OFF ROAD
SCORE WORLD DESERT CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 4 / NOVEMBER 16, 2017
LA PAZ, B.C., MEXICO
P54
Answer Racing's 1X Honda
needed and they clawed back
the miles. Young had the last
200-mile stretch in the dark and
was understandably thrilled to
chase down and pass Morgan
on the ailing machine just 75
miles from the finish.
"I had a lot of issues with
the transmission on this bike,"
Morgan said. "I'm surprised it
actually finished. We didn't really
least 30 minutes, but as Penhall
shared, "We all kept saying,
'Keep charging!'"
However, the Precision
Concepts/ IMS/ Pro Circuit-
backed 45X began to slow as
it drew closer to La Paz, due to
a transmission issue, so each
rider babied the bike in hopes of
keeping it going.
That was all that the Lava Pro-
pane/ Baja Bound Insurance/
Predictably, their closest rival
was the Justin Jones/ Ryan
Penhall/ Rider of Record Mark
Samuels/ Colton Udall/ Ian
Young team, the defending se-
ries champs on the 1X Bonanza
Plumbing/ Monster Energy/ Ox
Motorsports CRF450X. They
were second off the line (one
bike every two minutes at this
race) and lost ground in the
early going, falling behind by at
The Mark Samuels team
appeared to have won
the race but the team was
assessed a 30-minute
penalty for reckless riding
(when Ian Young crashed
while celebrating the win)
which cost them
the victory.
