Post-Race Quotes: 32nd SCORE San Felipe 250

SCORE MEDIA CONTACT: Dominic Clark, dominiccnv@aol.com

April 8, 2018

32nd SCORE San Felipe 250

April 7-8, 2018 – San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico

Post-race quotes

Pro Cars and Trucks

SCORE TROPHY TRUCK

ROB MacCACHREN, No. 11 (first in class and first overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “There are so many Trophy Truck drivers that are very competitive and one wrong step, clip a rock or something and you’re done. The guys worked very good on the truck, this truck’s been very reliable, this is two years in a row. Can’t be thankful enough for that. We started sixth. With the draw we got real lucky being up there. It’s pretty tough to come from the back. When I saw the draw and we were sixth I said we’re in a good position. We got by Mike Lawrence in the wash before 60, (Adam) Householder had a flat, we got by him and we just set sail and tried to catch up to Bean (Justin Smith) and Cam and we were slowly making ground on them. We got to Borrego and Bean had a problem and he pulled out right in front of me and it was a bummer because it would have been good for us to get ahead of him there but we just had to trail him until about Mile 200. He pulled over and got gas and we went by and started to get closer and closer to Cam. Right before Matomi wash it was a real twisty road and I was trying to tiptoe though there and not hit any rocks. I clipped a rock, we jumped out, changed the flat really quick and nobody got by us. We lost that time to Cam but coming up to the finish I could tell we were catching him again. I know it’s incredible out there on the course, all the people you see on the side of the road cheering you on. As you’re coming it’s almost like a sea. The course is closed, you’re coming, there’s cameras, there’s drones, it’s incredible. You come through at 100, they open up and you come on through. I love racing San Felipe.”

CAMERON STEELE, No. 16 (second in class and second overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “We started first and finished first so at least that’s a good thing. Rob Mac’s a legend and I love to hate him. San Felipe’s the roughest and I felt like I was in a paint shaker all day. We punished this struck. I made a couple mistakes, which is unusual for me. I’m not saying I’m great at navigation but we did make a couple of mistakes and it was a bummer, it cost us a couple minutes in the first part of the race. I’m not going to cry about it, I would say it was a near-perfect race. Something happened to the power the last 40 miles but it kept going, the hamster was still on a treadmill but he might have lost a couple toes along the way.”

ANDY McMILLIN, No. 31 (fourth in class and fourth overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “Our strategy was we wanted a good starting spot for the 500, then you get in race mode and your adrenaline starts pumping and you start to attack the course more. We had a good run going the first 20 miles then I had a rear flat, I hit a rock in the wash and then got a real clean run the rest of the way, started making up time on Cameron and Rob and I hit another rock right before Puertocitos Road right about 265 and that put us out of contention so we just brought it in and got a solid finish out of it. I like the miles. It was really rough, it kicked my ass but it’s preparing us for the SCORE Baja 500.”

RYAN ARCIERO, No. 32 (fifth in class and fifth overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “My drinker stopped working and I was craving water and we were saying suck it up, suck it up, get it to the finish line. I had one flat and I don’t know how these tires went 319 miles.”

ADAM HOUSEHOLDER, No. 24 (seventh in class and seventh overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “We were chasing dust all day but we gave it our best. We’re a small team my guys in the shop did a great job. Now hopefully we’ll be back for the 500 and a top-five finish.”

SCORE TROPHY TRUCK LEGENDS

GUSTAVO VILDOSOLA SR., No. 12 (second in class and 33rd overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “Well, I’m very satisfied. It was very hard work. We certainly like the place we’re in, there’s another legend right behind us. Hope we make it. I thank Scott for letting me drive his truck. We had a great time and this team performed flawlessly.” CO-DRIVER SCOTT BAILEY – “Gus did a hell of a job in the first half and I don’t think we got a flat all day. We overheated a bit and had to slow down for awhile. That cost us about a half hour.”

