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Past teammates MacCachren, A. McMillin both looking for 3-peat at 49th Annual SCORE BAJA 1000
SCORE MEDIA CONTACT: Dominic Clark, dominiccnv@aol.com November 7, 2016 Televised on CBS Sports Network Past teammates MacCachren, A. McMillin both looking for 3-peat while leading SCORE Trophy Truck field to 49th SCORE Baja 1000 with help from Kyle LeDuc, Las Vegas’ Post in pole position for historic race , Over 250 entries from 30 States, 15 countries expected at start line next Friday as pre-running speeds up for legendary iconic Granddaddy of all Desert Races; on-line racer registration continues until Nov. 13 at RegisterHereForRace; ENSENADA, Mexico—Capturing three straight wins in any sport is a challenge, but to earn a three-peat in the motorsports world in the same race is nearly unheard of, especially in desert racing. In next week’s legendary 49th annual SCORE Baja 1000, two former teammates will be looking to capture the proverbial three-peat by earning the overall victory in the toughest desert race in the world. After finishing second in 2013, winning the last two years of this iconic race as teammates were Las Vegas’ Rob MacCachren and San Diego’s Andy McMillin. This year both will be attempting to etch his name in indelible bronze next week with a third straight victory in the SCORE Baja 1000 in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. Race week festivities start next Wednesday with the green flag dropping next Friday morning. Leading a field of over 250 starters in classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and quads including 31 in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck division this year, the two good friends with similar driving styles and racing temperaments will find each other facing off in the cockpits of different race trucks. The veteran All-America champion racer MacCachren, 51, will be driver of record in his own No. 11 MacCachren Motorsports Rockstar Energy Ford F-150 while the third generation champion desert racer McMillin, 29, will be driver of record in his No. 31 NexGen Fuels Ford F-150. MAC & MC While Andy McMillin doesn’t have quiet the extensive history of MacCachren at 22 years his younger than his teacher, McMillin’s pedigree of mentors includes several champion SCORE Baja racers and most from his own family. In addition to MacCachren, A. McMillin has learned from the best including the entire McMillin family of racers—his late grandfather (Corky), father (Scott), sister (Jesssica), uncle (Mark), cousins (Dan and Luke) as well as former NASCAR owner/driver and SCORE Baja champion Robby Gordon. His cousins and Gordon are all on the starting grid for this race while his father will be chasing for him and his uncle will be doing the same for his two sons. While MacCachren has three overall victories in the SCORE Baja 1000, the youthful Andy McMillin has five with three different teammates—his father Scott twice (2009, 2011), Gordon once (2006) and MacCachren the last two years. MacCachren’s third overall in this race was in 2007 as the second driver for Mark Post meaning both MacCachren and A. McMillin has accumulated eight overall wins in the last 10 years. ROB MAC ATTACK With well over 200 career race wins and over 20 multiple season championships in desert racing and off-road stadium racing, the magnificent MacCachren, 51, started as a valet-parking attendant at a Las Vegas casino when he was just 16 years old. He is a second-generation desert racer who is one of the few desert racers whose passion has afforded him the ability to own his own race team and become one of the most accomplished and respected off-road racers in the world and one of the sports few professional drivers in the truest sense of the word. A six-time voted selection to the American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Association (AARWBA) All-America team, MacCachren will be a key part of the field in the final round of the four-race 2016 SCORE World Desert Championship. MacCachren and A. McMillin will both be forces to be reckoned with in a field of 31 desert racing superstars entered in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck division for high-tech, 850 horsepower unlimited production trucks. MacCachren drives the No. 11 MacCachren Motorsports Rockstar Energy Ford F-150. ENTRY UPDATE Over 250 cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads from 35 U.S. States and 15 countries are expected to take the green flag on Friday, Nov. 18 for this year’s 49th SCORE Baja 1000. The granddaddy of all desert races will be held Nov. 15-20 in Baja California Norte on Mexico’s majestic Baja California peninsula, starting and finishing in the seaside port of Ensenada, 65 miles south of the U.S. Border at San Diego. So far among the car, truck and UTV classes, SCORE Trophy Truck has the most entries with 31, followed by Pro UTV FI with 21, Trophy Truck Spec with 20, Class 10 with 19, the unlimited Class 1 with 16, Pro UTV with 15 and SCORE Lites