I know my website is not updated and is in the process of switching to Kawsaki green and listing all of my new sponsors.  My website is done by Amber Farmer and  as many of you know she and Mike just had a new baby, so it should be done soon…..

I was 1st Overall with my partner Gary Sutherlin.  I have always heard great things about the Best in the Desert races and I have always wanted to try one, but my schedule never seemed to allow it.  I heard about this race Thursday night.  The problem was I had to hurry up and find a partner.  My friend Gary Sutherlin was able to and made the drive from Phoenix.   So I had to scramble to get my practice bike race ready and leave at 4:00 a.m. the next morning for make the 8-9 hour drive to Laughlin.

The course was two seperate loops, the first being 19 miles of fast whooped out sand and the second loop was 18 miles of tight rocky single track.  The race started one bike at a time every 30 seconds and we drew the 5th spot.  Gary started the race doing the first loop and he was riding like a mad man, handing the bike to me with a 30 second lead.  From there I put another 1 and half minute gap on everyone on my loop and we just kept pulling the whole race.  It was 4 hours and a lot of fun, I will definitely be back next year.

Top 3:

1.    Justin Soule’ / Gary Sutherlin

2.    Bobby Garrison / Corey Grafunder

3.    Ty Davis / Nick Burson

I finished 2nd out of 27 riders.  WORCS did an awesome job with the new venue.  It was all off road with some virgin stuff on a 5+ mile course with no motocross.  We had a dead engine start and my Kawasaki 450F fired first kick and I had the hole shot.  About half way into the first lap I hit a rut and bobbled which allowed Kurt Caselli to make the pass for 1st and now I am in 2nd.  I raced so hard and had so much fun on this course.  I was able to hold onto 2nd until the 12th lap.  I had an all out battle with my team mate Ricky Dietrick for 2nd he was able to get around me.   I stayed right on him and was able to make the pass stick and I finished in 2nd with Dietrich finishing in the 3rd spot. 

Top 10:

1.   Kurt Caselli

2.   Justin Soule’

3.   Ricky Dietrich

4.   Tim Weigand

5.   Bobby Garrison

6.   Jonathan Davis

7.   Gary Sutherlin

8.   Robby Bell

9.   Destry Abbott

10. Colton Udall     

I finished 10th out of 31 racers.  I felt really good and have been working hard in the off season so I was ready to go.  The course consists of a motocross track, arenacross track and a Vet track with very little off road racing.  I had a terrrible start, rounding the first turn in about 20th place.  I moved into 6th by the second lap and was on the move.  Third lap I hit a stake in the ground with my handlebar and crashed pretty hard and dropped back to 17th position.  I messed my bike up along with my wrist.  I was in a lot of pain and just trying to catch up and salvage what I could.  I was able to catch up to 10th and salvage some points.  

My next race is WORCS Round 2 on February 28th in Primm, Nevada.

WORCS Round 1 Top 10:

1.  Taylor Robert

2.  Mike Brown

3.  Kurt Caselli

4.  Tim Weigand

5.  Ricky Dietrich

6.  Destry Abbott

7.  Eli Tomac

8.  Robbie Bell

9.  Colton Udall

10 Justin Soule’ 

Congratulations to 19 year old Travis Coy of Boulder Creek, California and 9 year old Matthew Cook of Napa, California they are the first winners of my new annual privateer outreach program.  They each will receive a Shoei Helmet and 5 WORCS race entries.  Thanks to Jason Reed of JR Publications jason@jr-publications and Bret Milan at Shoei Helmets www.shoei-helmets.com  for making this possible.  Thank you also for all of the great essays. 

I hope to make this bigger and better every year to help the privateer achieve their racing dreams.