CLASS 1

JUSTIN DAVIS, No. 185 (first in class and 12th overall four-wheel vehicle in finish) – “We were the last car off the line and I just picked my way through it. I knew this day would come and it’s who doesn’t have the flat, who doesn’t have any problems and we didn’t have one flat, nothing. We just kept her rolling, we were the first car on the road by Mile 160 and never looked back. Just kept her moving. I battled with the Wilsons a little bit and I got around them and got clean air, got behind a gap between the trucks and just tried to drive my own race. To start the season off with a win is big, especially now you start the 500 where you finish so it’s a good place to start and the only SCORE race we haven’t won is the 500 so we set our goal this year to win it.”

BRIAN WILSON, No. 100 (second in class and 14th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “Honestly, it was who could hang on and go the fastest in that second half. It was whooped out to no end and (Justin Davis) has bigger muscles than I have, I guess. The car ran great, I had a clean run, it just wasn’t in our cards to win today. We’re heading for another championship so we’re off to a good start.”

BRAD WILSON, No. 153 (third in class, 16th overall four-wheel vehicle finisher; co-driver JUSTIN MUNYON) – MUNYON: A lot of rocks, a lot of big square edges. We just kind of took our time and settled in and I got behind a Trophy Truck in Matomi (wash) and tried to pace myself and keep a gap so there wasn’t too much dust. We got a left rear flat, got out and changed that and got going again. Other than that we had a pretty clean run. We’re super beat up, it was super rough but we got through it. I think we would have been a little quicker. Right when I got in we got passed in the pits and we sat in the dust for a long time. That was a little bit of a struggle. Brad Wilson started and he went to Race Mile 168 then I came to the finish.”

BRAD VICIC, No. 155 (fourth in class and 21st overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “This is good. We had some problems out there but I will take this finish) all day long. We blew the front caliper off about 155 so as you can see our little Baja engineering, we used some duct tape and clamps but I love it here. So we drove a little bit over half of the race without front brakes. I heard we were out front but I don’t know, Justin’s fast so I don’t know if we were beating Justin or not. I loved the course. Some of those forever long whoop sections, I got to a point to where, ‘OK, enough of those.’ But I kept going. I loved the course. I love it more than anywhere. We’re doing the whole SCORE season so hopefully we got third place today.”

TROPHY TRUCK SPEC

WILLIAM HEDRICK JR., No. 295 (first in class and 22nd overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “It’s the perfect way to start the season. We didn’t expect things to end like this but we’re super excited. It was rough since the beginning. A lot of dust, we were very loose, our transmission was overheating but we continued our pace and we did our race and it worked. I’m tired right now and my arms hurt but it was worth it. The 500 is the next race and me and my dad are going race that one for sure.”

BRYCE SWAIM, No. 242 (second in class and 24th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish). AUSTIN JONES, co-driver – “It was pretty rough out there. The course was how it was all week. It only got a little bit rougher once the Trophy Trucks went through it. We were going really good, we had a really good run, my partner Bryce was doing absolutely amazing. I jumped in at 165. We were cruising for a while, we got over to230 and we actually lost a power steer pump so we pulled over and it took about 20 minutes to switch that one to our spare. Once we got that got going we started chasing them down. I was pushing but we’re here now and that’s what matters.”

RAFAEL NAVARRO JR., No. 251 (third in class 26th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “It was a real tight finish today. We had some down time, our crew did a really good job giving us time splits the whole day. We had some kinds of issues early on and we were just fighting our way, putting our head down all the way through the rest of the race. The last 70 miles or so as we were going through the first wash going east then the last wash coming the other way. We knew the lead truck was six minutes ahead of us so we knew we had to get the gap down to 2 1/ 2 based on where we started so we started pushing real hard, being smart where we could. That was kind of the name of the game at the end there. Regardless I’m stoked to be here at the finish line in this new truck. It’s a great start to the year, I’m excited we finally got this truck on the finish line.”

CLASS 10

CHASE WARREN, No. 1008 (first in class and 20th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “Quite a bit went right. We changed one wheel in a pit when we were getting gas, no flat tires outside of that, a pretty good day. We got caught up in the dust pretty bad on a couple people but we ended up making our way around a couple people and ended up first physically. We had a pretty battle with (Broc) Dickerson earlier on and then he got by us and we kind of settled in right behind him and he ended up pulling up on the side of the course and we didn’t see another car since. We wanted to set a pretty good pace early on but we knew it was going to be a long day with a lot of issues for a lot of people.”

