RENO, NEV., USA – Preparing to launch the five-race SCORE World Desert Championship, to be held for the first time in the storied history of SCORE all on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, Chris Miller received the first overall starting position Thursday and Kevin Murphy received the first motorcycle starting position in the drawing held Thursday for this month’s season-opening 30th Annual SCORE San Felipe 250.
The internationally-televised race will be held Feb. 24-28 in San Felipe, the picturesque fishing village on the tranquil Sea of Cortez, 125 miles south of the U.S. Border at Calexico, Calif.
Miller, of Santee, Calif., drives in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck division for high-tech, 850-horsepower, unlimited production trucks while Murphy rides in the Pro Motorcycle Unlimited class.
FELIZ ANNIVERSARIO
Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the youngest of the three traditional SCORE Baja races, sometimes referred to as the SCORE ‘baby Baja’, entries are being accepted on the SCORE website (www.SCORE-International.com) for Pro and Sportsman entries for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads.
Racing over a rugged 249.5-mile course that includes four of Baja’s infamous washes, the elapsed time race will have a 17-hour time limit. Motorcycles and quads will start, beginning at 6 a.m. and the car, truck and UTV classes will leave at approximately 10:30 a.m. with at least a three and one-half hour split between the first group of vehicles.
Pre-race festivities will be held in San Felipe on Feb. 24, Feb. 25 and Feb. 26 with race day on Saturday, Feb. 27 concluding with the post-race awards fiesta at Noon PT on Sunday, Feb. 28 at Rockodile night club in the center of the picturesque Malecon.
ARCOS MUY FAMOSO
To help celebrate three decades of this popular ‘spring break’ fiesta, the race will start and finish where it has for over 20 years, in the shadow of the famed San Felipe Arches on the outskirts of town.
MAS FIRSTS
Drawing the first starting slot for the unlimited Class 1 for open-wheel desert race cars was Stephen Squires, Austin, Texas. Riding the first quad off the line will be team led by two-time defending SCORE Pro Quad season point champion Javier Robles Jr of Calexico, Calif.
ENTRY LEADERS
Unlimited Class 1 and Class 10 each had the most entries in the drawing with seven each followed by SCORE Tropy Truck with 14 entries and Trophy Truck Spec with 13 entries.
Leading the motorcycle entries in the drawing was the Pro Moto Ironman class with eight entries followed by Pro Moto Unlimited and Pro Moto 40 (riders at least 40 years old) with six each.
PRE-RACE SKED
The pre-race Manufacturer’s Midway, contingency and tech inspection of the vehicles in the race will be held on Friday (Feb. 26). Contingency will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (PT) and tech/transponder checkfrom 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (PT) on the picturesque Malecon, flanked by the Sea of Cortez on one side and the popular restaurants and night clubs of San Felipe on the other.
Racer registration will be held at the Rockodile night club from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. (PT) on Wednesday (Feb. 24), from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (PT) on Thursday (Feb. 25) and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (PT) on Friday (Feb. 26).
DOS FIESTAS
Double-Fiestas will be held on Thursday (Feb. 25) from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Rockodile night club as the Monster Energy SCORE Kick-off Party will be held on the upper deck and the Bud Light Party on the lower deck. Both parties are open to the public and donations will be taken for Cruz Roja de Mexico (Red Cross).
QUATRO-PEAT?
Winning the last three SCORE San Felipe 250 races overall, Mexico’s Gus Vildosola Jr will be looking to break a three-way tie with three Las Vegas racers to become the first racer to win the SCORE overall title in race history four times and the first to pull off four consecutive victories.
A second generation Mexican desert racer, Vildosola Jr of Mexicali has five class wins in this race including a record-tying three straight overall and SCORE Trophy Truck wins in the No. 21 Vildosola Racing Branix Ford Raptor.
Vildosola Jr, with help from his father Gus Sr in 2013 won his first overall. He drove solo the next two years to tie the record in 2015 of three straight overall wins set by Las Vegas racing brothers Ed Herbst and Tim Herbst who won three straight in 1999, 2000 and 2001.
Two other Southern Nevada drivers have three overall car and truck wins in San Felipe but not three straight.
One is Las Vegas’ Brian Collins, who won his first in 1990 in Class 1 while splitting driving time with SCORE Baja motorcycle racing legend Jack Johnson, also of Las Vegas. Collins also captured two straight in SCORE Trophy Truck in 2008 and 2009.
The other three-timer in overall victories is Las Vegas’ Rob MacCachren, who has eight class wins in San Felipe and won his three overalls in the featured SCORE Trophy Truck division. MacCachren’s first was in 2007 when his split the driving with Mark Post and his most recent overalls in San Felipe were solo wins in 2011 and 2012. MacCachren, who has won two straight in the SCORE Baja 1000, drives the No. 11 MacCachren Motorsports Rockstar Ford F-150.
LA RUTA
Pre-running will be allowed on the actual race course through Friday (Feb. 26). The race course is a single loop, run counter-clockwise of 249.5 miles. Starting and finishing at the San Felipe Arches monument, the course is considered to possibly be the toughest in the history of this popular race.
Fairly similar to the course run in 2010, it does not cross Highway 3 which goes to Ensenada. Instead it runs up to it along Highway 5 and then turns northwest just before Highway 3 and parallels it for about 10 miles before turning further south all the way down to the legendary Matomi Wash. Working its way back north, it heads southwest and then north and north west before turning north back to the finish line.
In addition to Matomi, the course also includes three other major Baja washes– Huatomote, Chanate and Amarillas. The course will have three physical checkpoints at race mile 24.7, rm 148.5 and rm 244.7. There will also be approximately 45 virtual checkpoints along the race course.
CBS SPORTS NETWORK COVERAGE
All races in the five-race 2016 SCORE World Desert Championship, along with the special SEMA SCORE Baja 1000 Experience and qualifying for the SCORE Baja 1000 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway are once again airing in the USA and Canada on the CBS Sports Network. The spectacular shows feature not only SCORE Trophy Truck coverage, but also top action and highlights from many other classes of trucks, cars, UTVs, motorcycles and quads – making sure that the most exciting footage and most compelling stories continue are part of each race event broadcast.
Capping off the 2016 broadcast season, the SCORE Baja 1000 broadcast on CBS Sports Network will air as a full two-hour special for the second straight year.
ON THE AIR
2016 CBS Sports Network Original Broadcast Schedule (subject to change, check local listings)
· SCORE San Felipe 250 (first telecast-Sunday, April 10, 9 p.m.)
· SCORE Baja Sur 500 (first telecast-Sunday, May 29, 9 p.m. ET)
· SCORE Baja 500 (first telecast-Sunday, July 24, 9 p.m. ET)
· SCORE Desert Challenge presented by Rosarito Beach (first telecast-Sunday, Nov. 13, 9 p.m. ET)
· SCORE Baja 1000 Qualifying @SEMA SCORE Baja 1000 Experience (first telecast-Sunday, Dec.18, 9 p.m. ET)
· SCORE Baja 1000 (two-hour special) (first telecast-Sunday, December 25, 9 p.m. ET)
CBS SPORTS NETWORK
CBS Sports Network is available across the country through local cable, video and telco providers and via satellite on DirecTV Channel 221 and Dish Network Channel 158. For more information, including a full programming schedule and how to get CBS Sports Network, go to www.cbssportsnetwork.com.