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/128376
s After the first lap, no one could keep woods in sight unl... he _ s lapping them. wdh his third vktory in five rounds, he'J clearly In command of the ..... 52 o far this season, Nathan Woods has done a remarkable job of defending his number-one plate. He has won three out of the five rounds run this year. At round five of the World Off-Road Championship Series, presented by Rekluse, in Payette, Idaho, the Montclair Yamaha/Zip-Ty Racing rider garnered his second consecutive victory of the season. With it, he extended his points lead over Kurt Caselli, I 18-10 I. Conditions over the weekend changed fairly dramatically. They went from dry, dusty and breezy to nearly perfect dirt, thanks to some light morning rain. One thing, however, that worked in Woods' favor, and not so much for his competitors, was the sandy nature of the course. "I'm a sand rider," Woods said. "I ride the sand all the time. I'm very comfortable in it. I love the sand." Woods led every lap around the fast, hilly course, completing 12 circuits in 2 hours, 5 minutes and 24 seconds. It gave him a comfortable 18-second margin of victory over Caselli aboard his FMF/Michelin/Moose-backed KTM 450 MXC. Suzuki's Mike Kiedrowski finished third, 32 seconds back from Caselli, on his FMF/RG3/0'Neal RM-Z450. This season, Kiedrowski is attempting to add a third championship to his resume, but so far injuries have held him back. Bobby Garrison improved on his Lake Havasu, Arizona, round-four finish by one position. The young motocrosser earned fourth aboard his Big Valley Honda/Maxxis/No Fear CRF450R. The unique, steep uphill start at Clay Peak found Woods' teammate, YZ450F racer Russell Pearson, recovering from a moment of distraction to claim the early lead. ''All of a sudden, I see my teammate Ty [Davis], who was just to the right of me," Pearson said, "and he starts creeping forward not as slow as he should have. Then he hits the gate before it even started dropping. I looked over, I was thinking, 'Dude, what's going on?' all dumbfounded, and then I notice the gate drop, and my eyes widened, and I was like, 'Aahh!' and braaa, and just pinned it!" As they got to the top of the start hill and made the sweeping left, Pearson found himself in front, though not too far ahead of Woods, Honda-mounted Matt Karlsen, Kiedrowski and Garrison. Being on a 450 seemed to be the key to this start. Davis, hampered by his startingline mistake, was last up the hill. Before long, Woods swept past into the lead and quickly stretched it out, never to be challenged again. "It was an awesome day," Woods said. "Everything went my way today." While Woods seemingly cruised out in front, a large chase bunched up to fight for the remaining podium positions. Pearson actually diced with Woods for a while, but a few mistakes pushed him to the back of the chase group. Kiedrowski ran as high as second for a while, but he was unable to make a dent in Woods' lead. "I don't know what it was, Kiedrowski said. "I tried to push hard the whole time. I felt like I was trying to go as fast as I could everywhere. Maybe I'm not using up the whole track where I should be - I'm riding more the main line and stuff. Besides that, everything worked well. "Woods pulled out a big lead at first," he continued. "For the first half of the race, he was pulling 10, 15 seconds a lap, it seemed like it was huge. Then towards the end, Caselli and I started catching him. About two or three laps from the end, Caselli caught me and passed me he was definitely going faster than me the last couple laps." Indeed, Caselli turned the absolute fastest lap of the field on the next-to-Iast lap; it was some 10 seconds faster than Woods' best, which he achieved in the first half of the race. But for the young KTM racer, it was just another runner-up finish - his third of the series to date. "Second... ," Caselli said. ''A podium's good, but I just need to keep pushing, keep working at it and, hopefully, get on top. I need to win one of these this year." Caselli still remains firmly second in points. The leader, of course, is Woods, who, while delighted with his third win of the series, knows challenges lay ahead. "Luckily, the rain made the track really good," Woods said, "because it