328 Official Starters
Norman/Weigand/Cody claim Overall motorcycle/Class 22 crown; McMillins earn
Overall 4-wheel win at 42nd Tecate SCORE Baja 1000
Penhall/Martin win Class 1, Matlock/Goodman Jr./Miller/Caster repeat as
Overall ATV champs; R. Gordon finishes second in SCORE Trophy-Truck to capture class and
SCORE Overall point title in front of over 250,000 fanatical fans in Baja California, Mexico
ENSENADA, Mexico--Etching their names on the granite history of
the world's most legendary desert race, Kendall Norman/Tim
Weigand/Quinn Cody along with the team of Andy McMillin and his father
Scott became part of motorsports history by capturing the overall 2-wheel
and 4-wheel victories late Friday and early Saturday in the 42nd Annual
Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, the granddaddy of all desert races.
Defeating a deep and talented field of 328 sturdy starters that came
from 39 U.S. States and 14 countries, the Norman/Weigan/Cody trio won
Class 22 on the Johnny Campbell Racing Honda CRF450X motorcycle while the
McMillins powered their way to the top of the marquee SCORE Trophy-Truck
division in the No. 31 McMillin Racing Chevy Silverado.
After complete review of the data tracking devices used by each
vehicle in the race and with time penalties assessed accordingly for
course deviations and/or speeding on the brief pavement sections used as
part of the race course, the results were declared official by SCORE
International officials at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning.
The world's best known and most prestigious desert race, held on
a difficult 672.85-mile course of natural desert terrain, started for the
35th time and finished for the 20th time in Ensenada, Mexico, 65 miles
south of the U.S. border at San Diego.
With massive crowds reaching over 250,000 spread out along the
rugged course that traveled from Ensenada to Ojos Negros, east down
Laguna Salada to San Felipe, down through the legendary Matomi Wash,
around Mike's Sky Ranch, through both Rancho Las Truchas and Rancho
El Coyote, down the infamous Simpson's Hill and back to the Pacific
Coast below San Vicente and up through Santo Tomas, Uruapan and back to
Ojos Negros, covering much of the northern half of the majestic Baja
California peninsula to and from Ensenada.
As the final checkered flag dropped Saturday night for the last of
185 official finishers in the 42nd annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, it was
obvious that another memorable and colorful chapter had been added to the
legacy of this popular desert race in the magnificent Baja California
peninsula.
The 328 starters are the second most ever in race history for a
'Loop' race and the seventh most of any race in the 42-year
history of the event. The 185 finishers are also the sixth-most in event
history. The finishing percentage this year was a very solid 56.4 percent
considering the extreme dusty conditions and the unique ruggedness of the
course.
With Norman, Santa Barbara, Calif., starting the race and racing to
mile 200 as well as the final 169 miles to the finish line, Cody, Los
Olivos, Calif., rode from rm200 to rm350 and Weigand rode the Johnny
Campbell Racing Honda CRF450X from rm350 to rm504 to give Honda increase
its record overall victory total in this race to 20 wins. In also giving
Honda a record 14th consecutive overall win in this epic race, the JCR
team finessed its way around the challenging course in 13 hours, 27
minutes and 50 seconds, averaging 49.97 miles per hour in the
elapsed-time race.
Part of the prominent third-generation racing family, Andy McMillin
and his father Scott McMillin, National City, Calif., powered their Chevy
Silverado to a 4-wheel-vehicle winning time of 14:19:50, averaging
45.29mph.
For Norman, it was his third straight overall motorcycle win and
fourth total in this race, the second for Cody and first for Weigand.
Andy McMillin also won the overall 4-wheel vehicle title in this
race in 2006 as the second driver for NASCAR's Robby Gordon while
Scott McMillin earned his third class win in race history and first
overall crown.
Driving two segments of the race, Andy McMillin started the race and
drove the first 206 miles of the race. Scott McMillin drove the middle
section from rm206 to rm500 where he handed back the driving to his son
to drive the final 173 miles to the finish line in front of the Riviera
del Pacifico Cultural Center in the heart of Ensenada.
