Cycle News Staff | June 3, 2024
The three-rider Hero Racing team on a Honda CRF450X—made up of Arturo Salas, Carter Klein and Ciaran Naran—won the overall for the Pro Moto Unlimited class in the 56th running of the SCORE Baja 500. The trio completed the race in 10 hours, 36 minutes and two seconds with a speed average of 45.56 mph.
Arturo Salas, of the 11x Team, crosses the line with the overall win in the Pro Moto Unlimited. Photos Art Eugenio
For the winning team, victory didn’t come easily. “I ran out of gas right after the Valle de la Trinidad and some fans who were up at the mountain helped me with it, but I still had to push the bike for two or three miles uphill, which was tough,” said Salas. “Unfortunately, we got passed by Justin [Morgan), but the bike ran very well all day and everything works fine, so we did a good job with it. I think Ciaran laid the bike over, but it wasn’t a big deal at all. We’re really thinking about the points for the season and just wanted to get here, so I’m really stoked that we did it.”
Night time start for the bikes.
The Justin Morgan team seemed to have the race won, until. “We had an issue with the bike a few hundred yards before the finish line and had to push it, so I think it’s going to be really close on timing,” Morgan said at the finish line. “I did the first part and lost some time in the dust, but kept the bike off the ground and just tried to be smart and have a smooth ride. We had no crashes and nothing really bad happened, so we just kept it smooth all day. Baja is always a challenge and that’s why I love racing here. It’s not over until it’s over; I always say that, and today was a great example of it.”
The winning team crossed the line after 10 hours and 36 minutes.
Morgan’s team finished second in the Pro Moto Unlimited class with a time of 10:54:24.
In the Pro Moto Limited class (less than 450cc), the team of Armando Ortiz, Larry Cerna, Oscar Garcia and Ricardo Velez took the win. They finished the race in approximately 12 and a half hours.
Ethan Wheeler, Casey Thomas, Ryan Stephens, Dustin Ashe-Everest and Jason Mount, riding a KTM 500 EXC-F won Pro Moto 30 in just under 15 hours.
The night brings a unique element to the 500.
“We had a good day overall,” Thomas said right after the finish. “We had some mechanical issues and lost our front brakes after the first 150 miles. But everybody managed to make it through their sections, and we’ll see how it plays out. My section was very clean. I did the best I could without the front brakes.”
Francisco Septien, Shane Esposito, Rene Magana and Jim O’Neal had room to spare in winning the Pro Moto 40 class on a Kawasaki KX450X.
Daniel Mastrude, of Boise, Idaho, rode a KTM 500 EXC-F to victory in the Pro Moto Ironman division. He soloed the race in 13:41:53, which was just a few minutes better than class runner-up Patricio Cabrera of Chile, riding a Husqvarna FE450. And Brian Roberts of Hemet, California, was right there, too. He took the checkers just a few minutes back in third.
OVERALL
- Arturo Salas, Carter Klein, Ciaran Naran (Hon) 10:36:03
