TMW - 3-10-2013 at 12:30 PM
SCORE MEDIA CONTACT: Dominic Clark, dominiccnv@aol.com
March 10, 2013
Vildosola holds off Menzies for Overall, SCORE Trophy Truck victory
In Saturday’s 27th MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250
Weigand/Udall ride JCR’s Honda CRF450X to Overall Class 22 Motorcycle win;
Other class winners include Arellano, Carr, Garcia, O’Neal, Prunty, Johnson, Stacy
40th season of world’s foremost desert racing organization starts Roger Norman era
SAN FELIPE, Mexico—Mexico’s vastly popular father/son team of Gustavo Vildosola/Gustavo Vildosola Jr powered past a talented field of 250 starters
Saturday to capture the 27th Annual MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 desert race in San Felipe, Mexico.
Driving the No. 21 Red Bull Vildosola Racing Ford Raptor in the featured SCORE Trophy Truck division, Vildosola, 59, and Vildosola Jr, 30,
covered the rugged and technical 253.0-mile course over much of Mexico’s Baja California Norte in four hours, 13 minutes, 39 seconds at an amazing
average speed of 59.85 miles per hour.
The victory was the third career win for Vildosola and second for Vildosola Jr in SCORE Trophy Truck, the marquee division for high-tech,
850-horsepower unlimited production trucks. The Vildosolas, with Vildosola Jr starting and driving the majority of the race, defeated Las Vegas’ Bryce
Menzies who drove the No. 70 Red Bull Menzies Motorsports Ford F-150 by just four minutes, 57 seconds the elapsed-time race. From Mexicali, the
Vildosola father/son team, whose last SCORE Trophy Truck victory was in 2010 when they earned the overall victory in the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000
peninsula race from Ensenada to La Paz, becoming the first Mexican nation team to capture the granddaddy of all desert races.
The Vildosola duo paced a race-record 35 SCORE Trophy Trucks battling through the tantalizing terrain that caused SCORE Trophy Truck racer Nick
Vanderwey of Phoenix to say, “there were almost as many rocks on this race course as there spectators along the sides of it.”
With racing continuing among the slower classes until past midnight Saturday, the season opener of the 2013 SCORE Desert Series was held this
weekend in Mexico’s picturesque fishing village of San Felipe, located 120 miles south of the U.S. border on the East side of the Baja California
peninsula along the azure waters of the tranquil Sea of Cortez.
With the exception of two classes, results were declared official early Sunday morning following review of the data tracking devices used by each
vehicle that resulted in numerous time penalties being imposed by SCORE officials for course violations in the race. Still pending additional review
are the results for two open-wheel car classes--the unlimited Class 1 and Class 10. Class 1 had 14 starters and Class 10 had 21 vehicles take the
green flag.
The 250 starters from 23 US States and 12 countries are competed in 40 Pro and 7 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs.
As new owner of the world’s foremost desert racing organization, San Diego’s Roger Norman, who himself is a SCORE Baja 1000 overall champion,
began his legacy in 2013 as SCORE International celebrates its 40th anniversary season. SCORE was founded in 1973 by the late motorsports innovator
Mickey Thompson.
With SCORE Trophy Trucks capturing eight of the top 10 overall finishing positions in the race, third overall was another Las Vegas racer Rob
MacCachren, two-time San Felipe defending champion, with a time of 4:22:23 (57.85mph) in the No. 11 Rockstar Energy MacCachren Motorsports Ford F-150.
Fourth overall and in SCORE Trophy Truck was Mexico’s Juan C. Lopez of Tecate, who finished in 4:23:11 while averaging 57.68 mph in the No. 18 Speed
Energy RPM Racing Chevy Silverado.
Rounding out the top five overall finishers Saturday was Mark Weyhrich, Troutdale, Ore., who started first in the race, who drove the No. 9 TSCO
Racing Ford F-150 SCORE Trophy Truck to a finishing time of 4:24:09, averaging 57.47 mph.
Coming from behind to win the overall motorcycle and Class 22 title in the race was the Johnny Campbell Racing team of Timmy Weigand, 34,
Valencia, Calif./Colton Udall, 26, San Clemente, Calif., with a time of 4:37:41 with an average speed of 54.67.
SCORE Trophy Trucks have now won 17 overalls in San Felipe in the 20-year history of the class.
In the first 27 years of this race, Honda has earned 17 overall motorcycle victories (including 15 of the last 17 years), Kawasaki has six, KTM
has three victories and Husqvarna has one.
The fastest overall ATV and Class 25 winner in the field was a team led by Adolfo Arellano, 30, of Tijuana, Mexico, with a time of 5:43:39 on a
Honda TRX450R, for an average speed of 44.17mph.
