Roeseler rewrites Baja record book

A day after Johnny Campbell erased his record for overall motorcycle wins, former Santee resident Larry Roeseler rewrote another part of the SCORE Baja 1000 record book.

Roeseler teamed with Nevada's Roger Norman to finished first overall in the four-wheel division of the 41st Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, which officially ended at 7:30 last night.

Driving a Ford F-150 TrophyTruck, the Roeseler-Norman team covered the 631.35-mile loop course, which started and finished in Ensenada, in 12 hours, 40 minutes and 33 seconds for an average speed of 49.81 mph.

Only the overall winning Honda motorcycle team of Campbell, Kendall Norman and Robby Bell (12:29:10) covered the distance faster than the 800-horsepower Roeseler-Norman pickup.

The victory was the 13th overall title claimed by Roeseler, who was tied with Campbell with 10 overall motorcycle titles before the San Clemente rider won his 11th two-wheel title Friday night. Roeseler also picked up his 17th class title and the second straight overall win this season for the Roeseler-Norman tandem.

Roeseler drove the first 400 miles, with Norman taking the winning pickup to the finish line, reaching Ensenada just before midnight Friday.

Finishing second in the overall four-wheel standings was the Chevrolet Silverado TrophyTruck driven solo by B.J. Baldwin of Las Vegas (12:45:26). Vista's Chad Ragland teamed with father Larry to finish third overall (13:26:19) in the overall four-wheel and TrophyTruck classes.

San Diego County claimed the first two spots in the overall ATV division.

The team of El Cajon's Wayne Matlock, Ramona's Marc Spaeth, Fallbrook's Wes Miller and Harold Goodman of Michigan won the title in 14:47:25 for an average speed of 42.69 mph. Coming in second, nine minutes back, was the team led by Danny Prather of Ramona and Mike Cafro of Bonsall.

Besides Chad Ragland, the only other driver listed in the top 10 overall in the four-wheel division was the Santee team of Robbie Pierce and Mike Julson. They finished ninth overall and seventh in the TrophyTruck class in a Silverado in 15:30:45. El Cajon's Jason McNeil was 11th in the featured TrophyTruck class.

In addition to the Matlock-led ATV team, four other San Diego County teams won class titles.

John Holmes of Olivenhein won the Modified Mini-Pickup title in a Ford Ranger. The father-son tandem of Pancho and Cisco Bio teamed with fellow Spring Valley drivers Jorge Martinez and Francisco Guerrero to win the short-wheelbase buggy title.

Rick St. John of Encinitas, Dean Bayerle of Poway and Ramsey El Wardini of San Diego teamed to win the SCORE Lite buggy title. And Poway's Brett Helm led the team, which included San Diego's Bob Johnson, that won the 40-year-old-rider motorcycle title. Second in the class was the team of Fallbrook's Blaise Johnson and Mike Sandoval.

Also finishing second was Valley Center's Kent Kroeker and San Ysidro's Rodolfo Iribe in the Stock Full pickup class.

Chula Vista's Tito Robles and Arturo Salas finished third in the 1650cc buggy class won by Tijuana's Lobsam Yee.