By: Connor Moore

April 3rd, 2022, Taft, CA –  Honolulu Hills Raceway was the destination for round 4 of the Rocky Mountain MC/ATV WORCS series. It brought its signature big jumps and silty corners out to play. This track is rather long, with the lap times hovering around the nine-minute mark for most riders, with the leaders just cracking into the high eight-minute side. Beau Baron would take the win in the stout Pro Class as Braxton Grosse would win in the pro-am class, and Torey Matajcich would bring home another win in Women’s pro. 

On Sunday, The Pro and Pro-Am class would lineup for their race as riders such as Beau Baron, Travis Damon, Braxton Grosse, and Alexander Ortiz were prepared to take on the fast and lengthy course of Taft. The staff over at WORCS racing also brought in a pro section for WORCS, adding some pretty big logs into the mix that the racers would have to get over each lap. 

Once the green flag dropped, it was all Baron in the pro class, who would have a blistering start to grab a holeshot and put some distance between him and second place every lap, with him having over a minute lead by the end of the day. Travis Damon would start his race in 3rd right behind Ortiz as they would come around the first corner. He would eventually pass Ortiz in the first lap and be able to hold off his opponent and teammate Roberto Villalobos to take home a well-deserved 2nd place. Securing the 3rd spot on the podium was another Low Profile Racing rider Villalobos as he would ride a smooth and fast pace behind Damon to take home another podium finish for the team. 

Pro-AM saw quite a bit of battling, with the field having a fair amount of change throughout the race. Cody Sanford would come out of the first turn with the lead as he takes the holeshot over Grosse and Joseph Semas. Grosse would finish the first lap sitting in 3rd place but wouldn’t be there for long as he would make his way around Sanford in the second lap and then Semas during the 4th lap. Once around his competitors, Grosse would begin to hit his marks, set a consistent pace, put some space between himself and the rest of the field, and continue his perfect season in the Pro-am class. Semas would hold onto 2nd place as he would settle behind Grosse to put himself on the podium for the second time this season. Sanford would finish in third after the hard-fought battle with Sheldon Silva, who ultimately had a mechanical issue that forced him out of the race halfway thru.

Before the Pro-race on Sunday, the Women’s Pro class raced on Saturday, and it was great to welcome back Donna Espensen to the gate as she lined up while still nursing her broken hand from a practice crash. Torey Matajcich would grab the victory with Layne Fryar sliding in behind her at second. Those two would battle hard for most of the race as Fryar would keep her competitor within less than 3 seconds of her thru the first three laps and finish less than ten seconds behind her. Espensen would have to take it easy as she is battling a severe injury but still wanted to show up and grab the points she could and did by finishing third.

Thank you to all the racers who came out this weekend to support WORCS Racing, and round 5 of the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC will return to the epic Orleans Arena in Las Vegas for a combined weekend of racing on April 29th-May 1st.