RENO, Nev. — Festivities to start the New Year continue Friday as pre-running opens for the upcoming 29th Annual Bud Light SCORE San Felipe 250 in Baja California, Mexico. Launching the internationally-televised five-race 2015 SCORE World Desert Championship, the Bud Light SCORE San Felipe 250 will be held Jan. 22-25.

The race will once again start and finish adjacent to the famed San Felipe Arches on the outskirts of the quaint Mexican fishing village located 125 miles south of the U.S. Border at Calexico, Calif. In 2015, four rounds of the SCORE World Desert Championship will be held in Mexico and one in the United States.

START DRAW JAN. 17
The live drawing for starting positions, by class, for the season-opener will be held Saturday (Jan. 17) at 4 p.m. PT at the SCORE-International Baja Burgers restaurant in Chula Vista, Calif. The drawing will be streamed live on the internet at www.score-international.com. The festivities are open to the public will begin with a special Baja Pits Taco-fest with food proceeds going to Cruz Roja-Mexico.

With entries accepted up to 5 p.m. the evening before the race, over 150 entries from over 20 US States and 10 countries expected to enter the race that will feature competition in 25 Pro and 5 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads.

COURSE MAP, GPS Files
Pre-running will be allowed on the actual race course starting tomorrow Friday (Jan. 9) through Friday, Jan. 23. The race course is a single loop, run counter-clockwise of approximately 259 miles. The official course map, GPS files and course notes may be found on the SCORE website. This year’s race course will have four physical check points and includes part of the infamous Laguna Salada dry lake bed and three of the notorious Baja California washes—Huatamote, Chanate and Amarillas.

SCORE TROPHY TRUCK CHAMP
After a podium start to the season followed by mechanical challenges in two races, SoCal’s Steven Eugenio bounced back with a win and a sixth place finish to capture the SCORE Overall and SCORE Trophy Truck point championship of the five-race 2014 SCORE World Desert Championship.

With tight battles in races on both sides of the border, the 2014 SCORE racing season was capped with a memorable 47th Bud Light SCORE Baja 1000, the iconic race that covered 1,275 miles of Mexico’s majestic Baja California peninsula. It started it Ensenada, Baja California Norte and finished in La Paz, Baja California Sur. Last year’s Granddaddy of all Desert Races was held Nov. 11-15 and decided season overall and class point champions with competition in 25 Pro and 5 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads.

EUGENIO’S ELOQUENCE
With success in other classes before this season, 2014 marked the rookie season for Steven Eugenio, 34, in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck division for high-tech, 850-horsepower, unlimited production trucks. Originally from El Centro, Calif., and living now in Carlsbad, Eugenio drove the No. 7 Galindo Motorsports Chevy Silverado to capture the 2014 SCORE Overall and SCORE Trophy Truck season point championship.

Eugenio began the season with a surprising third-place podium finish in the season-opening 28th Annual Bud Light SCORE San Felipe 250 to start his march to the championship.  Things got a little sideways during the next two races with an 11th-place finish in April in his hometown race (the 2nd SCORE Imperial Valley 250), and an 18th-place finish in the 46th Bud Light SCORE Baja 500 in June.

Rallying himself right back into the championship hunt, Eugenio returned to his native desert in Imperial Valley to win the 19th Rigid Industries SCORE Desert Challenge to move himself all the way back into second place in the season points. Entering the season finale, Eugenio trailed Mexico’s Gus Vildosola Jr by just 12 points.

Racing fortune smiled on Eugenio at the Bud Light SCORE Baja 1000 as point leader Gus Vildosola Jr went out of the race early with engine issues and Eugenio with help from three prominent drivers motored to the finish ahead of his nearest competitor. Eugenio finished sixth out of 31 starters in SCORE Trophy Truck, one spot ahead of the team led by driver of record Clyde Stacy, Bristol, Va. to earn the title in his rookie season in the class.

Giving Eugenio a big assist by each driving a lengthy section of the SCORE Baja 1000 course were Gus Vildosola, 61, Mexicali, Mexico, Adam Pfankuch, Carlsbad, Calif. and T.J. Flores, Las Vegas. The team drove the No. 7 Galindo Motorsports Chevy Silverado to the season championship.

2014 SCORE TROPHY TRUCK LEADERS
Eugenio won the SCORE Trophy Truck title with 423 points, edging out Stacy’s team who had 420 points in the No. 5 RPM Racing Chevy Rally Truck. Topping the podium in SCORE Trophy Truck in the 2014 season-finale and finishing third for the season was Las Vegas’ Rob MacCachren, who blistered the field to win the SCORE Baja 1000 overall with Andy McMillin and Jason Voss, who had 418 total points in the No. 11 Rockstar Energy MacCachren Motorsports Ford F-150. MacCachren became the winningest driver in the history of SCORE Trophy Truck in the 21-year history of the class with his 12th career race win in the class.

