SCORE Baja 1000 » desert race

Last race before the grand final – The Baja 1000

Baja 1000 — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:14:38 +0000

With just a total of 65 points separating the top 20 overall point leaders in the 2010 SCORE Desert Series, the battles in several individual classes for cars and trucks are even tighter heading into next week’s 15th Annual SCORE Las Vegas Terrible’s Primm 300 desert race. Round 4 of the five-race 2010 SCORE Desert Series will be held Sept. 10.-12. in Primm, Nev. While November’s season-ending 43rd Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 race in Mexico will finalize the individual class and overall point champions for the 37th year of the world’s foremost desert racing series, the SCORE Las Vegas Terrible’s Primm 300 will surely determine the contenders for this year’s titles. (Find a Primm 300 race map here…)
The SCORE Las Vegas Terrible’s Primm 300 will feature 21 Pro and 2 Sportsman classes for cars and trucks in Primm, located 45 miles south of Las Vegas at the California border. This year’s starting grid is expected to reach nearly 125 vehicles. Late entries will be accepted up until race morning.

With two wins in three races this year, third generation desert racer Andy McMillin of National City, Calif. leads the SCORE Overall and SCORE Trophy-Truck point standings with 249 championship points so far in the No. 31 McMillin Realty Ford F-150, but with all the points still remaining on the desert floor, his first SCORE championship is anything but secure. A total of 29 SCORE Trophy-Trucks are entered to date for this year, the second-most in the 15-year history of the race.

Especially in the SCORE Trophy-Truck division for high-tech, unlimited production trucks where his 24-point lead over second-place Jesse Jones of Litchfield Park, Ariz., can evaporate quickly in the desert terrain that can be so treacherous to both man and machine. Jones, who won the second round of this year’s series in San Felipe, Mex., in March in his No. 76 Chevy Silverado, has 225 championship points heading into the Southern Nevada desert.

While no class point championships have been decided, the other car and truck classes besides SCORE Trophy-Truck with the tightest and most competitive point battles heading to Primm are the unlimited Class 1, Class 1-2/1600, SCORE Lite, Class 6, Class 10 and Class 5/1600.

“One of the things that makes SCORE desert racing so intriguing is its unpredictability,” commented Sal Fish, SCORE CEO/President since soon after the organization was founded in 1973. “Prep work is paramount in any motorsport, but equally important in our sport is having a patient driver and an intuitive race crew that can not only fix things in a hurry, but anticipate potential issues during the ever-changing conditions on a desert race course.”

“What our racers and their race teams do every race is really amazing and even awe-inspiring. I am sure the ingredients that work so well with our teams in the desert from planning, strategy, logistics, teamwork, creativity, perseverance, ingenuity and endurance all have significant carry-over values for all aspects of life away from the desert. SCORE desert racing has many parallels to daily living which adds even more excitement and enjoyment to the experiences we are able to provide in the desert for our sturdy adventurers.”

For the ninth consecutive year, the race will be split into two groups with the open wheel, slower truck and VW baja bug classes starting at 6 a.m. The featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division along with the unlimited Class 1 open-wheel desert race cars will start at 1 p.m. One vehicle will start every 30 seconds in the elapsed-time race. The faster classes will be required to cover four laps of the 68.6-mile loop course to become official finishers within the seven-hour time limit.

The main pits and start/finish area for the 68.6-mile loop course will be located behind Buffalo Bills Resort on the North side of the property. The race course, which will run again in a counter-clockwise direction, is virtually the same layout as last year, although weather and use has altered the terrain.

The course will have one designated spectator area, the parking lot behind Buffalo Bill’s Resort adjacent to both the Start/Finish line and the straightaway that parallels the eastside of the parking lot. Admission is free to the designated spectator area.

“Very important at this event is SCORE’s decision to increase safety by mandating a strict 30 miles per hour speed limit in all three of the pit areas, as well as the course loop outbound and inbound sections on NV Energy property,” added Fish. “We are very fortunate that NV Energy continues to support this event by allowing SCORE to use their railroad overpass bridge to transition from the friendly and comfortable atmosphere at the Terrible’s Primm Valley Resorts to the brutal outlying desert course.”

In addition to SCORE Trophy-Truck’s heated point battle, in Class 1, Kory Halopoff/Harley Letner, Orange, Calif., in a Tatum-Chevy has just a two-point lead over Daniel McMillin, El Cajon, Calif., who drives a Jimco-Chevy. In Class 1-2/1600, Daniel McMillin’s brother Luke McMillin in a AlumiCraft-VW has just a one point lead over Hiram Duran and his brothers Eric and Evan of Tecate, Calif., who race in a Neth-VW.

