Finish Line Quotes – 45th Tecate SCORE Baja 500, 6/1-2/2013

| June 6, 2013

logoSCORE-500x50045th Tecate SCORE Baja 500
Round 2 of the three-race 2013 SCORE Desert Series – Ensenada, Mexico
June 1-2, 2012 – 502 miles
FINISH LINE QUOTES

PRO CARS & TRUCKS

SCORE TROPHY TRUCK
ROBBY GORDON, No. 77 (First in class and first overall four-wheel vehicle. Gordon drove the entire race.) — B.J. (Baldwin) ran good all day. We struggled the last little bit. I don’t know if I’ve got a right rear flat tire or what’s going on but I struggled really badly the last five or 10 miles. I don’t know what happened in the wash here but I went over the big jump this morning going about 115 miles an hour, landed in a puddle and it spun me around 360 (degrees) about two times. I don’t know what happened between last night and this morning but the whole riverbed was flooded. It’s a bummer because we’ve got all the sponsors on the cars, we get it looking really good and we ruin it in the first 30 seconds of the race. I spun out and spent a bunch of times backwards. (Jason) Voss went by me and Bryce (Menzies) got close to going by me but we stayed out in front of him. It was a good day though. It was a good day for us. You can’t do it without a good race truck and the guys working back at the shop did a wonderful job. We stayed on the course the whole day. We didn’t have a helicopter but it was a good day. The pit stops were awesome. On the last stop we pulled out right in front of B.J. and that’s exactly what we needed to do. We needed to be the first truck on the road for the last 150 miles. We put the whip to her and let her run.

B.J. BALDWIN, No. 1 (Second in class and second overall four-wheel vehicle. Baldwin drove the entire race.) — We had Robby (Gordon) covered which is a great feeling. I have regular race mode where I drive the truck accordingly and it’s a very fast pace. Then I have kill mode where I take exceptional risk. I can make a lot of time for a short period of time. I can do it eight to 10 times throughout the day. I didn’t have to do that one time today. We had a great strategy when it came to driving the truck. I had Robby covered by 1:15 corrected, so everything I wanted to do in this race I did. Qualifying fourth or fifth was a plan. I knew that some of the faster guys were going to try and qualify first, but I don’t think that is an advantage here because it is such a long day. I had a really good strategy and I executed it with perfection but we had a $2 dollar bolt break in the brake pedal that caused the brakes to fail, but we are here. The Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 is going to be a very rough race. We are going to have to set the truck up to go through the big bumps at high speed. It’s not a fast-paced race like the La Paz run. This year’s Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 is going to be very rough and the average speed lower.

BRYCE MENZIES, No. 70 (Third in class and third overall four-wheel vehicle. Menzies drove the entire race.) — We were first on the road at Borrego but we had something go wrong with the power steering and it took us a little bit to get out of the truck and change it ourselves. We came out in eighth place and then we had to pick our way through the people and the dust. The course was unbelievably tough. It was silty, rocky and everything you can imagine. It’s so dusty you can’t pass unless somebody has a problem. Once we got some open air we made up some time. We were making up time but just not enough. It wasn’t our day. We won this race two years in a row and it would have been cool to get a three-peat and it was looking good for a while but everything went wrong.

TIM HERBST, No. 19 (Fourth in class and fourth overall four-wheel vehicle. Herbst shared driving duties with Larry Roeseler.) — We ran pretty well today. Larry Roeseler started out and did a great job and got me the truck in third. Along the beach I got a flat tire and Bryce Menzies got around us and after that we just followed everybody in unfortunately. I think we glazed our brakes somewhere on the course and I couldn’t use a lot of braking going downhill. It was tough to slow the vehicle down and that just wore me out. When running straight or running up a little bit of an incline, the brakes didn’t bother me. We love Mexico and we’ll be here next year and in years to come. After we are a little old I’ve got some young kids that want to do this. They are kicking at the heels of me right now, wanting me to get out of the truck so they can take it for a drive. CO-DRIVER LARRY ROESELER said: We had one flat tire but the truck ran great and that’s all we can ask for. Everybody here wants to win so we do our best. It’s all we can do.

GARY WEYHRICH, No. 98 (Fifth in class and fifth overall four-wheel vehicle. Weyhrich drove the entire race.) — We had a good pace going and at about mile 230 we were in the hunt for the lead. We got over to Mike’s Sky Ranch and got a flat. That’s a great road so I’m not sure what I hit with the tire. Right beyond there we got high-centered. Thank goodness there was somebody there to pull us out and then we got another flat, so that section took us forever. It put us behind some trucks that we had to catch and get back around. That took forever because there was no wind on the course. This truck is thrashed so the boys will be busy back in the shop.

