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More than just a race...iconic SCORE Baja 1000
SCORE MEDIA CONTACT: Dominic Clark, dominic@score-international October 28, 2019 Presented by 4 Wheel Parts
BFGoodrich Tires 52nd SCORE Baja 1000—iconic event much, much more--it’s a lifetime experience
To date—151 entries from 29 U.S. States, 16 countries; Race week-Nov. 19-24;
Pre-running underway on rugged 800.5-mile course in BC, Mexico;
Start/Finish adjacent to Ensenada’s Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center
for iconic season-finale of four-race 2019 SCORE World Desert Championship;
Granddaddy of All Desert Races to be televised on ABC’s World of X Games
NOTE: Scroll to bottom of story for SCORE Baja 1000 Milestones…
ENSENADA, Mexico—As the World Series is to baseball, the Super Bowl to football and the World Cup to soccer, the legendary SCORE Baja 1000 stands as tall at the pinnacle of the motorsports world today as it did when it began 52 years ago.
GOLDEN PLUS 2
Advance racer-registration continues until 8 p.m. (PT) on Monday, Nov.11 at www.score-international.com for this year’s legendary competition. The race and race-week festivities will be held Nov. 19-24 in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.
Over 250 entries, from over 30 U.S. States and nearly 20 countries are expected to compete in this year’s 52nd anniversary celebration of the BFGoodrich Tires SCORE Baja 1000, presented by 4 Wheel Parts. There are multiple Pro and Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, utvs, motorcycles and quads.
The world’s most iconic, oldest, prestigious, toughest and longest continuously held desert race, this year’s BFGoodrich Tires 52nd SCORE Baja 1000, presented by 4 Wheel Parts will be held over a rugged 800.5-mile race course over the Northern part of Mexico’s majestic Baja California peninsula, starting and finish in Ensenada. Long-time SCORE sponsor BFGoodrich Tires has also posted a US$40,000 contingency bonus for the overall 4-wheel winner to help commemorate the renewal of this legendary SCORE race.
It will start for the 45th time and finish for the 26th time in Ensenada and the race is annually the finale of the four-race SCORE World Desert Championship, which has been held exclusively for the past four years on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.
The race and its festivities will be held primarily in and around the historic Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center in the heart of Ensenada and the start and finish of the legendary race will be adjacent to the Riviera.
With a total time limit of 34 hours in the elapsed-time race, the motorcycle and quad classes will start at 3 a.m. (PT) on Friday, Nov. 22 and the car, truck and UTV classes will follow with their start on at 10:30 a.m. (PT) on Friday, Nov. 22. While the fastest vehicles are expected to cover the course in approximately 16 hours, all vehicles will have 34 hours from the time each starts to become an official finisher.
THE 51st
Last year’s epic 51st anniversary race started and finished in the heart of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico covering much of the northern part of the majestic Baja California peninsula for 806.76 grueling miles. It was the 51st anniversary of the race shrouded in mystery that continues to lure the world’s best racers and adventurers from around the globe who all continue to share the dream to conquer the Baja. Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Famer and TV action sports announcer Cameron Steele was the overall 4-wheel winner and Justin Morgan and his three rider team were the overall fastest and 2-wheel winners.
A total of 285 starters, competing in Pro and Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads were part of last year’s annual odyssey. Racers came from 41 U.S. States and 18 countries. There were 177 official finishers in 2018.
WORLD REKNOWN
It’s the oldest and most well known of all desert races, and it remains as the single most appealing accomplishment to a driver. Since 1967, the mother of all desert races has been run over the mysterious, majestic Baja California peninsula every year except 1974 when an international fuel crisis forced a cancellation.
The SCORE Baja 1000 has captured the imagination of the entire world as entries have come not only from every state in the United States, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories Guam and Puerto Rico, but also has attracted racers from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Monaco, Morocco, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Uruguay, Yugoslavia as well as the host country of Mexico.
