Ian Blythe's race bike and the Stillwell Performance box van
4:00AM is waaay early. My wife Tracey gave me one of those “you guys are nuts” looks and went back to sleep.
A quick peek out the window and yes-snow still on the ground. A perfect time to get out of Colorado and head west to Primm, NV for Round 2 of the WORCS Series.
The weather report said a storm was hitting the front range of the Rockies overnight. Stillwell Performance rider Ian Blythe, his dad John and I agreed that Colorado weather forecasts were usually bogus and decided to head out on our original route up Interstate 70 and through the mountains, rather than detour south through Albuquerque, NM.
Ian gets in a pre-race warm up
Ian & I had spent the previous 3 weeks working on settings for the suspension on his KTM 450XC-F and were confident we had a solid setup for the Nevada desert. With a 4th overall at the season opener in Arizona everyone was stoked to head to Vegas. We cranked up the Stillwell Performance box van and pointed the thing west.
After some icy roads heading up into the mountains we broke into the sunshine past Vail, CO and had a pretty uneventful drive across the state, into Utah and then off the mountain towards Vegas Baby!
Man, In-N-Out burger was calling me from like 200 miles away! I found out John had never been to one so a stop for a Double-Double was declared mandatory.
Not your usual race locale!
Well it looks like In-N-Out has a new fan! After some major grazing we pulled in to Primm, NV and the race site a short time later, got checked into the hotel and headed to the pits to get set up.
The box van was crammed to the top with bikes, parts, and all the other stuff you need to survive at the races. Practice was scheduled for 7AM so we found a good spot for the van, organized our setup and headed back to the hotel for some sleep after the 14-hour drive.
This morning was cold with a threat of rain. The course was pure off-road, as the WORCS guy had carved it out of the desert behind the casino and built some spectator friendly viewing areas close to the pits.
Ian gets ready for his qualifier
Practice was pretty much routine, the bike worked well and we made only minor adjustments prior to the Pro qualifier. WORCS takes the top 12 guys from two qualifiers and these 24 make up in the Pro2 main on Sunday. It would be important for Ian to get a start and ride strong, as the competition was deep. After hopping on the spin bike for a warm up we headed to the line.
As the first qualifier was lining up the skies turned grey and the rain started falling. We had set up goggles with this in mind and Ian was not worried. The course was churned up, loamy and could handle some moisture.
The flag dropped and Ian got a good jump and rounded the first turn in 3rd. At the end of the first lap he was running a solid 5th, in very good position to transfer. He loosened up after the first couple of laps and started to push. His lap times were getting better, but on the last lap he tucked the front end in a sandy turn and lost one position, and finished 6th out of 40 at the end of the one-hour race.
Overall it was a good qualifying race. The bike worked well, we will be changing some suspension settings for the main as the course will be much rougher than this morning. There are a couple of 5th gear wide open straights that will be very choppy and keeping the bike in contact with the ground and hooked will be very important.
Tomorrow at noon the Pro 1 and Pro2 main events go off the line. The Pro’s run for 2 hours and will have a fuel pit during the race. Weather is supposed to be clear and in the 60’s with sunny skies. Stay tuned to find out if Ian can put the Stillwell Performance KTM on the box!
