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Baja 1000: Post-race quotes

Pro Cars & Trucks SCORE Trophy-Truck 3 Mark Post (first place in class, second overall finisher) We had very little mechanical error on the truck this year. We had five wins this year. To win the overall SCORE Baja 1000 in the SCORE Trophy-Truck ...

Pro Cars & Trucks

SCORE Trophy-Truck

3 Mark Post (first place in class, second overall finisher)
We had very little mechanical error on the truck this year. We had five wins this year. To win the overall SCORE Baja 1000 in the SCORE Trophy-Truck is a dream come true. The entire team did a flawless job. This is very exciting for Riviera Racing.

Co-driver, Rob MacCachren:
This has allowed me to do what I want to do, to do what I love doing, come here and win the 40th anniversary of the SCORE Baja 1000. To come here and win the overall is pretty cool. I have never had the overall win and I finally got that done. In the middle of the night there are fires all along the course and it really keeps you motivated, you see everyone yelling out there. One thing I learned about Baja is up and down the Peninsula there's always someone nearby. No matter if you break down and you're out in the middle of nowhere you'll see someone out there. We didn't have any flat tires at all.

4 Gustavo Vildosola (second place in class, fourth overall finisher)
I think we had a great race. It was definitely a very tough race. I am very proud of (my son) Tavo. Glad to be here. Our goal for this race was to be the first Mexican team to win overall. We were really close. We lost the brakes and that's when it went downhill.

Co-driver, Tavo Vildosola:
My dad gave me the truck at race mile 321 and I think we were in seventh place. We got going and took an easy pace. We were the third truck on the road out of San Ignacio. We lost the rear brakes and we had to stop and figure out what we were going to do and lost some time. We had to run with only the front brakes. Once we got onto the technical stuff with the flat roads the truck wouldn't turn.

2 "Pistol" Pete Sohren (fourth place in class)
We were nursing a broken third member for 100 miles. We never ever thought we'd make it.

12 Larry Ragland (fifth place in class)
The oil pump fell off. There were a few things under-prepped that let us down. The engine was perfect. Drove good and ran great all day.

38 Garron Cadiente (sixth place in class) Co-driver, Todd LeDuc:
The ring and pinion went so we had to change it. We didn't realize the rear-end had a crack. We found the crack and welded it and got to the next pit. I am glad I stuck it out. The guys did an awesome job. They got me going again.

1 BJ Baldwin (eighth place in class)
I lost transmission when I got to the highway. There was water in the bottom of the fuel tank. I drove from start to San Ignacio and we had some transmission problems.

16 Cameron Steele (11th place in class)
It was awesome. This is the first time that I have ever had a truck that was ready to go win. At race mile 200 we were in the top five. The throttle stuck going into a corner and I missed the turn and I got stuck. The mechanical issue we had all day was alternator problems. We had to spend some time changing belts. That was our only downfall.

33 Chad Ragland (13th place in class) Co-driver Danny Sullivan:
We are a very new team. I get in and the computer doesn't work. For the first miles we had no waypoints. We got stuck in the silt. I kinda like driving without the GPS; it's like the old days. I love it down here. I enjoy it. It's a different challenge. I had a goal to get to the finish. As a new team I can't complain. Today was a really big accomplishment for us.

Class 1

100 Larry Roeseler (first place in class, sixth overall finisher)
That was one heck of a race. We literally came through the pack and were third physically. The car was fantastic. With the little bit of rain we had there were mudholes all over the place but minimal dust. We lost pressure with our shifter and we broke a shock. Troy (Herbst) brought it home. It's always an incredible feeling to finish the SCORE Baja 1000, it's an incredible journey.

Co-driver, Troy Herbst:
We are really happy to be here. No flats today. Larry Roeseler started the day and did a heck of job.

Co-driver, Ed Herbst:
I want to thank all the fans across the course who were cheering and waving. I am just glad to be a part of this family and this organization.

118 Steve Strobel
We raced very conservative all day, we had no tire issues. A year of preparation for the 40th Baja anniversary is what we planned for, so it was quite exciting to get to the finish. Our goal was to finish. I raced the first 700 miles with my co-driver.

Class 1-2/1600

1647 Arnoldo Ramirez (first place in class)
It was very tough. Many times we were in the front. I took the car from El Rosario to San Ignacio. I took the car again from Santa Rita to the finish. I had a lot of problems. The rear tortion bars don't work anymore. I drove all night around eight to nine hours. It was very fun. I brought the car in first place. The last section was super slow. We got traction and we made it. This is my first year in the car.

1609 Dan McMillin (fourth place in class)
It was long; it took us over 30 hours. I did the first 470 miles. It took me 13 hours. We are excited to be here. We had two flat tires and a couple clutch problems. I pre-ran my section four times.

1602 Ramsey El Wardini (solo driver, did not officially finish as he missed the cutoff by minutes)
It started with losing my tortion bars. I drove over to Urapan adding 80 miles to my race in order to get that fixed. My chase crew put on the new ones. I had to go back to the race course.

