Laughlin WORC'S

The final race of the WORC's series was held behind the AVI casino in Laughlin.  Brian and I just got a 2002 KTM 250 for the race and were looking forward to racing this weekend.  My knee was feeling pretty good after getting surgery three weeks ago and the little bit of riding that I did during the week had me feeling like I wasn't going to have any problems with it.  Mikey and Troy came along for the ride and we arrived late Friday night.  In the morning we parked the van in the Pro Pit area and took a little look at the track.  Right away we saw that this was going to be different from the rest of the WORC's races and more like a Hare and Hound with a short course.  We signed up for the team race once again and each event the team race seems to be getting bigger.  Chuck Sun had the new 470 Husaberg with the centrifugal clutch, which means that when it is in gear it will sit and idle and when you turn the throttle it takes off when you twist the throttle.  It has a clutch on it but you don't need to use it, but you can if you want to to give it a burst of power.  Anyways Brian was going to use the bike to get the holeshot, with the starting procedure having the racers standing on the throttle side of the bike and jumping on the bike when the flag drops.  Shane Watts got the holeshot on a 125 with Brian being in fourth after a couple of early passes but was still behind Robert Naughton and Robbie Zimmerman.  Mikey had made some arrangements and was getting some footage from a Helicopter.  I got the bike in fourth and got by Brian Spearle in the exchange.  I caught up to the first two and saw that my KTM rep Ravelle Harrison was leading the race on his 200.  The course had a small spectator area in a area used for sand drag races and then dropped down along side a levy and paralleled it for about two mile, then we crossed the levy and came back.  It was very scary at first because it was so fast and I haven't raced in the desert in a while.  For the first three laps I passed Ravelle and then Shane got by Brian.  We came in for an exchange and when I was switching the armband with Brian Shane hit the kill button on him.  Brian took a little time to start of it but Shane was a good enough of a sport to wait around for him.  Mikey was waiting for them and was in a truck this time and followed them with the camera for the whole two miles next to the levy for some great footage.  The next time I got on the bike I went into the chicane a little hot and there was a rider down in the main line and I ran into the hay bail and had a pretty hard crash in front of everyone.  When I gave the bike to Brian, Shane was right on him and tried to cut under him and swapped in the sand and threw Shane over the high side resulting in a good hit to the head.  The rest of the race Brian and I got used to the course and the speeds, while scouting out good lines for Sunday.  

The winds died down overnight and there was even dust hanging overhead during the pee wee race.  I knew that it was going to be an interesting race, and anticipated many crashes and broken bikes.  We had a couple of extra No Toil filters ready in case we needed them and know we had to get out front early to get out of the dust.  Brian and I lined up next to each other and we got squeezed into each other and both got bad starts.  When we got along side the first levy I headed to the right to get out of the dust and made some early passes.  I caught up to Rodney Smith and Ty Davis by the end of the straight and was in about sixth spot.  We were swapping positions on the first couple laps and had a good pace going.  On the fourth lap I think I hit a rock in some deep sandy whoops and it sent me over the bars but I had a soft landing in the sand.  I got up quick and didn't get passed but could hear bikes when I was down so I had to get back into a rhythm quickly.  Ty had some problems and pulled off and that put me into fourth spot with Brian right behind me.  I held the position to after the sixth 4.5 mile lap when I pitted for the first time.  I kept my spot after the pit but on the next lat my filter began to clog up so I pulled back into the pits for a filter.  I saw Brian was in the pits and his bike wasn't due to his shifter falling off and the bolt ended up getting caught up in the chain breaking the clutch cylinder.  Brian was in fifth gear when it happened and when he got to the deep sand whoops he couldn't even make it up to the levy.  He wasn't about to quit so he grabbed a spare and headed out to make the repairs.  I dropped back into about ninth after my pit stop so I tried to pick the pace back up but had a big swap on that lap.  I was going though some fast whoops and tried to get to cross to the side of them and swapped into a bush that was about ten feet high.  I hit the bush sideways with both tires off the ground and was hoping there was no rocks in sight.  I got lucky but that sort of settled me down into a pace I was comfortable with for the rest of the race.  About two laps later I saw Rodney in the middle of the course who looked like he was slowly trying to restart his bike.  I had to stop once more for gas and around that time I saw Curt Caselli coming up behind me.  I didn't know it but Curt was having the race of his life and was lapping me and I was in sixth spot.  On the last lap I got around Wade Phillips for what was fifth place.  I saw Peter Russell in front of me but and tried a last couple lap charge but never caught him.  Curt Caselli took a commanding win on his first race aboard a KTM, with Maxxis rider Robert Naughton also having his best off road race for second.  Mike Kiedrowski finished third and with that wrapped up the championship for the WORC's series.  Peter Russell took his KTM to fourth, I was fifth.  Wade Phillips, Rodney Smith, Kellon Welch, Steve Hatch, and KC Bogue rounded out the top ten.  Brian salvaged what he could and ended up with a 14th place finish.  Shane Watts had a tough weekend.  He had a couple of crashed, with the final one taking place at the spectator drop off.  There was about a twenty foot drop off into a sand wash that the top riders would drop off.  Shane stuck the drop off and crashed hard on his already sore body.  He pulled into the pits in pain and heard Destry, who was announcing due to his hurt shoulder say over the loudspeaker that with Shane pulling out that he would still finish in fifth.  Shane heard that and when the white flag came out he put his helmet back on and made one more lap to claim the fifth spot in the championship.  

In the final series standings I believe that I finished in seventh and Brian in eighth

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