The first round of the now four-race 2016 SCORE World Desert Championship Series was held this past weekend, as the 30th San Felipe 250 kicked off the off-road racing series.

There were 164 teams that left the starting line for the 249.5-mile race held outside of the small fishing village of San Felipe. An impressive 71.3 percent of racers (117, to be exact) finished the race that looked to have drawn in a record crowd of race fans this year.

Although entries were up this year overall, the Trophy Truck class only drew 11 starters for this year’s race, but that didn’t stop Billy Wilson from driving his Bevly Wilson Racing Chevy Silverado built by Jimco to the race win in only his second Trophy Truck race.

Photo Gallery: 2016 SCORE San Felipe 250

“We had some navigational issues with the GPS and in the first 20 miles we were kind of running in the dark and blind,” Wilson said “It is hard to run at race speed without the GPS. Right off the bat around race mile two we noticed we had some oil cooler failures so we were pacing ourselves so we wouldn't end the race in the first few miles. Obviously that paid off.”

Finishing in second behind Wilson was Corey Keysar, who lost a steering pump near race mile 160 that put the truck down long enough for Wilson to take advantage. Carlos Lopez rounded out the podium in third place, making note that the course was rough as usual.

"The whole course was challenging but race mile 75 to race mile 100 was really tough because of the whoops and sand,” Lopez said.

In Class 1, Ronny Wilson took home the victory after having to tackle the entire race by  himself when that wasn’t the plan originally. 

“The race went really well for us today. I ended up driving the whole thing because my nephew who was supposed to get in at race mile 150 got sick last night,” Wilson said. “I didn't get to pre-run the last half of the race but my co-driver did a great job calling the turns. Everything was just perfect. The course was just brutal. I've been racing out here since 1987 so we know the terrain well and know that you have to drive at about 90 percent or you'll tear a wheel off. It's just that rough.”

Finishing in second behind Wilson in Class 1 was Scott Reuschenberg, and rounding out the podium in the class is Derek Fletcher.

In the loaded Class 10 class, Todd Winslow earned the victory and was the sixth four-wheel vehicle across the finish line. He noted just how happy he was to be done after the rough race. “It was brutal out there with the whoops and square-edged rocks,” he said. “It just went on for miles and they got bigger the farther you went. The toughest part were the deep-sand whoops because it was hard for a small motor to get on top of them.”

Rafael Navarro IV finished in second place in Class 10, and rounding out the podium in the class was Luis Salgado.

Chad Broughton was the tenth overall vehicle across the finish line but more importantly was the winner of the Trophy Truck Spec class after splitting driving duties with his dad Paul.

“It was pretty rough,” he said. “We drove the last 100 miles and my dad did the first 150 and gave us the truck in third place. We passed the first and second place trucks in Puertecitos where they were broken down. The truck was running a little rough, but we made it.”

In the Forced Induction PRO UTV class, Mark Burnett took the win in his RZR XP1000 Turbo over Derek Murray and third-in-class Mike Cafro.

“It was pretty brutal out there and we worked all night on a brand new car,” Burnett said. “We had about five miles on it and we had never tested it. We had a flawless day. We kept it slow and mellow and kept it about 75 percent and got it to the finish line. There was a lot of carnage out there. We passed Class 1 cars that were hurting on the side of the road.”

In the Naturally Aspirated Pro UTV class, Thomas Graves took home the win aboard his Polaris RZR XP1000.

“It was a tough race and I think there were only four miles that were easy,” he said. “We were going back and forth with all of the other UTV guys all day long. It was probably the most exciting race I ever had in the dirt. It was incredible.”

The 1x team of Colton Udall and Mark Samuels earned the Pro Motorcycle win aboard their Honda CRF450X over the 4x team of Francisco Arrendondo, Ryan Penhall, Shane Esposito, Roberto Villalobos and Justin Morgan.

“We had a really gnarly battle with the 4x team and they actually caught us over time,” Udall said. “At race mile 146 when we changed a tire I got back on the bike and barely got in front of them. We were practically holding hands going down the highway. I was checking my odometer and we were going 58 or 59 miles-per-hour and just staying with each other. He had to peel off to pit and that's the last time I saw him.”

SCORE will return again with the second race of the year at the 48th SCORE Baja 500 at the start of June. Coverage of the race will air later this year as a one-hour special on the CBS Sports Network in April. SCORE will announce details of the on-air date as we get closer to April.

Click here for 2016 SCORE San Felipe 250 Results