You don't find water crossings in the desert very often, but as Wayne Matlock proves, they're out there, especially after storms like the one that dumped the night before the Vegas 300.
It doesn't take long for rain to change the face of the desert. Though you'd think that all that sand would drink up all the rain that could possibly fall from the sky, the truth is that it often comes down in buckets in the hills, collects in the ravines and gathers strength in transforming into rivers coursing down the sand washes. And the flats aren't exempt. Dry lakes, for example, become muddy quagmires that often refuse to permit wheeled travel.
So, if there's a race going on, rain can certainly alter the nature of the competition.
Such was the case at the Las Vegas 300, round four of Best in the Desert's Silver State Series. A storm started the night before and lit up the skies with plenty of lightning, and it dumped on the southern Nevada desert.
The wet conditions apparently suited defending series champs Anthony Baker and Josh Frederick just fine, as they scored their best this season with second Quad Pro.
In fact, so much rain fell that the BLM called promoter Casey Folks in the wee hours of the morning, telling him that the chances of running the race didn't look good. But Folks fought back. He and his crew woke up people camped on the dry lakes who were saving pit spots, found a new start area, re-marked the start to tie into existing course and got the race going only about 15 minutes late.
Despite the delay, riders still faced rain and very dark conditions in the pre-dawn start, with the continuing rain making for some interesting moments. More than a few riders reported speeding through sand washes filled with running water, and, of course, the dry lakes were anything but.
Eventual winners Wayne Matlock and Chad Prull, however, seemed to relish the conditions, and they took the lead early in the race, keeping it to the end on their American Honda/Alba/Precision Concepts TRX450R. They completed three laps around the 60-mile course in four hours, 10 minutes and 25 seconds. (Though the race was scheduled to run four laps, Folks had to cut it short in order to get the truck/buggy race started.) Their time placed them eighth overall in combined bike/ATV standings.Experts Kevin Canepa, Mitch Canepa and Gregory Price rode a great race on their Sam's Cycle Supply/Searchlight/Grand Prix Racing Association TRX450R. Not only did they take the top Quad Expert spot, they also were the second overall ATV, their 4:26:48 putting them 18th in the combined standings.
Nineteenth overall in 4:29:00 and second Quad Pro went to defending class champ Josh Frederick and Anthony Baker on their big Epic Racing/Bilstein/Maxxis Can-Am. That marked their best finish of the season to date.
Overall ATV Top 10
1. Wayne Matlock/Chad Prull (Pro), Honda
2. Kevin Canepa/Mitch Canepa/Gregory Price (Expert), Honda
3. Anthony Baker/Josh Frederick (Pro), Can-Am
4. Craig Baker/Colby Begin/Nicholas Charlon (Expert), Honda
5. Rick Cecco/Cory Hove/Tyler Lenig (Expert), Honda
6. Jeremy Sanchez/David Scott (Pro), Honda
7. Kyle LeDuc/Brent Wendt (Amateur), Yamaha
8. Jake Holdridge/Keith Klausman/Scott Taylor (Expert), Honda
9. Harley Turney/John Turney/Trace West (Amateur), Yamaha
10. Steven Parkerson/Kyle Pethers (Pro), Honda
The Kevin Canepa/Mitch Canepa/Gregory Price trio rode a great race to not only win Quad Expert, they were the second ATV finisher overall. | 
Like everyone else, Chad Prull (shown) and Wayne Matlock found themselves slower than normal early in the race due to the dark and rain, but they coped best with the conditions and opened up their lead to win again. | 
Obviously, the dry lakes were anything but dry after the storm, seemingly trapping some of those who'd camped out to save their pit spots. |