After heavy rains cancelled Friday practice and winds whipped EZ Ups to shreds through the night, Saturday started off fairly clear and hopeful. But worse than the skies overhead were the puddles, ruts and gulleys underfoot. After a few riders took even fewer laps in the unclassified practice, WORCS moved the Class 2 race to the end of the day, buying some time to work the deep heavy mud on the track and actually starting the competitive program at 10:00 with Race 3. The weather wasn't especially cooperative for the next six hours, alternating between t-shirt warm and down-pours, even busting out with a couple hail storms. Two classes ran almost entirely in rain, though it appeared the heaviest weather and lightening luckily stayed north of Monticello and Bull Hollow Raceway for the day. Last weekend for the bikes, it was hot hot hot, dusty and deep silt. Welcome to racing in the high desert!
One interesting note was that we didn't see the huge Washington contingency we've been getting. Especially with the wet muddy weather, you'd have thought the NW mudders would be out in droves - could it be rumors of Bob Lattimar scooping cars off the interstate with his RV, slowed the southbound traffic?
Race 3
Classes that are often used as warm up or tuning for Sunday, saw light entries today. Racers just weren't in a hurry to get equipment and themselves muddy unless it was necessary. If you were racing for points however, the battle was on. Being the first classes of the day, lessons were being learned all over the track. First lesson - don't even think about diving low for the holeshot. In nearly every case, first one to the corner was last out. The only workable line at all was the far outside, in fact, every holeshot of the first five waves of starters came from that outside line. Would the upcoming classes watch this and learn, or at least notice the ruts dug deep into in the track going into turn 1? Some did, some didn't.
Fastest racer on the track was Pro Sean Towle, turning 6 laps in 1:02.16. That's just over an hour of slugging through the mud. Second overall was Production A rider Dax Snow, less than 10 seconds ahead of Pro Robbie Mitchell. Excellent ride for Snow, and a class win by over one minute.
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| Scott Barry #1468 travelled the short hop from Washington UT to play in the mud in the Production B class. He looks really glad. |
The fastest Stock riders logged 5 laps, with Justin Waters taking the win and Chris Bennett happy to step up onto the podium in second. With points leader Jeff Bertuzzi suffering a DNF after completing only 2 laps, the points race is tightening up between Waters and Bertuzzi as they head for the final round in Pismo next month.
Pro Production
1st - Sean Towle, Vail AZ
2nd - Robbie Mitchell
3rd - John Angel
Stock A
1st - Justin Waters
2nd - Chris Bennett
3rd - Kevin Burrell
Stock B
1st - Daniel Winiecki
2nd - Darren Kelley
3rd - Lonnie Sortor
Production A
1st - Dax Snow
2nd - Dillon Zimmerman
3rd - Bronson Bundy
Production B
1st - James Hosking
2nd - Cody Mitchell
3rd - Garth Frandsen
Race 4
Always interesting to watch is the Utility class, where Pro rider Josh Frederick regularly brings the big Epic Racing Outlander across for the win. Dean Waters is second in points, and the two have an unspoken agreement just to ride easy each round, both even taking time in Washougal to pull out other racers that were stuck in that mud. This time, Waters was aboard a new 2007 Yamaha Grizzly and put that EPS (power steering) to good use to keep himself on course, but didn't have to play rescue with any other racers. However, Thomas Reck stepped into the mix at Monticello and surprised them both by passing for the lead. Frederick actually had to shift out of cruise mode and had a race on his hands, though he would put it back in front before their 4 laps were over. He may be big and slightly scarey, but Frederick saw two youth riders post faster overall times - Kevin Mccullough in the 12-15 Blaster class and Alec Trujillo in the 12-15 Mod class. Keep it up boys!
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| #103 Alec Trujillo adds another win to his growing race resume, in the 12-15 Years Modified class. |
12-15 240cc Blaster
1st - Kevin Mccullough
2nd - Austin Fowler
3rd - Dominic Depalma
12-15 years Mod
1st - Alex Trujillo
2nd - Jaiger Snow
3rd - Connor Lorence
12-15 years Stock
1st - Brodey Blackwell
2nd - Chris Wentz
Utility
1st - Josh Frederick
2nd - Thomas Reck
3rd - Dean Waters
Race 5
One of the fastest racers in the mud today was certainly Lynn Prosser, taking not only a win in the Women's A class, but also an overall for Race 5. She turned her 5 laps in 56:32.0, four minutes faster than second place in her class and also a full minute faster than the nearest rider in the Sport C class. We were also happy to see Todd Hunter on the WORCS trail again. It's been a while and he's out to support his son Justin's racing now, but he couldn't help jumping on-course for a little action himself. Third place in a very competitve class of 12 - only 5 minutes seperating the top 9 riders. Congrats Todd.
