Saddle Up Boys, We’re Goin’ Out West
With the GNCC series on Summer Break, a few of the XC1 ATV riders packed up and crossed the country to Washington state to see what WORCS racing is all about. Defending champion of this event Chris Borich returned, bringing with him Adam McGill, Johnny Gallagher, and former WORCS regular Jarrod McClure. It’s great to see that WORCS has gained their attention, hopefully we’ll see more of them come out here in the future.
WORCS ATV racing has been on a drastic progression over the last few years, the talent has increase tremendously as the top riders improve their skills to stay on top, and the up and coming riders improve their skills to try to take over the top spots. In the middle of it all we have a championship battle going on between defending champ Beau Baron and previous champ Josh Frederick. Throw these factors plus our east coast visitors in a mixing bowl and stir, and you have the ingredients for some great racing.
The weekend kicked off with the WORCS X event on Friday night. A mix of logs, ecology blocks, tractor tires, and concrete culverts made up the course and challenged everyone who dared to compete. In the Pro class Baron came out on top, followed by Frederick, and Dustin Nelson. McGill was holding his own until a missed shift while jumping a double put him over the bars and on the dirt. Tim Shelman came to his aide and McGill was able to walk away from the incident with only a slight head ache. In the B/C class, Kyle Coles rode his Suzuki to the top spot on the podium.
Saturday morning we awoke to blue skies and the sounds of engines running as riders got ready to hit the track. The course was a mix of motocross, some of the WORCS X course and a few miles of woods riding on the trails surrounding the park. Straddleline Raceway sits on the edge of Washington state’s 91,650 acre Capital State Forest.
At 1:25 the Pros took over for their Pro Practice and Qualifying session. During this time the Pro riders get to survey the course, test their equipment, and then put their fastest lap to secure a good gate pick for Sunday’s main. Baron came out on top again continuing to send a message to his closest competitors. Baron had done his homework, trained hard for this race, and worked closely with Roll Design and Elka Suspension to find a set-up that would work perfectly for this terrain and the tight trails. It seems he learned a bit from his GNCC counterparts last year that having a 50” wide stance isn’t the ideal set-up for woods racing.
Sunday morning kicked off the grand finale to this 3 day event. All the testing and training the Pros and ProAms had done since round 6 was about to be proven. At the riders meeting Sean Reddish gave the instructions for the 2 hour main and addressed the riders concerns and questions. At 11:30 the riders began lining up in the gate. Ready or not we were about to go green and find out who was prepared and who wasn’t.
After a parade lap honoring A rider Casey Johnson, the gates fell and racing was underway. In the Pro class Baron jumped out to an early lead leaving Frederick, Nelson, Borich, and McGill to fight for the number two spot. In the ProAm class MCR’s Davi Haagsma took and early lead with Heath, MCR teammate Keith Johnson and Webster in tow.
Baron lead from flag to flag, with Borich, Frederick and McGill battling for second. In the end it was Baron, Borich and Frederick on the box, followed closely by McGill in fourth and Nelson fifth. In the ProAm race Haagsma also lead from flag to flag with Johnson, Webster and Heath battling for second. At the checkers it was Haagsma, Webster and Heath on the podium, Johnson dropped out with two laps to go after holding on to second place for several laps.
The east coast boys put on a good show and WORCS was glad to have them. Baron and the rest of the WORCS top riders showed them they can dodge trees too. Will we see some WORCS riders heading east soon to test there skills in the GNCC? Who knows, time will tell, and we’ll be sure to bring you the story if it happens.
Bryan Grey
