Colton Udall and Justin Jones lead a WFOx Motorsports Honda one-two punch in San Felipe.
Former Baja 1000 winner and SCORE Motorcycle Champion Colton Udall got his 2015 SCORE World Desert Championship campaign off to a solid start with a win in the 29th Bud Light SCORE San Felipe 250 in Baja, California, Mexico, Saturday.
Udall split riding time with WORCS competitor Justin Jones, son of three-time AMA 250cc National Motocross Champion and motorcycle racing legend Gary Jones. WFOx Motorsports Honda duo took an early lead and never looked back, completing the 259-mile course with a time of 4 hours 40 minutes and 59 seconds at an average speed of 55.31 mph. It was Udall’s fourth career overall motorcycle win in the Bud Light SCORE San Felipe 250 for Udall but Jones’ first. Jones was competing in a SCORE race for just the second time in his career.
Udall started and rode to mile 165 where Jones took over and rode to the finish, keeping ahead of the WFOx Motorsports Honda team’s second entry, which was piloted by Mark Samuels and Ray Dal Soglio. Samuels and Dal Soglio finished second overall. The KTM team of Arnulfo Verdugo and Cesar Lopez finished third overall.
“San Felipe is a funny thing,” Udall said after the race. “You’ve got to treat it with a lot of respect because if you don’t then you end up crashing. It’s all about keeping the bike together and the riders together. The course was so gnarly because of the way it was routed this year in a counter-clockwise direction. The rain and the number of pre-runners made it really difficult. I don’t know if the other classes didn’t pre-run enough because usually they pack down the rocks.
“In sections of the course where I’m used to running wide open instead it was fourth gear and on and off the gas today,” Udall added. “I was tiptoeing around to make sure I didn’t hit any big rocks. The washes out there are really scary. It was a guessing game because the sun was low and in a lot of the rocky areas I just squeezed my legs and leaned back a little bit and hoped to get through it. Obviously we did and got a great win for our independent team.”
Jim O’Neal is simply a Baja legend, and the 68-year-old Californian added to his legacy by contributing to the winning effort in Class 30. O’Neal has raced in all 29 Bud Light SCORE San Felipe 250 races, and he has a SCORE-record 16 career season class point titles, including last season in Class 30 as a co-rider on the over-30 years-old motorcycle team led by Mark Winkelman with whom he earned the class win in this year’s race.
Jeff Powell (Class 40) of Reardon, Washington, and Tony Gera (SCORE Ironman) of Santa Cruz, California. were also motorcycle class wiiners in the race.
2015 SCORE World Desert Championship
29th Bud Light SCORE San Felipe 250
San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico
Results: January 24, 2015 (Round 1 of 5)
Open M/C (450cc+)
1. Colton Udall/Justin Jones-Hon
2. Mark Samuels/Ray Dal Soglio-Hon
3. Arnulfo Verdugo/Cesar Lopez-KTM
4. Ricky Brabec/Max Eddy Jr.-Kaw
4. Nick Owens/Jim Owens-Hon
5. Raul Hernandez/Rodolfo Patron/Larry Serna/John Fitzpatrick-KTM
Limited M/C (449cc or less)
1. Ruben Alamo/Jesus Alamo/Joaguin Alamo-Yam
CLASS 30 (Riders over 30 years old)
1. Mark Winkelman/Jim O’Neal/Kevin Murphy/Morgan Crawford/Ricky De La Pena-Hon
CLASS 40 (Riders over 40 years old)
1. Jeff Powell/Rick Mianecki/David Lahn-Hon
2. Kyle Abney, Albuquerque, N.M./Chad Thornton/Tim Fitzpatrick-KTM
3. Oscar Fazz/Mike Langley/Steve Gallegos/Kenji Gauthier-Kaw
4. Dave Callagy/Ted Callagy-Hon
5. Paul Thomas/Giovanni Spinali/Mike Carter/John Griffin/Tom Hammers,-Hon
6. Collie Potter/Mike Chastain/Sterlyn Rigsby/Dave Glass/Mike Stein-Hon
CLASS 50 (Riders over 50 years old)
1. Marc Prince/Steve Williams/David Potts/Doug Smith-Hon
SCORE Ironman (Solo Riders)
1. Tony Gera-KTM
2. Kevin Daniels-KTM
3. Juan Rodriguez-Hon
Sportsman M/C
1. Gabe Willitts/Matt Ladendorf/Marc Jenkins-Hon
2. Alejandro Quintero/Brando Leon/Jaime Ruelas-Hon
3. Risto Niemi/Chris Shultz-Hon
4. Will Johnson/Dalton Miesen/Chris Scranton-KTM
5. Eric Saltzer/Kristopher Harvey-Hon
6. Kenneth Skillern/John Sylvester/Chuck Huffman/Gregg Haggart-Hon
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