Top Guns MacCachren, Roeseler, Gordon, Menzies, Steele, Lofton, all early entries in BFGoodrich Tires 34th SCORE San Felipe 250
NOTE: Current Unofficial numerical entry list, by class, at bottom of text
All entered in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck racing division, all-world desert racers Rob MacCachren, Larry Roeseler, Robby Gordon, Bryce Menzies, Cameron Steele and Justin Lofton are all among the nearly 125 early entries for next month’s BFGoodrich Tires 34th Annual SCORE San Felipe 250, presented by Ford.
THE SCOOP
Returning after a one-year absence because of the COVID-19 pandemic, online racer registration continues for the Round 1 of the four-race 2021 SCORE World Desert Championship which will be held April 14-18 in the quaint, peaceful village of San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico.
This season-opening race will be held under the same Bio-Security protocols as last year’s abbreviated season of two races that includes no spectators at contingency, the start or the finish but fans will be allowed again to watch out around the race course, following normal health and safety protocols. Contingency, and the start/finish compound will all be located on the secured grounds of the luxurious El Dorado Ranch just north of town.
With 52 classes offered for Pro and Sportsman Cars, Trucks, UTVs, Motorcycles and Quads, 117 entries to date have come from 20 U.S. States, along with host Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica and New Zealand.
San Felipe is 125 miles south of the U.S. Border at Calexico, Calif. on the eastern side of the Baja peninsula along the azure waters of the Sea of Cortez. All four 2020 SCORE races will be held on Mexico’s magnificent Baja California peninsula for the sixth consecutive year.
THREE DECADES-PLUS
Celebrating the 34th anniversary of the youngest of the three legendary SCORE Baja races, sometimes referred to as the SCORE ‘baby Baja’, entries are being accepted on the SCORE website under Race Info at www.SCOREInternational.com for Pro and Sportsman entries for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads.
START DRAW
The deadline to enter online in time to be in the drawing for starting positions within each class is 8 p.m. PT on Friday, March 26. Starting positions for the other classes will be determined by a random drawing after the close of online racer registration which is at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 26 with the exception of entries that register in person at the SCORE Ensenada office will have until 5 p.m. PT on Wednesday, April 7. Those late entries, however, will not be included in the start draw.
Late, on-site entries will receive the next starting position within the class entered.
MAC ATTACK
When it comes to off-road racing, there are few if any that do it better than Las Vegas’ Rob MacCachren, the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee and six-time selection to the sportswriters and sports broadcasters All-America Motorsports team, enters this year’s SCORE San Felipe 250 with over 300 career desert, short-course and stadium racing career race wins.
In the San Felipe 250, the ‘Mac Attack’ has a race-high six overall victories, 10 class wins and he also won the SCORE Challenge of Champions held in San Felipe for the only time in 2011.
MacCachren, 55, is a champion of champions with a sterling record and an impeccable reputation as a fierce, but fair competitor.
The all-time leader in career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins with 17 in the 27-year history of the marquee racing division where he has earned season SCORE Trophy point crowns three times (1994, 2007, 2018).
In the SCORE San Felipe 250, MacCachren’s six overall wins (all in SCORE Trophy Truck) were earned in 2003 (with Gus Vildosola Sr), 2007 (with Mark Post) and driving solo the other four times in 2011, 2012, 2017 and 2018.
LR ‘Mr. Baja’
A racing legend on both sides of the Border, Hall of Famer Larry Roeseler simply goes by Mr. Baja in Mexico. Living in Boulevard, Calif., Roeseler, 64, has been racing in SCORE Baja races since the early 1970s with an unrivaled record of excellence both on two wheels as well as four wheels.
In the SCORE Baja 1000, LR, as he is also known by friends and competitors, has a race-record 14 overalls (including 10 on motorcycles) among his 18 career class wins. In the SCORE Baja 500, Roeseler has 11 overall wins (nine on motorcycles) among his 17 career class wins in this race.
Roeseler enters this year’s SCORE San Felipe 250 with two overalls (both on motorcycles) and six class wins in four different classes. In motorcycles, Roeseler has a win in both the old Class 21 (Under 250cc) and Class 22 (unlimited), two Class 7 race wins (stock mini trucks) and two in the unlimited Class 1 (open wheel cars).
