WORCS ROUND 5 Toutle Washington

June 9, 2009 by Seth Fargher

Lucky for me, round five of the World Offroad Championship Series was held at Riverdale Raceway, not too far from my home. I was able to make the trek up for the day to enjoy the racing action and snap a few photos of the riders dodging trees, hopping gullies and proving why they are among the toughest in the world.

The WORCS series is like no other racing series in the country. Riders experience everything from motocross, to tight woods action, to wide open desert and even challenging water features. Shoot, this event even through supermoto into the mix as the track included a high speed stretch of asphalt. WORCS racing is definitely not for the faint of heart (nor for the weak body) but for those who dare to attempt it, it is an experience that falls 2nd to none.

Due to the nature of this type of racing it makes it somewhat of a challenge to keep track of rider positions throughout the course of the two hour long pro event. I did my best to keep track of the top few positions and focus on getting some photos of the racing action.

Yamaha factory pro Dustin Nelson grabbed the holeshot and held onto first position for most of the race. Beau Baron who has been gaining steadily in the points battle fell inline behind Nelson with Frenchman Jeremie Warina not far behind. Baron managed to squeeze by Nelson about midway through the race and hold on for the win however the days most impressive feat may have come from Jarrod McClure. Jarrod raced the John Penton GNCC in Millfield Ohio the day before the WORCS race, hopped aboard a plane bound for the west coast and managed a third place finish at this event.

Injuries seem to be plaguing some of the biggest names at the WORCS races as of late. Series points leader Josh Fredrick suffered a broken leg while racing an ITP quadcross event just a few weeks ago and was unable to race the Toutle round. At this event alone both Mike Cafro and Dustin Nelson suffered painful get offs with Cafro sustaining a broken wrist and Nelson pinning himself against a tree. As the series goes into the summer break, hopefully these riders are quick on the mend and able to rejoin the racing action August 16th in Olympia Washington.

As for the final standings Beau Baron took the checkers as well as jumped to first place in the series points standings. Jeremie Warina or Frenchy as most people called him took second and Jarrod McClure rounded out the Pro class podium in third.