with 11 officially entered to date. Among the motorcycle classes, the Pro Moto Ironman (solo rider) has nine entries followed by Pro Moto Unlimited class and the Pro Moto 40 (m/c riders over 40 years old) with six entries each and Pro Moto Limited with five entries so far. In the Sportsman classes, leading the way is Sportsman Motorcycle with 13 entries to date. GLOBAL INTEREST In addition to the 30 States represented on the entry list to date, racers have officially entered from 14 countries. In addition to the United States, entries so far have come from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Guatemala, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, New Zealand, Thailand and the US Territory of Guam. CO-DRIVERS Always a model of consistency, helping MacCachren win the last two years in the iconic Granddaddy of all Desert races was A. McMillin, driver of record this year with SCORE Baja legendary racer Larry Roeseler, 59, of Martinez, Calif. The MacCachren/A. McMillin duo finished second in the 2013 SCORE Baja 1000 behind Las Vegas’ B.J. Baldwin. While McMillin has four overall SCORE Baja 1000 races wins, Roeseler has 17 class wins and a race-record 13 overall wins and he is the only racer who has won this race on a motorcycle, race car and race truck. Splitting the driving with MacCachren on this year’s rugged 854.50-mile race course is Jason Voss, 29, Cupertino, Calif., who drove the final third of the 2014 race to La Paz, Mexico that resulted in victory for MacCachren, Andy McMillin and Voss. ROB MAC REMARKS “After winning last year in the SCORE Baja 1000,” MacCachren remembered, “I gathered my great crew together and flatly said, ‘we’re going to do this again in 2016’. I can’t do any of this without an awesome crew and for the last few years with some wonderful co-drivers. Without all those pieces to the puzzle I would not have been on the podium the last three years straight and the top spot the last two. Andy (McMillin) is a great driver and he has his own program this year. Jason is equally as good and he was available and between MacCachren Motorsports and Voss Motorsports we will have a crew of nearly 90 people in Baja to help keep us in a position to win my three-peat.” ROB MAC REMARKS II With eight class wins and three overall victories in the SCORE Baja 1000, MacCachren is anything but overconfident. The ever-humble MacCachren is the winningest driver in SCORE Trophy Truck history with 13 career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins in the 22-plus year history of the class and two season point championships (1994, 2007). In the inaugural season of the SCORE Trophy Truck division (1994), MacCachren drove solo and in 2007 he was the second driver for Mark Post. In addition to the last two years, MacCachren’s third overall win in the SCORE Baja 1000 was in 2007 when he was the second driver for Post. “I have raced in the desert for over 30 years and I always try to do my homework in pre-running, take care of my race truck, work with and appreciate my race crew and never, never underestimate Baja. SCORE Baja race courses leave a trail of broken vehicles in every race and we will do our very best this year to see that we aren’t one of the fallen trucks. In SCORE Trophy Truck racing you have the world’s best drivers, finest equipment and most talented and dedicated race crews and one slip and you’re history as far as winning this glorious race is concerned.” TWO THREE-PEATERS Larry Ragland, of Phoenix, is the only driver to win three consecutive years in SCORE Trophy Truck in the SCORE Baja 1000 (1995, 1996, 1997). After finishing second to Ivan Stewart in 1998, Ragland, who was inducted recently in the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame, came back and won again for his fourth win in five years (1999) in the sport’s top racing class. The only other team to win three straight times was the daring SoCal duo of David Ashley/Dan Smith who accomplished the feed in 2000, 2001 and 2002. DOUBLE-TIMERS The two teams that missed the three-peat but did accomplish a remarkable two straight wins in the SCORE Baja 1000 were the team of Mark Miller/Ryan Arciero (2003, 2004) and B.J. Baldwin (2012, 2013). Arciero, Foothill Ranch, Calif., is the second driver this year for Las Vegas’ Troy Herbst in the sparkling new No. 91 Terrible Herbst Motorsports Monster Energy Ford F-150 and Baldwin, who has won four SCORE Trophy Truck season point championships (2006, 2008, 2012, 2013) will be driving the dazzling new No. 97 Baldwin Motorsports Monster Energy Toyota Tundra. FEROCIOUS SCORE TT FIELD In all, the SCORE Trophy Truck field includes 20 drivers entered who have combined total of 81 SCORE Trophy Truck race wins in the 22-plus-year history of the marquee SCORE racing division. Further, nine of the last 10 SCORE Trophy Truck season point champions are entered including SCORE Trophy Truck race winners in 12 of the last 13 years in the SCORE Baja 1000, including 10 straight, are all entered in this year’s race. While racing