Winning the overall ATV and Class 25 victory for the second straight
year was the team led by Wayne Matlock, El Cajon, Calif. Matlock's
teammates this year were returning riders Harold Goodman, Brownstown,
Mich., and Wes Miller, Fallbrook, Calif., along with Josh Caster, also of
El Cajon. The team covered the course in a championship time of 16:54:52,
averaging 39.78mph on the No. 1a Honda TRX700XX. The talented team won
two of the three SCORE Baja races this season to earn their second
straight season point title in their class.
There we no penalties assessed to any of the three overall winners
in the race.
"I started the race and I think we started 17th on the
road," said Andy McMillin, who now has two career SCORE Trophy-Truck
wins. "The plan was just to kind of take it easy and kind of let the
race come to us. Sal (Fish) laid out a really rough, tough course this
year. We knew that it was going to take one trip that didn't have any
problems to get the win. That was our plan all day -- stay smooth and
not have any downtime, no flat tires. I gave my dad the truck at mile 206
and I think we were seventh on the road and pretty close on the overall
lead."
"My dad drove the San Felipe loop and the Mike's loop. By
the time he got to San Felipe, he was the first truck on the road. My dad
handed me a great lead (just over 30 minutes), so it was pretty easy from
that point. It was kind of just stay on the race course and you won't
get in trouble, so that was our plan and we followed it and let the race
come to us, really."
Expanding further on their race, Scott McMillin commented on his
first overall win in this race, "The Tecate SCORE Baja 1000--you just
don't come down here and decide to race this a month in advance; this
takes a whole year of planning. We have a dedicated team back at our
shop, about five core guys who work fulltime on this. Plus, there are
another 20 volunteers who are with us at all the races, all the
pre-running, all the planning. We just couldn't have done it without
all of them. They are as much a part of this win as those of us riding in
the truck. Plus we have access to the five BFG Tires pits along the
way."
"It's really great that they posted (the virtual
checkpoints) in advance ... so when we were pre-running and practicing,
we knew exactly where to be and what we were supposed to do. They are all
the same lines we've all been racing all these years. Always --
all the 30 years that I've been racing -- the fastest way is the
racecourse. I can't tell you how many times I just take the
racecourse and stay on it and stay focused and you go by all the guys
that are trying to find the smooth route. Before this race, we decided
that we're going to race all the SCORE races next year."
Turning 72 years old on Sunday, venerable veteran desert racer Rod
Hall, Reno, Nev., lit the candles on his celebration during the final
hours of the legendary race, adding to his race-record total of class
wins with a pair of wins in a pair of Rod Hall Racing Hummer H3 vehicles
in both the Stock Full and the Stock Mini class to give him 21 in his
amazing career. Originally entered as a second driver in both classes in
vehicles where his sons Chad and Josh Hall were the drivers of record,
Rod ended up as the primary driver in Stock Mini when Josh was unable to
attend the race because of a family emergency. With the help of his sons
and friends, Hall also continued his streak as the only person in the
history of the event to have raced all 42 years since it began in 1967.
Chad Hall earned his eighth career class win in this race and the
Hall family continues to be the winningest family in the history of this
race with 33 total class wins.
The battle for the overall motorcycle victory marked the SCORE Baja
racing rekindling of one of its greatest rivalries as Kawasaki returned
with a factory-supported team for the first time since 1995 to battle
against the Honda factory-supported racers. In the end, Honda defeated
Kawasaki by just one minute, 57 seconds, although the No. 1X Kawasaki
KX450 team led by former two-time Honda race winner Robby Bell, Sun City,
Calif., finished first physically in the demanding race but lost on
corrected time.
b^0x001cI rode from the start to Borrego, mile 200 and Robby (Bell)
was up about ten minutes," said Norman at the finish line. b^0x001cI
started way back and there was a ton of dust. I just couldn't get
through it. By the time I finally cleared the dust, he was gone. When I
got the bike back from Timmy Weigand at the Meadows (Mile 504), I was
only a minute and half down. Quinn Cody and Timmy did some great work
out there. I figured it was going be close to impossible to pass Steve
(Hengeveld) on the final run because of the dust and being at night. But
I know if I was in his dust that is all I needed to do (to win). It
feels great to win the SCORE Baja 1000 three years in a row and fourth
total. I am really stoked."
"It was definitely a good battle at night. There was a lot of
dust out here. Steve is a great night racer and was going. I'd get in
his dust and slow down, get in his dust and slow down. He rode a great
race and it was war out there today. We had all of our guys positioned
and they put in a lot of hard work. I couldn't be happier right
now."
