JUNE 13–CASELLI AT WASHOUGAL WORCS

KTM’s Kurt Caselli finally scored a win in the WORCS series Sunday after what many considered to be the best race of the season so far. For most of the two-hour race, it was a four-way race between Kurt, Nate Woods, Lance Smail and, to the surprise of nearly everyone, Kawasaki upstart Ricky Dietrich.

In fact, with less than two laps to go, it looked like Detrich was going to pull off the win. He had built a small lead over Woods, Smail and Caselli and no one seemed to have the steam to reel him in. But just before the white flag came out, the young team green rider fell victim to mechanical trouble. His silencer core broke, causing the KX250 to virtually stop in its tracks. He pitted to remove the silencer all together, but it cost him three positions.

That set off a free-for-all that saw Woods, Smail and Caselli all lead for some portion of the final lap. A thrown chain took the lead away from Woods and from there on it was a race between Caselli and Smail.

Bad luck took a toll on many of the favorites. Ty Davis got tangled in barbed wire during practice and injured his shoulder. He rode to 11th place in obvious pain. The same thing was true for David Pearson, who suffered with a hip injury and was happy to get 12th. Russ Pearson had the worst day of all, losing the coolant in his YZ250 two-stroke and failing to finish at all.

Rain fell throughout the night before the race, making for ugly conditions in the early laps. But as the race progressed, traction got better and better and most of the racers agreed it was one of the best courses in the WORCS series so far this year.

WORCS, ROUND 7, WASHOUGAL, WA
1 Kurt Caselli (KTM)
2 Lance Smail (Kaw)
3 Nate Woods (Yam)
4 Ricky Dietrich (Kaw)
5 Mike Kiedrowski (Suz)
6 Ryan Voase (Kaw)
7 Destry Abbott (Kaw)
8 Mark Tilley (Hon)
9 Bobby Bonds (KTM)
10 Justin Soule (Kaw)