Second-time race to be held September 14-19 in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico;
Spectacular event is Round 3 of four-race 2021 SCORE World Desert Championship
Envied by some, admired by many more, loathed by a few and respected by all as the ‘Monsters of the Desert’, 36 SCORE Trophy Trucks are ready to roar in next week’s 2nd SCORE Baja 400, presented by VP Racing.
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 2021 SCORE World Desert Championship.
MAGICAL MONSTERS
Roaring through the desert terrain with the grace, beauty and power of the Bolshoi Ballet, the 36-truck SCORE Trophy Truck field for this year’s SCORE Baja 400 includes 20 racers who have combined to win 88 of the 136 races in the history of the featured class.
Enjoying its 28th season at the forefront of the sport, this year’s field also includes six racers who have combined to win the SCORE Trophy Truck season point championship in 13 of the first 27 campaigns.
Included in that elite group are the season champs of the last six 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 with 17 all-time SCORE Trophy Truck race wins. The ‘Mac Attack’ is the winningest racer in the history of off-road racing with more than 300 class victories in multiple classes in the desert, short-course and stadium off-road racing, the amiable MacCachren has also won three SCORE Trophy Truck season point titles (1994, 2007-with Mark Post, and 2018). He drives the No. 11 BFGoodrich Tires Ford F-150 (built by Geiser Brothers).
Also entered are three of the four racers tied for second in career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins with 11 victories each are second-generation racers Robby Gordon and Tim Herbst along with third-generation desert racer Andy McMillin.
Another ORMHOF inductee, Gordon, Charlotte, N.C., who has had racing success also in IndyCar, NASCAR, Rally and Stadium, drives his No. 77 Chevy Silverado built by his own R. Gordon race shop. He has two career SCORE Trophy Truck season point titles (1996 and 2009).
Another Las Vegas ORMHOFF 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, leads the 2021 SCORE Trophy season point standings in his No. 31 Chevy Silverado built by Mason Motorsports. He has a second and third place finish in the two races so far this season. He also won the 2019 SCORE Trophy Truck season point champion while finishing second in the inaugural SCORE Baja 400 in 2019.
While Andy McMillin leads the 2021 SCORE World Desert Championship, MacCachren is in fourth place followed by Herbst in fifth at the midway point of the season.
MORE STALLIONS
Leading the next wave of SCORE Trophy Truck stallions entered in this race are Bryce Menzies, and Gus Vildosola Jr with six career race wins, Larry Roeseler with five and Ryan Arciero who has four career SCORE Trophy Truck race victories.
Menzies, also 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 opened the 2021 campaign by winning the SCORE San Felipe 250.
Part of the most prominent Mexican racing team in SCORE, Vildosola Jr, of Mexicali, has returned to full-time competition and 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 June’s 53rd 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 last year’s SCORE Baja 1000 as the second driver for Luke McMillin.
Arciero, Foothill Ranch, Calif., returns as the defending SCORE Baja 400 overall winner from 2019 as the race was cancelled in 2020 because of the health pandemic. In this year’s race he will be the second driver for Mike Walser, Comfort, Texas, in the No. 89 Mason-built Chevy Silverado.
Entering this year’s SCORE Baja 400, Roeseler is second in SCORE Trophy Truck points behind A. McMillin and Vildosola Jr is third at the midway point in the 2021 season.
VILDOSOLA SR
Joining his son at the starting line will be Gus Vildosola Sr, Mexicali with three career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins. Vildosola Sr will be driver of record in this race to debut his sparkling new AWD No. 12 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 in the iconic SCORE Baja 1000 peninsula race from Ensenada to La Paz.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Father and son Juan C. Lopez and Carlos ‘Apdaly’ Lopez, of Tecate, Mexico and ORMHOF inductee Cameron Steele each have earned two career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins.
The Lopez father/son have won once together and once separately. For this race the family duo will race together in their No. 9 custom-built Ford Raptor.
