Nathan Woods Hot at Havasu WORCS

Kit Palmer | March 15, 2004

Nathan Woods survived the heat, the whoops and Bobby Bonds to win the third round of the World Off-Road Championship Series in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, March 13-14. Woods, on his Montclair Yamaha/Zip-Ty Racing YZ250, found his way into the lead early on and managed to stay comfortably ahead of Kawasaki Team Green’s Bonds to take his first WORCS win. Bonds gave Woods some concern after the KX250 rider worked his way up through the pack and into second by the fourth lap. From there, Bonds, who won the previous WORCS race in Texas, made a charge after Woods but couldn’t get any closer than about 30 seconds before eventually giving in to the heat, the brutally rough race course and a blistered hand. Bonds slipped back to sixth before taking the checkered flag. Second overall went to Yamaha’s Russ Pearson who was an early leader. Pearson spent much of the two-hour race dicing with Bonds before wearing the Kawasaki rider down and pulling out to a comfortable spot is second. Finishing on the podium in third was privateer Robert Naughton. The Suzuki RM250 pilot started off just outside the top 10 but steadily worked his way up through the pack, taking over second place two laps from the end. Kawasaki Team Green’s Lance Smail, who soldiered through a knee injury, finished fourth, while KTM’s Kurt Caselli rounded out the top five.