COREY GOIN, No. 1036 (second in class and 23rd overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “We had a great day. We had no flat tires, we had no issues. We stopped for fuel and we have no idea where we’re at. We’re the second one to finish? We had an awesome day I guess! Holy cow! We started at the back so we just ran our pace and kept pushing, guys were wadded up on the side of the road and we said ‘Oh my goodness, this early in the race?’ We never got out of the car. We stopped and got fuel and that was it. We’re going to get out of here in a minute and probably have a beer.”

SCORE LITES

LUIS BARRAGAN, No. 1210 (first in class, 59th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “We had three flat tires and we are waiting for a better time but three flat tires but we are here and we are so happy. It’s very rough. In the middle of the day it was really hot and right now in the evening it is really fresh and we are fine. If we finish first it’s great for the SCORE Baja 500. The challenge is to make a good time.”

CLASS 7

MICHAEL COLEMAN, No. 721 (first in class and 36th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “First time racing anything (for co-driver MITCH COLEMAN). He never has raced a Trophy car or buggy or anything. He did 191 in. I did the first half and he brought it in. He kept the lead. I had about a 20-minute lead so he kept the pace going.” (When was the decision made to drive with Mitch?) “When I knew I wanted to do the San Felipe 250 but I didn’t want to drive the whole thing. I knew the race was long and tough and I really didn’t want to do the whole thing. So the next likely subject would be my son. I’ve got to pay for it anyway. Oh, it’s the best thing in the world. My wife is at home following completely and I’m down here ‘Oh do good, don’t get hurt.’ We kept positive and it was absolutely perfect.”

CLASS 5

MARK McNEIL, No. 501 (first in class and 42nd overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “I was very happy. At the start we charged hard, tried to get as much time on the next guy as we could. This car works really well in the rough stuff so we pushed hard. They said the next car was about 30 minutes behind and I hope that’s true and I hope we had a clean race. It was a great race. I’m glad we’re at the finish line and I’m glad we made it. We won the SCORE Baja 1000 last year at the 50th and this is the first time we came back to San Felipe since 2013 and we won it the last time we were here. We’re very excited.”

PRO UTV F1

WAYNE MATLOCK, No. 2971 (first in class and 40th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “We’ve been waiting for this one for a while. We had a couple problems; we had a belt we had to change, we had a flat tire, other than that, just go. The course was a lot more miserable than the pre-run. Our guys in the shop prepping these cars worked super hard and Kris (Kristen Matlock) and I have a put a lot of work into it and it’s paid off.”

RHYS MILLEN, No. 2966 (third in class, 49th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish; TIMOTHY DUNBAR co-driver) – “It wasn’t perfect but it performed good enough to get us to the finish line. Tim did an amazing job, hats off to the entire team because a bunch of guys busted their butts last night to get us to the starting line. We’re really stoked for that the one, the 50th anniversary of the SCORE Baja 500, so let’s see if we get a good starting position from qualifying today basically. We did it solo. Today was a little bit of a challenge. We blew a motor at 10 o’clock (Friday) night sitting lights on the car. We had an ECU go down and it killed the motor. The guys pulled the motor out of the pre-runner, which has too many miles to race on and it looks like it just made it to the finish because it will not crank right now. We just put on a safe, respectable pace. We could only do 70 mph across the dry lake and 60 mph on most of the straightaways. It was in limp mode most of the day but the goal was to get it to the finish.”

PRO UTV

KRISTEN MATLOCK, No. 1954 (first in class and 41st overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “I’m so excited for that (winning at the same time as Wayne Matlock). We’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time now. We both said if we both got first we would do something to celebrate in each of our classes. Pretty much everything was flawless except we had to pull over for a cactus in my leg. I got like three pieces of cactus and there was just no way to keep going. I tried but I couldn’t do it. And we pulled over for a belt change and the belt was fine, it must have been a rock or something that was shoved up there or something and we spent five minutes trying to figure out if there was something wrong with the car.”

