ROBERTO VILLALOVOS TAKES FIRST WORCS PRO ATV WIN AT CANYON MX

Peoria, AZ – Low Profile Motorsports’ Roberto Villalovos won a wild and carnage-filled Pro ATV race during round two of the Rocky Mountain ATV MC WORCS Series presented by Polaris RZR and Dirt Wheels. The race was held at the combined off road and motocross circuit at Canyon MX. Braxton Grosse won the Pro-Am ATV race.

Tacky dirt and rocks were par for the course on the Canyon track and that made for an interesting albeit rocky start. Beau Baron took the holeshot on his Honda, while behind him the carnage commenced. A huge pileup collected Logan Huff, Evan Spooner, and Kenny Sanford. While they tried to recollect their rides, Baron fought off Mike Sloan and began building a lead. Spooner was injured and did not return to the race.

Sloan then suffered a flat rear tire on his Yamaha after hitting one of the larger rocks on the course. He limped it into the pits, but a tire wasn’t available. So, he ran another lap which ended up pulling the tire off the rim. After limping around the course, he pitted again, got a new tire, and came out third.

Villalovos, who ran second behind Baron for most of the race, was just behind Baron on the final lap. As Baron attempted to weave through several lappers on the uphill going into the Pro Section, his Honda overheated and the engine stopped. That handed Villalovos his first-ever WORCS Pro victory on his Low Profile Honda.

Villalovos is a veteran of Baja racing, and has spent most of his career as a dirt bike rider. He joined the Low Profile squad last year to start racing in the WORCS series. “This is a whole new type of racing for me,” said Villalovos who hails from Tecate, Mexico. “The rocks are new to me. I’ve raced Baja my whole life and this was definitely more brutal than that. It’s been 10 years since I’ve ridden a quad, but the Low Profile Team believed in me and here we are.”

Sloan kept up his consistent pace and it paid off with a second-place finish. After the tire debacle, he quickly regathered his spirit and put in a charge, passing Huff late in the race to score the runner-up finish Yamaha. “I just tried to be consistent knowing anything can happen in racing,” said Sloan. “I got a tire and fell to third. I put a charge on, got Huff, and then took second. We’ll take this second, move forward and stay consistent. We’ll keep on pushing.”

Huff’s Yamaha suffered a bent rear hub in the melee at the start. After flipping over his quad, he headed to the pits, did what he could to make the quad race ready, and rode on essentially a bent axle for much of the race. Though he lost second to Sloan, to finish third was truly amazing. “The hub was bent from the crash and luckily it held on and I made it back onto the box,” said Huff. “It was a good race and the track was awesome. It was amazing to come back from that.”

Baron had put on one of his best charges in recent history early on in the event. So hard was his charge that despite being towed across the line, he still finished fourth. “At one point I had a two-and-half minute lead and It was nice putting it down today,” said Baron. “It just didn’t end the way I wanted.”

In Pro Am, Grosse came out of a two-quad battle with Brian Jackson to score his second victory of the season on his Yamaha. Jackson was second, followed by Cody Sanford.

“This is a great way to start out the season,” exclaimed Grosse. “We have two wins in two races, and we’re going to just keep doing what we’re doing. Brian was on me for the whole race until we got into the last bottleneck so it was definitely close racing.”

The WORCS ATV classes return to action March 19-21 with a scheduled return to Lake Havasu City, AZ for round three of the series.

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