MORGAN, SAMUELS,
JONES TOP BAJA 1000
T
he SLR Honda team of Justin
Morgan, Mark Samuels and
Justin Jones, scored a wire-to-
wire win at the 51st running of the
SCORE Baja 1000 in Ensenada,
Baja California, Mexico, November
16-18.
Riding a 2019 Honda CRF450X,
the Morgan team crossed the finish
line in 16 hours, 23 minutes and
26.292, which ended up being a
safe distance ahead of the second-
place Shane Esposito/Nic Garvin/
Colton Udall/Ian Young (Honda)
Team, which saw the checkered
flag after 17:00:43.147. Officially,
this year's loop race was 806.76
miles in length. 285 vehicles
started the race and there were 178
finishers.
The Santiago Creel Team (KTM)
kept thing interesting by challenging
the Morgan team before slipping
back. The Creel team completed
the race in 18:06:05.275.
The Morgan team was also the
overall winner. This was the first
time since 2013 that a motorcycle
had the fastest time of all vehicles
in the race. In race history, motor-
cycles have now had the overall
fastest time in the race 38 times
compared to just 13 for the four-
wheel vehicles. The top four-wheel-
er was a Trophy Truck driven by
Cameron Steele.
Completing their first season as
a team, it was the fourth SCORE
Baja 1000 overall motorcycle
win for Samuels and the third for
Jones.
The victory was also the 28th
overall motorcycle win in the 1000
for American Honda.
Morgan started and rode to race
mile 280. Samuels rode from race
mile 280 to race mile 540. Jones
rode to the finish.
"The race went really good,"
Samuels said. "Morgan started
the race, went from zero to 280.
I chased him down and I got on
at 280 and rode it to 540, which
was a very difficult section, very
technical with silt and rocks. Then I
handed it over to Justin Jones and
he rode up the coast."
For the second-place Esposito
team, Udall started and rode to mile
200. Nic Garvin rode race mile
200 to mile 380, then Esposito
rode race mile 380 to mile 540. Ian
Young rode from race mile 540 to
720, then Esposito rode from 720
to the finish.
"We were kind of rough off the
start, sixth, because of the Rosarito
race [which determined start time],
but everyone did their job," Esposi-
to said. "[But] they [Morgan] just got
out front and once they got there
that's about where they stayed. We
were just dealing with dust—in the
morning it was kind of hard, but the
course was good." CN
PRO MOTO
1. Justin Morgan (Hon) 16:23:26.292
2. Shane Esposito (Hon) 17:00:43.147
3. Santiago Creel (KTM) 18:06:05.275
IN
THE
WIND
P32
Justin Morgan and Mark
Samuels celebrate the win and
2018 SCORE Championship.
Nic Garvin and the
Shane Esposito team
placed second.
