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Name: Wayne Matlock
Occupation: Cabinet Maker
Residence: San Diego, CA
Birth date: 12/18/77
Hobbies: Riding ATVs, Water Skiing
Height: 5'-11"
Weight: 240lbs.
Proudest Moment: Winning the 2005 Baja
Favorite practice track: Ocotillo, CA
Restaurant: Mexican Food
Nickname: "Matlock"
Chevy or Ford? Dodge
Tech gadget of choice? Cell phone
Cell carrier: Verizon
Choice country: USA
Twist or thumb? Twist
Magazine? All of the quad mags
Favorite place? Our family vacation house on the CO River
Staying in shape: Ride as much as I can
What's in your CD player? Kid Rock
Movie? Wedding Crashers
Sponsors: American Honda, Alba Action Sports, Precision Concepts, Roll
Design, Elka, Tireballs, ITP, Precision Racing Products, IMS, Moose Racing,
Ricky Stator, Honda Pro Chemicals, Smith, Streamline Braking
Only about half the 16 Class 25 ATV teams finished this year's grueling Baja 1000. This year's length was only 709 miles, but the course was said to be the toughest ever. The 2006 Honda TRX450R of Wayne Matlock, Chad Prull and Shane Hitt won the race with plenty of time to spare. Amazingly, they averaged 39.13 mph, only five miles an hour off the winning Trophy Truck average time. The team was hand picked by Wayne Matlock and American Honda, and the recent Baja victory marked the first for all members. With a week's worth of rest in him, we talked to Wayne about the incredible task. Here's what he had to say...
ATV Scene: How long have you been racing
the Baja?
Wayne Matlock: Almost nine years now.
ATV Scene: Who did you team up with this
year?
Wayne Matlock: We have a great team. It's
myself, my partner Chad Prull and Shane Hitt.
ATV Scene: How did the team come about?
Wayne Matlock: Myself
and American Honda put it together.
ATV Scene: Did you think you guys could win it with only three riders?
Wayne Matlock: Yes we knew
we had a good team and we came to win.
ATV Scene: We were told this year's Baja was the shortest distance
ever, but also the roughest. Would you agree?
Wayne Matlock: Yeah it was
definitely the roughest ever. There was a lot of sand, whoops and rocks. The
rocks really tear up the machine too. It was pretty gnarly out there.
ATV Scene: What do you think you owe your
victory to?
Wayne Matlock: A lot of preparation.
We put a lot time and effort into this race. Having the new 450R helped a lot
too.
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| In 2003, Shane Hitt, then on an opposing team, helped out Wayne Matlock by giving his DS650 a bump start. After they got his machine fired, Wayne returned the favor and shared his light with Shane. The two have been friends ever since. |
ATV Scene: We're assuming this year's event
will go down as your best Baja experience, what's your worst?
Wayne Matlock: Yeah
this year was my best. Actually my best and worst Baja experiences both involve
Shane Hitt. I was on the Bombardier DS650 in 2003. We had about a 45 minute
lead going into nightfall but then we started having some problems. Shane was
riding on Wes Miller's team that year and they were having problems of their
own. He came through with no lights whatsoever. We ended up working out a deal
together. He bump started me and in return I agreed to share my light so he
could see. We continued to have some bad luck. They ended up DNFing and we fell
back and finished fourth. All said and done, I'm thankful for that being my
worst Baja experience. I mean, we still crossed the finish line in fourth, you
know? That's not too bad of a story since some don't even make it back home
after a bad Baja.
ATV Scene: How many times did you guys
pre run your sections?
Wayne Matlock:
I pre ran my section
three times, Shane twice and Chad once. It's good to pre run but it's a lot
of miles to remember and by race time the course changes a lot.
ATV Scene: How
many miles did you ride?
Wayne Matlock: We
split it up pretty even, but I ran a little more than the other guys.
ATV Scene: Did you guys have any problems?
Wayne Matlock: Not one! We
didn't even change a tire. We had tireballs and just went the whole race smooth
and steady. It was great!
ATV Scene: Was this the first year for
the 60mph highway speed limit, and what do you think of this new rule?
Wayne Matlock: It wasn't the first year
for it, but it was one of the first times that they've been able to enforce
it. In the past it was sort of enforced by the Federally. This year they introduced
"Rally Logger" which worked very well.
ATV Scene: What is "Rally Logger"?
Wayne Matlock: It's
a little GPS enabled box that is fastened to your frame. It tells valuable information
like where you've gone and how fast you went through a certain section. They
use it in Europe for their Rally racing with a lot of success as well.
ATV Scene: What do you think of it?
Wayne Matlock: I think
it's great. You can still find different lines here and there and not cut the
course, after all that's what Baja is all about. But at the same time it keeps
racers from cutting miles of the course at a time. I think this needed to be
addressed, and I think they did a good job by stepping up to these new Rally
Loggers. In the past you knew you had to take shortcuts because you knew the
compitition did. Thanks to this I think those days are gone now.
ATV Scene: So
how fast did you used to go in the sections that are now 60mph areas?
Wayne Matlock: We
used to go about 90 on those sections. It's a lot safer now for everyone.
ATV Scene: Who did you think would be the
biggest threat to win it this year?
Wayne Matlock: There were three teams that
we knew would be a threat to win. Wes Miller, Dana Creech, Jason Luburgh, Keith
Little looked like one heck of a team. Mike Cafro, Danny Prayther and William
Yokley were a definite threat and the Josh Fredericks, Cyle Chislock, Levi Merina,
Logan Holliday team as well.