The 250 starters from 23 US States and 12 countries competed in 40 Pro and 7 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs. A total
of 176 adventurers officially completed the challenging course within the 12-hour time limit for an outstanding 70.04 finishing percentage. The
starting total is seventh most and the finishing total is the fourth most in the 27-year history of the event.
GIVE ME ANOTHER….
Leading the gregarious group of racers with at least two class wins in this race that were entered and won again were: Jim O’Neal, Simi Valley,
Calif. (Class 21, Honda CRF450X) with 14 motorcycle wins--all in the last 13 years and Donald Moss, Sacramento, Calif. (Class 3, Ford Bronco) who now
has nine career class wins in this San Felipe race. O’Neal has raced in all 27 SCORE San Felipe 250 races and he also has a SCORE-record 15 career
season class point titles.
Earning his fifth career win in this race was Kevin Carr, San Diego (Class 5, VW Baja Bug) while two racers won for the third time—Elias Hanna,
Ensenada, Mexico (Class 7SX, Ford Ranger) and Mike Johnson, El Paso, Texas (Class 30, Honda CRF450X).
MORE WINNERS…
Other car and truck class winners included Leonardo Rayos, Mexicali, Mexico (SCORE Lites, Seagrove-VW) Eliseo Garcia, Tijuana, Mexico, who
started last and finished ahead of a group of 16 starters in Class 1/2-1600 in a Romo-VW, Josh Quintero, El Centro, Calif., (Class 7200, Ford Ranger),
Aaron Celiceo, San Diego, (Class 7, Toyota Tacoma), Jose Leon, Calexico, Calif., (Class 8, Ford F-150), Clyde Stacy, Bristol, Va. (Trophy Truck Spec,
Chevy Silverado) and Matt Parks, Newport Beach, Calif. (Class 19, Polaris RZRXP4).
Additional age-group motorcycle class winners included Mike Prunty, Temecula, Calif. (Class 40, Honda CRF450X), Mark Prince, Malibu, Calif.
(Class 50, Honda CRF450X) and Robert Oborne, Bend, Ore., (Class 60, KTM 450SCW).
Winning the other ATV classes were Tom Wright, Tabernacle, N.J. (Class 24, Honda TRX450R) and Rob Ransford, Chicago (Class 26, Can-Am 4X4).
SPORTSMAN SPECIALS…
The fastest sportsman class vehicles in the race were: Mark Winkelman, Cedar Hill, Texas (SPT M/C<450cc, Honda CRF450X) and Jorge Valdez,
Ensenada, Mexico (SPT Buggy, VW Baja Bug).
rts551 - 3-10-2013 at 12:38 PM
What they don't say is that JCR honda won because of time penalties to the other teams. wonder if any TT's got penalized,
TMW - 3-10-2013 at 12:58 PM
I heard that Bryce Menzies got a time penalty which gave the win to Vildosola.
tripledigitken - 3-10-2013 at 01:14 PM
Any Nomads with photos?
Ateo - 3-10-2013 at 01:58 PM
I have about 750 photos that I'm going through right now. I will post a few in a sec.
tripledigitken - 3-10-2013 at 02:06 PM
Excellent, thanks.
Ateo - 3-10-2013 at 03:03 PM
Here we are, 3 hours after pitting the THR team.......waiting for the trophy trucks with about 300 other people at race mile 65 area.
Ateo - 3-10-2013 at 03:06 PM
First TT through the area!!!!!
A blast of adrenaline to those in attendance!
Second thru:
David K - 3-10-2013 at 03:10 PM
Cool, thanks Jon!
Ateo - 3-10-2013 at 03:11 PM
and then there was a very tight grouping of TT's all within a few seconds of each other, starting with this guy:
.....and the family kept their distance, heeding the advice from my buddy HelloMrSoul, a past Baja 1000 champion, as to the deadly affects of getting
too close to the course.
Ateo - 3-10-2013 at 03:15 PM
Which leads us to this year's San Felipe 250 champion:
Ateo - 3-10-2013 at 03:18 PM
All above photos above taken by fellow Baja Nomad - Hello Mr Soul. Thanks HMS!
David K - 3-10-2013 at 03:23 PM
I know they didn't need them for a short race, but it looks like instead of lights, those are stickers on the front (on some)!??
I can only think of Lightning McQueen in 'Cars' when I see stickers instead of real headlights! 
[Edited on 3-10-2013 by David K]
Ateo - 3-10-2013 at 03:26 PM
Yeah DK, I didn't even notice that. Some had a few LED's going.................which looked kinda cool, even in the bright SF sun light.