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G.O.A.T. leading 35 'Monsters' to next week's SCORE Baja 400
SCORE MEDIA CONTACT: Dominic Clark, Dominic@SCORE-International.com September 8, 2022 3rd SCORE Baja 400, Presented by VP Racing Fuels 35 ‘Monsters of the Desert’—SCORE Trophy Trucks Revved to lead over 200 entries next week in Mexico Round 3 of four-race 2022 SCORE World Desert Championship in Ensenada, Mexico; Airing on ESPN2 World of X Games; Racer registration, event info at www.SCORE-International.com; #SCOREBaja400 NOTE: SCORE Trophy Truck expanded entries, class history, at bottom of text ENSENADA, Baja California, Mexico—Envied by some, admired by many more, loathed by a few and respected by all as the ‘Monsters of the Desert’, 35 SCORE Trophy Trucks are revved to roar in next week’s 3rd SCORE Baja 400, presented by VP Racing Fuels. The marquee SCORE racing division for high-tech, 1000 horsepower, unlimited custom trucks was created by iconic former SCORE owner Sal Fish in 1994 and pre-running continues this week in Mexico’s majestic and mysterious Baja California peninsula for Round 3 of the four-race 2022 SCORE World Desert Championship. FAST FACTS Round 3 of the four-race 2022 SCORE World Desert Championship will be held Sept. 13-18 in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, the race will start/finish and colorful pre-race activities are returning for the first time in three years to the heart of Ensenada at the iconic Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center and the adjacent fantastically fan-friendly Boulevard Costero. Ensenada, ‘The Off-Road Capital of the World’, is located 80 miles South of the U.S. Border near San Diego. With over 200 entries expected, 45 competition classes are offered for Pro and Sportsman cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads. To date, there are 181 total entries from 22 U.S. States, U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico and 14 countries. Joining the USA in the field so far are racers from host country Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Denmark, England, France, New Zealand, Peru and Venezuela. So far there are 138 cars, trucks and UTVs entered and 42 motorcycles and quads. Most the world’s best desert racers will be in action at this year’s celebration of one of the newest top motorsports events in the entire world. The race will be televised on a delayed basis as a one-hour special on the ESPN2 World of X Games programming. It is scheduled to first air at 9 p.m. PT on Sunday, Nov. 6. The race show on ESPN2 is co-produced by SCORE International and the award-winning BCII TV of Los Angeles. Bud Brutsman is the Executive Producer. Intro announcer for the race show will be Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame Inductee and SCORE champion desert racer Cameron Steele who will again pull double duty racing in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck class as well in his No. 16 Desert Assassins Monster Energy Ford Raptor. All four 2022 SCORE races are being held on Mexico’s magnificent Baja California peninsula for the seventh consecutive year. SCORE, the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Organization, is celebrating its 49th season in 2022. DOUBLE DIGITS Leading the list of entries with double-digit lineups so far are SCORE Trophy Truck with 35 entries (including seven in SCORE TT Legend for drivers over 50 years old), Trophy Truck Spec with 27 entries, Pro UTV FI (Forced Induction) with 21 entries and Class 10 with 16 entries to date. PRE-RUNNING Official practice, or pre-running, on the official 393.82-mile race course for this year’s 3rd SCORE Baja 400 starts at race mile 33.08 and finishes at race mile 360.82. The first 33.08 miles, which will be used in both directions during the race, will be available for pre-running only on Thursday (Sept. 15) and Friday (Sept. 16) and only in the outbound direction. The Racer’s Brief, Penalty Bulletin, Course Notes and GPS files are available on the SCORE website under Race Info for the SCORE Baja 400. QUALIFYING Qualifying for starting positions within their respective classes will be held on Wednesday (Sept. 14), starting at 7 a.m. PDT. Classes that will be qualifying for the 3rd SCORE Baja 400 are SCORE Trophy Truck, SCORE TT Legend, the unlimited Class 1 and the Trophy Truck Spec class. Each vehicle will cover individually a special 4.98-mile course to determine the start order in those four classes. MAGNIFICENT MONSTERS Roaring through the desert terrain with the grace, beauty and power of the Bolshoi Ballet, the 35- SCORE Trophy Truck field for this year’s SCORE Baja 400 includes 17 racers who have combined to win 78 of the 140 races in the history of the featured class. Enjoying its 29th season at the forefront of the sport, this year’s field also includes five racers who have combined to win the SCORE Trophy Truck season point championship in 10 of the first 