VOLUME 56 ISSUE 22 JUNE 4, 2019 P29
"I couldn't even ride with
goggles on for the first 80 miles,"
he said. "It was definitely unex-
pected; I pre-ran at the same
time for a couple days, and it
wasn't even close to like that!
It was a pretty difficult section
going into daylight, but luckily
we got the win at San Felipe, so
we got to start first. I think that's
a huge advantage, and I'm very
thankful for that."
Morgan's stint on their Monster
Energy/STI Tires/Lava Pro-
pane CRF450X took him from
the resort's short-course truck
track next to the Pacific and east
through Alamo, Santa Catarina,
the Summit, Cohabuzo Junction
and Borrego before handing it to
Samuels near mile 240.
By pit two at Santa Catarina
about 103 miles into the race,
Morgan had approximately a
20-minute lead over the second-
place team of Ray Dal Soglio, Nic
Garvin, Dylan Gillespie, Austin
Miller and Troy Vanscourt. Armed
with that knowledge, he and
Samuels could afford to back it
down a bit.
"At that point," Morgan said, "I
started riding extra-smart trying
to conserve the equipment and
myself as much as possible. I
had 130-something miles to go,
and it was the toughest part of
the day coming up."
Samuels continued that mode
in his ride westward over the
mountains to Mike's Sky Ranch,
Rancho El Coyote, and then
down the Pacific Coast to the
town of Vicente Guerrero, where
the course turned north and
headed back to the finish, via
Colonet, Erendira, Santo Tomas
and Uruapan for a drama-free
victory. It was their sixth in a row
going back to last year's San Fe-
lipe 250 when they began their
current win streak.
For the Dal Soglio-captained
runners-up on their RTM Motor-
sports/Multitool-USA.com/Ni-
teRider-backed KTM 500 EXC-F,
second in 11:54:16.84 wasn't a
bad result considering Dal Soglio
crashed hard while pre-running
and had to have a rod placed into
his femur in an Ensenada hos-
pital a few days before the race.
Needless to say, he couldn't
ride, and that meant a last-minute
scramble to recruit substitutes
and readjust riding duties for the
rest of the team.
But they enjoyed a solid ride,
Vanscourt saying, "Today I got
on the bike about race mile 91
and took it to Mike's road where
I gave it to Nic Garvin. There was
plenty of silt, and I had no mis-
haps—actually had a very clean
run, no issues."
As for Dal Soglio who was
hobbling around on crutches the
day after surgery (which he was
Pictured in the San
Matias wash, runner-up
Troy Vanscourt nears
the end of his stint
before handing the
bike to Nic Garvin.
