#MatlockRacing

Race morning started off really well with confident riders feeling good about their sections. The #1A Matlock Racing/Team Honda quad was the third quad to leave the start line. Wayne Matlock was off to a good start on the first 21 miles that is infamous for being full of booby traps and extreme dust and this year would be no exception. At one point, Matlock commented how surprised he was at how close he was to the quad in front of him without knowing it because the dust was too thick to see until he was right on the other quads rear bumper. At race mile 21, all the quads were coming through in the same order as they started.

Matlock handed the #1A Honda off to new team member Dofo Arellano. The rider change was very quick and it was a good thing because with the thick dust the quads were stacked up pretty tight. With Arellano off and running, Matlock jumped in the chase truck and head down to the Ojos Negros road crossing at race mile 39 to see Arellano come through. It did not take long for the lead quad team, #3A, to come through. Hot on their heels was the #2A Can-Am team, followed by the #5A Yamaha team. At that point, Arellano was missing and the team suspected that something must be wrong. After waiting for awhile a few more quads passed by and finally Arellano pulled in. He had come into an off-camber turn a little too fast, went off the road, and flipped the quad pinning himself under it. He first yelled for help from the nearby spectators then he realized that they could not hear him nor see him. He managed to get out from under the quad. Once it was right side up he was able to get it fired up after about 20 kicks. The quad was flooded from being upside down. Now with the quad running and back on course he had some time to make up. He had fallen back to sixth place. Arellano rode smooth and fast for the rest of his ride to race mile 100 and managed to push through the dust to fourth overall quad. He handed the quad off to Josh Caster at Honda pit 2 a little over eight minutes down from the #2A Can-Am team.

With a brand new machine underneath them, Matlock Racing’s Wayne Matlock, Wes Miller and Josh Caster fought their way to a second-place finish (Open Pro Quad) in the 2012 SCORE Tecate San Felipe 250. Check out the video for some great footage of the race.

“The entire Matlock Racing team prides itself on being a well prepared Championship winning team. This has been proven with four consecutive SCORE Championships in class 25, SCORE’s Open Pro Quad class,” Matlock Racing says in a release. “As the 2012 season was starting there were some major changes in store for the Matlock team. The biggest change was the help of American Honda once again. This change would require the team leave the TRX700XX behind and move to Honda’s new TRX450ER for the 2012 season. This change in quads would also require changes with other Sponsors and new testing of products.”

On Nov. 18, more than 275 entries would start the 2011 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico with the expectations to finish the race and be the first to cross the finish line. The #1A Matlock Racing Team of Wayne Matlock, Wes Miller and Josh Caster was the first ATV team to cross the finish line after an extremely rough 705 miles through the Baja landscape.

With a rough start earlier in the year at the Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 and Tecate SCORE Baja 500, the Matlock Racing team was looking forward to a trouble free race. The team spent months preparing for the upcoming race and their goal was to take the overall win once again and seal the points lead for the championship and the #1A plate.

The whole team headed south across the border a week before the race to begin pre-running each of their sections. Matlock and Miller would head to Ensenada as a base for pre-running their sections and Caster would head to San Felipe. Weather was harsh early in the week of pre-running with heavy rains leaving huge mud puddles and washouts along most of the course. All of the team would have to pre-run in the extreme weather to get the course completely covered.