Samuels, SLR Honda Team Takes Fifth
Consecutive Baja 1000 Win
T
he Slam Life Honda team
of Mark Samuels, Justin
Morgan and Kendall Norman
took the 2022 SCORE Baja
1000 overall motorcycle win and
finished 10th overall among all
vehicles, November 18-20. It was
the fifth consecutive Baja 1000
win for the SLR team owned by
Samuels. The team completed
the race in 18 hours, 51 minutes
and 30 seconds, about an hour
and 17 minutes ahead of the
second-place team led by For-
rest Minchinton, with co-riders
Ciaran Naran, Nick Lapaglia and
Tucker Hopkins. The trio rode a
Husqvarna in a time of 20:08:46.
Night specialist Morgan was
the seventh rider to leave the
Ensenada start in the very early
hours of Friday morning, and he
handed the bike off to Samuels
approximately 275 miles later,
near Puertecitos on the Gulf
Coast. Samuels, who assumed
the physical lead around 65
miles into his stint, turned the
bike over to Norman around
the midway point on the road to
Mike's Sky Ranch. Approximately
250 miles later, Morgan took
over again at El Alamo for the
final 100-mile sprint back to the
finish in Ensenada.
"Man, it was a tough course,"
Samuels said. "It was really rough
and actually kind of slower than
what we anticipated. We had our
hands full at the beginning, but it
was a really good race. By race-
mile 340 we were into the lead.
From there we just had to bring it
home, and we had a great, solid
effort the whole way."
IN
THE
WIND
P32
Justin Morgan (pictured)
started the race in the
seventh starting position
early on Friday morning.
The team took the physical
lead around race mile
337, about 62 miles into
Samuels' stint on the bike.
