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Ensenada: Baja 250 post-event quotes, part 2

Continued from part 1 CLASS 7SX 744 Jim Hinesley (2nd place in class) Igor Galvan drove the first half. We had a great day - no breakdowns. BF Goodrich all the way. No flats. Great course, we loved it. CLASS 8 800 Nick Vanderwey (1st place ...

Continued from part 1

CLASS 7SX

744 Jim Hinesley (2nd place in class) Igor Galvan drove the first half. We had a great day - no breakdowns. BF Goodrich all the way. No flats. Great course, we loved it.

CLASS 8

800 Nick Vanderwey (1st place in class) We were ready to race in San Felipe. We love it there, but this was great too. A lot of cars got by us and we've just been playing catch-up the whole time. I think we might have won it, but it's kind of hard (to tell).

CLASS 9

900 Eric Fisher (1st place in class) I started and we changed at Valle de Trinidad. The course started too fast - in the beginning too fast.

CLASS 10

1010 Chris Harrold (2nd place in class) I lost my brakes right after I dropped over the hill - pressed like three times and didn't have any brakes at all. He (Lobsam Yee) caught me right out of Trinidad in that little rough section which I've only been through once. I was having some problems shifting from first back into second so I was just leaving it in second. So I let him go by and then I just stayed on it. But we both got held up by a SCORE Trophy-Truck on the Vineyard Road. I stopped to get gas and John Marking must have stopped also because he was at the pit and I must have got out before him (he had a flat) and then he popped back up. Then when I lost my brakes I tried to stay with him. I was using both brakes and trying to keep it in second because of the trouble from first to second - right out of Trinidad - I'm not sure if it was something I was doing because it was just a temporary thing for a part of the track.

1023 Matt Cullen (3rd place in class) Quote by co-driver Greg Blakeman This is John Cooley's old car. We just fixed it up a week or so ago. No, it's not like an untested car. (Is this as much fun as you thought it would be?) No, it was MORE fun. Third one in? - not bad! About six miles out -- our front wheel was hanging off. The course was so grippy before that, almost like asphalt in the beginning and then got real loose on the downhill. Caught our breath - no problems for Matt at the beginning.

1024 Alex Crosthwaite (4th place in class) Quote by co-driver Jose Gonzales Had a lot of fun - everything was the best. We don't want it to end. It was a good course, an easy course. Alex had a good run. We started in this car when we ran the 500 last year. We used to race ATVs.

SCORE LITE

1219 Mike Williams (1st place in class) It went pretty well, no major problems. We lost our tool bag and our brakes, it was a little spongy and the throttle was sticking but that's about it. Other than that, no problems. I drove the whole thing, just stopped once for gas. Some parts were faster than I expected, some parts were really rough. It was pretty toughed up, pretty rough - a lot of whoop-de-do.

1248 Cameron Steele (2nd place in class) Everything was awesome. Kash Vessels drove this all day long. I just jumped in at the finish line. Quote by co-driver Kash Vessels Everything was good. We were in the dust all day long, behind trucks, cars, everything. But we didn't have a single issue, no flats or anything, so we took our time through the dust and we're here now.

CLASS 11 1148 Ramon Fernandez (1st place in class) No, I didn't drive all the way, my brother also drove - he started and I picked up at Valle de Trinidad. We had a pretty good day but a flat tire and I got stuck two times. It wasn't for very long, maybe two minutes in the front and back. Coming from San Felipe was not a problem for us because we're from Ensenada at La Jolla beach.

MOTORCYCLES AND ATVs

CLASS 22

1x Robby Bell (1st place in class) quote by co-rider Kendall Norman Well, you know we were kind of scheduled to come down around the same time and we got a call a week before we were going to leave - everything's going to change and it kind of threw a wrench to all of our plans but we made the best of it - you know, we're really excited to race this area and couldn't ask for more. Robby Bell, my partner, rode from the start to Valle de Trinidad and I just took it home and that was probably about dead even, maybe about 110 miles between the two of us and he did a great job off the start. We were physically in first place when I got it but I was told we were about two minutes behind on time because Mike Childress was really turning it up. No problems at all - our bike was amazing - the 450X - did a great job, couldn't ask for more.

16x Mike Childress (2nd place in class) Quote by co-rider Andy Grider Course was great - no big problems - a lot of traffic on it. Held me up quite a bit, just my body's not there - not thinking, my head's not straight. It's a totally different thing, you can't compare the two - San Felipe is sand and whoops, this is fast roads and you just have to be really smooth and precise here and today I wasn't. I pre-ran all week and I was down here on Sunday and I did my section twice a day and today just wasn't my day. I got sick yesterday, went to bed around 5:00 last night. I sweated all day and got up at 4:00 this morning to get to Valle de Trinidad, still not feeling good. I felt a little better when Mike gave me the bike but I could tell I'm still sick and not there. Head nut came off, had to stop and get that fixed but other than that it was just me - I didn't feel good today. It's a great course. I feel bad for Mike that I was unable to keep the lead.

CLASS 21

104x Cory Evenson (3rd place in class) Yeah, it was great - a lot of fun, the course is good. I don't think we had any problems and it was a lot of fun. We missed one weekend up here only because we were over in San Felipe but mostly got it squared away so it was good. We did some pre-running this week and last weekend. I thought coming out of Valle de Trinidad - I thought we were in second place with 16 minutes back but as it turns out it looks like we took over the lead from someone. This is the first pro race I've done with SCORE.

CLASS 20

156x Ryan Penhall (1st place in class Quote from co-rider Brian Bebeck It was real good but real rocky. It felt good to pass some guys. We put this together probably about two weeks ago. This is my first Baja race. I got about two days of pre-running in. We switched off at Valle de Trinidad.

