ROSARITO BEACH, Mexico — Enjoying rare respites from his consuming life as an accomplished Americna businessman and film producer, Gary Magness has drawn the first starting position in the featured SCORE Trophy Truck division for next week’s internationally-televised Rosarito Beach 20th SCORE Desert Challenge.
Born in Bozeman, Mont., raised in Texas, Magness, who lives and conducts much of his business out of Denver, drives his No. 45 Mango Racing Ford F-150 in SCORE Trophy Truck, the marquee SCORE racing division for high-tech, 850-horsepower unlimited production trucks. At the midway point in the SCORE season, Magness is third in the season point standings in SCORE Trophy Truck.
With a special race format, Round 3 of the four-race 2016 SCORE World Desert Championship, the race will be held next Thursday through Sunday in Mexico’s Baja California. Starting and finishing just south of Rosarito Beach, the colorful resort area on the Pacific Ocean located just 19 miles from the U.S. Border south of San Diego, it marks the first time in its storied history that SCORE International has held a race in the Rosarito Beach area. The actual start/finish area, hot pits and primary spectator area will be at Los Manantiales.
With competition in classes for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads, the only two days of pre-running for all classes will be held this Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT each day. An additional practice session will be held for motorcycle and quad classes only prior to the start of their race next Sunday from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. PT.
Official entries received after the drawing will be given the next available starting position within their respective classes. Online entries will be accepted until 10 p.m. PT this Sunday. Late entries after that date must all be completed at registration in Rosarito Beach.
FIRST STARTS
Among the other racers who drew first starts along with the number of entries to date in their respective classes are: Trophy Truck Spec – No. 200 Larry Connor, Miamisburg, Ohio/Steven Eugenio, Carlsbad, Calif., Mason-Chevy, (seven entries to date); Class 1 – No. 169 Otoniel Huerta, San Luis Rio Colorado Mexico, Jimco-Chevy (nine entries); Class 10 – No. 1002 Clay Lawrence, Murrieta, Calif., LMS-Chevy (10 entries); Class 1/2-1600 – No. 1997 Jorge Sampietro, Ensenada, Mexico, Romo-VW (10 entries) and SCORE Lites – No. 1204 Gustavo Pinuelas, Calexico, Calif., Jimco-VW (eight entries).
Leading the motorcycles onto the course will be the No. 1x of Colton Udall, Yucca Valley, Calif./Mark Samuels, Yucca Valley, Calif., Honda CRF450X (five entries) in the Pro Moto Unlimited Class.
PRE-RUNNING
With 112 entries to date, nearly 150 total entries are expected at the start line with entries from 17 U.S. States and five countries anticipated. Official practice, or pre-running, on the official race course will be held only for official entries with fully-paid entry fees. The pre-running will be held this Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT each of those two days. An additional special pre-running session will be held just for motorcycles and quads entered in the race from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. PT next Sunday (Sept. 18) prior to their race.
Food and beverage vendors will be open adjacent to the start/finish line area during pre-running this Saturday and Sunday and on Sunday, Sept. 18 during the special additional pre-run session for motorcycles and quads.
ENTRY FEES LOWEST IN 20 YEARS
Online registration, by class, for Pro and Sportsman cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads, is ongoing through the SCORE website. SCORE has announced that entry fees for this year’s race have been reduced to the lowest amount in 20 years. The SCORE website has information on all SCORE races which can be found on the home page under the Race Info tab.
For more info, visit http://score-international.com/raceinfo/rosarito-desert-challenge/.
A HAPPENING
Colorful race week festivities will start next Thursday with the day-long, pre-race Manufacturer’s Midway and Contingency festival starting on Blvd. Benito Juarez and will travel along the beach in front of the massive famed Papas & Beer Beach Club and finishing back on Blvd. Benito Juarez almost in front of the legendary Rosarito Beach Hotel. SCOREvision will stream contingency activities and racer interviews from the beach in front of Papas & Beer.
The Monster Energy SCORE Kick-off Party will be held from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. PT next Thursday in the Monster Energy VIP area at Papas & Beer.
After staging at Papas & Beer, the three groups each day will parade with a police and SCORE escort to the start line 9.5 miles south of town.
At 8:30 p.m. PT next Saturday at Papas & Beer, the awards celebration will be held for the car/truck/UTV classes and at 6 p.m. PT next Sunday for the motorcycle/quad classes.
All of the week’s festivities will air live, including the three race days, via the internet on the SCORE website and the new SCORE App.
SPECIAL FORMAT
Unique for SCORE, the race format will have all classes racing a total of four laps over a surprisingly rugged 32.2-mile race course (128.8 total miles) split into two, two-lap sessions.
