06/14/2009 WORCS Round 6 Toutle, Washington
I finished 9th out of 26 Pro’s. I was really looking forward to this race when I saw the track on Saturday. This is definitely the best track we have ever had in Washington. It had an awesome long off road section in tight trees and it ran an 1/8th mile on a high speed pavement section. The weather was perfect about 60 degrees with overcast skies.
I knew passing on the course was going to be pretty tough so the start was everything. The start was maybe 200 yeards long with a 180 degree left hand turn. I was first to the turn and then suddenly it was like I was stuck in neutral, my clutch lever would not release out due to the handguard stopping it. The dumbest thing I have ever experienced, it just wouldn’t release the clutch out to get around the turn so I was just coasting and everyone was passing me. The crazy thing is we did a parade lap and I had no problems, everything was perfect. By the time I figured out what the heck was going on, I went from a holeshot to about 25th place. I couldn’t slide the hand guard up because the mount was too tight. I was hitting it with my palm then my fist and I couldn’t get it to budge. I finally had to stop and kick it with my boot to get it to move and release my clutch.
I now had no choice but to just ride hard and try and make up some ground. I think I came around first lap in 16th. I kept gaining positions and then on the third lap a guy crashed right in front of me and I hit his bike. It was not much of a hit and I didn’t go down but apparently I clipped my rear brake line, lost all the fluid and had no rear brakes the rest of the race. So I finished in 9th. Obviously a big disappointment to me. I felt so good going in and had done the work and felt this was my race.
Yesterday I was mad but, today I have to laugh about it. Who ever heard of losing a race due to a handguard. I know there were many other hard luck stories from the week end. So I feel blessed and know it can always be worse. The good news is there is always another race, and for that I am thankful.
Justin Soule’
WORCS Top 10:
1. Bobby Bonds
2. Mike Brown
3. Taylor Robert
4. Joshua Strang
5. Kyle Summers
6. Tim Weigand
7. Ricky Dietrich
8. Nick Brozovich
9. Justin Soule’
10. Rory Sullivan