SCORE Journal

SCORE-Journal-Jan-2021

SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing

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2020 SCORE Pro Moto Unlimited Class Champion Mark Samuels and the SLR Honda Team Make It Three In A Row By Stuart Bourdon Photos By Get Some Photo With only two races in the pandemic-abbreviated 2020 SCORE World Desert Championship Series, winning a class championship was a bit more difficult for many SCORE competitors. Even if you finished first in class during one of the races, you still had to do well in the second event. While there may have been the chance that a “bridesmaid” could podium twice this season, without grabbing the top spot at each race and end up the class champion, was a reality for many drivers and riders this season. Not so for the Pro Moto Unlimited riders. The three-member SLR Honda Team of Mark Samuels, Justin Morgan, and Justin Jones, have a solid record of victory and work together like a well-oiled machine, making them seemly unbeatable. For them, they rode to win both races this season and took their third Pro Moto Unlimited Championship title. Rider of record for the 1x team Mark Samuels said, “Winning the class championship again feels great, but having done it two years in a row (2018 and 2019) added a lot of pressure to continue winning this year.” 500 Miles of Pressure In The First Race The 2020 SCORE Baja 500 was like no other, especially for the motorcycle racers. The venue choice was the San Felipe area in late-September, a location that can be extraordinarily rough on man and machine, and unbearably hot any time of the year, which made it harder for riders. “The whoops in the desert (around San Felipe) are so bad and they are getting tougher and tougher on bikes,” said Samuels. “To come off all those whoops and go into the rugged canyons where there’s no breeze and the air was hot and stagnant, was exhausting. It felt like it was 10 degrees hotter than in the open desert.” The race was tough for all three of the SLR Honda Team members. Justin Morgan had taken the bike after Samuels rolled it off the start and screamed across the desert in darkness during his 160-mile leg. He pushed even harder during the last 80 miles that included a run across the dry lakebed, averaging 92 miles per hour. After Samuels’ mid-course run to race-mile 395, Justin Jones had taken over and successfully struggled through the brutal heat and terrain of the southern end of the loop to about race mile 460 (Checkpoint 3). Samuels took over again and rode the team’s Honda CRF450X to the checkered flag for the first-place class finish. Samuels told us the 2020 Baja 500 was a good shakedown for the SLR Honda Team, and it helped them get ready to win the SCORE Baja 1000. For that race, the team’s “nightrider” Justin Morgan, once again led the way after Samuels made the official start with a new Honda CRF450X that had been worked over so it’s Showa suspension could handle the longer and tougher Baja 1000 racecourse. Brutal BaJa 1000  No less demanding a course than the “500”, the 2020 SCORE Baja 1000 was the longest loop race ever for the world-famous event. The nearly 890-mile course was laid out across the northern part of the Baja peninsula and turned out to be an incredibly tough and rugged track. It was a tight race at first, with Morgan on the 1x bike, and the 66x bike (driver of record Santiago Creel) who ran within a few minutes of each other for that first 124-mile stretch down the Pacific Coast. Justin Jones took over from there and kept the race tight until about the 250-mile mark when the 66x bike suffered a fuel pump failure. When Jones handed the bike over to Samuels at the 304-mile mark, the team was leading by 36 minutes. The next leg was over the mountains, into Valle De Trinidad, and then down to the San Felipe area. Samuels told us it was one of the most brutal races he had ever ridden. The first 100 miles of that 300-mile run to the next hand-off was mentally and physically exhausting and took him about two-and-a-half hours. After riding hard for another 200 miles he “was completely wiped out.” Justin Morgan took charge of the bike at race mile 604, and as Samuels put it, “Justin (Morgan) made a clean run into the finish.” Morgan knew his closest class competitor (66x) was two hours behind and didn’t need to push himself or the bike to the limit. He was first in class to cross the finish line of the 2020 SCORE Baja 1000 with an elapsed time of 20 hours, 50 minutes, and 29 seconds. The strategic planning, on-point execution, and hard work of Mark Samuels, Justin Morgan, and Justin Jones clinched the third consecutive 2020 SCORE International Pro Moto Unlimited Points Championship for the SLR Honda Team. SJ

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