With a SCORE World Desert Championship on the line, Ox Motorsports Honda team principals Colton Udall and Mark Samuels talk about where they’ve come from and where they hope to go.
Today, Colton Udall and Mark Samuels are happy to be in a position they never wanted to be in the first place.
As teammates and co-owners of the Ox Motorsports Honda off-road racing team, Udall, 29, and Samuels, 26, have made the proverbial lemonade out of lemons, or chicken soup out of chicken…well, you know.
It’s still a work in progress, but progress is being made, and the sophomore team is on the verge of reaching a major milestone by winning the 2015 SCORE World Desert Championship. If it can muster a strong finish in tomorrow’s 48th running of the Bud Light SCORE Baja 1000 in Baja California, Mexico, all will be right in the team’s world.
Neither man is a stranger to the sweet thrill of a Baja 1000 win nor the series championship, but the 2 years since they last achieved both accomplishments must seem like decades ago. Back then, life was a bowl of cherries. As members of the all-conquering Johnny Campbell Racing factory Honda team, they couldn’t have it much better when they scored the 2013 Baja 1000 win, but when Campbell pulled the plug on his own Baja dynasty in favor of starting a new chapter in his storied career by pursuing the AMSOIL Grand National Cross Country Championship, both Udall and Samuels suddenly found themselves in the unemployment line. With nowhere to go and no offers coming their way, they rolled up their sleeves and formed their own team, unsure of just what the future held.
They had to learn to grow up fast, and in many cases learn to do things for themselves that others had done for them in the past. No one was sure just how their fledgling effort, begun under the most anorexic of budgets, was going to fare, but they stuck to their guns and turned one season into two. Now that second season may turn into a championship title, a perfect springboard to let the off-road world know that Colton Udall and Mark Samuels are determined to make it in racing on their own terms. The talent is not in doubt, and the desire shows through just fine. It’s the business acumen to move the team where they want to take it that poses the fiercest challenge.
Yet both Udall and Samuels continue to rise to the occasion and push off-road racing to take them to places they’d never dreamed. And, just maybe, someplace they have.
DBC: It’s no secret that Ox Motorsports has been on a shoestring budget since you first began, but it seems as if you are on the verge of having some great things happen.
Colton Udall: Yes. Mark and I started this team in 2014, and we are obviously building. Our dreams are huge. One day we hope to be in the Dakar Rally, and we are building momentum. It has been done with a lot of heart between Mark and I, and with the great support team that we have, but we are getting some sponsors to jump onboard. One of the latest is Lava Propane, which is helping us get through the Baja 1000, and we’re stoked to have Baja Designs…because without them we’re basically racing without any lights. [laughs] And we’re also in negotiation with the “Big Red Machine” [Honda factory]. They are supporting us, a little bit, for this year’s Baja 1000, and we really hope to earn their trust and work into even more support for next year, after we have proven ourselves and earned a championship.
DBC: You both were a part of the legendary Johnny Campbell Racing Honda factory team in 2013, and you won the Baja 1000, only to find out that the team was ending its Baja racing program. That must have been a very difficult time for you both, and yet you made the leap toward forming your own team. Let’s revisit how that all went down.
Mark Samuels: We didn’t even really know each other that well. We grew up racing each other when we were younger, and then one day I showed up to ride an off-road race, and Colton and I battled it out, but he still laughed at me for not having the correct equipment to even race. It just kind of started from there. He talked me into coming down to Baja, and he kind of wanted me on JCR with him at that time.
DBC: And then you got your first Baja 1000 win with the team in its very last outing. So, it’s like, “Congratulations. I’m sorry.”
Mark Samuels: Yep!
DBC: So then what? You just said, “F this! We can do it ourselves!”
Mark Samuels: That’s pretty much how it happened. Colton and I were training together at his house, and we were waiting for the 2014 season to start, and I knew something didn’t feel right. Then Johnny told us that he was going GNCC racing and we didn’t even have anything.
Colton Udall: We were literally sitting in my house, and we were just like, “We have a championship. We’ve got to go racing. Let’s do this.” So we started it out as WFOx Motorsports, which is obviously a play on words, but it was like that was the way we were going to do this, wide f-ing open, because this is all we’ve got—our heart and our championship. But we changed the name to Ox Motorsports because it is a more professional name and yet it is still a very dominant logo. It also pays tribute to someone who inspires us both [the late Jeff “Ox” Kargola]. We’re happy to carry on his name.
