Pre-running begins Saturday on rugged 424.29-mile race course - 38th Tecate SCORE Baja 500
http://www.backstretchmotorsports.com/bm/index.php?option=co...
10 May 2006
386 entered to date for June 2-4 race in Ensenada, Mexico;
Course map available at http://www.score-international.com
LOS ANGELES?With the course map, course notes and GPS coordinates released Monday, pre-race activity steps up significantly starting Saturday when the
world?s best desert racers officially begin their pre-running and course logistics activities for next month?s record-setting 38th Annual Tecate SCORE
Baja 500, the second-oldest desert race in the world.
Round 3 of the six-race 2006 SCORE Desert Series, the World?s Foremost Desert Racing Series, featuring a race-record of over 400 entries competing in
25 Pro and 5 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs, will be held June 2-4 in Ensenada, Mexico. Traditionally one of the most
popular events on the SCORE schedule, over 150,000 spectators are expected to enjoy the world?s best desert racers in action around the picturesque
deserts, beaches and forests of Baja California at this year?s Tecate SCORE Baja 500.
With late entries accepted up to race morning, a race-record of over 400 entries are expected from 26 U.S. States, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, France,
Japan and New Zealand to challenge the very technical and rugged 424.29-mile course. Pre-running, or repeated practice driving and riding the course
will be allowed up to the day before the race (Friday, June 2).
Starting and finishing in Ensenada on the majestic Baja California peninsula, this year?s tight and technical course will run in a clockwise
direction, running East into the middle of the peninsula, then South, followed by a West travel section, turning north, then East, North and back West
for the final charge back into Ensenada.
NASCAR team owner/driver Robby Gordon, Charlotte, N.C., will defend his overall 4-wheel vehicle and SCORE Trophy-Truck crown as will last year?s
overall motorcycle and Class 22 winner Mike Childress, Wrightwood, Calif., who is racing this year on the American Honda A team with Steve Hengeveld,
Oak Hills, Calif., and Josh Frederick, Moapa, Nev., the defending Overall ATV champion.
The race course is very similar than last year?s brutally-tough adventure, with a few notable exceptions, especially the clockwise direction of travel
which will afford the racers to run down the infamous Simpson Hill, instead of the incredibly-tough uphill route used last year.
The most significant course change from a year ago is after the first 28.50 miles, where the course will leave sea-level, head due East this year and
up through a tight, twisty, technical journey of nearly 100 miles through the picturesque Pine Forest and down South past El Rayo and down near the
Indian village at Santa Catarina at race mile 140.24.
?The first 150 miles this year will be much slower than last year and we will be running more miles in the Pine Forest than we have since 1999,
including approximately 30 miles SCORE has never raced on before,? said Paul Fish, SCORE Vice-President who has worked closely with his uncle Sal
Fish, SCORE President/CEO and Mexican officials in designing a dynamic race course. ?While the fastest motorcycles, cars and trucks may still finish
in about nine hours like last year, the slower classes and the fast vehicles who have problems could easily take nearly all of their 17-hour time
limit to finish this memorable course.?
On the Southern-most part of the course behind Mike?s Sky Rancho, the course has been shortened by several miles around Rancho El Coyote.
The diverse terrain and altitude variation also includes an awe-inspiring sprint along the coastline of the Pacific Ocean of approximately 40 miles
starting around race-mile 300.
From Santo Tomas (race mile 344.41) the course heads North to Uruapan (rm 350.36) before heading back East to Tres Hermanos (rm 374.73), North through
Ojos Negros (rm 391.04 at Highway 3), before turning back West at rm 397.16 before the final run West back into Ensenada.
Gordon, who will pull double duty by racing in the NASCAR Nextel Cup race the same weekend in Dover, Del., has entered two trucks in the class.
Gordon, who won the 1996 SCORE Trophy-Truck season point championship, will drive the No. 89 SCORE Trophy-Truck and Andy McMillin, a third-generation
SCORE desert racer, is running the entire 2006 SCORE Desert Series schedule in the No. 83 Team Gordon Chevy CK1500. Team Gordon is reportedly
considering reducing to a one-truck effort in the No. 83 SCORE Trophy-Truck with Gordon driving the first half of the race before turning the wheel
over to Andy McMillin and flying back to Dover.