This year Roeseler will be the solo driver in SCORE Trophy Truck for the No. 43 Cantina Racing Baja Jerky Toyota Tundra built by ID Designs. In his first race with the team in last year’s SCORE Baja 500, held in San Felipe for the first time, he finished fifth in SCORE Trophy Truck.
In last year’s season finale at the SCORE Baja 1000 he drove the first half of the race for the overall winning Luke McMillin.
RG IN BAJA
If it has four wheels, he has probably driven it in a race. Originally from Orange, Southern California, Robby Gordon developed his skills and his dramatic flair for flat-out racing as a second-generation desert racer, the son of the late Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame champion racer Bob Gordon.
From Indy Cars to the NASCAR Cup series to the Dakar Rally, Gordon appears now back solidly in his desert racing roots except for competing in his own Stadium Super Truck Series.
Gordon, 52, who lives in Charlotte, N.C., has stacked up numerous race wins in SCORE Baja races of his long career.
he has wins in both the SCORE Baja 500 and the SCORE Baja 1000.
For his SCORE racing career, Gordon is tied for second in career SCORE Trophy Truck race victories with 11. He is tied with Ed/Tim Herbst, Andy McMillin and Larry Ragland.
In the SCORE San Felipe 250, Gordon won the overall and SCORE Trophy Truck race in 1996 and he has two class wins total in this race.
For this year he will be the solo driver of the No. 77 Speed Energy Chevy Silverado built out of his own Robby Gordon Enterprise race shop.
MENZIES MATURES FAST
A one-time protégé of Rob MacCachren, Las Vegas’ Bryce Menzies has molded his own substantial career in desert racing and rally racing out of the Menzies Motorsports race shop in his hometown.
Menzies, 33, literally exploded onto the SCORE desert racing scene in 2011 winning the SCORE Overall point championship, the SCORE Trophy Truck season point crown, two individual race wins and was voted as the 2011 SCORE Rookie of the Year.
Entering 2021, Menzies has five career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins, the most recent being in 2014.
A great start that has evolved into branching out into short-course racing, rally race, long-jump record feats and rock-crawling victories.
In 2016 Menzies made history by jumping his off-road truck 115.6m (379.4ft) over a New Mexico ghost town to set a new truck distance record.
Of the three major SCORE Baja races, he has raced the least in the SCORE San Felipe 250.
Still looking for his first class and overall win in this race, he is among the favorites in his No. 7 Red Bull Menzies Motorsports Ford Raptor all-wheel drive SCORE Trophy Truck built by Mason Motorsports.
MAN OF STEELE
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. 2 Monster Energy Desert Assassins Ford Raptor in SCORE Trophy Truck. He is forgoing his regular vehicle number of 16 and changing the vinyl wrap on his race truck to be a tribute along with the No. 2 to the memory of long-time desert racer Pete Sohren who died tragically in January of 2019 in a non-race accident on the sand dunes in San Felipe.
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 SCORE race win in San Felipe.
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.
BACK FROM NASCAR
Like so many, Justin Lofton, 35, is a SCORE second-generation desert racer. After spending several years driving on various NASCAR national circuits, Lofton, who helps run the family Lofton Cattle company in Texas and his hometown of Brawley, Calif., has raced in four NASCAR Xfinity Series races, 84 in the NASCAR Truck Series. In the NASCAR Truck Series, Lofton had 29 top 10 finishes and one race victory.
Lofton also ran several years in the ARCA Series where he earned the 2009 season point championship. During that 2009 ARCA campaign, Lofton has six race wins, 15 top fives and 19 top 10 finishes.
He started racing late model stock cars on local tracks before pursing the NASCAR feeder series.
Lofton also raced several times in Robby Gordon’s Stadium Super Trucks series and won both the 2015 and 2016 Mint 400 desert race in Las Vegas.
With so much NASCAR Spring racing, Lofton hasn’t competed to much in the SCORE San Felipe 250 although his father Bob Lofton won the Unlimited Class 1 in the 2002 SCORE San Felipe 250 racing with Mike Julson. Justin Lofton will be looking for his first SCORE Trophy Truck win in his No. 41 Lofton Cattle JL Racing Ford Raptor built by Jimco Racing.
