Photos: Activate Photography
The 2023 Season has arrived for the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC WORCS series, with the action returning to Primm, Nevada, right behind the Renovated Buffalo Bills Resort & Casino. Pro Stock would line up on Saturday evening without last year’s champion Brayden Baker who suffered a big crash while testing his desert car this offseason; we hope for a quick recovery and to see him back contesting for the championship soon! On Sunday, Pro Production would line up with some new faces and machines, with Braden Judge, son of champion Beau Judge making the jump to the class and Beau Baron switching from a Polaris over to a brand new 2022 Honda Talon. They battled it out over a just under 7-mile course with old and new terrain that proved rough for many of the racers.
The battle for the lead was a good one, with Casey Sims and Marquez challenging each other with only a few seconds separating them for the first three laps. Sims would put down the fastest lap with a time of 10:43, also passing Marquez in the same lap. He wouldn’t allow Marquez the opportunity to pass again, finishing on top of the box and taking the first win of the season, with Marquez finishing 18 seconds behind in 2nd place.
The Pro Stock class saw Sebastian Marquez move up from the 1000 class in his Polaris RS1 to compete with some of the best in the business. As the green flag dropped, Cayden MacCachren and Marquez would find themselves out front battling into the first turn, with Marquez getting the advantage as the dust settled. MacCachren was on the move, but a slight mistake when he overjumped a table before heading into the off-road section caused him to slow down as he had discomfort from the rough finishing in 4th place just under 2 minutes behind 3rd place. Baron racing his brand new Honda Talon, which had a whopping 6 miles on the odometer before this race, put his car through the paces battling with the top racers finishing on the box in 3rd.
Pro Production would bring the heavy hitters out to play, with Shawn Saxton debuting his brand-new Polaris Pro R build and Braden Judge driving one of his dad’s old cars while Judge finishes his brand new car which he will debut later this year. As they lined up based on last year’s point, standing would see Judge and Saxton fly into the first corner together and put on quite the show for the beginning of the race. Judge found himself in the lead with Saxton on his bumper for the first two laps, almost causing him to rollover as he went over a berm while blinded by the sand from Judge.
After the third lap, Judge would find himself having some mechanical troubles leaving him only one working wheel by the end of the race, salvaging himself a 5th place finish. Once Saxton got around Judge it was a clear track allowing him to set his own pace while breaking in his Pro R, finishing just over a minute from the second-place finisher. Both 2nd and 3rd battled from the second row to land themselves on the podium. Larry Heidler arrived to the races this season with a fresh car as over the off-season, he went through the entire vehicle to get it prepared for the new season and came out swinging, fighting his way back up, being only a minute behind Saxton.
Braden Judge, who had some practice at the last round of the year in his dad’s car, would make the official jump this year, and he did it with a bang! On the final lap, he would pass Baron on corrected time by just 4 seconds to take the final spot on the podium as Baron would have trouble getting around Beau Judge on the tight track.
WORCS Series thank all the sponsors, workers, and especially the racers who came to round one of the 2023 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC WORCS Series, and expect to see everyone at Delano for the second round on February 10-12th!
