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JCR/Honda WINS!!!!!! 2009 SCORE Baja 1000

Nov 22nd, 2009

JCR/Honda wins the SCORE Baja 1000 and the 2009 SCORE Championship.

This win marks the 13th SCORE Baja 1000 in a row for Honda, the 4th for Kendall Norman, the 2nd for Quinn Cody, the 1st for Timmy Weigand and the 2nd in a row for Johnny Campbell's newly formed JCR/Honda. .

NBC shot a special on the race featuring the JCR/Honda team. Mark your calendars for the 2009 SCORE Baja 1000 air date of December 19th on NBC at 2pm. We have a sneak peak for you up on the JCRHonda.com page. Here is the link. http://jcrhonda.com/video/all/80

The team raced on an Eric Siraton prepped Honda CRF450X. The course was a brutal 672.85 mile loop of the toughest trails in Baja and the JCR/Honda team averaged 49.97 MPH, the fastest of all competitors finishing in 13:27.50.

The JCR/Honda B team of Brent Harden, Matt Eddy, Max Eddy and lead by Colton Udall was racing without a recently injured Jeff "OX" Kargola. Racing a Colton Udall prepped Honda CRF450X number 18X, and finishing in 14:10:10 with an average speed of 47.49 mph.

When Kendall Norman crossed the finish line he new he had just lead his team to the Baja 1000 victory. He celebrated with a massive burnout that ignited thousands of spectators surrounding the finish of the 42nd annual SCORE Baja 1000. Thus kicking off a party of flash bulbs and congratulations that lasted until early the next morning with the team celebrating the accomplishment of winning in Baja, a feeling very few will ever know.

Quotes from the team

Johnny Campbell said: I'm beyond excited. It was a solid effort from both JCR/Honda teams. The racers did a phenomenal job, pre-running and preparing their race. Kendall Norman did an excellent job leading this team to victory. SCORE put on a great race. Giving us the info we needed and a challenging race course. It takes a whole team of people, most of them operating behind the scenes, people like Peter Postel, Hide Hanawa, Scott Dunlavey, Tom "TJ" Jones, Jim Boggs, Chuck Miller, Eric Siraton and many more. Special thanks to the JCR team sponsors including American Honda, Dunlop, Berkeley Honda, Pro Circuit, Pro Honda Oils & Chemicals, Truth Soul Armor, DID, IMS, BRP, Alpinestars, Renthal, Dirt Digits, Hinson Clutch Components, Acerbis, VP, Works Connection, Arai and Motion Pro we couldn't do it without you. I give tons of credit to the JCR/Honda pit staff who's job is to stand out in the desert and wait for us to come by. Without the dedication of our legendary volunteer pit staff this would be impossible and my hat is off to them, what a tremendous team effort! The 1X plate is home where it belongs thanks to you all.

Kendall Norman said: It was definitely a good battle at night. There was a lot of dust out here. Steve (Hengeveld) was going. I’d get in his dust and slow down, get in his dust and slow down. He rode a great race and it was war out there today. We had all of our guys positioned and they put in a lot of hard work. I couldn’t be happier right now. I rode from the start to Borrego, at mile 200, and Robby (Bell) was up about ten minutes. I started way back and there was a ton of dust and I just couldn’t get through it. By the time I finally cleared the dust, he was gone. When I got the bike back from Timmy Weigand at the Meadows (mile 504), I was only a minute and half down. Quinn Cody and Timmy did some great work out there. I figured it was going be close to impossible to pass Steve on the final run because of the dust and being at night but I know if I was in his dust, that is all I needed to do (to win). It feels great to win the 1000 three years in a row and fourth total. I am really stoked.

Quinn Cody said: I just tried to be smooth and fast and hit Matomi Wash (mile 278) as hard as I could. I have ridden that wash a lot and I was able to put in a really good run. It’s challenging to set up a bike for a 150-pound guy like Timmy (Weigand) and a 210-pound guy like me. We both had to compromise on the settings of the bike. It’s mostly Kendall’s settings. We were having a little trouble with the jetting of the engine in testing so Johnny (Campbell) jumped on it because he is so good with that sort of thing. Next thing we know Johnny didn’t come back; he crashed and totaled the bike. So this bike was completely rebuilt for the race. We were able to test it before the race, we finalized all of our settings and headed to Mexico. We had a heck of race like this one at the Baja 500, but not in the 1000. It feels great to win it.

Timmy Weigand said: The race went all right for me. I had a really rough section and I just tried to race smart and smooth and not go down and keep the bike on two wheels. Quinn and Kendall did an awesome job also and we just put the race together. Our game plan was just to ride within ourselves ... but we were six minutes behind at one point and I was on the bike so, of course, I wanted to hang it out a little bit and try to gain some time back up. That changed our game plan a little bit because you’re not riding comfortably, you’re putting it on the edge a little bit and trying to make up time and get back in the race. The course is super rough everywhere and it’s hard on the body. It’s Baja – no surprises.

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