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SCORE Tecate
BAJA 500 ATV Race Report
May 30 - June 1, 2008 - Ensenada, Mexico
Wayne Matock Puts New Honda TRX 700XX
on Top - Continued
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| Honda
sweeps the Podium in the BAJA 500 with two
TRX 700XX on the box with Wayne Matlock
(1st) & Mike Cafro (3rd) |
Wayne Matlock’s team, which included Marc
Spaeth and Wes Miller, had almost a flawless run.
Matlock was the first rider of his team to get out
on the course. “We were supposed to be the
second team off the line, but the first team had
mechanical issues so we ended up being first,”
said Matlock. “I rode from the start to mile
marker 82 and then again from mile 365 to the finish.
There was a lot of dust and it was really hard to
see. I actually ended up hitting the side of an
embankment because I couldn’t even see it,”
said Matlock.
Matlock’s team was in the lead, but found
themselves under pressure from the 4a team headed
up by Javier Robles. “They caught up to
us in the paved section and when it was Marc’s
turn, he was trying really hard to stay in front
of them and he ended up flipping the bike. He
didn’t even realize that they had gotten
around us at that point and he just kept going.
Marc finally realized they were in front and he
pushed to catch back up and when he pulled into
the 300 mile pits he was side by side with them,”
Wayne elaborated. “Once we saw that, Wes
hopped on the quad and took off before he even
had his leg over the quad.”
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| Javier
Robles Team finished a very close 2nd "
We knew the whole way how close we were.
Co-rider Cesar Lopez said: We were leading
through San Vicente. We had to do a pit
and they went ahead of us. We just kept
trying to catch them and we couldn't." |
The 4a team caught and passed Miller on a paved
road, but as soon as they were back on the dirt
Miller and the TRX 700XX overpowered the 450 of
the 4a team and put a 00:1:40 lead on them.
At the 365-mile marker Matlock once again took
over and would ride to the finish line. “There
was a really tight section with a lot of silt
where I actually caught up to a couple of dirtbikes.
One of them would not let me pass so while I was
stuck behind him, the 4a team caught up with me
again. Finally I got around the bike and I pulled
away,” said Matlock. Despite the heavy silt,
the TRX 700XX handled just fine according to Matlock.
“The ground clearance and the power of the
700 really helped a lot. I was able to get through
the silt with no problems,” he stated. All
though there weren’t any out-of-the-ordinary
mods done to the 700 desert racer, Wayne did indicate
it was a little different to prep the rear of
the bike for the race compared to a 450 straight
axle quad. “We just put on different shocks
and added some wheel spacers to the rear,”
he said. The modifications obviously worked to
the team’s advantage as the 3a team took
the Pro ATV win with a time of 10:10:40, which
was 21 seconds over the 2nd place 4a team. All
though his machine performed flawlessly over the
441-mile course, like Mike Cafro, Wayne Matlock
plans to do some fine tuning and testing before
the Baja 1000. “My next race will be the
SCORE Reno to Vegas race. Harold Goodman and I
will be teaming up for that one,” Wayne
concluded.
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| 106a
Fransico Servin claimed the Class 24 Win
"I'm very happy. It was a very hard
course. Everything went OK for us,"
said Servin |
53a Julio
Gomez claimed the Sportsman ATV win with
nearly six minutes to spare over 60a Mario
Yorba in 2nd place
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Honda has once again proved itself in the reliability
department as not one, but two of the top positions
in the ATV Pro class of the Tecate SCORE Baja
500 were secured by their teams who overcame the
grueling course on the new TRX 700XX.
www.score-international.com
23961 Craftsman Rd. #A
Calabasas, CA 91302
818-225-8402
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