Race Course 'Traps' Ruined the event for many racers
from the Baja 1000
BAJA RACING NEWS LIVE! SCORES HUGE WIN AT SAN FELIPE 250!
Millions of Unique Impressions Sends Race Records OFF-The Chart
during LIVE ! RaceCast of the Desert Off-road race in Baja Mexico!
Rockstar MacCachren roars to Overall, SCORE Trophy Truck victory
In Saturday’s 26th MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250
Luke McMillin captures unlimited Class 1, Caselli/Ramirez ride KTM to Overall Motorcycle & Class 22 win;
Other class winners include Frederick, Septien, Mike Lawrence, Laguna, Iribe, Robinson, Rutherford
SAN FELIPE, Mexico—Picking up where he left off last season with his third consecutive race win in San Felipe, Las Vegas’ Rob MacCachren overpowered a talent-laden field of 207 starters to capture the overall and SCORE Trophy Truck victory Saturday in the 26th Annual MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250. SCORE released the official results today after completion of vehicle data tracking device review.
After starting first and slipping behind early in the elapsed-time race MacCachren worked his way back up to the front to re-take the lead at race-mile 172 in the No. 20 Rockstar Energy/MasterCraft Racing Ford F-150 SCORE Trophy Truck, ‘Rockstar Rob’ roared over and through the sandy, silty, rocky and dusty 248.64-mile course in four hours, 25 minutes, three seconds at an average speed of 56.29 miles per hour.
Surging past a strong field of 23 SCORE Trophy Trucks, the marquee SCORE racing division for high-tech, 850-horsepower unlimited production trucks, MacCachren earned his 48th career SCORE class win, his 11th career SCORE Trophy Truck race win along with his eighth class win including fourth SCORE Trophy Truck and overall race victory in the MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250. MacCachren is now tied with Las Vegas brothers Ed and Tim Herbst with the most race wins in the 18-plus year history of SCORE’s premier class. The victory was also MacCachren’s fourth in the last six SCORE races.
The Las Vegas native who has also been selected to the AARWBA All-America motorsports team six times and has eight SCORE season class point championships on his racing resume, MacCachren, 46, beat not only the cars and trucks, but also the motorcycles and ATVs that competed in the popular ‘spring break’ event.
Round 3 of the 2012 SCORE Desert Series was held this past 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.
The start and finish line for the race was once again adjacent to the landmark San Felipe Arches on the outskirts of San Felipe.
After trailing Andy McMillin for much of the race until McMillin broke down at race mile 172 at the start of Azufre Wash, MacCachren sailed home for the victory with a four-minute margin over fellow Las Vegan B.J. Baldwin. Baldwin, who won this year’s first round of the series in Laughlin, drove the No. 97 Baldwin Motorsports Chevy Silverado to a time of 4:29:08 with an average speed of 55.43mph.
Finishing third overall in a new, lighter vehicle built in his facility in Santee, Calif. and in SCORE Trophy Truck was award-winning chassis builder Mike Julson, Descanso, Calif., in the No. 17 Jimco/Bad Apple Racing Ford F-150 with a time of 4:34:38 and an average speed of 54.32mph.
Moving up in class after winning the season point championship the last two years in Class 1/2-1600, young lion Luke McMillin, the 19-year old third-generation desert racer from El Cajon, Calif., made his debut in the unlimited Class 1 with a stunning class win and in impressive fourth place overall finish in a Chevy-powered Jimco open-wheel desert race car. McMillin covered the course in 4:35:56 to earn the victory.
Finishing fifth overall and fourth in SCORE Trophy Truck was the team of Tim Herbst, Las Vegas/Larry Roeseler, Boulevard, Calif., just 13 seconds behind McMillin at 4:06:09 in the No. 19 Terrible Herbst Motorsports Ford F-150.
The 207 starters from 25 US States and 11 countries competing in 28 Pro and 6 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs. A total of 150 adventurers officially completed the challenging course within the 11-hour time limit for an amazing 72.46 finishing percentage. The total is the ninth most in the 26-year history of the event.
Earning his first SCORE overall motorcycle victory and third for KTM in this race was the team of Kurt Caselli, Murrieta, Calif./Ivan Ramirez, Ensenada, Mexico. They divided up the riding in Class 22 on the Bonanza Plumbing KTM 450SX-F to snap the six-race San Felipe winning streak by Honda with a winning of time of 4:40:03, averaging 53.28mph.
Josh Frederick, Moapa, Nev., led his team to the Overall ATV and the Class 25 title on a Can-Am DS-450. Frederick, the 2005 SCORE season point champion in the class, split the riding time with Dillon Zimmerman, Murrieta, Calif./Cesar Lopez, San Felipe, Mexico.
