Rob MacCachren draws first start at 26th SCORE San Felipe 250
Rob MacCachren Draws First Trophy Truck And Mike Brown First Motorcycle For 26th MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250. Ronny Wilson Draws First Class 1 Start As Over 250 Entries Expected In March 10 Desert Race in Baja Mexico. Prerunning on 249.3-mile race course begins February 25. 2012. Desert racers Rob MacCachren of Las Vegas and Mike Brown of Murrieta, Calif., received the pole positions for four-wheel and two-wheel vehicles in the computerized drawing for starting positions held Saturday for the upcoming 26th Annual MasterCraft SafetyTecate SCORE San Felipe 250. MacCachren races in the featured SCORE Trophy Truck division while Brown competes in Class 22 for open motorcycles.
Round 3 of the 2012 SCORE Desert Series will be held March 9-11 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 entries accepted up to race morning, over 250 entries are expected to enter the race. Entered in time for the drawing, entries have come from 25 US States and 10 countries as competition will be held in 28 Pro and 6 Sportsman classes in the popular race.
The green flag will drop at 6 a.m. on Saturday, March 10, for the motorcycle and ATV classes, followed three hours after the last Sportsman ATV later by the car and truck classes at approximately 10 a.m. The start line and finish line for the race is scheduled to once again be the landmark San Felipe Arches on Highway 5 on the outskirts of San Felipe. One vehicle will start every 30 seconds in the elapsed-time race, with an 11-hour time limit to become an official finisher.
Following January’s season-opening two rounds of the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge, the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Series will be visiting Mexico for the first of its three annual SCORE Baja races.
The start draw for Round 3 of the 2012 SCORE Desert Series determined the starting order within each of the various classes in the elapsed-time race.
Drawing the first starting slot for the unlimited Class 1 open-wheel desert race cars was Ronny Wilson of Long Beach, Calif.. Riding the first ATV off the line will be Class 25 team led by Mike Cafro, Fallbrook, Calif. Wilson Motorsports actually has four total entries in the race with Ronny Wilson’s brother Randy also in Class 1 and their sons Brad and Brian Wilson both driving in Class 1/2-1600.
With 23 entries so far in the marquee SCORE racing division for unlimited production trucks, MacCachren, 46, a six-time AARWBA All-America motorsports team member and eight-time SCORE season class point champion who has 10 career SCORE Trophy Truck Race wins, will lead a strong field in SCORE TrophyTruck that features many of the world’s top desert racers in the No. 20 MasterCraft Racing Ford F-150.
MacCachren won this race last year as well as the special September race that was also held in San Felipe. He also opened this season with a win in Round 2 in Laughlin after a ninth-place finish in Round 1 and is currently second in the 2012 SCORE Trophy Truck point standings.
A unique part of Saturday’s drawing was the special drawing for the top 12 finishers from the nearest previous SCORE Baja race entered in the current race in both SCORE Trophy-Truck and the unlimited Class 1. Six of the top 12 SCORE Trophy Trucks from last November’s 44th Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 entered the race in time for the drawing along with four racers from the unlimited Class 1.
Bell, 39, will ride a KTM 450SX-F motorcycle in Class 22 as the KTM Factory Off-Road Team has two entries in this year’s race with Kurt Caselli drawing the second Class 22 start position.
Last year’s overall 4-wheel, 2-wheel and ATV champions are all part of the field. While MacCachren was last year’s overall 4-wheel champion, the returning 2-wheel champion is the JCR Honda team led by of Colton Udall, San Clemente, Calif. on a Honda CRF450X and the returning overall ATV winner is the team led by Brandon Brown, Umatilla, Ore., on a Honda TRX450R.
In Saturday’s drawing, SCORE Trophy Truck had the most entries with 23, followed by the unlimited Class 1 with 13 and SCORE Lites with 7. While 141 entries were received in time for the start draw, late registration will be accepted up until race morning and as many as 125 additional entries are expected.
Among the Pro motorcycle classes, the open Class 22 had the most vehicles entered in the drawing with eight.
