(photo: ATV Riders - used with permission from Jarrod McClure)
Drive all the way to California?…are you crazy? That was the reaction I got from everyone at home last week, when I decided to make the 40+ hour drive across the country. I would leave my home in Pennsylvania on Saturday the weekend before the opening WORCS race and arrive at Mike Cafro’s house on Tuesday in Bonsall California. If you haven’t already heard, I am competing in both the WORCS and GNCC series once again for 2011. I will be riding a Honda TRX450R backed by Yokley Racing, the National Guard, Bowers Motorcycle, and Coastal Drilling. Coastal is a new sponsor that came on board this year, and is the main factor in my program that will allow me to run the WORCS series.
The opening round of WORCS always arrives way to fast for a lot of racers. I found myself struggling to finish my race ATV two days before my deadline to leave. I would leave the weekend before the WORCS race. I had to drive to Indianapolis where I met with the truck driver of the Coastal truck. The Coastal truck is an 80ft Renegade wrapped with all our sponsors and looks sick! Once there, I loaded my two quads in the trailer and tried to fit my truck but we needed eight more inches! I then realized that I would have to follow Frank (the truck driver) across the country in my pickup.
I arrived at Mike’s place late Tuesday and was happy to take a shower and unwind. I did some testing at Glen Helen on Wednesday, then came back to Mike’s to prep my quad. We headed up to the track late Friday night and upon arriving I realized I had to get out of my shorts and put some cold weather clothes on because it was about 20 degrees colder in Taft!
Saturday would be the day I got to practice and also my first time on the course. I went out for the unclassified race early and just got a feel for the track. The race course was a high-speed super fast track, which had a mixture of hard pack, loose terrain, square edge sand whoops, and a nice motocross track. I realized my setup was a little off, so back in the pits I made some changes. I adjusted my RPM axle to a wider setting, and I put some more air pressure in my tireballs to account for the high speed.
Pro practice was next which started at 1:30pm, this is also when we would qualify for our gate pick during the main on Sunday. I geared up and went out for the hour-long session. I found out after one lap that I had way to much air in my tireballs, because I was getting bounced everywhere. I qualified 10th, but knew I had to get back to work in the pits working on my tire pressures. I also had Mike Hallock from EXIT shocks make some slight changes to my rear shock. Other than those changes I was ready to go.
Race day finally arrived so I geared up in my sweet new Shift gear, and Bell Moto-9 helmet, and headed to the starting line. I realized I arrived late and missed my gate pick so I ended up way out on the end. Through the first turn I was near the back, but my Baldwin motor was pulling me forward each corner, by the fifth turn or so I was running mid-pack when a rider in front of me spun out leaving me nowhere to go but into his nerf bar! We both dismounted and quickly pried the ATV’s apart. From there I had to play catch-up from the back of the pack, I quickly got by Cafro and Baron who had issues early on. Next was Andy Lagzdins who also had some mechanical problems. There were three easy positions gained.
With lap one down, I had moved up three positions and began to close on Justin Waters and Tim Shelman. Midway through the lap I passed the pair and set my sights on Robbie Mitchell. My Roll Design suspension paired with EXIT shocks worked flawless all race and allowed me to keep moving forward, but before I knew it the race was winding down and the white flag was out…I was running out of time! I was able to pass John Shafe and move into the number 9 position to finish out the day.
I had a great race, the opening round is always crazy. I had little time testing the new machine, and also coming off my wrist injury I still don’t feel 100%. I plan on spending a few weeks out here on the West Coast to do some training and dial in my setup. Primm is the next WORCS race and I will definitely be more prepared!
I’d like to thank all of my sponsor’s for making this year possible:
Yokley Racing, National Guard, Coastal Drilling, Kenda, Roll Design, Bowers Motorcycle, XCBOB.com, Baldwin Motorsports, EXIT shocks, Precision, TUSK, RPM, IMS-Roll, HMF, MCR, DWT, Scott, K&N, Motoprotraining, ATVriders.com, KG Clutches, G4 Graphics, Tsubaki, Tireballs, Bell Helmets, SHIFT, Leumas Enterprise, Quad Tech
