| District
38 Round 6
 They
say "nice guys finish last," but Team Alba's
Wayne Matlock tried hard to prove that theory wrong -
however his good sportsmanship probably cost him the win
in Imperial Valley.
A huge part of desert racing is finding
the course. Officials claim that most corners are "clearly"
marked with fluorescent tape, but when traveling at 50
mph on rocky trails eating someone dust, corners are easy
to miss and even the best riders can find themselves way
off course.
That happened to Wayne out in superstition,
while tracing down another rider. Following the rider
on a trail, Wayne realized that he hadn't seen any markers
for a while so he u-turned and started back off the side
of the course. ( don't want to meet any other off-course
racers head on).
On his way back, Matock stopped to
help out a couple of hurt riders.
I never want to leave someone stranded
in the desert - even in a race. You never know when you're
going to need a helping hand out on the trail, and I want
to make sure I've got some credits stored up.
After helping out the other riders,
Matlock returned to the course and found himself in 4th.
He had only lost a few minutes to the leaders and it was
fairly early in the race, so he wasn't worried.
In a short while, Team Alba's Matlock
found himself in first and lead for about 38miles. Then
he missed another turn. There was no marker. Either someone
had removed it or crashed through it, but it wasn't there.
Danny Prather was right on his tail.
Prather and Matlock jostled for position
for a while - trading off 1st and 2nd place, but Prather
got a bit of an edge and lead into Tuckers Gulch, where
he promptly got stuck. Prather was struggling to get his
quad free in the 105° heat, he was out of breath and
out of water. Wayne hopped off, helped him free his bike
and gave him some water. After making sure that Matlock
was ok, Prather took off. Matlock was good, but ended
up getting stuck too, and Prather had already moved on,
so Wayne had to get himself free on his own. This cost
him a bit of time, but he managed to brake loose and continue
on to the finish.
After another riders DQ for speeding
through the pits and off course detours, Danny Prather
got the win with Wayne coming in a close second. All in
all, Wayne said after the race that he had no regrets,
that it was all part of desert racing and was glad that
his buddy Danny got the win. Wayne also wanted to make
it clear that Danny didn't ditch him. Rather, he did make
sure that Wayne was ok before moving on, it's all just
part of desert racing.
For more details see Off-Road.com |
