Jarrod McClure WORCS Round
3 Pro ATV Race Report Lake Havasu City, AZ
- March 29, 2009
Lake Havasu City, AZ (4/4/2009) -
After an unsuccessful Round 3 of the GNCC series
due to mechanical problems, it was time to forget
and move on to round 3 of the WORCS racing series.
Round 3 would be held in Lake Havasu City, in Arizona.
Lake Havasu is a very demanding track and is somewhat
similar to the Florida GNCC. It is a relatively
short track, and is composed of mostly sand so it
deteriorates quick and gets very rutted and whooped
out. I arrived at the track Friday morning the weather
was awesome with highs in the 80’s, and the
scenery was amazing, especially with it being spring
break!
In case you forgot I am racing a Honda in the WORCS
series, but I am storing it on the West Coast, so
I didn’t ride or even see it since the first
round of the series back in January. I spent most
of the day on Friday going over the quad and tuning
it up for practice on Saturday. I had help from
my mechanic John Bowers, and also my dad. Motoworks
also supplied me with any tools I needed, and really
got me up and running and I can’t thank them
enough.
Motoworks
#110 Jarrod McClure
I mounted up a set of GBC tires, on my new Hiper
wheels, making sure to put a little extra air in
my Tireballs for the sand. I was amazed at how helpful
everyone in the pits is. I had some help from Mike
Cafro, and the DATS racing team also. Saturday I
was able to get out on the track during the practice
races. Mike Hallock was present at the track, and
he helped me dial in my Exit/Arsfx suspension. We
got it feeling nice, but I would have liked more
time. I would say total I only have about two hours
R&D on this quad which isn’t enough however
we did move forward and I was anxious to race.
Race day arrived and I was a little excited after
hearing we would be having a dead engine start.
Normally it is live start on a gate, but there is
no gate at this course. I lined up way inside hoping
to have a good jump. The flag waved, and all I have
to say is HOLESHOT! My GBC tires hooked up great
and I got my first pro holeshot it felt awesome
being out front. I led for just about a lap, but
then got passed by Jeremie Warnia coming on to the
motocross track. We traded positions for a while
then he began to pull away. Coming by the pits on
the second lap I got a little confused and went
the wrong way allowing Dustin Nelson to get by me.
I got straightened out and back on the track.
GBC
Motorsports' Jarrod McClure grabbed the
ATVriders.com Holeshot Award by edging out
Polaris' Doug Eichner
I had my rear shock set up a little soft for the
condition, and it forced me to drop a few positions.
About twenty minutes in I was somewhere around sixth
when my smooth run got stopped. Trying to avoid
a huge whoop in the track I ended up clipping a
piece of concrete with my front left tire causing
my tierod to snap! I was going nowhere. Trying to
save time I ran back to the pits and got a wrench
and a tierod and after about twenty minutes I had
the quad going again.
It took me about a lap or two to get a steady pace
going, but after that I felt like I was really moving
good, I passed a lot of pro riders, but I was already
three laps down, so I really wasn’t getting
anywhere. I just rode as hard as I could till the
end, My conditioning felt great thanks to working
with Motoprotraining all winter, and at the end
I was still pushing hard. I wished I would have
had better luck earlier on.
I finished eighteenth in the Pro Class. Not the
finish I would have liked, but I rode my hardest
and got the bike setup a lot closer, so it was a
somewhat productive weekend. Oh yeah and I got the
holeshot!
I’d like to give a special thanks
to all the guys at Motoworks for letting me use
all their tools to get my bike up and running. I
couldn’t do it with out them. I’d also
like to thank my other sponsors:
Bowers Motorcycle Supplies, Atvriders.com, GBC tires,
Motoprotraining, Exit Shocks, ARSFX, SHIFT, Pro
Armor, XCBob.com Hiper, Clarke, Tireballs, Powermadd,
Motoworks, Pro Taper, Amsoil, Leumas enterprises,
Creative Graphic Designs, friends and family!