A Second and a Sixth for Team Alba in Terrible Town 250 - 4/26/03

Wayne Matlock and Danny Prather
Team Alba Racing LT-Z400
2nd Place

Desert racing is always tough. It requires both a skilled and rugged rider and an equally rugged and relentless pit crew, combined with a bomb-proof quad. If you've got all these things on you side, then you just may have what it takes to get to the finish line first. Team Alba came pretty damn close at the Terrible Town 250.

The team of Matlock and Prather on their Team Alba Racing Z400 got a pretty bad start, at 15th off the line, but quickly jumped up to the front of the pack - to be pushed back to 9th after the first of many flat tires. Between pit 3 and 4 seemed to be the major turning point in the race. All but one of the quads got lost, loosing valuable time to the leader. After several minutes of chacing each other through the desert, the riders eventually figured it out. Wayne ended up pulling into Pit 4 in 2nd,

Danny Prather took over at Pit 4 and had a great run. However, while he was coming into Pit 5 flying flat out, he nailed a big hole and cartwheeled his Alba Z400 4 times end-over-end. Both Danny and his Z400 were badly brused and beat up. Danny was out for the rest of the race and the Alba Z400 needed 29 minuts of repair to get back on track.

Wayne wasn't plannin on running over 200 of the 250 miles of this race, but you do what you've got to do. So he battled his way through the remaining riders, up to 4th, then 2nd and got into a great battle with Doug Eichner over 3rd. Even in desert racing pit strategy can make all the difference, so on the very last pit, Wayne opted to skip on gas and got the jump on Eichner for a sprint to the finish. With just a few miles to go, Waynes seat came off - probably because of the earlier wipe out which bent the frame. Wayne held on and ended up crossing the finish line 4th overall - which, because of the staggered start, scored him 2nd overall in time!

Alba's Raptor team of Steve Beilman and Alex Croswaith finished just a few places back.

Steve Beilman & Alex Croswaith
Team Alba Racing Raptor
6th Place

It's never a good sign when just 2 miles out from the start, one of your racers radio's back that there is a problem. Well that's exactly what happened with team Beilman/Croswaith. Apparently very early on, there was a problem , the motor wasn't putting out enough power - which put the team back in last place. Together with the pit crew, they figured the problem was with fuel pressure and, to make it to the next pit in a reasonable time, Beilman put the extended vent hose in his mouth and blew. This gave the fuel enough additional pressure to get the bike moving. So picture, Beilman on a Raptor ripping through the desert at 70mph blowing in his gas vent tube.

The pit team got it working again and the team was back in action...only to also get lost with all the other riders, putting them even farther behind. Well fortunately Beilman, Croswaith and their Alba Raptor are wicked-fast and made amazing time. And considering that it was Alex's first time running the Terrible Town 250, we were all impressed.

But it seemed that every time the made a gain, they got another flat tire - which sure, is part of desert racing, but SEVEN Flat Tires? That's just wrong.

Regardless, they were fast enough to finish in 6th, fighting their way up from the very back of the pack and a host of other problems! Excellent ride!