In SCORE Lite, Justin Davis, Chino Hills, Calif., has a four-point lead in a Seagrove-VW over defending class point championship team of Brent Parkhouse, Long Beach, Calif./Brian Burgess in a Moulton-VW and Lee Banning Sr. and Junior are just two points behind Parkhouse and six behind Davis. In Class 10, San Diego’s Alex Crosthwaite in a Jimco-Honda has just a one-point lead over Sergio Salgado, Mexicali, Mexico, who races in another Jimco-Honda.

In another competitive group, Class 6 for unlimited, production mini trucks, Dave Caspino, Woodland Hills, Calif., in a Ford Ranger has won his class in all three races this year in his first season in the class and leads the defending Class 6 season point champion Heidi Steele, San Clemente, Calif., who also drives a Ford Ranger, by 29 points.

Another close class point race is in Class 5/1600 for 1600cc VW Baja Bugs where there is a pair of Mexican nationals from Ensenada who are leading with Gustavo Avina having a four point advantage after three races over Alonso Angulo, the defending season point champion in the historic class.

Ten of last year’s class winners in the SCORE Las Vegas Terrible’s Primm 300 have also entered so far, including seven of last year’s top 10, and 11 of the top 15 overall finishers.

NASCAR Cup team owner/driver and defending overall race and SCORE Trophy-Truck winner Robby Gordon is entered again this year. Gordon, of Charlotte, N.C., who drives the No. 1 Team Gordon Chevy CK1500 SCORE Trophy-Truck as the reigning SCORE Overall point champion, is a two-time overall winner in this race, having won both the inaugural race in 1996 as well as last year’s event. Like he did last year, Gordon is scheduled to have a replacement driver behind the wheel of his NASCAR Toyota Camry in Richmond, Va., while he competes in his SCORE Trophy-Truck in the Southern Nevada desert. He will be starting 14th in the SCORE Trophy-Truck class this year.

Starting behind the 29 SCORE Trophy-Trucks will be the unlimited Class 1 for open-wheel desert race cars, which has 18 official entries so far. In the first 14 years of the SCORE Las Vegas Terrible’s Primm 300, SCORE Trophy-Trucks have 10 Overall race wins while Class 1 has four. SCORE Trophy-Trucks have won seven straight overall titles.

Among the entries in Class 1 is the international team of Germany’s World Rally Championship veteran Armin Schwarz and Denmark’s Martin Christensen, who lives in Escondido, Calif. Schwarz/Christensen have teamed up to win Class 1 in this race the last two consecutive years. They drew the seventh starting slot in Class 1, giving their BMW-powered Jimco No. 107 for this race. Driving the second All German Motorsports entry in Class 1, the No. 111 Jimco-Chevy, will be the veteran WRC team of Germany’s Armin Kremer and Austria’s Andrea Aigner.

Behind SCORE Trophy-Truck and Class 1, the class with the most entries is SCORE Lite with 13 entries to date.

Besides Gordon and Schwarz/Christensen, the other defending class winners entered as of today are Justin Smith, Capistrano Beach, Calif. (Class 1-2/1600, Fraley-VW), Dan Chamlee, Carpenteria, Calif. (Class 7, Ford Ranger), Norm Turley, Long Beach, Calif. (Class 7SX, Ford Ranger), Clyde Stacy, Bristol, Va./Justin Matney, Bristol, Tenn. (Class 8, Chevy Silverado), Ronny Wilson, Long Beach, Calif. (SCORE Lite, Jimco-VW), Mike Lawrence, Sunset Beach, Calif., (Class 10, Lothringer-VW), Peter Lang, Santa Rosa, Calif. (Sportsman Car, Homebuilt-Chevy) and Joe Aguayo, San Jacinto, Calif., (Sportsman Truck, Ford F-150).

Pre-race festivities on Friday, Sept. 10, for the SCORE Las Vegas Terrible’s Primm 300, including tech and contingency and the SCORE Manufacturer’s Midway, will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. behind Buffalo Bill’s Resort. The post-race awards celebration will be held at 10 a.m. on Sunday (Sept. 12) in the conference center at Terrible’s Primm Valley Resort.

The highly-competitive 2010 SCORE Desert Series has 20 racers separated by just 65 points in the Overall standings after January’s 16th SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge, March’s 24th Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 and June’s 42nd Tecate SCORE Baja 500 desert races.

