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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128171
World Off-Road Championship Series Round 5: Hungry Valley RAMX IAbove) Mike Kiedrowski put himself In a good position to win his second WORCS title with a win at the Gorman race, his second of the year. (Left) The series leader going into the race, Ty Davis was forced to retire after becoming dehydrated In the hot and humid conditions. (BeloW! Ryan Dudek (812) pulls the holeshot on the new Yamaha VZ450F. STORY AND PHOTOS BY KIT PALMER GORMAN, CA, AaG. 31·SEPT. 1 his year's World Off-Road Championship Series (WORCS) was setting itself up for a dramatic finalround, title-deciding showdown between defending champ Mike Kiedrowski and series points leader Ty Davis. But how quickly things can change. With just two rounds left on the WORCS schedule, the penultimate round at Gorman's Hungry Valley MX facility was an important one for both Davis and Kiedrowski, who sat 1-2 in the series points race going in. All series long, the two riders have been 40 SEPTEMBER 1 1, 2002' cue • • n • _ s battling by themselves, up front, and . finishing close together. But as of late, Davis has been getting the upper hand, winning the last three rounds (but not by much) and going into the Gorman race with a scant, six-point lead. Everyone expected another close race between Davis and Kiedrowski at Gorman, and they expected right. But the finish, however, was anything but close, with Kiedrowski taking his second win of the season, and Davis taking a helicopter ride to the hospital. The two-hour race could not have gotten off to a more exciting start, with Davis and Kiedrowski settling into the first- and second-place positions, respectively. And just like almost all of the previous races, the two riders stuck together as they steadily pulled away from the 39rider Pro-class field around the fourmile course, which was made up of mostly wide djrt roads that twisted around the Hungry Valley SVRA MX facility. (The facility's two MX tracks were also incorporated into the course layout.) Davis, on his Montclair Yamahabacked YZ250 two-stroke, set the pace, while Kiedrowski, on the Yoshimura/Suzuki DR-Z450 thumper, stayed right with him. After the first lap, Davis came into the scoring chute with just three seconds on Kiedrowski; the second lap, he only had two seconds. As the race heated up, so did the temperature. By the start of the 1 p.m. race (which actually got going closer to 1:30), temperatures had climbed to nearly 100 degrees, and thunderclouds were forming, resulting in high humidity that made things feel even hotter as the race progressed. By the 20-minute mark, Davis was still leading but couldn't gain any