for me to get ready for my practice. One great thing about Havasu is that you can basically watch the whole race from the hillside. The course goes up and down all the little hills right in front of the pits. Basically all weekend it's been full of spectators, and it's by far the most I've ever seen at any WORCS race. The top 10 riders in points had practice at 1:20. Then after our 40 minutes it was the pro qualifier at 2:00 (for money and gate pick). My practice went pretty well and I feel pretty good about tomorrow. I just need to get a good start and ride a smart race. It's going to be a long two hours and anything can happen. After practice I wanted to go watch the qualifier. Mike Alessi and Brett Metcalfe really put on a great show and were never more then 4 seconds apart (for the 25-minute race). Mike won, then it was Brett right behind in second. Third went to Mikey Griffin; Matt Karlsen and Dennis Stapleton rounded out the top five.

Race Day:

This is one of those stories I really don't like writing, so it's going to be quick. I had a good starting position (5th in points) and knew I needed to get a great jump. Just about all the places we start at have a gate, but in Havasu we take off when Sean Redish lifts the flag. If you take off too early they red flag it and whoever jumped the start would be starting backwards.

Well I wasn't even close to jumping the start. It seemed like I took off a second late. I didn't get that great of a start (20th), but went under quite a few people in the first two corners. Now I was around 12th—much better! I really felt good on the bike and a lot better than the last couple days. I made a few passes on the first lap and was probably around 8th.

On the second lap I was a little impatient and was trying to make a pass on another rider. I was trying everything I could, but no luck. There was one section that was really sandy and dusty. I was in his dust and the front end knifed into a sand whoop and I went flying over the bars for my first soil sample of the day. When I got up I could see those little white flakes (stars) in my head. It took me a little bit to get going, but I was back off racing again.

I got back into rhythm pretty quick and was passing a lot of the same guys I was before. On the next lap or two, I had a great battle going with Dennis Stapleton and Matt Karlsen. I finally got by them and another rider. Then it seemed about time to take another soil sample! This time I really don't know what happened. I was coming off this little sand hill and then the bike threw me off after a big sand whoop. All the guys that I passed started to pass me again. I'm sure they were thinking, "This guy is a total spode!" They were probably right.

A couple of laps later, I passed most of them back and stopped for my first pit (45 minutes). The next 25 minutes were going pretty good and I was moving back up slowly. I was over the soil samples, which were all really dumb. I wasn't riding over my head at all... I was just having some bad luck.

At the 1:20 mark I took another stupid fall (I know), but this time it was in the hard-pack stuff. The handlebar went right into my stomach and it took a little out of me. I could just see both Dennis and Matt smiling in their helmets as they went by me for the third time. This time I couldn't believe how my day was going. I told myself to just ride a good pace and get some points.

It was only a lap or two later when I had my first DNF and hopefully the last on the 450. I'm not sure what happened, but the motor just stopped. I'm pretty sure it was something really weird, since I've had such great luck with my bikes. I ended up having to walk back to the pits; not feeling too great. What a bad day of racing, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

I guess the story wasn't really that quick after all! I'll be back next week and I feel like my luck is going to change for the better again!

Results:
1st Mike Alessi
2nd Brett Metcalfe
3rd Ryan Hughes
4th Bobby Garrison
5th Lance Smail
6th Ricky Dietrich
7th Russell Pearson
8th etc?

Other Notes:

I was sporting one of the coolest pit bikes at the race. The guys over at Red Baron tricked out my KLX110. I grew up with Alex McElyea (owner) and it's great to see how far they've come. Now they also have their own Supermotard team with Alex, Steve Hatch, and David Pingree. You can check out their site at www.redbaronracing.net. I should be posting some photos of me playing around on the KLX110 on my site here soon. Kinny Jones took some great shots down by the lake.

I heard that there was some great racing up front with Mike, Ricky Dietrich (who had to stop for a flat tire late in the race) Bret, Ryno, Lance, MK (then DNF'ed), and Bobby. I just wish I could've been part of that.

This race reminded me of the outdoor nationals. The pits were packed and now that almost all the major teams have big rigs, it's pretty cool. It's really great to see how far this series has come. I'd definitely say it's one of the premier off road series' now.

Semi pro rider Chris Johnson put in a great ride and finished 10th or 11th overall on his KX450. I'm pretty sure he'll be moved up to the pro class here real soon, along with Justin Soule who finished second in the class. They're both riding really well!

James Zomerdyke from Thor came out to give another WORCS race a try. I think he did really good and finished top five in his class. Not bad for a Honda rider. Jonny also raced on Saturday, but had a tougher time and finished just outside the top 10 in the 250F B class. You'll get them next time Jonny!

