Josh Row Takes First Pro ATV Win at Sand Hollow

Maxxis’ Josh Row secures his first ever WORCS Pro ATV win and the overall points lead at round four of the 2014 Rocky Mountain ATV MC WORCS Series presented by Motoworks and Dirtwheels. H&M Motorsport’s David Haagsma finished in the second spot followed by Can-Am’s Dillon Zimmerman rounding out the Sand Hollow WORCS Pro ATV Podium.

Round four of the WORCS series made its return to Sand Hollow State Park in Hurricane, Utah for the second straight year, which is one of the most scenic race location in the series with mountains, sand dunes, and lake as a back drop for the race track.  The track this year was much shorter than last year at just about six miles long, and it was a mixture of sand and rocks, and fortunately for the racers, the night before the Pro and Pro-Am main event, heavy winds moved in and helped groom the sandy track after two days of racing and practice. Despite the freshly wind blown track, after two hours of racing, the track began to rapidly deteriorate causing very rough conditions for racers.

Elka Suspension’s Josh Row got out of the first turn in the third spot behind David Haagsma who grabbed the holeshot. Three turns into the race, Row and Dustin Nelson found a faster line that would allow them to make the pass on Haagsma.

Row then caught up to and battled back and forth with Nelson, and by the end of lap one, Row had taken the lead. Once out front, Row checked out on the competition as he raced like he was on rails in the rough and sandy conditions. By the checkered flag, Row had extends his lead to over three minutes ahead of second place for the his first ever WORCS Pro ATV win, which also boosted Row into the Pro points lead by one point over Beau Baron.

Sparks Racing’s David Haagsma finished in the second spot this weekend. After grabbing the holeshot with his Sparks engine, he didn’t notice the faster line in the track, which dropped him back into the third position. By lap two, he gained a position putting him into second when Nelson smashed into a large rock ruining a front tire, but he was soon passed by Dillon Zimmerman, but in the final laps, Haagsma made the pass on the Haagsma and took the second place podium position, which currently has Haagsma third in points in the championship race.

For Can-Am’s Dillon Zimmerman, this was his second podium finish of the year. Despite being busy working with Goldspeed and Can-Am, and not being able to ride his race quad since round three, Zimmerman’s third place finish was a great surprise. His hands began to really take a beating toward the end of the race, which kept him from holding off Haagsma, but he settled into a solid third place finish for a spot on the podium.

Garrin Fuller got off to a rough start when he ran into a bush at the end of lap one, which cost him several minutes getting unstuck from the bush, which dropped him back into last place heading into the second lap. Learning from his mistake, Fuller dug deep for motivation and charged hard from seventh up to fourth place for his best finish of the year.

Rounding out the top five was Dustin Nelson. After an early lead, Nelson ran into some difficulty trying to dodge large rocks on the course. Unfortunately, one of these rocks snuck up on him and he managed to mangle one of the front tires dropping him back into fifth.  Utah’s Robbie Mitchel finished his weekend in sixth place.

Fasst Co’s Beau Baron had a rough weekend after getting off the line in last place, but he managed to charge his way back up into fourth place before he had a mechanical failure, which ended his race, but fortunately for him, he finished five laps, which was enough to avoid a DNF and salvage some valuable points, which now has him one point behind Josh Row in the WORCS pro points race.

In the Pro Am Class, Pro Motorsports’ Chandler Waxman claimed his first win of the season after charging his way into the lead on lap three, which he held to the checkered flag for the win by a margin of over two minutes over second place.

Pro Motorsports’ Matt Hancock boosted himself to within one point of the Pro-Am class points lead with a second place finish on his Pro Motorsports Honda. Alex Ortiz rounded out the podium with a third place finish.

Both point’s leaders had difficulties this weekend with mechanical issues. Mike Sloan got out front early, but was forced to take and extended pit stop after losing his exhaust header. He managed to salvage a fourth place finish, which currently has him leading the points by just one point. David Flores ran into clutch issues early on, which caused him to suffer a DNF for the weekend, which dropped him back to third in the Pro-Am points chase.

In just under a month, the Rocky Mountain ATV MC WORCS Series presented by Motoworks and Dirtwheels series will head to new race venue for round five in Ridgecrest, California on May 10-11th.  Also, be sure to check out www.atvriders.com for your WORCS ATV & SxS Racing News

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