RENO, Nev.,USA—Odds makers would consider it a ‘lock’ with the top three point leaders all from the host country hoping to become the first SCORE overall season point champion from their native land as Mexico’s Gus Vidosola Jr, Eduardo Laguna and Carlos Lopez will be leading a field of 31 SCORE Trophy Trucks into next week’s 48th Annual Bud Light SCORE Baja 1000, the granddaddy of all desert races.
This year’s race, starting and finishing in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, will be held Nov. 18-22, 65 miles south of the U.S. Border at San Diego.
The iconic race is the season-finale of the five-race 2015 SCORE World Desert Championship. Motorcycle and Quad classes will leave the start line, one vehicle at a time in the elapsed-time race, starting at 6 a.m. PT next Friday (Nov. 20) with the car and truck classes beginning their odyssey starting at 11 a.m. PT in a similar single-file procession into the majestic mysterious and foreboding northern portion of Mexico’s spectacular Baja California Peninsula.
With pre-running accelerating at a faster pace on the nearly 830-mile race course, nearly 250 entries, from 30 U.S. States and 20 countries competing in Pro and Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads are expected to take the green flag.
THE CHALLENGE AHEAD
But as anyone who has ever zipped up the racer’s fire suit, strapped on the driver’s racer helmet and snapped on the driver’s protective seat harness will tell you, nothing is certain in motorsports and throw in the rugged desert race course of natural rock-strewn trails, sand-sucking silt beds, natural washes, and every imaginable possible obstacle, the only sure thing is that you will have some type of issues to contend with in your attempt to make it from green flag back to checkered flag.
Through the development of the sport of desert racing since its roots in the late 1960s, the sport’s greatest minds and most-talented racers have combined to build the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck, the expensive, hi-tech, 850-horsepower, unlimited production trucks with enough creative electronics to turn a NASA engineer green with envy. Yet, when adding the challenging terrain to the equation, along with a pinch of weather, a good finishing rate for this impressive class would be around 65% (20).
A true test of man and machine if ever there was one, Mexico’s three amigos of Baja are on the verge of becoming the first Mexican national to win the featured SCORE Trophy Truck class season point championship in the 21-year history of the featured class as well as being the first racer from their country to win the SCORE Overall point championship in SCORE’s history of more than four decades.
READY, WILLING AND ABLE
Vildosola Jr has won two of the four races this season, Laguna and Lopez one each and while winning the most important desert race in the world would be spectacular, becoming the first Mexican national driver to capture the SCORE Trophy Truck and SCORE Overall season point championship would be nothing short of unbelievable.
Legends are made of winning the SCORE Baja 1000, immortals are made of winning the SCORE Trophy Truck and SCORE Overall season point championship.
With equal starting and finishing points, the difference will be the varied placement points within the class, but of course, a driver must first finish.
On the verge of an unprecedented accomplishment after his second race win of the season, Mexico’s Gus Vildosola Jr has driven his No. 21 Vildosola Racing Ford Raptor back to the top of the 2015 SCORE World Desert Championship.
GLORY ROAD
Following first, fifth, fourth and first-place finishes, Vildosola Jr, a second generation Mexican national desert racer from Mexicali, leads the SCORE Trophy Truck season point standings as well as the SCORE overall season point standings after Round 4 of the five-race 2015 SCORE World Desert Championship. Vildosola Jr, with his father Gus Sr. has a back-up driver, drives the No. 21 Vildosola Racing Ford Raptor shod with BFGoodrich Tires.
Winning September’s Rigid Industries SCORE Imperial Valley 250, after opening the season with a third consecutive victory in the 29th Bud Light SCORE San Felipe 250, recording a fifth in the inaugural Bud Light SCORE Baja Sur 500 and a fourth in June’s 48th annual Bud Light SCORE Baja 500 has enabled Vildosola Jr climb back to the SCORE Overall season point lead as well as the top spot in the featured SCORE Trophy Truck division.
Following his fortuitous fifth career SCORE Trophy Truck race win on Sept. 26, Vildosola Jr has 326 season points as only 104 total points separate the top 20 overall 4-wheel vehicle point leaders after four events in the 2015 SCORE World Desert Championship and only 26 points separate the top seven overall point leaders. In 2010, Vildosola Jr and his father became the first Mexican national drivers to win a peninsula run SCORE Baja 1000 race (Ensenada to La Paz).
SCORE TROPHY TRUCK LEADERS
Including Vildosola Jr, six SCORE Trophy drivers are among the top 20 in points.
Fourth in SCORE Overall points and second in SCORE Trophy Truck is Mexico’s Laguna, winner of this year’s Bud Light SCORE Baja Sur 500, who has 304 points in the No. 17 RPM Racing Chevy Silverado, while ninth in SCORE Overall points and third in SCORE Trophy Truck is Mexico’s Lopez, who has 279 points and won this year’s 47th SCORE Baja 500 in the No. 5 RPM Racing Chevy Rally Truck and 10th in SCORE Overall points and fourth in SCORE Trophy Truck is Las Vegas’ Rob MacCachren who has 272 points in the No. 11 Rockstar Energy MacCachren Motorsports Ford F-150.
