VOLUME 56 ISSUE 38 SEPTEMBER 24, 2019 P43
370 was] two minutes and a few seconds back so
it's going to come down to seconds here!"
With much of the last miles comprised of a speed
zone (37 miles per hour), however, there was that
much less opportunity to make time and with Mor-
gan riding mistake-free to the finish, they had to
settle for second—commendable with both Prieto
and Yorba still recovering from injuries.
Morgan said, "We lost the helicopter about half an
hour before we got to Valley T (Valle de Trinidad). It's
a really dangerous area to not have one [the spot-
ter in the helicopter can warn the rider of upcoming
dangers like animals or spectators on the course],
so we backed it down and tried to ride smart."
Samuels maintained the lead before handing
the bike to Dietrich around mile 325. Unfortunately
for the former WORCS champ, his first Baja race
experience was marred by a huge crash before he
reached the final hand-off back to Morgan at Ojos
Negros, tightening things up even more.
"We had the one [winning margin] at the San
Felipe 250 maybe three years ago that was 16 sec-
minute cushion on the eventual runners-up who
were third off the start.
Yorba quickly caught up to Kadin Guard—who
was second off the line (riders starting at one-
minute intervals) aboard the 4X BajaBound.
com/MultiToolUSA.com/Fly Racing 450 SX-F
he shared with Ray Dal Soglio, Dylan Gillespie,
Austin Miller and Troy Vanscourt—but it took many
miles before Yorba could make the pass.
"From mile 20 when I got into the dust to about
mile 60, it was just really silty, really dusty, the
sun's in your face," Yorba lamented while waiting
at the finish for Prieto on their Monster Energy/
TBT Racing/Wrench 42 Motorsports 500 EXC-F.
"But we were able to close the gap from what I
lost early on. I think we got in on adjusted time to
within about a 10-second window. In Santo Tomas
[at mile 320], Brandon was about four minutes
back [and the last report from Ojos Negros at mile
Eric Yorba exuded
confidence while
running third in
Ojos Negros.
However, his team
came up just short
of the win.
The Shane
Esposito/Francisco
Septien/Roberto
Villalobos trio
handily won Pro
Moto 30 despite
two unplanned
front-wheel swaps
and a shock
replacement.
