Round 2 of four-race 2021 SCORE World Desert Championship in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico; Airing on ESPN2 World of X Games;
Legendary Las Vegas Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Famer Rob McCachren leads the early entries for the upcoming internationally-televised BFGoodrich Tires 53rd SCORE Baja 500, presented by 4 Wheel Parts. Joining MacCachren on the early entry list are SCORE champion racers Cameron Steele, Daniel McMillin, Luke McMillin, Robbie Pierce, the Myers family, Justin Davis and a pair of all-star Bolivian motorcycle racers.Round 2 of the four-race 2021 SCORE World Desert Championship will be held June 10-13 in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.
Most the world’s best desert racers will be in action at this year’s celebration of one of the top 10 motorsports events in the entire world.
HEALTH & SAFETY
Because of the significant health and safety protocols developed by SCORE in conjunction with and the approval of state and local health authorities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, all race-week festivities and the start/finish line compound will be restricted access only and closed to the general public. All race-related activities and the race start/finish compound will be located East of downtown Ensenada and the end of the extension of Avenida Ruiz on the highway overpass, the same location as last year's SCORE Baja 1000.
Use the following link for the map to the SCORE start/finish compound:
https://score-international.com/raceinfo/map-to-compound/.
Spectators, adhering to the protocols, will be allowed to watch the race from around the race course.
ONLINE RACER ENTRY APPLICATIONS
Racer entry applications continue to be available at www.SCORE-International.com under Race Info on the SCORE Baja 500 page. Questions should be directed to SCORE Registration and Membership Director Audreonna Garcia at 775. 852.8907. Online racer entry applications will be accepted through Friday, May 21.
DETAILS
With nearly 300 entries expected from 30 U.S. States and 20 countries, 51 competition classes are offered for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads. Among the first group of 31 earliest entries are racers from 10 U.S. States, host country Mexico, along with Bolivia and Canada.
Domestically, the race will be televised on a delayed basis on the World of X Games show on the ESPN2 as co-produced by SCORE International and award-winning BCII TV of Los Angeles.
All four 2021 SCORE races will be held on Mexico’s magnificent Baja California peninsula for the sixth consecutive year.
SCORE Live will be streaming throughout race week on the SCORE website and on the new SCORE TV app. Colorful Rat Sult is back for his sixth season as the host of SCORE Live.
MAC ATTACK
Seeming to set another record each time he dons his driver’s suit and straps on his helmet, MacCachren, 56, is the winningest off-road racer in history with over 300 career race wins in the desert, stadium and short-course racing.
A driving force in the sport and proven winner since his youthful days in the early 1980s as a valet parking attendant at the Gold Coast Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, MacCachren has a SCORE-record 17 career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins including both the 1994 and 2018 SCORE Trophy Truck season point championships.
He is also one of just nine all-time winners of the SCORE Triple Crown of Baja, presented by BFGoodrich Tires. The award honors the individuals who have won the overall victory at the all three traditional SCORE Baja races—the SCORE San Felipe 250, the SCORE Baja 500 and the SCORE Baja 1000.
MacCachren returns behind the wheel of his durable and dependable No. 11 BFGoodrich Tires Ford F-150 SCORE Trophy Truck built by Geiser Brothers of Phoenix.
XTREME RACER
Another of the many second-generation SCORE desert racers, Cameron Steele is not only a two-time SCORE Trophy Truck race winner, he is also the affable leader of the Desert Assassins race team.
He also finds time to help operate his Baja HQ aftermarket company, lead both an annual motorcycle and an annual truck tour down the Baja peninsula, emcee numerous events, host media shows, and is an action sport TV commentator who has announced a variety of competitions from IndyCar to the X-Games to SCORE race coverage shows.
As far as racing is concerned, Steele, 53, of San Clemente, Calif., loves to stay busy and in years past has competed and had podium finishes in multiple classes in the same race, but now focuses on his special No. 16 Monster Energy Desert Assassins Ford Raptor in SCORE Trophy Truck.
