WORCS 2009
Rnd.1 Surprise, Az
January 23-25
By: Jorie Williams #10
Friday January 23rd marked the opening day for the 2009 WORCS series in Surprise, Az.  Friday was an organized practice day on the motocross track and everyone was out trying to get back in the groove from the off season. I was using this day to go out and get comfortable on the new Honda and try to get up to speed. The motocross track is fast with some pretty big jumps and about my 5th lap out I was already feeling comfortable on the bike and felt that I was running some good lap times. The only issue I had was that the bike had the Rekluse Z-Start Pro and Z-Start Brake where the rear brake is moved up to the handle bars and the clutch has a two finger over ride.  The Rekluse system proved to be the hot set up in WORCS Cross section and once I got use to it I was ready to race.

Jorie Williams WORCS Pro #10

Saturday morning rolled around and I opted to sit out the unclassified class which lets you go out and run the whole track so you can see the off road before you race it. The reasoning for this was because WORCS changed the racing schedule for the pros this year. Instead of having Open pro and Pro production on Saturday they changed it to a 60 minute pro practice. So at 1:20 I went out to run the course and make a couple last minute adjustments on the suspension and steering stabilizer to make sure I was ready for the main event.

It was Sunday afternoon and it was time to line up for the 2 hour main event, the pro class was stacked with 30 riders ready to go to battle. After everyone got lined up and took the parade lap the national anthem was played and it was race time. The flag flew and the 30 rider pack charged to the first corner, through the motocross track and off into the off road section. I managed to get a 5th place start and was charging threw the very fast and rough Arizona desert, by the end of the first lap I lost two spots to Beau Baron and Mike Machado.  On the 6th lap I pitted for fuel and was running in 8th, later that lap my hands gave out on me and I got some gnarly blisters on both of my hands and it was all I could do to keep my hands on the bars. I crossed the finish line in 15th loosing 7 positions because of not being able to run the pace I needed to run with the pack. At the end of the day I was disappointed with my finish but I know what I need to do to be ready for the next round.

Check back after every round to see how Jorie’s year is progressing.