DBC: The 2014 season must have been rough for you. Were there any second thoughts or second guessing as to what you had gotten yourselves into, because Baja racing is obviously very expensive and extremely difficult from a logistical standpoint. Or did you just expect that it was going to take some time to iron out the program and just build from that first year?
Colton Udall: We went through a lot of turmoil, and we still do to some extent. We are still training our people, and Mark and I still battle over how we think some things should be run, but we always remember that the reason we are doing this is because we love to race our dirtbikes, so that is what makes us persevere and work together. We are eager to keep racing because we don’t really want real jobs. [laughs] Then again, this is a real job. There are times when we are working so hard for no pay, but we know that it will all pay off tomorrow night and on into the future.
DBC: Let’s talk race strategy for tomorrow’s Baja 1000. One would think that since you are two-fifths of the last Honda team to win the Baja 1000 that you would want to be on the same bike, but you are being ambitious and running two motorcycles in the race. Why?
Colton Udall: Actually, we came up with this strategy after last year’s Baja 1000. Mark is riding both bikes in the race tomorrow, so he will start on one bike and then ride a section on the other bike. It kind of arose out of a disagreement we had, and then Mark came up with the great idea to race two bikes [two teams] instead of just one.
DBC: So, talk about the supporting cast members on the team.
Colton Udall: The 5X bike team will be myself, Mark and Justin Jones. The 3X bike will be Mark, Ray Dal Soglio, a young kid named Brian Adams, who has won the Ironman class at the 24 Hours of Glen Helen twice, so he is very strong. And then we also have a kid from Australia name Daymon Stokie. When I went down to Australia to race there during this year’s Baja 500, he was on a Honda team there. In Australia, the Baja 1000 is considered to be world-class. So, that’s it: Six riders and two bikes.
DBC: You have branched out a little in 2015, and you have a Glen Helen 24-Hour win to show for it. Is the Baja 1000 still the main priority for this team, or do you intend to diversify into other off-road series?
Colton Udall: For Ox Motorsports, our main priority is Baja racing and the SCORE series. The 24-Hour was just an added feather in our caps. We were excited to race the old boss and take him down. It was great because you had two Honda teams going at it, and ours came out on top. But the Baja 1000 is still very important to us and very important to our sponsors. It shows the strength and endurance of our program. And besides, we love this event.
DBC: There is still a championship to be decided tomorrow, and when we spoke to the THR Motorsports Kawasaki team, we asked Max Eddy if he was concerned about your two-bike approach, and he basically said not at all.
Colton Udall: That’s him showing his poker face, but on the starting line, I don’t care who you are, you can be intimidated. But that’s not why we’re running two bikes. We’re doing it as sort of an insurance policy.
Mark Samuels: And we are also doing it to help build the sport. We are bringing new people into the program, and we hope that will help to build the entry list and help the sport to grow.
Colton Udall: Yeah. If we have to, we’ll field three bikes next year. We’ll fill the whole field! [laughs]
DBC: Is there a long-range plan in place for Ox Motorsports? Do you have a plan to get where you want to be, which is the Dakar Rally? Obviously, so much of that will depend on sponsorship, but is there a basic roadmap in place?
Colton Udall: There is a roadmap for the next couple years, but it is not completely drawn to Dakar. We will continue in SCORE, and we intend to race in a couple other series. Once we can become a dominant structure—and we believe we can—we will see if we can put the money together explore more what it takes to get over there.
DBC: No offense to you, Colton, but it does seem as if Mark is the more polished partner, the guy more likely to talk to potential sponsors and partners on behalf of the team. He is very well-spoken and always seems very calm. Is that fair?
Colton Udall: Mark is better at it than I am. He is the guy with the great smile, and I think he enjoys that aspect of it. I’m more of the racer strategist who is always freaking out about what we have to do to win. It is a great combination to have.
DBC: Mark, is that a fair assessment?
Mark Samuels: Yes. I’m very comfortable with that. I feel like I do a good job handling that aspect for the team, and it works out well. Colton is really good at preparing bikes and handling the race strategy for the team, and I enjoy talking with people and finding the money to help us go racing.
DBC: So, tomorrow night, someone will cross the finish line in the 48th Bud Light SCORE Baja 1000, and a race and possibly a championship will be won or lost. So, what is going to make Ox Motorsports happy tomorrow night? Winning the race? Winning the championship? Or will nothing less than doing both be enough?
Colton Udall: The championship is the number one goal for our race team, but our strategy is to win the race because everyone talks about who wins the Baja 1000. But honestly, if we have to choose, we are going to choose to ride safely and win a championship.
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