LaTijereta - 10-21-2004 at 05:50 PM
October 21, 2004
261 total entries to date
Four classes will have SCORE GPS Data Loggers installed to increase
Safety, verify route and speed at next month?s Tecate SCORE Baja 1000
SCORE Trophy-Truck, Class 1, Class 10, Protruck classes will use
Special devices at Nov. 16-20 race down Baja California peninsula
LOS ANGELES?Attempting to help increase safety, verify route and speed, SCORE International, the world?s foremost desert racing organization, has
announced it will require mandatory use of SCORE GPS data loggers in four of the top four-wheel vehicle classes in next month?s 37th Annual Tecate
SCORE Baja 1000 in Baja California, Mexico.
In what SCORE officials hope will become mandatory for all classes (cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs) in the future, SCORE Trophy-Truck, Class
1, Class 10 and Protruck will be the four classes with the official ?black boxes? installed prior to the Nov. 16-20 race of 1,016.3 miles down the
Baja peninsula from Ensenada to La Paz. The special devices and their accompanying little ?black boxes? are being provided to the SCORE racers
exclusively through RallyTrack.com, of Lakewood, Calif.
?SCORE International has always been on the cutting edge of innovation in our sport and we welcome the opportunity to add this special
technological advancement to help SCORE maintain its pre-eminent position,? said Sal Fish, CEO/President of Los Angeles-based SCORE International.
?After testing four of these units at last month?s SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300, we are convinced not only with their reliability, but also their
accuracy in providing us instantaneous data for review.?
To date, an impressive total of 261 vehicles have officially entered this year?s Tecate SCORE Baja 1000. When registration is complete, nearly
275 vehicles competing in 25 Pro and 5 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs are expected to compete in Mexico.
Pre-race festivities will be held around the Riviera del Pacifico Convention Center in Ensenada and the San Nicolas Hotel, on Tuesday and
Wednesday, Nov. 16-17. The race will start on Thursday, Nov. 18, in front of the Riviera del Pacifico Convention Center with motorcycles and ATVs
getting the green flag at approximately 6:30 a.m., followed by the car and truck classes at approximately 10:30 a.m. Vehicles will start one every 30
seconds in the elapsed-time race. The finish line will be on the outskirts of La Paz adjacent to the tourism office. While the fastest finishers will
complete the rugged route in approximately 16 hours, each vehicle will have a 40-hour time limit to become official finishers in the historic event.
While there are numerous other potential benefits from the use of the SCORE GPS Data Loggers, SCORE hopes that the primary result will be to
increase safety of the racers and the more than 200,000 expected specatators along the race route.
?With the technical evolution of SCORE racing, faster and more durable racing machines, along with the incredible popularity of SCORE races in
Mexico and the fact that our events are held on open land and not in an enclosed race track, safety has become an increasing concern,? added Fish.
These SCORE Data Loggers are a major step forward by SCORE to help provide safer race conditions for racers, crews, media and spectators,? added Fish.
Within minutes of finishing the race, the data from the SCORE GPS Data Loggers will be downloaded and reviewed by RallyTrack.com personnel and
SCORE officials. This will insure that racers stayed on the prescribed course and within the posted speed limits for the approximate 100 miles of
paved highway the event uses.
For all race vehicles, SCORE will continue to have monitors posted at various locations around the course, 14 checkpoints that racers must stop
at as well as personnel with radar equipment on the highway sections.
?We salute SCORE for taking yet another pioneering step to help keep desert racing safe, which will help prolong considerably its future in the
motorsports world,? said Craig Reitz, President of RallyTrack.com. ?There are a significant number of other applications this equipment is capable of,
and it is our goal to help SCORE implement even more benefits over the course of the 2005 SCORE Desert Series and beyond.?
The post-race SCORE Survivor Award?s Celebration will be held Saturday afternoon in La Paz and is scheduled to be held at the Crowne Plaza
Resort, adjacent to the official finish line of the race.
Pre-race festivities on Wednesday, Nov. 17, for the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, including tech and contingency and the SCORE Manufacturer?s Midway
will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. across from the San Nicolas Hotel. The pre-race mandatory driver/rider briefing will be held Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. at
the Riviera CC. Racer registration will be held at the Riviera CC from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 16 and from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Wednesday,
Nov. 17.
The popular event will feature the $40,000 Terrible?s Bonus purse, which includes a $20,000 bonus to the first overall 4-wheel vehicle, provided
by Herbst Gaming of Las Vegas.
The race will also culminate the chase for both the $10,000 Kartek Off-Road bonus and the $12,000 Toyota True-Grit and Toyota Milestone Awards.
The Kartek Off-Road bonus goes to the 2004 SCORE Overall point champion.
Celebrating its 31st anniversary this year as the World?s Foremost Desert Racing Series, the SCORE Desert Series is returning to Mexico for the
last of three races held annually in Baja California.
The race will be televised as a one-hour special in December on the new Jeep World of Adventure Sports show on the NBC Television Network. The
show is produced by Aura360. The telecast will air on Saturday, Dec. 11 at 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time).
