While much of the rest of the country is buried in snow, mid-January temperatures in Phoenix usually hover somewhere in the mid to upper 50-degree range with bright blue sunny skies as far as the eyes can see – perfect conditions for off-road racing! Such was the case on this late January race weekend. However, weather during the prior weeks leading up to the race had WORCS promoter, Sean Reddish, wondering if he’d be able to pull off a Phoenix race at all. Arizona had been pummeled with more than a week of record rains and unheard of tornado sightings, which left much of Speedworld Motocross Park and the surrounding sand washes submerged. Reddish had to scramble for a solution. “The Speedworld track we normally use is not good to you when it is wet so we made some major changes to the track and moved the staging, camping and spectator locations at the same facility. This put us on higher ground, such as it is, and I have to say that I think we ended up with a better racecourse overall,” said Reddish. General consensus proved that may of the racers liked the new racecourse, which also offered up a few new obstacles, such as a log bridge over one of the washes.
Despite the wetter than normal track conditions and lingering depressed economy, youth, amateur and pro racer entries were solid going into the 2010 season. A number of east coast GNCC racers also made their way to the southwest desert for the WORCS season opener. Pennsylvania Yamaha rider Traci Cecco ran away from the rest of the Women’s A class, GNCC regular and ATV shock guru Santo Derisi drove in from North Carolina and pro racer Andy Lagzdins likely got the long distance award by traveling all the way from Baltimore, Maryland…just to name a few.
PRO PITS
After a full day and a half of amateur and novice class racing, the pros and pro-am qualifiers lined the starting gate for Sunday’s main event, and most of the usual suspects were on hand.
The Motoworks Can-Am team looked to be back in full force with former WORCS champ #2 Josh Frederick and #49 Dillon Zimmerman. Zimmerman finished his first pro race at the end of the 2009 season, and already looks to be a top of the pack contender for all of 2010. Can-Am racer Jeremie Warnia will be missed at the WORCS starting gate this year as the team has him concentrating on the ATVA MX series.
#94 Dustin Nelson was back riding Yamaha’s YFZ450R again, but with several new sponsors.
The MCR Honda riders were also back for another season as defending champ, #1Beau Baron, looked to be in even better condition than last year. Forty year old team captain, #12 Mike Cafro, will continue to guide the team and race in 2010, along with final team member, #5 Josh Row.
Speaking of old guys (heroes to the rest of us old guys who wish we could still ride fast) the rumors were rampant that Doug Eichner would be racing for the first time since last year’s nasty accident at Glen Helen. A head on collision during practice left him injured for much of the 2009 season. Eichner was looking forward to riding a KTM for his comeback at round one, but he’s decided to take the year off in order to devote his time to his wife and team manager, Joan Eichner. Joan has been battling cancer since 2009. All of us at Trail Nation wish Joan and Doug the best and will continue to keep the Eichner family in our prayers.
In total, sixteen pro racers took the starting gate for Sunday’s main event.
MAIN EVENT
As always, the pros launched off the starting line first with the pro-am qualifiers following a minute later. Pro-Am qualifiers consist of the top finishers from the Open A, Production A, Stock A and Women’s A classes from the previous races leading up to the two-hour long main event.
The pro gate dropped as engines roared to the first right turn. #94 Dustin Nelson got the holeshot, but #1 Beau Baron passed him in turn two. The two racers traded positions a few times with #2 Josh Frederick holding a solid third position. For much of the first hour of racing, Beau and Dustin remained tight with Frederick within twenty seconds of them.
On the tenth lap of sixteen, Dustin Nelson’s luck turned south. “After pitting, Beau and I went back out into the off-road section and I was right on his bumper and, man, I felt good. I felt like I was going to be able to pull it off when I hit a sand berm and derailed my chain,” said Nelson. This is the second time chain issues have cost Nelson a finish. “I’m not really sure what the issue is right now, but we’ve got to figure it out. The chain got bound up in the countershaft sprocket and I was done.”
