Samuels, Honda Top SCORE Baja 1000
M
ark Samuels, Justin Morgan
and Justin Jones combined
efforts to win the SCORE Baja
1000, November 20-22 while
competing in the Pro Moto Un-
limited class. The Samuels-led
team, riding a Honda CRF450X,
finished a comfortable two hours
ahead of the next-best team that
was made up of Santiago Creel,
Brandon Prieto, Sammy Mantal-
van, Eric Yorba, Ricardo Vil-
lalobas and AMA Hare & Hound
Champion Dalton Shirey. The
Samuels team finished the race
with a speed average of 43.11
mph; Creel's team 39.20 mph.
The Creel team threatened the
Samuels team early in the race,
as the two heavy heaters in Pro
Moto Unlimited battled for the
lead, but mechanical problems
hit the Creel team at approximate-
ly the 250-mile mark. The delay
in fixing the bike put the team
well behind the Samuels team
and could never catch back up.
Samuel's Honda officially
crossed the finish line after 20
hours, 50 minutes and 30 sec-
onds. Creel's Husqvarna team
finished up in 22:55.10.
Samuels started for the Honda
team and quickly handed the
bike off to Morgan, who rode to
race-mile 124, where he handed
the bike off to Jones. Jones
then went to work until mile 303,
when he switched with Samuels.
Samuels rode until mile 604, and
then Morgan carried the Honda
torch to the finish.
"This was a very tough course
and an extremely demanding
one, it was the longest loop race
IN
THE
WIND
P24
The Mark Samuels
Honda team won
this year's SCORE
Baja 1000 with
room to spare.
