Sur­prise, AZ (01/31/2010) — After a very suc­cess­ful 2009 sea­son with Beau Baron tak­ing the WORCS Pro Cham­pi­onship, the pres­sure was on at the 2010 WORCS sea­son opener to see if the team had what it takes to stay on top. There were no dis­ap­point­ments as Beau Baron charged his way to the top of the podium and team man­ager Mike Cafro would take his first ever WORCS Pro podium position.

“This was exactly what we were hop­ing for,” said Cafro. “We wanted to come out here and start the sea­son off on the podium. We are really stoked because it couldn’t have gone any better!”

Beau Baron took an early lead in the first lap, but bat­tled back and forth for sev­eral laps with Dustin Nel­son before tak­ing over the lead per­ma­nently just after the mid way point. “It felt great to come out here and win round one. I have a good pro­gram in place again this year so plan to be on the podium a lot because I don’t want to give up the cham­pi­onship,” said Baron.

Mike Cafro was in mid pack off the line, but the vet­eran racer made a hard charge to take over fourth place early on. Cafro held that posi­tion for sev­eral laps until his pit crew informed him was up to third place. “They said I was in third when I came through the pit area and there was no way I was going to give up a podium posi­tion,” said Cafro, who would have his hands full the last four laps of the race. “Rob­bie Mitchell had caught up to me and I wasn’t about to let him get past me, so we were bump­ing and bat­tling for about three laps. Then in the last lap, I just pushed as hard as I could and pulled away from him,” explained Cafro, who would hold on to the num­ber three spot to take his first ever pro podium position.

MCR/Maxxis’ Josh Row still man­aged to take a top ten posi­tion in the Pro class despite a nasty wreck in the first lap. Row came on strong as he did all last sea­son and claimed a respectable ninth place.

Julie Rus­sell also put in a solid run in the Women’s A class. The com­pe­ti­tion was fierce for round one as Rus­sell went up against Traci Cecco and Tammy Balser. Julie would hold down a steady third place, fin­ish­ing within just sec­onds of Cecco and Balser. “There was a lot of com­pe­ti­tion in the Women’s class this time and Julie did a great job out there. We are very proud of her,” said Mike Cafro.

This year, there are a cou­ple of new names added to the Team MCR/Maxxis ros­ter. Pro-am rid­ers Keith John­son and David Haagsma made their team debut this week­end and put on an impres­sive show as John­son would fin­ish in third, and Haagsma would come in a close fourth. “Keith and David rode really well this week­end and we are look­ing for­ward to see­ing them both on the podium a lot this sea­son,” stated Cafro.

After com­ing off of such a promis­ing first round, the team is con­fi­dent and ready to tackle round two. “I have to thank Maxxis for their part in this because they really stepped up for us this year. We are really look­ing for­ward to this sea­son. We are in it to win and with the sup­port we have I think that this will be a very suc­cess­ful sea­son for us,” Cafro concluded.

Round two of the 2010 WORCS series that will be held at Buf­falo Bill’s in Primm, NV on Feb­ru­ary 27–28 where Beau Baron will be try­ing for his sec­ond win in defense of his of his cham­pi­onship title.

Mike Cafro Rac­ing would like to thank all of their spon­sors: Maxxis, Roll Design, Elka Sus­pen­sion, DWT, Motoworks, Ricky Sta­tor, Alba Action Sports, K&N, Stream­line, Golden West Cycle, Tire Balls, Moto Pro Train­ing, Pro Honda Oils Works Con­nec­tion, Tsub­aki, Hin­son, IMS, Quad Tech, PWR, Fasst Co., Maier, Trin­ity Graph­ics, Zing rac­ing, O’Neal and Smith