Well 2019 brought some minor changes (New # 308x) but the same will to win. Having been trying to win this race for over 4 years with no success, we finally did it. The Boys in Blue put in work, with lots of prerunning to know the fastest way through the very tough San Felipe whoops/rocks/ and sand, they were able to pull off a 4th OA and 1st in the 30+ Pro Moto class. Ryan Liebelt (Rider of Record) along with Ted Bergen & Travis Flateau built another WR450 rocket ship. With TBT suspension and the big power of the GYRT/FMF Yamaha motor, the bike was plenty fast and left no doubt how good it is and how fast we can be. I always say this, but it takes a village to compete at this level and succeed. We couldn’t do it without the great people standing next and behind us to do it. SO THANK YOU!
Race Day:
Started early, with a wake up for 4:45am, but we got Ryan to the start line and greeted our fellow competition and friends. with us set to take off the line 17th bike and 4th in class we knew we would have to work hard to get to clean air; Especially knowing that our class (Pro Moto 30+) is probably the closest and most stacked class in Score now. But knowing it was a long brutal 350 miles to make it to the finish, we talked about being smooth and getting the bike to the next guy, we knew we did our homework and knew if we kept the bike up right we would give ourselves a chance, see we use the IMS wing tank in Baja, which gives us an advantage because we can cover longer distances between pits. Well Ryan did a great job in the 1st 22 miles before handing the bike off to Morgan (MOMO) Crawford. Tracking in Mexico is always hard, but having lots of people helping back in the states and locally, we knew that we were 2nd on the road and needed to just continue to push forward, it’s a long race. Momo took off after arguably the fastest guy in Mexico and chased him through Matomi Wash and to RM 110. MOMO did great, keeping it close to ESPO and bringing the bike in 6th overall, pretty impressive that in the first 100 miles we were able to move from 17th to 6th. Now with Greg (Mr San Felipe) getting on and going to the goat trail we knew we would close in on the half way point with a decent start. Around rm170 Travis(TBT racing) had a full blown Nascar style pit set up, just in case we needed to do anything, our plan was to possibly change a rear Goldentyre/nitro mousse combo if it looked worn a bit, but in all reality it barely looked used, so we just swapped out Greg for Brandon(El 0935) and sent him on his way over the rock laden Summit. (for those that don’t know, this is probably the rockiest, toughest trail in all of northern Baja) Brandon took off like the proven Baja veteran that he is in 5th overall and now to our pleasure leading the 30+ Pro Class. Riding smoothly and keeping the bike off the ground and rocks, Brandon does what he usually does puts in big solid miles for us. Momo and I were waiting for the bike at RM257 where he would get on and take it to Ryan around RM308. After another stellar section by MOMO picking off another rider, it put us in a solid 4th overall position and first in class. So everyone who wasn’t on the bike quickly made their way back to the Finish line safely thanks to our PCI race radios to congratulate Ryan and the rest of the guys for finally breaking through and winning this one.
And once the dust settled and official results came out, we were indeed crowned the Victors of Score BAJA San Felipe 250 in the Pro Moto 30+ class. This one felt good and we couldn’t have done it without the help from everyone.
Huge Thank you for Baja Bound Insurance for always supporting, LIEBELT INC, BGA INSURANCE, TBT RACING, GOLDENTYRE, IMS, FMF, GPR, FASST CO, MIKA, DT1, NITRO, GUTS, YAMAHA USA, SIMI VALLEY CYCLES, FXR MOTO, BELL HELMETS, FLOW VISION, SIDI BOOTS, BAJA DESIGNS, PCI RADIOS, COSTA RICA UNLIMITED, WHITE KNUCKLE GRIPS, EMROSSI DESIGNS, WORKS CONNECTION, RAD Custom Designs, GALFER USA and last but not least all of our families and friends! THANK YOU!!!!!!
Off to the Score BAJA 500 in June!