Zaca Station WORCS, Los Olivos, CA 2007
- Updated: May 20, 2007
photos, video and story by Jeff Bertuzzi
We were off to sunny California at Zaca Station outside of Santa Barbara for round five of the WORCS Series. When arriving at the track the first report I received was of how dusty the track was, the second thing I noticed when I stepped out of my truck was that it was so cold you could see your breath. But as long as you were in the sun the temp was nice, but it was easy to see that the dust would play a major role in the outcome of the race.
The track had a nice motocross section with some big jumps that the pros were catching some good air off of. The watering crew was able to keep the dust down on the motocross track, but the off road section would remain very dusty. With close to 500 entries in total, the 4.1 mile course did indeed became extremely dusty. The track crew was not able to get a water truck into the deep valleys with all the ditches, bump and trees the track crossed.
Pro Production & Open Pro
The Pro Production Class has had a drop in entries with only four riders for the morning races. It seems that most of the Pros are more interested in running the Open Pro class, which gives the Pros a chance to view the track after a few hundred quads have beaten it up, this gives them a more accurate view of what Sunday’s conditions will be like. Out of the four riders in the Pro Production, Doug Eichner took first with a 40 second lead on Brandon Brown, who took second.
In the Open Pro race there were 10 entries, but three of the fastest riders out on the track were just using the time to dial in their quads. Jeremy Schell decided to take the holeshot and lead for the first lap. Then he went and played around with Josh Frederick, who was getting used to his new Fox shocks, And no, Josh is not sponsored by Fox, he actually claims he bought the shocks he was using to race, with a little help from Holtz Racing I’m sure. When I asked Josh what happened to his Bilstein Shocks, he said that they were still testing them but were waiting on parts. Doug Eichner, on the other hand, is sponsored by Fox and they were there with their support van helping him get his sharp-looking Outlaw525 dialed in.
While all the “dialing in” was going on, Robbie Mitchell showed up to race. After Schell & Fredrick pulled off to play with their bikes, Robbie had a 30 second lead on the #14 rider, Mike Cafro, who ended up getting passed for the second place position by hard charging ,John Shafe, who, with an 8:17 lap time had the fasted lap of the race, but was still 30 seconds behind Mitchell at the end.
Sunday
The stage was set for some exciting racing. With factory Polaris and Fox shocks support personnel on hand to aid the already proficient Duncan Racing race team, Eichner’s chances of putting the Outlaw525 on top of the podium were high. But Fredrick was four for four, could he make it five in a row on the new Fox shocks? Or would the holeshot master Jeremy Schell get his first win?
Off the start is was Schell getting his patented holeshot, but Eichner was not far behind and Fredrick was….were was Fredrick? Oh, he is locked up in the first turn with two other quads. With all the dust Josh would have his work cut out for him today. But back up front it was Schell with Eichner in tow, Doug was only about eight seconds back when Schell got a flat. But this time he had Tire balls and was riding it out, but in one of the high speed corners he took a tumble and ended up with his quad on top of him! Levi Marana, running in fourth at the time, got off of his quad and went to the aid of his competitor and lifted Jeremy’s quad off of his head (he did lift it the wrong way at first, maybe an attempt to slow him up a bit?? Just teasing : ) Then Schell helped push start Levi’s quad (haven’t these guys ever heard of an electric start?) John Shafe was able to move up a few places while this was going on and ended up with third. Regardless of the good sportsmanship on Marana’s part, Schell ended up passing him and taking fourth overall, with Levi rounding out the top 5 in fifth.
Back up front, Eichner ended up having about 30 seconds on Fredrick when he moved into the number two spot on the fourth lap. Fredrick “put his head down” and charged toward the front. He got within about four seconds of Eichner at the end, but all the work of the team Duncan crew and the factory support paid off and Polaris got its first Pro Podium.
