JCR Honda Wins 2012 Baja 1000

The Johnny Campbell Racing Honda team handily won the 2012 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 rally, setting the fastest time in any motorcycle class by more than an hour. The win marked the 16th consecutive victory and 23rd overall for Honda.

JCR‘s Colton Udall, Timmy Weigand and David Kamo completed 1121-mile course on a Honda CRF450X with a time of 20:09:30 for an average speed of 55.64 mph. That was good enough to win the Class 22 category and beat all other motorcycle entries. Overall, JCR set the third best time, trailing only the father and son duo of Gus Vildosola and Gus Vildosola Jr. (19:45:00) in a Ford Raptor and B.J. Baldwin (20:00:59) in a Chevy Silverado who finished one-two in the Trophy Truck category for production trucks.

“I am overwhelmed by the effort my pit crews put together to make this race run smoothly,” says Johnny Campbell. “JCR brings a small army of some of the most extraordinary people together to make a race like the Baja 1000 possible. I can’t thank them enough for their service and support. I am proud to have each one of them in the JCR family and look forward to many more adventures together. Thank you to the racers for their commitment to upholding this Honda legacy and our 16th Baja 1000 win in a row.”

Taking second place overall for all motorcycles as well as in the Class 22 was FMF Bonanza Plumbing KTM team of Kurt Caselli, Ivan Ramirez, Mike Brown and Quinn Cody on a KTM 450SX-F. The KTM team was second for much of the race and but any chance of catching the JCR team ended when Cody crashed near the end of his nighttime run. Cody had to be taken to hospital while Caselli scrambled to the scene to complete the race. The delay cost the team 45 minutes, so it would still have taken more to catch the JCR Honda.

“We are very sad that Quinn crashed,” says Caselli. “He was riding really well and is a strong member of this team. We are grateful that he received help and will be treated by the best doctors. Unfortunately, crashing and injury is part of racing. We wish him a speedy recovery and we are thankful we were still able to finish the race with a strong bike that helped us earn a 2nd place result.”

[Source: Honda, KTM, Score International]

By Dennis Chung