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SCORE Tecate Baja
250 ATV & UTV Race - Continued
March 9-10, 2007 - Ensenada, Mexico
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Continuing to chase the front running ATV’s became
a challenge as my friends and I were now in a race of
our own trying to beat them to the next location. We
decided to try and catch them just after San Vicente
near check point four, which didn’t give us much
time to navigate those narrow Mexican highways. With
our good, or as we call it crazy, driver we beat them
with just enough time to get set up and take a few deep
breaths.
Suddenly in the distance we could hear the first quad
coming. Running up front at the 161 mile marker was
the 1a Honda 450R ridden by Danny Prather and Mike Cafro
who would go on to win the Pro Class and 1st overall
ATV with a time of 4:31:54 with a blazing speed of 47.7
mph. On his heels was the 4a Honda 450R ridden by Wayne
Matlock how would go on to finish 2nd in class with
a time of 4:35:29 only a few minutes behind 1st averaging
47.0 mph. In third place near check point four was the
2a Yamaha YFZ which was running very strong at this
point, but not for much longer, and would end up with
a DNF, and become the only Pro ATV not to finish the
course. Behind the 2a YFZ was the 12a hybrid XR650 in
a 400ex chassis custom built by Carmen Cafro. Carmen
would go on to finish the race in 4th place overall,
allowing the 11a Honda 450R piloted by Jeff Hancock
to slide by in the last few miles to take home 3rd place.
5th place would go to the Young racers of Josh Row and
Travis Dillon on their 450R with a time of 4:52:05 averaging
44.4 mph over the duration of the course.
As we headed towards the beach we would see the stragglers
and those having mechanical issues with their vehicles.
Driving the last 35 miles of the race course we happened
across the 2a YFZ that was running so well. 10 miles
before the finish the motor blew forcing the DNF, and
stranding the YFZ in the middle of no where. As we traveled
on, about a mile down the road we came upon a guy wearing
half of his motocross gear, and asked if he belonged
to that bike back in the bushes. Sure enough he did.
After walking 5 miles to try and get help, Rafeal Guzman
was on his way back to sit and wait for a good samaritan
to come by and tow him in. So we did. Through 8 miles
of some back Mexican dirt roads we came across his next
pit team, and dropped him off. Helping your fellow racer
is just one of those things you do when race in Baja.
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| 11A
Jeff Hancock's
team rounded out the Pro Podium with a 3rd Place
behind 4A Wayne Matlock
and 1A Dan Prathers
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70A
Alfonso Cota secured the win in the Sportsman
Class over 50A David MacCarroll
and 51A Luis Salgado |
With the haste that this race was put together with,
it went very smooth for the ATV and UTV racers. I hope
to see everyone again at the 500 in June.
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