SCORE is bringing out the big guns for their 2018 season, with Sal Fish and Ivan Stewart serving as Grand Marshals for the Baja 500 in June. Before that, the series kicks off with Round 1, the longest San Felipe 250 in history.
The superb 900-horsepower Trophy Trucks showed up in SCORE events twenty-five years ago. To mark the milestone, a race-record 42 of these desert monsters are registered for next week’s San Felipe 250 in Baja California.
In addition to the high-powered headliners, nearly 250 entries in Pro and Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads are expected in the race. Many of the sport’s top stars are among the first 202 official entries, hailing from 24 American States along with the additional countries ranging from Canada, Germany, and New Zealand.
This year’s race uses the longest course in race history, measuring no less than 319 miles, For the second straight year, the race will start and finish on the Malecon beach walk that lines the water’s edge in the town centre. Online racer registration continues through Sunday on the SCORE website and late, on-site racer registration will be held next Thursday and Friday in San Felipe.
The competition will be tough. SoCal’s champion desert racer and TV action sports commentator Cameron Steele has drawn the first starting position for the car/truck/UTV classes and Mexico’s international rally racer Santiago Creel has drawn the first start for the motorcycle/quad classes.
Las Vegas’ Rob MacCachren, last year’s overall and SCORE Trophy Truck winner in San Felipe, is in the mix. He wheeled his F-150 to a race-high five overall and SCORE Trophy Truck wins, plus nine total class wins in San Felipe.
In addition to MacCachren, drivers like Robby Gordon and B.J. Baldwin will be in the house. As for Bryce Menzies, he was injured this week during a commercial video shoot in California. A driver by the name of Justin Bean Smith will be his designated substitute driver for this race, meaning Menzies will still receive points per SCORE rules allowing a single substitute driver during the year.
BFGoodrich Tires, the SCORE official tire for over 40 years, has posted a $25,000 contingency bonus for the overall winner. The fastest vehicles are expected to complete the course in just over five hours but all vehicles have 16 hours from the time each starts to earn official finishing status.
Fun fact: technically, SCORE Trophy Trucks debuted in 1994 as their own series, running for the first four years (1994-1997) in conjunction with the SCORE series with sponsorship from the Tecate brewery. After ’97, they became the featured racing division in SCORE’s World Desert Championship. That’s your Jeopardy trivia for today.
The San Felipe 250 is the first event on this year’s SCORE four-race card, followed by the Baja 500 in June, the SCORE Desert Challenge in September, and the mighty Baja 1000 in November. Pre-race festivities will be held in San Felipe on April 4-6 with tech inspection on the 6th. Race days are April 7-8 and post-race awards are doled out on Sunday, April 8.