WORCS
Racetown, Ca.
Feb. 18, 2007
I was really excited about this race, because I was able to bring my son Cooper this weekend. It's always great to have someone in my family at the races! My daughter had a volleyball tournament on Saturday, so my wife and Kelsey had to stay home. On Friday we rode the mx track and I felt really good. Last year's course was really good, but the off-road section was really rough. I knew this year's course would be similar so I was trying to prepare myself for a tough race. Saturday's pro practice went really well, but I think the course is even rougher then last years. It's going to be a long two hours tomorrow.
Well let me say it didn't start off like I was hoping! I got the 5th pick on the gate (out of 38 pro's) and felt really good about my spot. When the gate dropped, I launched out of the gate and was around 4th or 5th into the first turn. Ryno was just to the inside of me and Chris Johnson was to the left, but I started to get pinched off and had to try and squeeze by. Everything was going good until I lost my front end, and started to get hit by a number of riders. I went from 5th to dead last! It took me a little bit to get everything together and get going again. I was about 30-seconds behind the next guy before I took off. I was a little sore at first, but I knew I needed to get whatever points I could (inside top 20). After the first lap, I passed a few riders and made it up to 32nd (that's what they told me). I just kept picking guys off and started to get into a nice flow (with the help of a lot of spectators cheering me on). Towards the middle of the race, I was around 18th or so. I made a quick pit stop and was off again. The course was really rough and taking a toll on a lot of the riders, which was good for me (even though I was one of them). The more I made it up to the front, the harder it was to catch people and make the pass. With two laps to go I was in 13th and had a few more guys in front of me. I was able to make the passes and finish 11th. I never went down after the first corner incident, and felt good all day. I just wish I could've started up front.
I've had some bad luck for the last two weeks, but I really feel like everything is going great. If I was just a little over 2-minutes faster I would've finished 4th, so I know I have the speed. I just need to be up front and not start dead last. I know I was over 2-minutes down after the first 2-laps, trying to get around riders. These guys in the series are all going so fast and it's like being at an outdoor national. I'm just going to keep working hard and I know everything will be fine!
Results (pro's):
1st Ryan Hughes
2nd Kurt Caselli (5-seconds back)
3rd Nathan Woods
4th Casey Johnson
5th Kyle Summers
6th Matt Karlsen
7th Mike Kiedrowski
8th Justin Soule
9th Derek Costella
10th Robby Bell
11th Destry Abbott
12th Jeffrey Loop
13th Mickey Griffin
14th Benny Breck
15th Scott Simon
16th Ryan Reina
17th Tony Boughten
18th Rory Sullivan
19th Ryan Orr
20th Eric Rhoten
Last years WORCS Champion, Ricky Dietrich, had a horrible day. On the parade lap he hit something and went over the bars. I wasn't too far behind and picked us his bike while people were helping him out, but I knew he was in bad shape. I heard from a lot of different spectators that it was a huge get-off. He wasn't able to race and it looks like he might be out for a little while with a broken Humorous bone. Ricky is a great friend (and riding and training partner) and I know he'll be back better then ever.
When I was on the ground getting run over, I was just curled-up hoping nothing bad was going to happen. It's a scary feeling when you have 30-plus guys still behind you and you can't go anywhere. I was pretty banged up, but when I got up I had to re-buckle my chest protector since it was pretty much ripped off. My side was hurting, but I felt bad for the couple guys that went down because of me. Justin Soule was nice enough to stop by after the race to see if I was ok. He said he was one of the guys that hit me.
Even with the bad finish today it looks like I might have moved up one spot and now I'm sitting 4th in points (tied with a couple of other riders). I knew I just needed to stay out there and salvage whatever points I could. It paid off!
I really messed up and forgot to bring my OGIO drink system. I had to race with no water and I could tell it was a bad choice toward the end of the race.
It was really good to see Stephen Gall (along with his daughter Alex) come out to their first WORCS race to see how it was. After the race I spent some time going over my program and it looks like we'll be working together this year. He's one of the most knowledgeable guys I know with racing, exercising, preparing, etc.. I'm really looking forward to doing everything he says and I know it's going to pay off!
When I showed up to the race I was pretty pumped to see I was on the event t-shirt and program. I know they actually ran a full page add with it in the last Cycle News issue too.
The WORCS crew put on a great event and I heard there were around 1,200 entries. The next WORCS race is the biggest one of the series (Lake Havasu). If you want to watch one of the best off-road races out there you better show up, because it won't disappoint you.
My mechanic Jonny put in a great ride and finished 2nd in the 250B race. He's been riding really well and hopefully he'll get a win here soon. He also did a great job on the bike this week. It's really starting to make me mad that he's getting better results then me. LOL!
By the way I'm going to have my own column in all the WORCS program issues, so be sure to check it out and let me know what you think. It should be fun!
On a really bad note, Kyle Beshaw (one of our local Arizona riders) hurt himself pretty bad in practice on Friday. I heard he broke his T-12, L1, L2, and L-3. I hope he has a fast recovery and we can see him back at the races here soon.
I was thinking about racing the Adelanto G.P. this week, but after the last two weeks I'm going to take it off and let the body heal up a little. My next race will be in two weeks at the Laughlin Hare Scramble, where Nathan Woods and I will be teaming up and defending our race win from last year.
Steve Fox (from Hoyfox Toyota) really helped me out this week and made sure I was going to be 100%. Thanks for your help!
I attached a few different photos from this weekends race and practices. Big thanks to Mike and Amber Farmer for giving me the photos. You can check out all there photo's at www.fastphotolabs.com. I also had a good friend and fellow racer Kevin Heahly send me some great pictures. You can see more here.
Here's a link to a couple small video clips kdxkid posted on my site. LINK 1 and LINK 2. Thanks for posting those!
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