Over the years, SCORE races have been televised in more than 100 nations worldwide.
ROOTS
The first known record run occurred in 1962. Dave Ekins and Bill Robertson Jr. timed their trip from Tijuana to La Paz on a pair of Honda 250 motorcycles. Ekins made it in 39 hours, 54 minutes, Robertson in less than an hour slower. There were no official timers, of course, and to establish that they had made the trip, the two motorcycle racers time-stamped a sheet of paper in the Tijuana telegraph office and time-stamped it again at the telegraph office when they arrived in La Paz. They began their journey at midnight in Tijuana.
Capitalizing on the pioneer effort of Ekins and Robertson, Chevrolet commissioned car builder Bill Stroppe to prepare a small fleet of trucks for the run to La Paz. Late that year they left Long Beach, Calif., and all of them reached La Paz. Advertising and publicity campaigns heralded the feat as “the roughest run under the sun.”
PINNACLE
“Without the SCORE Baja 1000, there just wouldn’t be any desert racing,” said Jim Ryan, SCORE International’s Sales and Marketing Director. “The SCORE Baja 1000 continues to draw interest from all over the world and we now find second and even third generation racers appearing at the starting line with their family patriarchs cheering for their off-spring. This event continues to be the focal point of the SCORE World Desert Championship each year and the celebration of our 52nd anniversary race in November will surely add another colorful chapter to the ever-growing legacy of the iconic SCORE Baja 1000.”
BEGINNINGS
Enthusiast Ed Pearlman founded the National Off Road Racing Association (NORRA) and established the Mexican 1000. It started officially in Tijuana on October 31, 1967 with 68 entries. They actually motored at leisure speeds to Ensenada and restarted the next day, finishing in La Paz.
NORRA continued to organize the Mexican 1000, which came to be known as the Baja 1000. In 1968, Pearlman moved the start of the race to Ensenada, where it stayed with one exception until 1993. In 1972 NORRA started at Mexicali and ran the first half of the race down the east coast of the peninsula through the treacherous Three Sisters section. Pre-running for this race, Parnelli Jones and Walker Evans were among a group of competitors who nearly got swept out to sea during a tropical storm.
NORRA’s last race was in 1972. At that point, Mexican officials revoked NORRA’s permits to stage races in Baja. In 1973, a domestic group called the Baja Sports Committee produced the race.
ENTER SCORE
After the fuel crisis of 1974 forced local officials to cancel the event, SCORE International, founded by the late Mickey Thompson and headed soon after by Sal Fish (until 2012), was invited by the northern state of Baja California to hold the race in 1975. The SCORE Baja 1000 became a loop event starting and finishing in Ensenada.
In 1979, the government of Baja California Sur granted permission to resume the Ensenada-to-La Paz format and SCORE has used this route intermittently ever since.
The 1979 race was notable for Walker Evans’ overall win in a Dodge truck, the first truck to win the overall title of the race.
START/FINISH HISTORY
In its first 51 years, the SCORE Baja 1000 has started 44 times in Ensenada, three times in Mexicali (1972, 1993, 1994), twice in Tijuana (1967, 1995) once in Santo Tomas (1998) and once in Ojos Negros (1999). The legendary race has finished in Ensenada 25 times, in La Paz 21 times, in Mexicali two times (1993, 1994), twice in Cabo San Lucas (2000, 2007) and once in Ojos Negros (1999).
CELEBS & CROSSOVERS
The famous and not-so-famous have tried their hand at conquering the Baja and they have come from all walks of life. Mark Thatcher, son of Great Britain’s then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher, raced in the 1982 SCORE Baja 1000. Celebrities James Garner, Ted Nugent and the late Steve McQueen all battled the Baja in the early 1970s and many racers from other forms of motorsports crossed over to try their skills.