While he won the last two SCORE Trophy Truck races of the 2018 season after finishing second in the iconic 50th anniversary of the legendary SCORE Baja 1000 in 2007, he is still searching for his first class race win in the SCORE Baja 500.
Steele’s wife Heidi was also the first lady of SCORE racing for several years as she won several races and class titles before having the couple’s two children.
BIG BLUE M DOUBLE
When it comes to the SCORE Baja 500, no family does it any better than San Diego’s McMillin family, well known as the Big Blue M Racing machine. Between seven family members, the three-generation McMillins have 22 class wins in the SCORE Baja 500. Clearly the winningest family in the history of this storied race.
Third-generation desert San Diego racing brothers Daniel McMillin and Luke McMillin have each entered this year’s race in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck division.
Dan, 33, will drive his new No. 23 Mason Motorsports-built Mark Racing AWD 4 Wheel Parts Chevy 1500 while Luke, 28, will debut his new AWD No. 1 Mason Motorsports-built Mark Racing 4 Wheel Parts Chevy Silverado.
Luke has two class wins in the SCORE Baja 500. He won Class 1/2-1600 in 2011 as an 18-year old phenom and moved up to win Class 1 in the 2012 SCORE Baja 500.
Daniel McMillin was the overall and SCORE Trophy Truck winner in last year’s SCORE Baja 500 that was held in San Felipe, Mexico. Luke McMillin was third in last year’s race before he won the 2020 SCORE Baja 1000 with Larry Roeseler as his additional driver to earn the 2020 SCORE Trophy Truck season point championship.
In the season-opening SCORE San Felipe 250, Luke McMillin finished in second place in SCORE Trophy Truck, just 15 seconds behind the winning Bryce Menzies of Las Vegas and Daniel McMillin had mechanical issues and had a rare did-not-finish in the 280.20-mile race.
Two of the biggest stars in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck racing division, Luke finished in second place just one minute, 54 seconds behind his winning cousin Andy McMillin in the 2019 SCORE Baja 500 while Dan finished eighth in the 2019 race out of 38 starters in the division for high-tech, 950-horsepower unlimited custom trucks.
JIMCO MAN
One of the many Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame inductees who is a SCORE desert racer, Robbie Pierce was voted into the Hall in the class of 2018.
Pierce, 61, of Alpine, Calif., is a prominent businessman and owned both Mastercraft and Impact Racing until he sold them in 2017 to Italian manufacturer Sparco.
He has also produced equipment for the military and since 2018 he has been the owner of Jimco Racing of Santee, Calif.
Selected the SCORE Person of the Year in 2010, Pierce started his desert racing career in 2004.
He has also raced in short-course off-road racing as well as in Robby Gordon’s Stadium Super Trucks series.
For this year’s SCORE Baja 500, Pierce, racing in the SCORE TT Legend class for drivers over 50 years old will be the driver of record in the No. 20L Chevy Silverado built by his own Jimco Racing company. Pierce won this class in last year’s SCORE Baja 1000.
His additional driver is Bobby Patton, 57, Fort Worth, Texas, a part-owner of the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.
MYERS FAB FIVE
Returning to SCORE Baja racing fulltime at this year’s SCORE San Felipe 250, the famous Myers multi-generational racing family has returned in a major way with five family members competing in three family entries, one in SCORE Trophy Truck, one in Trophy Truck Spec and one in Class 10.
All three entries are part of the Toyota of Escondido TE Motorsports Team.
Dan Myers, 42, Newport Beach, Calif., is the driver of record in SCORE Trophy Truck while his younger brother Andrew Myers, 41 of San Marcos races in Trophy Truck Spec and their 26-year old niece Tamara Myers, of Newport Beach, Calif., who made her first SCORE appearance as a driver of record at the SCORE San Felipe 250 in Class 10.
