SAN DIEGO — Grab some popcorn, a cold Tecate and find your comfort chair as showtime continues Thursday night as Roger Norman’s newest Internet creation continues–SCORE Throwback Thursday. Norman’s newest program showcases classic SCORE race footage primarily produced as television shows.
This Thursday night’s episode at 7 p.m. (PT) will be the telecast of the 1999 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, a loop race in Baja California Norte that started and finished for only the time in Ojos Negros, 40 miles east of Ensenada.
Norman’s new Internet show is another part of the inventory of his new Dirt Live productions which produces the weekly Dirt LiveHD studio show each Tuesday as well as the expanded race-week coverage for his SCORE and HDRA racing organizations.
“A key part of SCORE is its history and we are very happy to be able to make these historic programs available like this worldwide through our Dirt Live platform,” commented Norman, in his first year as CEO/President of the legendary SCORE International desert racing organization. “We are really moving at warp speed in so many different directions and SCORE Throwback Thursday will not only help us veterans of the sport sit back and remember the rich history of SCORE, but it will also help introduce an entire new audience to the magnificent legacy of SCORE.”
“These shows will also remind some and introduce others to the retired legends of SCORE racing like Ivan Stewart, Walker Evans, Roger Mears, Larry Ragland and Johnny Campbell. We look forward to remembering our past as we sustain our legacy as the world’s foremost desert racing organization. We are really please to be able to preserve the rich history that his made SCORE the iconic international symbol that it has been for 40 years.”
With plans to create an internet video library of SCORE’s iconic history, much of the inventory of shows and footage for SCORE Throwback Thursday is material originally produced by award-winning motorsports videographer Don Shoemaker.
SCORE production manager Andrew Grimshaw helped conceive the idea for this new programming platform as SCORE continues to develop increasing ways to expand the reach of not only SCORE but the entire sport of desert racing.
Tonight’s show will highlight the amazing accomplishments of overall 2-wheel and overall 4-wheel winners of the 1999 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 Johnny Campbell/Tim Staab and Larry Ragland. Campbell/Staab teamed to cover the 672.6-mile course in 14 hours, 15 minutes and 42 seconds on a Honda XR650R while Ragland won the 4-wheel portion of the race in 14:26:36 in a Chevy SCORE Trophy Truck. It was the last of Ragland’s five overall wins in the race and the Third of Campbell’s all-time record of 11 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 overall motorcycle victories.
Roger Norman’s Dirt Live one-hour show is broadcast live weekly and the show is anchored around Norman’s two desert racing series, the SCORE Desert Series and the High Desert Racing Association as well as the new bonus points championship purse program he has developed called the World Championship of Desert Racing. All live events, this will be the 22nd weekly Dirt LiveHD episode to air.
Dirt Live also goes on-site live with expanded event coverage during SCORE and HDRA race weekends and will next be covering the Moapa HDRA Big Horn 300, Sept. 27-29 on the Moapa Indian Reservation north of Las Vegas.
Here is the list of class winners from that vintage race, several of whom are still racing today, 14 years later:
1999 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000
Ojos Negros to Ojos Negros, Baja California, Mexico-672.6 miles
Total Starters: 215 Total Finishers: 101
Class Winners
SCORE TROPHY TRUCK–Larry Ragland
CLASS 1–Troy Herbst
CLASS 1/2-1600–Bekki Freeman
CLASS 3–Darren Skilton
CLASS 5-Mike Jakobsen
CLASS 5-1600–Mario Ledezma Jr.
CLASS 7–Chad McNeil
CLASS 7S–John Becker
CLASS 8–Chris Wilson
CLASS 9–Hector Sarabia
CLASS 10–Rick Ellison
SCORE LITES–Arturo Honold
CLASS 11–Eric Solorzano
STOCK MINI–Tim Casey/Al & Frank Arciero Jr.
STOCK FULL–David Sykes
PROTRUCK–Steve Barlow
CLASS 21–J. David Ruvalcaba
CLASS 22–Johnny Campbell/Tim Staab
CLASS 30–Cliff Matlock
CLASS 40–Chris Haines, Craig Adams
CLASS 50–Wayne Grafton
CLASS 24–Carmen Cafro
CLASS 25–Gilberto Santana, Ruben Martin
For more information, visit the official website of the new SCORE Desert Series at www.score-international.com.