Mark Kariya | June 5, 2016
Though handicapped by starting in the back of the class, Ox Motorsports Honda’s Mark Samuels and Colton Udall quickly blazed through the field and won the 48th SCORE Baja 500 going away, covering the 478-mile course in nine hours, 18 minutes and 11 seconds. And blaze was definitely the operative word with reported temperatures of 115 degrees and possibly higher, making this one of the most difficult 500s to complete in recent memory.
Sadly, it will also be remembered for three fatalities: Pro Moto Unlimited (450cc or more) contender Travis Livingston, Sportsman Moto entrant Noah Evermann and an eight-year-old boy who was killed after being hit by a race truck whose driver, Todd Pedersen, lost control while dropping into the Ensenada wash less than a mile off the start, apparently while trying to avoid some spectators. The boy’s mother was also hit in the accident but was hospitalized and reported to be in stable condition. Their identities were not provided by SCORE.
The Bremen Racing/Chris Haines Motorcycle Adventure Company/Precision Concepts team of Francisco Arredondo/Shane Esposito/Justin Morgan/Kendall Norman/Ryan Penhall/Roberto Villalobos promised to make the race interesting, having drawn the first starting position. Not surprisingly, Esposito took the first stint and enjoyed a clean ride on their Pro Circuit/Lucas Oil/Dunlop-backed CRF450X, though the front number plate broke. That would be the least of their worries. Later on, Penhall crashed heavily while trying to maintain the physical lead in the early part of the torturous San Felipe loop, with Villalobos reportedly hitting a horse and suffering a broken leg. (Coincidentally, that happened not far from where Kurt Caselli died during the 2013 Baja 1000.)
All of those incidents cost time and forward motion which the Samuels/Udall duo maintained better than any other bike entry. As the miles clicked off, the race for the lead came down to defending SCORE champs Samuels/Udall and the 45X bike captained by Arredondo.
“We had a little bit of a cat-and-mouse game with [Morgan on] the 45X,” Samuels said. “It was a fun ride and by the time we got to Borrego [about halfway through the race] and got off the bikes, he was pretty worked and I was pretty worked.”
After Samuels handed off their Monster Energy/Michelin/Lava Propane CRF450X to his partner, Udall reported, “I was three minutes behind when I got back on the bike down at race mile 220 and I reeled in the 45X bike and it was Ryan Penhall [on it]. We were side by side [in some whoops] and he clipped a rock and it kicked him up way high in my peripheral [view]. He came down off the bike; he was side-saddling it and ended up tackling the thing, but I think he hit his head on the way down and he was going 50. You can’t side-saddle in three-foot whoops!
“I turned around and stopped, and Kendall was in the helicopter. It was funny—he crashed literally right in front of some spectators. They must’ve known some English because I’m going, ‘Pour water on him!’ because it’s 115 and he’s out! I go, ‘Don’t move him! Just pour water on his shoulders.’
“And then I told them, ‘Get your awning over here and get him out of the sun!’
“By that time Kendall had landed the helicopter and ran over and I figured there was nothing [further] I could do. I’m not an EMT or anything like that.”
From that point, Udall remained in front until checkpoint four (race mile 440) where officials told him the race would essentially finish there since some stragglers were still outbound on the common start/finish course used between Ensenada and Ojos Negros.
“There was a lot of talk that people were going to compete with us,” Udall declared. “Baja is scary. You have to respect it.”
Lurking in third was the SRT Husqvarna team of Jordan Brandt/Morgan Crawford/Cory Graffunder/Kevin Murphy aboard their Kenda/509 Goggles/O’Neal Racing FE 501. Seventh off the line—one minute ahead of Samuels/Udall—they were physically 30 minutes behind at San Matias, about 335 miles in. When Villalobos crashed, the 45X team lost enough time for the SRT squad on 37X to slip past and into second place physically, but after a review of tracking data, they received enough time penalties to drop them back to third with 45X finishing in 10:13:20 and 37X in 11:04:36.
The second Ox Motorsports Honda entry of Ray Dal Soglio/Nic Garvin/Ian Young claimed fourth overall, fourth Pro Moto Unlimited in 11:08:42 after Dal Soglio hit the deck.
After a less-than-satisfactory San Felipe 250, Mark Winkelman decided to switch things up and ended up the Pro Moto Limited (449cc or less) winner. The Max Eddy, Jr./Austin Miller/Scott Myers/Jim O’Neal/Grant Statley/Winkelman team debuted a PCT/Monkey Business Racing/O’Neal MotorSports Husqvarna FC 350. (O’Neal and Winkelman also rode a similar bike on the winning Pro Moto 50 team.)
“It was a fun bike to ride,” Myers exclaimed. “I can’t even remember [the last time I raced something smaller than a 450]!” His only close call? Finding a car heading at him in the fog as he crested a rise in the first 40 miles. “Other than that, I think everybody was good.”
Other class winners were Stefano Caputo/Jano Montoya/Gerardo Rojas/Kirk Russell/Francisco Septien in Pro Moto 40 (riders 40 and over; 11:20:29), Brian Campbell/Louie Franco/Jeff Kaplan/Jim O’Neal/Mark Winkelman in Pro Moto 50 (riders 50 and over; 12:02:49), Dennis Greene/Mark Hawley/Andy Kirker/Dennis McLaughlin/John Marshall in Pro Moto 60 (riders 60 and over; 18:27:41), Carlin Dunne in Pro Moto Ironman (12:28:10) and Fernando Barbosa/Fernando Serreya in Sportsman Moto (13:47:12). Neither of the two Pro Moto 30 starters made it to the finish, and of the 236 total starters, just 137 (58 percent) finished within the 21-hour time limit.
– MARK KARIYA