| KTM
PARKER 250 - BITD
A week before the KTM Parker 250, Team Alba Racing's
Wayne Matlock and race partner Chad Prull drew
the #1 starting position and never looked back. From position 1 for the
pro quads, they were first off the line and first to the finish - maintaining
and extending their lead the entire race. Steve Beilman and
Greg Row drew position 2 for a coveted 1-2 start for
Alba.
Matlock came into pit 1 just 40 seconds (adjusted
time) in front of 2nd, meaning that Prull had to really ride to keep the
top position. To keep the riding distance split equally, Matlock rode
to the first pit, then Prull did a complete Lap, Matlock did a complete
lap then Prull did the sprint to the finish.
"After the
first lap, I felt like I wasn't riding 100%" commented Matlock, "I
knew that I was going to really have to pull it together if we wanted
to maintain our lead.'
 Chad
ran a flawless 75 mile lap and handed the Team Alba Racing LTZ400 off
to Wayne, 4 minutes (adjusted time) ahead of 2nd position, Alba's Team
of Beilman and Row. Wayne powered out of the pit and immediately lost
4th gear, but he was back in his game. Despite running one gear down,
Wayne ran perfectly, flat out and fast and completed his lap in record
time, 7 minutes up on second place.
Meanwhile, Team Alba's Team of Beilman and Row had
their own challenges to deal with. For most of the race, they were running
on the tail of Matlock and Prull, challenging for the lead. However at
about the 150 mile mark, Row handed off the Team Alba LTZ400 to Beilman
and wished him good luck. Seems that the subframe had suddenly broken
- and this was just the start of the problems.
The frame was broken, but the Alba
Racing Performance 450cc motor ran great. Problem was that to ride,
Beilman had to stand - the entire way.
ALBA
LTZ with Broken Sub Frame
(click
image for a better view)
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After a short while of riding the frame became more
and more separated and dislodged the carburetor from the airbox - meaning
that air was getting to the cylinder directly from the carburetor - no
filter, no outerwear, no nothing - just dusty desert air. Upon discovering
this, Beilman figured the motor was done, but kept on plugging away but
tried to stay out of the direct dust path of other riders.
After one significant bump, the back end locked up.
Seems the broken sub frame continued to do more damage and took out the
master cylinder plunger - locking the rear breaks. Another rider with
a pipe wrench came to the rescue and together they "removed"
the master cylinder from the quad. Effectively eliminating all rear breaking.
Talk
About Maximum Air Flow
Broken sub frame caused air intake to separate from the carb.
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All that being considered, the team of Steve Beilman
and Greg Row still managed to finish in 4th, just 20 minutes out of first.
Wayne Matlock and Chad Prull finished first, beating
out Stewart and Eichner by 10 minutes. And the team ended up finishing
8th overall - and considering that 43 motorcycles started before them,
that was an amazing accomplishment. But they were not without their own
"excitement." Just short of the finish their clutch completely
gave out. Being forced to feather the clutch with 4th gear gone, the clutch
just had enough, fortunately it was right at the end and didn't effect
their overall finish.
The KTM Parker
250 Race Report by Chris Conrady
For more details see Off-Road.com |