STEVEN EUGENIO, No. 7 (Sixth in class and sixth overall four-wheel vehicle. Eugenio shared driving duties with Adam Pfankuch.) — We got the truck straight out of the shop on Wednesday, went and tested it and brought it straight here. We had 20 minutes of down time early in the day and we got stuck behind the train and it was follow the leader. This truck was flawless the whole time. Everyone had a good time out here and did what they needed to do. Now we need a little bit of luck for the next one and maybe we can be up front.

ROB MacCACHREN, No. 11 (Seventh in class and seventh overall four-wheel vehicle. MacCachren drove the entire race.) — We had some vapor lock issues from Laguna Salada to the finish. I’ve been monitoring fuel pressure and it has been dipping and I could really only go about 90 miles per hour from race mile 180 all the way in. When we crossed Borrego Road the thing shut off completely so we had to wait for somebody to bring more gas. We just babied it to the finish and we are here. It was a great race course and I want to thank everyone at SCORE for doing such a great job on the course. It’s great being down here and I love all of the fans here in Ensenada.

JUAN C. LOPEZ, No. 18 (Eighth in class and eighth overall four-wheel vehicle. Lopez drove the entire race.) — It was a tough race and everything was going well until we tried to get past (Bryce) Menzies and we had the first of four flats. We drove with a flat for about two miles because our jack failed.

JUSTIN DAVIS, No. 85 (Ninth in class and ninth overall four-wheel vehicle. Davis drove the entire race.) — It was going pretty smoothly and at Borrego we were right there with corrected time and then I hit a big rock and got a flat. We were still in the top five and got it going again. Everything was running smooth and Weyhrich, after El Coyote, log jammed the course right in front of me so I had to pull him out. In Colonet the alternator decided to die so we changed that. We were down for 20 minutes. For as much down time as we had, we had a pretty good day. It was a rough day but we pushed through it.

TROY HERBST, No. 91 (Tenth in class. Herbst shared driving duties with Ryan Arciero.) — CO-DRIVER RYAN ARCIERO said: It was a really long day today. Troy did a fantastic job. It was a mistake I made leaving Mike’s Sky Ranch that cost us. It was a hard 180 right and we were going slow following (Nick) Vanderwey in his dust and we couldn’t make the corner and ended up getting stuck. I owe a debt of gratitude to Rob MacCachren. When he came up next to us we had the tow rope out and he pulled us out. The team never gave up. Roger (Norman) laid out a pretty tough course today. We are just happy to be here at the finish line. We ended up getting a couple flats that were completely my fault.

CLASS 1
JUSTIN MATNEY, No. 101 (First in class and tenth overall four-wheel vehicle. Matney drove the entire race.) – We had no flats and no issues until the motor started missing around Borrego. When we pulled in here it completely died. We started fifth and the plan was to just chill out and  basically pre-run to Colonet. From there we just poured it on and just held position. The dust today was just miserable. We got stuck behind a couple of SCORE Trophy Trucks from the start to the lake bed and we couldn’t do anything to get around them.

COREY KEYSAR, No. 120 (Second in class. Keysar drove the entire race.) — We hit some really good puddles in the wash going out and we got the motor a little wet but it ended up drying out. We had one mechanical issue with a clamp that came off and let all of the water out of the motor. We took our Camelbacks and put enough in there to keep it cool and then begged for some more water from another guy that had a truck out there. Other than that, we had a pretty good time but we had two flats. We lost quite a bit of time with the coolant leak. I think we were leading for about half the race.

CODY PARKHOUSE, No. 100 (Third in class. Parkhouse drove the entire race.) — We got stuck in some sand somewhere between Ojos Negros and Cero Colorado. We lost about 20 minutes there. If that hadn’t happened I think it would have worked out perfectly, just the way we wanted. We had to make up a lot of time throughout the day.

RONNY WILSON, No. 153 (Fourth in class. Wilson shared driving duties with Brian Wilson) — We had a good day. My nephew Brian started and gave me the car in third at San Matais. We lost a serpentine belt on the beach and we were down about seven minutes or so fixing that. I was pretty much done after I got to Ojos Negros. I’m tired and sore and have been sick all week. It’s just a mess coming in and the course is really rough.

HIRAM DURAN, No. 170 (Fifth in class. Duran shared driving duties with Salvador Castro) — CO-DRIVER SALVADOR CASTRO said: We had a lot of dust and silt. It was a great course with no problems except for some water crossings.

CLASS 1/2-1600
ERNESTO ARAMBULA, No. 1602 (Arambula shared driving duties with Edmundo Fernandez) —  CO-DRIVER EDMUNDO FERNANDEZ said: The hardest part of the race was Mike’s Sky Ranch road where there were a number of stalled vehicles and it made it difficult to get through.

JOSE ROBLES, No. 1601 (Robles shared driving duties with Guillermo Luna) — The car ran perfectly except for a problem with the front torsion bars and the brakes failed 25 miles from the finish.