28 campaigns. Included in that elite group are the season champs of the last four consecutive seasons in the SCORE World Desert Championship. ‘Chairman of the Board’ in SCORE Trophy Truck is Las Vegas’ Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Famer Rob MacCachren, the G.O.A.T of off-road racing, with 19 all-time SCORE Trophy Truck race wins. The ‘Mac Attack’ is the winningest racer in the history of off-road racing with 314 class victories in multiple classes in the desert, short-course and stadium off-road racing, the amiable MacCachren has also won four SCORE Trophy Truck season point titles (1994, 2007-with Mark Post, 2018 and 2021-with Luke McMillin). He drives the No. 1 BFGoodrich Tires Ford F-150 (built by Geiser Brothers). With a fourth-place finish in SCORE Trophy Truck in this year’s SCORE San Felipe 250 and a victory in this year’s SCORE Baja 500, MacCachren leads to SCORE Trophy Truck point standings midway through the 2022 season. Also entered are two of the four racers tied for second in career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins with 11 victories each are second-generation racer Tim Herbst along with third-generation desert racer Andy McMillin. Another Las Vegas ORMHOF inductee, Tim Herbst pilots his No. 19 Ford F-150 built by Herbst/Smith Fab. Sharing the driving duties with Herbst will be fellow-Las Vegan Pat Dean who has one career SCORE Trophy Truck race victory Herbst and his older brother Ed Herbst earned four SCORE Trophy Truck season point crowns over a five-year period (1999, 2000, 2002, 2003). San Diego’s Andy McMillin, son of former SCORE champion Scott McMillin and grandson of the late Corky McMillin, drives his No. 31 Chevy Silverado built by Mason Motorsports. He won the 2019 SCORE Trophy Truck season point champion while finishing second in the inaugural SCORE Baja 400 in 2019. MORE STALLIONS Leading the next wave of SCORE Trophy Truck stallions entered in this race are Bryce Menzies with seven career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins, and Gustavo ‘Tavo’ Vildosola Jr with six career race wins, Larry Roeseler with five and Ryan Arciero who has four career SCORE Trophy Truck race victories. Menzies, of Las Vegas, was the 2011 SCORE Trophy Truck season point champ while also winning the 2011 SCORE Rookie of the Year Award. He pilots the AWD No.7 Ford Raptor built by Mason Motorsports. He won two races last year including the 2nd SCORE Baja 400. Part of the most prominent Mexican racing team in SCORE, Vildosola Jr, of Mexicali, drives his No. 21 Ford Raptor built by the team’s Vildosola Racing shop. Dubbed ‘Mr. Baja’ because of his amazing history in SCORE Baja racing both on two-wheels and four-wheels, Roeseler, Boulevard, Calif. will be driving the No. 43 Baja Jerky Toyota Tundra built by ID Designs. A member of both the Off-Road Motorsports and America Motorcycle Association Halls of Fame, Roeseler earned his fifth career SCORE Trophy Truck race win by capturing last year’s SCORE Baja 500 where he now has 12 career overall victories including nine on motorcycles, two in open-wheel desert race cars and one in SCORE Trophy Truck. Roeseler also won the 2020 SCORE Baja 1000 as the second driver for Luke McMillin. Arciero, Foothill Ranch, Calif., returns as the inaugural SCORE Baja 400 overall winner in 2019. This year he will be the second driver for Cameron Steele, San Clemente, Calif., in the No. 16 Monster Energy Geiser-built Ford Raptor. VILDOSOLA SR Joining his son at the starting line will be Gus Vildosola Sr, Mexicali, who is undefeated with two race wins this year in the SCORE TT Legend class for SCORE Trophy Truck drivers over 50 years old. There are seven entries in his class for this race. Vildosola Sr has three career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins. Vildosola Sr will be driver of record in this race in his Mexicana Logistics AWD No. 21L Ford Raptor built by Mason Motorsports. Splitting the driving with him will be AMA Hall of Famer Ricky Johnson, Trabuco Canyon, Calif. In 2010 Vildosola Sr teamed with his son as the son/father team became the first Mexican nationals to capture the overall and SCORE Trophy Truck victory in the iconic SCORE Baja 1000 peninsula race from Ensenada to La Paz. DOUBLE TROUBLE ORMHOF inductee Cameron Steele has earned two career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins. The popular Steele, San Clemente, Calif. who is also a renown professional action sports TV announce and does the intro and close for the SCORE race TV shows, will be driving his No. 16 Desert Assassins Ford Raptor built by Geiser Brothers. Ryan Arciero is his second driver. McMANIA If one McMillin racer wasn’t enough to compete against, the SCORE World Desert Championship includes Andy McMillin’s cousins Daniel McMillin and Luke McMillin. Carrying the banner of the Big Blue M racing machine, Luke has three career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins