SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1471169
ROB MACCACHREN WINS THE 54TH SCORE BAJA 500 Experience And Patience Wins The Day For The Legendary Racer And Team By Dan Sanchez Photos by Get Some Photo Experience took the better part of winning this year’s BFGoodrich Tires 54th SCORE Baja 500 Presented by 4 Wheel Parts, as it was Rob MacCachren’s experience that led to his assessment of the tough 463.12-mile course. “We want to run the first third of the race with no issues and keep up the pace with the top teams,” said MacCachren during pre-race Contingency. “The course is very tight and technical, and there’s going to be a lot of potential for making mistakes, being too aggressive, and racers hurting their vehicles. So we don’t want to be too aggressive in this race.” After weeks of pre-running the course, MacCachren got it right and started fourth behind Luke McMillin, Bryce Menzies and Mike Walser, who were also favored to win the race. McMillin started at a very fast pace followed by Bryce Menzies. Both McMillin and Menzies are considered two of the fastest drivers in SCORE Baja racing, with McMillin coming off his win in April at the San Felipe 250. Behind MacCachren were Tim Herbst and Andy McMilliln, two racers who also represent some of the best talents in SCORE racing history and who could easily take advantage of any mistake MacCachren would make on the course. Around race-mile 85, Menzies had engine problems that, after reports, proved to be a blown engine that put him out of contention much too soon. This left third-place starter Mike Walser with co-driver Jax Redline in second place, with MacCachren moving into third on the course. McMillin maintained his lead and pulled away from the rest of the SCORE Trophy Truck pack until steering issues caused them to pull over and replace their steering box. It was much the same for Walser who also had a steering box issue 35-miles past McMillin. This gave MacCachren the time and opportunity to move into first place as long as no serious vehicle issues came up. Fortunately, the team pushed through the course and maintained their lead despite Broc Dickerson in the No. 34 Truck, who was gaining ground and had moved into second place on the course. MacCachren kept his lead and finished the race with a fast enough pace to keep Dickerson behind him, but didn’t push the No. 1 BFGoodrich Tires SCORE Trophy Truck too hard to win the race overall. “We had a great day on the course and then picked our way through it,” said MacCachren. “The all-wheel-drive vehicles in front of us were pulling away on the road to the bottom of the Summit. Luke was about 10-minutes in front of us and then I couldn’t see his tracks anymore. That meant we were first on the road and I had to maintain gaps to keep Broc and Ampudia behind us. We started racing cautiously and it all went well.” MacCachren went on to win the race Overall, capturing his third overall and seventh class win in this race. He and the team also were presented with a $20K check from BFGoodrich Tires for winning the race overall on BFGoodrich racing tires. SJ