TAYLOR ROBERTS DOMINATES HAVASU WORCS
Robert Tops WORCS Round 3 Day one
By
Joe Colombero
3/26/2011, Havasu, Arizona: Taylor Robert took his time working his way to the front, but he was there when it counted, at the checkered flag, to win his first WORCS race of the season. Bobby Garrison took second place honors with Kyle Summers third.
Destry Abbott grabbed the holeshot on the dead-engine start, but he was quickly shouldered aside by Kurt Caselli who led for the first lap. Caselli and KTM teammate Mike Brown quickly pulled away with Gary Sutherlin in third. Former 2-time Havasau winner Ricky Dietrich was mired at the back of the pack, but quickly started moving forward.
Brown took over the lead on lap two displacing Caselli and now they were both being pursued by Kyle Summers and Taylor Robert. Dietrich had moved into 10th following the charge of Garrison. Sutherlin tangled with Justin Soule and both riders went down, dropping out of the top five.
30 minutes into the hour-long race Dietrich took over the lead with Garrison and Robert on his tail. Then Dietrich started to smoke having broken a case on one of the many rocks. He pulled off and took a DNF for the day. Garrison took over and tried to gap Robert, but it appeared Robert had decided it was his turn to win as he made the pass and pulled away. Summers moved by the KTM’s of Brown and Caselli, but he was being hounded by Soule who was hungry for his first podium of 2011. With minutes to go Soule crashed yet again and gave up his chance to catch Summers.
They finished with Robert taking the win, Garrison second, Summers third, Caselli fourth, Brown fifth, Soule sixth, Robby Bell seventh, Colton Udall eighth, Jamie Lanza ninth, Ryan Abbatoye 10th. Abbott, who got the holeshot finished 11th, Dietrich took a DNF as did former WORCS Champion Bobby Bonds.
“I finally won one,” said Robert. “It feels good to get it out of the way and take one of these home. It was awesome; I had battles with everybody coming up. It was a fun race. The track got super rough, but the rougher it got the smoother I felt. It feels good to get a win. My plan for tomorrow is to finish in first and get a better start.”
Results Round one
1.) Taylor Robert
2.) Bobby Garrison
3.) Kyle Summers
4.) Kurt Caselli
5.) Mike Brown
Results Round two
1.) Taylor Robert
2.) Bobby Garrison
3.) Mike Brown
4.) Kurt Caselli
5.) Justin Soule
Ricky Dietrich made an appearance and looked good until his bike let go
HAVASU THROUGH THE EYES OF STEVEN ACHEY
The 2011 edition greeted racers with absolutely perfect weather. Temps in the high seventies and only white puffy clouds to dot the sky’s, perfect. The Saturday Woody got started in silence because of the dead engine start required on the gateless Havasu starting straight. Homer Hamel dropped the flag and Destry Abbott’s Factory Monster Energy Kawasaki burst to life giving him the Big Daddy’s Cafe Morning Coffee holeshot and the lead. Nipping at his heels were a pair of new fangled electric start KTM’s ridden by the formidable pair of Kurt Caselli and the seemingly ageless Mike Brown who were dragging the rest of the angry Pro pack right along behind them. Abbott held strong for several turns but a slight bobble was seized upon by Caselli and he moved himself up into the lead. Caselli held strong with Brownie in tow for the first couple of laps. However both Brownie and Caselli forearms locked up with a horrendous cases of arm pump midway through lap 3 and a hard charging Kyle Summers was all to happy to blow by to take the lead and then Bobby Garrison, Taylor Robert, Justin Soule, and host of other riders followed suit and drop the KTM boys nearly out the top 10. Did we say it was bad case of arm pump or what!
Brownie and Kurt struggled bad with Popeye Arms
Garrison and Robert set about charging the circuit and running down the sprinting Summers. Just as they caught Summers on lap 3 they were caught by none other than former WORCS Champ and aspiring motocrosser Ricky Dietrich who blew by the trio to take the lead. Dietrich? Yes, Dietrich. Dietrich said he always enjoys Havasu so he came out for ‘S&G’s’ and so his former competitors, friends and fans could see he still has it. For the better part of two laps it kinda looked like he did. However, it must have turned to more ‘S than G’s’ because midway through lap 5 Dietrich started to slow and by lap 6 was out of the race turning the lead over to Garrison. Garrison was now putting on a clinic on sand riding out front. The sands of Havasu had other plans for Bobby and next thing you know, Garrison was on the ground opening the door for Robert to put his KX out front to stay. By this time Summers had a fight on his hand as Soule had pushed his KX up into podium position after spending a large part of the race sampling soil and rocks in four separate crashes! He wasn’t going to be as successful recovering from number 5. Soule went down and was passed backed to sixth by a host of pros that were all too happy take Soule’s share of the WORCS purse. Its tough out there!
Welcome to Havasu’s smooth terrain!
In the end Taylor Robert rode smooth and fast all the way to the victory in the Round 3 Woody. He was followed by Garrison, Summers and the only partially recovered Caselli and Brown who rounded out the top 5
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