Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Rumors were still circulating in Texas about the possible move of Nathan Woods to a green machine for 2006. Woods wouldn't comment, but he said that he should have an announcement at the final round of the series. He did say that he wanted to return to WaRCS racing in '06 and to ride more of the GNCC series, as well. "I'm looking forward to next year," he said. "I've got some plans, but I can't really disclose what's going on until they want to. I will be riding the WaRCS series again and more of the GNCC series. I rode a couple of GNCCs this year, but crashed in one and messed up my face, so I haven't been back. But I want to ride more of them next year." Honda-rider Matt Karlsen of Colorado will also be riding Kawasaki for 2006. "I'm definitely going to be on a Kawasaki, riding the WaRCS series, and I might try a few hare & hounds and desert races," he said. "I will also ride three outdoor [motocross] Nationals: For sure lakewood, Washougal and maybe Millville." Lance Smail rode the new Kawasaki big-bore four-stroke for the first two laps of practice on Saturday and, after having problems with his two-stroke later in the session, decided to give the four-stroke a go in the Pro race on Sunday. Smail ran in second place for the first half of the race, but he faded to sixth at the finish. "For just a stock motorcycle, the bike was superb today," Smail said. "Kawasaki did their homework and made the bike really good, so I'm super excited about it. I'm still not totally healthy, so I didn't have the energy to finish out, but the motorcycle did well." Desrry Abbott signed a two-year deal with his current team Kawasaki. "I'll be trying to get my hare & hound championship back that I lost this year and we'll be doing the WaRCS series again, too," Abbott said. "I'll be on the four-stroke next year for about 90 percent of the races, so I think it will be a good year." My 9 OWN RACE Lance Smail 6th Team Green Kawasaki's Lance Smail had a great outing on pretty much a stock KX4S0F, winding up sixth overall. Smail gated outside the top 10, but he was quickly up into fifth by the middle of the lap and passed Caselli for second by the end of the first lap. He held the position until Salminen got by with an hour to go. Smail suffered from a form of pneumonia earlier in the year, and his endurance suffered in Texas. He was, however, thrtlled with the new Kawasaki four-stroke and its potential. "It's frustrating to not have the energy to finish out the race, but it is confidence-inspiring to have a good bike for next year." 114 Ricky Dietrich 7th Washington's Ricky Dietrich grabbed a decent start and ran in the top seven all day, but severe arm pump kept the Kawasaki rider from gaining any ground on the front-runners. "I don't know what it is," he said. "Maybe it's my training - lifting weights or something - but I am going to have to figure it out. I seem to get really pumped up in the beginning, then I loosen up. I went really fast in the middle, but, there towards the end, I started to blister up and my hands started to hurt." 3 Russ Pearson 5th Recently crowned National Hare & Hound Champion Russ Pearson grabbed one of his best starts of the year and led the pack through the first few turns before teammate Woods went by him. Pearson ran in the top ~ove all day and ended up dueling with Ty Davis at the finish, before finishing fifth. "I've been working on my starts, he said. "I've been playing earch-up at these races all year, so I wanted to get up front right away. My Yamaha was working great, but I just got stUCk in a couple of places and guys got by me. I fell down once, but I carne back strong at the end and ended up with a pretty good day. 1Y and I went at it during the last half of the day, and I got nght up on him but fell down in the silt on the back side." waRCS head man Sean Reddish announced that there will be 12 motorcycle rounds in 2006, which will be run in fIVe different states. "We're going to race in fIVe states, in a range of about ISOO miles, tip to tip," he said. "That will help to offset the travel expenses per family. Next year we will not come to Texas, strictly because of scheduling problems. We will have a lot of new venues for next year and a few old favorites like Washougal and Lake Havasu. Next year, the most unique event is going to be the Oceano Dunes Charity Beach Race. That race is actually going to be on the beach, and it is open to the public. The motorcycles and ATVs will run on parallel courses the entire time, so it is kind of going to be a battle between the bikes and ATVs, because we will run them simultaneously, almost like skiers on a ski run. And it is for charity... Bobby Bonds was still on the mend from the broken wrist that he suffered earlier in the year at the WORCS race in Milford, but he expects to be back in action at the final round in Nevada. RPM Racing Team's Mike Hurlbert said that he will be back for next year and will possibly ride a two-stroke instead of the four-stroke he has been riding this year. "Bobby has been riding for us all year on four-stroke KTMs, but we are thinking that a lighter two-stroke is going to be better for him," Hurlbert said. "The way he rides a bike - he likes to throw it around a lot. so we're going put him on two-strokes next year and see if we can't get out and win some more races." Newly crowned GNCC Champion Juha Salminen was riding in only his second WORCS event and gave this assessment of the difference between GNCC and waRCS: "You can't really compare the tracks, especially this one," he said. "In GNCC, we hardly ever ride with fourth or fifth gears. This is so fast, it's like a big motocross race." By wrapping up the tide early, Nathan Woods earned himself a trip to the EnduroCross in Las Vegas on November 19. "Yamaha really didn't want me to ride the EnduroCross unless I had this tide wrapped up," he said. "This tide is very important, and it needed to get taken care of."

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