SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1482081
A WINNING PACE Salvatierra And The 10x Team Came From Behind To Win By Dan Sanchez Photos by Get Some Photo At the start of the 3rd SCORE Baja 400 Presented by VP Racing Fuels, Juan Carlos Salvatierra and the 10x team of Arturo Salas Jr., Shane Logan, and Clayton Roberts were ready to continue to add another SCORE Pro Moto Unlimited win to the season. They had already won the SCORE San Felipe 250 and the SCORE Baja 500, but when they heard they would start fifth from the draw, they were disappointed but not undeterred. “We’re hopeful to do well in the race,” said Salvatierra in a pre-race interview. “I ran this race last year in Pro Moto Ironman and won it. Now, the team and I are going to put our best effort to win this in the Pro Moto Unlimited Class. Everyone in our team is ready and putting out all their effort to ride their course on the race. We’re not a big team but I believe we’re very capable.” Salvatierra started the race and handed off the KTM 450SX-F over to Arturo Salas Jr. who shortly thereafter encountered an issue with the motorcycle. “When I began reaching the first-place competitors on the course, we were at the famous Tulip ramps,” said Salas Jr. “When I landed one of the jumps, the bike shut off and I could not get it to start.” Salas worked diligently to try various methods to start the bike. After 30-minutes of changing fuses, disconnecting and reconnecting the fuel injectors, and changing the fuel relay, he was finally able to get back on the course.” “This made us a little nervous,” said Salvatierra. “A total of 15 racers passed us, but Arturo made up the time and when he handed off the motorcycle to Clayton Roberts at race mile 130, he had put us back into the same position as when he started and eight minutes behind first place. We also had an issue with the tracking so we intermittently didn’t know where we were a few times during the race. But the win was a result of the effort and experience put out by the team and all our support crew. We’re a small group, but strong and we work well together.” “Now at the SCORE Baja 1000 we’ll get to start first and not have all that dust in front of us, and we’re grateful to our fans in Mexico and all of Latin America. We’re going to do whatever we can to obtain the 1x number for a Latin American team.” SJ