San Felipe, Baja California - The 2005 SCORE San Felipe 250 was everything that anyone in the off-road desert racing community ever thought it would be. Extremely rugged. Difficult. Challenging. And those are the reasons that off-road desert racers come to Baja California and race one of the most extreme off-road desert racing series in the world. The ultimate challenge of man and machine pitted against what has been regarded as some of the harshest terrain in the off-road racing world, Baja California.

A respected Class 1 driver told ORC staffers, "This is the most challenging San Felipe course I have ever seen in all my years of off-road desert racing. This race was just plain brutal."

Set along the shores of the Sea of Cortez, the town of San Felipe is normally quiet until the weeks leading up to the San Felipe 250. This year was no different. But by Tuesday before the race, over a hundred race teams were in town prerunning different sections of the race course. San Felipe's quiet lifestyle was changed overnight as the roar of 800 horsepower race truck motors blasted the quiet of the sullen desert.

On Tuesday before the race, KTM rider - Kellon Welch suffered a digger crash at approximately Race Mile 152 while prerunning alone and dragged his way towards the main part of the course in order to flag someone down. After a few hours on the course alone after suffering a broken femur several other riders found him and assisted in getting him to the hospital in San Felipe and the onto San Diego for medical treatment.

Numerous teams suffered mechanical failures early in the week only to have to work throughout the nights in order to get race trucks and cars back in the action for testing and Saturday's race.

However, the story of the week has to be the dominating performance of Scott McMillin and his son, Andy McMillin. The father/son duo have an extensive background in the off-road racing world, as the name McMillin, is synonmous with off-road racing champions, off-road racing's dominant family and Baja California. The McMillin love affair with racing off-road in Baja started decades ago by the legendary, Corky McMillin. And since, the McMillin Family has continued that tradition for over three decades.

Scott and Andy McMillin put on an off-road racing clinic at the San Felipe 250, so to speak, and demonstrated why they are the 2005 San Felipe Champions. Their #120 Class 1 car performed at levels that no other team could match. Not only did this father/son team outperform all the other in Class 1 competition, but they beat the featured Trophy Trucks who have reigned at 4-wheel champions for the past six year. But more importantly, this dynamic McMillin duo also best the world's best motorcycle riders taking the overall win in the San Felipe desert.

Scott McMillin took the reigns at the start line leaving from the Tecate Arch near the famed San Felipe Arches. Some 130 miles later, Andy McMillin took the Class 1 racing machine and blasted up Chanate Wash and down through Matomi Wash towards the 196 Race Mile like he was driving in his backyard.

Wonder why?

McMillin Racing takes off-road racing very seriously. They have been in San Felipe for weeks leading up to the race headquartered in a beach camp across from George's Restaurant. The McMillin Camp was set on the beach near the south side of town as the team preran, preran and preran even more! Scott and Andy McMillin knew their sections like no others. Ask them and they'll probably tell you, like any top racer, they could visualize their sections, without even leaving camp.

Father and son completed the course setting a new course speed record at 63.22 mph covering the 240 mile loop race in 3:48:06. The McMillin Jimco-Chevy Class 1 beat all Class 1 competitors by over ten minutes and bested the SCORE Unlimited Production Trophy Truck Class Winner, Jason Baldwin, by over three minutes in corrected time. Furthermore, they beat the winning Class 22 Pro Motorcycle winners, KTM Factory Team, by over 30 minutes in winning the 2005 San Felipe Overall Championship.

Andy McMillin said afterwards, "My family has taught me so much about racing." The McMillin winning tradition continues as Andy and his dad, Scott, captured one of the most rugged races in the off-road desert racing world.

In the Unlimited Production Trophy Truck Class, carnage was the word of the day. 21 Trophy Trucks started the San Felipe 250 and only 15 finished. Cam Steele rock and rolled his Cabo Wabo Trophy Truck early at Race Mile 15 ish and Steinberger suffered a grenaded transmission at Race Mile 18. Alan "Fearless" Pflueger suffered enough problems by the time he arrived to the Borrego Pit that he called it a day.

In the end the race was between only a couple trucks, but the race leading up to the final sprint was wild. Riviera's Curt LeDuc driving the #3 Trophy Truck set a wild lighting fast pace that other teams had difficulty staying up with, but in the end a overheated and melted shocked slow the past San Felipe Champion down where he and Team Owner - Mark Post finished in seventh position.

By the end of the race the battle was between Jason Baldwin and Tim/Ed Herbst. The Herbst brothers suffered four flat tires in the race commenting, "Every time we got going good we'd have a flat. We had four flats, and that's pretty unusual. We just can't win if you get flats. We were pretty conservative this year." The Herbst brothers finished second to Baldwin who ran the course in 3:51:22 averaging 62.33 mph.

In Class 22 Pro Motorcycles, the KTM Factory DAKAR team of Andy Grider, Chris Blais and Quinn Cody put an end to the American Honda 1X Baja Winning Team of Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld. This upset is the first time since 1997 that Campbell/Hengeveld were not the class winners of the SCORE San Felipe race. Hengeveld was the rider of record in this San Felipe race and this second place finish ends his personal streak of 10 straight wins in SCORE Baja races dating back to 2001.

In Class 21 Pro Motorcycles 250cc or less, Tim Morton captivated the world of off-road racing yet once again taking the class win four minutes ahead of second place finisher, Kevin Johnson, a privateer off-road racer, who came to San Felipe to race for the first time and 20 minutes ahead of the Baja 1000 Champions - DP Racing. Morton teamed up with Jason Truby and Salvador Hernandez to take their Honda 250 4-stroke to a very strong class win.

Rob MacCachren took the win in Class 1/2 1600 but he gave all the credit to his teammates Danny Anderson and Bryan Freeman. Anderson and Freeman split driving duties and then handed the Fraley built car to MacCachren a few miles from the finish line.

The 2004 SCORE Class 8 Champion, Todd Wylie was again pushing the envelope in his race truck capturing what is the fourth straight SCORE win in as many tries.

Bekki and Adam Wik captured the Class 10 win with Bekki starting off the line and Adam taking over controls at the halfway mark.

Gustavo Vildosola, Jr., Mexicali Mexico took his first win in the exclusive Pro Truck Class. He drove the Toyota Tundra to his first win explaining, "I'm getting used to the truck and have more confidence, I'm doing better."

The 2005 SCORE San Felipe 250 is in the history books now as race teams turn their attention towards the Baja 500, which is less than 100 days away. The addiction of off-road desert racing doesn't ever go away, it looms its passion in front of you every hour of every day all year long.

Stay tuned for the latest in SCORE off-road desert racing here at Off-Road.com