After a wet, sloppy, muddy Round 3 at Lake Havasu, Arizona, riders of the WORCS series were looking forward to head-to-head action at Price Utah. It's spring - how bad could the weather get?! Try snow, hail, lightening, then sunshine and glorius mud.

Saturday afternoon MX classes were treated to white-out conditions and frigid cold. Sunday morning found a hard freeze on the surface of mud torn up by the previous day's racing. Luckily, partly due to the temperatures but also to recognize not every rider may have picked up on the Daylight Savings time change, event organizers delayed the start of racing one hour Sunday morning.

By the time the 64 ATV's (the total number of entries continues to grow each race this season) took the line, the course had warmed up enough to be a huge sloppy mess, with thick heavy clay mud as far as the eye could see. Snow was threatening again, in fact a few flakes began to fall as the first group of riders took off, but the sun came out and the next 50 minutes were clear, though still very cold.

The motocross section of the course was extensive, especially since much of the desert portion was quite narrow so was eliminated for the quads. What that left was seven laps of in and out of the mud, with little time to clear the goggles or stretch out for a fast run. Most riders chose to change goggles every lap, while many just rode without. Some riders didn't survive long, with the motocross jumps and heavy mud claiming five victims from various classes without even recording a lap.

Duncan Racing proudly debuted two brand new Kawasaki VForce 700's, the first we've seen in competition. Doug Eichner actually was a strong "force" of his own for most of the race, trying for his second win of the series (his other win coming at Devore, California). However, heavy mud mucked up his day, and he overheated and found himself at the end of a tow line on the white flag lap. Eichner has done considerable testing of the new 700 for Kawasaki in the desert, and was looking forward to its Professional Racing debut. Eichner and the fans will have to wait for another chance to see how the automatic truly competes.

Pro winner Brandon Brown left his seat about half way back on the final lap, but brought the important parts across the finish line when it really mattered...

With Eichner out and last week's winner Nic Granlund not in attendance, that left the Pro Class up for grabs. Four races have now produced four different winners; in fact, even second and third places saw new names on the podium. The Price mudfest brought the first win of the season to Brandon Brown, and most of his quad. On the last lap, he actually lost his entire seat, forcing him to ride the motocross section and across the line standing on his pegs.

Less than 30 seconds back came Jeffrey Bobook, and 45 seconds later the Pro Podium was filled with Mike Bender. Jeff Bertuzzi, Jeff Hancock, and Jeremy Bertuzzi completed the dominating Honda Top-7 sweep. Looks like those old 250R's aren't quite ready to be replaced by new and flashy quite yet...

Jeff Bertuzzi, Pro, came from well back in the field at the start of his group to finish 6th. His previous finish this season was 11th place at Havasu, so he must like that mud!

Points should shake out interestingly, as none of the top three Pro finishers have competed yet this season in any other WORCS Western series events. With current season points leader Eichner's 11th place limp across the finish line, Brandon Cipak who was 12 points back in 2nd, picked up 7th place points for the race and closed the ga p to 8 points. With only five Pro racers competing in all four races to date, each are within one race's points of the leader. Only two more West races will determine the series, and then it's off to the East/West in Oklahoma in November. Look for amazing competition coming up in June in Washougal, as none of these top 4 can afford to miss it if they want to contend for the championship.

Class B held some of the most exciting racing of the day, and brought some of the most enthusastic racers and fans alike. The road trip gang from Washington - Chuck Gipson, Thomas Kellar, and Jason Oliver - came out all smiles, even if they didn't manage to all finish on 4 wheels. They seem to swap luck on race day - this time it was Oliver's quad that was held together only with 50 pounds of mud and straw by the end. But load them back up on the trailer and head the 20 hours back to Washougal - because the next round, you'll be on THEIR home turf! Shawn Shannon took the class this day, and Shawn Checkettes just seconds behind.

How can one rider be so clean? It was up to this Raptor to ROOST her - and fast!

The Over 30 Veteran class saw a surprisingly early exit from Len Duncan, mounted on the second Kawasaki VForce 700. Admitting no fault of the quad, Len fell victim to an infield jump and wadded himself and the quad up on lap 1, breaking a front tie rod. With only 30 minutes aboard prior to race morning, his testing of the new automatic machine will have to wait until another day.

Of course Team ORC had to get in on the fun, and play in the mud too! With Project 400EX hot out of Tudor's Performance Shop with a 440-kit barely bolted on and broken in, what better test than freezing temperatures, heavy mud load, and the grind of competition. No, we don't exactly recommend it - but it held up, so the Tudor motor work and new Bill's Pipes "Thunder Series" pipe must have been happy. Posting a very respectable 4th place in his class, ATV "C", 31st overall, we gave Justin a pat on the back for the first time in competition on a truly motorcross layout. And then of course made him wash his own ride at the hose station. Ya want to play, ya got to pay! It's not all about desert racing - it's good for any rider that is serious about competition to have experience in many formats. With "C" winner Mike Stock also beating several of the Pro's, it looks like there is some good talent coming up in that Division. Scott Wright took 2nd, a lap down, then Brandon Ledger was almost immedately behind him.

With 64 ATV entrants, stories were found deep into the field, including Jennifer Andrews in only her second ATV Race. She recruited father Steve Andrews for moral support to ride along as well. A hard crash on the second lap shook up Jennifer and she called it a day, but encouraged her dad to go back out and enjoy himself. He did complete two more laps, and we caught up with him at the end, with a smile on his face. "It's a little muddy out there..."

Next on the WORCS schedule - Washougal Washington, May 17 - 18.