RENO, Nev. — Launching the sophomore season of the Roger Norman era, SCORE International will hold a live drawing for starting positions on Tuesday for the season-opening 28th Annual Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 desert race.

Round 1 of the five-race 2014 SCORE World Desert Championship series will be held in San Felipe Feb. 27-March 2. In 2014, two SCORE races will be held in the United States and three in Mexico.

The live drawing for starting positions, by class, for the season-opener will be held next Tuesday night (Feb. 11) at 7 p.m. PT at the SCORE-San Diego Tech Shop. The drawing will be broadcast live on the internet during a special Dirt LiveHD webisode at www.score-international.com. The festivities are open to all SCORE members and will begin with a special Baja Pits ‘Taco Tuesday’ at 6 p.m. with food proceeds going to Cruz Roja-Mexico.

With entries accepted up to race morning, over 200 entries from over 20 US States and 10 countries expected to enter the race that will feature competition in 35 Pro and t Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs in the popular ‘spring break’ race.

“We are all anxious to launch the five-race 2014 SCORE World Desert Championship on Mexico’s magnificent Baja California peninsula with our popular 28th Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250,” said Roger Norman, SCORE CEO and President. “We are starting our next phase in the development of the new SCORE and while we implemented several positive elements in 2013, we are looking forward to enhancing the quality of our racing and our events even more in 2014.”

“We are focused and committed to continue moving SCORE and our sport in new directions starting with the Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250. Change is inevitable and we are excited to be on the cutting edge of developing new directions for SCORE and all of desert racing.”

The SCORE World Desert Championship series will be visiting Mexico for the first of three annual SCORE Baja races in 2014. The race itself will be held along the azure waters of the Sea of Cortez in San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico.

This year’s race will be the first as part of a new three-year contract with the Mexican government to hold the ever-popular Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 in the picturesque fishing village located 125 miles south of the U.S. Border at Calexico, Calif.

The start draw for the season opener of the 2014 SCORE World Desert Championship series will determine the starting order within each of the various classes in the elapsed-time race.

NUMBERS, ETC.
While SCORE Trophy Trucks, the featured SCORE racing division for high-tech, 850-horsepower, unlimited production trucks have had assigned numbers since SCORE founded the unique class in 1994, all SCORE classes now have pre-assigned vehicle numbers that are renewed annually. SCORE is accepting racer registration exclusively online through the SCORE website. In order to be included in next Tuesday’s drawing, entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. PT tomorrow (Saturday, Feb. 8).

Entries received after that date will receive the next starting position within their respective classes. Entries received after Feb. 21 will be accessed a late fee of US$100.

COURSE MAP, PRERUNNING
Pre-running will be allowed on the actual race course starting next Friday (Feb. 14) through Friday, Feb. 28. The course for cars, trucks and Pro motorcycle classes will be one loop of approximately 272 miles and the Sportsman motorcycle and ATV classes will race one loop of approximately 250 miles. The course will include approximately 150 miles never used before in this SCORE Baja race.

TOP 12 DRAWING
A unique part of Tuesday’s drawing will be the special drawing for the top 12 finishers from the nearest previous SCORE Baja race entered in the current race in both SCORE Trophy Truck and the unlimited Class 1. For this race it will be the top 12 finishers in each class from last November’s 46th Tecate SCORE Baja 1000. After those groups are drawn with the same driver of record as last year, the remainder of the entries in each class will be selected for their respective starting positions after the first group in each class.

The top 12 finishers in SCORE Trophy Truck from the 2013 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 were: B.J. Baldwin, Las Vegas; Rob MacCachren, Las Vegas; Troy Herbst, Las Vegas; Juan C. Lopez, Tecate, Mexico; Dan McMillin, La Mesa, Calif.; Robby Gordon, Charlotte, N.C.; Ron Whitton, Mesa, Ariz.; Mark Post, Las Vegas; Bryce Menzies, Las Vegas; Cameron Steele, San Clemente, Calif.; Heidi Steele, San Clemente, Calif. and Glen Greer, Green Valley, Ariz.

In the unlimited Class 1, the top 12 finishers from the 2013 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 were: Damen Jefferies, Apple Valley, Calif.; Ronny Wilson, Long Beach, Calif.; Cody Parkhouse, Long Beach, Calif.; Justin Matney, Bristol, Tenn.; Jon Walker, Guam; Dale Lenk and George Peters, Newbury Park, Calif.

PRE-RACE SKED
The pre-race Manufacturer’s Midway, contingency and tech inspection of the vehicles in the race will be held on Friday (February 28). Contingency will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and tech from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 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 from Noon to 5 p.m. on Thursday (Feb. 27) and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday (Feb. 28) at the San Felipe Marina Resort, a few miles south of downtown San Felipe.

HISTORYonics
The season-opener of the 2014 SCORE World Desert Championship series, the 28th Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 annually provides a greater economic impact to San Felipe than the popular six-week-long ‘Spring Break’.

The race began in 1982 and was not held between 1985 and 1989, the first five years of the seven-year combined High Desert Racing Association-HDRA/SCORE Desert Series of US and Baja races. It has been held consecutively each year since 1990.

In its first 27 years, the race has been held in San Felipe all but 2007 when political issues forced a last minute move by SCORE, starting it in Ensenada and finishing it in Santo Tomas. Ironically, 2007 saw a race-record 394 starters and a race-record 288 finishers even though the race was moved and the course changed just 10 days before the event.  The records when the race actually started and finished in San Felipe are 341 for starters in 2006 and 220 for finishers, also in 2006.

ON THE SCOREscope
In its 41st year as the world’s foremost desert racing organization in 2014, the five-race 2014 SCORE World Desert Championship series, with three special events held in Baja California, Mexico, and three in the United States, starts with the 28th annual Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250. Starting and finishing in Ensenada, the 46th annual Tecate SCORE Baja 500 will be held June 5-8 and the third SCORE Baja race, starting in Ensenada and finishing in La Paz, the 47th annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 will be held Nov. 12-16.

The two U.S. races on 2014 SCORE World Desert Championship calendar are the inaugural SCORE Imperial Valley 250 in Plaster City, Calif. (April 25-27) and the two-day, single-race Inaugural SCORE Desert Challenge, location TBA in SoCal (Sept. 25-28).

For more information, visit the official website of the SCORE World Desert Championship series at www.score-international.com.