The Rocky Mountain ATV/MC WORCS series is back with a bang to start the 2023 season. To kick off the season, we headed to the newly renovated Buffalo Bills Casino in Primm, Nevada, with just over a 7-mile course to battle it out on. Beau Baron, last year’s champion and 10x WORCS champion, would return and race his unique TRX450/CRF450 hybrid quad, and lots of new additions to each of the pro classes were a great thing to see. Womens Pro would be the first of the pro classes to hit the course racing on Saturday and saw Torey Matajcich take home the win, hoping to redo her championship season in 2022. Uriah Tsinnijinnie won his first-ever Pro-AM race beating his previous best, a second-place finish last season. After a heated battle between the two for most of the race, Baron would win the season opener over Travis Damon.

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For the pro race on Sunday, there would be a few pro sections that included a rock garden and “raw” sections that allowed riders to choose their line through ungroomed sections. Still, the big one was the endurocross section which had four k-rails that suspended a log which caused quite the backup on the second lap of the race.  Braxton Grosse looked as if he shot out of a rocket on the first lap, grabbing the holeshot on his first-ever Pro race, but a big crash had him falling back to 5th place on the first lap. Perry Concepts Racing rider Travis Damon would capitalize and take the lead at the end of the first lap with a ten-second split from Baron. Each lap, Baron would shave a few seconds till the 4th, where Baron made a pass on Damon in the back to grab the lead and begin setting the pace with the open air in front of him. Baron adds some more hardware to his collection as he takes the win at the season opener, which saw him land on two podiums in the three classes he would compete in. Damon would finish in second, which also compliments his 1st place finish in the first 125 Pro race earlier in the weekend. After the first lap, Grosse would sit in 5th place behind Roberto Villalovos and Auston Baxter, but that would not stop him as he would put his head down and shave time off each lap and, by the 4th lap, saw him past Villalovos for the 3rd place spot where he would finish for the day.

Pro-AM had quite the wild beginning of the race, with the brother/sister duo of Cole and Layne Fryar coming in 1-2 after the first lap. Sadly, Layne would have trouble with the Pro section, and Cole would have a mechanical problem putting them out of contention for a podium spot, but I’m sure they will be back in Delano ready to battle. With the shakeup early in the race, Tsinnijinnie took quick advantage going from 4th to 1st in the second lap and not looking back as he finished in first place 25 seconds ahead of second place. Pedro Montes and Steven Lopes would be in striking distance for most of the race until the 6th lap when Lopes fell behind but still could secure that 3rd spot, with Montes landing himself on the box in second place.

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There was some new firepower in the Women’s Pro Class as Dakota Hibler would snag the holeshot in front of Fryar and Matajcich to show there were some new ladies on the block. Hibler finished in 5th, but don’t count her out; she will be back just as strong in Delano. Matajcich would find her groove being the only one in her class to drop into the 12-minute mark, and she did it in style with a 12:09 and would finish over 5 minutes ahead of her competition. Heidi Colman, another fresh face to the pro class, made a last-lap pass to secure the second position over Donna Espensen, who settled for third place in the season’s first round.

We want to thank all the sponsors, workers, and especially the racers who came to round one of the 2023 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC WORCS Series. We hope to see everyone at Delano for the second round on February 10-12th!