SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
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TOP OF THE CLASS UTV Racers Of Different Classes Battle For The Overall Win By Larry Saavedra, Paul Hanson, Isaac Flores, and Guilherme Torres Photos by Get Some Photo Imagine seeing more than 70 UTV racing teams and thousands of their most vocal racing fans waiting for the green flag to drop. That’s what it was like in front of the Riviera del Pacifico Center in Ensenada, for the ceremonial start of the 56th BFGoodrich SCORE Baja 500. Polaris factory team racer Cayden MacCachren was in pole position. But the first 100 or so miles was anyone’s game. MacCachren questioned whether or not starting first is an advantage. “You still have to finish first,” he snapped back. Most of the back and forth for the UTV Overall win happened shortly after the start. Phil Blurton in the No. 2944 Can-Am, Branden Sims in the No. 1886 Polaris RZR, Craig Scanlon in the No. 1831 Polaris RZR, and Wayne Matlock in the No. 1871 Polaris RZR were swapping positions in pursuit of MacCachren. MacCachren knew he had a battle on his hands, and said he just needed to keep his cool under pressure. Ultimately he steadied the ship and captured the coveted SCORE UTV Overall in 10:36:42.481 as well as the SCORE Pro UTV class win for Polaris. It would be MacCachren’s third consecutive SCORE UTV Overall. SCORE Pro UTV Open With no UTVs in front of him MacCachren in the No. 1821 Gen 2 Polaris RZR chased down the Class 10s and SCORE Trophy Truck Specs. The ambient air temperature at speed, according to MacCachren, was warm to hot. That’s after his on-board cooling system failed. The pressure to maintain a winning pace in the choking dust grew by every race mile. “I never saw another UTV on the course from the moment I left Ensenada,” MacCachren said. “I knew there were some battles going on around me from the radio chatter.” Even though he didn’t physically see another UTV, others were reported to be lurching in the dust. A brief back and forth for position ensued, (based on time), and MacCachren lost his initial lead at one point. Nevertheless, he was able to steady himself, as he recalled in a post-race interview. Among the SCORE UTV Open class, Polaris supported racers Ronnie Anderson in the No. 1837 RZR, Sims in the No. 1886 RZR, and SCI/Factory Polaris racer Scanlon in the No. 1831 RZR were trying to unseat the unshakable MacCachren. Mitchell Alsup in the No. 1861 Can-Am Maverick X3 was also in the thick of it. However, none succeeded. SCORE Live Tracking revealed that MacCachren rarely slowed as he picked his way past the sand washes. He said he was nearly oblivious to the chaos happening around him and even bump drafted a few SCORE Trophy Trucks. As the day grew long, he had hundreds of miles remaining to either win it or lose it. According to MacCachren, he put his head down. By mile marker 184, on corrected time, he moved back into first. When he did manage to “sneak” by the occasional SCORE Trophy Truck, it was an eye-opener for fans. “There’s some alternative lines you need to take to get around them,” said MacCachren. “It’s scary.” MacCachren opened up a three-minute gap on the course between his nearest class UTV rival at mile marker 240. Twenty miles later he widened his lead to six minutes and the rest is history. Sims managed to hold onto second in class with just one chase car, while three other teams were chasing him the entire day. His entire crew with driver and navigator included, was five people. “We didn’t get out of the car once and had absolutely no mechanical issues,” he said. Alsup took third to round out the podium finishers. “It went great with zero issues,” Alsup said. “I got in for the second half and brought it home. It was a solid day for us. We got a little bit of everything on our way to the finish, but the Can-Am Maverick was flawless and we had no flats.” SCORE Pro UTV Forced Induction Fresh from a class win at the SCORE San Felipe 250, Phil Blurton appeared to be on his way to put Can-Am on the podium at the SCORE Baja 500. Erick Kozin in the No. 2940 Can-Am chased Blurton for much of the race, but he was running only on adrenaline, he would later say. “It was a good race, long and hard,” he said. I broke my hand at race mile 15, but I fought through the pain. It’s Baja and you have to make it to the finish line. It’s tough but that’s why we’re here. We did lose the hood after bumping a SCORE Trophy Truck at the summit near San Felipe, but had no real mechanical issues.” Meanwhile, Blurton was desperately trying to hold onto his class lead, and it nearly didn’t happen. “We had a really good day going until race mile 200,” he said. “We lost our transmission cooler and that cost us about 30 minutes of downtime. Baja is always fun, you get a little bit of everything. The new Can-Am Maverick is awesome and we’re still figuring some things out, but it is extremely fast.” Blurton ultimately finished first in class, which was a huge sigh of relief to his team. Roberto Ruiz in the No. 2920 Can-Am Maverick X3 put Can-Am on the podium too with a third-place finish in class. “We had a very good race,” he said. “My section was heavily damaged by the bigger trucks and the dust was thick. That’s part of the game. It was the first time we made it to the finish line without any mechanical problems.” Can-Am racer Edgar Garcia in the No. 2987 Maverick X3 summed it up, “It’s a great race,” he said. “It was very technical, and our team had a lot of problems. Two flat tires, replaced a drive belt, and lost more than two hours of time. Still, it was fun.” SCORE Pro UTV Normally Aspirated Ethan Groom had a great start to the season by taking the class win at the SCORE San Felipe 250, and all eyes were on a repeat. But it never materialized. Instead, he DNF’d from mechanical issues. This left the door open for the class win to go to David Pedder in the No. 1984 Honda Talon. Pedder was on the podium at the SCORE San Felipe 250, and he’s racking up serious championship points. “The day went great, we didn’t change a tire,” he said. “We got off to a quick start, pushed, and never looked back. It was the first race where we never had a single mechanical problem.” Mike Podratz in the No. 1951 Polaris RZR took second behind Pedder, followed by Michael Aguirre in the No. 1926 Polaris RZR. Sixteen-year-old Eva Star Malabanan in the colorful No. 1919 Polaris RZR took a respectable fourth in class. Malabanan took second place in the 37th King Shocks SCORE San Felipe 250. SCORE Pro Stock UTV Kayden Wells in the No. 3025 Can-Am Maverick is one of the top racers in UTVs. He was called “Mister Consistent” by SCORE Journal in 2023 for his podium finishes. Now he had it all on the line for the SCORE Baja 500, after coming off a win at the SCORE San Felipe 250. He said he chose to take a rear start, which was part of his strategy. But only miles from the start his Can-Am’s four-wheel drive wouldn’t engage. According to Wells, the 1600 cars were passing him as he sat by the side of the road. “That never happens,” he said. “It turned out that it was a simple wire and I was able to fix it on the spot.” At race mile 260 Wells had gained back every position he had lost and more. “I got the physical lead in class,” he said. But the bad news didn’t end there. Wells later lost an axle. Fortunately for him, he didn’t lose any ground in the repair. “It was a lot of fun,” he said. “If Ampudia (Rodrigo Jr. No. 3910) hadn’t checked out because of mechanical trouble, I don’t think I would have caught him on the course.” Wells went on to take the class win, followed by Francisco Beltran in the No. 3921 Can-Am and Jorge Cano in the No. 3900 Can-Am. SJ