SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1502036
THE BEST GO HEAD TO HEAD BAJA BEATS SOME OF THE TOP COMPETITORS BY DAN SANCHEZ, PAUL HANSON, ISAAC FLORES, JOSE VAZQUEZ, AND GUILHERME TORRES PHOTOS BY GET SOME PHOTO A total of 63 SCORE Trophy Trucks drove up to the finish line nine hours after the s tart of the BFGoodrich Tires 55th SCORE Baja 500. Mixed in with SCORE Trophy Trucks were SCORE TT Spec and SCORE TT Legend vehicles, but it was Bryce Menzies in the No. 7 SCORE Trophy Truck that grabbed all the attention. One right after another, top finishers in all three SCORE Trophy Truck Classes completed the 473.67-mile course in under 10 hours. The race started with Luke McMillin in the No. 1 truck in first place, followed by Alan Ampudia in the No. 10 truck, and Menzies. For most of the field, letting these three guys get too far ahead certainly meant their chances for a podium finish were low. But by the time the competitors reached the Summit, several of them had problems. McMillin had power steering pump problems that allowed Menzies, Ampudia, and Tavo Vildosola in the No. 21 truck to pass as they kept charging. Ampudia would later have a tough break mid-way on the course, forcing him out of the competition. This brought up Tavo Vildosola and Rob MacCachren in the No. 24 truck where they had an opportunity to catch up, but Vildosola’s truck lost the rear end, and MacCachren began dealing with overheating issues. This allowed Mike Walser in the No. 87 truck to get by and move up after he had passed Larry Roeseler in the No. 43 Baja Vida truck and was now in second and third place behind Menzies. Past the halfway point on the course, Menzies widened his lead, and barring any mechanical failure, there was no way anyone would be able to catch him for the win. To his benefit, it was his fourth SCORE Baja 500 race win and a near-flawless one as a solo driver. It was a victory for Menzies, who had come so close many times, only to lose the race at the end due to a mechanical issue or one flat too many. “Coming to the finish line to win my fourth SCORE Baja 500 was really special. I was looking for redemption and I redeemed myself today.” Mike Walser also had one of his best races ever too, keeping his position ahead of Roeseler for second place. After a DNF at the SCORE San Felipe 250, Walser had co-driver Ray Griffith help on the back half of this race to finish, only seven minutes behind Menzies. “It was a good race for us,” he said. “We had a lot of slow trucks in front, so the first few guys got away from us and it took us a while to get through all of them. I passed four trucks coming down the Summit (race mile 100), which was huge, and then I got by Rob MacCachren, and that’s the greatest of all time. After I got by Roeseler we got some clean air. We made about three and a half minutes up on Bryce, but he had a huge lead by the time Ray got into our truck. We’re preparing to team up for the SCORE Baja 1000 and he needs some experience in race conditions, but he did pretty well in taking it to the finish.” Roeseler’s third-place finish was also quite amazing considering he started much farther back in class, and with a well-used 2WD truck. “It was a really tough race. Every race is tough in its own way, but this one took it to another level,” said Roeseler. “What made it a little bit tougher for us was that at race mile 80 I got a hit on the corner really hard and it broke something on the steering wheel. I had very little feel of the road and I’d turn the wheel and nothing would happen. I really had a hard time steering it and couldn’t go as hard as I wanted to. We just dealt with it the best we could and kept pushing. We had no mechanical issues and no flats; we’ve got to thank BFGoodrich Tires for that. I’m pretty beat up, this was a tough race. With the steering issue, it was twice the