Race Report: 2015 WORCS Round 1 | Taft, CA

January 18, 2015

WORCS championship series
Round One | Taft, CA

The Honolulu Hills MX facility, home to round one of the 2015 WORCS series, has been notorious for being dry and silty in past years, but the recent rains offered perfect conditions for Sunday’s pro motorcycle race. Heavy fog rolled in Sunday morning, adding a challenging aspect to the race as vision and goggle prep would be key factors. After a strong showing at the opening round of the BIG 6 series two weeks earlier, Justin Seeds was looking to maintain his momentum while Robby Bell was hoping to get his 2015 title campaign off to a strong start.

Robby Bell  |  1st place

Robby’s race got off to the best possible start as he took the holeshot into the first corner, but a bit of overexcitement led to him running wide, losing two spots to defending champion Gary Sutherlin and Justin Jones. “I got probably the best start of my life, hooking up perfectly off the concrete starting pad, but I came in to the first corner way too hot and blew at least thirty feet wide opening the door for Gary and JJ [Justin Jones] to make their way by.” Robby quickly went to work trying to find a way past Jones and was able to take the spot as the course came in to a pro-race-only double hill climb. “I had a better line than JJ and was able to carry more speed up the steep pro hill climb. From there I got on to the back of Gary pretty quickly and again had a little better, smoother line and was able to make the pass in to the lead before the end of the first lap.”

Robby took a dominating win at the opening round of WORCS. | Photo credit: Harlen Foley

From that moment Robby never looked back, pulling away to around a minute lead by the time the checkers flew and taking the first win of the 2015 WORCS season. “I felt absolutely fantastic all weekend. The bike worked incredibly well over the choppy terrain and I just had a feeling I wasn’t going to be beaten today. I definitely want to thank the whole team, my personal sponsors: Precision Concepts, MSR, Shoei, Sidi, Spy, EVS, USWE, Focus, FMF, BRP, A’ME grips, RAD custom graphics, Alamo Alarm and ATP Mechanix, my mechanic, my wife and everyone for supporting me. I’m having a blast on my dirt bike right now and want to keep that momentum rolling the rest of the year.”

Photo credit: Harlen Foley

2015 WORCS Round 1: Taft, CA | on board with Robby Bell

Justin Seeds | 4th place

“I felt good coming in to the weekend after having a great start to the year at the Adelanto GP.” Justin was looking to keep that momentum going and he got off to a pretty good start. “To my surprise I actually got a great jump off the [concrete] gate, which is very rare for me and I think I came around the first corner around fourth or fifth.” Justin quickly established himself in fourth and looked to pressure his teammate, Robby, but he suffered an issue with his glove which set him back. “I was right where I wanted to be, watching the leaders and I planned to attack later in the race, but unfortunately my glove came loose and wanted to fall off. It was messing with my grip and I started to pump up so I came in to the pits early for a new set of gloves and goggles.”

Justin came away with a solid fourth place finish, showing he had the speed to run with the leaders. | Photo credit: Harlen Foley

Justin came out of the pits around eighth place and, as he pushed hard to make up for lost ground, nearly suffered a fantastic crash. “I was coming up to a smaller double really fast and knew I needed to scrub it hard [to not over jump], but when I did I hit my foot on the lip and it threw me into a sweet superman. Luckily I was able to land it and keep going and from there I put the hammer down, catching up to fourth place by the finish.” Justin put in a great ride to recover from his early race troubles, passing the likes of Eric Yorba, Travis Coy, and Ivan Ramirez, and putting in some of the fastest laps of the race towards the end as he worked his way up to fourth position as the checkered flag came out.

Justin was able to pull this off and put in some incredibly fast laps afterward.
Photo credit: Harlen Foley

Though fourth place was a good start to the season, Justin was hoping for a bit more. “I was a little bummed [about the finish] because I know I had the speed to run up front. But after the problems I had I realized that walking away with fourth is a lot better than walking away injured. My bike was amazing all day, I could set it wherever I wanted no matter how rough the track was and the new motor work was perfect. I want to thank Precision Concept, John Burr Cycles, Mooses racing, Shoei helmets, X-brand goggles, Monster Energy, the Focus family, and Marzzochi.”

Top Ten Results:

1st. Robby Bell
2nd. Gary Sutherlin
3rd. Justin Jones
4th. Justin Seeds
5th. Eric Yorba
6th. Blayne Thompson
7th. Ivan Ramirez
8th. Travis Coy
9th. Jesse Lundin
10th. Justin Morgan