SCORE TROPHY TRUCK (34*)
1 Luke McMillin
2 Cameron Steele
4 Justin Matney
*5L Clyde Stacy
7 Bryce Menzies
9 Carlos ‘Apdaly’ Lopez
10 Alan Ampudia
11 Rob MacCachren
17 Josh De Jong
19 Tim Herbst
*20L Robbie Pierce
21 Gustavo ‘Tavo’ Vildosola
*21L Gustavo Vidosola Sr
22 Jax Redline
23 Dan McMillin
24 Adam Householder
26 Dave Taylor
27 Jonathan Brenthel
29 Madix Bailey
31 Andy McMillin
35 Carlos Penunuri
*37L Rolf Helland
40 Chris Miller
41 Justin Lofton
43 Larry Roeseler
51 Steve Olliges
65 Dan Myers
76 A.J. Jones
77 Robby Gordon
*79L Russell Buehler
82 Sam Baldi
89 Mike Walser
85 Mike Lawrence
92 Paul Nauleau
*TOTAL SCORE TT LEGEND
CLASS 1 (6)
100 Cody Parkhouse
105 Mason Cullen
123 Broc Dickerson
168 Shelby Reid
179 Mario Fuentes
183 Frank Russell
TROPHY TRUCK SPEC (22)
202 Chad Broughton
205 Jose Delucie
211 Pat Sims
213 Karl Ebdrup
216 Valerie Clark
218 Chad Dohrman
226 Alexis Lopez
227 Kyle Jergensen
228 Ryan Hancock
233 Thomas Degen
234 Jason McNeil
238 Elijah Kiger
244 Brad Lovell
255 Brad Vicic
261 Jeff Bader
264 Pierce Herbst
277 Travis Williams
278 Carlos Ibarra
285 Clay Lawrence
294 Vincent Munoz
296 Andrew Myers
297 Bill McBeath
CLASS 10 (9)
1023 Tamara Myers
1024 Wheeler Morgan
1045 Matt Rusich
1048 Kevin Price
1062 J.J. Schnarr
1078 Augie Cortez
1081 Matt Winslow
1085 Jeremy Davis
1087 Ivan Tagle
CLASS 7 (2)
709 Jeff Proctor
710 Mike Shaffer
PRO UTV FI (15)
2915 Jessica Lopez
2916 Brian Mallenix
2918 Justin Lambert
2931 Craig Scanlon
2940 Erick Kozin
2941 Steven Poole
2948 Matt Burroughs
2949 Alonso Lopez
2974 Jorge Cano
2967 Mike Pratt
2977 Justin Elenburg
2987 Edgar Garcia Leon
2985 Jason Willett
2998 Cameron Ornelas
2999 Bob Jablonsky
SCORE LITES (2)
1228 Jorge Cardona
1249 Hector Garcia Jr
PRO UTV NA (5)
1925 Zach Sizemore
1954 Kristen Matlock
1962 Dodge Poelman
1982 Elias Hanna
1995 Kaden Wells
CLASS 1/2-1600 (1)
1610 Jordan Price
PRO UTV STOCK (3)
3930 Douglas Cornwell
3933 Randy Emberton
3953 Nick Bruce
CLASS 8 (0)
HAMMER TRUCK UNLTD (1)
4421 Mike Hales
PRO UTV OPEN (1)
1871 Wayne Matlock
CLASS 5 (3)
507 Greg Sullivan- RS
508 Miguel Pabloff
526 Jerry Longo
CLASS 3 (1)
313 David Orzolek
CLASS 5-1600 (0)
BAJA CHALLENGE (0)
CLASS 7F (1)
701F Brandon Walsh
CLASS 7SX (0)
Baja-e (1)
E414 Matthew Blanchard
CLASS 11 (2)
1111 Eric Solorzano
1196 Alex Gonzales
Sportsman
SPT UNLTD TRUCK (0)
SPT UTV UNLIMITED (1)
18XX Adrian Juaquin Garcia
SPT UTV STOCK (0)
Pro Motorcycles
PRO MOTO UNLIMITED (0)
PRO MOTO 30 (0)
PRO MOTO LIMITED (1)
109x Christopher Gil
PRO MOTO 40 (3)
422x Shane Redline
424x William St. Laurent
496x T.J. Juon
PRO MOTO 50 (0)
PRO MOTO IRONMAN (0)
PRO MOTO 60 (0)
Pro Quads
Pro Quad (0)
Pro Quad Ironman (0)
Sportsman
SPT M/C (2)
224x Edgar Najar
245x Filiberto Garcia
SPT QUAD (1)
125a Lilia Rodriguez
Source SCORE International
