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Baja 400 2024: Price, Polvoorde, Menzies, top qualifiers Wednesday for Saturday’s 5th SCORE Baja 400
Gus Vildosola top qualifier in SCORE TT Legend; Trey Gibbs top qualifier in Trophy Truck Spec. 186 entries to date from 22 States, 11 Countries; S/F line in front of Riviera CC;
SCORE Live --Contingency, S/F Line--Rat Sult host, assisted by Kevin Johnson; Vehicle Tracking throughout the race at www.score-international.com
Saturday—Motorcycles/quads start at 4:15 a.m. (PT), cars/trucks/utvs at 9 a.m. (PT)
ENSENADA, Baja California, Mexico – Continuing its sixth decade as the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Organization this year, the top three Method Race Wheels qualifiers Wednesday among nearly 200 racers expected to start Saturday’s 5th SCORE Baja 400, presented by VP Racing, were Toby Price, Christopher Polvoorde, and Bryce Menzies.
Held over a 4.4-mile course 15 miles East of Ensenada at Rancho Nelson, Mexico, Multi-time motorcycle Dakar Rally winner Toby Price, 37, Australia, powered his Team Australia No. 46 Chevy Silverado, built by Mason Motorsports to the fastest qualifying time of five minutes, 49.583 seconds. He was fastest of the 23 SCORE Trophy Trucks out of 31 entries in the class that attempted to qualify.
Utah´s Christopher Polvoorde, 24, who finished third in the last SCORE Baja 500, finished with the second-fastest qualifying time this year, driving his No. 94 AWD Ford Raptor to a time of 5:54.459.
Las Vegas’ Menzies, 37, powered his way in a time of 5:54.870 to finish third in qualifying in the No. 1 all-wheel drive Mason-built Ford Mason SCORE Trophy Truck.
Fastest in the SCORE TT Legend class for SCORE Trophy Truck racers over 50 years old was Ricky Johnson, 59, El Cajon, Calif. (Driver of Record--Gustavo Vildosola Sr, 70, Mexicali, Mexico), in a time of 6:07.935 in the Vildosola Racing No. 1L Mason-built AWD Ford Raptor.
Top qualifier out of 25 entries in the Trophy Truck Spec class was Trey Gibbs, 23, Murrieta, Calif., in the No. 232 Mason-Ford in a time 6:17.246.
SCORE Trophy Truck, SCORE TT Legend, and Trophy Truck Spec were the only three classes required to participate in the Method Race Wheels Qualifying sessions for starting positions as the other start positions in the various classes were determined by individual finishes in the previous race and a drawing for new entries.
WHAT’S UP
The colorfully challenging 424.96-mile race course will start and finish and pre-race contingency will be held on Boulevard Costero, adjacent to the iconic Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center.
Entering Thursday and Friday’s final two days of late, on-site race week registration, 187 official entries to date represent 22 U.S. States, and 11 countries. In addition to the USA, U.S. Territory Puerto Rico, and host country Mexico, racers so far have also come from Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, France, New Zealand, and Venezuela.
With double figure entries so far are SCORE Trophy Truck (31), Trophy Truck Spec (25), Pro UTV Open (18), Pro UT FI (Forced Induction) with 16, Class 10 with 12, and Pro UTV Stock (12).
Ensenada is 80 miles south of the U.S. Border at San Diego on the Western side of the Baja peninsula along the Pacific Ocean.
All four 2022 SCORE races will be held on Mexico’s magnificent Baja California peninsula for the ninth consecutive year.
SCORE, the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Organization, is celebrating its 51st season in 2024.
SCORE LIVE
During Method Race Wheels Qualifying on Wednesday, contingency on Friday and the race on Saturday until the course closes on Sunday early morning, SCORE Live streaming will be broadcasting race activities and start and finish line interviews as well as live action from Drones, ground cameras and in-car cameras from around the race course. There will also be live Zoom interviews for individuals around the race course as part of SCORE Live for this race.
Popular Rat Sult, who is starting his ninth season as the voice of SCORE, will once again serve as host and lead ramp announcer of the expansive SCORE Live streaming. Assisting Sult will be Kevin Johnson.
Sult and Johnson will be announcing from the SCORE start/finish ramp while the show will also include SCORE studio announcers in El Cajon, Calif., providing live info and updates throughout the race. Host announce in the SCORE Studio will again be Brandon Johnson while co-host during the race will be Wes Miller.SCORE live is being produced again by SCORE Media House, Bud Brutsman, producer, Alberto Luna, on-site director.
SCORE live may be launched from the home page of the SCORE website or from the SCORE App.
GREEN FLAG SATURDAY
The 5th SCORE Baja 400, presented by VP Racing, will be an elapsed-time race with staggered starts as the green flag on Saturday, Sept. 14 will drop first for the motorcycles and quads at 4:15 a.m. (PT) and 9:00 a.m. (PT) for the cars, trucks and UTVs. While the fastest vehicles are expected to finish in around eight hours, all vehicles will have a 16-hour time limit in the 424.96-mile race to become official finishers in the popular race.
Source: Score International / Gabriel Garcia
Photo: Toby Price Racing
Helder