2014 SCORE San Felipe 250 ATV Race Report
Photos & Race Report by: Nick Nelson
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San Felipe 250 Links |
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San Felipe, Mexico (3/6/2014) - The past weekend's San Felipe 250 exemplified mass confusion at the highest level of Off Road Racing. I have been building a RZR XP1000 to contest the growing Pro UTV class, but the project was more in depth than I anticipated. I ran out of time, throwing in the towel rather than spending thousands to race a rushed machine with no test time. We opted to go to San Felipe as a chase crew for our friends racing the 1A in the Pro ATV class as well as the TireBlocks XP1000 in the UTV Class. The Race course was scheduled to run north up through Mikes Sky Rancho and then over the Summit to Laguna Salada and then return to San Felipe. This new 279 mile course was to be the longest in recent years, maybe history. The new course had it all, whoops, rocks, washes, and even major elevation changes.
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The A1 race team of Adolfo Arellano, Francisco Vera, Nick Destout, & Bradley Howe |
Our plan was to chase / assist the 1A team in the chase truck and then chase for the TireBlocks UTV in our RZR XP4 1000. The teams spent the week prior to the race pre running there sections and dialing in the race vehicles. Jamie Kirkpatrick and Kenney Sanford had a busy week as they hauled there freshly built Polaris RZR XP1000 to San Felipe with only three miles on it. Both drivers had raced and even won in Baja, but always on ATV's. Prerunning and racing this race would actually be the first time either of them spent time behind the wheel of a Polaris RZR.
While the TireBlocks crew was dialing in and learning to drive their new race RZR, a lot of other teams were devoting their days to pre running the ultra technical and rocky summit section. Logistically pre running the Summit is a nightmare. To pre-run the summit, a racer needs to be driven nearly 100 miles north of town to even start their pre-run. Once dropped off to pre-run this section, the chase driver has almost 90 miles of driving to go pick their rider up on the other side.
With month's of prep and weeks of pre-running behind them, Friday night is a stressful time spent planning and loading down chase trucks with every imaginable part or tool that might be needed. We stocked the truck for pitting the 1A quad, and then we loaded down the RZR 4 for chasing the afternoon UTV race. In theory, with a decent size tool bag, a few extra spare parts, and a spare tire it was ready. Our plan was to have the box van at the easy to reach pits, and the RZR would try to hit every pit in case the need to borrow parts.
The 5 A.M. wake up comes early after a long week. Grabbing coffee and Monster's on the way, we headed to town to pick up our rider and shoot pics of the start. Shooting a few pics and then navigating the crowds was all it takes to put you in a time crunch when pitting for a team that runs up front. We checked the time and throttled up as we left town. Brad Howe would be getting on in San Matias at RM 80, we got him there and he was still putting on gloves and goggles as the 1A quad appeared over the Horizon. A quick fill of the fuel tank and Brad was off into the notoriously fast, and now extremely wet Mike’s Loop.
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The 10A MCR Race Team makes a quick stop to refuel |
We jumped in the truck and as we entered the highway, Mike Cafro sped by on the 10A of Javier Robles. By adjusted time they were almost exactly even, and already seriously pulling on the competition.
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The MCR Race Team made the pass on the 1A team to take the physical lead |
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