Beau Baron
- Updated: May 11, 2011
By Beau Baron
The third round of the Yamaha Quad X series was held in Anza, CA at Cahuilla Creek MX. Temps were cooler than expected and decreased each day we were there with a pretty crazy and continual cold wind.
Dustin Nelson and I drag raced down the start straight and through the first turn. I was able to barely edge him out as we reached turn two of the first moto. I was running a good pace out front until about halfway through lap three when Nelson set up a pass by staying way outside over the fall-away table top that led into a very off-camber left-hander. This allowed him to cut across the inside and be far left as we entered the right hand u-turn before the whoops. As I held the main line and railed the outside berm, Nelson was able to cut to the inside and make a block pass. I kept his pace all the way to the checkers as we were never separated by more than a half second. The battle for 3rd, 4th and 5th was also a good one with Josh Row keeping ahead of South African Dirkie Baard and Ethan Thatcher.
I was able to again grab the holeshot in moto two, and this time the $250 Holeshot Award. The track had become quite a bit rougher and developed some new lines since the first moto and for the first half lap I felt like I could win the moto. Soon after I made a small mistake over the same table top that Nelson used to pass me in moto one and he came up alongside me again. I cut back inside of him and we had a great battle through the first set of whoops, over the right-hander and through the second set of whoops but unfortunately he was able to take the lead again. I was throwing down continually faster lap times than Nelson but was never able to make a pass stick. Behind Nelson and I, Baard and Row were in an intense battle of their own. At the finish, Nelson took the finish by only a bike length at most ahead of me and then Baard 3rd, Row 4th and Thatcher 5th.
I had a lot of fun at this race even though I am really tired of getting second. Dustin and I always have a great, clean battle and I think we kind of trust each other to keep our racing as aggressive as possible without taking it too far. We are good friends off the track and we both want to keep it that way, so when you know you are racing with friends it’s always fun.
I liked the Cahuilla Creek track, but man did it get rough. It was rougher this weekend than it was for the WORCS race we had there just a few weeks ago. It was definitely the biggest, most quad friendly layout we have seen for this year’s Quad X Series. I had the fastest lap around 1:28 and there were multiple lines in plenty of places around the track. All in all it was a really fun time, I just hope I figure out a way to beat Nelson before round four. He has continued to keep me out of the one spot so far this year. He’s a tough one to beat, he’s not only fast he’s a very strategic racer, but I plan to win nonetheless.