Leading the Sportsman classes was SPT M/C 450> with 12 entries in time for the drawing.
Besides MacCachren, Udall and Brown, the other defending Pro class winners entered so far this year are: Kevin Carr, San Diego (Class 5), Dan Chamlee, Cupertino, Calif. (Class 7), Matt Cullen, Long Beach, Calif. (Class 10), Bruce Finchum, Mesa, Ariz. (Class 7-2), Carlos Casas (Class 21), Mike Johnson, El Paso, Texas (Class 30), Mike Prunty, Temecula, Calif. (Class 40) and Donald Lewis, Marlborough, Conn. (Class 60).
Traveling all the way from Bristol, Tenn. and Bristol, Va., Justin Matney’s RPM Off-Road, which opened the season with 11 total class wins in the two rounds in Laughlin in January, has a race-record eight entries in this year’s MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250.
Leading the class point standings in seven classes after the first two races of 2012, RPM has vehicles entered in SCORE Trophy Truck (Juan C. Lopez, driver of record leads the class point standings after two second place finishes in Laughlin), Class 1 (Clyde Stacy), Class 6 (Eduardo Laguna), Class 5-1600 (Stacy), Class 8 (Rodolfo Iribe), Class 4 (Derek Fletcher), Class 2 (Stacy) and Sportsman Buggy (Jim Bunn).
Besides Lopez in SCORE Trophy Truck, Stacy, Bristol, Va., leads both Class 5-1600 (1600cc VW Baja Bug) and Class 2 (PSD-Chevy). The other RPM class point leaders are Eduardo Laguna, Mexicali, Mexico (Class 6, Chevy Colorado), Rodolfo Iribe, San Ysidro, Calif. (Class 8, Chevy Silverado), Derek Fletcher, Abingdon, Va. (Class 4, PSD-Chevy) and Jim Bunn, Bristol, Va. (Sportsman Buggy, Geiser-Chevy). Stacy, Laguna, Iribe, Fletcher and Bunn each won their respective classes in both of the Laughlin races.
Including some never-before-used washes for a desert race, SCORE International has announced significant course changes for this year’s race.
The 249.3-mile race course will utilize two washes that have never before been used for racing – Cuevitas and Amarillas. The Cuevitas Wash will replace the Three Poles to Borrego section of previous courses.
The course, that will run in a counter-clockwise direction and start and finish at the landmark San Felipe arches and for the first time will also include the infamous washes of Matomi, Azufre, Huatamote and Chanate along with Amarillas before heading to the finish line.
Prerunning will be allowed on the actual race course from Saturday, Feb. 25 through Friday, March 9.
Round 3 of the 2012 SCORE Desert Series, the MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 annually provides a greater economic impact to San Felipe than the popular six-week-long ‘Spring Break’.
Pre-race festivities on Friday, March 9 will include Contingency row and Tech inspection on the colorful Malecon in San Felipe.
Contingency will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Tech will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The post-race awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, March 11 at 10 a.m. PDT time. Daylight Savings Time begins in Baja and the United States at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 11.
In addition to season class point championships, the racers are also competing for part of the nearly $400,000 in cash purse and contingency postings each race. Drivers in the Pro car and truck classes are also attempting to earn prestigious SCORE Toyota Milestone Awards given to all car and truck class drivers who complete every required mile of the five-race season. Being presented by Toyota Motorsports for the 27th consecutive year, a total of 61 drivers are still in the hunt for the awards for the 2012 SCORE Desert Series after the first two rounds in the five-race series.
Racers are also competing for the annual SCORE Off-Roadsman of the Year awards, including the MasterCraft Safety SCORE Rookie of the Year award. All categories, except Engine Builder and Original Buggy Chassis Manufacturer, will be determined by public on-line voting while Engine and Buggy awards are determined by season points.
Credits: SCORE News release
Related posts:
- Roger Norman draws first Trophy Truck start position
- New course for Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250
- MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250
- San Felipe 250 start positions draw results
- San Felipe 250 race course talk by Don Sal SCORE
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