Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128308
Round 1 OFF-ROAD __ Lance Smail strikes first at WOReS opener STORY AN D PHOTOS BY KIT PALMER o r Lance Sma il, the open ing round of the Roc ky Mountain A1V-MC World Off-Road Champio nship Se ries could not have gone much better. The Chevy Trucks Kawasaki Team Green rider ran a nea r-flaw less race to take a confidencebuilding win, and he gained as many points as poss ible on defending WORCS Champi on Ty Davis, who had his race cut short by a de railed chain . On top of that, Smail also pulled ahead of many of the se ries' top stars who also suffered a variety of problems. The WORCSseries visited Mesquite MX Park for the first time, and the riders we re greeted by a short - but very ro ugh and challenging - four-m ile course that featured a little bit of everyt hing: rocks, sand, silt, mud holes, mud ruts , stee p dow nhills, and, last but de finitely not least, whoo ps. By the end of the tw o -hou r race , many of the riders adm itted that they switched to "survival mod e" before it was all do ne. Even Smail F World Off-Road C ha m p io nshi p S e r ie s In his first race as a Kawasaki Team Green member, Lance Smail rode aH to victory at the opening round of the WORes Series in Mesquite, Nevada. said he got a bit w orn out. "Igot tired, no do ubt about it," Smail said afterward. "But it was my kind of course rough and nasty." Smail's game plan at the start was to get away qu ickly and let the re st of the pack worry about catch ing him. And t hat' s what he did. Afte r passing Nathan Woods early in the first lap, Smail came into the sco ring chute for the first time with a com mand ing 20-second lead ove r the re st of the pack. He had Woods to thank for that . "In the back, the re 's a mud sect ion , and ther e we re thre e different lines you could take," Woods said. "I too k the wro ng one and buried it, and eve ryone followe d me and got bur ied , too ." While everyo ne else struggled to get out of the mud, Smail sprinted away and, by the third lap, had opened up a nearly o neminute lead over Davis and KTM's Kurt Caselli, w ho would event ually get around Davis and be the only rider all day to give Smail some concern . Caselli cran ked it up and slowly chipped away at Smail's lead. The 2S0 SX-mounted rider got to within about 30 seconds of Smail befo re the checkered nag came out. "I knew it was going to be a tough race ," Smail said, "that' s w hy I wanted to get out in front right away. I could see Kurt comi ng, but I just tried to maintain. The re we re some sections that I knew I was really fast, so I concentrated on going through them well, but in the nasty sections, I definitely turned it down a notch ." 1R IIINI IIIRV?R ?OIM • ("Yr, I: NI:W< An t h A n n i v c:r c:;::a r l l