MacCachren, a six-time AARWBA All-America driver is the all-time winningest SCORE Trophy Truck racer with 12 career SCORE race wins. MacCachren is the defending SCORE Baja 1000 race winner as he teamed last year to win the peninsula run to La Paz with Andy McMillin and Jason Voss. San Diego’s A. McMillin will race with MacCachren again this year while Voss, Cupertino Valley, Calif., will be the second driver for San Diego’s Luke McMillin, Andy’s racing cousin, in the No. 83 McMillin Ford F-150.
In13th in SCORE Overall points and fifth in SCORE Trophy Truck after four races with 261 points is defending SCORE Overall and SCORE Trophy Truck season point champion Steven Eugenio, Carlsbad, Calif. and his new teammate Armin Schwarz, who is from Germany but lives in Austria, in the No. 1 Galindo Motorsports Chevy Silverado
Gary Magness, Desert Hot Springs, Calif., is 19th in SCORE Overall points and sixth in SCORE Trophy Truck in the No. 45 Mango Racing Chevy Silverado with 222 points.
HERE COME THE CHALLENGERS
Helped by a huge assist from Supercross Hall of Fame legendary co-driver Ricky Johnson, RPM Racing’s Justin Matney earned the first starting position in the featured SCORE Trophy Truck division in this month’s 48th annual Bud Light SCORE Baja 1000 during qualifying on Nov. 3 on a purpose built, very technical 3.6-mile course that started and finished on the Off-Road Track at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
In front of an appreciative capacity crowd at the LVMS Off-Road Track, Johnson, who won 38 Supercross races and seven season championships in his Hall of Fame motorcycle career, blistered the dirt and asphalt covering the course in three minutes, 46.11 seconds with an average speed of 57.32 miles per hour in Matney’s new No. 4 RPM Racing four-wheel drive Chevy Silverado built by Geiser Brothers of Phoenix.
With long-time SCORE sponsor BFGoodrich Tires claiming the top four qualifying positions and nine of the top 10 qualifiers, second was Mexico’s Vildosola Jr, while third was Las Vegas’ Bryce Menzies, the 2011 SCORE Trophy Truck season point champion, in the No. 70 Menzies Motorsports Ford F-150 and fourth was Las Vegas’ MacCachren.
Earning the fifth qualifying spot despite suffering a flat tire near the end of his run was last year’s top qualifier, Robby Gordon, Charlotte, N.C., the SCORE Trophy Truck season point champion in 1996 and 2009 and SCORE Baja 1000 winner in 2006, in the No. 77 Gordon Motorsports Chevy Silverado.
Leading the second five top qualifiers in sixth was Mexico’s Lopez while seventh was Luke McMillin, El Cajon, Calif., eighth was Jesse Jones, Phoenix, the 2010 SCORE Trophy Truck season point champion, in the No. 76 Jones Motorsprots Ford F-150, ninth was Mexico’s Eduardo Laguna and completing the top 10 qualifier list was Cameron Steele, San Clemente, Calif. in the No. 16 Desert Assassins Chevy Silverado.
THERE’S MORE
In a sport that is a true test of endurance and stamina, this year’s Bud Light SCORE Baja 1000 includes SCORE Trophy Truck winners from the last nine straight years and 15 SCORE Trophy Truck season point champions in the 20-plus-year history of the star-studded class.
Included in this group is Las Vegas’ B.J. Baldwin, who won this race back-to-back in 2012 and 2013 as well as the SCORE Trophy Truck season point title in 2008, 2012 and 2013 in the No. 97 Baldwin Motorsports Chevy Silverado. Baldwin is seventh is SCORE Trophy Truck points this season.
Two more of the key challengers to capture the checkered flag are the two SCORE Trophy Trucks from Las Vegas brothers Tim Herbst and Troy Herbst. Tim Herbst, the second-winningest driver in SCORE Trophy Truck history with 11 career SCORE race wins, is teamed again with Baja legend Larry Roeseler, Boulevard, Calif., in the No. 19 Terrible Herbst Motorsports Ford F-150. Roeseler has 17 class wins in this race, including 13 overall wins, 10 on a motorcycle and three in the car/truck classes.
Troy Herbst, who has six Class 1 wins in this race, splitting driving with Ryan Arciero, Foothill Ranch, Calif., who has three career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins, in the No. 91 Terrible Herbst Motorsports Ford F-150.
Another brother team, racing veterans Mark Weyhrich/Gary Weyhrich, of Troutdale, Ore., race as a team and are always among the front runners in their No. 9 TSCO Motorsports Ford F-150.
TOP CLASS COUNTS
A total of 217 vehicles are officially entered as of today.
So far among the car, truck and UTV classes, SCORE Trophy Truck has the most entries with 31, followed by Class 19 with 23, Class 10 with 18, Trophy Truck Spec with 17, the unlimited Class 1 with 15 and Class 1/2-1600 with 11 entries to date.
Among the motorcycle classes, the unlimited M/C class has 11 entries and Class 40 (m/c riders over 40 years old) has six entries so far.