2012 WORCS Race Round 1 - Glen Helen

I'm going to try to be good this year and post a summary of all of our racing and riding activities for 2012. We just wrapped up 6 days down in southern Utah over New Years getting back into riding after 6 weeks off from Clay's injury in Phoenix. 

We've decided to try to hit several of the 10 races in the WORCS series this year which are all over California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. The first round was January 14th at the famous Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernadino California. We had a mad dash of bike prep to do to get things ready for the event. Thanks to Andrew and Bryce for some last minute help to get things finished up and ready.

1 - Fork Rebuild
1 - Tire and tube change
5 - Air Filters
3 - Oil Changes

We headed out Wednesday evening around 6:30 with St. George as our goal to spend the night. We picked up a late addition with one of the kids friends Griff Hall. We were very happy to have him along and he loves all things moto.

One way stats. I'll let you do the math at $3.85 a gallon. Ouch!

 We got everything all setup and then decided to move spots up to a big overlook in the center of the track. It was nice because we have a great view from the back of our trailer of most of the course.

 It was nice to get there early so we could walk the track and get everything ready for practice day. We had a major windstorm come though which kept the trailer rocking all night though.

 Practice day started at 9 and the kids were excited to get going. WORCS lets you practice only the motocross section which was 2 miles long. The actual course with the endurocross sections and the desert ended up around 5 miles in length.

Clay and Gracie getting ready to practice

Clay and I got to do one practice together on the race morning which was fun. You can see Clay exiting the corner.

They had a really fun course with lots of obstacles like these pipe tunnels. Clay is out in front of me.

There are lots of huge hill climbs at Glen Helen. This one was very, very steep. This is Clay and I.

Matt Provost, the kids trainer and coach came down to the races to help the kids. It was great having him there to build their confidence.

Classes are much larger than what we are used to in the local races. I think there were 20 kids in Clay's class. Total there were probably around 50 kids racing at the same time all spread out.

Gracie, on the other hand, has a small class. Only three riders and the other two were on much larger machines. Still, she did great and had a lot of fun.

Our friend Griff got to help direct the pee wees during their practice.

Gracie had a great ride. Unfortunately her motor seized at the finish line, so her mechanic has some work to do.

Griff and Clay

Clay did great on his 65 taking 3rd place in his first WORCS race. Getting a podium finish on his first race with such a competitive group was awesome!

Happy finishers.

 The trophy haul was pretty good. Clay got a cool sprocket trophy and a free Leatt hat. Gracie got a medal for her finish.

Everyone was exhausted from a long couple of days of racing. Still, we loaded up that evening and I drove to Vegas so we could soak in Uncle Mike's hot tub. It was a great end to the day, even if it was 1am :)