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Parts Unlimited World Off-Road Championship Series Round 1 : Glen Helen Raceway Shane Watts, shown early In the race with Kurt Caselll giving chase, rode to a seemingly effortless win at The Moose at Glen Helen, round one of the inaugural Parts Unlimited Wortd Off· Road Championship Series. BY MARK KARIYA SAN BERNARDINO, CA, JAN. 7 TM's Shane Watts kicked off his 2001 racing campaign with a seemingly easy victory worth $5000 at the opening round of the inaugural Parts Unlimited World Off-Road Championship Series at Glen Helen Raceway Park on his 200E/XC. In doing so, the 2000 AMA Grand National Cross Country Champion and former World Enduro champ from Australia bolstered his reputation as a man who can win anywhere. Team Suzuki's Mike Kiedrowski and Rodney Smith, both astride Yoshimura/RG3/Cycra DR-Z400s (as was third team member Steve Hatch), finished second and third, respectively, picking up $1500 and $500 at The Moose at Glen Helen race. "I was treating it as the end of a holiday, pretty much the start of my pre-season," Watts said. If so, his win indicates he's ready to extend his off-road mastery to the K 36 JANUARY 24, 2001 • c u e entire country, not just the East where the GNCCs are held. "Everyone entered today with a lot of questions about the new series and who's going to be fast and that," he said. "Maybe it's sort of a little bit like the Supercross last night [which he watched]: Everyone was wondering whether [eventual winner Jeremy] McGrath could do it again, and he showed them he could. "Maybe that's the same with myself. Everyone was wondering whether I could be competitive out here and continue the streak. Well, it's a good start." For Southern Californians, the WORCS race weekend felt quite familiar, being scheduled, run and scored like a grand prix. However, the races were often longer than normal; even the 60/80cc race went an hour. I e n e _ s The highlight Pro race ran two hours over a course nearly five miles long that utilized much of the Glen Helen National MX track plus the surrounding hills (including one particularly steep descent that found a few riders out in the bushes) and a sand wash. (Other races used a longer course, though the minibike courses were shorteLl The start of the Pro race saw 520cc KTM-mounted Scott Myers head into the first turn among the leaders, but he drifted wide, letting several riders slip underneath him. He then started to run up another rider's rear wheel, which put him on the ground with several bikes inadvertently using his body for traction. Banged up but not seriously injured, he called it a day. That left Craig Davis in the lead, though it was short-lived as he'd missed a turn and found himself unexpectedly in front; he ended up penalized for the infraction. Before long, Watts put his "little" FMF/Michelin/MSR-sponsored KTM 200 in front, followed by Kiedrowski and Smith. That basically settled the top three, though motocrosser Spud Walters, on a White Brothers/Bridgestone/Axo YZ426F, diced with Smith for a short time. Kurt Caselli moved into fourth on his DH Racing/Race Tech/Answerbacked YZ250 on the third of 1 J laps but couldn't hold off Team Green's Destry Abbott on his Pro Circuit/Dunlop/O'Neal-backed KX250. Abbott, who'd finished second in the Team race in the moming with Brian Brown, took over the fourth spot and held it for quite a while. However, he eventually surrendered it to Ty Davis and the Montclair Yamaha/Race Tech/Moosesponsored YZ250F after Davis slammed his way past in the 180degree pit-row turn. Motocrosser Spud Walters diced with former MX GP star Rodney Smith early in the race. "Everybody was cheering me on so I thought I must be getting close because I didn't see him [in the dust]," Davis said. "I went, 'I must be getting closer!' I just kept her pinned. I already had my momentum going on him so I just reeled him in. By then I was tired. I was just trying to catch him and get by him. I was eating his dust, and I was like, 'I need to get by you.' "We came down to the 180 there, and he went wide. I backed off, I was going way too fast. 1 tried to knock [my speed] down and go under, and I hit him too hard. "I stopped and apologized; 1 felt bad - 1 really did hit him hard. I didn't mean to." Abbott seemed to harbor no grudges, though. "I felt like 1 should've been right in there - second, third - right in there with the Suzuki guys. 1 felt like I rode well; 1 just made too many mistakes. 1 went down twice. At this level, you can't make those mistakes any more." Kiedrowski certainly kept mistakes to a minimum and finished second, which is one of his best finishes in a major event since switching to offroad racing. "The pace is definitely quicker [than a three-hour GNCC], but you had a lot of motocross," he said. "As for wearing you out, GNCCs still wear you out pretty good because it's three hours. "The one cool thing is it's going to be such a variation of tracks [visited during the series]. We've got high speed, fast, dusty here. We're going to go to Arizona [next], and it could be all sand. "I felt good. Our bikes were handling well; there wasn't anything I would've changed. I had a pretty good start. I rode as hard as I could and did everything I could. Watts was maybe a little smarter and faster." Third-place finisher Smith said, "I didn't get quite the start that I wanted. I need to make a few different setups on the bike; I chose some wrong gearing, which is my fault. It kind of beat me up at the beginning and I couldn't settle in. I got gas, then I picked up the pace and started settling down, but it was a little bit late.