Two former IndyCar drivers among the entries so far this year are Danny Sullivan and Roberto Guerrero. Sullivan, the 1985 Indy 500 champion who
competed in that race 12 times, will co-drive with Las Vegas? Bobby Baldwin, President/CEO of MGM/Mirage Resorts, in the No. 96 Chevy Silverado SCORE
Trophy-Truck. Guerrero, the 1984 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year who had 15 career Indy 500 starts, will be a co-driver with Chris Lucas and Eric Place in
the No. 245 Ford F-150 in the Protruck class.
Another cross-over driver entered is Jamie Galles, Albuquerque, N.M., in Class 8. With limited previous SCORE racing experience, Galles, whose family
was a long-time Indy Car team owner, has driven in both the Trans Am and old Toyota Atlantic racing series. Most recently, Galles was a DNF in March?s
Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250.
Among the other early entries is venerable veteran Rod Hall, Reno, Nev., who has entered the Stock Mini class in a Hummer H3. Hall, 67, has 15 class
wins in the Tecate SCORE Baja 500 and this will be his first appearance since he won his class in 1994. Hall?s oldest son Josh, 44, will drive a
Hummer H2 in the Stock Full class.
A total of 15 of the 18 defending Pro class winners (six classes had no finishers) from last year are entered so far, although four of them have
switched classes. Besides Gordon, Childress and Frederick, other racers who will be back to defend their class titles are George Seeley, Glendale,
Calif. (Class 5, unlimited VW Baja Bug), Danny Ledezma, Chula Vista, Calif. (Class 5/1600, 1600cc VW Baja Bug), Todd Wyllie, New River, Ariz. (Class
8, Chevy C1500), Eric Fisher, Ensenada, Mexico (Class 9, Garibay-VW) Lobsam Yee, Tijuana, Mexico (Class 10, Jimco-Honda), Ricardo Malo, Mexicali,
Mexico/Arturo Honold, Calexico, Calif. (SCORE Lite, Curry-VW), Jim O?Neal, Chatsworth, Calif. (Class 40, Honda XR650R) and Eizaburo Karasawa, Japan
(Class 50, Honda XR650R).
The four class winners from last year who have switched classes are: Andy McMillin, Poway, Calif. (from Class 1 to SCORE Trophy-Truck), Rob
MacCachren/Bryan Freeman (MacCachren from Class 1-2/1600 to SCORE Trophy-Truck and Freeman to Protruck), John Holmes, Olivenhain, Calif. (from Class
7S to Class 7SX) and Kirk Schreier, Phoenix (from Class 24 to Class 25).
O?Neal has won Class 40 for motorcycle riders over 40 years old for five straight years and Fisher has won Class 9 for three straight years in this
summer classic.
The green flag will drop for the race at 6 a.m. on Saturday (June 3) for the motorcycle and ATV classes in the Tecate SCORE Baja 500, followed by the
car and truck classes two hours later at approximately 9 a.m. Vehicles will start in 30-second intervals in the elapsed-time race, with a 17-hour time
limit to become official finishers.
Entries have come from every state in the Western U.S., Hawaii, and Texas, from across the Midwest including South Dakota, Illinois, Minnesota,
Kansas, Missouri, Indiana and Wisconsin, as well as New York, Ohio and Massachusetts in the East and Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Florida
and Alabama in the South. A total of 386 official entries have been received to date, an increase of 59 more entries since the April 22 drawing for
start positions.
As of today, the Pro classes with the most entries are: Class 1 (44), SCORE Trophy-Truck, with a class-record 39, SCORE Lite, with a class-record 32,
Class 1-2/1600 (27) and Class 30 (15). Leading the Sportsman classes is SPT Motorcycles over 250cc with a class-record 48 for the relatively new class
and SPT ATV with 20 all-terrain vehicles entered.
The starting line area will once again be adjacent to the Riviera del Pacifico Convention Center in downtown Ensenada, Mexico. The finish line will be
at the softball field adjacent to the Deportivo Antonio Palacios baseball stadium at 11th Street near Guadalupe Avenue in Ensenada. It is located
approximately 1.7 miles east of the start line area.
Pre-race festivities for the 38th Tecate SCORE Baja 500 will be held in Ensenada on Friday (June 2). Traditionally drawing approximately 50,000
spectators, the pre-race Manufacturer?s Midway and display of every race vehicle will be held adjacent to the San Nicolas Hotel, from 10 a.m. to 5
p.m. Friday (June 2). The post-race awards celebration will be held at the San Nicolas Hotel on Sunday (June 4) at 10 a.m. Racer and media
registration will be held on Thursday (June 1) from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and on Friday (June 2) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the San Nicolas Hotel.
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