Puro Offroad

Below you’ll find the SCORE press release from the 14 November 2008. With over 300 entries from over 30 U.S. States and more than 15 countries expected to compete in 28 Pro and 7 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs, the granddaddy of all desert races will be held Nov. 19-23 in Ensenada, Mexico. Completing its 35th year as the World’s foremost desert racing sanctioning body, the event is the finale of the five-race 2008 SCORE Desert Series. The event includes various types of vehicle classes such as small and large bore motorcycles, stock VW, production vehicles, buggies, trucks, and custom fabricated race vehicles. The course has remained relatively the same over the years with the majority of events being either a point to point race from Ensenada to La Paz, or a loop race starting and finishing in Ensenada. The name of the event is misleading as the mileage varies for the type of event (loop or point to point) and has represented Kilometers in the past.

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Last Race before the 2008 Baja 1000: Schwarz\Christensen First in class and third over all Primm 300; assume 2nd place in points chase. It all comes down to the Baja 1000 now.
Thank you Martin Christensen for the time spent to give a quick phone interview for Puro Offroad. We really appreciate the option to get some first hand information from the team principal of All German Motorsports about the upcoming Baja 1000.
Puro Offroad apologizes for the poor quality of the recording - VoIP and our quick put together recording set-up is not made for good recording quality. We still can highly recommend the advantage to save big on the small business phone with Vonage.

A big thing that played a role in the success of the All German Motorsports Race Team is the Xtrac transmission. Xtrac is a top-end transmission company that designs gearboxes for Indy cars, Formula One, World Rally Car Championship and the Paris-Dakar Rally. All German Auto has been a developing partner with Xtrac for the past year now and installed a 383-B tranny that was absolutely a crucial component for the team.” The six-speed transmission delivers 800 horsepower from the motor to the drive axles. There’s a fine line separating the right amount of power from the engine to the transmission said Christensen, who also noted the importance of the installation of a ZF Sachs torque limiter, which keeps the engines from racing the RPMs too high any time the buggy takes flight over jumps.

The all-new purpose-built Volkswagen-Red Bull Baja Race Touareg TDI, powered by a clean diesel TDI engine, will be driven by motorsport veterans Mark Miller and Ryan Arciero as Volkswagen competes in the 41st running of the Tecate Score Baja 1000.
Mark Miller has been selectively dominating the sport of off-road racing for over twenty years. His unprecedented driving skills were recognized by one of the top leaders in Volkswagen motorsport and in 2005 Mark made a full time commitment as a factory works driver for the Volkswagen Motorsports team based in Hanover, Germany.

“To become a professional racing driver was the best decision of my life. I just should have made it earlier,” said Mark Miller. In his youth he actually sacrificed a promising career in motorbike racing to study. As Volkswagen factory driver he now traces the path in reverse: The investment manager withdrew from the business to concentrate solely on his motorsport activities. Miller’s strength: He is one-hundred per cent committed; for example he undertakes an intensive fitness program. His mental strength helps him to concentrate but stay relaxed at the same time: “One of my plus points is that I don’t target any unrealistic goals and in doing so don’t put myself unnecessarily under pressure.” Miller added. Read the rest of this entry »