Reigning series and race Class 22 point champion Colton Udall and his co-rider Timmy Weigand, Valencia, Calif., were locked in a tight battle with Caselli/Ramirez and led by seconds on corrected time on their JCR/Honda CRF450X when Weigand crashed around race mile 160 and Udall took over and brought the bike to the finish 16:39 behind Caselli/Ramirez. Weigand was reported to receive minor injuries but was flown back to the US for further evaluation.
“We started first on the road, which means we were cleaning the trail,” reflected the winning MacCachren at the finish line. “At mile four, there was something buried in the ground. We were going 80 miles an hour or so and once I saw it there was no way to miss it. It popped the left front tire immediately. We had to pull over to the side of the road. (Co-rider) Cisco Bio changed the tire. We lost a few positions but once we got going again we started picking them off one at a time. I think we were second behind Andy McMillin.”
“We were just trying to pace with Andy because he started right behind us. When we first got going we were about four minutes behind him at mile 24. Then we started picking up. At about mile 100, I hit a bump and the truck just took off into the desert like I had no control. I thought something broke in the steering so Cisco jumped out and looked at everything. Meanwhile I was checking the steering and everything felt fine. He jumped back in and we took off real cautious. It seemed something had gone very bad and it went great. I was trying to keep pace with Andy and going into Azufre Wash about five to 10 miles in, he was pulled over. We still had to keep a pretty good pace, we knew there were people hovering around five minutes or so and we ran strong all the way to the finish. Everything on the truck was awesome.”
SCORE Trophy Trucks have won 16 overalls in San Felipe in the 18-plus-year history of the class.
In the first 26 years of this race, Honda stillhas earned 16 overall motorcycle victories (including the 14 of the last 16 years), Kawasaki has six, KTM now has three and Husqvarna has one.
This year’s 248.64-mile rugged race course utilized two washes that have never before been used for racing – Cuevitas and Amarillas. The Cuevitas Wash replaced the Three Poles to Borrego section of previous courses.
The course ran in a counter-clockwise directionand for the first time, the second half of the race course included five infamous washes–Matomi, Azufre, Huatamote and Chanate along with Amarillas before heading to the finish line. The course included four physical checkpoints as well as 51 virtual checkpoints to help insure the safety and the integrity of the challenging race course.
Leading the parade of other class winners was Donald Moss, Sacramento, Calif., who won Class 3 in his sturdy Ford Bronco for the eighth time. Moss has also won all three races so far in the 2012 SCORE Desert Series.
Earning his sixth class win in San Felipe was Jeff Kaplan, Thousand Oaks, Calif., who led a team to victory in Class 40 for riders over 40 years old on a Honda CRF450X
Also winning his third straight race this season in Class 5 as well as picking up his fourth straight class win in San Felipe was Kevin Carr, San Diego, in an unlimited VW Baja Bug.
Three racers who won their respective classes in San Felipe for the third time were Cody Robinson, El Centro, Calif. (Class 1-2/1600, Romo-VW), Mike Johnson, El Paso, Texas (Class 30, Honda CRF450X) and Joe Rice, Lomita, Calif. (Class 26, Can-Am Outlander800).
Among the other car and truck class winners were Mike Lawrence, South El Monte, Calif./Harley Letner, Orange, Calif. (Chenowth-Honda), Arnoldo Ramirez, Ensenada, Mexico/Richardo Malo, Mexicali, Mexico (SCORE Lites, Jimco-VW), Elias Hanna, Ensenada, Mexico (Class 7SX, Ford Ranger), Erich Reisen/Ross Burden, Canada (Class 5-1600, VW Baja Bug) and Reid Rutherford, Montrose, Colo. (Class 7-2, Mason-Chevy).
Among the other motorcycle class winners was Francisco Septien, Ensenada, Mexico (Class 21, Honda CRF450X),
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, had a race-record eight entries in this year’s MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 and added two more class wins to their season total.
Staying undefeated in their respective classes in 2012 for RPM with their victories in San Felipe were Eduardo Laguna, Mexicali, Mexico (Class 6, Ford Ranger), and Rodolfo Iribe, Tijuana, Mexico (Class 8, Chevy Silverado). In all, seven of the eight RPM vehicles finished with Juan C. Lopez, Tecate, Mexico sixth in SCORE Trophy Truck (Chevy Silverado), Clyde Stacy, Bristol, Va., second in Class 5-1600, Derek Fletcher, Abingdon, Va., second in Class 4 (PSD-Chevy) and Jim Bunn/John Matney, Bristol, Va., seventh in Sportsman Buggy (Geiser-Chevy). Stacy in Class 2 was the lone RPM did not finish in the race.
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.
