SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1547140
REACHING FOR THE TOP SCORE Trophy Truck Teams Need A Flawless Race To Win By Dan Sanchez, Ariana Medrano, Isaac Flores, and Alberto Lopez Photos by Get Some Photo The driving talent within all of the SCORE Trophy Truck classes is so high, most racers need to have a near perfect race to win. With Baja throwing rain, dust, rocks, and more at all of the racers competing, it’s up to the teams to make sure their vehicles won’t break, all of the course regulations and checkpoints are met, and that they can maintain a pace fast enough to win, but cautious enough to make it to the end. By the time the SCORE Trophy Truck class started from the center of Ensenada, Mexico, the top qualifiers and racers were already well out in front trying everything in their power to have as perfect a day as possible. Out in front were the fastest of the fast, Chris Polvoorde, who qualified first, Luke McMillin, Alan Ampudia, and Bryce Menzies, who set such a fast pace, that essentially, they were in a race all their own. Hit once again with some bad luck, Polvoorde in the No. 94 truck had a devastating engine failure that put him out of the race. Other TT racers also had vehicle problems that didn’t allow them to finish. This included Andy McMillin in a second Menzies vehicle (No. 21), Ryan Arcerio, the first winner of the SCORE Baja 400 inaugural race (No. 32), and Adam Housholder in the No. 24 truck. In a fast 423.16 miles of Baja desert racing, Luke McMillin came out on top with his third win of the season. While it looked effortless for McMillin the lead and overall win was always hanging by a thread. “It was an up and up and down emotional day because I thought Bryce was going to get away from us for a minute, and then we caught up to him and then we’re first on the road,” said McMillin. Menzies followed close behind in second place by only three minutes, due to a penalty. “We got a couple flats, dropped us back, and we were running with Luke,” said Menzies. “We were close a couple times but just couldn’t get close enough. So, awesome run though, and then on to the SCORE Baja 1000.” Sneaking up into third place, passing Ampudia was Kevin Thompson in the No. 70 truck, with co-driver Harley Letner. “We had a good run starting fifth,” said Letner. “We topped the leaderboards a few times going back and forth with the top four guys, Alan, Bryce and Luke. It was a battle. We were running fourth. On course, it was rad. We went back and forth with Alan a couple seconds here and there. Then we hit a hole and like lost steering for the last 40 miles. So, we had to add a bit of fluid. We got some luck went our way when Alan had a tip over, so that put us on the box.” SCORE TT Legends Finishing fifth overall, was the 1L Truck of Gus Vildosola with co-driver Ricky Johnson, who had put the team in a top starting position after qualifying. “We had a perfect day with no flats, no problems and no incidents,” said Gus Vildosola. “That’s the way it ought to be. My section started very, very fast and then got extremely technical. Coming into Ojos, it gets slow, windy, and rutty. It was a very challenging race.” This was Vildosola’s second win in a row this season, following a sixth-place finish at the SCORE San Felipe 250. Nevertheless, the win at this race, puts the team in the lead towards defending their 2025 Class Championship. Finishing second was Gerard Lopez in the No. 27L truck, followed by Shawn Runyon in the 99L truck. “We planned to go at our own pace—trying to make some headway—and everything went well during the day,” said Lopez “When darkness fell, we realized that our lights had fallen off while we were riding in the lead. It’s my first race here. I discovered this late and I’m having a great time because it’s an adventure more than a race. The trucks are incredible, the desert is incredible and I’m learning everything. It’s very different. I’ve raced a lot on roads, so for me, this is a great experience.” SCORE TT 2WD The competitive SCORE 2WD Trophy Truck class also has its share of highly talented racers of which Maverick Gaunt in the No. 42T truck, finished first in class and 15th Overall. “We were top three all day and had a clean run,” said Gaunt. “We’ve been at this a while now and this is our first time coming in first.” Mike Perez in the No. 95Tk truck finished second followed by the 2025 Class Champion Sam Baldi in the No 1T truck in third place after tearing the front A arm and differential off of the truck when they hit a rock. “We managed to fix the truck, but we were down an hour and a half, got the truck fixed. So, after all that, it’s still a podium finish,” said Baldi. “That’s a hell of a feat. I can’t thank our guys enough.” The third-place finish keeps Baldi in the points lead towards defending his Class Championship. SCORE TT Spec Winning his first race in nine years, Apdaly Lopez found himself on top of the podium with a win in the SCORE TT Spec Class. Driving the No. 273 Brenthel truck, Lopez rocketed through the course finishing sixth overall with a time of 9:20:22. “It was a roller coaster ride for the first miles, we were leading,” said Lopez. The team was in first place and around race mile 340, they ran out of fuel. Fortunately, a spectator gave them some fuel so they could finish the race and win the class. In second place less than a minute apart, was Mike Marsal in the No. 236 truck. He was trailing the 2025 Class Champion Justin Davis in the No. 285 truck who was trading the lead with Lopez until hitting a water hole which caused the truck to shut down. Marsal then moved into second place and held the position until the end, nearly catching up to Lopez. Davis got the truck restarted after some time, and he managed to drive to the finish in third place. “The truck shut off for 13 minutes,” said Davis. “The water did something with electrical, then it dried up and we took off. I’m just bummed out. You know, we led for almost 300 miles to have something so stupid fail, but what do you do? It’s racing.” In fourth place was the current points leader for the SCORE TT Spec Championship, Brent Fox in the No. 282 truck. Fox and Davis have only a three-point difference for the TT Spec Championship, and Marsal is only seven points from the lead. This means the SCORE Baja 1000 will be the determining race for each of these teams to take the class championship.