(Ramsey wore a helmet signed by past overall winners- Walker Evans, Larry Ragland, Ivan Stewart, Jimmy Smith, Spencer Murray, Vic Wilson, Bruce Meyers, Johnny Johnson, Rod Hall, Mark McMillin, Andy McMillin). I wore it the whole way. This is the seventh time I finished here in Baja Sur and it's probably the last time. It's been a long day. A lot of stuck cars, people in the way. You spend a lot of time. You can't go anywhere, you gotta push other people.

Class 5/1600

569, Ernesto Arambula (first place in class) Co-driver, Adolpho Arambula :
We had two flats. We ran out of gas two times. We have a 22-gallon tank. We got lost for two hours. We couldn't find the pit. The last miles are very tiring.

553 Gregorio Villarino (second place in class) Co-driver, Carlos Iribe:
It was a long race. I drove from Bay of LA to Insurgentes, about 500 miles.

Class 8

810 Glen Greer (first place in class)
It takes a lot of effort to do this. I got stuck out there so bad it was unbelievable. I didn't think we were going to dig our way out. There was a right hand turn we didn't have marked on our GPS and we went down a wash and buried it. We have been digging and scraping for an hour and a half. It was hard. I wanted to win this race because I have never won the SCORE Baja 1000. This is an accomplishment. We fought back. We couldn't see anything from Bay of LA to San Ignacio because there was fog out there.

Class 10

1003 Matt Cullen (first place in class)
I started and I finished. I got it back in the lead in good shape so we just had to keep it. We had one flat and a lot of silt. We pre-ran the course but it got a little more tore up than it was in pre running. The rain up north helped me because I got out front and the silt wasn't a problem. (The win) is huge for us.

SCORE Lite

1200 Tim Noe (first place in class, first VW-powered finisher) Co-driver, Vic Bruckman:
The car has had no third gear since mile 200. It was pretty tough. No flats. I got stuck just before Todos Santos in the silt. Getting to the finish line was the best part about this race. This is my seventh SCORE Baja 1000 win.

Stock Full

863 Chad Hall (first place in class)
That was 37 Hours of fun. We had no problems at all. We got stuck in Santa Rita silt beds but I never got out of the car. We paid a guy 100 bucks to tow us out with a tractor. The transfer case didn't work and we didn't have 4-wheel drive.

862 John Griffin (second place in class)
After nine years in a Hummer, this is my first full season in this. This is much more fun to drive. This is much faster but I'm not use to getting stuck. This is like sitting in your couch in the living room. I won five championships and in 20,000 race miles I was never stuck until today. Driving that (his old vehicle) was like crashing an airplane. We had an hour lead at checkpoint 7. We lost the rear-end. We had great race going here. These tires are too aggressive for the course. I ran the first 300 miles and then the last 300 miles.

Stock Mini

760 Rod Hall (first place in class)
To pull off 40 in a row is pretty amazing. We had a great race but it was probably the most stressful race I've ever had. If I had to do another like that I'll quit. Thanks to our sponsors, they allow a working man to be able to come down here. Now it's time to relax and enjoy. I was able to flag off the first few SCORE Trophy-Trucks (Hall served as one of the race's Grand Marshals). That was my first time seeing the start. There is so much energy at the start line.

Protruck

236 Rick L. Johnson (first place in class) Co-driver, Jimmy Nuckles:
They gave me the truck in the lead and all I had to do was win it -- I had the easy part. I drove the third section.

Baja Challenge

17 Jim Christensen (first place in class)
Started out good, we got a good lead. We had a few issues and my son (Matt) brought it home for us the last 300 miles. Rich Benga led by about 70 miles at one time but then it got real tight. We won by 85 miles, kind of blew the field away. We got hit early by a SCORE Trophy-Truck, it was backing up trying to get out of a rut so that set us back. That happened eight miles into the race. After six years it's nice to get a win -- we've had a second, two fifths and a sixth.

Pro Motorcycles

Class 22

No. 1x Robby Bell (first place in class, first overall finisher) Co-rider, Steve Hengeveld:
I got on the bike at Loreto and we were out in front by about a half hour. We were leading by (BFG) Pit 1. I went through the mountains of San Javier and soon as I hit Insurgentes, it was like blackout through the fog all the way to Santa Rita and it was really difficult. You don't know where the livestock is and the lights don't pick them up. It was one of the most hectic times of the ride and then it cleared up again and I got going on the pace, and I just tried to ride as smooth as possible to bring it in safely without any mistakes. The bike ran flawless, the Honda 450x is an awesome machine. The engineers at Japan, American Honda and Precision concepts, without those guys we wouldn't be here today. It was a dark night and there wasn't a moon and the lights worked flawless. Nothing went wrong. I pre-ran my section five or six times. I learned where the cattle was going to be at different times of the day, learned their patterns and everything worked out. There's some pressure to win but I don't let it bother me, I come out here to do what I do. You have to be smart out there. You have to pace yourself. This my 10th SCORE Baja 1000 win and it feels good.

Co-rider, Johnny Campbell:
We got blessed with some rain up north which helped us out. Everything we did in planning all year worked out. It takes a team to be successful down here.

