Its time, the 49th running of the SCORE Baja 500 is on and teams are either in Baja now or making their way down to pre-run for the grueling off-road race south of the border. In desert racing, Baja is king, both the 500 and the 1000 are the most sought after wins in all of off-road racing.
For the first time ever in Baja, UTVs make up the largest class in the race with 37 total entries across two classes. 26 forced induction (2900 class) and 11 naturally aspirated (1900 class) UTVs will compete on a 515 +/- mile race course that will begin in Ensenada take racers south along the pacific coast for almost 200 miles before traversing east towards the famous Mikes Sky Ranch, then down to San Felipe before making the turn north towards the hot and desolate Diablo Dry Lake Bed. From there racers will run a fun yet technical 200 miles back towards Ensenada. Last years race winner completed the Baja 500 in just under 13 hours.
Since 2013 only one non-Polaris UTV has won the Pro UTV class and that was Marc Burnett in his Can-Am. The past two years have been dominated by Factory Polaris racer Wayne Matlock. Matlock is primed to become the first Pro-UTV racer to win the Baja 500 three times in a row but this years race will see him face the stiffest competition ever in UTV Baja racing history. Factory Can-Am teams of Burnett, Sappington and Murray look to be the first to dethrone Matlock in two years while a full field of other Polaris racers are preparing to also capture their piece of Baja glory.
Alonso Lopez who won the Baja 500 in 2016 in the Naturally Aspirated class has now moved into the forced induction class piloting a new 2017 Polaris RZR XP Turbo, Justin Lambert is also competing for the first time in Baja in an XP Turbo. Other Factory Polaris racers taking on the FI class consist of Craig Scanlon, Jacob Carver, Branden Sims, Wes Miller, Mike Cafro, Brandon Schueler, and Cody Rahders. Polaris has without a doubt stacked the deck to maintain their Baja dominance while Can-Am aims to put their X3 on the board for the first time in the prestigious Baja 500.
Those following the N/A class will certainly have their eyes focused on Kristen Matlock who has been impressive in Baja to say the least. The “Iron Woman” will once again look to pilot her #1954 Factory Polaris RZR XP 1000 to a podium finish.
Source:UTV Underground