SCORE Latest News
Ensenada will be host of three events in '24 SCORE World Desert Championship
SCORE MEDIA CONTACT: Dominic Clark, Dominic@SCORE-International.com August 8, 2023 SCORE confirms Ensenada hosting three races in the 2024 SCORE World Desert Championship Four-race series for Cars, Trucks, UTVs, Motorcycles, Quads, to be held for the ninth straight year in Baja California, Mexico ENSENADA, Baja California, Mexico—Launching its sixth decade of Desert Racing Excellence next year, SCORE International announced today that three of its four-race 2024 SCORE World Desert Championship will be held in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. In early July, SCORE announced the dates for its four 2024 races with the location of the final three to be announced. Ensenada is considered the ‘Off-Road Racing Capital of the World.’ The international series will again feature all four races on the Baja peninsula for the ninth consecutive year in the storied history of the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Organization as SCORE will celebrate its 51st desert-racing season in 2024. Here is the direct link to the official 2024 SCORE World Desert Championship race schedule… https://score-international.com/raceinfo/2024-race-schedule/ THE TRADITIONAL Recognized around the globe as two of the very top motorsports extravaganzas in the world, adding to their legacies again in 2024, the King Shocks 37th SCORE San Felipe 250, presented by Baja Vida, starting the season, will be held March 20-24, 2024 in San Felipe, Mexico, the BFGoodrich Tires 56th SCORE Baja 500, will be held May 29-June 2, 2024 in Ensenada and the iconic season-ending BFGoodrich Tires 57th SCORE Baja 1000, will be held Nov. 12-17, 2024 in Ensenada. In 2024, the SCORE San Felipe 250 will start and finish for the 36th time in San Felipe. the SCORE Baja 500 will start in Ensenada for the 50th time and finish there for the 46th time. For the SCORE Baja 400, the race will start and finish in Ensenada for the fifth time. The legendary SCORE Baja 1000 will start in Ensenada for the 50th time and finish in Ensenada for the 30th time. SCORE COMMENTS “Baja California boasts the most numerous calendar of tourism events in Mexico and the four SCORE International races celebrated every year are key contributors to its economy with the volume of visitors of visitors, the economic impact and world-wide promotion they generate, commented Jose A. Grijalva, President/Race Director of SCORE International”. “We have agreed with the Ensenada Municipal Government, and the Baja California State Secretary of Tourism, that the host city for our 2024 SCORE Baja 500, the SCORE Baja 400 and the SCORE Baja 1000, will be the city of Ensenada”. “We appreciate their support as well as that of the Federal Authorities in order to organize the most famous desert races in the world and we will continue to do so." “Our 2024 schedule will include the SCORE Baja Triple Crown races along with our newest race—the SCORE Baja 400.” “Mexican races are the cornerstone of SCORE and to have all four races south of the border for the ninth consecutive season and ninth time in SCORE’s long history is a distinct honor and a wonderful privilege. We welcome the challenge to continue to add to the illustrious SCORE Baja racing legacy. And to finish the season with the iconic SCORE Baja 1000 always attracts racing extremists from around the world and 2024 will be another one-of-a-kind experience with the Granddaddy of all Desert Races.” THE NEWEST The 5th SCORE Baja 400, presented by VP Racing Fuels, the newest event on the SCORE World Desert Championship schedule, will be held in Ensenada, Sept. 11-15, 2024. The SCORE Baja 400 has been positioned once again in 2023 between the vastly popular SCORE Baja 500 and the venerable season-ending iconic SCORE Baja 1000. 