separately this year, Las Vegas brothers Ed and Tim Herbst have the second-most career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins with 11 (behind MacCachren’s 13) and are tied for the most season point championships with fellow Las Vegas B.J. Baldwin with four each. The Herbst brothers won in 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2003 while Baldwin’s season championships were in 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2013. Tied with the Herbst brothers with 11 career race wins in SCORE Trophy Truck is Robby Gordon who also won season point championships in 1996 and 2009. Andy McMillin has eight career race wins in the class followed by Mark Post with seven, B.J. Baldwin and Mexico’s Gustavo ‘Tavo’ Vildosola with six each, Ryan Arciero, Larry Roeseler and Gus Vildosola Sr each have three care race wins and Jesse Jones has two. In the SCORE Baja 1000, before MacCachren’s win the last two years, Baldwin won the two years prior (2012, 2013), A. McMillin won in 2011 and 2019, the Vildsolas won in 2010, Roeseler won in 2008 with current SCORE CEO/President Roger Norman, Post and MacCachren won in 2007, A. McMillin won with Gordon in 2006 and Arciero won with Mark Miller in both 2003 and 2004. STARTING GRID Helped by a huge assist from short-course racing champion co-driver Kyle LeDuc, Riviera Racing’s Mark Post earned the first starting position in SCORE Trophy Truck. A special SCORE Baja 1000 Qualifying, presented by BFGoodrich Tires, was held on Nov. 1 under the lights at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Off-Road Track. The qualifying event was held in conjunction with the SEMA SCORE Baja 1000 Experience the SEMA Show in Las Vegas In front of an appreciative capacity crowd at the LVMS Off-Road Track, LeDuc, who has won four Pro 4 season point championships in the Lucas Oil Off-Road Racing Series of short-course stadium events, blistered the dirt, recording a top qualifying time of in three minutes, 5.62 seconds with an average speed of 40.73 miles per hour in Post’s No. 3 Riviera Racing Ford F-150. The 5,000-pound race trucks are designed for the pounding of open desert racing resulting in average speeds in qualifying 10-20 miles per hour less than they will average during the actual races. LeDuc, of Temecula, Calif., is part of a three-driver team for this year’s SCORE Baja 1000 that includes Post and Ed Herbst both of Las Vegas. Both champion SCORE desert racers, Post and Ed Herbst are two of the winningest drivers in the history of SCORE Trophy Truck. Ed Herbst has 11 career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins and four season point championships while Post has seven career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins and one season point championship in SCORE Trophy Truck. Second was co-driver Ricky Johnson of Trabuco Canyon, last year’s top qualifier for driver of record Justin Matney, Bristol, Tenn.. Completing the podium as third quickest was former NASCAR team owner/driver and champion desert racer Robby Gordon, Charlotte, N.C.. Rounding out the top five SCORE Trophy Truck qualifiers were Craig Potts, Scottsdale, Ariz., who was fourth and fifth was Las Vegas’ MacCachren. RACE REGISTRATION CONTINUES Online entry registration for the race continues at Register Here for Race. Late entries received after the start drawing are being placed by class in the next available starting position following those that entered in time for the random draw. Online race registration closes on Sunday (Nov. 13). PRE-GREEN The race week festivities will cover Nov. 15-20, with the race and all side events starting and finishing in Ensenada. Pre-race festivities next Thursday (Nov. 17), for the SCORE Baja 1000, including the vastly popular tech and contingency of all vehicles and the SCORE Manufacturer’s Midway will be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT on Boulevard Costero in front of the Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center. The pre-race mandatory driver/rider briefing will also be held next Thursday (Nov. 17) at 7 p.m. PT in the Cathedral Room at the Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center. Racer registration will be held in the Red Room at the Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center in Ensenada. Racer registration will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. PT next Tuesday (Nov. 15), from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. PT next Wednesday (Nov. 16) and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT next Thursday (Nov. 17). Media registration will be held as well in the Red Room at the Riviera from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m. PT next Wednesday (Nov. 16), 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT next Thursday (Nov. 17) and the BFGoodrich Tires/Baja California Secretary of Tourism SCORE Media Center will be open next Friday (Nov. 18) at 5:30 a.m. PT until the course closes at approximately 12 a.m. PT next Saturday (Nov. 20) and will