For a former 7s champ and veteran of the Mini-Mag wars, the 2000 SCORE season was a rough one. In race after race, Scott Steinberger and the PCI crew nibbled at the edges of Protruck victory, only to taste the bitter flavor of defeat - time and time again.

It began a promising season at the Laughlin Challenge, with Steinberger finishing a solid second, but devolved quickly after mysterious engine failures traded record pace runs for DNF's and lower than expected finishes. Ultimately, the source of the problem was tracked down, and the crew prepared for one last shot at redemption - The SCORE / Tecate Baja 2000. That's racing folks, and after years in the game, Steinberger buckled up and began the long, meticulous process of prepping the Lycos / PCI / Off-Road.com Protruck for the most punishing race in off road history.

With work well underway and the B2K looming large on the horizon, the team was stunned by the announcement that their good friend and oft-times rival, Larry Plank, had been killed in a recreational airplane crash. It was then that Scott and the crew redoubled their efforts to make the Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas run a winning one, dedicating the race to Plank's memory.

When the checkered flag fell in Cabo, all their hard work paid off. Scott crossed the finish line in a time of 40:33:45 with an average speed of 41.406 MPH, besting the 10 truck field, and 2nd place Rick Johnson by a full six hours. Throughout the event the Protruck class remained very competitive, with a mere 10 hours separating the top 5 finishers by race end. In the final standings, the Lycos / PCI / ORC Protruck finished 35'th overall, and 16th among 4-wheeled vehicles.

We caught up with Steinberger after the race at "Latitude 22", a Cabo eatery known as much for it's great food as for the 1000 pound plus Blue Marlins hanging in the bar. After some much-needed rest, and a visit from the mystical "Rainbird" (don't ask - it wasn't pretty ;-) the boys were ready to party!

"Overall, we had a fantastic race," said Steinberger, "Aside from getting stuck a couple times and losing a few minutes, we were just about problem free."

While common wisdom held that the racers would reign in the horsepower and settle in for the long haul, well. . . you know that saying about the best laid plans . . .

"It was a race from the beginning. We were on the gas from the get-go. It was either that, or lose ground early on, and I didn't want to have to try and make it up later. There were too many opportunities for things to go wrong."

Out on the course, Steinberger credits his smooth sailing to his crew, co-drivers, and perhaps just a little supernatural intervention.

"We had Larry's (Plank) urn strapped to the back of the truck and connected to a flapper valve so that we could spread his ashes down the peninsula. Corny as it sounds, it was like he was right there with us. Not like an "angel on your shoulder" kind of thing, but we were all driving like we were possessed!," he said laughing, "It was pretty weird."

"The setup worked pretty well and we'd just flip the valve open from time to time, and draft a little more of him down the course. That worked right up until about mile 1400 when we got nerfed by Ed Herbst in the Trophy Truck, and we lost Larry off the back. Kind of fitting really."

As the finish line drew nearer, Steinberger was passed by Curt LeDuc in the Class 8 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and Jeremy Spirkoff in the Stock Full F-350.

"By that point, we were several hours ahead, and there was nothing to be gained by racing guys who weren't in our class. We weren't going to win the Overall, so it didn't make much sense to take the chance of breaking something and losing it all. We figured that we'd get the class win if everything held together, and that's what we had set out to do. We weren't going to risk it."

As we now know, "things held together", and Scott and Co went on to win the Baja 2000. In fact, he'll be back in pursuit of victory at the BITD season ender after minimal prep work to the newly re-panted black F-150.

"As best we can tell, the truck is in fantastic shape overall. We're only going to replace a few worn items and take it out for Casey's race. That's a hell of a lot different than the way things have usually gone this season."

With the B2K Trophy now at home in the PCI shop and chaos of the big race over, it's back to work for the crew with the BITD event and the 2001 race season just around the corner. Yet even with the renewed hustle and bustle, Scott had time to reflect on his memories of the longest continuous event in off-road racing history.

"I can't thank my crew enough," said Scott, "I'd also like to thank my sponsors Lycos, Digital Neighbors.com, Joe Explorer.com, Off-Road.com, and Globalstar. If it wasn't for them, there's no way we could have had the race that we did. It was about as close to perfect as you can get."

So what does the future hold for the Baja 2000 Champ?

"I've had a few people ask me if I'd be moving up into Trophy Truck, but for now, I like it right where I am. There are some new developments coming in Protruck, and things are going to be really interesting in the next couple years."