The Monster Energy/Precision Concepts/THR Motorsports Kawasaki team earns second consecutive SCORE Baja 500 wins–this time without Brabec.
Whatever he does at tomorrow’s round of the SRT/AMA National Hare & Hound Championship in Utah, Monster Energy/Precision Concepts/THR Motorsports’ Ricky Brabec will already be able to celebrate a win in the 47th Bud Light SCORE Baja 500 with his teammates who were on hand to help him win it.
Even though he wasn’t.
A unique SCORE procedural rule allows the rider of record to miss a given round of the SCORE World Desert Championship series yet still collect the points earned in that round by the team with which he or she signed up. What the team gets, the rider of record gets.
Today, on the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico, Brabec got an important overall win thanks to the smooth and consistent riding of his Monster Energy/Precision Concepts/THR Motorsports teammates Max Eddy Jr., Justin Morgan and new recruit Ian Young. The three Kawasaki teammates hardly put a wheel wrong all day on the hot, dusty and technically demanding 510.58-mile course, unofficially crossing the finish line in 10 hours, 9 minutes and 55 seconds, averaging 50.228 mph. With the win they became the 11th Kawasaki team to claim the overall win in the Baja 500. It was Eddy Jr.’s second career Baja 500 win and the first overall Baja win for Morgan and Young. It also marked back-to-back Baja 500 victories for the Monster Energy/Precision Concepts/THR Motorsports team.
“We just cruised on in,” Eddy Jr. said of the race. “I started first and gave the bike Justin [Morgan], and he got on for the next 200 miles, and he did such an awesome job under the circumstances—he has a broken knuckle and some stitches in his right hand because of a crash he had while pre-running. I was really kind of worried about him, but he handled that desert no problem. He held it together, and Ian did an awesome job. By the time I got the bike back, over on the coast, we were way out front.”
The Precision Concepts team was expecting a big fight by the Baja Sur 500-winning Ox Motorsports Honda team of championship rival Colton Udall, who was also not in Baja for the 500, opting to take advantage of the same rule as Brabec and accept an invitation to race in Australia. Unfortunately, the team didn’t fare as well in his absence, as team rider Justin Jones suffered serious injuries in a collision with an automobile that was on the course, suffering trauma to his legs. Jones was reportedly awake and alert while he was being attended to. He was airlifted to a San Diego hospital for further diagnosis of his injuries.
The impact with the car left the team’s Honda damaged beyond repair. Adding insult to injury, the bike was also stolen for a brief time before it was found and recovered. Baja is a wild place to race.
Morgan said that he was behind Jones when the accident occurred.
“It was really dusty through the Pine Forest,” Morgan said. “The light was really low and the visibility was horrible. I was still behind Justin when I came up on him; he saw me and gave me the thumbs up. There were a lot of people around him, he was coherent, and he looked good to go.”
In addition to the dusty conditions in his section, Morgan had to race with added challenge of his damaged right hand, which happened while pre-running during the week.
“I couldn’t even use the front brake, and I use a lot of front brake, so that was a challenge,” Morgan said. “I just had to tough through it. I only tipped over one time in the silt, but I was going about two miles per hour, so that doesn’t count as a crash.” [laughs]
Young, 21, is the brother of Colton Udall. Young is a relative newcomer to Baja racing, but he has plenty of Baja riding experience and, after taking over the bike from Morgan at Race Mile 267, he rode the Pacific Coast side of the race course like a veteran, handing the bike off to Eddy Jr. in one piece in Todos Santos. In his first ride for the team, Young enjoyed his first career overall Baja win.
“You have no idea how cool this is for me,” Young said. “I can’t take anything away from my brother’s team, Ox Motorsports. All power to them, but they felt that they needed to put me on my own. It made me realize some things, and when these guys called, I called Colton and the team and told them what was going on, and they said, ‘Go for it.’ It was a great opportunity, so I took it. I had a blast out there. I had no issues. I just made one small mistake on the beach when I hit a rock a little weird and jammed my wrist. It made me tentative, but I just took a breath, kept moving forward and got the job done.”
The shakeup in the fortunes of the top two teams left the door wide open for lesser-known teams to make the podium, and two different teams did just that. The first was the all-Mexican, Adelita Racing KTM team of Raul Hernandez, Larry Serna, Rodolfo Patron and Miguel Munoz, with all of its riders scoring a career-best second-place overall and second in the Open Motorcycle (Class 22) division. The team finished with a time of 10:42:02, 32 minutes and 37 seconds behind the winning team.
“This is the best,” Hernandez said. “We were running in the Sportsman class last year, and we got, like, seventh overall, and we got the championship, so we had to move up. We had issues in San Felipe, and we didn’t do the Baja Sur. I’m proud of this. We made some adjustments, and we made it through. We were prepared. It was a perfect race for us. We didn’t have any problems today.”
Third overall and first in Class 40 went to the Cantina Racing KTM team of Jano Montoya, 43, Francisco Septien, 40, and Gerardo Rojas, 43.
“We only had three guys riding today because one guy had to go back to Cabo because of the hurricane that is coming,” Montoya said. “I knew that we were fast, but I didn’t think we were going to get to run up front like that. We had a great day. I’m so happy with the guys that rode with me. They did a great job today.”
Fourth overall went to the MX Ranch, Beef, Avaocados and Citrus-backed Honda team of Dustin McCarthy, Gavin McCarthy and Lance Lewis, followed by the Hansen McCoy Investments Honda team of Scott Myers, Damon Myers, Chris Ridgeway and Kreg McCoy. Damon Myers, 19, was making his debut on the team that his anchored by his father, Scott Myers, a Baja racing veteran. Damon rode the last shift aboard the machine, bringing it back to Ensenada to cross the finish line.
47th Bud Light SCORE Baja 500
Baja California, Mexico
Unofficial Results: June 6, 2015
Overall
1. Max Eddy Jr., Justin Morgan, Ian Young, Ricky Brabec-Kaw (Open M/C)/10 hours, 9 minutes, 55 seconds
2. Raul Hernandez, Rodolfo Patron, Miguel Munoz, Larry Serna-KTM (Open M/C)/10:42:02
3. Jano Montoya, Francisco Septien, Gerardo Rojas-KTM (Class 40)/10:47:55
4. Dustin McCarthy, Gavin McCarthy, Lance Lewis-Hon (Open M/C) 10:55:30
5. Scott Myers, Damon Myers, Chris Ridgeway, Kreg McCoy-Hon (Open M/C)/11:05:25
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