Most of you into racing or who follow racing are aware of the West Coast off-road racing series called WORCS. And most deduce they mostly race GP-style events at motocross-orientated venues or build one-off tracks with some natural terrain. Recently the series made its way within a stone’s throw from the Vegas Strip. Ok, Superman could throw a stone there but the South Point Hotel and Casino is no slouch by any means and seems to love motorcycles. The originally designed horse event center has seen its fair share of cycles with the likes of a supermoto event, Mini Moto, Arenacross, and now WORCS.
Was the venue able to give the WORCS racers miles of high-speed sand whoops and super-long lap times? No, but the venue was very unique in itself. The crew pretty much used any real estate the fire marshal and the casino would allow them. The track went into the main stadium, ripped out and into the back lot, jumped through the arches of the main sign seen from the freeway, darted in and out of several off-shoot smaller buildings, and then back again into the stadium. Maybe not what some would call a GP track however it looked fun, although a tad tight, but most racers we talked to had a pure blast. And the venue did not hold up the rider count, trust us, most classes were full and some post-entry racers were scrambling to find a class to enter.
The track was tight, a tad hard to make passes without a little friendly persuasion, and there was nowhere to rest. Like most if not all WORCS events, the gates were full with two- and four-wheel mounts and even seats (in the side-by-side classes). This journalist had only raced at South Point one time back in 2009 during a supermoto national and this looked as much fun, if not more, racing in out of the stadium. Let’s just make it clear it was not fun being a spectator without a bike—I was jealous.
One of the most difficult aspects of the event was trying to follow who was in the lead. Nearly every race the track was packed with racers sometimes two to three in a corner at times. In the pro class I kept following Robby Bell because he was the defending champ but realized halfway through he was battling for third. Come to find out the dark horse, Blayne Thompson, nabbed a pretty convincing win over second place Justin Seeds, then followed by Bell. Off-road ace Justin Jones nabbed fourth, and motocross and KTM test rider Mike Sleeter rounding out the top five.
The WORCS series does draw a big crowd of racers, but for a reason. Those who we spoke with like the series and how unique some of the tracks and locations are. But most of all they seem to all be having fun, and it appears to be a family oriented series. Then again racing anything these days is a two- to three-person income operation. (Yes there was a hint of sarcasm there). Believe it or not, we spotted racers that were as young as 4 and as old as over 60. So if you think you are too old or too young to race a motorcycle, try to come up with a better excuse. WORCSracing.com
