SCORE International has announced that it will be offering three new classes for competitors in this year’s four-race World Desert Championship.
To be held exclusively on Mexico’s majestic Baja California peninsula for the third consecutive year, SCORE has created a Pro Class 7F truck division and two new Sportsman Stock UTV classes.
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“SCORE is always listening to our racers, sponsors and contingency companies and we believe that there is a market for these new classes that will add even more competition to our ultra-competitive SCORE World Desert Championship”, commented Jose Grijalva, a SCORE Race Director based in Ensenada.
The new Class 7F is for two or four-wheel drive mini or mid-size pickups. They’ll be limited to 4.5-liter normally aspirated engines or 3.5-liter forced induction engines. That latter criteria neatly includes Ford’s EcoBoost. Class 7 and Class 7SX will continue as SCORE competition classes along with the new Class 7F. Competitors in Class 7F will be identified by vehicle numbers 700F to 739F.
Keeping up with the ever-increasing demand from racers in the UTV classes, SCORE is adding two Sportsman Stock UTV classes to complement the other Sportsman UTV Unlimited class along with the Pro UTV FI, Pro UTV and Pro UTV Unlimited classes that are already part of the SCORE World Desert Championship.
Naturally aspirated and forced induction machines are welcomes in the new UTV classes but, unlike the new pickup class where N/A and boosted vehicles play together, the two different UTV engine types will be separated into different parts of the playground.
The new Sportsman Stock UTV FI (Forced Induction) class will use numbers 3900 through 3969 and the companion Sportsman Stock UTV NA (Normally Aspirated) class will identified by vehicle numbers 3970 through 3999.
This year’s four-race sked kicks off on April 4th in San Felipe, Mexico, with the appropriately named San Felipe 250. After blowing through the Baja 500 and Desert Challenge, held in May and September respectively, the season wraps up with the granddaddy Baja 1000 in mid-November.
Quads, motorcycles, UTVs, and Pro Cars & Trucks are all currently represented in the SCORE World Desert Championship, making up no fewer than fifty classes. The addition of these three new categories will only add to the excitement.