in his No. 83 Chevy 1500 and was the 2020 SCORE Trophy Truck season point champion while Daniel has one career SCORE Trophy Truck race win in his No. 23 Chevy 1500. They both drive AWD trucks built by Mason Motorsports. MORE SINGLES Also part of the field in this race with one career SCORE Trophy Truck race win each are brothers Alan and Aaron Ampudia, Ensenada, Mexico, Rick D. Johnson, Barstow, Calif. and Justin B. Smith, Las Vegas. The Ampudia brothers will again race together while Johnson will split the driving with Rolf Helland, Morris, Ill., in SCORE TT Legend, and Smith will be the additional driver for Canada’s Tracy Graf in SCORE Trophy Truck. MAS POSSIBLE Nothing is for certain in SCORE Baja racing especially when 35 thoroughbreds glide their way over the unforgiving terrain of the Baja peninsula. While 17 of the 35 entries in the behemoth class have tasted victory in the premier desert racing class, several other contenders will be in contention for coveted spots on the podium. Youth may be served with the likes of 18-year-old Jax Redline, San Antonio, Texas (second driver for Mike Walser, Comfort, Texas (No. 89 Chevy Silverado-Mason) and 21-year-old Broc Dickerson, Brawley, Calif. (No. 34 Ford Raptor-TSCO), in the starting grid. Then there are cagey veterans like Justin Lofton, Brawley, Calif. (No. 41 Chevy Silverado-Mason), Dan Myers, Newport Beach, Calif. (No. 6 Toyota Tundra-Brenthel), Mikey Lawrence, Banning, Calif. (No. 85 Ford Raptor-Herbst/Smith), Andrew Myers, San Marcos, Calif. (No. 69 Toyota Tundra-Herbst/Smith), Sam Baldi, Beaumont, Calif. (No. 82 Chevy Silverado-Baldi) and the team of Kevin Thompson, New Braunfels/Harley Letner, Corona, Calif. (No. 70 Chevy Silverado-Herbst/Smith). Also in the hunt will be the Australian duo making their debut as a team, Paul Weel and Dakar Rally motorcycle champ Toby Price (No. 46 Ford Raptor-Geiser). Easy to see then, anything is possible when these SCORE ‘Monsters of the Desert’ start their engines. BAJA RUTA MUY ESPECIAL! The race features another colorful, challenging course, designed, plotted and marked by SCORE President/Race Director Jose A. Grijalva, of 393.82 miles of rugged Baja California terrain (370 for motorcycles and quads). The challenging race course will be another memorable example of all that Mexico’s Baja California has to offer, including high-speed dirt trails, sandy, rocky and silty natural terrain, majestic Baja washes and canyons, stretches along the seashore with elevations from sea level to 4,972 feet. The course will be another jewel reflecting the stark beauty of Baja California. It runs in a clockwise direction from Ensenada and back with two physical, full-stop checkpoints and 170 total virtual checkpoints. The two physical checkpoints will be: Checkpoint 1 at Ejido Jaramillo at race mile 223.64 and Checkpoint 2 will be at Santo Tomas at rm312.63. There are also a total of 15 speed zones for a total of 70.15 miles of the 393.82-mile race course. Heading East from Ensenada, the course goes through Ojos Negros then South through Rancho El Mezcal, turning East by Tres Hermanos and across to a short pavement section on Highway 3 then up and around in a dog leg by Rancho Las Vaquillas and back to another pavement section on Highway 3 at Heroes de la Independencia. After another highway stretch to Leyes de Reforma, the course goes East and then South to Ejido Jamau before another highway stretch past Valle de la Trinidad up to the access road to Mike’s Sky Ranch. After the big climb, the course continues South past Rancho La Joya, El Potrero and Rancho Santa Cruz where it turns west through Valladares up through Hacienda Sinaloa and across Highway 1 at Ejido Jaramillo. The course turns North at the Pacific Ocean for a short run up along the coastline, inland through Punta Colonet, looping back towards the Pacific and North through Cerro Solo, looping through Ejido Erendira up to San Vicente, Ejido Nativos del Valle North to Santo Tomas and then Ejido Uruapan. The course then winds its way Northeast by Rancho Palacios, through Los Encinos, turning North to Ojos Negros and by Las Minitas, Rancho Santa Maria and Rancho El Tule on its way back to the finish in Ensenada. GREEN FLAG It is an elapsed-time race with staggered starts with the green flag dropping on Saturday (Sept. 18). Ceremonial start in front of the Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center will be 5:30 a.m. PT for Motorcycles and Quads and 9:15 a.m. PT for the Cars, Trucks and UTVs. here will be a minimum of three and one-half hours between the last SPT Quad and the first SCORE Trophy Truck. Car, Truck and UTV classes will have a course of 393.82 miles while motorcycle and quad classes will have a race course of 370 miles. While the fastest vehicles will finish in a little less than eight hours, all classes will have a time limit of 19 hours from the time each vehicle starters to become an official finisher in the race. TV