Mesquite, Nevada is one of the few U.S. circuits you can find in February with ideal mid 60’s race temperature!  Perfect race conditions complicated a decision.  Race WORCS, or fly to the snow belt of Indiana to attend the all important Motorcycle Dealer Expo in Indy.  Hmmm, How ’bout both!  Living out the tried & true adage "What Race's on Sunday Sells on Monday" just different days.  Coming off a win at rd#1 in Phoenix, my confidence was high.  Larry Roessler, also had a plan. LR, the 10x Baja 1000 winner & 10x ISDE Gold Medalist, is proof that mature racers have no loss of competitive spirit and draw on vast experience, as I was about to find out. 

LR pulled up next to me on the start and admitted that the sand was narly!  I nodded as they threw the flag to take the start on my 450R, LR in tow.  As in all WORCS events they give you a slice of moto with the balance off-road, totaling up to around an 11 minute lap time.  LR bagged me down a fast chopped out straight strewn with dinosaur size rocks next to a fence.  I think he felt right at home, like it was some Mexican ranch in Baja.  Five or Six waves of B & C riders took off behind us, which meant after the first lap we were swapping the lead back and forth through an old fashion Asteroid game, as lappers would suddenly dig the front end and come right for us like some invisible player was looking for points!  Neither one of us wanted to give up the lead.  Pushing hard for bragging rights I did a head plant as did LR a few turns later and it ended up with LR glued right on my rear fender at the end of an hour of racing coming out of the wash onto the MX track.  Then like a deer in the headlights I was mesmerized by a yellow flag and bottleneck.  LR slipped through like a pro before I came out of my trance and I followed him across the finish line.  After overcoming the sting of getting out smarted, I thought what a blast!  You may not know this but LR and I were team mates back in the 70’s with Husqvarna.  Always a bit of a rivalry because the larger portion of the budget always went to the more visible motocrosser rather than the long hours in the desert.  I’m glad to see the new found recognition that WORCS provides off-road talent.  Havasu, Arizona will host rd. #3 of the WORCS in March for the next story.

A couple new product sponsors on board since Phoenix are Gearne’s SG-10 boots that make a huge boost to confidence on rough tracks like Mesquite, Guts racing printed backgrounds for the WORCS required red/white combo and Leo Vince X-3 Exhaust System was not only a perfect fit on the Honda but provided the extra bottom power to pull out of the deep sand.  Cytomax Recovery supplement kept me energized for the hour long race & GPR damper to keep the front end straight.  We Ran the Tubliss 21” front for the first time running just 12 lbs. which is low for off-road & worked great!

As much as I wanted to eat more of the Mesquite sand, I had to take care of biz and jumped on a red eye to Indy for the famous Dealer Expo.

 I was able to get in a couple hours of sleep to make it in time for the 7am Blue Ribbon Coalition Breakfast of Champions.  Larry Maiers played host to Bob Hannah, Danny Laporte, Malcolm Smith, Tony D, Kevin Schwantz, Jeff Freddete and Trail Rider editor at large Charlie Williams. All on hand supporting the fund raising Auction allowing the BLC to keep our trails open. 

AHRMA National Off Road Director Alex Moroz $700 bid won the www.RobKinsey.com  painting of my ’78 250 USGP Unadilla Holeshot and also got a hook up on the hot new Tubliss system by www.nuetech.com. 

The Quest for the FIM Veterans World Motocross continues with advice from MX Champion Gary Jones:  “Chuck, One of the best things you could do now to prepare is to race with pro riders”  Well, there goes my ego,”It does not matter how you do Chuck, but it will push you to a higher level”  I may have to, cause I just heard from somebody at the Dealer Expo that 3 time FIM Motocross World Champion and 2007 FIM Vet World Champ David Thorpe of the UK is training for a repeat.  Bring it!