SCORE official sponsors for 2004 are: BFGoodrich Tires-official tire, Southern California Ford Dealers-official vehicle and C.L. Bryant-VP Racing
Fuels-official fuel supplier. Associate sponsors are: Tecate Beer, Coca-Cola of Mexico, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance, Herbst Gaming, Kartek Off-Road,
Fram, Autolite, Prestone, Bilstein, Signpros, P.C.I. Race Radios, McKenzie?s Performance Products, and Advanced Color Graphics.
Additional sponsors of this year?s Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 are: Cotuco, Fideicomiso Publico para la Promocion Turistica de Ensenada and Centrix
Financial of Denver.
For more information, contact SCORE at its Los Angeles headquarters 818.225.8402 or visit the official website of the 2004 SCORE Desert Series at
http://www.score-
You Gotta be Kidding!!!
thebajarunner - 10-21-2004 at 06:38 PM
Half the fun of racing "the Baja" was in the navigation.
Shoot, might as well just stage it in the LA Coliseum and call it a day!
Yuck, double Yuck!!!
Hey, it used to be fun, now it is so expensive it sucks.
That is why Bonneville was so much fun last week.... see separate post.
Baja Arriba!!! (at Petco Park?)
David K - 10-21-2004 at 06:42 PM
Gee, its bad enough that they use mostly graded roads now, but the race hazard of getting lost is gone as well?!. Is the Baja 1000 a race for
sissies?
Thanks for the news Kris... what part of the course will be like the good old days? You know, unimproved dirt road winding between boulders and
boojums. I see the Calamajue area to El Crucero and the section through Desengano before reaching the L.A. Bay highway as maybe the only non graded
roads?
bajalou - 10-21-2004 at 07:49 PM
This might cut down on the "corner cutting" that some of the Trophy trucks did around 3 poles last year.
Most already use a GPS with the course plugged in from PCI, Scott Steinberger's company. They program in the entire course including cautions etc so
the co pilot can call the turns etc. This new logger will only give the officials a record of what they did.
Now I get it
jrbaja - 10-21-2004 at 08:51 PM
A friend from Switzerland who races Dakar, New Guinea and other "serious" off road races where people have been lost for weeks, wasn't to impressed or
surprised that he hadn't even heard of a race down a peninsula that averages about 50 miles wide.
And now this.
What he was surprised at was taking the course from Uruapan to Ojos in my girlfriends 2 wd pathfinder
Now that was fun!!!
tim40 - 10-21-2004 at 10:01 PM
This has zero to do with getting lost. For years course trimming has been a problem and people racing in 'no race' zones. Ask me over a beer
sometime how I entered the beach in 2nd and exited, without ever being past on course, in 5th. Or the time I past the same vehicle 3 times without
ever having it pass me on course. We started using GPS 7 years ago. Lots of great uses, not the least of which is helping to know where you are
at when the markings are nowhere left to be found.
LaTijereta - 10-22-2004 at 05:08 AM
The course part is right! The real deal here is the "speed". This will keep the racers within the "legal" speed limit as they run the highway
portions of the course.
Everyone nows that "some" racers have been known to push their luck, and have gotten away with it. (also there have been some horrible accidents for
the ones without luck)
At some point this information will be uploaded to a satellite, so you could follow their progress throught-out the race on your computer
Kind of takes the fun out of camping at some remote location along the beach to get a
view
I must have missed something
thebajarunner - 10-22-2004 at 08:14 PM
So how does a GPS keep a guy on course if he wants to shortcut?
If anything it gives him a better chance to log in exactly where he wants to split from the race road.
(I always thought that if SCORE really wanted to fix the 'short-cut' problem they could stake out a few obvious places, disqualify a few big buck guys
and it would be solved... too simple, I guess)
Baja Arriba!!
TMW - 10-23-2004 at 08:43 AM
The GPS black boxes that SCORE is requiring record where you went and how fast you were going. The Trophy Trucks and most top crews in class one
already have c-ckpit GPS for use during the race that the co-driver reads. There are several places where the racer in on the pavement and the Mexican
hwy patrol with SCORE have set a speed limit, usually 60mph. Several racers have gotten into trouble speeding and some have been stopped by the hwy
patrol while other racers sped on by. There was also an incident near San Felipe where many racers cut the course by as much as a couple of miles. If
a complaint is made the Black Box GPS will be used to decide the out come.
I got an idea
thebajarunner - 10-23-2004 at 09:57 AM
Give everyone a Playstation with a Baja 1000 game.
Put 'em all in a room in Ensenada, lock the door,
then let all us guys who enjoy building a racer in our garage go out and "race the Baja"
nahhhh.... makes too much sense.
(and it is way too much fun to do it our way)
Baja Arriba!!
bajalou - 10-23-2004 at 10:14 AM
Even Class 9 and 5/1600 have GPSr mounted in the c-ckpit with the course programed in. Have had for years - yes, even your homebuilt racer or bajabug
racer have these. Helps keep them on the course when the signs have been removed or turned as happens in mose of the Baja races.
As TW states, this new logger records where they went (and how fast) which should help keep them on the course - or close enough to it to have not
cut miles off the run.
Weatherman's son, Scott and his PCI Radios company will sell you the GPSr and put the course in or just put the course in if you already have the
right GPS. Even the cheapest GPS an be one or your best emergency items - lost in the dark, broke down, with a radio, you can tell chase or others
where you really are, not just what you think.
[Edited on 10-23-2004 by bajalou]