PAUL CHAMPION, No. 1955 (second in class and 42nd overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “We’re just happy to finish. It was a really rough day. We stopped having fun around Mile 150. It was hard. That’s the whoop section before we shot down to the lake bed. There were just a lot of whoops today. It was just a real rough race. This is my first San Felipe that I personally drove the whole way. We raced the Mint a few weeks ago and prepped the car to get ready for this race and knowing how hard it was going to be, that was a lot.”

BAJA CHALLENGE

DAVID PAYNE, No. BC1 – (First in class and 107th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish; Payne drove approximately the last 10 miles with no suspension in his right front wheel) “We just kept going, fought our way through it, hit a couple trees. I didn’t realize the whole front wheel was bent over until I saw it. I just thought the power steering didn’t work. I feel awesome. I was really disappointed when the front suspension was damaged. Now that we came in in front of everybody, I feel like it’s a better story and more fun.”

Pro Motorcycles

PRO MOTO UNLIMITED

JUSTIN MORGAN, No. 7x (first in class and first overall motorcycle to finish; MARK SAMUELS co-rider) – “He rode the start to Mile 23, I rode all the way back around to I think Mile 192. He rode from there to 282 and I rode into the finish the last 40. We had a really good plan and me and him have been friends for a long time and we’ve done this a lot but we weren’t together to it’s really cool how a plan like that comes together. Definitely the most challenging was just the number of miles. It’s always a big factor in the morning especially because we were fourth off the start, four minutes back, so we were working off the dust. Mark got us into second physically and the rider switch the 1x got by us with Grant Statley on it and I managed to get by him and then Roberto Villalobos on the 66x. I got him at Mile 68, came out with a clean air filter and a new tire and we were good to go. It’s just the prep that San Diego Powerhouse did. It takes a really prepped bike. This is my old race bike and it’s been sitting as a frame in the garage for the last year almost and we just rebuilt it. I think we’ll be at the 500 for sure, I’d say.”

SANTIAGO CREEL, No. 66x (driver of record; second in class and second overall motorcycle to finish; BRANDON PRIETO, DIDIER GIORAND and ROBERTO VILLALOBOS, co-riders) – “Roberto started to Mile 74, then I took over from there to Borrego, that is Mile 144 I think. Then Didier went from there to Morelia, which is Mile 200, then Roberto from there to Check 3 and rode to the finish. Didier crashed so we lost some time there but not too much but the problem was he lost his tail so we had to change it every time we switched. Everything was bent but they fixed it a little bit in the pit but other than that everything went good. I knew we had a big gap to the other riders so I rode easy to take second place for sure.”

PRO MOTO 30

SANTIAGO CREEL, No. 360x (Driver of record; first in class and 11th overall motorcycle to finish; co-riders MASSIMO MANGINI, KEVIN MURPHY, ABEL BURGENO, JIM O’NEAL) – MURPHY: “We had Massimo who just smoked the start, I think he went to about 115. He gave it to Abel, Abel went up San Matias and gave it to Jim O’Neal who is 72 and you know what? He had a small little get-off right when he got on. I think the brake locked up on him but he got it to Morelia where I got on at 192 and I took it to the finish. I had no get-offs but definitely some scary moments out there but that’s why we do it. There was a lot of vibration in the bars. The grips twisted and the waffle grips were torn off and it was kind of rough on the hands but I just held on. I love the bike. Santiago and his crew really know what they’re doing with the machine. Hopefully we’re going to do the whole season. Santiago and the rest of the guys, their motivation right now is to campaign all four bikes for the whole year. “

PRO MOTO IRONMAN

FRANCISCO SEPTIEN, No. 730x (first in class and seventh overall motorcycle to finish) – “Everything went great, not any issues with the bike or with me. I got tired the last 100 miles. The last 70 miles, I managed to finish it.” (What was your reaction when they made the course 319 miles?) “Why did I always pick the longest and toughest course? I don’t know. It’s a challenge for everybody, not just me. Right now my mind’s going crazy. Sometimes a lot of people say I’m getting old and you get to think maybe it’s time to retire. Why retire? I told the kids it’s never too late, you’re never too old.”

