Cycle News Staff | September 20, 2023
The 2023 running of the Score Baja 400 wrapped up on September 17, 2023, in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. After 384.66 miles of racing, the Juan Carlos Salvatierra-led 1x KTM team crossed the finish line first, just shy of the nine-hour mark. The teams of Adrian Ortiz and Eric Holt finished second and third overall, respectively, in the Pro Unlimited bike class.
The 1x team consisted of four riders: Salvatierra, Shane Logan, Diego Llanos and Justin Carnes and finished with a time of 8:52:58.
“We’re happy to be here at the finish and that everyone is fine, which is the most important,” Salvatierra said. “It was a fun race, and we had great battles with 3x [Ciaran Naran] and 11x [Arturo Salas Jr]. We had some good moments but missed some time fixing our exhaust pipe, but that’s racing. We don’t give up. Racing has many surprises, and we were blessed today to get this win after all. We’ll be back for the SCORE Baja 1000 and we are even more pumped to go for the season point championship again.”
Second in the Pro Moto Unlimited class went to Adrian Ortiz and his team, made up of Gustavo Gonzales, Danny Mendoza and his brother, Albaro Ortiz. “Unfortunately, we started last in our class, but we had a good race,” said Adrian Ortiz. “The start was hard because of the fog and the dust, but when the bikes got a little bit more separated, we managed to keep a good pace. Our team did a very good job. Danny got the bike in second place and was able to keep us there. My brother Albaro did a great job, too, he was the fastest among us and helped us get a good finish. His future is bright.”
Jano Montoya, David Zarate and Kyle Tichenor topped the Pro Moto 30 division, and Ryan Liebelt, Jason Trubey and JD Triffon won the Pro Moto 40 class.
“Our problem was that we lost our clutch at about mile 10 and we couldn’t replace it until race mile 220, so we rode with no clutch for about half of the race,” said Trubey. “That gave us some challenge there and cost us about 40 minutes, but we finished and got here safe.”
Ely Ramirez, Manuel Lopez and Alexander Lopez took the Pro Moto Limited (under 450cc)-class victory.
Kevin Ward, Jeff Kaplan, Louie Franco made up the top Pro Moto 60 team.
Edgar Cota soloed to victory in the Pro Moto Ironman division after battling eventual runner-up Brandon Wright. CN
Overall
- Juan Carlos Salvatierra/Shane Logan, Diego Llanos, Justin Carnes (KTM) 8:52:58
- Adrian Ortiz, Gustavo Gonzales, Danny Mendoza, Albaro Ortiz (Hon) 9:02:31
- Eric Holt, Taylor Stevens, Zach Myers, Brian Whiteside (Hus) 9:17:16
- Arturo Salas Jr., Clayton Roberts (KTM) 9:34:48
- Ciaran Naran, Derek Ausserbauer, Forrest Minchinton, Nick Lapaglia (Hus)