Salas, Klein, Naran Top Baja 500
T
he three-rider Hero Racing
team on a Honda CRF450X—
made up of Arturo Salas, Carter
Klein and Ciaran Naran—won the
overall for the Pro Moto Unlimited
class in the 56th running of the
SCORE Baja 500. The trio com
-
pleted the race in 10 hours, 36
minutes and two seconds with a
speed average of 45.56 mph.
For the winning team, victory
didn't come easily. "I ran out of
gas right after the Valle de la
Trinidad and some fans who were
up at the mountain helped me
with it, but I still had to push the
bike for two or three miles uphill,
which was tough," said Salas.
"Unfortunately, we got passed by
Justin [Morgan), but the bike ran
very well all day and everything
works fine, so we did a good job
with it. I think Ciaran laid the bike
over, but it wasn't a big deal at all.
We're really thinking about the
points for the season and just
wanted to get here, so I'm really
stoked that we did it."
The Justin Morgan team
seemed to have the race won,
until they had an issue with their
bike. "We had an issue with the
bike a few hundred yards before
the finish line and had to push it,
so I think it's going to be really
close on timing," Morgan said
at the finish line. "I did the first
part and lost some time in the
dust, but kept the bike off the
ground and just tried to be smart
and have a smooth ride. We had
no crashes and nothing really
bad happened, so we just kept it
smooth all day. Baja is always a
challenge and that's why I love
racing here. It's not over until it's
over; I always say that, and today
was a great example of it."
Morgan's team finished sec
-
ond in the Pro Moto Unlimited
class with a time of 10:54:24.
In the Pro Moto Limited class
(less than 450cc), the team of
Armando Ortiz, Larry Cerna,
WIND
IN THE
P48
Arturo Salas, Carter
Klein, Ciaran Naran
teamed up and
won the Pro Moto
Unlimited class of
the 56th SCORE
Baja 1000.
PHOTO
ART EUGENIO