SCORE MEDIA CONTACT: April 8, 2018

April 8, 2018

32nd SCORE San Felipe 250

April 7-8, 2018 – San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico

Post-race quotes

Pro Cars and Trucks

SCORE TROPHY TRUCK

ROB MacCACHREN, No. 11 (first in class and first overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “There are so many Trophy Truck drivers that are very competitive and one wrong step, clip a rock or something and you’re done. The guys worked very good on the truck, this truck’s been very reliable, this is two years in a row. Can’t be thankful enough for that. We started sixth. With the draw we got real lucky being up there. It’s pretty tough to come from the back. When I saw the draw and we were sixth I said we’re in a good position. We got by Mike Lawrence in the wash before 60, (Adam) Householder had a flat, we got by him and we just set sail and tried to catch up to Bean (Justin Smith) and Cam and we were slowly making ground on them. We got to Borrego and Bean had a problem and he pulled out right in front of me and it was a bummer because it would have been good for us to get ahead of him there but we just had to trail him until about Mile 200. He pulled over and got gas and we went by and started to get closer and closer to Cam. Right before Matomi wash it was a real twisty road and I was trying to tiptoe though there and not hit any rocks. I clipped a rock, we jumped out, changed the flat really quick and nobody got by us. We lost that time to Cam but coming up to the finish I could tell we were catching him again. I know it’s incredible out there on the course, all the people you see on the side of the road cheering you on. As you’re coming it’s almost like a sea. The course is closed, you’re coming, there’s cameras, there’s drones, it’s incredible. You come through at 100, they open up and you come on through. I love racing San Felipe.”

CAMERON STEELE, No. 16 (second in class and second overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “We started first and finished first so at least that’s a good thing. Rob Mac’s a legend and I love to hate him. San Felipe’s the roughest and I felt like I was in a paint shaker all day. We punished this struck. I made a couple mistakes, which is unusual for me. I’m not saying I’m great at navigation but we did make a couple of mistakes and it was a bummer, it cost us a couple minutes in the first part of the race. I’m not going to cry about it, I would say it was a near-perfect race. Something happened to the power the last 40 miles but it kept going, the hamster was still on a treadmill but he might have lost a couple toes along the way.”

ANDY McMILLIN, No. 31 (fourth in class and fourth overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “Our strategy was we wanted a good starting spot for the 500, then you get in race mode and your adrenaline starts pumping and you start to attack the course more. We had a good run going the first 20 miles then I had a rear flat, I hit a rock in the wash and then got a real clean run the rest of the way, started making up time on Cameron and Rob and I hit another rock right before Puertocitos Road right about 265 and that put us out of contention so we just brought it in and got a solid finish out of it. I like the miles. It was really rough, it kicked my ass but it’s preparing us for the SCORE Baja 500.”

RYAN ARCIERO, No. 32 (fifth in class and fifth overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “My drinker stopped working and I was craving water and we were saying suck it up, suck it up, get it to the finish line. I had one flat and I don’t know how these tires went 319 miles.”

ADAM HOUSEHOLDER, No. 24 (seventh in class and seventh overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “We were chasing dust all day but we gave it our best. We’re a small team my guys in the shop did a great job. Now hopefully we’ll be back for the 500 and a top-five finish.”

SCORE TROPHY TRUCK LEGENDS

GUSTAVO VILDOSOLA SR., No. 12 (second in class and 33rd overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “Well, I’m very satisfied. It was very hard work. We certainly like the place we’re in, there’s another legend right behind us. Hope we make it. I thank Scott for letting me drive his truck. We had a great time and this team performed flawlessly.” CO-DRIVER SCOTT BAILEY – “Gus did a hell of a job in the first half and I don’t think we got a flat all day. We overheated a bit and had to slow down for awhile. That cost us about a half hour.”

