Words: Connor Moore
Photos: Activate Photography
As the 2022 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC WORCS series winds to a close, It would bring the competitors back to where the season began in Primm, Nevada, for this year’s installment of the SXS World Finals. This format adds a bit of flare for the final weekend, with each class racing once daily with total points awarded to both. Beau Judge would cap off his impressive season by bringing home his 2nd consecutive championship, and we would see Brayden Baker edge out his competition taking home his 1st Pro Stock Championship over the action-packed weekend.
On Friday, which usually is the practice day for a standard round, we would hold a qualifying session on the short course track to determine the starting order for Saturday’s slate of races which ranged from 8 laps for the youth to 12 laps for both Pro Production and Pro Stock classes. Pro Stock would start first on Saturday and then switch to race last on Sunday with the Pro Production class. Chase Carr, in his Carr One built Polaris RS1, would find his way out front quickly, holding out that spot till the reset at the halfway point.
Once the green flag would wave again, it was a battle between Carr and newcomer Cole Fike as he would make a pass for the lead in the 9th lap, making it stick and taking home the win on Saturday. Behind him, Casey Sims would use the battle between the leaders and slide by Carr in the next lap as he would bring home a second place, with Carr rounding out the podium with a 3rd place.
In Pro Production, Judge would find himself in a thrilling battle with Shawn Saxton as they swap leads throughout the race, keeping the crowd entertained for the entirety of the race. On the final lap, as Saxton would enter the whoops, he would blow a belt forcing him to pull off the course and change it quickly but putting himself out of contention for first place.
Chris Johnson, who has been in the mix all season in Pro Stock, brought out his new Polaris Machine and would sit comfortably behind them in 3rd and slid right into second place at the end of the race. In third place was your last-round winner in Beau Baron racing in his Polaris Pro R because it’s quite a quiet machine compared to some of his competitors. He would have the hardest-fought battle as he would start in 6th place, making his way up to 4th before placing himself on the podium.
After the short course concluded, the racers would be greeted with a 5.7-mile-long course spread out behind the parking lot of Buffalo Bills. Sweeper Steve and the rest of the WORCS dirt crew put together a great track to challenge each of the racers. Recently crowned champion Judge wanted to end his season like how it began but this weekend with two victories, and that’s precisely what he did. He would grab the holeshot as he put those Elka Shocks to work, gliding his way to success and grabbing the overall with a 1-1 on the weekend to cap an almost perfect season. Saxton and Cox, who would start in the second row, put their heads down early as they set out for the leaders on corrected time, with Saxton posting the fastest lap time of any racer in the desert course with a lap time of just under 9 minutes. Cox would finish in 3rd place as he finds himself on the podium for both Primm rounds.
Pro Stock lined up as the final race of the week as Carr and Fike would set the pace early once again, giving the crowd what they wanted as a hard-fought battle would begin till Fike, unfortunately, suffered a mechanical failure ending his day. Carr held the physical lead for the entirety of the race after the pass on Fike, but Cayden MacCachren, who was fighting hard as he was still in the points race for the championship, against Baker, who was racing in conservation mode to keep his points lead intact. In the end, MacCachren brought home the win in the desert course, but it would be Carr bringing home the overall score of 3-2 on the weekend. Chase Desousadias put himself on the box for the second time as the season ended.
Rocky Mountain ATV/MC WORCS wants to thank each and every one of the racers for participating in any of this year’s rounds, as we hope to see you all at the banquet on December 3rd for a night full of laughs, trophies, and giveaways.