The two riders that really surprised me the most were Mike and Brett. There's know doubt they're great MX/SX racers, but I wasn't sure how they would be for 2 hours.

My chiropractor, Dr. Fletcher, raced his third WORCS race and seemed like he had a good time, besides a few soil samples. It's really great to have him at the races to help all of us out.

This is always a big weekend in Havasu. With it being spring break and a WORCS race it was a busy weekend. I know Jonny enjoyed the sights!

My next race will be this weekend at the third round of the H&H series. It's in Ocotillo, Ca. with a new club.

Best Wishes,

Destry

www.destryabbott.com

2006 Sponsors: Kawasaki Team Green, Thor, Dunlop, Pro Circuit, Scott Goggles, SIDI, HoyFox.com, Motion Pro, Pro Clean 1000, BRP, Works Connection, Shoei, CTI2, Red Baron, Maxima, Acerbis, Wiseco, Steahly, Trick Fuel, DP Pads, RK/Excel, Renthal, Bent, Hinson, American Racing Wheels, IMS, Jonre Multimedia, Twisten Wrenches, Cyto Sport, N-Style, GPR Stabilizers, Zip-Ty, Tire-Balls, Team Hawgracing.com, and ZLT.

Russell Pearson - WORCS Round 3, Lake Havasu

This past weekend we traveled to Lake Havasu, AZ for round 3 of the WORCS series. Havasu is notorious for whoops, sand and more whoops and not to mention it is Spring Break time and the partiers were out in full force. We (Tina, myself and dogs and squirrels) arrived Friday for practice. After getting the bike all dialed in and taking a walk around the track, it was dinner time and then lights out.

Saturday was filled with races and the Pros got a practice session where we got to check out the track and make any final adjustments if needed. The track was beat with endless whoops that would gobble up a VW bug, and holes and just gnarly! After practice, I did all the final race preperations on my bike and got all the sand off me and then, nighty time. Well, I got at least some sleep between the hooting and hollering of the party crowd outside the motel room at 1 and 2 o'clock in the morning.

Sunday: Race DayAfter some final preperations and the rider's meeting, it was time to head to the starting line. After the parade lap and National Anthem, bikes were fired, the board went sideways and flag was thrown.

Braaaa, I got a good jump and shot straight. I was about in the middle and started squeezing everyone off on the inside and came into the first turn all alone; nice... my Yamaha 450 hooked up got me the holeshot! I wanted a good start, so I wasn't playing catch up like I have been and was where I wanted to be.

There was a set of double jumps back to back to back and I jumped a bit desert style-ish and didn't stay low enough and got passed, dangit. A bit later in the track there was some loose gravel on top of some hard pack and my front end slid on the marbles and poof, I was on the ground quicker than snot. Poopey. Man, that sucks; I picked it up and it was time to play catch up.

We went down by the water and I got splashed a bit—no biggy—but for the next lap I was riding around a bit out of it. I pulled a tear off which wasn't much better, and I finally figured out that some water had got under all my tear offs. So I finally just pulled them all off so I could see straight again.

Now I was around 12th—man, that really sucks. I finally get a good start and then that happens. Crap. I stuck my head down and pinned it and started catching up and finally made a pass. The pit board said 11th, then 10th, then 9th and when I pitted around the hour mark I was 7th. I had a lot of friends and fans at this race that kept cheering for me and it was really cool.

I moved into 6th, and 7th was right on me for the last part of the race, I would pull and then make a mistake and he would catch back up. Well, I finally pulled like 15 seconds on him and poof, I did a dumb move and lost the front end in a turn with 2 laps left. I picked it up, but lost valuable time, and it was a race for the last 2 laps. I pushed as hard as I could and with a mile to go before the finish, I took a dumb line and lost my momentum; now I was 7th. I tried again and almost lost the bike and then there was the checkered flag.

Dangit, not where I wanted to be at the end, but better than the last one. So I am improving, just not finishing where I want, so now it's back to the gym and riding so I can be on that podium here in 2 weeks at Milford, CA for the next WORCS race.

I want to give a big thanks to Tina and Ralph and everyone at Zip-Ty for the awesome pits and my friends and fans and sponsors for all of your continued support.

1st Mike Alessi
2nd Brett Metcalfe
3rd Ryan Hughes
4th Bobby Garrison
5th Lance Smail
6th Ricky Dietrich
7th Russell Pearson

This next weekend is a AMA Hare and Hound in Ocotillo, CA. So, I am back home prepping for the desert and working my butt off so I can come home with a win there.

Thanks again,

Russell Pearson