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Yokley Racing's
Jarrod McClure WORCS ATV Race Report
Honolulu Hills
- Round 1 - Taft, CA- January 21-23, 2011
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Yokley Racing's
#36 Jarrod McClure - Honda 450R ATV
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Frankfurt, KY (1/27/2011) - Drive
all the way to California?…are you crazy?
That was the reaction I got from everyone at home
last week, when I decided to make the 40+ hour drive
across the country. I would leave my home in Pennsylvania
on Saturday the weekend before the opening WORCS
race and arrive at Mike Cafro’s house on Tuesday
in Bonsall California. If you haven’t already
heard, I am competing in both the WORCS and GNCC
series once again for 2011. I will be riding a Honda
TRX450R backed by Yokley Racing, the National Guard,
Bowers Motorcycle, and Coastal Drilling. Coastal
is a new sponsor that came on board this year, and
is the main factor in my program that will allow
me to run the WORCS series.
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40+ hour
Drive Couldn't stop ATV Pro Racer Jarrod
McClure
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The opening round of WORCS always arrives way
to fast for a lot of racers. I found myself struggling
to finish my race ATV two days before my deadline
to leave. I would leave the weekend before the
WORCS race. I had to drive to Indianapolis where
I met with the truck driver of the Coastal truck.
The Coastal truck is an 80ft Renegade wrapped
with all our sponsors and looks sick! Once there,
I loaded my two quads in the trailer and tried
to fit my truck but we needed eight more inches!
I then realized that I would have to follow Frank
(the truck driver) across the country in my pickup.
I arrived at Mike’s place late Tuesday
and was happy to take a shower and unwind. I did
some testing at Glen Helen on Wednesday, then
came back to Mike’s to prep my quad. We
headed up to the track late Friday night and upon
arriving I realized I had to get out of my shorts
and put some cold weather clothes on because it
was about 20 degrees colder in Taft!
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Honolulu
Hills
offered a variety of terrain including
hard pack, log section, loose sandy areas
and a very nice motocross track where
you could get some major air time!
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Saturday would be the day I got to practice and
also my first time on the course. I went out for
the unclassified race early and just got a feel
for the track. The racecourse was a high-speed
super fast track, which had a mixture of hard
pack, loose terrain, square edge sand whoops,
and a nice motocross track. I realized my setup
was a little off, so back in the pits I made some
changes. I adjusted my RPM axle to a wider setting,
and I put some more air pressure in my tireballs
to account for the high speed.
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After the
first Practice Jarrod made some adjustments
to the air in the Tireballs & to the
rear shock for better handling
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Pro practice was next which started at 1:30pm, this
is also when we would qualify for our gate pick
during the main on Sunday. I geared up and went
out for the hour-long session. I found out after
one lap that I had way to much air in my tireballs,
because I was getting bounced everywhere. I qualified
10th, but knew I had to get back to work in the
pits working on my tire pressures. I also had Mike
Hallock from EXIT shocks make some slight changes
to my rear shock. Other than those changes I was
ready to go.
Race day finally arrived so I geared up in my
sweet new Shift gear, and Bell Moto-9 helmet,
and headed to the starting line. I realized I
arrived late and missed my gate pick so I ended
up way out on the end. Through the first turn
I was near the back, but my Baldwin motor was
pulling me forward each corner, by the fifth turn
or so I was running mid-pack when a rider in front
of me spun out leaving me nowhere to go but into
his nerf bar! We both dismounted and quickly pried
the ATV’s apart. From there I had to play
catch-up from the back of the pack, I quickly
got by Cafro and Baron who had issues early on.
Next was Andy Lagzdins who also had some mechanical
problems. There were three easy positions gained.
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The track
got pretty loaming in some sections where
one could really kick up a roost as Jarrod
did aboard his Yokley Racing Honda 450R
ATV
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With lap one down, I had moved up three positions
and began to close on Justin Waters and Tim Shelman.
Midway through the lap I passed the pair and set
my sights on Robbie Mitchell. My Roll Design suspension
paired with EXIT shocks worked flawless all race
and allowed me to keep moving forward, but before
I knew it the race was winding down and the white
flag was out…I was running out of time!
I was able to pass John Shafe and move into the
number 9 position to finish out the day.
I had a great race, the opening round is always
crazy. I had little time testing the new machine,
and also coming off my wrist injury I still don’t
feel 100%. I plan on spending a few weeks out
here on the West Coast to do some training and
dial in my setup. Primm is the next WORCS race
and I will definitely be more prepared!
I’d like to thank all of my sponsor’s
for making this year possible:
Yokley Racing, National Guard, Coastal Drilling,
Kenda, Roll Design, Bowers Motorcycle, XCBOB.com,
Baldwin Motorsports, EXIT shocks, Precision, TUSK,
RPM, IMS-Roll, HMF, MCR, DWT, Scott, K&N,
Motoprotraining, ATVriders.com, KG Clutches, G4
Graphics, Tsubaki, Tireballs, Bell Helmets, SHIFT,
Leumas Enterprise, Quad Tech
www.YokleyRacing.com
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