CLASS 10
MIKE JOHNSON, No. 1031 (First in Class 10)  We didn’t get a single flat, we changed one set of tires, fueled twice and here we are. It was a brutal course. I’ve got to commend Roger (Norman) for laying that one out. That was a lot of fun and had every element in the world in it. All the sections were different but they were all equally as challenging. From the beginning there was dust to deal with, then a summit to deal with and then you got in the sand. You had all of the whups going into Borrego and then up Mike’s Sky Ranch road it got treacherous. As soon as you got onto the Pacific side there was another section of silt, sand and rocks.

BRAD WILSON, No. 1053 (Wilson shared driving duties with Kyle Quinn) — I knew we had about 30 minutes to make up on first place and I knew it wasn’t going to happen. The third place vehicle was about 15 minutes behind us so we’ve been cruising it in since Urapan just making sure we didn’t make any mistakes. It was a good day.

TODD WINSLOW, No. 1081 (Winslow shared driving duties with Steve Achey and Matt Winslow) — CO-RIDER STEVE ACHEY said: We had a lot of close calls but what a great race.

ALEJANDRO MENDEZ, No. 1002 (Mendez shared driving duties with Jayson McNeal) CO-DRIVER JAYSON McNEAL said: Starting toward the back was a disadvantage but not just because of the dust. There were several log jams when some SCORE Trophy Trucks got crossed up so we had to sit and wait. Not having a GPS in here caused us to get lost twice.

SCORE LITES
RAFAEL NAVARRO IV, No. 1209 (Navarro shared driving duties with Vic Bruckmann) — Vic (Bruckmann) took the car from the start to San Matias and he had a flawless run and brought it up to a 30 mile lead. All I had to do was get in and keep the car in one piece and in the lead.

STOCK FULL
JOE BACAL, No. 8115 (first in class) — I think the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 that I drove solo last year for the win was easier. This course was really hard. I don’t know what happened but the summit was all blocked up so I decided to rock crawl around 10 people. I cut people off because I didn’t want to get timed out. I’m sorry for those guys but that’s racing. It was an amazing course but extremely challenging and difficult. We did our job and got the win and that’s two in a row. It’s a team effort and we kicked some butt.

TROPHY TRUCK SPEC
CLYDE STACY, No. 844 (Stacy shared driving duties with Carlos Lopez) — Carlos Lopez drove most of the race. We did have a lot of problems but we kept it together.

CLASS 19
CORY SAPPINGTON, No. 1904 (second in class) — I raced this race in 2006 and we completed the course but we were three hours late. We had a rough start to this race. We had vapor lock issues for the first 250 miles. We made a little ice chest to put our fuel pump in.

PRO MOTORCYCLES

CLASS 22
TIMMY WEIGAND, No. 1x (First in class and first overall motorcycle to finish. Weigand shared riding duties with David Kamo and Colton Udall) — I know with KTM and Kawasaki we are pretty evenly matched and it all boils down to who makes the least amount of mistakes. That’s how it was last year. Each one of us won a race last year. Just limit your mistakes, put your head down, do your homework and learn the course. Today went well. We all rode smart and kept it on two wheels. I don’t think there is too much hype on us and I like it (being considered the underdog.) I like people not talking about us. I like being the quiet guy. We’ve won in previous years so of course people are going to root for the other team and build them up. It is cool to have Kurt (Caselli) and Robby (Bell) and those guys putting in a big effort and coming down and racing us. CO-RIDER COLTON UDALL said: We had a fantastic race. I hold that thing (the motorcycle) wide open to the stop for over 30 minutes sometimes and the thing never quits. It is an amazing bike. This is awesome but by far the first and second wins I got with Jeff Kargola when we were the underdogs was amazing. I’ve got the bike at home. It’s my biggest trophy. My biggest events are racing in Baja. Right as pre-running opened I was here for two days feeling the course out and then a week and a half ago I came down again (to pre-run.) I know my section like the back of my hand. I can draw you a map of it. I felt like that is what it took to have the win. I kept riding up on Kawasaki and I was going down the rocks on the summit section before the wash and David Pearson and I were 30 feet apart. I was looking at him, and I wanted to pass him but the rocks are so big and you have to be so patient I couldn’t do anything. We dropped into the wash and I kept stalking him until finally he went high on something and I got him. I’m not sure he showed up for the rider’s meeting. In the last two races, visual check point 17 was a little high and the main line where all the trucks were going, was low in a wash. They said in the rider’s meeting last night that they changed it so he went up high where he was pre-running and I just blew right by him. It was like a breath of fresh air. One hundred and twenty miles of no vision is the scariest feeling you’ve ever experienced going as fast as we race. You don’t get to look ahead and see those bumps and rocks. I’m stoked that all the hard work we put in paid off. (Team owner) Johnny Campbell is still silently winning races. We are his puppets and can’t do it without him. CO-RIDER DAVID KAMO said: Colton (Udall) had a pretty good start to the day. He had a consistent ride over the summit. I jumped on the bike at Borrego at race mile 215 and he gave me the cushion for the riders behind us. KTM had troubles over the summit and Kawasaki had troubles over the summit, so Colton was just consistent which helped out. I got the clear air and went over to Mike’s Sky Ranch but got back into the dust with the Sportsman (motorcycle classes.) The traffic with the Sportsman was probably the biggest thing because it created a lot of dust. We are usually breaking trail and then you come up on slower guys and you’re in the dust and they are going half the speed you are going.  It set us back a little bit but we rode smart, kept it consistent and didn’t do anything too dramatic. We rode a safe race and kept the bike on two wheels and that is the most important thing.

