Baja 1000 Champion – ATV Rider / Wayne Matlock Tackles San Felipe Prerunning

By DirtNewz.com Staff
San Felipe, Baja, California (March 6, 2006)

Baja 1000 champion Wayne Matlock

The San Felipe Malecon was quiet on Friday and Saturday night except for some non-racers from El Centro who came down to let loose. DirtNewz staffers rolled into town for the 20th Anniversary of the SCORE San Felipe 250. The Miramar Bar was open and we headed inside in search of long lost friends, racers and chase crews. Sure enough we ran into a remote pit crew for the #83 Trophy Truck and after a fierce battle on the ping pong table, we heard Mr. Bobby tell us twenty years of San Felipe racing stories. Nursing down the tasty cold drinks served up by the experienced MiraMar bartender, “Tony.”

Mr. Bobby recounted his own experience riding as a co-driver with the late Corky McMillin when he was just 17 years-old saying, “We went upside down and ended up landing on Corky’s side when he sternly told me not to unhook my seatbelts because I’d fall on him. As just a 17 year-old kid I didn’t really understand that until I thought about it and realized that of course Corky was just trying to help me out.” Of course, that was some 20+ years ago as Bobby himself explained that he was just plain getting old. Still, Bobby is a stout middle-aged man that owns a construction company that has done business with the McMillin family for over two decades. Surrounded by a group of young guns, Bobby and his crew kept the pace of the night at right around 7000 RPM.

Classic San Felipe style.

With the town littered with prerunning teams, the activity was all on the race course as the nation’s top off road racing teams tackled the harsh environment of the San Felipe desert. DirtNewz caught up with 2005 SCORE Baja 1000 ATV Champion – Wayne Matlock, driving his Alba-Honda TRX 450 supported by American Honda. Matlock and his family and crew were in the southern section of this year’s San Felipe 250 race course taking a break at the infamous Laguna Percebu when we caught up with him.

Matlock, a 9 year veteran of off-road desert racing follows in his fathers footsteps, Cliff Matlock, who himself is a multi-winner of the grueling SCORE Baja 1000 race. Matlock and his teammates are putting in there prerun time running their sections many times in preparation for what Matlock described as a “tough race,” before firing up his Honda TRX 450 while beach side at Percebu. Matlock, the 2004 BITD ATV Champion and Baja 1000 Champion will be charging towards the finish line at the first race for ATV’s / Motorcycles in this year’s 2006 SCORE racing season. Matlock’s sister and girlfriend said, “Watch him, he’s fast!” No doubt DirtNewz will be tracking Matlock in his quest for a win at San Felipe.

Baldwin chase truck getting some attention

On Saturday afternoon DirtNewz ran across the Damen Jefferies crew driving his red Bronco prerunner on Old Puertocitos road around RM 129 where they were in the midst of a full fuel stop. It wasn’t long before Damen and his crew were jamming south towards the top of Matomi Wash. The loop from RM 129 runs to RM 192 exiting down Matomi Wash before hitting Mexico Hwy 5 and making the turn north back to San Felipe. On Friday, DirtNewz staffers saw Damen Jefferies testing his Class 1 car at Barstow in the morning where he ran his car through the paces in anticipation of the difficult terrain of San Felipe.

Prerunning is wide-open and Sunday’s action saw #4 Mexicana Logistics Trophy Truck Owner – Gustavo Vildosola and Rob MacCachren out on the course. In addition to many other teams prerunning, the traffic entering San Felipe late Sunday afternoon included both Baldwin motorsports teams, Pat Dean’s Las Vegas Dissemination team, McMillin Racing Class 1 crew, Mark Hutchins and his Kreger blaze orange Class 10 # 1009 car. Desert Assassin’s King Pin – Cam Steele arrived back in San Felipe for a full week of practice before he heads out on race day to complete his “DA Triple Threat.” Adam Pfankuch and his KIT Racing team have established camp on the beach at Pete’s Camp. Earlier in the day we had the chance to watch the G&R crew in action as they prepare for San Felipe. One of the last sightings of the day was the American Honda 1X Baja Champion – Steve Hengeveld arriving to San Felipe. Hengeveld will team with Mikey Childress as they have big plans for winning once again. As you may recall, Hengeveld, Childress and the legendary Johnny Campbell all teamed together at the Baja 1000 where they captured another win riding a Honda 650XR to yet another dominating victory.

Stay tuned here for updates throughout the week as DirtNewz is in San Felipe bringing you the action.

Click here for the photos!