re-open next Sunday (Nov. 20) from 8 a.m. until Noon PT. Two special Monster Energy parties will be held before the race starts. Next Wednesday (Nov. 16) from 7 p.m. to Midnight PT at the Riviera del Pacifico Cultural center will be the SCORE Baja 1000 Goes Green Monster Energy Party for racers and SCORE staff. On Thursday (Nov. 17), the night before the start of the race, the Monster Energy SCORE Papas & Beer Street Party will be held on Avenida Ruiz in front of Papas & Beer from 8 p.m. to midnight PT. POST GREEN As the celebration continues all-night on Friday, all day and evening on Saturday while official finishers cross the line and tales are added to the legacy of the event, the post-race awards fiesta will be held in the Cathedral Room at the Riviera starting at 10 a.m. PT next Sunday (Nov. 20). BEGINNING TO END This year’s race will start for the 42nd time and finish for the 24th time in Ensenada. The start line and finish line will once again be adjacent to the iconic Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center in the heart of Ensenada and the first and last several spectator-friendly miles running up and back down the Ensenada Arroyo. SCORE COURSE ‘SUPREMO’ As it has for over four decades, SCORE has put together another agonizingly memorable race course, this one for a loop race, with all of the foreboding, unforgiving terrain that the northern state of the majestic Baja California peninsula has to offer. SCORE CEO/President Roger Norman and SCORE Race Director Jose A. Grijalva have designed and finalized this year’s SCORE Baja 1000 race course. Starting and finishing in the heart of Ensenada in front of the historic Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center, the course travels in a counter-clockwise direction. It includes the approximate 20 mile stretch to Ojos Negros which is used in both directions. Outgoing, the course heads south from Ojos Negros through Santo Tomas and then runs along the picturesque Pacific Ocean for over 100 miles and then back across to the center of Baja California Norte. The approximately 854-mile course covers both sides of the peninsula and includes four checkpoints. The race will have its normal start from Ensenada to Piedras Gordas, then out to highway 3 around Rm 20.7 and will go to Km33 and get back on the dirt. The course will go past Rancho Grijalva to El Mezcal (Rm 39.6) and head to Uruapan using La Lagrima Rd, a different road than in past years. From Santo Tomas, the course heads to the coast of the Pacific Ocean at La Calabera and runs down nearly 100 miles to San Quintin, Nuevo Odisea and then to El Rosario. The course will travel zig zag up the well known hill La Vivora, el Arenoso, and will loop around from San Juan de Dios at approximate Rm305 to El Metate Rm 340, Los Martires Rm 363 and go back to San Quintin on the east side of the highway and run north to Col. Vicente Guerrero, Jaramillo and Colonet. The course will travel a new route from Colonet to Llano Colorado and across to Valley de Trinidad. The race course goes along the highway from San Matias to Villa del Sol then crossing the highway at El Chinero, north to Coabuso Junction and then out to Borrego, up Highway 1 and up the goat trail to checkpoint 4 Nuevo Junction. From there it will be on to Catarina then back to Ojos Negros and from Ojos Negros back to the finish line. The four checkpoints will be located at Santo Tomas (CP 1--race-mile 88.15), El Rosario (CP 2--rm249.92), Vicente Guerrero (CP 3--rm469.15) and Nuevo Junction (CP 4--rm751.04). CBS SPORTS NETWORK COVERAGE All races in the four-race 2016 SCORE World Desert Championship, along with the special SEMA SCORE Baja 1000 Experience and qualifying for the SCORE Baja 1000 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway are once again airing in the USA and Canada on the CBS Sports Network. The spectacular shows feature not only SCORE Trophy Truck coverage, but also top action and highlights from many other classes of trucks, cars, UTVs, motorcycles and quads – making sure that the most exciting footage and most compelling stories continue as part of each race event broadcast. Capping off the 2016 broadcast season, the SCORE Baja 1000 broadcast on CBS Sports Network will air as a full two-hour special for the second straight year. ON THE AIR 2016 CBS Sports Network Original Broadcast Schedule (subject to change, check local listings)
- SCORE San Felipe 250 (first telecast-Sunday, April 17, 9 p.m. ET)
- SCORE Baja 500 (first telecast-Sunday, July 24, 9 p.m. ET)
- Rosarito Beach SCORE Desert Challenge (first telecast-Sunday, Nov. 13, 9 p.m. ET)
- SCORE Baja 1000 Qualifying @SEMA SCORE Baja 1000 Experience (first telecast-Sunday, Dec.18, 9 p.m. ET)
- SCORE Baja 1000 (two-hour special) (first telecast-Sunday, December 25, 9 p.m. ET)
- 30th SCORE San Felipe 250, Feb. 25-28, San Felipe, Mexico
- 48th SCORE Baja 500, June 1-5, Ensenada Mexico
- Rosarito Beach 20th SCORE Desert Challenge, Sept. 14-18, Rosarito, Mexico
- 49th SCORE Baja 1000, Nov.16-20, Ensenada, Mexico