ATVs Awesome at 2006 Terrible's Town 250

ATVs made a remarkably impressive showing at the Terrible's Town 250 in Pahrump, Nevada, round two of Best in the Desert's Silver State Series. Not only did they constitute a good portion of the record number of entries (275 spread among ATVs, bikes, buggies and trucks, compared to 216 last year), but they ended up placing extremely well, too.

Honda's Wayne Matlock and Chad Prull posted a time of four hours, 54 minutes and 22 seconds for the fast, rough 242-mile course on their Precision Concepts/IMS-Roll/Maxxis-backed TRX450R to win Quad Pro, a time that earned them the third overall fastest time among all motorcycles.

They beat the runner-up ATV team of Doug Eichner and Marc Spaeth by a slim 14 seconds, with the Roll Design/Duncan/Golden West Cycle-sponsored TRX450R-mounted duo's time the fifth fastest in combined standings.Nick Nelson and Greg Stuart teamed up on their Temecula Motorsports/CT Racing/Maxxis TRX450R for third Quad Pro in 5:02:04 to complete the ATV podium with the seventh fastest combined time. In fact, four of the top 10 combined times belonged to ATV teams.

ATVs start after the bike teams, which meant that the faster four-wheeled teams spent the entire race passing motorcycles. "We were passing them all day," Matlock said. "I think we passed the last one before pit seven (the next-to-last pit).

"We had a good day. We didn't have any problems, not one."

While waiting at the finish, he added, "I just hope we were fast enough to beat Doug. I think we were, but I don't know [for sure]."

They were and by the slimmest of margins after adjusting for the starting time differences, despite using a course identical to last year's—and correspondingly rougher. "It's a fun course; it's just getting rougher and rougher, though—a lot more rocks," Matlock noted. "The jeep grooves are real bad now. But it's still fun!"

Asked where the ATVs had the advantage over the larger, faster motorcycles Matlock replied, "We get the bikes in the tighter sections—in the turns—because we can out-turn a bike. We don't have to let off [as much]. We just hit the front brakes, dive the front end down into the corner and go. It works well in the turns."

Matlock repeated his victory from 2004 while Eichner was last year's winner.

Terrible's Town ATV Results, Top 10
1. Wayne Matlock/Chad Prull, Honda TRX450R
2. Doug Eichner/Marc Spaeth, Roll Design TRX450R
3. Nick Nelson/Greg Stuart, Honda TRX450R
4. Michael Cafro/Danny Prather, Honda TRX450R
5. Joshua Edwards/Jeff Hancock, Honda TRX450R
6. Wade Longley/David Scott, Honda TRX450R
7. Nicholas Granlund/Shaun Moore, Yamaha YFZ450
8. Greg Kirk/Jose Ramirez, Honda TRX450R
9. Glenn Brchan/Rueben Wilson, Yamaha YFZ450
10. Jason Sparks/Ed Teixeira, KTM