Team Green- supported Ricky Dietrich held back KTM’s Kurt Caselli to win the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC World Off Road Championship Series event at Burnt Ridge MX Park in Cinebar, Washington. More importantly, Dietrich’s triumph in round eight, presented by FMF, moved him to a tie for the series points lead with Team FMF/Suzuki Off-Road’s Ryan Hughes, who continues to recover from the broken arm he suffered while practicing at Washougal’s round seven.
A new venue on the WORCS tour, the Burnt Ridge course resembled Washougal in many ways, being set among pine trees and utilizing an abundance of technical trails plus a large grass track section.
“It’s right up my alley where I grew up in,” Dietrich said. “This is my neck of the woods, and I kind of expected myself to win. Two in a row, I mean, I couldn’t ask for that, but to get it, it’s really cool.”
It took nearly half of the two-hour race before Dietrich, in one move, zoomed past both Caselii and Zip-Ty Racing’s Bobby Garrison, who led during that time on his Jardine/Pirelli/Moose-backed YZ450F. From that point, the Carter Powersports/Maxxis/ARC KX450F-mounted racer tried his best to ride mistake-free and stay ahead of Caselli’s FMF/Michelin/Moose 250 XC.
“Kurt has, by far, proven himself the strongest guy on the track the last two laps,” Dietrich noted. “He was scaring me back there.”
For his part, Caselli was satisfied with the runner-up spot in his first WORCS race since injuring a knee before round two.
“He passed me and was just railing,” Caselli reported. “He had a whole other pace going so I picked it up a little and caught back up to him – just kind of stayed behind him. It’s hard to pass [here] so I waited for him to make a mistake, and he never did. I just kind of slowed down at the end; I got a little tired. But it’s good to be back riding. I feel fine. I’ve still got to work on some stuff, but besides that, I’m glad to be back – glad to be riding again.”
Dietrich took the checkered flag after two hours, 17 minutes and 59 seconds with Caselli the runner-up in 2:18:55. Garrison crossed the finish line in 2:22:03, but official results for third place on back are yet to be determined pending the outcome of two protests.
