I Finished 2nd overall.  The all off road course was 24.7 miles of paved streets to flat out as fast as you could go to one lined tight and technical, and of course a lot of rocks.  I believe there was a record turn out with 439 racers.  The Start was on the street of downtown historic Virginia City.  Each row had 10 bikes that were started every 30 seconds,  I was on row 4.  The race was checkered at 4 hours and I came in just shy of the 4 hour mark and had to go back out on another loop.  I was hoping to catch or see the leader.  After almost 5 hours of racing I felt really strong and accomplished one of my main goals of not crashing once, although I came up short on my main goal of winning.

I ended up having to pit every lap and lost a lot of time there.  I was using about 2 gallons each lap, so I definitely had to pit every lap.  However, if you didn’t pit you went through the scanner and right back on the race course.  If you did pit you had to wind through the fenced in areas at 5mph to get to the pits and lose several minutes before you could get back on course.  But I am really happpy with my race and my KX450 Kawasaki.  It was strong and ran awesome all day.  All in all a really good day!

1.  Ross Neely

2.  Justin Soule’

3.  Irving Powers

I finished 5th.  The race was at Racetown 395 in Adelanto and it consisted of the motocross and several miles of off road.  It was about 75 degrees and the course was dry, sandy and rough. 

I had about a mid pack start and quickly moved up to the top 10.  I am not sure what the deal was but, I could never get a flow and put a charge on.  I straight up struggled and fought the course the entire two hours.  I usually love rough tracks but I just seemed to really get beat up on this one.  I did see a lot of nasty crashes, DNF’s, blown up bikes, people running out of gas, a crazy day.  So I am glad I finished safe and salvaged a 5th.

Round 5 is at Honey Lake in Milford California on May 16th.  I now sit 4th in points.

Top 10:

1.   Mike Brown

2.   Kurt Caselli

3.   Ricky Dietrich

4.   Eli Tomac

5.  Justin Soule’

6.  Gary Sutherlin

7.  Josh Strang

8.  Bobby Garrison

9.  Nathan Woods

10. Johnathan Davis

I finished 5th. I am really happy with this finish considering what it took to get it.  This was going to be a dead engine start.  At the Primm race I took the hole shot with a dead engine start.  At the beginnning of every WORCS race we get to run a parade lap.  I could not get the bike started, I am thinking this is not a good sign.  I started the race in the back of the pack.  About a mile into the race I was hit by another rider resulting in a hurt knee and a pretty bad crash.  My knee hurt so bad I could hardly stand, much less walk.  My bike laid there and I had to wait for the rest of the bikes to pass.  My motivation to get back on the bike was knowing that some 20 plus Pro 2 riders were coming.  I got back on the bike almost two minutes behind the last place rider.  I admit I was mad, had a lot of adrenaline, and I was in a lot of pain.  I put in some of my fastest laps trying to catch up.

By lap 5, I had moved into the top 10, I was charging hard.  Around lap 8 the bolt on my rear brake backed out and I totally lost my rear brake lever.  This was from the crash, not good!  I was able to move up to 5th, but it was pretty hard to make the passes I needed to get up on the podium.  We did a total of 19 laps.

Lake Havasu did not disappoint me, it is one of the roughest courses we race all year.  I love it!   The course is only a couple of miles long so it gets really beat up and has deep sand sections and tons of rocks, really a tough course.

I am going to take it easy a few days and keep the knee iced.  Hopefully, there is no damage and I will be good to go.  The good news is I moved up to 3rd overall in the series.

Top 10:

1.   Ricky Dietrich

2.   Mike Brown

3.   Kurt Caselli

4.   Kyle Summers

5.  Justin Soule’

6.   Robbie Bell

7.   Gary Sutherlin

8.   Colton Udall

9.   Nathan Woods

10. Chris Johnson

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