Mike Cafro roosts past a group...
Mike Cafro roosts past a group of fans
The last Round of the 2006 WORCS/Rocky Mountain ATV Series was pretty much a day at the beach for Doug Eichner. The rough, whooped out 8-mile course beat up everyone equally. But reigning champ gave his competition an additional spanking with a resounding two minute lead on second place finisher Brandon Brown and the rest of the battered pro class. Brown, said he spent the last few weeks pounding out mile after mile in the dune whoops in his native Oregon and it showed with a solid second place finish at Pismo. Making it a Honda sweep of the podium was fellow TRX pilot John Shafe, who had one of his best finishes of the year.
Having already retained his number one plate, this was an event Eichner could have skipped. However, he still showed up and demonstrated how to go fast over the long stretch of rough sand. After the race, Eichner said he wanted to get out in front and put some distance on the pack so he could ride at his own pace. And he in fact did just that with the pack slowly dropped back as the course got uglier and harder. Adding to the difficulty was the longer than usual two hour format - normally the Pro ATV's race just 90 minutes. However, since this was a combined bike and ATV weekend and the bike pros do two hours, the four-wheeled side got to spin laps for another 30 minutes.
Running bikes and ATV's side-by-side...
Running bikes and ATV's side-by-side was challenging and answered the oft asked question of which one is faster. But hey, we had a tougher course than the bikes...
A first for the WORC Series, the Pismo round was a major hit. Combining with the Spinal Cord Injury charity race of last year and running in the middle of an open OHV park along with making the event a dual bike and ATV round equaled to an amazing 1045 entries over the weekend. ATV Rider was in this crowd as we took our new '07 Raptor 700R SE to the beach to give it a race test - read how it went in our March issue. The WORCS crew and the local Central Coast Motorcycle Association members set up a unique parallel course that allowed the simultaneous running of the bike and ATV races. Probably the only hassle was the shortage of parking and the need to air down tires to navigate the beach sand. That didn't hold back the masses from attending and the throngs of spectators perched atop dune hills to witness the action.
Hopefully this round returns next year, although promoter Sean Reddish commented it might be an ATV only event with the dual course again - to use one side per day over the weekend. Top get all the results from the myriad of classes and races at this round, head to the WORCS website; www.worcsracing.com.
 Doug Eichner shows the world...  Doug Eichner shows the world why his Honda still wears the #1 |  With equally steady finishes,...  With equally steady finishes, John Shafe wraps up '06 in fifth. |  Moving up from eighth on the...  Moving up from eighth on the first lap Levi Marana wasn't able to reel in Shafe and just missed the podium. |
 Running strong earlier on...  Running strong earlier on a Honda, Josh Frederick only made it two laps before his race day was over. |  One of two Yamahas in a sea...  One of two Yamahas in a sea of Honda's inside the top 10 was that of #30 Timothy Shelman. | 
Robbie Mitchell |
 Consistency earned Brandon...  Consistency earned Brandon Brown third place for the year. | 
Zack Herrera |  Eichner enjoys clean air thanks...  Eichner enjoys clean air thanks to a healthy lead |
Michael Cafro | 
Justin Neel |  Did we mention how many racers...  Did we mention how many racers there were at Pismo? How about a 70 riders in one class? |