Casey Sims Takes Second at WORCS Round 5

Mesquite, NV – WORCS round 5 is in the books! My team and I headed out Mesquite, NV early on Saturday morning. We arrived at Mesquite MX late in the afternoon, but I was able to run my car through tech and get checked in for my race on Sunday. I was also able to watch the last race of the day, which was important to me. Because I wasn’t able to make it to practice on Friday (darn school gets in the way!), I wanted to see the start of the SXS Pro race and watch as much of the race as I could so it would give me an idea of how my race was going to go. At Mesquite MX, you can watch the races from the top of a hill and it overlooks a good portion of the race course. I watched from that hill and I got a good feel for the infield portion of the track. I also talked to a few of the racers after the race and asked questions about the outer parts of the course that I could not see from where I watched. I felt great going in to Sunday’s race!

On Sunday, we arrived at the track early and fueled my car. I got suited up and when it was my classes’ turn, I headed to the line. I was fifth to pick my spot on the line and I was happy that no one picked the far outside. I thought it was going to be a good line because of the races I had watched the day before. There were 21 cars in the SXS 1000 Stock
class, but I am always up for the challenge! The flagger made sure we were all ready to go, the green flag flew, and
we all took off! I hit the gas and rounded the outside of the first corner. I was able to get ahead of the pack and was in 2nd place off the line. I stayed on the car in front of me as we headed out into the desert portion of the course. I knew that the leader had been able to practice a few days before the race, so he knew the course well. I kept on the gas as we raced through the back side of the track. Then, we headed into the infield portion of the course. After the first lap, I had a pretty good feel for the entire race course, so I put the pressure on. I raced hard and fast, and tried to make passes with each lap we ran. I was taking risks and jumping jumps that the leader was rolling, and I was able to skip through the whoop section to gain some ground. The leader and I were able to put a good gap between us and the third place finisher, so we didn’t have anyone close behind putting pressure on us. As we ticked the laps off, we did hit lapped traffic, but we were able to navigate through it quickly. I kept trying to make a pass every chance I got to take over the lead, but the track was narrow and there weren’t very many spots to get it done. In the end, I crossed the finish line in 2nd place, only 3.7 seconds behind the first place finisher.

We’ve got a small break before heading to the SXS Regionals and the Dirt Series double header at the end of June. Both the XP1000 and the RS1 are running great, and I can’t wait to race them both on that weekend!

Thanks so much to all of these amazing companies and people that support my program: Candle Motorsports, Addict Racing Engines, Demon Powersports, Method Race Wheels, GBC Motorsports, Benchmark Performance, Crow Enterprizes, Roll Design, Elka Suspension, Energy Coil Racing, Factory UTV, Ace Motorsports, Baja Designs, Gates G-Force, PRP Seats, Rugged Radios, Maxima Racing Oils, Bikeman Performance, Grounded 4, Tireblocks, Crown Performance Products, Surface Sun Systems, HOK9, Corona Print Shop, Perrault Motorsports, Dirt Rider Designs, UTV Underground, and my parents who make this possible for me!

Thanks to WORCS for putting on this series and Harlen Foley and his Dirt Nation Magazine crew for the awesome pictures. You can check out the Sims188 Racing team on Instagram @csims188 or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/csims188/.