CLASS 1

JUSTIN DAVIS, No. 185 (first in class and 12th overall four-wheel vehicle in finish) – “We were the last car off the line and I just picked my way through it. I knew this day would come and it’s who doesn’t have the flat, who doesn’t have any problems and we didn’t have one flat, nothing. We just kept her rolling, we were the first car on the road by Mile 160 and never looked back. Just kept her moving. I battled with the Wilsons a little bit and I got around them and got clean air, got behind a gap between the trucks and just tried to drive my own race. To start the season off with a win is big, especially now you start the 500 where you finish so it’s a good place to start and the only SCORE race we haven’t won is the 500 so we set our goal this year to win it.”

BRIAN WILSON, No. 100 (second in class and 14th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “Honestly, it was who could hang on and go the fastest in that second half. It was whooped out to no end and (Justin Davis) has bigger muscles than I have, I guess. The car ran great, I had a clean run, it just wasn’t in our cards to win today. We’re heading for another championship so we’re off to a good start.”

BRAD WILSON, No. 153 (third in class, 16th overall four-wheel vehicle finisher; co-driver JUSTIN MUNYON) – MUNYON: A lot of rocks, a lot of big square edges. We just kind of took our time and settled in and I got behind a Trophy Truck in Matomi (wash) and tried to pace myself and keep a gap so there wasn’t too much dust. We got a left rear flat, got out and changed that and got going again. Other than that we had a pretty clean run. We’re super beat up, it was super rough but we got through it. I think we would have been a little quicker. Right when I got in we got passed in the pits and we sat in the dust for a long time. That was a little bit of a struggle. Brad Wilson started and he went to Race Mile 168 then I came to the finish.”

BRAD VICIC, No. 155 (fourth in class and 21st overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “This is good. We had some problems out there but I will take this finish) all day long. We blew the front caliper off about 155 so as you can see our little Baja engineering, we used some duct tape and clamps but I love it here. So we drove a little bit over half of the race without front brakes. I heard we were out front but I don’t know, Justin’s fast so I don’t know if we were beating Justin or not. I loved the course. Some of those forever long whoop sections, I got to a point to where, ‘OK, enough of those.’ But I kept going. I loved the course. I love it more than anywhere. We’re doing the whole SCORE season so hopefully we got third place today.”

TROPHY TRUCK SPEC

WILLIAM HEDRICK JR., No. 295 (first in class and 22nd overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “It’s the perfect way to start the season. We didn’t expect things to end like this but we’re super excited. It was rough since the beginning. A lot of dust, we were very loose, our transmission was overheating but we continued our pace and we did our race and it worked. I’m tired right now and my arms hurt but it was worth it. The 500 is the next race and me and my dad are going race that one for sure.”

BRYCE SWAIM, No. 242 (second in class and 24th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish). AUSTIN JONES, co-driver – “It was pretty rough out there. The course was how it was all week. It only got a little bit rougher once the Trophy Trucks went through it. We were going really good, we had a really good run, my partner Bryce was doing absolutely amazing. I jumped in at 165. We were cruising for a while, we got over to230 and we actually lost a power steer pump so we pulled over and it took about 20 minutes to switch that one to our spare. Once we got that got going we started chasing them down. I was pushing but we’re here now and that’s what matters.”

RAFAEL NAVARRO JR., No. 251 (third in class 26th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “It was a real tight finish today. We had some down time, our crew did a really good job giving us time splits the whole day. We had some kinds of issues early on and we were just fighting our way, putting our head down all the way through the rest of the race. The last 70 miles or so as we were going through the first wash going east then the last wash coming the other way. We knew the lead truck was six minutes ahead of us so we knew we had to get the gap down to 2 1/ 2 based on where we started so we started pushing real hard, being smart where we could. That was kind of the name of the game at the end there. Regardless I’m stoked to be here at the finish line in this new truck. It’s a great start to the year, I’m excited we finally got this truck on the finish line.”

CLASS 10

CHASE WARREN, No. 1008 (first in class and 20th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “Quite a bit went right. We changed one wheel in a pit when we were getting gas, no flat tires outside of that, a pretty good day. We got caught up in the dust pretty bad on a couple people but we ended up making our way around a couple people and ended up first physically. We had a pretty battle with (Broc) Dickerson earlier on and then he got by us and we kind of settled in right behind him and he ended up pulling up on the side of the course and we didn’t see another car since. We wanted to set a pretty good pace early on but we knew it was going to be a long day with a lot of issues for a lot of people.”