2024 OPENER The 2024 SCORE World Desert Championship season-opener for the 12th time will be the King Shocks 37th SCORE San Felipe 250, presented by Baja Vida, to be held March 20-24 on the Sea of Cortez side of Mexico’s majestic Baja California peninsula. CONTINGENCY DAY X2 In 2024, the SCORE Baja 1000 is scheduled to have two days of tech and contingency. The SCORE San Felipe 250, SCORE Baja 500 and the SCORE Baja 400 are scheduled to have one day of the extremely popular tech, contingency and manufacturer’s midway at those races. The colorful pre-race festivities include manufacturer and vendor displays, vehicle displays and racers with their vehicles. For the SCORE San Felipe 250, pre-race activities and the start/finish line area are scheduled to return to the picturesque Malecon along the Sea of Cortez. For the three races in Ensenada, pre-race activities and the start/finish line area are scheduled to be adjacent to and inside the iconic Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center. QUALIFYING Special Qualifying sessions for the SCORE Trophy Truck, SCORE TT Legend, and Trophy Truck Spec classes will be held during race week of the SCORE San Felipe 250 and the SCORE Baja 400. The final results for all classes in the SCORE San Felipe 250 will determine the start order for the SCORE Baja 500 and the final results of the SCORE Baja 400 will determine the starting order in all classes for the season-ending SCORE Baja 1000. THE CAST SCORE racing features the best competitors from all over the United States and as many as 30 total countries. Races include classes for Pro and Sportsman Cars, Trucks, UTVs, Motorcycles and Quads. MOVING FORWARD “Shining a superbly spectacular spotlight on the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Organization is our major goal for 2024 and with the diligence and creativity of award-winning BCII TV, SCORE continues to have a viable electronic package for expanded series coverage and exposure as well as with our extending international syndication platform,” commented Jim Ryan, SCORE Vice-President of Marketing and Sales. “Our highly successful and ever-developing live-streaming programming and SCORE app, social media growth, the SCORE Journal digital magazine, and website’s unprecedented viewer/reader growth have continued to expand the exposure for SCORE races, racers and sponsors to our global fan base.” LONG HISTORY SCORE Baja desert racing officially began on July 26, 1974 with the SCORE Baja Internacional which later became the SCORE Baja 500. SCORE was founded in August, 1973 by the legendary late Mickey Thompson with the SCORE World Championship short-course event at the old Riverside International Raceway. SCORE was then owned and run for over 38 years by the iconic Sal Fish, considered by many as the godfather of desert racing around the world. Fish sold SCORE on Dec. 12, 2012 to Roger and Elise Norman. Abelardo Grijalva is SCORE President/Race Director, Juan Tintos Funcke is the SCORE General Manager since 2013, Jim Ryan is the SCORE Vice-President of Marketing and Sales since August of 2014, Dominic Clark will be starting his 41st year as the SCORE Media Operations Director and Dan Cornwell has been the SCORE Tech Director since 2017. SCORE’s first desert race was the SCORE Parker 400 in early 1974. It included one lap on the California side of the Colorado River, a transit and two laps around the Arizona side of the Colorado. Over the many years, SCORE has produced many races no longer on the annual schedule, both in the U.S. and Mexico. The foundation of SCORE Baja racing has been the SCORE Triple Crown of Baja events—the SCORE San Felipe 250, the SCORE Baja 500 and the SCORE Baja 1000. In its U.S. history, among the numerous memorable events SCORE has produced have been the SCORE Desert Challenge in Laughlin, Nev., Rosarito Beach, Mexico and Tijuana, Mexico, the SCORE Las Vegas Terrible’s Primm 300, the SCORE Nissan Mint 400, the SCORE Fireworks 250, the SCORE Great Mojave 250, the SCORE Las Vegas Terrible’s Cup and the SCORE Henderson Terrible 250. For seven years, from 1985 through 1991, SCORE combined with the late Walt Lott’s High Desert Racing Association of Las Vegas to run the combined HDRA/SCORE Desert Series. Thompson (2007), Fish (2006) and Lott (2007) are all inductees in the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame. 2024 SCORE SCHEDULE Here are the dates for the four-race 2024 SCORE World Desert Championship which is being totally held in Baja California, Mexico for the ninth consecutive year:
- King Shocks 37th SCORE San Felipe 250, presented by Baja Vida—
- BFGoodrich Tires 56th SCORE Baja 500—
- 5th SCORE Baja 400, presented by VP Racing Fuels—
- BFGoodrich Tires 57th SCORE Baja 1000—
- 4th SCORE Baja 400, presented by VP Racing Fuels—
- BFGoodrich Tires 56th SCORE Baja 1000, presented by 4 Wheel Parts—