Credits: SCORE Intl. Press release

Last race before the grand final – The Baja 1000 is a post from: SCORE Baja 1000

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Baja 250 – San Felipe 250

Baja 1000 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 05:34:26 +0000

There is never real been a Baja 250, it’s been always the Baja 250 I recall. The name changed for this year a little since MasterCraft Safety became a co-sponsor and it is now official the 24th Annual MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 in 2010. It’s a little long, that name, San Felipe 250 sure “flows” quicker in a conversation but ones got to respect the supporter of the sport. And for Robbie Pierce and MasterCraft to commit and sponsor the event deserves also the recognition within the baja races name. As pre-running over the rugged race course starts tomorrow, Saturday for next month’s 24th Annual MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250, a growing field, that includes many of North Americas best desert racers and a few internationals, have entered this popular spring race. Attracting entries from 22 states and eight countries, the lineup includes a race-record 34 entries in the Trophy-Truck class, the top league in SCORE desert off-road racing.

Round 2 of the 2010 SCORE Desert Series will be held March 12-14 in Mexico’s picturesque fishing village of San Felipe, located 120 miles south of the U.S. border on the East side of the Baja California peninsula along the azure waters of the tranquil Sea of Cortez.
We dedicated this website here to our favorite off-road desert race, the classic Baja 1000. (“We” as of a few die-hard motorsport and desert racing fans) and want to keep it also mainly a platform for Baja 1000 reporting and race info. The real-deal, sweat and sand, live race-cast is @ Puro Off-Road. The motor-sport “mother-ship” of b.i.n.. To view a MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 custom Google race course map click the link. For Baja racing and desert racing news of the San Felipe 250 or any other Baja California Off-Road race please visit Puro Off-Road. We are present at many races, if not, we do have information sources at the races inclusive members of front-running TT and Class 1 teams!! Unbiased, No-BS Baja racing info and race coverage by the #1 English language Off-Road and Desert Racing eZine from Baja California: Puro Off-Road.
With nearly 275 entries expected, which would be in the top five in race history, competition will be held in 28 Pro and 6 Sportsman classes in the 232-mile race. The green flag will drop at 6 a.m. Pacific time on Saturday, March 13, for the motorcycle and ATV classes, followed three hours later by the car and truck classes at approximately 10 a.m. local time. The start and finish line for the race will once again be the landmark San Felipe Arches on Highway 5 on the outskirts of San Felipe. One vehicle will start every 30 seconds in the elapsed-time race, with a 10-hour time limit to become an official finisher.
Following January’s season-opening SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge, the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Series will visit Mexico for the first of three races in 2010.

Desert racers Ron Whitton of Arizona and Southern California’s Robby Bell received the first starts for four-wheel and two-wheel vehicles in the computerized drawing for starting positions held Feb. 13. Whitton races in the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division while Bell competes in Class 22 for open motorcycles.
Drawing the first starting slot for the unlimited Class 1 open-wheel desert race cars was Germany’s Armin Schwarz and teammate Martin Christensen, Escondido, Calif.
Riding the first ATV off the line will be Class 25 team led by Wayne Matlock, El Cajon, Calif.

Bell, 24, of Sun City, Calif., who left the factory Honda team at the end of 2008 after winning the two-wheel overall title in San Felipe three straight years (2006, 2007, 2008), returns to San Felipe for the first time since on a Kawasaki, leading a two-motorcycle Bruce Penhall Motorsports charge to Baja on the No. 2x Kawasaki KX450F. His co-rider, also a former Honda champion, is legendary SCORE Baja racer Steve Hengeveld, 34, Oak Hills, Calif., who was the overall San Felipe motorcycle winner for four straight year’s with Honda icon Johnny Campbell (2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004). Kawasaki will have factory-supported entries in San Felipe for this first time since 1996 and will attempt to break the JCR Honda dynasty which has won 12 of the last 13 SCORE San Felipe 250 races.
In the first 23 years of this race, Honda has earned 14 overall motorcycle victories (including the last four years), Kawasaki has six, KTM has two and Husqvarna has one.

At the 24th MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250, MasterCraft Racing has entered not only company owner Robbie Pierce’s No. 30 Chevy Silverado SCORE Trophy-Truck, but also the No. 20 Chevy Silverado SCORE Trophy-Truck to be driven by eight-time SCORE season class point champion Rob MacCachren of Las Vegas and the No. 42 Chevy Silverado driven by Will Staats, Valencia, Calif. All three trucks were built by prominent chassis builder Mike Julson’s Jimco Racing Products of Santee, Calif. Julson is listed as a co-driver for both Pierce and MacCachren for this race, if needed.
The MasterCraft racers will not be eligible to win any part of the special $10,000 MasterCraft Safety cash contingency bonus purse MasterCraft Safety has offered for this year’s San Felipe race.
In San Felipe, Pierce will start fourth, MacCachren 21st and Staats 25th in the massive SCORE Trophy-Truck field.

Parts of content: credits press release SCORE Intl.

Baja 250 – San Felipe 250 is a post from: SCORE Baja 1000

More Trophy Truck action. 2010 Baja 1000 Peninsula run to La Paz Baja Sur.
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