For cars, trucks and UTVs, they will be divided into four groups, running their first two laps next Friday and their final two laps next Saturday.
The motorcycle and quad classes will run as one large group, running all of their laps on Sunday, their first two in the morning and the final two in the afternoon following a break.
It is an elapsed-time race with vehicles in each group starting in 30-second intervals.
Racing for the cars, trucks and UTVs will start at 6:20 a.m. PT next Friday and Saturday and the course will close each day at 6 p.m. PT. The featured SCORE Trophy Truck division for high-tech, 850-horsepower unlimited production trucks will start their laps along with the Trophy Truck spec class each day at 12:40 p.m. PT followed by the group including the unlimited Class 1, Class 10 and SCORE Lites and 3:20 p.m. PT as the final race of each day.
Next Sunday, motorcycles and quads will start their first two laps at 10:30 a.m. PT and their final two laps starting at 2 p.m. PT with their course closing at 3:55 p.m.
The start order for the second session for all classes will be an invert of the start order from the first session.
HISTORIC COURSE
The race features a colorful course, finalized by SCORE CEO/President Roger Norman along with Race Director Jose A. Grijalva of 32.2 miles through the foothills and around a mountain to the south and east of central Rosarito Beach. It will start and finish at the Los Manantiales area.
This landmark race course is another memorable example of Baja California diversity in terrain starting near sea-level and climbing up twice to around 2,000 feet. The course will be another unique jewel reflecting the majestic beauty of Baja California going through more ranches than most SCORE race courses.
Traveling in a clockwise direction, the race course weaves its way through washes, on existing trails, up and over a ridgeline trail at the top of two hills and back down into the start/finish line area off of the old Highway 1 south of Rosarito Beach at Los Manantiales.
Filled with farms and ranches, the race course goes through areas like Piedra Azul, Panchos, Loma Del Gato and Loma Bonita while racing around the famous El Cerro del Coronel mountain in areas where SCORE has never before held a race.
The race course will include three physical, full-stop checkpoints, checkpoint No. 1 at race-mile 9.7, CP No. 2 at race-mile 18.9 and CP No. 3 at race-mile 27.1.
ROSARITO BEACH HOTEL
The iconic Rosarito Beach Hotel, in the heart of Rosarito, will be the site of many of the activities surrounding the Rosarito Beach 20th SCORE Desert Challenge. Racer registration and Media registration will be held at the hotel from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT next Thursday the pre-race driver’s meeting for the car, truck and UTV classes will be at the hotel at 7 p.m. PT Thursday as well.
SPECIAL MOTO/QUAD REG
Rider registration for motorcycle and quad classes will be part of regular racer registration next Thursday at the Rosarito Beach Hotel as well as a special rider registration, tech and SPOT tracking installation for moto and quad classes only will be held from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. PT next Saturday also at the Rosarito Beach Hotel.
SPECTATORS
Local organizations sponsoring and supporting the Rosarito Beach 20th SCORE Desert Challenge are developing a unique and slightly-elevated spectator area at Los Manantiales with line-of-sight viewing of the start line, finish line, hot pits and first and last portions of the race course. The spectator area will also include food and beverage stands and novelty vendors. The spectator area will also have its own access road with ample directional signage to the area.
The rest of the course will include limited access to spectators in specific locations that will be under police supervision as much of the challenging course winds through several private ranches in the area that are entirely fenced in.
BIENVENIDOS A PLAYAS DE ROSARITO
Race headquarters will be the iconic Rosarito Beach Hotel, the historical landmark in the heart of Rosarito that opened in 1925. The SCORE World Desert Championship will be visiting the popular Playas de Rosarito for the first time in its long and storied history.
Located 19 miles south of the border near San Diego, this scenic location between the alluring beaches of the Pacific Ocean and majestic coastal foothills of Baja California Norte helps to make Rosarito one of the leading resort towns in all of Mexico.
The main urban district of Rosarito Beach is a four mile stretch along the beach on Blvd. Benito Juarez that is filled with hotels, condominiums, restaurants, night clubs and gift shops.
HISTRIONICS
While this will be the first time in Rosarito, the SCORE Desert Challenge has been held 19 previous times since it first began in 1995. It was held in Laughlin, Nev., USA, from 1995 through 2012 and in Plaster City, Calif., USA, in 2014.