The fasted overall Sportsman winners were: Randy Swink, El Cajon, Calif., Ford Ranger (SPT Truck) and Mark Winkelman, Cedar Hill, Texas, Honda CRF450X.
The other MasterCraft Racing SCORE Trophy Truck entered in this year’s race, the No. 30 Ford F-150, was driven by MasterCraft Safety owner Robbie Pierce, Santee, Calif. to a 10th place finish in the SCORE Trophy Truck division.
A bad weekend got worse for NASCAR Cup team owner/driver Robby Gordon, the 2009 SCORE Overall and SCORE Trophy-Truck season point champion who finished second in San Felipe in both 2009 and 2010 in the No. 77 Team Gordon Chevy CK1500. Gordon failed to qualify on Friday for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race in Las Vegas and then was forced to the sidelines early in Saturday’s race with a broken transmission around race-mile 70.
San Felipe 250 LIVE RaceCast
All German Motorsports Trophy Truck Effort Fails
in its most important race of the year
Near Matomi Wash, the long suffering Trophy Truck effort of Christensen, Schwarz and Lyttle took a turn for the worse, when the off-road racing team discovered they had run out of fuel, far away from their pits and rescue services. The Story:
All German Motorsports Trophy Truck Runs
OUT OF GAS and the team send out a press release to
reduce the damage to investors and fans
""Kremer, Christensen, Schwarz and Black talks
about the San Felipe 250
""Armin Schwarz and All-German Motorsports were with the performance of the Trophy-Truck in the San Felipe 250 satisfied the finish but was denied
Despite the loss, the Trophy-Truck demonstrated its potential
Many positive impressions, but unfortunately not finish: That was the conclusion of Armin Schwarz and All-German Motorsports in the San Felipe 250, the second round of the U.S. Championship SCORE 2012th On the 250-mile route around San Felipe, the participants were traveling in several canyons between the coast on the Gulf of Mexico and the hinterland. Characteristic in this race is that about 100 miles lead over washboard-like bumps, a real endurance test for man and machine.
All-German Motorsports Jimco had the AGM X6 SCORE Trophy-Truck prepared for this challenge. Eibach springs partners had produced long after the team had to the season opener, find the Laughlin Desert Challenge in January, that you still can obstruct longer springs. Partner with the Fox shock were adjusted accordingly, with partner Danzio was further refined the engine performance.
This preparation has been successful ".. I was really happy because the truck was very fast, he was from the performance point very well, especially in the very, very bumpy and hard sections, the truck did everything we wanted," sums up Black . Accordingly, the race went well at first, although the hunt on the washboard was not without minor problems.
How fast the Trophy-Truck was traveling, a glance at the intermediary results: After around 70 miles Black was in third place overall. However, cracks in the meantime a bracket on the frame from which holds the tank. "We had this with welding repair, which cost us about 20 minutes," says Black.
"Our crew has the Pitstop that magnificently, so that we could continue. As a result, we did have fuel loss because of the loose tank had a quick release is a leak." So did the Trophy-Truck lack of fuel are briefly. The desert monster was refueled on the ground again, the hunt could continue.
At mile 158, but got the final out. Ten miles before he was handed over to the Trophy Truck colleague and team boss Martin Christensen, remained black with a drive damage lie. All programs continued to function, but lacked the thrust. The reason for this is unclear, but is done very easily in the next few days.
Despite the failure of a positive conclusion
Even if it did not work out with the expected finish in the top 10, is black with a performance at the San Felipe 250 satisfied. "I see it positively, because we finally were able to take full and were there for the music at mile 70 We were in third place, and that was very good. We have noticed that with the new springs and settings from driving her much better off than the season opener in Laughlin. "
"The performance was good, so I imagine the truck. We now need to clarify just quickly, what problem have we held back on the drive side. We had all new parts in it, even in the gearbox and the rear axle. And I'm sure that with our partners Fortin, who tirelessly with us in developing, can find and fix the cause. "
The previous tests in the run up to the Baja 250 were purely the vote in order to compete with the much heavier competitors. Now it comes to durability, and also wants the AGM team have a firm grasp quickly.
Kremer impressed in the buggy
As for the Trophy Truck came a premature end, trumped Armin Kremer and Tony Miglini on the Class-One-Buggy All-German Motorsports. The duo, which has in the San Felipe 250 for the first time shared the cockpit of the buggy, finished in the highly competitive Class 1 is the strong fifth place. . "The class has at least one car of All-German Motorsports has arrived, and on a top ranking - which is really good," says Schwarz.
