Bonds Wins Washington WORCS

Kit Palmer | June 14, 2004

Kawasaki Team Green’s Bobby Bonds (pictured) put the brakes to Nathan Woods win streak in the World Off-Road Championship Series in Longview, Washington, June 13, with a come-from-behind win.

Things didn’t look too good for Bonds at first, as he was trailing Montclair Yamaha/Zip-Ty Racing teammates Ty Davis and Woods, and KTM’s Kurt Caselli by a significant margin after the first lap. But Bonds slowly pushed his way to the front on the muddy and very technical racecourse, and he eventually got around everyone, including Davis, with a few laps to spare. Once in front, Bonds, on a KX250, built up a small lead and went on to take the win, his second of the series.

Davis, the defending WORCS Champion, led most of the race on his YZ250 until getting passed by Bonds, but he did hold on to second despite a strong charge by Caselli. Caselli, aboard a KTM 250 SX, got to within a few seconds of Davis late in the race, but Davis stepped it up again and opened up a small gap on Caselli before it was all over.

For Woods, the YZ450F pilot appeared to struggle a bit on the tighter-than-usual WORCS course that seemed to benefit the smaller-displacement and more nimble two-strokes. Woods went down while leading on the first lap, and then he dropped and killed his bike while running second. He ended up fourth and saw his three-race win streak come to an end. Woods, however, still maintains a healthy lead over Bonds in the series points standings.

Rounding out the top five overall was Kawasaki Team Green’s Destry Abbott, on a KX250, who was forced to ride up through the pack after going down in the second turn.

KTM 250 SX rider Pat Garrahan finished sixth.