SCORE Journal

SCORE Journal Issue - DECEMBER 2017

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

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Cody Reid: Courting Perfection By Stephen Romero Photos by Get Some Photo Winning the 50th BFGoodrich Tires SCORE Baja 1000 takes preparation and the skill to endure everything nature throws at you. Then there’s the course itself, the silt, ruts, rocks, and cacti, all of which are ready to make your day worse than it started. For Class 10 Alumi-Craft racer Cody Reid of Apple Valley, California, and his team during this year’s race, none of this mattered. They had a plan, and never wavered far from it. It was a ballet on four wheels as Reid, 25, recalls as he crossed the finish line in a time of 22:42:52 to take first place in the class. His teammates Adam Pfankuch, Curt Geer, and Sammy Ehrenberg performed with absolute precision. “Everything is in the preparation and you have to have a good car,” said Reid. “The work by Daniel Folts and Brian Bowles from Mach 1 Prep was phenomenal. As a team and family, everything must be right. My dad Kevin put together a tremendous effort. He made sure that everyone knew what to do and when to do it.” Pfankuch set the pace out of Ensenada to mile marker 294. Geer drove it to mile marker 580 and then Ehrenberg drove the Class 10 buggy to mile marker 830. Reid took over the race from there and ran to the finish. “We only had a couple of last minute co-driver changes before the race,” said Reid. “It was a phenomenal run from everyone, with no flat tires. Forty people pitted or crewed during the race. My dad was in the chase truck as the crew chief and he followed the team all the way down the peninsula. He was nervously watching the SCORE Tracker system. We also used the BajaTracking.com system.” The Alumi-Craft race car gained a big lead at the start thanks to Pfankuch and the team held the lead all the way to the finish. “There was never a moment where we doubted the win,” said Reid. “No one made a major mistake and that’s how we were able to cruise to the finish line. The car never let us down. It ran flawlessly.” That’s not to suggest that any of it was as easy as it sounded. Reid himself had to contend with the heavy fog and silt and it was “lights out” for more than one hundred miles at the crack of dawn. “I realized at mile marker 1,070 that I had a one-hundred-mile lead on the class competitors,” said Reid. “My dad said to back-off at that point, and so I dialed it back twenty-five percent. I drove mostly off my co-drivers navigation through the toughest sections.” While no one who races the SCORE Baja 1000 anticipates a near-perfect performance. Once in a while, the stars do lineup. On this day, it was for Team Reid. SJ

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