Among the drivers from other arenas who have tested the Baja were Indy Car racers Rick and Roger Mears, Parnelli Jones, Danny Ongias, Danny Sullivan, Jimmy Vasser, Buddy Rice, Sebastien Bourdais, Alexander Rossi, Oriol Servia, Roberto Guerrero, Michel Jourdain Jr., Johnny Unser and Mike and Robbie Groff, NASCAR’s Robby Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Boris Said and Brendan Gaughan, SCCA legend Elliot Forbes-Robinson, World Rally Championships’ Armin Schwarz, Armin Kremer, Andreas Aigner and Harri Pavanpera,, Pikes Peak Hill Climb record holder Rod Millen, Formula Drift and Pikes Peak champion Rhys Millen, world motorcycle champions Malcolm Smith, Larry Roeseler and Destry Abbott, Motocross legends Ricky Johnson and Jeremy McGrath, XGames star Travis Pastrana, drag racers Don Prudhomme and Larry Minor and legendary SCORE founder and motorsports innovator Mickey Thompson.
The late Academy Award winning actor, racer and race team owner Paul Newman raced in the 2004 event. Jesse James, of ‘Monster Garage’ fame, and Hollywood film and TV star Patrick Dempsey both have raced in this classic several times.
SCORE STARS
This year’s race will commemorate the achievements of legendary desert racers like Rod Hall, Ron Bishop, Johnny Johnson, and Larry Roeseler.
Hall, who passed away this year at 81, retired with an unbelievable record of 25 class wins (including one overall win in 1969), and was the only racer who competed in the first 50 SCORE Baja 1000 races. Bishop, now also deceased was the only racer who competed in the first 40 SCORE Baja 1000 races all on a motorcycle.
Johnson, now retired, had 15 class wins, amazingly in eight different classes.
Roeseler, has won 17 times in this race, including 13 overall wins (10 on a motorcycle). Roeseler won the unlimited Class 1 for four consecutive years (2004-2007), driving with the youngest of three racing brothers, Troy Herbst, in the Herbst/Smith-built Ford open-wheel desert race car that was known as the ‘Land Shark’. Roeseler is the only racer in the history of the event to win the overall 4-wheel in a truck and also in a car as well as the overall 2-wheel title as well.
In 2008, Roeseler split the driving with driver of record/team owner Roger Norman when they were the overall 4-wheel and SCORE Trophy Truck champions and the pair was second in 2009. In 2010, Roger Norman drove solo the length of the peninsula and finished third overall.
MEXICAN DOUBLES
Special history was also made in 2010 when the father/son team of Gustavo Vildosola Sr and Gustavo ‘Tavo’ Vildosola Jr drove to the overall 4-wheel and SCORE Trophy Truck victory to become the first Mexican nationals’ team to win the legendary race and it was a peninsula run from Ensenada to La Paz.
That landmark was reached again during the 50th anniversary when Mexico’s Carlos ‘Apdaly’ Lopez and his father Juan C. Lopez split the driving to win the mammoth 2017 peninsula run from Ensenada to la Paz.
TO THE FUTURE
Lured by the same siren that enraptured the Ekins brothers in the 1950s, the SCORE Baja 1000 remains as the No. 1 target of adventurers the world over, not to mention the cadre of pro and semi-pro desert racers who consider it the fitting climax to their racing season each year.
SCOREscope
2019 REMAINING SCHEDULE
- BFGoodrich Tires 52nd SCORE Baja 1000, presented by 4 Wheel Parts, Nov.19-24, Ensenada, Mexico
- 34th SCORE San Felipe 250, March 25-29, San Felipe, Mexico
- BFGoodrich Tires 52nd SCORE Baja 500, presented by 4 Wheel Parts, June 3-7, Ensenada, Mexico
- 2nd SCORE Baja 400, Sept. 16-20, Ensenada, Mexico
- BFGoodrich Tires 53rd SCORE Baja 1000, Nov.16-21, presented by 4 Wheel Parts, Ensenada, Baja California to La Paz, Baja California Sur