effort on my part to keep it on the road. It was very stressful too.” SCORE TT LEGENDS 2023 SCORE TT Legends champion Gus Vildosola Sr. in the No. 1L truck continued his winning streak with a second-class win this season. Vildosola, with co-driver Ricky Johnson, made it look easy to finish the tough, technical course, but it had its challenges for them. “It was a very difficult race, but I feel like we’re at our best in races like this,” said Vildosola Sr. “If it was an easy race, we would be able to do it again without any issues, so this means a lot. We had an excellent day. The toughest part was around Ojos Negros (race mile 440). The course was really chewed up but the truck handled it pretty well.” Former class champion Rolf Helland has had a difficult time beating Vildosola in this class, but he is not one to give up easily. He and co-driver Rick D. Johnson in the No. 37L truck were only nine minutes behind Vildosola and took the second-place finish. “Rick drove over in the rocks, the dust, and the dry lakes, while I got to go on the coast and see the whales and dolphins swimming out there. I really enjoyed my section,” said Helland. “We put on a lot of miles pre-running this week and I wish we had the food they have back home in Illinois. It’s really nice to see all the kids get so excited about the racing too, we run out of stickers to give them every time. The car performed excellently too and we’ll be back for the entire SCORE series this year.” Clay Lawrence with Thomas Fichter co-driving in the No. 85L truck, finished third ahead of Greg Adler (No. 65L) and Jose Flores (55L) who despite having a collision with the No. 19 SCORE Trophy Truck of Cameron Steele with Ryan Arciero driving, still managed to cross the finish line. SCORE TT SPEC With a growing talent pool of drivers competing in the SCORE TT Spec class, it takes a near-perfect race and a good starting position to win the class. At the start, you had two of the fastest in this class, Thor Herbst in the No. 219 Terrible Herbst truck, followed by Jason McNeil in the No. 234 Fiberwerks truck. But behind them were drivers just as capable of winning this race. 2022 Class Champion Jorge Sampietro got the last pace start and would have to work his way up heavy traffic to get up to the leaders. When the race began, the Herbst team of Thor and brother Pierce led but early on, Thor had temperature issues with the truck which set the team back. McNeil seized the opportunity and opened up a lead, but got into an accident that cost them some time. “We ran into a SCORE TT Legend truck in an accident,” said McNeil. “He pulled over but was halfway on the course and I tried to get out of the groove and there was really nothing we could do. The hood was flapping in my face for like 80 miles and that was frustrating, but we cut it off during our pit stop. From there on, we were just cruising. We picked up quite a few competitors and got a lot of them between us and the second place.” McNeil cruised his truck all the rest of the way to the finish line to take first place in class. “It’s a dream come true,” he said. “It’s really hard to win the SCORE Baja 500 in this class, there’s a lot of competition. There are nine or ten fast guys who can win on any day. We had some close calls and some risks we had to take, but that’s what you have to do here. No risk, no reward.” Fighting his way to the front was Ryan Millen, driving for EJ Herbst in the No. 263 truck. Millen started sixth and got past lots of traffic to try and catch McNeil but there wasn’t enough time, and finished only 16 minutes behind McNeil for second place. “EJ and I have been driving together these last couple of years, but unfortunately he couldn’t make it this time,” said Millen. “He let me drive his truck and we had a very good day. It was super challenging all the way through, but I honestly