SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1536633
TOP OF THE CLASS Cameron Steel Takes A Second Season Win In Trophy Truck 2WD By Stuart Bourdon Photos by Get Some Photo Cameron Steele of San Clemente, California won his class in the BFGoodrich Tires 57th Baja 500, racking up a second consecutive SCORE International race in the new SCORE Trophy Truck 2WD category. Teaming up with Dave Mason Jr. of Valley Center, California, the duo shared driving duties aboard the No. 16T Ford Desert Assassins truck, finishing with a time of 9 hours, 28 minutes, and 55 seconds, which also netted the team a fourth overall for four-wheeled vehicles. During our conversation with Steele, we asked about the new 2WD Trophy Truck class. As always, he was honest, telling us, “I had been asked years ago about it, and thought it might be best to leave the classes together. However, it’s brought some more racers out, and I think it’s going to bring even more people into the SCORE Trophy Truck categories in the future. I think it might bring more two-wheel drives than there are all-wheel drive trucks.” “We have been on a quest to build an all-wheel drive and purchased a Dougans engine and some transmissions for one, but we’re holding off right now because we’re enjoying this two-wheel-drive racing,” he said. “We were fourth overall at the SCORE Baja 500, and third overall at the SCORE San Felipe 250 . We’d still like to win overall in our two-wheel drive truck. We had a pretty good run at the Baja 500, but we did have a little bit of a hiccup, and it just took us out of that overall spot.” Although Steele had a great finish, it wasn’t an easy race for him and the team. “The mud got me. It wasn’t bad, but it’s always a little bit stressful when you’re slipping and sliding, and that’s actually how I got in trouble. I was being overly aggressive in a muddy section, about where Luke McMillin had his problem, and I slid into a giant rock. It was my fault. We had to race for 40 miles with no spare tires because of my mistake, and it slowed us down.” “I drove to mile 240. Dave Mason Jr. drove the last half. He did a great job. His splits looked really good on timing, and he had a clean run, no flats, no drama. I always judge it a clean run if you show up with all the body panels on the truck, and we did that. We saw Luke broken and were trying to figure out what was going on in front, and I had caused us some drama, so we were off that very front pace of Toby Price and Alan Ampudia. We were mostly worried about what Tavo Vildosola was doing, as we were racing him for third overall and didn’t have any concerns about what was behind us. Always race forward is my philosophy.” Getting through the mud and wet sections on the course was just the beginning for the Desert Assassins team. “Our biggest problem was some kind of crazy electrical gremlins. We had no communications with our pits, and we had no Stella, and no tracking. That’s a very difficult thing to manage because you don’t know where you are, and you don’t know if there’s safety issues ahead. In addition to that, our speed limiter wasn’t working correctly, so we ended up getting some speed zone penalties. It’s like trying to slow down a wild horse.” “The mud and the electrical issues are just a part of racing, and people always ask who was I worried about during the race? I’m not worried about racing against anybody but Baja, because I always say Baja is the deciding factor. The place is going to let you have a good day or it’s not. One thing I would like to ask of fellow racers is that we don’t go out and do a race lap before the race. I believe calm course reconnaissance is the way to do it. Take it easy out there in Baja. Everybody’s got to do their part to take care of each other.” SJ