Kremer says: "I have zeroed in very quickly really on the well-located Class-One buggy, we were able to equal the speed go with the top people, and Tony has the buggy reliably and quickly brought to the finish gives me a good feeling for.. Baja 500 "
Now begins at All-German Motorsports preparing for the third round of the U.S. SCORE championship. From 1 to 3 June stood at around the Ensenada Mexico Baja 500, the "little sister" of the infamous Baja 1000, from 14 to 17 November is the season finale.""
McMillin Racing Breaks, Jesse James Busts, Mas
Jesse James figuring out what to do with a soon to bust rear-driver side wheel and hub.
Rob Mac Mastercraft Team WINS San Felipe 250!
In a dangerous motorcycle competiton this morning in San Felipe Baja Mexico, the KTM racing Team of Caselli and Ramirez defeated the vaunted JCR HONDA team.
Dangerous because numerous racers were injured. Some, injured so badly they required medical evacuation flights back to the United States for treatment. The Story:
Kurt Caselli and Ivan Ramirez have flawless ride
2012 looks to be a year that will plenty of close race action in Baja. We have been talking about it for weeks. The line up of players is strong, stronger than in many years. By all accounts the San Felipe 250 was supposed to play out with plenty of action.
Action there was, in spades, all of the excitement during the race came in the form of crashes. Nearly everyone crashed.
VIDEO LINK TO Robby Bell Crash HERE
Robby Bell was reported down early on the THR Kawasaki, just miles into the race. Not only that, but Mickey Childress had taken over for Robby and he had already crashed also! I was looking like a long day for THR. Mickey was able to finally get the bike to Steve Hengeveld and he rode it on to the next scheduled rider change.
Robby Bell was reported down early on the THR Kawasaki, just miles into the race. Not only that, but Mickey Childress had taken over for Robby and he had already crashed also! I was looking like a long day for THR. Mickey was able to finally get the bike to Steve Hengeveld and he rode it on to the next scheduled rider change.
Robby Bell: "X-ray showed a possible fracture in my C-6. Awaiting the CT scan results. Thanks to all the medics, EMTs and doctors who’ve been great to me. And thanks to Steve Achey for everything he did for me. Just hit a rock at mile 7 that was hidden in the shadows around 50mph. Didn’t get knocked out, but it was quite a nasty one. Thanks to everyone for the well wishes."
Kurt Caselli led off for the 3x KTM. He was able to pass Mike Brown and gap the field. Ivan and Quinn Cody both got on their bikes at mile 30. Davey Kamo got on the 1x Honda near there also. He was gaining ground on Quinn, but riding in the dust. Later Quinn would crash in front of him. ” I didn’t really see him crash, it was sort of in a corner and I did not realize it until I was by him. Johnny radioed me from the helicopter that he could see Quinn was already up and he told me to keep going.”
Johnny saw Quinn’s crash from the helicopter. “I could see that he hit something and tried to ride it out on the front wheel, but ended up going over the bars. Then he was up and walking around, but it was clear that he couldn’t pick his bike up”. Early diagnosis is that Quinn broke his collar bone.
The Honda team would work to gain back some of the time they lost to Caselli early. Kamo handed off to Timmy Weigand. By the bottom of Matomi wash, the time split had the two bikes in a dead heat. Ivan had the task to completing a full 140 miles in one bite and was probably under strict instructions not do anything wrong. As long as they were close, Kurt could handle the closing duties.
Somewhere around mile 165, Timmy Weigand would have his turn at crashing. Johnny Campbell was overhead in the helicopter, so they landed. Timmy looked to have an injured shoulder and ribs. So Johnny got on the bike, Timmy in the helicopter and Johnny headed to the rider change at mile 170. Colton would leave there about 17 minutes down to the KTM.
From Tim Today:
That sums up much of the action for the day. Baja is a difficult place to race. The laundry list of requirements for a win are substantial. When we started the week, it looked as if there might be as many as 5 teams that could challenge for the win. On race day, only one team rode without major incident. For as difficult as the day was for many, Kurt and Ivan almost made it look easy. Kurt did have one major crash also, he has the raspberry across his back to prove it. But at the end of the day the winning KTM 450sxf looked nearly new.
This is the first loss for Honda since 2007 when the KTM mounted team of Chris Blais, Andy Grider and Quinn Cody won the San Felipe 250. Obviously that was the last time that KTM saw the top step of the podium also. The team looks very strong heading into the next event of the Baja Raing Series, the Baja 500 in June.
Favorite Fan Comment Today:
"THRs biggest mistake was putting that goon Childress on the bike. Don't they know his history with Honda in Baja. Everytime that clown got on the bike he'd destroy it. 2 totally seperate races he got hit head on by a red jeep in a wash. Crazy conicidences!! I'm sure he'll have great stories about this one. Mike Childress Racing!? JACKASS!!"
MONSTER MIKE's Network Radio Report
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