SLR Honda Continues Win Streak: Baja 1000

Desert Stormin’

For the third time in as many years, the SLR Honda team rode to victory during this weekend’s SCORE International Baja 1000, extending Honda’s overall motorcycle win total in the event to 30, including six straight and 22 in the last 23 years. It also marked a record 14 wins for the CRF450X. It was a dominant performance for riders Mark Samuels, Justin Morgan and Justin Jones, as the No. 1X bike led the entire way around the 898.4-mile course, turning in a winning time of 20 hours, 50 minutes, 30 seconds.

Team owner and rider of record Samuels rolled off the Ensenada start line at 4 a.m. Friday and quickly handed off to Morgan, who raced 124 miles through the darkness down the Pacific Coast, building a three-minute lead that was largely erased when the team pulled off the headlights at the end of his stint. Jones took over and built up a margin of approximately half an hour before Samuels took the helm at race-mile 304 to tackle a technical, 300-mile, seven-hour section across the peninsula to San Felipe. Morgan remounted at dusk and rode the final 290 miles to the finish back in Ensenada.

While Honda motorcycle wins have come to be expected in Baja, this year’s 53rd running of the event also saw Honda side-by-sides achieve success.

The Pro UTV NA class was won by a Raceco-built Talon 1000X-4 fielded by a private Chris Haines-managed effort fielding drivers Francisco Arredando, Jamie Campbell (brother of Baja legend Johnny Campbell) and Cisco Bio.

Honda ATV riders tasted glory as well, with Adolfo Arellano earning the overall victory, while the Sportsman Quad class went to a team made up of Imanol Fierro, Ery Sandoval, Nicolas Ibarra, Jesus Gomez, Jesus Baca and Nicholas Espinoza.