The Ox Motorsports Honda team crosses the finish line first to claim the unofficial Baja 1000 win and earn the SCORE Desert World Championship.
In the short time that the Ox Motorsports Honda team has been in existence, it has made huge strides in the world of Baja off-road racing, but none bigger than tonight, when the 5X team of Colton Udall, Mark Samuels and Justin Jones not only crossed the finish line first in the 48th running of the Bud Light SCORE Baja 1000 but also earned its first SCORE Desert World Championship.
The trio finished with the grueling 821.38-mile course with a total time of 16 hours, 9 minutes and 8 seconds for an average speed of 50.85 mph. That time, and the overall result, are unofficial, pending SCORE review and certification of the results. The team has reason to believe that it may incur some time penalties which could affect its final time, but it even so it appears likely that they have sealed the victory.
And, short of a highly unlikely outright disqualification, the team also earned its first SCORE Desert World Championship, earning the right to wear the 1X plate in 2016.
“This is definitely what we have been working for since last year,” Samuels said. “It feels good to be here on the podium first. The race went good. Everything that was thrown at us, we handled. Colton had a rear tire go down after he hit something really hard, but it was right by the pits, and we changed it quickly. Then I fell over, went down pretty good, around Race Mile 405. I broke the front light off the bike, but we kind of salvaged that. Another interesting thing, there was a fire down in that section. The helicopter had to get down to like 20 feet so that they could stay with me. By the time that I got through it, I was starting to feel a little sick, with my heart rate so high while I was breathing that stuff.”
Udall started the race for the 5X team, running to Race Mile 150, and he took the physical lead in the race right before handing the bike off to Jones, who piloted it the next 200 miles before Samuels took over. Udall said that his time on the machine wasn’t without its anxious moments.
“At Race Mile 65, I got cross-rutted and did the biggest flying W,” Udall said. “I was side-saddling the bike, but fortunately I wasn’t going that fast, so I was able to save it. It was fun. Other than that, I didn’t have any real issues. I just rode as well as I could. I got the physical lead, and we basically held it from there, although the 45X was barking at our door for a while.”
If it holds up, the win will be the first for the 23-year-old Jones, son of three-time AMA 250cc National Motocross Champion Gary Jones. It already marks a complete turnabout from Justin Jones’ debut with the team at this year’s Baja 500, where a collision with a car on the course left him with a broken leg.
“Yeah, you could say it was the complete opposite of the 500,” Jones said. “But that makes this that much more special. I really feel like it got the monkey off my back down here, and I am excited that I had a clean, safe race. I didn’t have any issues whatsoever. It was about as smooth as Baja can be. Shane Esposito and I had a wicked battle down the coast. We were really ripping. That was the highlight of my race.”
Speaking of Esposito, the Baja veteran crossed the finish like second on the 45X Bremen Racing/Arredondo Racing Honda that he shared with Francesco Arredondo and Ryan Penhall, another famous son—his father is two-time World Speedway Champion Bruce Penhall. The team finished approximately 30 minutes behind the Ox Motorsports Honda and approximately 10 minutes ahead of the third-finishing THR Motorsports/Monster Energy/Precision Concepts Kawasaki of Ricky Brabec (who did not compete) Max Eddy Jr., David Pearson and Justin Morgan. Esposito engaged Jones in a battle for the overall lead at one point in the race before a pretty serious getoff derailed his drive.
“I had a good race going with Justin, but then around Race Mile 195 I high-sided while I was going pretty fast, and I hit my head and kind of knocked myself cross-eyed. Their (Ox Motorsports) helicopter circled back around to make sure I was okay, and I gave them the thumbs up, and Justin stopped to help me get back on the bike, and we made it home. I’m happy that we finished so well, but I don’t know…They say 40 is the new 30, but I think I’m ready to go back to racing in Class 30 instead of the Unlimited class.”
Due to penalties incurred by the 45X team, the 1X team would be later be credited with the runner-up finish when SCORE released the official 2015 Baja 1000 results.
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