Preston, ID – Beau Baron scored his fourth win of the season during the Pro ATV portion of the Rocky Mountain ATV MC WORCS Series presented by Polaris RZR and Dirt Wheels event at Cache Valley MX Park. Cody Sanford scored his first career victory in Pro-Am.

The event was held at a new facility for WORCS, in its return to Idaho after many years. The circuit was created in the corn and alfalfa fields surrounding the venue’s motocross track. With little elevation change, the track was one of the fastest thus far this season and allowed the ATV riders to show off their flat-track skills.

In Pro ATV, Baron prepped his starting gate flawlessly and took the holeshot. After overcoming several near-spinouts on the first lap due to slick conditions, Baron found his groove on his Honda and held off the Yamaha of Mike Sloan for the victory. Evan Spooner returned to competition here after injuries in a crash earlier in the season sidelined him, and finished third.

“I knew by looking at the water trucks that it was going to be a greaseball, so I prepped my gate perfectly,” said Baron, who padded his points lead with the victory. “The gate dropped, I did a wheelie, and I had full traction. The CST’s hooked up and I ripped off the holeshot. The first lap was pretty sketchy and I was backing it into corners. By the second lap it got a lot better, and I just kept pulling a bigger and bigger lead.”

Sloan was having issues getting loosened up early in the race, but caught up to Baron late in the event. A self-described “desert racer,” Sloan admitted to being out of his element and was happy with the runner-up finish. “I started loosening up as the race went on, and we did better,” said Sloan. “I’m more of a desert guy, but I’m trying to get more well-rounded. We had a few bad races the last few rounds, so it’s nice to get back on the box.”

Spooner sustained injuries in a crash during round two in Arizona and made his return to the series after missing a couple rounds. Despite having the last gate pick, he was third at the start and stayed there the entire race. “I had an awesome race and it’s great to be back,” exclaimed Spooner. “I ended up third with the last gate pick, then I battled with Mike for a second before he and Beau took off. Then I just rode my own race in third and focused on clean laps. The race went perfect.”

In Pro-Am, Sanford played spoiler to Braxton Grosse, breaking the teenager’s four-win streak and scoring his first victory of the season on a Honda. Grosse was second on his Honda, ahead of the Yamaha of Braden Schoeffel.

“I feel pretty good,” said Sanford. “I definitely made a couple of mistakes, but I knew Braxton was there. I was trying not to look back, but it was hard not to. He was gaining time on me in the enduro section, but I managed to hold him off.”

Grosse did everything he could to try to pass Sanford, but the dust robbed him of his vision and held him to second at the finish. He did, however, put in a hard charge through the dust. “It was just Cody and I going at it,” said Grosse, who remains the points leader in the class. “The outside section was super dusty, but I was just going for it and hoping I didn’t hit anything.”

Despite having to slow down for the logs and the tires in the Pro section, Schoeffel prevailed in other spots on the track. He was finding speed at the end of the race and held off Alex Ortiz for the final spot on the box.

“I’m not too good at logs and tires, so I played it safe and went slower; I just wanted to avoid any mistakes,” said Schoeffel. “Everything was coming together at the end of the race and I was finding speed where others couldn’t. Things just started clicking. I saw Alex coming and I wasn’t going to give this up.”

The WORCS series now heads into its annual summer break. The ATVs are scheduled to return to action September 3-5 in Wickenburg, AZ.