had a blast.” Charging up from starting in 25th place was Ryan Hancock in the No. 228 truck. He and co-driver Dustin Grabowski had to work extremely hard to move on the course, as well as keep the truck healthy enough to finish in third place. “We started in the back and Dustin pushed our way through,” said Hancock. “We got on to the coast and just had a great time. My section was beautiful, it was a lot of fun racing it today. We didn’t have any problems at all, just kept it going.” While the other competitors were battling each other and with the technical course, Baja will always weed out those who aren’t careful and push too hard. Although this race was only the second of four, Jason McNeil is in a great position now for a Class Championship, but competitors such as Thor Herbst are not about to give up yet, making for a great challenge at the SCORE Baja 400 in September. FINISH LINE QUOTES LUKE MCMILLIN, NO. 1 – FOURTH PLACE - It was a rough day, definitely not our best one. We were upfront, just cruising along and doing our thing. Bryce (Menzies, No. 7) was coming after us and going down the Summit (race mile 100) and our power steering pump just went down and that was it. We had to change it and I don’t know how long it took, but once we got going again, we were at the very back of the pack. We just started charging through the desert and made up a lot of time, but then I hit a rock. We did the rest of the race on three breaks and ended up losing fourth and fifth gears. Every race is a learning experience, so we’ll try and take what we learned and apply it in the next race. I really wanted to win the SCORE Baja 500 today and earn the Triple Crown, but it didn’t happen, Baja won this time. ROBERTO ROMO JR., NO. 33 – FIFTH PLACE - It was a very fast course and it demanded a lot from us. It was hard, but we’re here. The most difficult section was around race mile 77 because there were so many rocks and we had to take good care of the track. I had a lot of fun on the coast section. It was very fast and there were a lot of fans out there. ROB MACCACHREN, NO. 24 – NINTH PLACE - We started having some temperature issues at race mile 50 or so, so we had to really manage the temperature, which got up to 340, 350-degrees. They didn’t see any problems in our first pit, so we kept going, but the temperature continued to go up. When we got to San Matias (race mile 270), I could feel we were hurting pretty bad, so we had to stop and get it changed. From there we lost quite a few spots. We got some of them back, but when you’re in the dust it’s hard to make the time back. I’d like to thank SCORE and the people of Baja, who were cheering us on. GUSTAVO ‘TAVO’ VILDOSOLA JR, NO. 21 – TWELFTH PLACE - The first half of the race went pretty well. We got off the start line in fifth place and passed Andrew Myers (No. 69), then caught Ampudia (Alan, No. 10) around race mile 80 and passed Luke (McMillin, No. 1) right after the Summit (race mile 100). We were running second behind Menzies (Bryce, No. 7), but we got a flat and it took us some time to get the tire off. We were just three minutes behind him, but then I lost a rear end. It took us more than an hour and a half, and we got going again. We had to stop again in the pit and made it here. Just wanted to thank the fans here, who keep cheering on me it doesn’t matter where I finish. CLAY LAWRENCE, NO. 85L - THIRD PLACE - Uruapan (race mile 400) was probably the most challenging part of the course. It was super rough by the time we got there. That’s what Uruapan was supposed to be and it didn’t disappoint. GREG ADLER, No. 65L - Fourth Place - Overall it was a good race. We only had a little problem with our radiator fan. Thomas got a really good pace in the first half of the course, but unfortunately, he had to slow it down in some of the fastest desert sections to keep the