ATV Scene: How did you like your set up
for the race? Can you describe it?
Wayne Matlock: It was basically
stock with Honda's new HRC kit and a 37 tooth rear sprocket.
We even ran a stock pipe. I will say that every square inch was looked
over and prepped to outlast the Baja. Doug Roll helped set up the quad big time!
We had Roll Design suspension and light brackets. This quad and Josh Fredericks
are pretty much identical. Both were dialed in perfectly.
ATV Scene: Did anyone crash?
Wayne Matlock: Nope. And no one got hurt,
lost, out of gas - no problems at all. Everything went excellent for us.
ATV Scene: You guys had a nice lead in
the final 40 miles. Describe what it was like to bring it across the finish
line.
Wayne Matlock: We
were eighth off the line. We got the lead
at mile 130. At mile 135 Cafro passed me back when I turned the quad off by
accident. I bumped the off switch with my knee and couldn't figure out why it
died. I finally realized what happened and got going again. I passed him back
at about mile 160. From then on we had it all the way to the finish. I rode
about 175 miles to finished it up. Since I'm so familiar with riding at night
I finished up even though Shane was scheduled to take it home. It
was getting pretty cold but I still felt great when I came in for the last pit
stop. Shane was tight and cold, I was loose and in the groove - so I took it
on in.
ATV Scene: Describe the last hour.
Wayne Matlock: For
the last 50 miles I have to admit, I was at about half throttle. I kept telling
myself to slow down. We had an hour lead and it didn't matter if we won by the
whole hour or ten seconds. I've been wanting to win this thing for so long and
really didn't want to mess anything up at the very end. The first thing I remember
feeling was how relieved I was that it was over and there was nothing left to
get in the way or stop us for winning it. It was amazing and I'll never forget
it.
ATV Scene: How do you rate this 2005 team?
Wayne Matlock: Off
the scale! This was the first time I put my own team together. I never had the
tools or the money to do it like it needed to be done in order to win it in
the past. Honda really set us up this year. I have to give them a lot of credit
for this win.They gave us four 450Rs and backed our every move.
ATV Scene: Were your teammates there to
see you finish it?
Wayne Matlock: They were just pulling in
when I came across. I beat them by about five minutes.
ATV Scene: Who was the first to welcome
you to victory?
Wayne Matlock: The scoring officials pulled
me away from all the cheering people and took off my Rally Logger and my sub
can. Then I was immediately being interviewed by Mexican TV. (Laughing) Since
I can barely order a beer in Spanish, luckily they interviewed me in English.
ATV Scene: Who was the first person you
called and told you won?
Wayne Matlock: Cory Hove
at Alba.
ATV Scene: Most of our readers will probably
never experience what it's like to race the Baja. What's it like and why do
you do it?
Wayne Matlock: It's the ultimate challenge
for yourself and your team as a whole. It's months of organization, preparation,
pre running and testing. A lot of people think it's a race against each other,
but it's really a race against a lot of different elements. It's pretty wild.
You train, pre run and prepare but come race day the course seems different
again and it's all the sudden anyone's to win.
ATV Scene: What's in your future?
Wayne Matlock: I'll continue to race the
Best in the Desert and the SCORE series, but now as a factory Honda rider. I'm
pretty excited about that. It's what everyone dreams about.
ATV Scene: How many teams does Honda have
signed for 2006?
Wayne Matlock: As far as I know, it's just
our team, myself and Chad Prull.
ATV Scene: Will you add anyone to next
year's Baja 1000 team?
Wayne Matlock: Tim Farr was going to be
on this team but he was recovering from a back injury and getting healthy for
the Pro Quad series. He might be on our team next year but it's too early to
say for sure right now.
ATV Scene: What will you remember most
from the 2005 Baja?
Wayne Matlock: I
had been racing a Z400 for three years. I
would have to say the involvement with Honda and winning it.
ATV Scene: Was that a Suzuki sponsorship
deal?
Wayne Matlock: Yes
last year we won the Best in the Desert championship and turned some heads.
But the Suzuki deal was only for our Best in the Desert events. The new Honda
contract actually starts in 2006 and we'll be racing both the SCORE and Best
in the Desert events under the Honda umbrella.
ATV Scene: What are
your chances of winning the Best in the Desert Championship this year?
Wayne Matlock: The
Henderson 400 will decide it. We have to win and the Josh Fredericks/Cyle Chislock
team needs to finish fourth.
ATV Scene: Is there anyone you want to
thank?
Wayne Matlock: Cory
Hove and Rich at Alba, he did a great job. All my family, my wife and my mom
were there a week prior helping me. Even my in laws were there for me. My whole
family helped a ton! Bruce Oglivie and everyone at American Honda, Doug Roll
for putting in all the long hours getting my set up just perfect. All my sponsors
helped this thing become real. We wouldn't be able to do it with out them. This
year's quad was especially a hard project to get dialed in because there was
a lot of stuff changed for the 2006 450R and there wasn't a lot of time to be
confident that we had the best machine possible. I put about 800 miles on the
quad before the race, trying to decide which set ups would be best. We were
really determined to come up with the absolute perfect set up. So I'm really
thankful to all my sponsors for dropping what they were doing and helping me
dial this thing in so we got the most out of it possible.