A field of 27 SCORE Trophy-Trucks, the high-tech, 850 horsepower
unlimited production trucks, dominated the overall 4-wheel results,
claiming seven of the top 10 finishing spots, including the first six.
Finishing second was last year's overall winning 4-wheel team of
Roger Norman, Reno, Nev./Larry Roeseler, Boulevard, Calif., who finished
32 minutes, 37 seconds behind the McMillins in a time of 14:52:27 in the
No. 8 Norman Motorsports Ford F-150.
Third overall was this year's Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 winner Rick
D. Johnson, Barstow, Calif with a time of 15:02:36 in the No. 71 Ford
F-150 while driving the No. 4 Vildosola Racing Ford F-150 of Mexico's
Gustavo Vildsola Jr., and his father Gus Vildosola.
NASCAR Cup Team owner/driver Robby Gordon, Charlotte, N.C., who left
immediately after securing the 2009 SCORE Trophy-Truck and SCORE Overall
point championship in the No. 77 Team Gordon Chevy CK1500, drove
consistently to finish fifth in a penalty-free time of15:14:31 while the
team of Robby Pierce/Mike Julston, Santee, Calif., finished sixth overall
and in SCORE Trophy-Truck, finishing in 15:29:42 in the No. 30
MasterCraft Chevy Silverado.
The top three finishers in the unlimited Class 1 for open-wheel
desert race cars finished seventh through nine respectively among 4-wheel
finishers.
First in Class 1 was the veteran team of Jerry Penhall, Costa Mesa,
Calif./Dan Martin, Monrovia, Calif., with a time of 15:38:19 in a
Chevy-powered Penhall while second was the team of Germany's Armin
Schwarz/Martin Christensen, Escondido, Calif. (Denmark) in 15:52:02 in
the All-German Motorsports Jimco-BMW.
Finishing ninth overall and third in Class 1 was the team of Randy
Wilson, Lakewood, Calif., his brother Ronny Wilson of Long Beach, Calif.,
and Jeff Quinn, Irvine, Calif., who also clinched a close Class 1 point
champion race with the Schwarz/Christensen team in the Wilson Motorsports
Jimco-Chevy. The finished the course in 16:14:05.
Completing the top 10 overall 4-wheel finishers list was eight-time
SCORE Baja 1000 class winner Mark McMillin, El Cajon, Calif./Brian Ewalt,
Bonita, Calif., with a time of 16:15:25 in the No. 23 McMillin Racing
Ford F-150. Mark is the brother of Scott McMillin and unlce of overall
winner Andy McMillin.
In the manufacturer's battle of 'beat the Baja' research
and development, a Chevy-powered vehicle won for the 11th time and
BFGoodrich Tires won for the 23rd time in the last 24 years.
Eric Duran, Tecate, Calif., is driver of record for his family team
and close win by just 23 seconds in Class 1-2/1600 in a Neth-VW, they
secured the season point championship in the class. Entering the race in
a close third place, the Duran brothers defeated the Wilson Motorsports
team of Brian Wilson, Long Beach, Calif./Sammy Ehrenberg, Las Vegas/LJ
Kennedy, Orange, Calif./Brad Wilson, Long Beach, Calif., in the race,
moving them past the Wilson team to earn the season point title. There
were 17 starters in the class and Justin Smith, Capistrano Beach, Calif.,
who was tied with the Wilsons in the season class points, was leading
early, had mechanical problems and struggled to a sixth place finish in
class.
SCORE points are based on starting and finishing as well as the
number of starters in each class and placement position in every race.
All class titles will go down to the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000.
In one of the class races, Darren Skilton, Long beach, Calif., won
Class 3 in a Jeep Wrangler for his sixth class win in this race. For the
second straight year, he defeated rivals Donald and Kenneth Moss of
Sacramento, who finished second in class, 37 minutes, 14 seconds behind
Skilton.
In Class 40 for motorcycle riders over 40 years old, the team led by
Scott Myers, Menifee, Calif. were victorious on a Honda CRF450X and team
rider Craig Adams, San Clemente, Calif. earned his 14th and 15th class
wins in this race. Adams also was a rider on the Class 50-winning team
on another Honda CRF450X. Jim O'Neal, Simi Valley, Calif., was the
rider of record on the Class 50 team where he earned his ninth career
class win in this race.
