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/128319
World Off-Road Championship Series With Mount Adams looming in the background, Woods (7) grabs the holeshot ahead of Mark Tilley (78), Kurt Caselli (66), Ty Davis (1) and the rest of the Pro class. group of riders: Montclair Yamaha's Russ Pearson, Team Green's Destry Abbott, Honda rider Mark Tilley, and Honda CRF4S0R pilot Robert Naughton, who , for at least this race , parked his normal Suzuki RM2S0 mount. The foursom e battled all over the superfast and wide -open track for most of the race. Naughton, however, would eventually find his way around the track the fastest and take over fifth in from of Pearson and Abbott. Meanwhile , up front , with o nly a few more laps to go, Bonds continued to stretch out his lead ahead of Woods (w ho had gotten around Smail ea rlier), Smail, Davis and Naughton . Unfortunately for Smail the knee that's been bothering the Kawasaki ride r since last May started acting up again and caused him to slow down and drop out of lead contention. Smail slowed to a leisurely pace and would eve ntually finish out the race outside the top 20. "My race really didn't go real good ," Smail said. "It started out okay, though . I took a different strategy than I did in Havasu . I felt good on Saturday, so I thought maybe I could go for a top three finish, and I charged really hard for most of the race , and basically my body just fatigued . My leg was giving out, and I was trying to ride differently to com pensate, and my hands went numb . I wasn't able to shift or hold on like I needed to on some of the jumps and whooped-out sections. I decided it was better to shut it down instead of taking a chance of cartwheeli ng." Back in second , Woods tried to make a charge on Bonds but to no avail. 'About an ho ur in Bonds had about a 4S-second lead, and so I t ried to catch up, but nothing was happening," Woods said. "I wasn't gaining on him, so I backed it down and quit letting it hang out." Caselli, w ho struggled early on with arm-pump, started to loosen up and actually posted his fastest lap of the day to catch and pass Tilley on the last lap to claim seventh. Caselli was even catching Abbott for sixth when he simply ran out of time . " I got a good start, and I think I just tried too hard during the first lap and pump ed up ," Caselli said. "I dropped back, and everyone was passing me . It was a bad race for me ; I didn't really ride the way I wanted to , but the track was good , and my bike ran good . I just kind of screwed up on my part . I wish I would have just relaxed and took my time the first half hour at the sta rt . Those guys just go really fast." Bonds easily went on to become the first multiwinner of the se ries and, with it, move into second place in the series 54 APRIL 14, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS championship behind Woods. " I was stoked to win," Bonds said. "These WORCS races are awesome. I wish every one of these races worked 40th Anniversary out like this one. [The race] went better than expected. I started in around 12th place and had the lead before the lap was over. I worked through those guys