Rosarito Beach 20th SCORE Desert Challenge
Sept. 16-18, 2016—128.8 miles (4 laps, 32.2-mile loop course)
Round 3 of four-race 2016 SCORE World Desert Championship
Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
Total Entries: 112 (as of 9/8/16)
(from 17 U.S. States, Guatemala, Mexico)
(By start order in class)
Pro Cars & Trucks
SCORE TROPHY TRUCK (6)
45 Gary Magness
18 Juan C. Lopez
38 Eric Hustead
15 Billy Wilson
6 Steven Eugenio
1 Carlos ‘Apdaly’ Lopez
CLASS 1 (9)
169 Otoniel Huerta
172 Jamie Galles
125 Scott Rueschenberg
138 Ronny Wilson
106 Eduardo ‘Lalo’ Laguna
-DOR-Derek Fletcher
114 Al Torres
153 Brad Wilson
175 Jamie Huerta Jr
104 Robert Archibald
TROPHY TRUCK SPEC (7)
200 Larry Connor
274 Elias Hanna
227 Jonathan Brenthel
202 Chad Broughton
201 Russell Buehler
211 Joe Delucie
-DOR-Pat Sims
273 Jordan Brenthel
CLASS 10 (10)
1002 Clay Lawrence
1018 Miguel Tornel Sr
1091 David Jones
1005 Eliat Cabrales
1081 Todd Winslow
1058 Mike Lawrence
1060 Armando Boehme
1088 Sergio Salgado
1009 Rafael Navarro IV-2nd RS
1098 David Sanchez Jr-1st RS
CLASS 8 (1)
836 Aaron Ampudia
CLASS 1/2-1600 (10)
1697 Jorge Sampietro
1604 Rob Archibald
1644 Cesar Fiscal
1603 Oscar Alvarez
1606 Ruben Sanudo
1689 Marco Venegas
1632 Fernie Padilla
1616 Ramon Bio
1605 Miguel Cortez
1607 Horacio Lora Fernandez
SCORE LITES (8)
1204 Gustavo Pinuelas
1240 Miguel Bonilla
1218 Miguel Tornel Jr
1229 Raul Rodriguez
1274 Mike Aguilar
1212 Martin Lizarraga
1202 Matias Arjona IV
1203 Oliver Flemate
CLASS 5 (4)
500 Victor Cesena
509 Jose Lopez
524 Ben Swift
549 Ruben Hernandez-1st RS
CLASS 7 (5)
706 Brandon Walsh
700 Dan Chamlee
725 JT Holmes
727 James Ryan-2nd RS
701 Brandon Walsh-1st RS
Pro UTV FI (8)
2921 Johnny Angal
2904 Cory Sappington
2905 Marc Burnett
2910 Scott Trafton
2975 Mike Cafro
2916 Cody Rahders
2917 Derek Murray
2919 Brandon Schueler
Pro UTV (4)
1949 Alonso Lopez
1901 Greg Row
1915 Thomas Graves
1909 Roberto Balderama
CLASS 5-1600 (5)
557 Mario Ledezma
569 Donald Harper
577 Ernie Negrete
599 Hector Hurtado
595 Stu Hersey
CLASS 7SX (1)
747 Nathan Edelstein
CLASS 11 (4)
1121 Dennis Hollenbeck
1103 Noe Gutierrez
1149 Victor Esparza
1109 Mauro Diaz-lst RS
Pro Motorcycles
PRO MOTO UNLIMITED (5)
1x Colton Udall
3x Ray Dal Soglio
37x Kevin Murphy
45x Shane Esposito-
-ROR-Francisco Arredondo
47x Troy Vanscourt
PRO MOTO 30 (1)
301x Christopher Schultz
PRO MOTO 40 (4)
437x Craig Thompson
400x Colie Potter
404x Jano Montoya
403x Oscar Fazz-1st RS
PRO MOTO 50 (2)
507x Mark Winkelman
540x Michael Garvin
PRO MOTO IRONMAN (2)
729x Michael Skurkis
716x Ryan Gutile
PRO MOTO 60 (1)
625x Mark Hawley
PRO MOTO LIMITED (4)
101x Mark Winkelman
100x Emanuel Verdugo-
-ROR-Fernando Beltran
115x Mo Martinez
106x Garrett Poucher
Pro Quads
PRO QUAD (3)
1a Javier Robles Jr
18a Andres Amaya
7a Said Sanchez
Sportsman
SPT BUGGY (1)
1581 Zach Summers
SPT MOTO (4)
230x Kristopher Harvey
203x Mario Castro
235x Fernando Barbosa
277x Stephen Gholson
SPT QUAD (3)
169a Lupita Ramirez
110a Danny Magdaleno
122a Lelya Odisea-1st RS