Winner of the season-opener in March, Vildosola Jr, of Mexicali, slipped back to fourth in SCORE Trophy Truck points with a rare DNF in the season-finale in the No. 21 Branix Mexicana Logistics Ford Raptor. Vildosola Jr has earned back-to-back overall victories in the Bud Light SCORE San Felipe 250 to make him a clear favorite for a three-peat in 2015.

Fifth in 2014 SCORE Trophy Truck points was former Indy Lights team owner/driver Ken Losch, Phoenix in the No. 34 Chevy Silverado while two-time defending season point champion B.J. Baldwin, Las Vegas, finished sixth in class last year after engine failure put him out of the season-finale in his No. 1 Monster Energy Baldwin Motorsports Chevy Silverado. Baldwin was going for a three-peat in the granddaddy of all desert races.

PRE-RACE SKED
The pre-race Manufacturer’s Midway, contingency and tech inspection of the vehicles in the race will be held on Friday (January 23). 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 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday (Jan. 22) and Friday (Jan. 23) at the San Felipe Marina Resort, a few miles south of downtown San Felipe. The Monster Energy SCORE Kick-off Party will be held adjacent to the start/finish line area at the landmark San Felipe Arches just outside of town on Thursday, Jan. 22 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.

HISTORYonics
The season-opener of the 2015 SCORE World Desert Championship series, the 29th Bud Light 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 U.S. and Baja races. It has been held consecutively each year since 1990.

In its first 28 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.

CBS SPORTS NETWORK COVERAGE
All races in the 2015 SCORE World Desert Championship series, along with the special SEMA SCORE Baja 1000 Experience and qualifying for the Bud Light SCORE Baja 1000 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway, will once again be aired in the USA and Canada on the CBS Sports Network.  New for 2015, in addition to SCORE Trophy Truck coverage, the shows will also feature top action and highlights from many other classes of trucks, buggies, motorcycles, quads and UTVs – making sure that the most exciting footage and most compelling stories are now part of each race event broadcast.

Capping off the 2015 broadcast season, the Bud Light SCORE Baja 1000 broadcast on CBS Sports Network will be expanded to a full Two-Hour program – providing the most expansive television coverage of the “Main Event” of all desert races ever, allowing all the major class action to be showcased around the globe to the SCORE International fan base.

CBS Sports Network is available across the country through local cable, video and telco providers and via satellite on DirecTV Channel 221 and Dish Network Channel 158. For more information, including a full programming schedule and how to get CBS Sports Network, go to www.cbssportsnetwork.com.

SCOREscope
In its 42nd year as the world’s foremost desert racing organization in 2015, the five-race 2015 SCORE World Desert Championship series will include four special events in Baja California, Mexico, and one in the United States.

Here is the 2015 SCORE World Desert Championship schedule:
· 29th annual Bud Light SCORE San Felipe 250, Jan. 22-25, San Felipe, Mexico
· Inaugural Bud Light SCORE Baja Sur 500, April 16-19, Cabo San Lucas to Loreto, Mexico
· 47th annual Bud Light SCORE Baja 500, June 4-7, Ensenada Mexico
· 3rd Annual SCORE Imperial Valley 250, Sept. 24-27, Plaster City, Calif.
· 48th annual Bud Light SCORE Baja 1000, Nov.18-21, Ensenada, Mexico

SCORE SPONSORS
Official Sponsors: Bud Light-Official Beer/Official Race Sponsor, Monster Energy-Official Energy Drink, BFGoodrich Tires-Official Tire, Rigid Industries LED Lighting-Official Lights, King Shocks-Official Shock Absorber, Polaris-Official UTV, Vision Wheel – Official Wheel, CBS Sports Network-Official Television Partner, Coca-Cola-Official Soft Drink, Wide Open Excursions- Official Arrive and Drive Company, Crystal Bay Casino-Official Casino.

Associate Sponsors: All Road Satellite, Symons Ambulance Company, Volaris Airlines, Coyne Powersports, Aero Calafia and Tessco

Additional SCORE Partners: Proturismo Ensenada, Visit Baja California Sur, Baja California Secretary of Tourism, Baja California Sur State Government, Mexicali Ayuntamineto, COTUCO Mexicali/San Felipe, Cruz Roja Mexicana, Corporate Helicopters, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance, GoPro, PCI Race Radios, McKenzie’s Performance Products and Advanced Color Graphics.

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