Gustavo “Tavo” Vildosola was the first Mexican-born racer to earn the overall victory at the Baja 1000, and the win cemented his legacy as one of the most beloved Mexican off-road racers in the sport. Although Vildosola earned a Baja 500 victory in the Pro Truck class in 2007, he has not stood atop of the podium at the Baja 500 in the Trophy Truck class.

Until today.

It was a suspenseful conclusion to today’s race, as the top four Trophy Truck waited at the finish line for SCORE CEO and President Roger Norman to announce the top three finishers. The margin of victory for this year’s 48th running of the SCORE Baja 500 was so slim SCORE officials had to check over the tracking data before announcing the results.

Rob MacCachren, who started fourth off the line, was able to overtake Carlos Apdaly Lopez at the tail end of the race and cross the finish line first. The move meant MacCachren passed Lopez on time, since Lopez started one spot head of him off the line and therefore had a 1-minute head start. MacCachren waited patiently to see if he would finish 9 minutes ahead of Tavo, since Vildosola started mid-pack after qualifying 13th out of the 31 Trophy Trucks entered. Unfortunately for MacCachren, he again played bridesmaid at the Baja 500, as he lost last year’s race by less than a minute and lost by an even slimmer margin of a few seconds to BJ Baldwin in 2008.

Vildosola understands just how little margin for error he had in this race, and his trouble-free day was the key to the win.

“We didn’t get out of the truck one time,” Vildosola said. “We had a clean run, which is what it takes to win. I mean, one flat… if we won it by 3 minutes, one flat and you’re done. It takes a perfect day nowadays, and that’s what we had today.”

Vildosola’s day was far from easy. With temperatures reported in the 110- to 115-degree range Fahrenheit on some areas of the racecourse, racers battled Baja in more ways than one today. Vildosola had to work his way through the pack to get into contention to even have a shot at the win.

“We started 13th, and it was just a battle all day long,” Vildosola said. “It was really hot down in the desert, and we worked really, really hard today to come back.”

When it came to the heat, Vildosola said he felt dehydrated coming in because he had a difficult time getting water into his system during the race.

“It was extremely bad,” Vildosola said of the heat. “I couldn’t get any water because when I had the opportunity to it was on the dry lakebed and we were going 120 mph. The water was getting all over my facemask and my face, but nothing was going in my mouth. I’m feeling pretty dehydrated right now. It was extremely hot. Thankfully we didn’t have to get out of the truck today.”

MacCachren was disappointed but handled the loss like the class act he is. He noted how tough this year’s course was and how challenging it was to run his Trophy Truck through the warmest part of the day.

“It was very hot,” he said. “We had to deal with the temperatures quite a bit in the truck. The water temperature, just trying to manage that trying to keep it under 240 degrees.”

How exactly does one deal with the heat when they’re still in the midst of a race?

“Really, you just have to slow down,” MacCachren said. “In a lot of ways it’s really disappointing because you want to go, and at that time it was a third of the way into the race, that’s when the heat came. At that time, Bryce Menzies had probably put about 4 or 5 minutes [on the field] and he was out there in front. He had got in front of Robby Gordon and that let him get away, and I was behind Apdaly and Robby for quite some time, and then Robby was pulled over before mile 100, and then we caught Apdaly and were in his dust going up over the Summit, and Bryce just kept getting away.

“By the time I had clean air we were in the heat of the day over there in Cohabuzo and you couldn’t run hard because I had to slow down to keep the truck cool. We just have to work on our cooling. We knew it was going to be hot, and you do everything you can to get your truck to run cool, but now in hindsight I wish it would’ve run cooler so I could’ve run hard instead of running 80 or 90 percent or so.”

MacCachren was clearly frustrated but tried his best not to let it show.

“It was a good run for us,” he said. “We’re happy, but it seems like we keep getting second place at this Baja 500. We got second last year by less than a minute, this year by three minutes or so. We’re happy, we made it, we’re here.”

Finishing in third place was Lopez, who was the second Trophy Truck across the finish line.

“We were running to take care of the truck and the tires, and on the last highway section Rob Mac passed me, and that is where I lost the lead,” Lopez said. “When we made a hard right off of the highway, he was right behind me and he cut to the inside. It happened in the last 20 miles.”

The defending champion was upbeat even though he couldn’t defend his title.

“It is a good day,” Lopez said. “In San Felipe, we finished in third [place], so I think we are doing well in the points. Maybe we can be SCORE Champion one more time.”

For a good chunk of the race, Menzies appeared to be on his way to a fourth Baja 500 victory in his young career.

“We were having a good run today.” Menzies said. “We just set the pace for the whole race. We had quite a lead on the second-place truck, and were just backing down and playing it smart when we were coming back in to where I knew the course really well.”

Unfortunately, Baja struck, and Menzies lost his lead after rolling his truck on its side.

“I for sure thought we had this one in the bag, but I just came into a corner too hot, hit the brakes and the steering locked up and we rolled the truck on its side,” Menzies said. “So we had to have our chase crew come in, and it took them about 20-30 minutes to get in and flip us back over. After that we just had to push it to the finish. But it’s just a bummer. It was just a mistake on my part, and I am sorry for that.”

Many of the race teams will continue to pour into Ensenada this evening, though some of the four-wheeled vehicles will be arriving later than expected today as they were delayed by more than an hour after the event was marred by an accident that resulted in the death of an 8-year-old American child. SCORE has confirmed the fatality but says authorities are still investigating the details of the event. The accident occurred when a Trophy Truck struck some spectators in the first mile of the race. SCORE has yet to make an official announcement on the incident. SCORE also confirmed that two motorcycle racers died during the race. Investigations are still pending in these events, and SCORE will provide a statement by tomorrow morning.

Check back for more information on the 2016 SCORE Baja 500, including official results for all classes once SCORE officials finishing reviewing the files.

Trophy Truck Results*
1. Tavo Vildosola – 8:20:52.105
2. Rob MacCachren – 8:23:51.973
3. Carlos Apdaly Lopez – 8:25:22.094
4. Troy Herbst – 8:40:20.692
5. Andy McMillin – 8:45:14.765
6. Bryce Menzies – 8:46:28.064
7. Dan McMillin – 8:48:10.673
8. Billy Wilson – 9:02.14.812
9. BJ Baldwin – 9:48:41.105

*Only the top three Trophy Truck racers were announced this evening by Roger Norman. The remaining Trophy Truck results of unofficial. Expect full results to come in the next few days.