engine cool with one fan until we got it fixed. We lost a little bit of time, but other than that, we have nothing to complain about. DAVID PAYNE, No. 61L Sixth Place - It was good, except that they tore the front of the car off before I got in it. And then I bounced and tore up the steering. The reason we’re so late is that it took us three hours to get the car fixed around race mile 305. When we got going, it was super foggy. Sometimes I was doing 30 miles an hour just to see through it. But it was fun, it was worth it. TROPHY TRUCK SPEC THOR HERBST, No. 219- Fourth Place – “We had some temperature issues in the first half, but Pierce took over in the second half and absolutely wheeled it in. He got us a podium finish. I think the entire course was pretty difficult. I know that some cars got stuck and not a lot of them made it out. It was all very difficult, but we made it through. CO-DRIVER PIERCE HERBST - I got some really fast and fun sections. We just ran our race, followed over our notes, and did a very good job. Nothing really went very wrong for us. We got one flat and it was our mistake. Other than that, we had a very clean run. MASON CULLEN, No. 207 - Sixth Place. It sounds like there was some exciting stuff in the dust early on, so we lost our front bumper and all the lights. From there, we just battled from the back and had fun. CHRISTOPHER POLVOORDE, No. 204 Seventh Place - It was looking good in the beginning. I started ninth, which was not really ideal, but I started picking up some people. We were feeling really good, but I made a couple of mistakes, I got a flat and started cruising through Valle de la Trinidad (race mile 280) when I lost a third member. Luckily it happened right in front of one of my chase trucks, so we got that fixed, but we had to stop every 30 miles or so to double-check and make sure it was looking good. We made it here and I’m super stocked. It’s not where we wanted to be, but I’m always excited to drive this truck. This was my last Trophy Truck Spec race, but I’ll be here for the SCORE Baja 400 and the SCORE Baja 1000. Carlos ‘Apdaly’ Lopez Co-Driver with Juan C. Lopez, No. 226 – 25th Place -Since the start, we had some issues with our brakes and then with the radiators. We had some other issues that ended up costing us a lot of time. It was difficult to get here with so many problems, but the course was really challenging. As a driver, we want to be challenged and we got that in this SCORE Baja 500. Official Finishers SCORE TROPHY TRUCK (Unlimited CustomTrucks including Builder) (25 Starters, 17 Finishers 1. 7 Bryce Menzies, 35, Las Vegas, Ford Raptor (Mason) 9:06:38 (51.99 miles per hour) 2. 87 Mike Walser, 56, Comfort, TX (DOR-Dallas Luttrell, Las Vegas), Ray Griffith, 35, Downey, CA, Chevy Silverado (Mason) 9:13:22 3. 43 Larry Roeseler, 66, Boulevard, CA, Toyota Tundra (ID) 9:38:17 4. 33 Roberto Romo Jr, 17, Mexicali, MX, Ford Raptor (Racer) 9:50:44 5. 1 Luke McMillin, 30, San Diego, Chevy 1500 (Mason) 9:49:45 6. 51 Steve Olliges, 59, Las Vegas/Justin Lofton, 37, Brawley, CA, Ford Raptor (Geiser) 10:05:20 7. 23 Dan McMillin, 35, San Diego/Josh Daniel, 48, Bonsall, CA, Chevy 1500 (Mason) 10:11:11 8. 69 Andrew Myers, 43, San Marcos, CA, Toyota Tundra (Herbst/Smith) 10:23:19 9. 24 Rob MacCachren, 58, Las Vegas (DOR-Adam Householder, Placienta, CA), Ford F-150 (Geiser) 10:39:37 10. 19 Tim Herbst, 60, Las Vegas/Pat Dean, 54, Las Vegas, Ford F-150 (Herbst/Smith) 10:48:10 11. 45 Gary Magness, 69, Denver/Jeff Blackwell, Oklahoma City/EJ Veenstra, 53, Desert Hot Springs, CA/Armondo Oraway, 51, Palm Springs, CA, Ford F-150 (Herbst/Smith) 11:16:35 12. 21 Gustavo ‘Tavo’ Vildosola Jr, 41, Mexicali, MX, Ford Raptor (Vildosola) 11:28:19 13. 6 Dan Myers, 45, Newport Beach, CA/Luke Johnson, 31, Murrieta, CA, Toyota Tundra (Brenthel) 11:35:40 14. 