A Win for Woods at Honey Lake WORCS Increases Points Lead

KTM's Kurt Caselli had the momentum in the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC World Off-Road Championship Series with two wins in a row, and he looked forward to stretching that to three at round nine, presented by DH1 Racing and Zip-Ty Racing. Held at the tough, rocky Honey Lake MX Park facility just south of Milford, California, a win for Caselli would help shrink the gap between him and leader Nathan Woods.

Unfortunately for Caselli, a nagging case of tendonitis that flared up in the final days of the ISDE the week before didn't go away, and as a result, he couldn't keep pace after enjoying an excellent start and first couple laps that saw him as high as second place.

"I just don't think I was ready," Caselli admitted. "My body's kind of tired, and I'm kind of tired.

"We've got a couple weeks off. I'm just going to not do anything for probably a week [except] try to get my tendonitis worked on and get it fixed."

Instead, it was Woods who proved to be "on" in the two-hour race, taking over the lead from holeshot winner and teammate Ty Davis after about a lap and riding away from the rest of the pack with seemingly little effort to win by 55 seconds.

After the summer break, of course, Woods came back to get second behind Caselli at round eight in Utah. That was after a venture into the GNCCs left him injured. "I came back and felt like I could've won [the Utah] race, too, but I think my conditioning was not up to par," the Montclair Yamaha/Zip-Ty Racing/Moose-backed YZ450F rider said. "Getting second's not anything to complain about, but when you feel you can win the race, you're going to be disappointed, especially if you're a racer.

"But today I was on a mission. I came on yesterday in practice, in our parade deal, I felt that I was going to win the race. I felt good, my bikes work good, everything about it was just going my way. When that happens, it's great. It doesn't happen that way all the time."

Suzuki's Mike Kiedrowski gated well and rode a steady race on his RM-Z450 to end up second. "The first couple laps, Ty [Davis] and Woods were just pinning it, and I was trying to go that fast," he said. "At first I couldn't go that fast, then I was behind [Russ] Pearson and Caselli. Once I got into second, I was hanging right there, and we were matching pace pretty much the whole time."

Privateer Bobby Garrison ended up third on his Big Valley Honda CRF450R, with the former motocrosser about 70 seconds behind Kiedrowski at the finish. He worked up from about an eighth-place start and spent a lot of time working on his plan to get around Davis. "As soon as Davis pitted, I got him right through there, and I knew I had to pit a couple laps later so I tried to put a little bit of a gap on him," Garrison related. "I put just enough to where when I pitted, I had a lead over him. After that I was just trying to keep in front of him."

Davis and teammate Russell Pearson rounded out the top five, while Jussi Vehvilainen—an MX GP veteran from Finland—claimed sixth in his very first off-road race on his borrowed Team Green KX250. He hopes to attract the sponsors necessary to compete in the WORCS series full-time next year.

Pro Results - WORCS Round Nine
1. Nathan Woods, Yamaha YZ450F
2. Mike Kiedrowski, Suzuki RM-Z450
3. Bobby Garrison, Honda CRF450F
4. Ty Davis, Yamaha YZ450F
5. Russell Pearson, Yamaha YZ450F
6. Jussi Vehvilainen, Kawasaki KX250
7. Kurt Caselli, KTM 250 M/XC
8. Ricky Dietrich, Kawasaki KX250
9. Kendall Norman, Honda CRF450X
10. Matt Karlsen, Honda CRF450R
11. Lance Smail, Kawasaki KX250
12. Mark Tilley, Honda CRF450R
13. John Beal, KTM 250 SX
14. Eric Rhoten, Honda CRF450R
15. Jon Seehorn, Suzuki RM-Z450
16. Micky Griffen, Yamaha YZ250
17. Damien Galford, Kawasaki KX250
18. Jess Barstow, Honda CRF450R
19. Bryan Bruning, Kawasaki KX250
20. Reece Honea, Honda CRF450R
21. Monte Montague, Yamaha YZ250
22. Kyle Beshaw, KTM
23. Jim Bryant, Honda