VOL. 52 ISSUE 8 MARCH 1, 2016 P23
He passed 3X during his stint,
then, "When I came to the pit,
they said I was a minute and a
half behind [1X] so we were lead-
ing on time, but we did a wheel
change there so we probably left
about even."
Esposito handed the bike at
mile 78 to Justin Morgan who
caught up once again to 1X dur-
ing his stint to about mile 148
near the end of Matomi Wash. "I
got on the bike a couple minutes
down," Morgan said.
"The first Baja Pit I hit was at
109 and I was in [Samuels'] dust
at that point, got fuel and kind
of stayed right in the dust all the
way down Matomi Wash—made
a second here, a second there
and really got close. They pit-
ted at the end of the wash and
Colton Udall got back on the
bike and we entered the speed
zone side by side and rode 60
miles an hour for the four-mile
pavement [speed zone] stretch.
At the end of the pavement
stretch was my pit so I gave the
bike to Roberto Villalobos and
he took off in Colton's dust.
"It was pretty cool. It's crazy to
have that close of a race down
here!"
But the team's chances for
winning Pro Moto Unlimited for
the first time vanished when Vil-
lalobos fell victim to one of the
countless rocks littering any Baja
course, though he managed to
get back on—separated shoul-
der and all—and get the bike to
finisher Penhall.
This made Udall the San Fe-
lipe 250 winner for the fifth time
in the past seven years, though
he and Samuels had little time
to celebrate before hopping a
private flight to Las Vegas where
they'd ride the WORCS race that
evening.
The 4X team received no
penalties; neither did third-place
finishers Jordan Brandt/Morgan
Crawford/Cory Graffunder/
Kevin Murphy on the SRT/
Kenda/O'Neal Husqvarna FE
501 making their SCORE debut.
"I nailed all my lines, never hit
the ground, the bike worked
great—perfect, just as planned,"
EnduroCross star Graffunder
said. They completed the race in
5:04:14.
Dal Soglio/Garvin/Stokie
accrued 10 minutes of penalties
and finished fourth in 5:35:33,
with the Rex Cameron/Mike
Johnson/Jason Trubey team
winning Pro Motorcycle 40 (for
riders 40 years and older) in
5:48:26 to round out the top five
motorcycle teams overall.
Other class winners included:
Garrett Poucher/Michel Valen-
zuela in Pro Motorcycle Limited
(449cc or less) in 6:52:54; Luis
de Nicolas/Jorge Flores/Mario
Murillo, Jr./Jorge Valenzuela in
Pro Motorcycle 30 (riders 30
years and older) in 5:56:16;
Andy Kirker/Flipper Manches-
ter/Jim O'Neal/Mark Winkelman
in Pro Motorcycle 50 (riders
50 years and older) in 7:01:38;
former class champ Tony
Gera in SCORE Ironman (on a
KX500, no less) in 6:32:56; and
Kristopher Harvey/Eric Saltzer
in Sportsman Motorcycle in
7:06:57.
Mark Kariya
Justin Morgan and the rest of the
new Monster Energy/Bremen/
THR Motorsports alliance were
in the mix for the win until the
unforgiving San Felipe terrain bit
Roberto Villalobos, who managed
to complete his section to help the
team secure second.