Richard Jackson, Acton, Calif., led his team to his seventh class
win in this race, this year in Class 60, riders over 60, on a Honda
CRF450X.
In Class 5/1600, Mexico's Marcos Nunez/Norberto Rivera, drover
their VW Baja Bug to victory. Nunez now has six class wins in this race.
Another father/son team Pancho and Cisco Bio, won Class 9 giving
Pancho his fourth class win in SCORE Baja 1000 history.
Running against a formidable field of 14 starters in SCORE Lite,
with vehicles all having VW engines, Brent Parkhouse and his son Cody,
Long Beach, Calif., were winners in a Molton race car while Mike
Lawrence, Banning, Calif., captured Class 10 in his Lothringer-VW for the
fourth time in five races this season. It was Parkhouse's second
class win of the season.
In Class 5 for unlimited VW Baja Bugs, Kevin Carr, San Diego, won
his class for the fourth time this season and in Class 7, Dan Chamlee,
Carpenteria, Calif., driving a Ford Ranger, also won for the fourth time
this season.
John Holmes, Olivenhain, Calif., in another Ford Ranger in Class 7SX
won for the third time in this race and the fourth time in this race.
Pulling off her second Class 6 win of the season was Heidi Steele,
San Clemente, Calif., in a Ford Ranger.
Other Class winners in this year's Tecate SCORE Baja 1000
included: Juan Lopez, Tecate, Mexico (Class 8, Ford F-150), Rob
Reinertson, Woodside, Calif. (Protruck, Ford F-150), Nick Baldwin,
Mission Viejo, Calif. (Baja Challenge, BTC-Subaru), Ronnie Wilson, Canyon
Country, Calif. (Class 21, Honda CRF450X), Jesus Rios, Calexico, Calif.,
(Class 20, Honda CRF250X), Mike Johnson, El Paso, Texas (Class 30, Honda
CRF450X) and Tom Wright, Tabernacle, N.J. (Class 24, Honda TRX450R).
This race also featured the prestigious Sal Fish SCORE IronRider
awards presented to each motorcycle or ATV rider who completes the course
within the time limit while riding solo. 34 individuals officially
declared that they were attempting to complete the course riding solo and
10 of them finished withing the time limit to earn the special award. The
fastest solo rider was Ron Wilson, who rode in Class 30 for riders over
30 years old, finishing second in class in a penalty-free time of
18:29:19 on a Honda CRF450X.
The fastest Sportsman 4-wheel vehicle was led by driver of record
Rory Ward, Mohave Valley, Calif., (SPT Car, Chenowth-Chevy) while the
fastes Sportsman Motorcycle team was led by Brian Garrahan, Boulder
Creek, Calif. (SPT M/C>250cc).
In addition to season point class point championships, drivers in
the Pro car and truck classes were also racing to earn prestigious SCORE
Toyota Milestone Awards given to all drivers who complete every required
mile of the five-race season. Being presented by Toyota Motorsports for
the 24th consecutive year, a total of 14 drivers have won the prestigious
awards for 2009.
This year's Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 desert race will be televised
on a delayed basis as a one-hour NBC Sports special, in association with
SCORE and Aura360, for the sixth consecutive year. It is scheduled to air
on NBC at 2 p.m. (EST) on Saturday, Dec. 19 on the NBC Television
Network. It will also air on a delayed basis outside of the U.S. on ESPN
International.
Current SCORE official annual sponsors are: BFGoodrich
Tires-official tire, Volkswagen of America-official vehicle, Sunoco Race
Fuels -official fuel supplier, Bilstein-official shock, Instant Mexico
Auto Insurance-official Mexican auto insurance, Slime-official tire
sealant and Red Bull--official energy drink. Associate sponsors are:
Tecate Beer, Coca-Cola of Mexico, Las Vegas Events, Terrible Herbst Inc.,
Blue C Enthusiast Advertising, SignPros, P.C.I. Race Radios,
McKenzie's Performance Products and Advanced Color Graphics.
Additional associate sponsors for the 2009 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000
were Proturismo de Ensenada and the State Tourism Department of Baja
California.
-credit: www.score-international.com.