Added to that threesome are two more members of the Myers family race team. Dan and Andrew’s older brother Steve Myers, 55 of Newport Beach will split the driving with Dan in SCORE Trophy Truck.
Both daughters of Steve Myers, Tamara and her younger sister Britney Myers, 24 also of Newport Beach, will split the driving in Class 10 as Myers Girls Racing, part of TE Motorsports.
Dan and Steve Myers will split the racing in SCORE Trophy Truck in the No. 65 TE Motorsports Toyota Tundra built by SCORE racer Robby Gordon while Andrew Myers will drive in Trophy Truck Spec in his new No. 296 Toyota Tundra built by Herbst-Smith Fab and the Myers Girls will split the driving in their No. 1023 Jimco-Chevy.
A three-generation SCORE race team, the Steve, Dan and Andrew have all had their share of race wins in SCORE racing over the years as they enjoy this new Myers family adventure.
The biggest Myers family SCORE class win was in 2000 when Steve Myers was the driver of record and split the driving with Dan and Andrew to win Class 10 in the epic once-in-a-lifetime new millennium SCORE Baja 2000 race of nearly 1,700 miles that started in Ensenada and finished in Cabo San Lucas.
Andrew was away from desert racing for the most part for nearly a decade as he pursued a NASCAR stock car racing career. During his NASCAR years he competed in the Truck Series, the ARCA Series as well as both the NASCAR Pro Series West and the NASCAR Pro Series East.
GREEN ARMY READY
The Green Army has returned this year with SCORE class champion Justin Davis, entered in the Trophy Truck Spec Class. Davis, 27, of Chino Hills, Calif., is the driver of record in the No. 258 Brenthel-Chevy.
A youthful veteran SCORE desert racer, Davis captured the SCORE Lites season point crown in 2010 and the unlimited Class 1 points in 2011.
In the SCORE Baja 500 Davis won Class 1 in both 2018 and 2019.
Davis and his younger brother Jeremey, 21, shared driving duties in this year’s SCORE San Felipe 250 finishing 24th out of a SCORE-record 34 starters in the Trophy Truck Spec class.
BOLIVIANS RETURN
The Bolivians are back. After a successful SCORE debut last season and in the season-opening 2021 SCORE San Felipe 250, a pair of Dakar Rally veterans and two of the most popular athletes in their home country are both racing again in the Pro Moto Ironman class.
Defending Pro Moto Ironman season point champion in his SCORE rookie season Juan Carlos Salvatierra, 39, Santa Cruz, Bolivia in his No. 725x KTM 450XC-F. Salvatierria won the Pro Moto Ironman class in both SCORE Baja races in the pandemic abbreviated 2020 SCORE World Desert Championship.
Salvatierra’s home country teammate Fabricio Fuentes, 44 of Villamontes, Bolivia, is back in the No. 785x KTM 500EXC-F. In last year’s SCORE Baja 1000, Fuentes finished second in Pro Moto Ironman to Salvatierra.
In the 2021 season-opener in San Felipe that had a race-record nine starters in the awe-inspiring Pro Moto Ironman division, Salvatierra finished second in class and Fuentes was fourth.
COURSE PREVIEW
With pre-running opening on Saturday, May 22 for the BFGoodrich Tires 53rd SCORE Baja 500, presented by 4 Wheel Parts, SCORE President/Race Director Jose A. Grijalva is putting together another memorable race course to challenge the world’s best desert racers. The finished distance will be approximately 464 miles.
Running in a clockwise direction, The race will start and finish without spectators in the SCORE compound because of Health and Safety protocols. The SCORE start/finish compound will be located East of downtown Ensenada at the end of the extension of Avenida Ruiz on the highway overpass, the same location as last year’s SCORE Baja 1000.
All Sportsman classes, Class 7SX, Baja Challenge, Class 11 and the Baja-e will race on a reduced course.
Source SCORE International
Photo: Rob MacCachren
