Glen Helen WORCS

After riding the Dirt Rider 24 at Glen Helen on Tuesday it was just a couple of days to the WORCS race at the same location.  We went and practiced the motocross track on Thursday because we heard that a large percentage of the race was going to be moto.  For the race on Saturday Brian lined up for the 4-stroke/ 125 race.  Brian got an alright start, around fifth, but there was a big pileup in the first corner.  Shane Watts was in the bottom of the pileup.  He has been having some problems getting collected in the first turn lately and this turned out to be the worst one for him.  I ran over to see if he was alright or I could help out but when I got there he was saying that he was sure he broke his leg.  He ended up breaking the tibia, and the fibula in two places.  Later that night he had a rod inserted in the leg.  Back on the track Russ Pearson was leading the race, with Brian in about third.  A quarter of the way through the race Brian pulled in with both of his footpegs broken off the frame and were pointed straight down.  He said that he didn't case anything too hard but went off a jump and his feet came off the pegs and when he tried to put them back on they weren't there.  Since you have to qualify through Saturdays race and I wasn't feeling 100% on a motocross track and had just seen Watts carried off the track I sacrificed my bike for Brian to ride in the next 250 race.  There was a tough field in the 250 race including super fast guy Ryan Hughes.  Hughes grabbed the holeshot and quickly opened up a lead on Scott Sheak and Lance Smail.  Brian was back in eighth racing with none other than Mike Metzger.  It was cool to see Metzger at on off road race, with all the recent success he has achieved its cool to see him come out and ride for fun.  Brian said he would come up to the big jumps and do a big trick off the bike right in front of Brian who was doing his best just to do the jump.  Ryan Hughes suffered a flat tire early in the race but it didn't seem to effect him and he rode much of the race with a flat and took the win.  

After the race we wanted to see Shane but we had to get the bike fixed and Ty Davis was super nice and said he would help out.  We drove up to his house and found out that he has the best shop we have seen from any racer.  He has everything.  He has the Zip Ty products all in crates ready to be shipped, his workshop for his bikes, and then a huge room devoted to inventing and tweaking parts to improve his bikes.  Ty looked at Brian's pegs and said, "those look like Yamaha pegs, you mind if I put on these mounts."   We looked at each other and thought if he is willing to spend the time and do it right we definitely don't have a problem with that.  Soon after Ty was grinding and welding away and did an awesome job fixing the footpegs.  Thanks again Ty!

After getting the bike fixed we headed down the mountain to see how Shane was doing.  He was unexpectantly optimistic and seemed to be taking the whole ordeal in stride.  His Mom called when we were there and he was downplaying everything saying " it's no big deal Mom, its just a broken leg."  I don't think she was buying it but then they came in to take him in to surgery and away he went. 

Russ Peason grabbed the holeshot in the Pro race in front of 65 other racers.  Ryan Hughes was right up there next to him in the first turn and made a pass at the end of the whoops and took off.  Russ did a good job of running the pace and kept a respectable distance behind Ryno and ahead of Scott Sheak, Lance Smail, Nathan Woods, Ty Davis, Ryan Dudek, and the rest of the off road field.  The track went around half the motocross track, zig zagged the infield, went through the spectator tunnels, opened up to a half mile fireroad, a sandwash, over to the REM track, and back to the motocross track.  That was it.  No real off road sections, just a long motocross race.  The motocrossers put their skills to good use and blew away the off road guys.  Russ Pearson was the one that did the the off roaders proud by riding strong all day at the front of the pack.  Hughes was on a different zone than everyone else.  Most of the time it looked like he was taking it pretty easy, but when he would gas it and get going he displayed some serious speed, and was very impressive to watch.  He came with a stock 250 sx including the small tank and wasn't even running handguards.  When he came into pit for the first time he just made it out before the next rider came and opened up a good lead again.  Brian was trying hard on his 450 4-stroke and was just outside the top ten for much of the race.  Ryan Hughes held on and took the first off road win of his career, ahead of Russ Peason and Ty Davis.  Lance Smail was fourth, then Nathan Woods, Robert Naughton, Jonny Campbell, Destry Abbott, Mark Tiley, and Crater Gurnee rounded out the top ten.  Brian placed in 13th behind Josh Mclevy and Ryan Dudek.

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