GREENVILLE, S.C. ― To recognize the importance that racing in the Baja peninsula has had for the brand, BFGoodrich Tires has put together an enhanced contingency program for racers at the 49th Annual SCORE Baja 1000.

BFGoodrich will award $10,000 in contingency money to the overall winners of the race running exclusively on their tires.

Additionally for this race, to recognize the four decades of testing and racing that has helped make BFGoodrich a leader in desert racing and constructing the toughest all-terrain tires on the market, the company has established a program called “40 for 40” for this year’s race.

MORE: SCORE Baja 500 Race Recap & Results

BFGoodrich will award 40 light truck or passenger car DOT tires (4 tires per winning team) to those racers who claim class wins if running exclusively on BFGoodrich Tires. The program is intended to celebrate the long history of success that the brand has had in Baja racing on a wide variety of tires- from competition only models to consumer available light truck off-road tires.

SCORE Baja 1000 winners in the following classes will be eligible to claim the four tires: Class 1/2-1600; Class 3; Class 5; Class 5-1600; Class 7; Class 7SX; Class 8; Class 9; Class 10; Score Lites; Class 11; Trophy Truck Spec; Stock Full; Stock Mini; Trophy Lite; Heavy Metal; Class 3000; ProTruck; Class 2;  Class 19 and Class 29.

To qualify, racers must follow the same specific contingency rules in place including running BFGoodrich tires on all four wheel positions and the spare of the vehicle the entire race, must start and finish and be declared the class winner within the time limit, and run the appropriate sticker (24 inch decal visible on each side of the vehicle). Additionally, the class must have at least three entries to qualify. As with all contingency programs, racers must register with SCORE contingency to be eligible.

BFGoodrich will continue its standard contingency which includes a monetary payout for class wins for qualified entrants. As with all contingency programs, all requirements must be met. Full rules can be found at www.score-international.com.

“BFGoodrich is a leader in the off-road culture in part because it found an ideal laboratory and playground in Baja to test its tires four decades ago,” said Chris Baker, BFGoodrich Motorsports Director. “In 1976, we tested the first radial all-terrain by entering it into the toughest desert race on the planet. It is through that first discovery that a more than 40 year kinship developed between the Baja community and BFGoodrich Tires.  That has resulted in 86 overall SCORE wins in Baja and countless class wins. We take great pride in having competitive products that nearly canvasses the field each year. After all, our first win in Baja came in Class 8. We want to thank and recognize the importance of winners in every class with this program.”

In 1975, BFGoodrich engineers traveled to Baja California, Mexico to test a new concept – a radial light truck tire for both off and on-road use. The company learned quickly that they could use the Baja peninsula as a real-life laboratory to develop tires. If they could withstand the grueling terrain of Baja, they had something.

A year later, BFGoodrich debuted the first radial all-terrain tire in the market, the Radial All-Terrain T/A. And it was quickly decided that the best way to prove the durability of the new tire was to travel back to Baja and test it in the SCORE Baja 500 desert race. Mounted on an Oldsmobile Starfire, the experiment send engineers back to work to create a tire that was “Baja-tough.”

After entering the market, BFGoodrich committed itself to achieving success in Baja. Frank “Scoop” Vessels and Gary Pace entered a Class 8 Ford F100 on Radial All-Terrain T/A tires. Through that effort, a passion was born, and resulted in class wins at the SCORE Baja 500 and Baja 1000 wins that year.

Forty years later, BFGoodrich has tallied more overall and class wins in SCORE Baja racing than any other tire manufacturer,  in fact claiming the overall win in these races more than 70 percent of the time.