KURT CASELLI, No. 2x (Second in class and second overall motorcycle. Caselli shared riding duties with Justin Jones, Mike Brown and Ivan Ramirez.) — I hit my chest and my stomach when I crashed and was worried about internal bleeding so our guy in the helicopter (Jones) got on the bike and rode the next few miles. I hit a rock and it is just so dangerous because the trucks pull the rocks up, making them bigger. There are so many trucks (pre-running) and they really beat up the course before the race even starts. I feel like we are motorcycles racing a truck race. You can’t always see the rocks when you are doing 90 miles an hour. As bad as it (the accident) was, it was a good finish. I feel like I let the team down but we were still able to get the finish. I was about a minute and a half behind Honda when I had the accident. CO-RIDER IVAN RAMIREZ said: It felt great when I was coming down into Ensenada (Ramirez’s hometown.) You can see the whole town and it feels awesome after a long race to be able to see the town from the top. It  feels great to see the fans cheering on the side of the race course.

KENDALL NORMAN, No. 14x (Third in class and third overall motorcycle. Norman shared riding duties with Ryan Abbatoye.) — I’m really stoked that I was given the opportunity (to ride for KTM.) I definitely enjoy a little change and the bike is really fast. It really has some potential so I’m looking forward to putting together some things for the future. We are going to have some homework to do for the Baja 1000. This bike ran flawlessly all day and I can’t complain. Right off the start I almost T-boned a truck crossing the wash and it set the tone of the morning. Not the best way to start my morning.

ROBBY BELL, No. 4x (Fifth in class and sixth overall motorcycle. Bell shared riding duties with David Pearson, Steve Hengeveld and Taylor Robert) — It’s great to be back here in Ensenada to get some points and get a finish. I can’t wait to get some more tacos and get a little rest in. I ended up having to do quite a few miles and it still wasn’t as many as Kendall (Norman.) That guy is gnarly for doing that many. It was a good battle with Colton (Udall) and he stayed right on me until I gave the bike to David (Pearson) in the physical lead but down on time. I guess he crashed pretty good and hurt his back so I had to ride his sections. Unfortunately Steve (Hengeveld) went down in his section. David and Steve are two of the most solid guys and for them to have issues shows just how treacherous this race course is. Anything can happen in Baja and unfortunately it happened to us.

CLASS 20
MARK BRADFORD, No. 169x (Second in class. Bradford shared riding duties with Manny Ornellas.) — CO-RIDER MANNY ORNELLAS said: It was a technically demanding course. The way the course is laid out, you either slow down and do it right or you don’t do it at all. You’ve got to go slow to go fast. I only pre-ran for three or four days and I could use another five or six. It was awesome. It is getting safer and safer and I am grateful for that.

CLASS 30
FRANCISCO ARREDONDO, No. 349x (First in class and fifth overall motorcycle. Arredondo shared riding duties with Shane Esposito, Ryan Dudek and Scott Myers.) — We didn’t have any major problems and just had a great time. We had a beautiful day without fog. We’re really happy. We were losing some oil when we arrived in Santo Tomas. 

CLASS 40
MIKE PRUNTY, No. 402x (First in class. Prunty shared riding duties with Mike Baxter, Scott Myers, Lester Lehigh and Sterling Rigsby.) — CO-RIDER MIKE BAXTER said: I started with about half a tank on the inside and it has been a rough couple of days. I heard that Scott (Myers) hit a rock and ripped the radiator off the motorcycle this morning so I was a little late getting on the bike. All in all I had a really good day. The suspension is phenomenal and the bike worked really well.

PRO ATVs

CLASS 25
JAVIER ROBLES JR., No. 10a (First in class and first overall ATV. Robles Jr. shared riding duties with Mike Cafro, Jorie Williams and Cyle Chislock) — We had a clean race with no flat tires or other major problems. We started third and by race mile 85 we took the lead and maintained it the rest of the way. This was my first win in 13 years of racing. We finished second in San Felipe and this win helps our chances to win the class for the season.


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