Cycle News

VOL. 53 ISSUE 46 NOVEMBER 22, 2016 P75 Concepts CRF450X. The Arredondo- led team poked their way to the front a couple times, but a stator failure left them without lights after the sun went down. After that happened, of course, all efforts went into diagnosing and fixing the problem, resulting in lots of down time—enough for 1X to take it to the finish in a time of 18 hours, 16 minutes and 42 seconds to go undefeated this season and successfully defend the champion- ship. The second Ox Motorsports Honda team on the 3X machine (Rider of Re- cord Ray Dal Soglio, Nic Garvin, Ryan My Own Race: 1X JUSTIN JONES 1ST PRO MOTO UNLIMITED/ 1ST MC O/A Justin Jones described his ride on the winning team. "I had the entire [Pacific] coast [section] and then some, so I got on at mile 90 and got off at 300. It was good, probably the best I felt ever in Baja! I rode really good. I made one dumb mistake and I ran into a fence—overshot a corner— but I assessed the situation quickly and got back to it and got back into the groove and didn't freak out. I had a great time; the bike was amazing— the best 450X we've had, the best race bike we've had! I executed my plan perfectly and got here." 3X IAN YOUNG 2ND PRO MOTO UNLIMITED/ 2ND MC O/A "Tuesday night, unfortunately, Colton had a shoulder injury and came home to San Clemente, [Califor- nia], and kind of sat on the couch pondering about what he was going to do," said Ian Young, a member of the second-place team. "He looked up at me and in a nonchalant way, said, 'Hey baby bro, you want to ride the Baja 1000 with us?' I jumped at the opportunity and came down here Wednesday morning, got a couple miles of pre-running in. I didn't get to ride on Thursday because of all the tech and all that stuff. I actually went out Friday morning—the day of the race this morning—and went and rode my section all the way through then ate a couple tacos in Valle de Trinidad and geared back up gave her hell and had a really clean, safe run. I had a really safe, successful ride and I couldn't be more thankful to the team." 404X JANO MONTOYA 1ST PRO MOTO 40/4 TH MC O/A Jano Montoya was one of the members of the winning Pro Moto 40 team in fourth overall. They couldn't rest at all in this one, having a close race with the Rex Cameron 455X entry. "The course was really tough!" Montoya said. "The most exciting thing was that we were fighting the other [Pro Moto 40] bikes the entire way." 101X GRANT STATLEY 1ST PRO MOTO LIMITED/5TH MC O/A Grant Statley, of the Mark Bradford/ Ricky de la Pena/Austin Miller/Jim O'Neal/Schuyler Schoonmaker/ Mark Winkelman team, described, "We were in ninth or eighth over- all when I got on for last section, I believe. They started us last out of all the bikes—first in class, but in Pro Moto Limited they started last off the line. Right off the bat, we were in a lot of dust; we had a lot of making up to do! It was all day long in the dust, riding blind all the way down the coast! We did an air filter at mile 120. We did [six] air filters, I think, because we had to pass all the bikes. I had a flawless race, no crashes or anything. I felt faster at night—I love the night stuff! You're just focused the whole time. You only have what's in front of you; nothing else matters. In the daytime you're looking around and you see a dog or something and you're looking at it [longer than necessary] so, yeah, I feel more comfortable [at night]." 702X TONY GERA 1ST PRO MOTO IRONMAN "It was pretty good but definitely got cold towards the end of the race," said Pro Moto Ironman winner Tony Gera. "We had a couple rear flats and lost the rear brakes. We also lost lights, but other than that we were pretty good. The dust was bad in a couple parts, but then it would be a few hours before I would see anybody else." A hard-charging ride after the sun went down saw Grant Statley pick off several bikes, which helped give his team the Pro Moto Limited victory.

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