Wayne
Matlock LOORS Round 4 SxS Race Report
Can-Am Maverick 1000R SxS / UTV Racer
 |
|
Wayne Matlock pilots his Can-Am Maverick 1000R SxS / UTV |
El Centro, CA (7/19/2013) - This last weekend was the fourth round of the Lucas Oil Regional Series. I went into the weekend pretty excited about the race. It would be my first short course race at night under the lights and I knew that I would feel comfortable at night because that was always my favorite time to race in Baja. We got to the track later than normal on Friday because of the night race schedule. Once we got all setup and through tech inspection, I had a little work to do. Lucky for me, I had Mike from Racer X on hand to help me install my new Crash Addict billet tie rods and align the car. After we finished that project, Mike and I looked over the chassis and made some changes with the car setup.
At about 4:30pm it was time to go out and practice. My first two practice sessions were ok but I made some more changes and went out for the last session that was under the lights. Finally I had the Maverick working great and I was able to drive the thing like I wanted. I had more fun in the car than I ever had before and was able to make several passes on guys that were faster than me on previous races. After that we left the car alone and we were ready for the next day.
Saturday was pretty relaxing with the night race schedule. We did not qualify until about 3:30pm so I tinkered with the car and checked over all the nuts and bolts. When it was time I headed over to staging and pulled in behind my long time friend and fellow Maverick racer Steve Beilman. We sat in staging for a little while then they sent us out there with all of the SR1s in front of us. We get six laps to qualify and they take our best lap, so I always use the first couple of laps to find a grove in the track.
Going into the third lap I felt pretty confident and went for it. I sucked up to Beilman and was feeling good about my speed then a yellow flag came out and ruined that lap. With the yellow flag out, I fell back from Beilman and waited for the green. When we went green again I knew if I could gain on him just a little I would have a fast qualifying time because he always runs hard. We got two more laps in and I felt really good about them. The car was working great.
When I pulled back into the pit I knew I had done well by the smile on my wife’s face. She told me that I set the fastest lap and I looked good. She also told me that the Maverick looked better than it ever has so far.
Now we just had to sit around and wait for the race. As it was getting closer to the race I was getting pretty excited. This race I would not only have Steve Beilman and Dave Nagy to bang wheels with but Greg Row and Robert Vanbeekom decided to race with us instead of the WORCS race at Pala. So I knew the competition would be steep.
We were set to race about 8:30pm. When it was time I headed over to staging. When I got there they put us in the new starting order. They inverted the top four qualifiers so instead of starting on the pole I would start on the outside of the second row. We went out on the track following all of the SR1s and Robert Vanbeekom did a great job giving us a gap behind the SR1s so we would not all stack up in the first turn. When the pace car pulled off the track we did one more parade lap then once we came back around the green flag waved and it was on. I was off to a good start and we were all stacked up through the first couple of turns. I came through the first few rollers and the car was working awesome so I made the 180 degree turn and left the throttle on going through the next set of rollers and was gaining ground. I went to throw it into the next turn and was trying to cut under Beilman and then all of the sudden the car straightened up and I knew something was wrong. I asked Mike my spotter if he could see anything but he could not get a look at the car. So I limped it off the track and there was a course worker there telling me to shut it down. I asked him what was wrong, he said he was not sure but it did not look good. So that was it. I was done and had to sit there and wait for the tow truck to put a hook on me and drag me back to the pits. When I got back to the pits I found out that I broke the right rear stub axle.
So now I am in the process of finding something a bit stronger so I will not have this problem again.
I am looking forward to the next race. I have a couple of setups I want to try before the next race just to see if we can make this thing even faster. I would like to thank all of my friends and family that help me out at the races as well as all of my sponsors that help make this possible for me.
Wayne Matlock Sponsors:
Maxxis, Racer X, Black Rhino, Alba Racing, Elka, Can-Am, Pro Armor, Precision Concepts, DWT, KZ Trailers, Fly Racing, UNI, Tire Blocks, Baja Designs, Motion Pro, CJ Norby Signs, Galfer, IMS, Scott, Alpinestars, Necksgen, and Crash Addict
| 
