Jarrod McClure Top 10 at Back to Back WORCS & GNCC
Buffalo Bill’s WORCS Round 2 & River Ranch GNCC Round 1

Jarrod McClure GNCC XC 1 Pro & WORCS ATV Pro Racer

Frankfurt, KY (3/9/2011) - March has finally arrived after a long winter and ATV racing is back in full swing. I quickly came to realize how busy my month was going to be as we headed to the second round of the WORCS series at Buffalo Bill’s Casino in Primm NV.

I had been staying in the San Diego area since the opening round in Taft to do some training and work on my quads setup, since the weather has been so bad back in Pennsylvania. I made the drive up to Primm on Friday morning with the MCR Team. I realized that after the race I would have to hustle home and drive to Florida the following weekend for the opening round of the GNCC series. I figured I’d put that in the back of my mind and focus on the race at hand first.

Roll Design's Jarrod McClure and Yamaha's Josh Row battling for position

The Primm race course is a little different than most WORCS events due to the fact that it lacked a motocross section and starting gate. It was strictly an all out desert race. It was a high speed whooped out track that would just keep falling apart lap after lap! Due to not having a starting gate it would be a dead engine start, which I was pumped about since we do that in GNCC every race.

As expected I had a great start getting just edged out by Josh Creamer for the holeshot…I was already counting the money till I seen Josh! I came out of the first turn in second, and quickly got passed by Jeremie Warnia on his smokin fast Can Am. I settled into third for the first lap. As we approached the end of the lap and hit the truck track I heard the number 94 of Dustin Nelson coming…I tried to hold him off but he was super fast on the blue groove. I would ride the next few laps in fourth and eventually felt pressure from Josh Fredericks and Josh Row.

Jarrod McClure gets some air over one of the whooped out sections at Buffalo Bills

Fredericks passed me on a long open straight away, and at that point I realized I was down on power and that something was going on. I had put a little to much oil on my air filter lid and it was starting to clog with sand. I was forced to let Row, and MCR’s David Haagsma by, but I made a quick stop removed the lid and put in a fast last lap trying to catch the guys. When I arrived at the checkered I was sitting in 8th place.

It was a solid finish, but I need to be in the top five! I am looking forward to Round 3 in Lake Havasu, and I will be ready for another brutal course. After the race I headed back to San Diego to catch a plane back home to Pennsylvania on Tuesday. I had two days to finish up my GNCC ATV then it was off to Florida for the opening round!

The Florida track was again held at the River Ranch facility. I was excited about racing in the woods again, and being back on a narrow quad! I would line up with 14 other Pros, including a few rookies who moved up from the Pro Am ranks. I came off the line with a fifth place start and fell into line behind Bill Balance and Donnie Ockerman going into the woods. I was able to get by Ockerman quickly, and also Ballance after he clipped a tree with his front end. I was running in third behind Chris Borich and Bryan Cook.

Kenda's Jarrod McClure makes his way threw the dark Flordia mud

The track was way different than the WORCS racing I’d been doing. It was still sand whoops, but they were DEEP…and with the slower speed it was hard to carry any momentum/rhythm through them. Also the palmetto sections were brutal, just ripping the bars from your hands. I was thankful for my Precision stabilizer and anti-vibe clamps which took some of the shock away!

The Can Am boys of Bithell and McGill were next to pass me. I knew trying to hold them off for two long would wear me down, so I decided to race at my on pace early on then turn it up at the end…So that’s what I did ran a steady pace the rest of the race. My Baldwin motor, paired with the Exit/Roll Design suspension was working awesome, and pulled me through the course with no issues. I also am running a new tire from Kenda that hooked up great and provided a lot of comfort on the track.

Jarrod McClure aboard his National Guard / Yokley Racing Honda 450R ATV

On the final lap I caught and passed KTM’s Bryan Cook, but as I pitted he was able to get by. I gave everything I had that last lap and after riding on his grab bar a majority of the lap and eating dust I had to back off a little. I was getting sloppy and didn’t want to wad it up with only a few days till Georgia.

After a grueling two hours in the Florida whoops I ended the day in sixth.
It was a great start to the season for me…I ran all race with no issues, and I am pleased with my setup. I’ll be ready to go back at it again in Georgia on Saturday!

I’d like to thank all my sponsor’s for this year:
Yokley Racing, National Guard, Coastal Drilling, Kenda, Roll Design, EXIT Shocks, Bowers Motorcycle, XCBOB.com, Baldwin Motorsports, 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