2023 SCORE World Desert Championship Celebration

by Jim Ryan

We are now closing out the final tribute and celebration for the amazing 2023 SCORE World Desert Championship’s 50th Anniversary season.  In this issue, we recognize all the efforts that those teams put forth to secure their 2023 Championship status.

See this year’s Championship stories for more details on their journeys to the top spots and the challenges they had to overcome while earning their way into this SCORE Journal Champions Issue.  We break out the 2023 SCORE category Points Championships along with all the SCORE Class Championship highlights.

The 2023 SCORE World Desert Championship season once again returned to our traditional race locations at the San Felipe Malecon oceanfront and Ensenada’s historical Riviera Cultural Center location for the SCORE Baja 500, 400 along with a very special first-time-ever SCORE Baja 1000 race start on the beautiful La Paz Malecon for the 50th Anniversary reverse course event. This return brought about increased entry counts for all the races, along with expanded media coverage and major increases in SCORE social media assets, as fan base interest and industry involvement continued to grow. 

A major testament to the 2023 season that reflected the spirit and competitive nature of the racers competing in the 2023 season, was the number of teams earning a Rod Hall Milestone Award. We welcome Toyota Escondido back as this year’s Award Presenting Sponsor, which illustrates their passion and commitment to SCORE racers. There are a record 56 teams’ that persevered through all the challenges they encountered this season, setting a record for teams earning this prestigious recognition, completing every mile of every race.  These efforts can be attributed to extraordinary, team planning, pre-running preparation, logistical planning, and above all, the “Never Quit” character that embodies all these teams reflecting the namesake of this award, Rod Hall.

Enjoy the issue.

Jim