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By: Ray Larez
Soboba Grand Prix
2009
Now on its third year, The Soboba Grand Prix
was once a legendary race, almost like the Lake
Elsinore Grand Prix. Some of off-roads’ biggest
names raced this one time huge race, greats like
Malcolm Smith and Larry Roseler. Last year
Malcolm was even in attendance as a spectator
with his daughter. The race was started back in
the 70’s and was later discontinued as most
races either die off or encroaching housing and
commercial development take over the land once
used for the race. Like the recent change to the
Elsinore Grand Prix, it used to go right thru
downtown and is now held at a local motocross
track. The Soboba Grand Prix was recently
resurrected and came back with some great new
additions like ATVs and UTVs, so they can make
there own little stamp on history. Also, the
race is now supported by the Soboba Casino and
Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians and held on the
reservation.
Dustin Nelson’s Machine being prepped
for the muddy conditions. |
Off the line Yamaha’s Dustin Nelson
takes the holeshot and is off to an early lead. |
Last year’s event was won by Doug Echiner, and
he was there once again to claim another Soboba
win aboard his Polaris 450MX in the ATV class.
Echiner also gave it a go in his RZR in the UTV
class. Yamaha Factory Rider Dustin Nelson was on
hand with his new YFZ450R, but this was his
Quadcross machine. This ATV has a custom extra
capacity aluminum fuel cell with a quick fill
spout and larger tires. This is the machine he
runs the WORCS series with. MCR Racing’s Beau
Baron showed up with the other two members of
the team as were prepping the machines. These
three riders, all just off of their top five
finishes from the WORCS race from last weekend,
are looking to throw down for the win this
weekend.
MCR Team’s machines ready to go, prepped
and going to staging. |
Mike Cafro battling the dreaded muddy
conditions and riding without his goggles for
most of the Grand Prix. |
Believe it or Mother Nature was now stacking up
to be the biggest opponent this weekend, a storm
had blown in to Southern California and was only
getting started as the ATVs were lining up for
staging. It had been raining off and on the past
few days, and the track was taking a beating.
The track was getting sloppier and muddier by
the minute as the rain got even worse as the pro
riders set up on the starting line. As they did,
it really started to pour! Most riders had taped
the ATV in strategic places as well as gear
(boots, gloves), to prevent the mud building up
or getting into places it shouldn’t. Mud is
definitely an enemy this weekend. It almost
looked like a GNCC minus the trees.
ATV Pro
The riders lined up and the flag dropped for the
sixteen pro entries. Unfortunately, there were
only about half the pro entries they had last
year. For some reason the Motoworks/Can-Am Team
was a no-show, as well as Team Kawasaki. Last
year the Motoworks Team was a contender here at
Soboba and with all of their current success in
the Quadcross/WORCS Series they could have had a
good chance of turning in some more wins for
this race team. Off the line Doug and Dustin
were neck and neck. Doug took the outside line,
and it looked like Dustin took the inside line
which was paying off. Nelson took the early lead
over Doug, followed by Beau Baron, Dustin Terry
and Mike Cafro. The racers are only in sight for
a few minutes before they headed into the hills.
As the racers emerged from the foothills, Nelson
was still in the lead by a few bike lengths. The
third spot was held by Beau Baron. There was
some distance between Baron and second. In
fourth place his Honda teammate Mike Cafro had
some catching up to do as well. Cafro made a
pass on Dustin Terry somewhere up in the hills.
The top four had put some distance between them
and large group of racers that where battling it
out. Of course, the race up front was the main
attraction and kept heating up. By the third lap
Dustin Nelson had put a little more distance
between himself and Doug. As for Baron he was
closing the gap and was gaining on the pair, as
did Cafro.
Jumping the mud puddle Beau Baron trying
to maneuver his machine to the front of
the pack. |
Dustin Nelson hard charging, now you can
see benefits from being up front. |
The weather grew worse by the minute and the
rain poured, well at least for Southern
California. Mud was only getting worse and more
rain meant more slop. Some riders were so
covered they could barely see. Mike Cafro at one
point had to ditch his goggles because they were
covered in mud. Mud is Mike’s worst enemy it
seems, when he was nearly blinded at last year’s
WORCS race in AZ. The fifth lap meant trouble
for Nelson as he and Doug had to pit their ATVs.
