Longview WORCS

I flew up to Portland with Mikey from Topspeed.  The Longview facility is new to the WORCS series so no one knew exactly what to expect.  I watched the weather in the week leading up to the event and it had been raining a decent amount so I brought my Maxxis mud tires.  Maxxis has a very aggressive mud tire that gets the job done when it is really muddy so I was hoping for rain.  The Casellis were nice enough to haul my bike over from the qualifier in Idaho and even washed it for me.  I didn't have to do much else to the bike.  I changed the jetting back to stock for sea level riding and gassed it up again and went out to Saturdays Open race.  The area featured a good motocross track and from what we could see driving in the course had some good grass track sections that were mowed through the sticker bushes.  I got a horrible jump on the start, where we stood on the throttle side of the bike with our left hand on the helmet and was at the back of the pack.  I felt comfortable immediately and started to work my way around a few riders.  I really liked the track.  Most of the WORCS races are in faster conditions and seem to be in a desert setting and I get along with the mud and tighter conditions much better.  I felt good during the race and my KTM 200 worked great.  I finished in fifth place.  John Beal took the win ahead of a stacked field which he was stoked about.  

It rained off and on all night causing me to put the mud tires on in the morning.  I also changed the air filter and filled up the tank for the Pro Race.  The race was pushed back for an hour because the rained caused the organizers to move the mini bike race to another track that was sandy for the little guys.  That resulted in the track drying out a bit, but the motocross track was still a muddy mess and would make an interesting start to the race.  I got off to a good jump but got pulled on the start straight.  I cut underneath and almost him Dave Pearson but took turn two wide and kept out of the mayhem.  In the third turn Destry Abbott was lying on the ground causing the pack to swerve all around avoiding Destry.  Leaving the motocross track I passed a couple of guys and got behind Joey Lanza.  I followed behind him for about half the first lap then he picked a line that turned into a huge rut.  I got around him and soon after saw Robert Naughton, who was the next rider in front of me swap off the course clipping a tree in the process.  I came through the motocross section and was in fifth place, which is a really good first lap for me in the WORCS series.  I was feeling good and surprisingly no one was near me so I settled into a comfortable pace and tried to charge while it was still slippery.  A couple laps into the race I came into the special log section that was set up next to the motocross track.  There was some big logs for us to go over and the last two were arranged so that a brave soul would be able to double them.  I saw Nathan Woods kicking his bike trying to start it which he did right as I was going by.  We went over the logs side by side and he got ahead of me at the end of the logs.  I tried to hang onto his pace since he has been lapping me at the races lately.  Right at the pits he again stalled his bike and I got around Woods.  The next lap he caught back up to me and I could tell he was pissed by the way he got around me.  I was running the helmet camera so I tried to stay close to Nathan and get some good shots of the series points leader.  Nathan pulled a gap on me and I could see Destry had been lurking behind me for a couple of laps.  I pushed as hard as I could and noticed I pulled a little more of a gap ahead of him.  I pitted halfway though the race and at that point I was getting a bit tired.  I really wanted to finish top five so I kept pushing.  The course was drying out and by this point we had the course down and were flying.  A couple laps from the end I saw Destry was getting closer.  I pushed as hard as I could but Destry caught me.  I held him off for a lap then he finally got by me on the motocross track.  When that happened I was done and ready for the checkered flag.  That lap the two lap board came out so I put in two more smooth laps.  Ty Davis led much of the race before Bobby Bonds got comfortable and ran him down.  Kurt Caselli was right up front for the whole race and nearly got second.  Ty Davis held on for second, but was hoping he would win since he hasn't won a round yet this year and was the favorite because of the conditions going into this race.  Woods was off the podium for the first time this year but still has a huge points lead in the series.  Destry recovered from his early crash for fifth.  I was pleased with sixth.  John Beal followed up his strong Saturday ride with a seventh in the Pro Race.  Kellon Walsh finished eighth followed by Brian Brown and Robert Naughton.

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