CLASS 30

308x Jim O'Neal (1st place in class) Quote from co-rider Steve Garnet Passed a couple guys down there or back there - other than that it was a good ride and I want to thank Temecula Motor Sports for giving me a chance to ride this and Scott Myers and Jim O'Neal, big help - those guys are awesome. I just wanted to just get out in front of the 30 bikes and you know, stretch the lead and keep the pace on them and just ride, basically, not even try very hard, so just out trail riding, that was about what it was, it was fun. Scott Myers did the first section to mile 78, Jim O'Neal, of course, he did a 10-foot start and Jim did from mile 78 to Trinidad de Valle and I did the rest. I think Jim crashed and I think 309x was ahead, he passed us in the thick. He went by first but I caught him and this guy was the only guy I passed, the only guys I saw. The first part was a little technical - about eight miles of it was kind of like motocross section, basically, bunch of drops and hills that was fun and once you got out that it was pretty wide open - it was cool. I rode over in San Felipe a few times but I've never raced over there but I think that was like a freeway compared to over there - yeah, I've heard horror stories about whoops and stuff over there - I'm not in that great of shape to be doing that. That actually worked out better, everybody liked it better over here so - everybody on my time anyway.

CLASS 40

408x Brett Helm (1st place in class) Quote from co-rider Jeff Kaplan It was dusty - really hard to get through. No problems with the bike, the usual perfect - everything's good. Oh, that's right, one tire change. Really chewed up - it was almost gone, it was wagging everywhere when I was coming in. I didn't know how many guys; I didn't want to domino so I just kept pushing up the dust and I'd get them; there was somebody not too far in front of me, I just caught their dust. Andy (Grider) didn't feel good - you know he had the flu last night - he couldn't race, so 16x got about two minutes ahead - up around the goat trail there was five and a half minutes apart ahead of him - and then all of a sudden it was down to two minutes and then it was back up again - I don't know how he's picked it up. Kendall (Norman) had a good ride, yea, Kendall did great. Man, that's tough to get stuck behind 30 guys - oh yeah, that was tough - too many guys to pass at the start of the race - too dusty you know. This is the first time I've been back since like '01. You got a whole lot of hard road and that was a long dusty road - hard to get through guys. We needed 500 more miles to get them - that was the problem - but so did everybody else. I think San Felipe would have been better for us because we would have worked through everybody. We were way further back; we never got out of the dust. We just never got clean air so we just rode it down all the way, it's all you could do. It's alright, we won, and that's what we wanted to do, I just don't like being this far back overall, but that's the way it goes.

CLASS 50

503x Craig Adams (1st place in class) Quote by co-rider Bob Johnson It feels great! I wasn't sure we were going to make, we got a big hole in the side case and pumping oil and I had to stop and put some epoxy on it then that came off and I had to stop and put some more on it and I lost about 10 minutes just trying to fix it and put oil in it and then I got a rear flat so we're just lucky to be here. I don't know where the hole in the case came from, I think it came from somewhere off the start, Craig Adams and then Doug Smith, my partner, and myself, Bob Johnson, and probably happened on Craig's section in the dust probably coming off the start. He gave me the bike first in our class and look where we ended up at. Doug got on at around the 20 mile marker and then I got on at about 150, something like that, right where it meets the highway, and that's where it ended - just tried to short shift it and nurse it along and make it last and it worked. It started missing and missing shifts, slipping the clutch, but babied it out to here. It was just like I expected it. I knew it was going to be rough and dusty and free running like crazy and didn't really change the pre-run, so it was a good day. Actually it was a little bit faster than I expected, I don't know what we came in over but I was hoping it would be in the top 10, but I'm hoping that we are on time wise, you know, so we will just have to wait and see where the time is. Awesome course.

CLASS 60

601X Don Lewis (1st place in class) Quote from co-rider Gene Dempsey I had a great ride. The Beach is always a beautiful ride along that ocean. It was a little rougher than normal because of the rain, I guess. It was a great ride. We got here and that's the main thing. I've been over 60 for a while. I think I never stopped. A lot of guys stop racing for 10 years and they try to get back in it and it doesn't happen. My brother and I we've been racing these things in about 38 Baja 1000s. As long as you keep going, you can keep doing it. Mike Harper started and went to mile 77, Don Lewis ran to Valle de Trinidad and my brother Sam rode from Trinidad to the coast and I took from the coast to the finish. We miss San Felipe because it's always a tough race.

CLASS 25

1A Danny Prather (1st place in class) I got the bike in Cerro Colorado in first place. We had a 30-second lead. I had to get the bike to Levi. I pulled about six minutes on second place. We just had a great ride. The bike was working flawless. Everybody did their homework on this race. Our pits were like clockwork, gas-and-go at every pit. I rode from Cerro Colorado to San Vicente, which was down at the bottom. We had about a five-minute lead then. Levi brought it home. We won the Baja 500 last year, the Baja 1000 and the championship. We started off with a win and to come out like this is just phenomenal for us. I love Baja. I love SCORE races. It's just awesome. Quote from co-rider Levi Marana It was fun; there are people all over the beach cheering you on the whole time. It was one of the best and easiest rides I've ever had. It was just like a little bit of a jog. It was wide open the whole way. Not a problem at all, not even one. The bike worked great. The suspension worked great. The motor was just ripping, I couldn't have asked for a better ride. It was perfect. The bikes were pretty good about letting us by. A lot of nice people out there, it was cool. It was a good ride.

-credit: score

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