Posts
5685
Joined
1/9/2016
Location
Yellow Pine, ID
US
Edited Date/Time
9/28/2021 1:18pm
This is unreal, I'm always sticking up for West Coast off road on here but the WORCS people need to pull their head out of their asses and get back to having some actual off road races. Red flagging a race because supposed "Pros" thought a section was too hard well....I can't defend that at all
How bad would the people who cried about this be crying if they had to race the old pro sections at Honey Lake....
How bad would the people who cried about this be crying if they had to race the old pro sections at Honey Lake....
In this instance a Pro rider hit a rock on the course and shot off the track outside of the banners. They lost time and a position when doing so. The promoter deemed this as track cutting and black flag/DQ'ed the rider on his last lap while running 3rd in 450 pro at his first off-road race.
After the race when we asked/challenged the ruling, they made it clear that we were the new guys to THEIR series and THEY will dictate how his future in off-road racing goes because THEY are the big dawgs in west coast off-road. When I challenged their ruling I had WORCS officials threatening to fight me. It was the biggest joke I've ever experienced in racing, Pro or local.
At this same event I'm referencing (Taft 2018) they cut out the pro section in the middle of the race because riders got stuck. So some had hit the section, some got to go around with no way to equalize the people who went through vs. went around.
That rider is now a full time participant (and actually just won his first 450 pro WORCS race this weekend) and they go out of their way to suck his dick on a regular basis.
I was hoping they figured out how to act and promote a legit series but apparently they're still struggling to figure out how racing works.
However, to red flag an off road race because some Cali moto babies got stuck is pathetic anyway you slice it.
The Shop
I also think that now that he got a win we are going to see him on the top step a lot more going forward. I predict some epic Dante vs. Cole battles in the coming years.
Instead of red flagging the entire race, why not wait until the leader is coming around and just close/re-route the section? This has happened to me on a couple rain drenched events.
On Sunday, it was quite a bit different. The WORCS crew decided watering the rocks down right before we started was a good idea to make it "more challenging" and that effectively ruined the race. Had they left the rocks alone and kept them dry like they were on Saturday, it probably wouldn't have turned into what it did. But, since they did do that and they have amateur racers in that race, it became a huge bottle neck and there wouldn't have been any way for the top pro's to get through there by lap 3. When I came around on lap 2, it was already really really bad with some racers still stuck from their first lap, plus quite a few legit Pro's still in the rocks.
IMO, the challenge factor wasn't what caused the red flagging of the race, it was the fact that there was no way it would last the whole 90 minutes with the riders in the race. Most of the top pro's probably would've complained had they had to sit and idle for minutes on end with 30+ riders stuck across that rock pile so either way it was a bad deal. The rocks were fun and challenging on Saturday though! I'll post some video of Sunday's chaos in a bit.
Here's Saturday's Pro race with the rocks coming in at 5:23
B. It is even more lame that this is the section that caused a Red Flag. What a bunch of pussies. I hadn't seen the section before this so I was assuming it was some vertical hill climb in a gully or something that had everyone bottle necked with no way around.
C. Crap like this is what you get when promoters are more worried about UTVs than dirt bikes. It's been clear for a few years WORCS could care less about the bikes, the facilities chosen are clearly favoring places they can let the golf cart people race too. So what we get is thrown together shit for the bikes. Nevada, NorCal, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah are all loaded with places they could (and have in the past) had great races for dirt bikes but they can't take the UTV crowd there so they don't go there. Follow the money I suppose.....
We have riprap sections in hare scrambles here and they add some degree of difficulty but kind of fit in with the overall theme, and they don't require a completely different bike setup than the rest of the course.
I hate "endurocross sections"...I sign up to race other people, not just "make it through" the course...if I wanted a hard course, I'd race hard enduro...if I wanted man-made obstacles I'd race endurocross.
I'll race some challenging, natural terrain trails...but keep the man-made obstacles in the stadiums, and the pro-sections do nothing to add to the racing...I don't want a course that causes DNF's by attrition...
With that said...if you start the race with that section...you'd better leave it there for the entire race, and redflagging the race is a dumb decision. They should have pulled it after the first lap (so everyone had to race it once) then worked out a bypass on it for all subsequent laps.
I can’t imagine the fits people would be having racing east coast tracks. I totally get what your saying but that rock section is not that crazy. Some natural obstacles or technical section would make a lot more sense.
What a joke. They should sell the dirt bike side of the series to someone who gives a fuck.
Pit Row
So when they put an “endurocross” or “hard enduro” section in a WORC race, they shouldn’t be surprised when people complain.
In my local races that run a "pro" section its optional with a longer/slower bypass being the other option.
I HATED the pro sections, but I never once spent time practicing in that stuff either. The pro sections were the only reasons I disliked the move from Moto to Offroad.
Post a reply to: WORCS race red flagged for being too hard.....