| WORCS
ATV Series
Round #7
Straddleline
ORV
August 17-19, 2007 |
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Olympia, WA - Round 7 of the WORCS
series was an event full of “firsts”.
The race was held at Straddleline ORV Park, which
is located on 150 acres nestled in Washington State’s
Capitol Forest. The ORV Park was previously named
Thurston County ORV Park and had been shut down
for a couple of years due to misappropriated government
funding and a lack of support from local politicians.
The track changed ownership and was reopened in
2005, and this year played host to its first WORCS
event.
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#2
Josh Frederick & #114 Jeremy Schell
made the switch to the all-new Can-Am DS450
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Unfortunately, the track and many racers fell
victim to Washington’s notorious rainfall.
A steady downfall of precipitation on Saturday
night into Sunday morning, left the track muddy
and slick with areas of standing water for Sunday
morning’s events. According to Doug Eichner,
“There was some standing water on the low
areas of the MX track and also back in the woods
section.” Eichner chose to run his Polaris
with the IRS for this particular race due to the
track conditions. “I had both the IRS (independent
rear suspension) and single axle there, but with
the rain and the mud we decided the IRS would
be the best bet for this race.” He said.
At noon the Pro and Pro-am event began. Eichner
ended up getting pinched out on the first corner
and found himself behind Josh Frederick, Jeremy
Schell, and Tim Shelman. Being a local Washington
racer, Shelman is rather accustomed to the wet
and muddy conditions off the gate and grabbed
the ATVRiders.com $100 Holeshot award, his first
of the season.
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MotoWorks Tim Shelman grabs the
ATVriders.com Holeshot Award |
The weather and track conditions played a big
roll in how the race played out. Many of the racers
had to make several pit stops to change goggles
and gloves and have their radiators sprayed off.
Shelman sited that having to make several pit
stops himself, and not being able to hold on because
of all the mud, as the two contributing factors
for losing his lead. Frederick caught and passed
Tim early in the race. “I passed Tim (Shelman)
and was in the lead for a while until my goggles
got covered with mud.” Said Frederick. “I
came up to a double and couldn’t see and
Doug was right behind me and passed me as I was
trying to take them off.”
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| #11
Tim Shelman held the lead for the 1st lap,
but the mud would take its toll on Shelman
as he dropped back several positions
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#1
Doug Eichner was on the move passing Shelman,
Schell, and Frederick to take over the lead
on his Polaris Outlaw 525 IRS |
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