Desert racers Ron Whitton of Arizona and Southern California’s Robby Bell received the pole positions for four-wheel and two-wheel vehicles in the computerized drawing for starting positions held for the upcoming 24th Annual MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250. Whitton races in the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division while Bell competes in Class 22 for open motorcycles.
Round 2 of the 2010 SCORE Desert Series will be held March 12-14 in Mexico’s picturesque fishing village of San Felipe, located 120 miles south of the U.S. borer on the East side of the Baja California peninsula along the azure waters of the tranquil Sea of Cortez.
With nearly 275 entries expected to compete in 28 Pro and 6 Sportsman classes in the 232-mile race, the green flag will drop at 6 a.m. Pacific time on Saturday, March 13, for the motorcycle and ATV classes, followed three hours later by the car and truck classes at approximately 10 a.m. local time. The start and finish line for the race will 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 a 10-hour time limit to become an official finisher.
Following January’s season-opening SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge, the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Series will visit Mexico for the first of three races in 2010.
In Saturday’s computerized drawing, SCORE Trophy-Truck had the most entries with 32, followed by the unlimited Class 1 with 18 and Class 1-2/1600 with 12. While 192 entries were received in time for the start draw, late registration will be accepted up until race morning and as many as 100 additional entries are expected.
This year’s race will use a similar 232-mile race course as the past two years with a few modifications other than those caused by weather conditions. Running in a counter clockwise direction out of San Felipe up to and then parallel to Highway 3 (southside) and south back down through three of the most picturesque and challenging washes in all of Baja.
After the start at the landmark San Felipe Arches, the race will proceed north towards Zoo Road. The area approaching the Zoo Road crossing has been bladed again, which makes it a safer approach to the popular spectator area. That area will again be fenced, have grandstands and a jump and will be patrolled so that spectators can watch the action but not put themselves in way of the action.
For the first time the course will travel east of instead of on the graded Morelia Road (after the Zoo Road junction) to the entrance to Matomi Wash. This will be one of the few times that SCORE will run through the majestic Matomi Wash in the early part of the race instead of near the end. After Matomi, the challenging course will run through two more of the infamous Baja canyons—Huatomote and Chanate before heading back Northwest for the final sprint to the finish line.
At 10 a.m. on Sunday (March 14), the awards celebration will be held in front of The Beachcomber Night Club on the Malecon.
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, MasterCraft Safety, Blue C Advertising, Off-Road, SignPros, P.C.I. Race Radios, McKenzie’s Performance Products and Advanced Color Graphics.
Associate sponsors for the MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 are the Tourism and Convention Bureau of Mexicali/San Felipe and Cotuco. Additional sponsors in Baja are the Office of the Secretary of Tourism of Baja California and ProTurismo de Ensenada.
The race annually provides a greater economic impact to San Felipe than the popular month-long ‘Spring Break’.
For more information regarding the series, contact SCORE at its Los Angeles headquarters 818.225.8402 or visit the official website of the 2010 SCORE Desert Series at
www.score-international.com.
24th MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250
Round 2 of five-race 2010 SCORE Desert Series
March 12-14, 2010—232.0 miles
San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico
Total Entries: 192 (as of 2/14/10)
(from 22 States, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Mexico)
PRO CARS & TRUCKS
SCORE TROPHY-TRUCK (32)
39 Ron Whitton
1 Robby Gordon
19 Tim Herbst
30 Robbie Pierce
21 Gus Vildosola Jr.
23 Mark McMillin
8 Roger Norman
16 Cameron Steele
31 Andy McMillin
40 Chet Huffman
37 Bruce Greer Jr.
76 Jesse Jones
51 Kory Scheeler
2 Pete Sohren
68 Marc Ewing
96 Bobby Baldwin
84 Nick Vanderwey
7 Jimmy Nuckles
10 Greg Nunley
78 Jesse Ashcraft
20 Rob MacCachren
35 Jason Voss
9 Gary Weyhrich
74 Rob Bruce
42 Will Staats
24 Adam Householder
13 Ed Stout
97 B.J. Baldwin
3 Mark Post
49 Troy Herbst
36 Glen Greer
47 James Bult