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.
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, Daniel and Luke each have one career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins and Luke is the reigning SCORE Trophy Truck season point champion.
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, Josh Daniel, Vista, Calif., Rick D. Johnson, Barstow, Calif. and Eduardo Laguna, Mexicali.
The Ampudia brothers will again race together while the other three will be the second driver for their respective SCORE Trophy Trucks.
Daniel is teamed with Justin Matney, Bristol, Tenn., Johnson will split the driving with Rolf Helland, Morris, Ill., in SCORE TT Legend, and Laguna will be the additional driver for Mario Fuente, Juarez, Mexico in the unlimited Class 1.
POSSIBLE MAS
Nothing is for certain in SCORE Baja racing especially when 36 thoroughbreds glide their way over the unforgiving terrain of the Baja peninsula.
While 20 of the 36 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 16-year-old Jax Redline, San Antonio, Texas and 17-year- old Madix Bailey, Riverside, Calif., in the starting grid.
Then there are cagey veterans like Justin Lofton, Brawley, Calif., Dan Myers, Newport Beach, Calif., Mike Lawrence, Banning, Calif. and Eric Hardin, Orange, Calif.
Adding even more spice to the palatable pot is veteran Dave Taylor, Paige, Ariz., who has recruited SCORE racing champion Sara Price, Canyon Country, Calif. as his second driver. Price, who is competing this year in the new Formula-E Off-Road Series of electric SUVs returns to SCORE as the 2019 SCORE TT Spec season champion.
An extra topping of competition will come from Dakar Rally racer AJ Jones, Litchfield Park, Ariz., whose father Jesse Jones, who won the 2010 SCORE Trophy Truck season point championship, may end up as a second driver for his talented son.
Easy to see then, anything is possible when these SCORE ‘Monsters of the Desert’ start their engines.
PRE-RUNNING
Official practice, or pre-running, on the official 400-mile race course for this year’s 2nd SCORE Baja 400 began this past Saturday. Pre-running starts at race mile 33.43 and finishes at race mile 366.64. The first 33.43 miles, which will be used in both directions during the race, will be available for pre-running only on Thursday (Sept. 16) and Friday (Sept. 17) and only in the outbound direction.
The official post-draw starting list, qualifying order entry list, course map, Racer’s Brief, Course Notes, GPS files and Penalty Brief are all now available on the SCORE website at the following link… https://score-international.com/raceinfo/2021-baja-400-sept-14-19-2021/.
COURSE PREVIEW
The race features a course designed, plotted and marked by SCORE President/Race Director Jose A. Grijalva, of 400 miles of rugged Baja California terrain.
Running in a clockwise direction, the race will start and finish without spectators in the SCORE compound on the Northeast side of Ensenada.
The race features an impressive course of 400 miles. It runs west to Ojos Negro then south down the middle and then up the Pacific Coast side of Baja California.
There are two physical checkpoints, 138 virtual checkpoints including two narrow virtual checkpoints for this race course. It also has 13 speed zones for a total of 64.08 miles.
The two physical, full-stop checkpoints—Checkpoint 1 will be located at race mile 94.2 at Independencia and Checkpoint 2 will be at rm 228.82 at the end of the crossover road at Llano Colorado.
The course goes east through Ojos Negros and then begins its Southern journey through Tres Hermanos, east to Highway 3, south through El Alamo, Leyes De Reforma and south through Valle de Trinidad.
From there it winds its way back towards the Pacific Ocean going over the hill at Mike’s Sky Rancho, and then through a new crossover section to Checkpoint 2 and south to make a loop just in north of Colonet. The course than parallels and draws close to the Pacific Ocean going through San Vicente, Santo Tomas and Uruapan before heading back northeast up to Tres Hermanos, Ojos Negros and back to the finish line.
Source SCORE International
Photo: Art Eugenio / Red Bull Content Pool
