Jarrod McClure Finishes 2nd in WORCS Pro ATV Racing Debut
Straddeline ORV Park – Round 6 – Olympia, WA

As the month of August rolled around, I began getting ready for the trip. We flew out of Baltimore, MD on Thursday morning, the 14th, and because of the time change we arrived in Washington early. Since I was never on the West Coast, Harlen decided we would do some sight-seeing. We met up with Chris Webb and Lisa Breshears who live out there and checked out the coast-line.

Friday everyone was at the track practicing, but I figured I was only coming out to race for fun, so instead of going to the track the four of us went up to see Mt. Saint Helen’s. That was pretty awesome!

I got ready to race for my 10:45AM start time. I just received some awesome 2009 gear from Shift in time for the trip, so I suited up. The gear fits awesome and is a lot better vented, which really helped in the heat. I got to the start, and found out that it is a running engine start.

Due to the second place finish, I would have a good gate pick for the main on Sunday. After the race I washed the quad over at Mike Cafro’s trailer, and prepped the bike under the Motoworks tent. The Suzuki held up great though and didn’t need much wrenching. Then we headed up to Seattle to see the Space Needle and grab some dinner.

Sunday morning it was a lot cooler out, and according to the weather it would stay that way all day. I got to the track, and made sure the bike was ready to go. The race would start at 12:00. I staged in the top 15, due to my 2nd place finish on Saturday. That was good, because there would be two rows, and I got to start on the front one. We would start motocross style, meaning on a concrete pad with a gate. With a little help from John Widdle from Motoworks, and a big push-broom my “gate” was ready to go. I have little experience with gate starts, and I just hoped I didn’t tangle with it.

The 30 second board went sideways, meaning five to ten seconds till the gate drops. My heart was pounding, what a rush, hearing everyone rev their motors! The gate dropped, and the hour and thirty minute race began. I held my own a little better on the motocross now that I had some time on it. I went into the woods around eighth. The track had become a lot rougher due to all of the racing done on it. Also, we would be running through the “WORCS Cross” section today, which was an exciting section filled with tires, logs and big rocks! Without tireballs, I was cautious in the rocks, but my Maxxis tires held up great and would not bust!

I had little time on this Suzuki before this race, it’s been about a year since I rode it last. The LTR450 was mostly stock other than Elka Shocks, Roll Design a-arms, a precision stabilizer, and flexx bars. The motor was all stock, but it did well against all of the other ATVs that were built. The cherry bomb along with the Motoworks exhaust really brought the LTR to life. I adapted to the quad really quick, and the Elka shocks were really working nice. I was impressed at how good I felt riding on an unfamiliar quad, in an unfamiliar type of racing!

With about 25minutes to go I pitted “old school style”. By this I mean Harlen squeezed a gallon milk jug full of gas into my tank! It worked out pretty good. Lisa and Chris were also there helping out keeping me posted on what place I was in. With three laps to go, I was in second place. Josh Fredrick was out front and flying on his Motoworks Can-Am DS450. He had put a huge lead on the rest of us that were in the back battling it out.

I rode hard till the end, but at the checkered I had to settle for second. I just couldn’t catch Josh. He was moving!