2017 WORCS #7 | Sand Hollow

By Precision Concepts | April 23, 2017

Riverside, CA –

Rocky Mountain ATV/MC, Precision Concepts’ Justin Seeds earned his first WORCS pro class victory in the sand and rocks at the sixth round of the WORCS series in Sand Hollow, UT. The racing couldn’t have been much more intense as he and Travis Damon passed back and forth for the lead multiple times over the final two laps, including a coming together one turn from the white flag that took both riders down. After losing the lead with just a few straightaways to go, Justin was able to make the final pass with only two corners to go, holding on for an emotional win. Fellow team rider Robby Bell came into the weekend nursing a few lingering injuries sustained just a couple weeks prior at the Twentynine Palms BIG 6 GP and was simply hoping to garner a decent finish and earn championship points. Robby ran as high as fourth before bending his chain guide and ultimately DNF’ing the event.

Photos courtesy of Harlen Foley.

Justin Seeds

The finish couldn’t have been any closer, with Justin taking the win by less than half a second over Travis Damon, after nearly two hours of racing over one of the most expansive courses on the WORCS schedule. Justin spent the majority of the race in third place, stalking Damon and leader Gary Sutherlin, until Gary came together with a lapped rider, forcing him to pull out of the race. Justin dug deep to catch Damon with just two laps to go, and the two put on one of the most exciting final lap battles the WORCS series has seen. It started just after Justin had taken the lead, when Travis tried to force a pass one corner before the white flag, causing both riders to fall and then scramble to get going again first. After passing each other a couple times in the closing stages of final lap, Justin wicked it up a gear and made the pass for the win with just two more corners to the finish line, taking the first WORCS pro win of his career.

“It’s pretty epic.” said Seeds after the finish, before jokingly continuing, “There are savages and there are averages, and I kind of feel like a savage right now, being able to pull that off. I’ve been wanting this for a very long time, and I finally did it! I had to put the hammer down to catch Travis after Gary broke. [Travis] has a lot of heart and desire, especially when he’s out front so to make the move on him, the way we battled, just made it epic. I’m on cloud nine right now, but we still have work to do. We have a championship to hunt down now and I can’t slow down. Now we get back to work.”

Robby Bell

Robby came in to the weekend still carrying some injuries to his ribs and back after a wild crash while leading the Twentynine Palms BIG 6 GP just two weeks prior. After getting off to a good start, Bell settled into a comfortable pace that he felt he could maintain to the finish, and even ran as high as fourth [which would have been third after Sutherlin dropped out of the race], but on the seventh lap of the ten-lap main, Robby hit an embedded rock hard with the chain guide and bent it to the point that the chain would continuously derail. He had to resort to pushing the bike back to the pits through the deep, dune sand, though thankfully most of the push was slightly downhill, and by the time he made it to the pits, the white flag was flying and there wasn’t time left to get back out on course. Fortunately, Bell had completed enough laps to still earn championship points, as opposed to a 0-point DNF.

“I had a good day going,” said Bell, “I wasn’t anywhere near fit or on pace, but I was inside the top five and felt like I could have held that to the finish. Obviously I had a reshuffle of my goals coming into this race after Twentynine Palms, and I figured if I could keep the damage to a minimum as far as the points were concerned, and at least still be in the back of Gary’s mind as the series moved on to Cedar City I would be happy. Obviously it’s such a bummer that Gary had issues today too, and I hope he’s physically alright because he’s hitting a busy stretch of racing, but it did keep me within a race-win of Gary’s point lead, so I’m looking on the bright side of that. As far as my title defense this year, it’s been a difficult one. I’ve thought about how easy it could be for me to hang my head, just say the deck is stacked against me this year and I can’t catch a break, but I don’t feel like that. At Twentynine Palms, I felt like I found my 2015 form again, and it’s a bummer, yes, that I crashed and set myself back once more, but part of the make of a man is how he handles adversity and I’m determined to continue to enjoy this year and push to be the best that I can at each event.”