WORCS RACE, LAKE HAVASU, AZ: DESTRY’S JOURNAL

WORCS RACE, LAKE HAVASU, AZ: DESTRY’S JOURNAL

Lake Havasu, Az.
March 20, 2005

Pre Race:
This race last year beat me up pretty good. I was running in the top five until the last half hour, when I hit dehydration mode. I barely made it to the finish for 12th place. This year I’ve been drinking gallons of water for a while now. Even though this year it doesn’t look like it’s going to be super hot, I’m sure the water will still help. Johnny, my kids, and I showed up Friday morning to ride practice. I couldn’t believe they had so many riders here on Friday. I would guess there were at least a few hundred riders just for practice. Luckily we had a our own pro practice and there weren’t that many people out there. I was super happy with the way my KX 250 was working. I’m really looking forward to Sunday.

Saturday:
Today I went out to the track with my kids to watch my mechanic Johnny race. He raced the 250F B class and I think there were a little over 45 guys in his class. Johnny rode a great race and finished 3rd in class. Then after that, my wife showed up with my trainer James and his wife Sally. At 2:00 the top 10 guys had practice on the whole course and I was pretty surprised at how rough the course had gotten. I actually think this is going to be a good thing for me. I’ve been feeling really good with my training (due to James and Ryan Clark) and I feel like I’ve been riding really well too. It’s going to be a short course with six-minute lap times, so picking good lines will be important. Time to get some rest for tomorrow.

Race Day:
We all showed up at the track, a couple hours early, to hang out and watch a couple of races before the pro’s went off. At 11:00 we had our rider meeting and then had a quick service with MRO (Tony Acosta). After that, we started to make our way up to the start to do the parade lap. They actually smoothed out a couple of sections for us, but it didn’t stay smooth for long. We usually have a gate to start in, but this isn’t a mx track so they decided to start us like a national H&H (dead engine). This was good for us H&H guys, because we’re used to this. When the banner fell I had a great jump and was leading (the 45 pro’s) to the first turn, but Russ Pearson and Kurt Caselli were able to get by me then. The first couple of laps had a lot of people going back and forth. I was running about fifth, but only seven or eight seconds behind the leader. The pace was a lot faster then I thought it would be, because this race has so many people hit the wall or just quit towards the end. Everything was going pretty good for me, and I was still in the top six around the half-hour mark. Nathan Woods was on the gas up front and started to put a gap on the rest of the field. The top 8 guys seemed to be pulling away from everyone else, but I was still working on moving up a few spots. Then Mike Kiedrowski was able to get right on me and make the pass. At this point, I stayed behind him for the next lap and we started to make up some time on a couple of riders ahead of us. Then when Mike got around a lapper, I tried to go under the lapper and lost my front end when I got squeezed out. It was a bad decision on my part, but I wasn’t to happy to be picking up my bike in these Volkswagen size whoops. I was so tired once I got going that it took me a little while to get back up to speed. Then I had to stop for my first pit (45 minutes in) and I was able to get some water down my back to wake me up. After this I didn’t have really anyone to race with, but I did keep a good pace going. I was running around 7th and was pretty bummed with where I was at. The guys up front were really riding well. At the hour and a half mark, I stopped for my second pit stop. I was still in 7th but wasn’t that far behind Lance Smail and Russ Pearson. The last half hour is by far the toughest part of this race. I still felt pretty good and was able to get by Lance, but that’s about all I had going. With two laps to go, I decided to play it smart and not wad it up because my feet were dragging. I ended up finishing a disappointing 6th, but there were a lot of really good riders that struggled today. I’m still in the title chase and that’s my main goal right now, but a win here soon would be nice.

Results:
1st Nathan Woods
2nd Tim Wiegand
3rd Mike Kiedrowski
4th Russell Pearson
5th Bobby Garrison
6th Destry Abbott
7th Kurt Caselli
8th Dennis Stapleton
9th Ryan Dudek
10th Shane Watts
11th Lance Smail
12th Brian Garrahan
13th Matt Karlsen
14th Ricky Dietrich
15th Kendall Norman

Other Notes:
Friday night I did an autograph signing with some of the other Pro’s at Cycle Sport. We had a great turn out and it went really well.

I need to give James Perez a huge thanks for showing up and helping me out. He also helped a couple of the Kawasaki riders. James is my trainer and he’s also a massage therapist.

Next weekend I don’t have a race. I’m definitely looking forward to relaxing at home. Then the next weekend I’m thinking of racing the Big 6 G.P. race over in California.

Jason Bean , from Bean Designs, put up $150 for the pro whole shot. I just barely missed it, off the start, and Kurt Caselli received the honors.

Mike Metzger showed up to give another off-road race a try. He did pretty well, but I was able to lap him towards the end of the race.

This weekend is spring break, and there were a lot of parties going on all weekend here in Havasu. Not good for trying to get some sleep.

I was told there were 1,170 entries for the weekend. That was pretty awesome to see.

Bean Designs brought down a very cool Shoei helmet they painted for me. I would say it was one of the best paint jobs I’ve seen.

Best Wishes,
Destry

www.destryabbot.com
2005 Sponsors:
Kawasaki, FMF, Thor, Dunlop, ACME, Kawasaki Acc., Scott, SIDI, CTI2, Motion
Pro, Bent, Works Connection, Hinson, IMS, Scott’s, Jonre.com, Cyto Sport,
Acerbis, BRP, Pro Clean 1000, Trick, Varner, ZLT, Sprocket Specialist, DP
Pads, Shoei, UNI, American Racing Wheels, RK/Excel, 909, Wiseco, Motorex,
N-style, V-Force, and Twisten Wrenches.