COREY GOIN, No. 1036 (second in class and 23rd overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “We had a great day. We had no flat tires, we had no issues. We stopped for fuel and we have no idea where we’re at. We’re the second one to finish? We had an awesome day I guess! Holy cow! We started at the back so we just ran our pace and kept pushing, guys were wadded up on the side of the road and we said ‘Oh my goodness, this early in the race?’ We never got out of the car. We stopped and got fuel and that was it. We’re going to get out of here in a minute and probably have a beer.”

SCORE LITES

LUIS BARRAGAN, No. 1210 (first in class, 59th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “We had three flat tires and we are waiting for a better time but three flat tires but we are here and we are so happy. It’s very rough. In the middle of the day it was really hot and right now in the evening it is really fresh and we are fine. If we finish first it’s great for the SCORE Baja 500. The challenge is to make a good time.”

CLASS 7

MICHAEL COLEMAN, No. 721 (first in class and 36th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “First time racing anything (for co-driver MITCH COLEMAN). He never has raced a Trophy car or buggy or anything. He did 191 in. I did the first half and he brought it in. He kept the lead. I had about a 20-minute lead so he kept the pace going.” (When was the decision made to drive with Mitch?) “When I knew I wanted to do the San Felipe 250 but I didn’t want to drive the whole thing. I knew the race was long and tough and I really didn’t want to do the whole thing. So the next likely subject would be my son. I’ve got to pay for it anyway. Oh, it’s the best thing in the world. My wife is at home following completely and I’m down here ‘Oh do good, don’t get hurt.’ We kept positive and it was absolutely perfect.”

CLASS 5

MARK McNEIL, No. 501 (first in class and 42nd overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “I was very happy. At the start we charged hard, tried to get as much time on the next guy as we could. This car works really well in the rough stuff so we pushed hard. They said the next car was about 30 minutes behind and I hope that’s true and I hope we had a clean race. It was a great race. I’m glad we’re at the finish line and I’m glad we made it. We won the SCORE Baja 1000 last year at the 50th and this is the first time we came back to San Felipe since 2013 and we won it the last time we were here. We’re very excited.”

PRO UTV F1

WAYNE MATLOCK, No. 2971 (first in class and 40th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “We’ve been waiting for this one for a while. We had a couple problems; we had a belt we had to change, we had a flat tire, other than that, just go. The course was a lot more miserable than the pre-run. Our guys in the shop prepping these cars worked super hard and Kris (Kristen Matlock) and I have a put a lot of work into it and it’s paid off.”

RHYS MILLEN, No. 2966 (third in class, 49th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish; TIMOTHY DUNBAR co-driver) – “It wasn’t perfect but it performed good enough to get us to the finish line. Tim did an amazing job, hats off to the entire team because a bunch of guys busted their butts last night to get us to the starting line. We’re really stoked for that the one, the 50th anniversary of the SCORE Baja 500, so let’s see if we get a good starting position from qualifying today basically. We did it solo. Today was a little bit of a challenge. We blew a motor at 10 o’clock (Friday) night sitting lights on the car. We had an ECU go down and it killed the motor. The guys pulled the motor out of the pre-runner, which has too many miles to race on and it looks like it just made it to the finish because it will not crank right now. We just put on a safe, respectable pace. We could only do 70 mph across the dry lake and 60 mph on most of the straightaways. It was in limp mode most of the day but the goal was to get it to the finish.”

PRO UTV

KRISTEN MATLOCK, No. 1954 (first in class and 41st overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “I’m so excited for that (winning at the same time as Wayne Matlock). We’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time now. We both said if we both got first we would do something to celebrate in each of our classes. Pretty much everything was flawless except we had to pull over for a cactus in my leg. I got like three pieces of cactus and there was just no way to keep going. I tried but I couldn’t do it. And we pulled over for a belt change and the belt was fine, it must have been a rock or something that was shoved up there or something and we spent five minutes trying to figure out if there was something wrong with the car.”

