Matlock and Prull had problems of their own on the third day, with sagebrush plugging up their radiator, causing it to overheat; a low-oil issue may also have been related. In any case, they had to back off the pace and do some extra work that afternoon, and they found themselves fourth for the day behind Stephensen/Stuart (with Stuart taking the majority), Strunk/White and Chislock/Frederick-the top three separated by just 56 seconds after the 323 miles. Matlock/Prull were less than a minute and a half behind that pack but still leading on cumulative time after three days. The big question was whether they could nurse their machine through the final 119-mile day quickly enough to keep that lead.
As Stuart observed at the end of day three, "It's bad to say, but we really need some guys to have some problems out there-flat tires, maybe mechanical problems-to help us out. But things happen out in the desert; it's a long race! Anything can happen. We're just going to try to be there, keep driving forward, making quick pits and go from there."
The final day found Nicholas Granlund and Shaun Moore uncorking on their YFZ450 to lead the quad Pro class with the ninth-fastest time of the day among the ATVs and motorcycles. Chislock/Frederick and Strunk/White finished a couple of minutes behind, with Matlock/Prull trailing them by less than three minutes. That was all the Suzuki duo needed to hang on to the overall, which they took by 13 minutes over Strunk/White. Remarkably, Stephensen/Stuart were 56 seconds behind the Honda for third, and quad Expert winners Kevin Canepa, Mitch Canepa and Gregory Price took fourth on their TRX450R. Chislock/Frederick rounded out the top five overall ATVs.
Matlock admitted, "We were a little worried with overheating problems and some oil issues, but we pulled it off. We just took it half-throttle today and yesterday. We knew we had a good lead on everybody so we just cruised it in to the finish to win."
As for the race's unique format, the general consensus seemed favorable. As Stuart pointed out, "It's good because they gave us an hour to work on the machines after every day, and they really need that hour's maintenance to keep them going."
"It's like four different races," Matlock said. "It's kind of neat because you have the camaraderie of everybody hanging out; everybody's helping each other in the work areas. Allen [Knowles], he does Jimmy Stephensen's motors-our biggest competition out here-gave us oil and sprockets one night. I mean, everyone's helping each other out. It's awesome, it's fun, it's a good time-and you've got to make the quad and your body last for four days."