STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK KARIYA
T
he 50th Annual BF Goodrich Tires
SCORE Baja 1000 lived up to the
hype that had been more than a year
in the making, with close racing and gritty
determination evident throughout the field
of 108 motorcycles and ATVs, a significant
portion of the 412 total vehicles (third-most
in race history).
Significantly, Pro Moto Unlimited points
leaders Francisco Arredondo, Ty Davis,
Max Eddy Jr., Shane Esposito and Justin
Morgan captured both the race win—the
team's third in a row—and the series cham-
pionship, which was the first for Rider of
Record Arredondo, though the Bremen/
Arredondo/ Haines Racing CRF450X was
not the first team to reach the finish line—
physically or on adjusted time.
The first to leave the start in Ensenada
at midnight on Wednesday (as was the
case for the very first Mexican 1000 in
1967 when bikes left Tijuana at that hour),
Arredondo's 45X machine sprinted and
managed to stay out front for most of the
1134-mile trek south, watching the sun
come up and then go down again for a
second but shorter stint of darkness.
VOL. 54 ISSUE 46 NOVEMBER 21, 2017 P53
Penalty determines winner of this
year's point-to-point Baja 1000
DRAMATIC FINISH FAVORS
ARREDONDO TEAM