PAUL CHAMPION, No. 1955 (second in class and 42nd overall four-wheel vehicle to finish) – “We’re just happy to finish. It was a really rough day. We stopped having fun around Mile 150. It was hard. That’s the whoop section before we shot down to the lake bed. There were just a lot of whoops today. It was just a real rough race. This is my first San Felipe that I personally drove the whole way. We raced the Mint a few weeks ago and prepped the car to get ready for this race and knowing how hard it was going to be, that was a lot.”

BAJA CHALLENGE

DAVID PAYNE, No. BC1 – (First in class and 107th overall four-wheel vehicle to finish; Payne drove approximately the last 10 miles with no suspension in his right front wheel) “We just kept going, fought our way through it, hit a couple trees. I didn’t realize the whole front wheel was bent over until I saw it. I just thought the power steering didn’t work. I feel awesome. I was really disappointed when the front suspension was damaged. Now that we came in in front of everybody, I feel like it’s a better story and more fun.”

Pro Motorcycles

PRO MOTO UNLIMITED

JUSTIN MORGAN, No. 7x (first in class and first overall motorcycle to finish; MARK SAMUELS co-rider) – “He rode the start to Mile 23, I rode all the way back around to I think Mile 192. He rode from there to 282 and I rode into the finish the last 40. We had a really good plan and me and him have been friends for a long time and we’ve done this a lot but we weren’t together to it’s really cool how a plan like that comes together. Definitely the most challenging was just the number of miles. It’s always a big factor in the morning especially because we were fourth off the start, four minutes back, so we were working off the dust. Mark got us into second physically and the rider switch the 1x got by us with Grant Statley on it and I managed to get by him and then Roberto Villalobos on the 66x. I got him at Mile 68, came out with a clean air filter and a new tire and we were good to go. It’s just the prep that San Diego Powerhouse did. It takes a really prepped bike. This is my old race bike and it’s been sitting as a frame in the garage for the last year almost and we just rebuilt it. I think we’ll be at the 500 for sure, I’d say.”

SANTIAGO CREEL, No. 66x (driver of record; second in class and second overall motorcycle to finish; BRANDON PRIETO, DIDIER GIORAND and ROBERTO VILLALOBOS, co-riders) – “Roberto started to Mile 74, then I took over from there to Borrego, that is Mile 144 I think. Then Didier went from there to Morelia, which is Mile 200, then Roberto from there to Check 3 and rode to the finish. Didier crashed so we lost some time there but not too much but the problem was he lost his tail so we had to change it every time we switched. Everything was bent but they fixed it a little bit in the pit but other than that everything went good. I knew we had a big gap to the other riders so I rode easy to take second place for sure.”

PRO MOTO 30

SANTIAGO CREEL, No. 360x (Driver of record; first in class and 11th overall motorcycle to finish; co-riders MASSIMO MANGINI, KEVIN MURPHY, ABEL BURGENO, JIM O’NEAL) – MURPHY: “We had Massimo who just smoked the start, I think he went to about 115. He gave it to Abel, Abel went up San Matias and gave it to Jim O’Neal who is 72 and you know what? He had a small little get-off right when he got on. I think the brake locked up on him but he got it to Morelia where I got on at 192 and I took it to the finish. I had no get-offs but definitely some scary moments out there but that’s why we do it. There was a lot of vibration in the bars. The grips twisted and the waffle grips were torn off and it was kind of rough on the hands but I just held on. I love the bike. Santiago and his crew really know what they’re doing with the machine. Hopefully we’re going to do the whole season. Santiago and the rest of the guys, their motivation right now is to campaign all four bikes for the whole year. “

PRO MOTO IRONMAN

FRANCISCO SEPTIEN, No. 730x (first in class and seventh overall motorcycle to finish) – “Everything went great, not any issues with the bike or with me. I got tired the last 100 miles. The last 70 miles, I managed to finish it.” (What was your reaction when they made the course 319 miles?) “Why did I always pick the longest and toughest course? I don’t know. It’s a challenge for everybody, not just me. Right now my mind’s going crazy. Sometimes a lot of people say I’m getting old and you get to think maybe it’s time to retire. Why retire? I told the kids it’s never too late, you’re never too old.”