Round 5 of the WORCS off road ATV series was held at Riverdale Raceway in Toutle, Washington. The skies were gray and drizzly but not enough to touch the ground all weekend. Riverdale raceway incorporated all of its attractions into the course. From the motocross track, 1/8 mile drag strip and trail system. Most of the trail system was made one-off for the weekend. Many hidden tree stumps, holes and roots hidden just below the foot tall grass would wreak havoc on many of the racers through all the classes this weekend. The trails were very tight and quite a few trees had tire marks from impacts. With Josh Frederick out due to a wreck a week before, it was catch-up for the rest of the pros to close the gap Josh had created.
The Start of Riverdale's motocross was a very short, flat and loose "U" Turn. When the gate dropped, #94 Factory Yamaha Dustin Nelson took the AtvRiders.com $100 holeshot. While he was in the clear along with #62 Can-Am/Motoworks Jeremie Warina and #3 MCRs Beau Baron, the rest of the field tangled up off the first turn causing many riders to have problems or injuring themselves in the process.
The pro obstacle this round would be a small ravine jump with no lip to either make a pass or stay ahead. With Warina and Nelson jumping the gap with ease the first few laps, Nelson jumped it and then stalled on the other side. Warina in fear that Baron would jump it also if given the chance to pass, committed himself to jumping it also but with Nelson stalled on the other side, Warina hit the brakes and Baron squeezed by Warina going the long way around. Once Nelson re fired his machine, Warina tried to jump the gap being committed, his Can-Am fell into the gap letting Baron and Nelson distance themselves. Warina stood on the opposite embankment while throttling his quad out and would quickly recover. Doug Eichner also came up short in the loose dirt and would get stuck in the ravine. Warina is much taller then Eichner so he could not do what Jeremie did. Doug didn't panic and his quick thinking got him out buy putting the quad in gear, giving it full throttle and dumping the clutch launching the quad out of the ditch and landing right just far enough out of it, only because his kill tether couldn't reach any farther. By doing this, the rest of the field was unable to pass him which keeping him from losing any positions.
Beau Baron would pass Warina on the second lap and could only pressure Nelson to make a mistake somewhere during the race. Dustin Nelson held the lead for over half the race with Baron in second and Warina in third until an unfortunate incident with a tree, Dustin crashed. Pinning himself between the tree and the quad in good racing spirit and sportsmanship #110 AtvRider's.com rider Jarrod McClure stopped and helped Nelson crawl out and remount his quad. Injured with an ill handling quad, Dustin would have to settle for a disappointing 16Th place finish. Baron then would take over the lead followed by Warina and McClure.
Factory Polaris Rider #5 Doug Eichner getting caught in the first turn carnage would put on a hard charge to go from almost dead last off the start to a 6Th place overall. He also was the fastest quad down the drag strip at 78mph. In the end, Baron setting the fastest lap time of 11:51.4 would take his second overall win of the season and second in a row. Then followed by Jeremie Warina in second and finishing out the podium. Running both GNCC and WORCS series, Jarrod McClure flew in late Saturday night and with no practice took the 3rd and final position. With a solid finish Josh Row took home 4Th, Mike Machado in 5Th, Doug Eichner in 6Th, Locals #15 Ryan Piplic and #10 Jorie Williams taking home 7Th and 8Th followed by #95 Justin Waters and finishing up the top ten Local #191 Reed Petchnick.
In the Pro-Am class, #422 Kawasaki David Hagagsma took his first win of the season coming from a second row gate to take the win. Followed by #49 Can-Am/Motoworks Dillon Zimmerman in second.#166 Honda of Keith Johnson Took his first podium of the season in 3rd.
With Round 5 complete, Beau Baron takes over the Points lead with 122 points, followed by Josh Frederick with 110 and in third, Jeremie Warnia with 91. Next will be round 6 of 8 held August 14Th in Olympia, Washington.