With Nelson out of the way, Beau Baron “pushed smart” and maintained a comfortable twenty-second gap over Josh Frederick to take the pro class win. Right at the finish and after two solid hours of intense off-road racing, Baron was pumped up about his finish and still looked fresh, a testament to great race conditioning. “Dude! It was so tight between me and Nelson. I led for about a lap and then I just got a little bit sideways in one corner and that’s all it took for Nelson to get me. And I knew if I could just hang with him for a while I might have a shot at getting him back. On the next lap, I passed him back in a rough section out there, but he was staying pretty close and I was like wow! Unfortunately, something happened to his bike, and he’s one of my good buddies, although I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. But up until then it was close,” claimed Baron. But with Nelson down, it still wasn’t an easy walk to the finish line. Baron continued, “After that, I saw Josh Frederick coming and I was like, man, I got to pick it up because I don’t want him to get to close, you know? We were getting into lap traffic and if I made a mistake, he would be right on me. So, I tried to keep a gap.” It’s only the first race of the season and anything can happen, but Baron already looks poised for a championship repeat in 2010.
Josh Frederick is looking stronger with each race after coming back from a serious race injury that left him with several broken bones and a punctured lung in mid-2009. Frederick gave us an update on his progress and talked a little about his second place performance. “I feel pretty good! I think maybe at the beginning of the race I was a little bit timid. I didn’t know how I was going to hold up on this kind of a track but towards the end of the race I felt great. It’s good to know that what I was doing in the offseason is paying off. Dustin and Beau got a great start today while I was caught behind a couple of guys. It took me a while to get around them. At the end I started putting down some good laps and reeling them in, but it just wasn’t enough today,” said Frederick.
The most surprising performance of the week came from third place finisher Mike Cafro, owner of the MCR (Mike Cafro Racing) team. Mike is not only a racer on the team, but also handles all logistics, mechanics and all the other headaches that come with owning a race team, which makes for very little sleep between races. The multi-time Baja champion hasn’t seen a WORCS podium in several years. We couldn’t wait to ask forty year old Cafro where this new found energy came from. “I don’t know honestly. We’ve all been training together and I think that helps out a lot. Honestly, it’s just been riding. I’ve had such a big work load in getting all of the bikes ready that I really haven’t done that much. I think the bike worked phenomenal and I got a little lucky with Nelson dropping out, but it is what it is.”
WORCS moves to Primm, Nevada next month with ATV and motorcycle racing February 27-28, and then they’ll head back to Arizona for Spring Break at Lake Havasu. Also, be sure to check out our photo gallery for all of the pro action at round one by clicking on the image to the right.
MAIN EVENT RESULTS
ATV Pro Class
1 – Beau Baron - #1 Honda
2 – Josh Frederick - #2 Can-Am
3 – Mike Cafro - #12 Honda
4 – Robbie Mitchell - #14 Kawasaki
5 – Dillon Zimmerman - #49 Can-Am
6 – Justin Waters - #95 Yamaha
7 – Timothy Shelman - #13 Honda
8 – Jeff Pickens - #115 Yamaha
9 – Josh Row - #5 Honda
10 – Ryan Piplic - #9 Kawasaki
11 – Andy Lagzdins - #46 Honda
12 – Kyle Grosse - #138 Honda
13 – Jose Ramirez - #16 Honda
14 – David Lindsay - #81 Polaris
15 – Skyler Strom - #333 Honda
16 – Dustin Nelson - #94 Yamaha
ATV Pro-Am Class
1 – Cole Henry - #100 Can-Am
2 – Garrin Fuller - #45 Honda
3 – Keith Johnson - #116 Honda
4 – David Haagsma - #1p Kawasaki
5 – Javier Robles Jr. - #48 Honda
6 – Ron Heath - #182 Honda
7 – Michael Bunyea - #50 Honda
8 – Chase Thomas - #622 Kawasaki
9 – Cody Mitchell - #83 Honda
10 – Blake Barnum - #527 Kawasaki
11 – Keith Carinalli - #131 KTM
12 – Rob Brown - #114 Yamaha
13 – Blane Vadasy - #31 Honda
14 – Tammy Balser - #22 Honda
15 – Steven Albert II - #714 Yamaha
16 – Garret Stucki - #111 Kawasaki
17 – Clay Forenpohar - #288 Suzuki
18 – D.J. Noerr - #842 Yamaha
19 – Joe Shafe - #29 Honda
20 – Jeremy Peash - #137 Suzuki
21 – Collins Wenster - #39 Honda
22 – Mike Kelley - #249 Honda