Into the pits…

WORCS made it back to Washington this year and I knew I wanted to go. For one, I made a lot of friends when I traveled the series and quite a few of them still travel with the series. Friends that I hadn’t seen in a long time because they live far away and I am no longer racing that series. I wanted to meet up with those people and catch up, which I did. For two, the desert might have my heart, but XC racing is where I got my start. I raced WORCS full time from 2003-2008 and part time in 09 and actually raced my first WORCS race in 02 . The people I mentioned in my first point are practically family! Of course I was going to go play in the trees!

With the birth of my son and all the work I’ve had this year, I haven’t been riding as much as I used to be able to, so when I got to Straddleline, I knew I’d opt for the A class and try to qualify for ProAm. These days, WORCS has a condensed schedule because the bikes and quads are combined, so the Production A and Open A run together (with about 5 other classes). I chose Open A, which was the second line to leave.

I had a great start on one of the bigger lines and took off into the motocross track. It was essentially the same track I had ridden the weekend before, but my desert bike is no match for a bike built for WORCS or for kids half my age who are riding all the time, and I was down a few riders going into the off-road section. I ended up clipping a rock toward the end of the off-road and broke a wheel. I limped my bike through the scoring chute, all around the motocross track, and into the pits where I swapped the tire and wheel with help from Troy Oestriech who was pitting for me and his son, Trevor. I took back off into the woods and did my best to gain back some positions. I finished 10th in my class. 

Sunday I signed up for ProAm and took the line with a lot of new faces and few familiar faces. We took a parade lap which sent us through the MX, through the woods, and then through the EnduroX section. In addition to the EX section, there was a new Pro section in the woods. It was a steep single track for the bike Pros who raced first, and was now blown out to accommodate the width of a quad. It was a fun section but started pretty brutal and got worse as we put the laps on it.

The start was dead-engine with a pistol shot instead of a flag wave to send us off. I got a great jump off the line and I was neck and neck with ProAm points leader Mike Sloan with Pro Motorsports’ Matt Hancock just behind us. I was third going through the MX section and 4th entering into the woods. I rode hard and smart and knew I wasn’t going to compete with the top kids in this class, so I just chose a pace I knew I could maintain for the duration of the race and made sure to get out of the way of the Pros and faster riders. I was here for fun and because I love to ride. With nothing at stake and I didn’t want to screw up someone’s points. After all was said and done, 105 minutes later Beau Baron pushed me through the finish line. Well, it was the finish for him, and it would be my last lap! I ended the race just shy of the podium in 4th place. Not too bad!

Overall I had a great time racing at Straddleline. The facility is top notch. The riders I competed with were a great group of guys and it was so awesome to see old friends and have them meet my son in person.

Big thanks to Klim for getting me into an new set of their vented  Mojave gear last minute. It looked great with some Pit Traffic design work (numbers) and it works great too, but the new gear is very cool both literally and figuratively! Thank you  Maxxis for the best tires in the business!  And thanks Spider Graphix for getting me hooked up with a new kit in time for this event!  Give them a look the next time you need freshen up the look of your machine!

Thanks to everyone that helps me continue to do this thing that I love!  My Wife Megan, Son Loic, Maxxis Tires, Klim, Fox, Teixeira Tech, Rekluse, Led Performance, Precision Racing Products, Wiseco Piston, Trail Tech, HMF, Fullbore Innovations, 100% Goggles, UPP, CBR, Ryno Power, IMS, Pro Armor, Spider Grips, Maxima, Asterisk, Quad Tech, K&N Filters, Shorai Power, Sunstar, Spider Graphix, Galfer, Powermadd, Quad75.Com, Waterwell Developing & Surveys, & PitTraffic.com

For more photos, see here: Pit Traffic