It’s September, baby! This means the summer break for Rocky Mountain ATV/MC is ending. We head to a new track at Buckskin Hills Recreation Area in Vernal, Utah, for the seventh round of the 2023 season. The course is fresh, with most of the track on virgin trails as Dane Perry and the rest of the WORCS staff create an intense way for all levels of riders. Once finished, The track was laid out at just over 8.5 miles of trail that combined hills, a large motocross track with big tables scattered throughout, and quite the bed of silt that covered the course almost throughout the entire thing. Mateo Oliveira brought home some new hardware as he finished first in 450 Pro. The Alvarez Brothers returned from the break with some speed as they topped their pro classes, with J.P. winning the 250 Pro and his brother Tristun Alvarez finishing on top of the box in 125 Pro. Kayden Lynn wins his first Pro-Am race as Brandy Richards wins in the Women’s Pro Class.

 

Set at the base of the Utah Mountains, around 7500ft in elevation, this course had it all as racers were challenged with obstacles from start to finish. On Saturday morning, The 125 Pro would lineup as Tristun Alvarez on his RPM FMF-backed KTM took quite the liking to this course as he shot himself out front early, battling with Travis Damon before Travis had an engine towards the end of the race.

 

Daemon Woolslayer came back after barely missing out on the podium in Cedar City and made this one count; after having to take a pit stop to change an air filter, he was able to make his way back into third place to get his spot on the podium. Brandy Richards was in prime form, using her desert experience right at home in the silt pockets of this track. After rocketing to a holeshot in front of Kaitlyn Jacobs, she grabbed some clean air and set sail from that point on, where she held on for the win in the class.

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The 2-hour Pro race started at 11:00 AM, and the morning talk was about the pit strategies for dealing with the intense dust and if and when air filters should be replaced. Zach Bell came out blisteringly as the Pros lined up, pulling away from the pack with the fresh air in the off-road section. Bell grew his lead to over 45 seconds when disaster struck as he had a mechanical entering the pits, causing his race to end early. Mateo Oliviera started the race in second and kept that position, only falling back after his first pit, where he replaced the filters, allowing Tyler Lynn on his Precision Concepts Kawasaki to pass into the lead for now. Lightning struck twice for the Kawasaki boys as Lynn had to exit the race with a mechanical while in the lead. Smooth and steady wins the races as Oliviera found himself in the lead as Justin Hoeft, riding for Purvines Racing Yamaha, was pushing hard, shaving seconds each lap, but could not reel him in, giving Oliveira his second win of the season. In third place, Dare Demartile was racing his Beta 450 machine at his first race back since his injury at Blythe earlier this year. That didn’t stop him one bit as he looked as fast as before with the same style and ease he usually rides with, and it showed with his result.

Riding on his 3 Bros Husqvarna, Kai Aiello grabbed the holeshot and led the race early, with J.P. Alvarez chasing him down on his RPM racing KTM. In the second lap, Alvarez made the pass on Aiello and was able to set the pace for himself early on. Another Purvines Yamaha rider and the points leader, Jack Simpson, had a rough start, seeing him start in 6th place and had his work cut out for him.

Passing people in the Offroad section was as difficult as possible, with low visibility in the thick dust. Still, he made it work, picking rider after rider and settling into second place. He focused on Alvarez, but the lead he accrued was too much, settling for a second place to extend his points lead in the class and stay healthy for the next two rounds.

In Pro-Am, Kayden Lynn brought home his first win in the class and made it a three-podium weekend for the Purvines team. As mentioned in this article, the name of the game this weekend was your starting position, and he did it right, starting in the front and keeping it that way, allowing him to set his own pace for the race. Mason Decunzo was able to close the points gap claiming the second-place finish and ahead of the points leader Hayden Florez. Justin Patton put his best race of the season together finishing in third place.

Rocky Mountain ATV/MC WORCS wants to thank all the riders, staff, and volunteers for coming out and supporting round 7 of the season and we can’t wait to see everyone at Mesquite on October 6th-8th.