2012 WORCS ATV Racing Round #1 - Glen Helen MX January 22, 2012

The weekend kicked off Friday with motocross practice, and the weather was picture perfect for those that had an opportunity to get in some final testing and practice, but the weather quickly changed to the worse Friday night with rain moving in over the area, which turned the track into a muddy mess and forced the WORCS official to re-route the original course and reschedule many of the races including the cancellation of the pro practice on Saturday.

Heavy rain Friday night turned the majority of the track into mud soup, so the track layout was quickly re-routed to avoid the washed out hill climbs and flooded low level areas of original track, but despite the rough conditions racing went on Saturday, and the sun came out Sunday for the Pro & Pro-Am ATV Main event

Luckily for everyone, the weather cleared for Sunday’s main event, and the re-routed track was fairly dry for the start of the race with racers heading to the line earlier than originally scheduled with the youth races set to run afterwards. After a full lap parade, eleven pros headed to the starting gate as the sun began to peak out from behind the clouds.

Maxxis' #422 David Haagsma grabbed the Pro ATV Holeshot followed closely by his teammate, Sparks Racing's #549 Beau Baron

As the gate dropped, racers charged off the start with Sparks Racing’s David Haagsma grabbing the holeshot, followed closely by his teammate Beau Baron, and Robbie Mitchell into the famous Talladega first turn at Glen Helen

After leading the charge for the first lap of the race, Haagsma found himself stuck on the tires in the WORCS-X section at the beginning of the second lap, which allowed his teammate, Baron, to take over the lead. Baron is known for his WORCS-X skills, and he used them to his advantage as passed through the section without any issues for the next two laps.

#549 Beau Baron would make the pass on #422 David Haagsma through the WORCS-X section of the course at the beginning of lap two with Baron checking out on the field as he cruised through the difficult section with ease

In the third lap, Baron was able to extends his lead to over 20 seconds when Josh Frederick got hung up on the tires as well, but unfortunately for Baron, the difficult section of the WORCS-X would be removed for the start of lap four, and Frederick’s began to close the gap on. “It (WORCS-X) gave me a nice big gap and allowed me to relax a little, so it was good for me to just be able to relax a little. I was actually disappointed when they took out a challenging sections early in the race,” said Baron.

H&M Motorsport's #549 Beau Baron managed to hold off Can-Am's #2 Josh Frederick to secure the WORCS season opener win

Baron held his lead until stopping for gas in lap eight, which allowed Frederick to slip by, but Baron wasn’t going own without a fight. Baron charged hard and caught up to Frederick after two laps and took over the lead after picking a better line in a long straight section of the track. Baron made the pass, but Frederick stayed close. Frederick tried desperately to get by in the final laps of the race, but Baron shut him down and held his lead, taking the first win of the season. “I really wanted the win, but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do it because I injured my wrist last week. It was sort of mind over matter today. I ended up pulling out a win and I couldn’t be happier!” exclaimed Baron.