Smail Wins WORCS Final at Cooperland
| November 17, 2003
Off-road privateer Lance Smail captured the overall win at the final round of the World Off-Road Championship Series at Cooperland Raceway in Stillwater, Oklahoma, yesterday.
Smail worked his way up from a fourth-place start, hooking up with front-runners Nathan Woods, Scott Sheak and Robert Naughton. The foursome broke away early from the rest of the 39-rider field, establishing themselves as the lead pack, where Smail, who rode a stock Yamaha WR450F, eventually took the lead at the end of lap two.
“I had just past Sheak on the last grass track, and as we entered the motocross track, he took a digger while trying to pass me back,” Smail said. “When he went down I knew that was my chance to break away, so I was gone.”
From that point, Smail pulled away during the remaining nine laps of the seven-mile course, where he held an average 45-second lead on the Kawasaki-mounted Sheak, who rode in second until the finish. Yamaha’s Ty Davis worked his way up to finish out the race in third, while Suzuki rider Naughton and Yamaha’s Russ Pearson finished fourth and fifth overall.
By finishing third, but more importantly ahead of sixth-place finisher Brian Garrahan, Davis wrapped up the WORCS National title. Davis also won the separate East and West Regional WORCS titles. The KTM rider, Garrahan, who led in points going into the final round, finished second in the overall series.