Co-rider, Kendall Norman:
I have never done this before all the way to Cabo. We had a flawless run. The rain made the best conditions I have ever seen in Baja. No dust. It made a different race. Everything was perfect. The course was amazing and I am really thankful to be here right now.

Co-rider, Robby Bell:
Getting a little bit of rain made it a lot safer off the start. We had the best team and the best bike. We tried to not make any mistakes and get in the lead and get clean air. My teammates did an awesome job.

14x Tim Morton (second place in class, third overall finisher)
I am the oldest finisher so far (physically was the second finisher); I am 41. It feels good to be here ahead. I have ridden some pretty cool bikes before and this was really special. I want to thank Johnny Campbell and Bruce Ogilvie for having the faith in me to ride one of their bikes. It was a really good race. We passed the KTM and had heck of race. We put a little bit of time on them.

9x Quinn Cody (third place in class, fifth overall finisher) Co-rider, David Pearson:
We have a competitive team and a competitive bike. We will be back next year. At mile marker 320 we got a flat tire. That really put us back 45 minutes. We played catch up and kept it on two wheels.

11x, Luke Dodson (14th place in class)
At race mile 308, Todd Hafler, our second rider on the bike, crashed. Our first rider got turned around. Everyone was riding unfamiliar course since we all moved up but we got to the finish. Todd has some injuries. He ended up with a broken wrist and broken jaw. His cat scan turned out okay. We don't know exactly what he hit. Quick response by SCORE for the airlift. SCORE got the rider into a class A hospital. Absolutely outstanding. They airlifted him on a helicopter and transferred him to an airplane and got him to Scripps Hospital in San Diego within two and half to three hours of the accident. Weatherman was on it. SCORE immediately had rescue enroute. They did a good job on that. It took a couple hours to get the next rider to the bike. We lost three hours moving riders.

48x Greg Godfrey (19th in class, solo rider)
My light quit, so I had to stop for an hour and half and wait for daylight. I slept that long, it was the only break I got. You kind of decide you are going to try it (SCORE Baja 1000) and when you actually do it, it's pretty cool. It's very special. It's a big privilege. It makes it worth it. It was fun and long. I have never been on a motorcycle that long.

Class 21

107x Francisco Arredondo (first place in class) Co-rider, Kent Pfeiffer:
We had some problems that got us late but we had less problems than the rest of the guys in our class. We had some first time guys riding with us. Brett (Harding) gave us a 20-minute lead right out of the gate. Our rider of record (Francisco Arredondo) broke his hand the day before the race.

Class 30

302x Jim O'Neal Co-rider, Mouse McCoy:
I had the best time, just an awesome ride. I'll have a much better time once about four minutes goes by (to ensure the class victory). I got on around Santa Rita and brought it in.

Class 50

549x Chris Haines (first place in class)
We had a really great team and everybody did an outstanding job and we're happy with the results. SCORE put on a great race for the 40h anniversary and I think it's going to be one people remember for a long time. I don't know how many years of riding I have left. The best part is being teamed up with a great bunch of guys with all their experience and the camaraderie of it.

Co-rider, Jimmy Sones:
It was fast and flawless. I just rode to get to the finish line because we had an hour and half lead and I wanted to make zero mistakes. You got to play it real safe so you don't throw away a win.

Class 60

609x Richard Jackson (first place in class)
I didn't do everything I could but it was enough. I raced with Chris Haines last year but never saw the bike. So this was the first time testing everything (since his accident in the 2004 SCORE Baja 1000 in which he broke his arm). The day before the race this year one of the Co-riders says he had too much to ride so I pre-ran an additional section, about 50 miles through some rough course. Bill Nichols got it at about race mile 1100 to the finish. He is 67 years old and I cannot wear him down. He is a tough old bird and quite an asset to the sport.

Pro ATVS

Class 25

1a Danny Prather (first place in class) Co-rider, Mike Caffron:
This was definitely a big win for us. It's been a rollercoaster ride but one of the best days of my life. We overcame some huge problems at first and had a little luck on our side and everything just fell into place. We ran out of gas a couple of times. We were down two hours at one point.

Class 24

103a Francisco Servin (first place in class) Co-rider, Rocky Merino:
It was a great day today. No flats. No problems on the bike. Great course but rough. This race was flawless.

SPORTSMAN

SPT CAR

1409 Paul Bailey (first place in class) Co-rider Steve Cossey:
We continued on the second leg and went to mile 530. The car ran flawless, no flat tires. Ten members were in the car, everybody that raced the car chased the car. When they weren't racing, they were chasing. At race mile 1,200 we broke the front arm. The last 70 miles, we strapped it down with a tie down and limped it in. We were up with the pack of 1600's. We managed to get it in here and get it finished. This is our first SCORE Baja 1000.

SPT M/C<250cc</i>

207x Jesus Rios (first pace in class)
We did it - finish it and win. I started from the start to mile 110. My sections were very technical. I did three trips to pre-run. This is my second SCORE race.

-credit: score

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