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| The A Class women were all business. Unfortunately for Brittany Bloodworth, Lynn Prosser didn't seem to agree with her plan for the "gimme" holeshot, as Lynn had no pity on her at the line. |
40+ C
1st - Lewis Walck
2nd - Dale Mininger
3rd - Todd Hunter
Senior 50+
1st - Steve Shannon
2nd - Chris Elias
3rd - Rick Shafe
Stock C
1st - Justin Hunter
Women A
1st - Lynn Prosser
2nd - Brittany Bloodworth
30+ C
1st - Robert Pinon
2nd - Darin Snow
3rd - Brian Harris
Sport 15-29 C
1st - Danieol Grodski
2nd - Drew Fowler
3rd - Gavin Kinnett
Race 6
Taking a dose of wet track during and after a hard shower, the Sport class was about survival, with five of the 12 racers suffering a DNF. It was tow-rope city out there and the course workers were scrambling for the full 45 minutes. These young riders paid their dues today! (And as an added bonus, they have no Off-Road.com photos to show for their efforts. Sorry guys - I'm nearly rainproof, but the camera isn't!)
Sport 8 - 15 years
1st - Parker Taylor
2nd - Tyler Wentz
3rd - Cori Guy
Race 7
As with the morning race, the Open classes in the afternoon were a mix of rider battling for valuable points and those just taking an opportunity to tune between rain storms. Several Pros that had not sludged through Unclassified or Pro Production already, made a brief appearance on the track, including Josh Frederick, Levi Marana and Doug Eichner. That kept the other riders on their toes and moving fast, with John Shafe taking it all very seriously and posting a whopping 6 laps in just over one hour. More than happy to step up on the podium with him were Pros Brandon Brown and Joe Rarey. Joe had road adventures before he even got to the track, so we were glad to see some sunshine in his weekend. I have a feeling that purse money will likely go to some trailer brake work? (We missed you, Kim!)
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| Anyone that takes a mouthful of Monticello mud deserves a little extra special recognition. Here, #227 of Nicholas De La Grange scoops up an entire facial in Open A. Yeah, he was fine. He went on to finish 7th in fact, out-lasting two DNFs. |
Open Pro
1st - John Shafe
2nd - Brandon Brown
3rd - Joe Rarey
Open A
1st - Pete Garcia
2nd - Jon Wayment
3rd - Jorie Williams
Open B
1st - Mike Gingles
2nd - Jeff Mcgahan
3rd - Thomas Reck
Race 8
Women B
1st - Christy McGuffin
2nd - Danielle Corbin
Women C
1st - Breana Corbin
2nd - Cindy Fasulo
3rd - Donna Espensen
Race 2 (moved to Race 9)
51-70cc Mod
1st - Nick Klein
2nd - Caide Hunt
3rd - Jacob Gillespie
71-90cc Mod
1st - Kyle Gillespie
2nd - Tommy Harris
3rd - Zachary Carle
71-90cc Stock
1st - Raycen Snow
2nd - Cameron Snow
3rd - Thomas Bennett
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| Parker Taylor #18y, Eatonville WA, shows confidence at the start of his race. |
90cc Open
1st - Parker Taylor
2nd - Cori Guy
3rd - Brendan Mulcahy
Race 14
Team Race B
1st - Depalma / Sheble
Team Race C
1st - Derek / Todd
2nd - Dan / Julie
Race 15
After a lightening start, Cody Mitchell was run down by old age and cunning in the two-seater UTE class. Then, it was a great battle between the Stambaugh and Linday teams. Side by side, bumper to bumper they gave the spectators what they crowded the fence to see. Luckily, there were no tips or serious collisions, so it was all in good fun. Stambaugh is building a sizeable lead on his way to the first WORCS UTE Championship title. And he's wearing out a lot of passengers.
Rhino Independent
1st - Jeff Stambaugh
2nd - David Lindsay
3rd - Cody Mitchell
