Press Release | March 26, 2018
Quartzsite Hosts First AZOP Race
This is a race report submitted by AZOP…
Story and Photos by Jonathan Barrett
Quartzsite, Arizona (March 11, 2018) – The round-three stop of Arizona Offroad Promotion’s championship series landed in Quartzsite, Arizona. Hundreds of racers attended the first race that AZOP has held in Quartzsite, including 47 bikes, 23 quads and 25 UTVs in adult, and 43 Mini Bikes, 24 Mini Quads and 28 170 and 570cc UTVs.
The race was held at Main Event Showplace, a 40-acre piece of private land that was generously lent to AZOP for the race event. The track included a huge water jump that was located in front of the spectator area, followed by a tractor-tire jump into the finish line. This race was a great one for spectators, and there were large crowds both at the water jump and along the ridgeline above the starting straight.
The big bikes started the day for adults, with the Pro Class #223 Husqvarna of Luis Kortright grabbing the holeshot ahead of the #151 Kawasaki of Clayton Hengeveld, followed closely by the #188 Blud Lubricants Honda of Wyatt Perry, 101 of Travis Azure and the x15 of Jeremy Newton. Kortright would hold the lead with Hengeveld only 7 seconds behind finishing lap one, and closing the gap to 4 seconds on lap two. On lap three, Hengeveld made the pass on Kortright and would not look back until the checkered flag.
The Pro podium would stay the same until lap 10, when Kortright went over the handlebars while coming into the timing gate. Although hitting hard, Kortright got up, chased his bike 10 feet, and hopped right back on after shedding his goggles. This would put him back to fourth heading into the final lap as Perry and Newton passed the downed Kortright.
In the next four-and-a-half minutes, Kortright rocketed his way back to second, passing Newton and Perry to take the second step of the podium. Hengeveld kept his hand on the throttle and earned a solid first place by one minute and 16 seconds.
Other notable finishes on day one were Jarren Atwater winning Open C on his Suzuki, Drew Farris winning Open B on his Suzuki, the Blud Lubricants Suzuki of Brian Perry Jr winning Open A, and Rich Heyer winning Master 50+ B on his Suzuki. Overall, Suzuki took the top step of the podium in four races.
The Minis and Peewee classes took the short track and showed their talent and promise. In the Mini Bike race, Jon Nordling took the 65cc B class, Makela Martinez took Women’s C, Tate Van Voorst took 80-150cc A, Gunner Deatherage took 80-150cc B, and Tyler Standage took the 80-150cc C class. The young guns came out to play in the Peewee race, with Marley Kuhn taking the 65cc C class, Courtney Curley taking 50cc 4-6 Years, and Jon Nordling taking 50cc 7-8 Years Old.
The next AZOP is the North 93 GP, scheduled for March 31-April 1 at Western Raceway in White Hills, Arizona.
Visit azopracing.com for more information.
