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Cafro wins class at Baja 400

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

Fallbrook driver Mike Cafro won the Pro Stock UTV class of the Baja 400 off-road race Sept. 18.

Cafro, who drives a Polaris RZR utility task vehicle, completed the 400-mile race in 12:36.55.116. The second-place Pro Stock UTV driver, Carolina Sanchez of Mexicali, had a time of 14:15.46.235.

"Absolutely our goal was to win the class, but I definitely wanted the overall also," Cafro said.

Cafro finished 11th overall among UTV drivers. El Cajon driver Austin Weiland was the overall UTV champion, finishing the race in 10:18.57.884 while winning the Pro UTV Forced Induction class.

"We actually ran into a bottleneck, so we were fortunate enough to get the class win," Cafro said. "The bottleneck definitely hurt us."

Cafro was likely eliminated from the overall UTV championship before the bottleneck. About 25 miles from the finish line the rear axle of Cafro's UTV broke at the nut. "The wheel ripped off of the car," he said. "We had to change the axle."

When the left rear wheel was separated from the UTV the brake and carrier were also lost. "We put a new axle in and kind of just tied the brake up where it was no longer being used," Cafro said.

The brake caliper on the left side was not replaced during the race. "We had minimal brakes," Cafro said. "We had a big enough lead that we could do that."

Adan Leggs of Ensenada was Cafro's co-driver and navigator. They were traveling about 25 mph after the axle was replaced. "We lost some of the bearings out of the carrier," Cafro said.

The UTV was wobbling. "We just couldn't drive the car very hard," Cafro said.

The Baja 400 utilized a loop course with an Ensenada start and finish. "It was a very technical challenging course," Cafro said.

SCORE (which originally stood for Southern California Off-Road Enthusiasts but is no longer an acronym) will have four races this year, and Cafro has won his class in the three conducted to date. He won the San Felipe 250 April 17 and the Baja 500 June 12.

The Baja 500 was also a loop course beginning and ending in Ensenada. Cafro noted that some of the Baja 400 course was used in the Baja 500, he had not previously seen some parts of this year's Baja 400 course, and there were parts of the course he had not seen for many years. "It was a cool course," he said.

Cafro was raised in New Jersey and moved to Oceanside in 1992 before moving from Oceanside to Fallbrook 10 years later. He has competed in a four-wheel class at SCORE races each year since 1993. He first drove a Polaris RZR in 2015 as a privateer and picked up Polaris sponsorship the following year.

The engine of a Pro Stock UTV is stock, although items such a fuel cell and a roll cage are added.

The coronavirus outbreak canceled the 2020 Baja 400. Cafro did not finish the 2019 race, as his UTV clipped a rock which took off the right rear wheel and trailing arm (which connects the axle to the chassis). "We did not make it very far in that one," he said.

Cafro also did not finish the 2018 Baja 400.

"We definitely strive to finish before we can do anything," Cafro said.

This year Cafro took the Pro Stock UTV lead about 20 miles into the race. "I'm very confident," he said. "I knew I had a really good shot at the overall in this one."

Cafro had driven the bottleneck during the pre-run. "There's just no way out of that area," he said.

"It cost us the overall and not the class," Cafro said. "Ultimately the axle cost us the overall."

Cafro thus settled for first place in the Pro Stock UTV class and 11th overall among UTV drivers. "The course was definitely in my favor. The more technical the better. But it just wasn't in the cards this year," he said.

The final SCORE race of 2021 will be the Baja 1000, which is scheduled for Nov. 18-19 and will be a point-to-point race from Ensenada to La Paz. Before the Baja 1000 Cafro plans to race in the Oct. 16 UTV World Championship near Lake Havasu.

 

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