The race will air domestically on a delayed basis as a one-hour special on the World of X Games program on ESPN2 and will be syndicated internationally to nearly 25 countries in Europe, Latin America, South America and Asia. Co-producing the shows with SCORE is the award-winning BCII TV of Los Angeles led by executive producer Bud Brutsman. Intro host for the broadcast will be Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee and SCORE Trophy Truck racing champion Cameron Steele. The premier airing of the race show is scheduled on ESPN2 for Sunday, Nov. 6 and 12 a.m. ET and 9 p.m. PT. A HAPPENING… Colorful race week festivities will start on Tuesday, Sept. 13 to help celebrate this youngest SCORE Baja race. They will be held in or adjacent to the landmark Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center in the heart of Ensenada. Chassis inspections and pre-tech/Stella devise check and installation will be held on Wednesday (Sept. 14) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PDT by appointment and on Thursday (Sept. 15) chassis inspection/pre-tech/Stella bracket check and installation will be held at a location to be determined. Friday (Sept. 16) will see the colorful day-long, pre-race Manufacturer’s Midway and contingency festival in the start finish line area in Ensenada. From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PDT contingency row will be held for all classes. Tech inspection/Transponder checks/Stella/SPICA device pickup will be from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. PDT on Friday as well at the end of the manufacturer’s row. During the race on Saturday, Sept. 17 until the course closes on Sunday morning, Sept. 18, the start/finish line compound will include the massive double-sided SCOREvision LED screen broadcasting race festivities, the start, live race action from around the course and finish line interviews. Popular Rat Sult will once again serve as host of the SCORE Live streaming. Assisting Sult will be veteran voice Dave Arnold. Contingency and the race itself will be streamed live, airing via the internet on the SCORE website. Included in the exclusive race coverage, along with vehicle tracking, will be live drone and in-car camera footage from various locations around the race course. AT THE RIVIERA… The historic Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center, in the heart of Ensenada, will again be the site of many of the activities surrounding the 3rd SCORE Baja 400, presented by VP Racing Fuels. Racer registration and media registration will both be held in Salon Rojo on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (Sept. 13-16). On Tuesday (Sept. 13 for qualifying teams only) racer registration will be held from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. PDT. On Wednesday (Sept. 14) it will run from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. PDT, Thursday (Sept. 15) it will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PDT and on Friday (Sept. 16) from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Tuesday and Wednesday, no new entries will be accepted after 7 p.m. PDT, on Thursday after 4 p.m. PDT and on Friday, no new entries will be accepted after 3 p.m. PDT. SCORE Media Registration will be held in Salon Rojo at the Riviera on Tuesday and Wednesday (Sept. 13-14) from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. PDT and on Thursday and Friday (Sept. 15-16) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PDT. The start/finish line for the race will once again be adjacent to the iconic Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center on Blvd. Costero. LeDUC, GRAND MARSHAL Adding to the glamour of the SCORE Baja 400, Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame Class of 2015 inductee Curt LeDuc, and SCORE champion truck racer has been named as the Grand Marshal for this year’s race. Passionate to a flair with racing champion sons Todd LeDuc and Kyle LeDuc, Curt LeDuc, 67, of Cherry Valley, Calif., has been a winner in desert racing, short course racing, the Dakar Rally, the Pike’s Peak Hill Climb and elder LeDuc is like the energizer bunny…he’s still going, going and going. LeDuc has had a strong career in SCORE and has four career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins and he won the 1997 SCORE Trophy Truck season point championship driving a factory-sponsored Jeep Cherokee. START GRID-SCORE BAJA 1000 The results of the SCORE Baja 400 also will determine the start order within each class for November’s iconic season-ending BFGoodrich Tires 55th SCORE Baja 1000, presented by 4 Wheel Parts. SCOREscope 2022 SCHEDULE Here are the remaining two dates in the four-race 2022 SCORE World Desert Championship which is being held exclusively in Baja California, Mexico for the seventh consecutive year:
- 3rd SCORE Baja 400, presented by VP Racing Fuels—
- BFGoodrich Tires 55th SCORE Baja 1000, presented by 4 Wheel Parts—