SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/693984
highway we were 20 seconds behind him. By San Matias, we were up to fourth in physical position. After the goat trail, we were third. It was one of those races where we never got out of the truck. Our pits were amazing; all of them were under 30 seconds. Everything worked like it is supposed to. It doesn't happen very often, but it ended up being a great day. SJ: What was your strategy for this race? Vildosola: "Usually when starting in the back I have a good idea of where to push, and where to hold back, and how we are going to attack the race. I pressure myself a lot to conform to that pre-race plan. This race there was a calmness. I felt like we were starting first and the next guy off the line was 30 minutes back. I just felt this calm come over me that I have never felt before. I had a feeling that everything was going to be OK and I just needed to run my race and not pressure myself. We ran super cool the whole day. We passed when we were supposed to. My strategy was just to run my race and if we did that we would be contending at the end. I didn't worry about where to push; I just ran the pace that I needed to run everywhere. It turned out well for us. VILDOSOLA WITH CO- RIDER JAVI VALENZUELA CELEBRATE AT THE PODIUM AFTER ONE OF THE MOST GRUELING RACES THE TWO HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED. SJ: You were running on a new type of tire during this race that was different than what other racers were using. Can you tell us more about that? Vildosola: We have already been testing twice with the Toyo engineers and we will have a lot more tests in the future. The goal is to develop a brand new tire for the SCORE Baja 1000. If there isn't enough time for a new tire, then Toyo will make enough changes to the RT, the 40-inch tire, to try and curb some of the wear. The level of commitment Toyo has with Vildosola Racing, in terms of continuing to further develop the RT, is really why we are here. I really like the feel of the RT tire, there is an advantage to the extra inch with the RT. (Author's note. The RT is 40 inches tall while the MT is 39 inches tall). The truck performs better in the rough stuff and it gives us that extra inch of clearance. We did extensive testing with both tires and we believe the RT has a slight advantage. The MT is a great tire and if we are not able to roll out the new RT for the SCORE Baja 1000 we might go with the MT for that race as we think it has some advantages for what we will see there. SJ: This SCORE Baja 500 will be known for the heat wave that melted the East side of the course. It hit 117 in Borrego and probably over 120 near Cabuzo Junction. How did you deal with the effects of the heat on your body and the truck? Vildosola: Our truck is a good 800 pounds lighter than most other Trophy Trucks. That helps with the heat. If you are pushing less weight, you are using less power. We never got over a 234-degree water temp. I was talking to Andy and Dan McMillin, and some other drivers about this. They were up in the 240's and 260-degree range. 045 SCORE JOURNAL GETSOMEPHOTO