SCORE Journal

SCORE-Journal-Jan-2021

SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing

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2020 SCORE Pro Moto 50 Champion Vance Kennedy And His Team Won It The Hard Way Story by Stuart Bourdon Photos By Get Some Photo Winning the SCORE Baja 500 and the SCORE Baja 1000 in the same year is no easy task. However, the Pro Moto 50 team led by Vance Kennedy did just that in the 2020 SCORE World Championship Series to take the season points championship in their class. They not only scored the Pro Moto 50 class crown for 2020 but unseated a well-funded and reigning class champ while doing so. “It felt great because we earned it the hard way and created some good memories for the team,” said Kennedy. “We can look back on 2020, a year filled with some not-so-good memories, and reflect on those wins and the championship, knowing they weren’t just handed to us.” The primary three-man team consisting of Kennedy and co-riders Dennis Belingheri, and Dave Mayer had begun the season by racing in the 52nd BFGoodrich Tires SCORE Baja 500 Presented by 4 Wheel Parts in the dark and by about race mile 60 had taken the lead. They held the lead for the rest of the race but nearly lost the victory when Kennedy had a bad crash. “We only had one mishap, which was my fault. I crashed on my second section, hurt the ribs on my right side, chipped a tooth, and banged my head,” said Kennedy. “I had to ride it out for about 30 miles to get to the next rider change.” Luckily, no significant time was lost, and the team kept the lead. Things went smooth the rest of the way to the finish line, and they won their class by about an hour. At the 53rd BFGoodrich Tires SCORE Baja 1000 presented by 4 Wheel Parts, the team added two more riders, Eric Zite and Steve Hatch, to help with the nearly 900-mile loop course marked out for the race. It was the longest loop course in the history of the Baja 1000 and one of the roughest and most challenging race courses many competitors could remember. Still hurting from his crash at the 500, Kennedy started the team’s 522X KTM bike. “We knew the 500X team (class champion) were kind of gunning for us based on the emails and everything they were talking about,” said Kennedy. “I guess they weren’t too happy we beat them at the Baja 500.” Belingheri started on the bike first, and by race mile 160, he was leading by five or six miles. Kennedy took the KTM from there to about race mile 305, where Belingheri got back on and did the crossover to race mile 405. At that point, Mayer hopped on and eventually handed the bike off to Zite at race mile 470. That’s when bad luck crossed the team’s trail once again. “Eric had a big crash around race-mile 511,” said Kennedy. “We didn’t know how bad it was at the time, but Eric had broken his collarbone and busted up some ribs. He later underwent two surgeries.” Mayer and Belingheri rode double on a spare bike out to where Zite was to fix the race bike and replace the lights, and then Belingheri took off on the race bike while Mayer took their injured co-rider to San Felipe. “A couple of hours had gone by, and the 500X bike had passed us by the time we got up and running again, but luck came our way again. This time it was good luck for us.” Belingheri soon came across the 500X bike parked alongside the racecourse. Before too much longer, he passed a rider going backward on the course carrying a gas can; obviously, that team had run out of gas. Belingheri stepped it up after that. “Everything went perfectly from that point to the finish,” said Kennedy.” Belingheri rode the rest of Zite’s leg and ended up doing about 350 miles of the nearly 900-mile race getting the bike to the last rider (Steve Hatch). Our team stayed in the lead and won the SCORE Baja 1000 by about 40-minutes.” “Everyone involved can feel proud of that win (Baja 1000) because that’s what got the points championship. It wasn’t easy. We earned it and took it away from last year’s champs. We plan on being back and running the 500X number. We will be there in 2021 to defend the championship.”

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