70 Kevin Thompson, 49, New Braunfels, TX/Harley Letner, 39, Corona, CA, Chevy Silverado (Mason) 11:43:15 15. 85 Mikey Lawrence, 35, Banning, CA/Dustin Grabowski, Upland, CA, Ford Raptor (Herbst/Smith) 12:10:26 16. 35 Kevin Adler, 56, Lake Havasu City, AZ/Dan Street, 50, Chula Vista, CA, Ford Raptor (Jimco) 14:37:16 17. 28 Ryan Daniel, 39, Huntington Beach, CA/Sean Backus, 34, Fallbrook, CA, Jimco-Chevy, 14:54:30 SCORE TT LEGEND (Unlimited Custom Trucks, including builder, Drivers over 50 years old)—(7 Starters, 6 Finishers) 1. 1L Gustavo Vildosola Sr, 69, Mexicali, MX/Ricky Johnson, 58, Trabuco Canyon, CA, Ford Raptor (Mason) 9:56:25 (47.65 mph) 2. 37L Rolf Helland, 63, Morris, Ill./Rick D. Johnson, 57, Barstow, CA, Ford Raptor (Mason) 10:09:34 3. 85L Clay Lawrence, 61, Banning, CA, Chevy Silverado (Herbst/Smith) 10:46:41 4. 65L Greg Adler, 54, Manhattan Beach, CA/Thomas Fichter, 57, Spring, TX, Ford Raptor (TSCO) 11:20:35 5. 55L Jose Flores, 59, Culiacan, MX/Eduardo Perez, 59, La Paz, MX/James Sejd, 63, Gainesville, Va., Chevy Silverado (Jimco), 13:14:31 6. 61L David Payne, 62, St. Luis, Mo./Damon Bradshaw, Peoria, AZ, Chevy Silverado (Herbst/Smith) 15:03:09 TROPHY TRUCK SPEC (unlimited Truck/SUV, stock, sealed engines)—(31 Starters, 26 Finishers) 1. 234 Jason McNeil, 45, El Cajon, CA/Eric Clay, St. George, UT, TSCO-Chevy, 9:33:37 (49.55 mph) 2. 263 Ryan Millen, 37, Huntington Beach, CA (New Zealand), (DOR-EJ Herbst, 22, Las Vegas), Herbst/Smith-Chevy, 9:49:37 3. 228 Ryan Hancock, 47, Yuma, AZ/Dustin Grabowski, 26, Upland, CA, TSCO-Chevy, 9:52:48 4. 219 Thor Herbst, 23, Las Vegas/Pierce Herbst, 20, Las Vegas, Herbst/Smith-Chevy, 9:57:42 5. 282 Brent Fox, 55, Highland, UT/Brook Beckstrom, 52, Salem, UT, Herbst/Smith-Chevy, 10:19:45 6. 207 Mason Cullen, 23, Long Beach, CA/Matt Cullen, 54, Long Beach, CA, Geiser-Chevy, 10:20:49 7. 236 Michael Marsal, 35, Millbrook, N.Y./Troy Grabowski, 23, Upland, CA, Brenthel-Chevy,10:32:48 8. 285 Justin Davis, 30, Chino Hills, CA/Troy Holes, 48, Victorville, CA/Cade Garcia, 22, Los Angeles, CA, TSCO-Chevy, 10:33:09 9. 200 Jorge Sampietro, 32, Ensenada, MX, Mason-Chevy, 10:34:24; 10. 227 Jack Olliges, 16, Las Vegas/Jordan Dean, 22, Las Vegas, Geiser-Ford, 10:36:28 11. 246 Ethan Hagle, 30, Somis, CA/Ben Hagle, 33, Somis, CA, Alumi Craft-Chevy, 10:37:27 12. 244 Oliver Flemate, 46, Ensenada, MX,TSCO-Chevy, 10:42:02 13. 249 Dustin Swanson, 44, Honolulu, Hawaii/Eric Dollente, 43, Imperial, CA, TSCO-Chevy, 10:52:25 14. 284 Jose Contreras, 39, Tecate, MX/Eduardo Arellano, Tijuana, MX, BRP-Chevy, 11:17:29 15. 232 Chelsea Magness, 35, Denver/Matt Robinson, Denver, Herbst/Smith-Chevy, 11:23:21 16. 273 Jordan Brenthel, 36, Temecula, CA/Tyler Miller, Aliso Viejo, CA, Temecula, CA, Brenthel-Chevy, 11:27:15 17. 204 Christopher Polvoorde, 22, Hemet, CA, Mason-Ford, 11:37:18 18. 231 Carlos Ramos, 35, La Paz, MX/Jose Rosas, 37, La Paz, MX/Stephano Algorri, 30, La Paz, MX/Agustin Moreno, 31, San Jose del Cabo, MX, Custom-Chevy, 11:45:57 19. 266 David Ziegler, 48, Reno, Nev./Paul Ziegler, 53, Reno, Nev., Brenthel-Chevy, 12:18:38 20. 260 Santiago Creel, 36, MX City/Cristian Castelan, Ensenada, MX/William Hedrick, 27, Vicente Guerrero, Baja, CA, Jimco-Chevy,12:20:09 21. 277 Travis Williams, 46, Avondale, AZ/Pete Tolar, 45, Phoenix/Travis Chase, 44, La Crescenta, CA, Geiser-Chevy, 12:31:07 22. 280 Bryan Scheible, 59, Georgetown, TX/Jeff Wiper, 58, Orcas Island, Wash./Edgar Mayoral, 32, Ensenada, MX, Brenthel-Chevy, 15:09:11 23. 211 Pat Sims, 56, Eunice, N.M./Tim Wilson, 22, Boulder City, Nev./Jeffery T. Wilson, 25, Boulder City, Nev., ESM-Chevy, 15:38:10 24. 270 Jimmy Diaz, 39, Los Barriles, MX/Alan Gillette, 54, Hartford, Wisc., Fusion-Chevy,16:14:05 25. 226 Juan C. Lopez, 48, Tecate, MX/Carlos ‘Apdaly’ Lopez, 28, Tecate, MX, Curry-Ford,16:23:23 26.205 Joe Delucie, 44, Las Vegas/Neal Drickey, 44, Omaha, Neb., SLR-Chevy, 16:30:07