Race Day:
Not really the race story I was hoping to write. I didn't have too bad of a start and went into the first corner in about 7th place. The course was really dusty and silty in a few areas, so I knew I needed to be up front early. As far as the course goes, it would've been really good except we've been lacking rain really bad and there wasn't any way they could get a water truck back in a lot of the sections. When I went out into the off-road section I really had to back it down. I actually felt like I was riding really well, but after a few close calls I decided to keep it at a good pace. After that I started to ride a lot tighter and got a little out of my groove. By lap three I think I was around 6th or so (not sure), but there were a few guys that weren't that far ahead of me. At this point I felt like I was going to have the energy to finish strong, but the bike was already starting to act a little funny. When I was on the MX track I couldn't get over the jumps that really weren't that hard to clear. The bike was getting slower and I figured I had already clogged my filter. A couple laps later (and losing more spots) I stopped and had them pull my filter skin and give me a quick splash of gas. At this point I wasn't feeling to confident that my day was going to go like I was hoping. I only made it another two laps before I stopped again to have them change the filter. When they took the filter off, we saw that the whole inside of the air boot was caked with dirt. I knew right then that I was done. I still wanted to go out there and baby it for another lap or two so I could at least get some points. By the end of that lap, the bike was smoking and I barely made it in. Unfortunately, my day was done! The bike worked awesome and it was just one of those races where we had some bad luck and sucked a lot of dirt.
Results (top 10 overall):
1st Ricky Dietrich (New WORCS Champion)
2nd Bobby Garrison
3rd Kurt Caselli
4th Nathan Woods
5th Robby Bell
6th Jamie Lanza (1st semi-pro)
7th Lance Smail
8th Scott Simon
9th Justin Soule
10th Ryan Reina
Other Notes:
I was able to watch the last few laps of the race, and it was really exciting. Ricky Dietrich and Bobby Garrison were really tight in points and it came down to this race for the Championship! It was the Ricky Bobby show (for those of you that saw the movie ? you know what I'm talking about). Ricky led most of the race, but he started to have his filter clog and Bobby made the pass with two laps to go. Then on the last lap Ricky was about 20 seconds back and I was out there cheering him on to give it everything he had. I knew anything could happen and it did! Bobby's bike started to run bad and Ricky was able to take advantage of it and bring it home for the victory. I thought it was really cool when I won my Championship, but it was really a great feeling to see him win this Championship too. He's really a great guy and he deserved it! Then again he's my riding and training partner, he's also our new Kawasaki teammate (under the rig). Congrats!
Right after the race a few of our fast guys will be going over to the ISDE in New Zealand to represent our country. Ricky Dietrich, Kurt Caselli, and David Pearson will be racing on the Junior Trophy team (along with Russell Babbit). I really believe they have a great shot at winning the Junior title! Good luck!
For this race, I was on the event T-shirt. They try and put someone new on it for every round. The pictures they picked was really cool and of course I bought plenty of them for the family :)
In the WORCS series they have this thing called the kids club. At every round they try and do something with the kids. This event they had a free riding school for anyone up to 16 years old. There were four of us that taught it; Ricky Dietrich, Nathan Woods, Kurt Caselli, and myself. I believe we had around 40 kids and everyone seemed to really enjoy their time. I know I had a good time trying to give them some ideas on what to work on.
Sunday night they had the year end awards. I wasn't able to make it since I had to get Kelsey back home for school on Monday, but they did have an award for me. They made up a #1 plate to congratulate me for the H&H Championship. I thought that was really cool. Everyone in the WORCS crew is awesome and I'm looking forward to next year.
MX racer Scott Simon showed up and gave it a try. He actually came and stayed with Ricky and myself to do a little training. I knew he had plenty of speed, but wasn't sure how he would be for two hours. He rode a great race and would've done even better if not for some air filter problems.
My next race will be the Endurocross in two weeks. I'm really looking forward to it, since last year wasn't to good for me. I know I'll be a lot better prepared this year! Hope to see you guys there.
I attached a few pictures from this weekend. Thanks to Kevin from www.heahlyphoto.com for letting me use them. He always takes great photos. Congratulations goes out to him for winning a Championship in his class too. Great Job!
Best Wishes,
Destry
http://www.destryabbott.com