Photos: Campo

WORCS Racing

Round 9- Glen Helen Raceway

September 22, 2009

The second biggest race of the 2009 WORCS racing series sponsored by AP Brakes in Glen Helen was anyone’s game. The Western Hare Scramble series co-sanctioned this round and brought even more off-road racers in for the 6th round of the series including point’s leader Timmy Weigand. Supercross the weather was hot, rider entry reached a second time high, amateur and professional motocross riders came to play and test out their endurance and the 5-mile motocross/off- road track was prepped and ready for chaos.

Friday kicked off the 3-day event with practice and sign ups leading into Saturday’s races. Saturday morning came and WORCS Amateurs Corey Floyd, Jason Parsons, Ryan Abbatoye, Blake Savage, Cale Wallace, Jonathan Davis, Cody Schafer and more were ready to qualify for the Pro 2 event on Sunday. In the WORCS series, amateur riders race in races #3 and #7 to qualify for the main event on Sunday by placing in the top 12 overall in either of those races. Race 3 on Saturday afternoon was scorching hot. Cale Wallace took the win in the 450A class with Jonathan Davis, Justin Jones, Jason Parsons and Ryan Abbatoye rounding out the class’s top 5. A pretty gnarly downhill pile up kicked off the injuries for the week sending B rider Jason McIlroy to the hospital with a broken collarbone. Race #3 also hosted the Vet Pro class and Supercross legend Ryan Hughes not only came in to blow away the competition but won the entire race overall with the fastest lap time of 9:30:20!

Race 7 came around faster than I expected and the A riders lined up for their last chance qualifier. The flag was up and the first line took off, the roar of the bikes pulled the straight away and rounded the Talladega. The 60 minute race had many parents and spectators on their toes anxious to see who would qualify for the Pro 2 main event. It was Justin Seeds, Brad Goolsby, Corey Graffunder, Blake Savage, and Robbie Goolsby that fought and maintained their way into the top 5 and guaranteed their top 12 overall spot. With races ending late afternoon on Saturday and results up and official, the intensity was up for racers who were neck and neck in the points lead.

Sunday morning was a perfect morning. The air had cooled to a weekend low and once the clock struck 11:30am, the Pro’s were lined up for staging. Behind the gate lie surprise riders; Kurt Caselli (2007 WORCS Champ), GNCC star Josh Strang, Motocross’s Tyler Sjoberg, Jimmy Albertson, Tommy Weeck and Austin Howell, Endurocross’s Brian Gainey and the miracle child Josh Morros. After a quick parade lap and prayer, the gate was set and the 30 second board went sideways. The screaming sound of the 34 Pro bikes ripped up and around the Talladega creating a ridiculous cloud of dust with Timmy Weigand taking the $500 Kal Guard holeshot check. In the next 60 seconds the Pro 2 riders were required to set themselves and line up. Recently recovered rider Jason Parsons and Corey Floyd, 2009 Motocross rider Blake Savage and point’s leader Ryan Abbatoye were just a handful of those ready to race for the next 2 straight hours. Numbing the nerves and focusing on the dropping gate in the next 60 seconds was crucial. 30 seconds down and the second wave of screaming bikes took off, with Justin Jones taking the holeshot.

First lap in, a very controversial bottleneck occurred at the start of the off-road section causing a build-up of pro and pro 2 riders. Luckily KTM’s Mike Brown, Justin Soule and Kurt Caselli were past the section before hand and they hit the off-road section with no intention of looking back. By lap 3, the endurocross section on the motocross track showed to be a crowd pleaser, but riders of course would’ve opted for another route considering ¾ of the riders went over the bars once they hit the tire pyramid. With an average lap time of 11:20 the 52 riders began to drop like flies due to bike problems, injuries and lack of endurance.

Pro 2 rider Jason Parsons ended the race short due to a blown up bike, and the Pro class had begun the list of the most DNF’s in the 2009 season starting with Jacob Argubright. Next on the DNF list followed Suzuki rider Chris Johnson, 2008 WORCS Champ Bobby Bonds due to re-broken ribs, Benny Breck, Josh Morros who met his respectable limit, Ryan Reina, Kyle Summers due to a run-in with Nick Brozovich causing a broken nose and foot that also forced Brozovich out of the race and finally Kawasaki rider Ricky Dietrich topped off the list due to an injured ankle and shoulder.

The clock timed out and the white flag was up and by the way things were going it looked as though anyone could’ve come through the finish line in first. Tim Weigand had the lead, until Jimmy Albertson swiped it for the next 4 laps and by lap 6 Kurt Caselli took it over for good. Mike Brown worked his way up from 6th place and Weigand eventually maintained a consistent 3rd rounding out the top 3 for podium. When I asked Caselli how he felt about the race he said, “It was good to be back out west and home training. Things worked out really well this weekend, my bike was perfect, I had a good starts and I rode my own race!”

Next up is the final round of the series October 23-25 at Mesquite MX in Mesquite, NV.

Pro 2 Results

1- Corey Floyd
2- Jonathan Davis
3- Ryan Abbatoye
4- Cody Schafer
5- Blake Savage

Pro 2 Point Standings

1- Ryan Abbatoye 193
2- Corey Floyd 190
3- Jonathan Davis 183
4- Cody Schafer 101
5- Eric Habenicht 94

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Pro Results

1- Kurt Caselli
2- Mike Brown
3- Tim Weigand
4- Brenden Ritzman
5- Justin Soule’

Pro Point Standings

1- Mike Brown 191
2- Ricky Dietrich 178
3- Justin Soule’ 142
4- Tim Weigand 136
5- Bobby Bonds 129