Fuel for their machines, a fresh set of goggles,
and nice set of mud-free gloves, then back out
in the mud. Dustin Nelson had taped his gloves
on and was having a problem getting them off
slowing him up considerably and letting Echiner,
who was behind him as they entered the pits, get
into the lead. Also, Beau Baron had made his way
around into second place. Now Nelson was back in
third out of the pits and playing catch up.
Polaris’s Doug Echiner putting up with
whatever Mother Nature was dishing out, mud
covered, but still enjoying being up front after
Nelson had a problem in the pits. |
Putting in a great race and awesome
start to the season, Beau Baron takes
home the overall Pro win and now gets to
go home and take a shower. |
There was one cool spectacle that most could see
was the big water hole that was forming in the
infield. Most would slow and ride through it,
and the jump prior wouldn’t give you enough
momentum to jump the puddle, but some would try.
As the race started to wind down, disaster
struck. Echiner’s machine started to sputter and
smoke. Shortly thereafter he had to pull off the
track because his 450 was starting to get worse.
So now Beau was in the lead and Nelson had some
distance to go until he would catch him. Then it
happens again--another victim of the muddy
sloppy conditions. Nelson’s machine quits as
well. We asked him later what had happened, and
Dustin said his battery cable had broken. This
race was grueling, a full hour of racing in the
pouring rain. It was pretty disappointing for
the two that were leading the race. Now team MCR
racing was capitalizing on the others’
misfortunes. Cafro has moved up to second place
and Dustin Terry is in third. That’s how it
would round out as well, top two spots go to
Team MCR, and Terry takes the last podium
position.
UTV Open Pro
What economic slow down?? With just under fifty
entries in the Pro UTV class you may be asking
yourself that, and these machines aren’t stock.
It was great to see such an awesome turn out in
this class. If it weren’t for the horrible
conditions, this race would have been the one to
watch. All 49 UTVs lined up in two rows of over
20 UTVs wide. The flag dropped and off they
went. As they rounded the first turn, they
headed down a narrowed straight away, about two
UTVs wide. Which, needless to say, wasn’t wide
enough, and they began to bottleneck. Most
racers decided to make their own trail and
turned it into a free-for-all. With UTVs darting
down both sides of the course to get around the
now bottlenecked track, it was pure chaos. Some
of the spectators ran from the start over to
this straight away and didn’t pay attention to
the mud and how easily these machines could lose
control in these conditions. With UTVs slipping
and sliding they made their way to the hills.
Now the machines were out of sight and one came
out of the foot hills and some through the
infield section to only head back out to the
hills. As everyone eagerly waited for second
place to emerge from the hills, a good five
minutes had passed. I overheard a team that was
being radioed by their driver who had stated
that they were all stuck in the back hills. The
whole pack of 40 some UTVs were now bottle
necked in the canyons somewhere. The event
coordinator decided to stop the race and line up
all racers in single file to restart the race.
This took some time and most were getting soaked
at this point. Also, now all the UTVs were
completely covered in mud and made it nearly
impossible to score the race. After all was said
and done, only nineteen UTVs finished the race,
and the rest were broken down or were stuck in
the mud. As for the final results, Gary Gall
took home first, followed by RJ Anderson, Jason
Dudley, and Nick Nelson of Quad Magazine took
home fourth place.
UTV Open Pro Class lined up for the mud
feast. |
Funco/Montclair Kawasaki Teryx was off to
a good start; look for an upcoming review on the
Funco Chad George Replica Teryx in the upcoming
weeks. |
What a race to watch! They also had a pro
motorcycle class that ran on Sunday as well. So
there was an event for everyone, even the little
ones. It was a three-day event with plenty of
racing and some good food. Hopefully, next year
it won’t be raining.
Race Results [PDF Format]
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