IN
THE
WIND
P24
Samuels, SLR Honda Master Baja 1000
M
ark Samuels and the Slam
Life Racing (SLR) Honda
team captured another SCORE
Baja 1000 win on Sunday,
November 21, the sixth vehicle
overall and the first Pro Moto
Unlimited team to complete the
1226-mile run down Mexico's
Baja peninsula. Samuels, with
Justin Morgan, Kendall Norman
and Brandon Prieto, captured the
win in a time of 23:07:18 with an
average speed of 53.04 mph.
"It was awesome to be back
doing a peninsula run," said
Samuels. "It's always fun going
all the way down. The team did
an awesome job. I had a blast
racing with Justin and Kendall,
and I was stoked to be a part of
Brandon winning his first Baja
1000."
The victory marked the sixth
SCORE Baja 1000 win for
Samuels, fifth for Morgan and
seventh for Norman. It was a
first for Prieto, who seized the
landmark moment on the po-
dium to propose to his girlfriend.
(She said yes.) The win marked
Honda's race-record 31st overall
motorcycle victory in the SCORE
Baja 1000.
Derek Ausserbauer and Colton
Udall teamed up to take on the
1226-mile race between just the
two of them, and managed to
lead the first 450 miles aboard
their 2007 Honda CRF450X. De-
spite their strong running in first
part of the race, they couldn't
fend off Samuels, who made
his way past the 5X and into the
lead. From there, the 1X team
never looked back. Samuels took
the CRF450X to mile 816, hand-
ing it off to Norman who rode
to race-mile 1000 before Prieto
cruised it to the finish line with a
victory margin of over one hour,
15 minutes.
The SLR Honda crew of (L-R) Justin Morgan,
Mark Samuels, Kendall Norman and
Brandon Prieto topped the Pro Motorcycle
field at the SCORE Baja 1000.
