SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
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The Baja Bugs One of the most enduring vehicles in SCORE racing history continues to inspire and challenge Baja’s purists By Dan Sanchez Photos by Get Some Photo When Volkswagen decided to end production of the Beetle in July 2019 it was an announcement that saddened many Beetle enthusiasts who loved the vehicle for its iconic appearance and who became fans of the car ever since it first appeared in the U.S. back in 1949. While there are many VW Beetle aficionados worldwide, there’s another side to the Beetle that has its history deeply embedded in SCORE Baja racing. The VW Beetle would seem an unlikely candidate to take on the Baja desert, but the door opened for its entry into off-road competition once Bruce Meyers and Meyers' Manx won the first Mexican 1000 race in 1967. Although the Manx was a dune buggy, it used a shortened VW Beetle chassis and engine that spawned its use in desert off-road racing ever since. It spawned a variety of versions including the traditional Baja Bug, which had additional suspension and fiberglass body modifications, as well as Class 5 and 1600 vehicles. When Mickey Thompson and Sal Fish began organizing the SCORE Baja 1000, Baja 500, and SCORE short course races, stock and modified VW Bugs were plentiful and people began to simply call them Baja Bugs. “Racers began modifying these vehicles and we formed different classes for them, but the idea of a stock Baja Bug used in off-road was one that racers felt lessened the cost of competing,” said former SCORE owner Sal Fish. “Participation with these vehicles grew, especially in the short course SCORE races in Riverside, California around the early 1970s. Then the numbers took off for the SCORE Baja 500 and 1000 races. By the 1976 SCORE Baja 500, there were record numbers of these vehicles. I recall there was an old impound yard adjacent to the backyard of the Riviera Convention Center back then. That’s where we had Contingency. At that time it was filled with 35-40 Baja Bugs parked there ready for the race.” According to Fish, the Baja Bug classes were a great entry path for racers to become involved in SCORE competition. “These vehicles were a low-cost way to get into racing, especially for Mexican racers who didn’t have access to vehicle builders or even off-road shops for parts,” said Fish. “Mickey wanted them to compete in their own country and opening a class of stock vehicles that were readily available, did a lot for many Mexican competitors to begin an off-road racing career.” One of the SCORE champions to emerge in the Class 11 stock bug class is Eric Solorzano. “I’ve been racing the same two Volkswagens for the past 29-years,” says Solorzano, who has won the most SCORE races in this class than any other racer. “When I was 16 years old my dad said if I wanted a car he’d give me the money to buy an old bug. It was a ’68 Baja Bug and I was very involved in the car as I built some nice pre-runners. Then I began rebuilding engines for friends, and that’s how it started. I raced motorcycles off-road first, but that ’68 bug turned things around.” “Eric is one of the purists of the sport racing these vehicles,” says Fish. “He is a perfect example of why it’s about family participation and how off-road racing has become a part of many families and their history.” Solorzano won nine SCORE Baja 1000 races in Class 11 and was featured in Dana Brown’s first Dust To Glory, documentary. Pancho Bio, another racer who was drawn to the Baja Bug early in his racing career, began earning many class wins and passed his love for the vehicle and SCORE racing to his sons Cisco and Ramon. Bio and his family were also featured in Dana Brown’s second documentary Dust 2 Glory. “Class 11 is big in Mexico, especially because there are many local off-road races to compete in and it also prepares us for the big SCORE races,” says Cisco Bio. “My dad began racing in the 1980s’ and I was driving a stock Bug at age 10.” When Cisco Bio began winning races, his experience led to working pit areas for racers like Rob MacCachren, who would later have Bio racing with him in a Trophy Truck. Despite being in the top race class in SCORE, Bio and his family enjoy racing in Class 11 and helping other racers in the class. “It’s fun to race against everyone in a similar car,” says Bio. “Competing driver to driver is more difficult in a SCORE race, so the relationships we have in these classes are unlike any other. We help each other out and these connections, along with family and friends in Mexico, have earned respect for us and other racers here.” Bio and Solorzano are just two of the many racers and champions who challenge Baja in a stock Baja Bug. Some of the most well-known who have made a name for themselves in this class, as well as Class 5 and 5/1600 categories include Dennis Hollenbeck, Viry Felix, Ernie and Larry Negrete, Luis Herrera, Mark Steele, Johnny Johnson, Marco Nunez, Noberto Rivera, and early class champions Don and Doug Robertson who piloted the famous Bilstein Bug. Over SCORE’s history, there are many more racers to mention, but they have and continue to inspire others who would take on Baja with all the odds seemingly stacked against them. “These are the sport’s true off-road racing purists,” says Fish. “It takes a very unique individual to race these vehicles. Even when we came up with new classes so racers could take the Bug to the next level, it’s still difficult for them to compete against Baja and the terrain. When they start the race, they’re already at a speed disadvantage, and the 200 vehicles that started ahead of them have changed the course drastically. There are so many obstacles yet these racers love it. They have to figure out how to get through deep silt, washes, and get to the next checkpoint in time. It’s a real challenge, but that was the original feeling about racing in Baja.” SJ