ATV Riders Message Board Articles Reviews Videos Photo Gallery wallpaper Links ATV SxS News Interviews Racing News Models Donations Quad of the Month Contact Us


Class 1, Class 22 Motorcycles Seek Overall at 39th Annual Baja 500
Aces hunting for overall M/C win at 39th Tecate SCORE Baja 500

Los Angeles, CA (5/22/2007) – While it’s very probable that the 39 SCORE Trophy-Trucks will grab much of the spotlight, the unlimited Class 1 cars and Class 22 motorcycle division will provide their own special sparklers during next weekend’s 39th Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 500, the second-oldest desert race in the world.

Round 3 of the six-race 2007 SCORE Desert Series, the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Series, featuring a race-record lineup of nearly 500 entries competing in 28 Pro and 6 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs, will be held June 1-3 in Ensenada, Mexico.

A race-record field of 53 unlimited Class 1 open-wheel desert race cars are set to attempt to capture the overall 4-wheel vehicle title, unseating the marquee SCORE Trophy-Trucks, those high-tech, high-budget, 800-horsepower, unlimited production trucks who have won the overall 10 times in their 13-year history.

And while the thundering herd of SCORE Trophy-Trucks and Class 1 race cars blast their way around the Northern part of the Baja peninsula, the growing field of motorcycles and ATVs, now at an amazing 207 total entries, will be waging their own special challenge against the elements, the competitors and their own mental and physical strength and stamina.

With late entries excepted up to race morning, nearly 500 entries are expected from 32 U.S. States from Hawaii to Rhode Island as well as Mexico, Austria, Canada, England, France, Germany, Guatemala, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. The green flag will drop for the race at 6 a.m. on Saturday (June 2) for the motorcycle and ATV classes in the Tecate SCORE Baja 500, followed by the car and truck classes three hours after the last ATV at approximately 10 a.m. The SCORE Baja race-record 485 vehicles entered to date include 278 cars and trucks and 207 motorcycles and ATVs.

Back to defend their overall 4-wheel vehicle and SCORE Trophy-Truck title is the team of Larry Ragland, Cave Creek, Ariz./Brian Collins, Las Vegas, in the No. 12 Collins Motorsports Chevy Silverado. Returning as the overall motorcycle and Class 22 champs is the team of Robby Bell, Murrieta, Calif./Kendall Norman, Santa Barbara, Calif., on the No. 1x Honda CRF450X. Back to defend their overall ATV and Class 25 victory is the team of Danny Prather, Ramona, Calif./Mike Cafro, Carlsbad, Calif., on the No. 1a Honda TRX450R.

Added firepower for Bell/Norman in Baja on Team Honda will be Honda desert racing star Steve Hengeveld, Oak Hills, Calif., who sat out the Tecate SCORE Baja 250 while recovering from a seriously broken right arm he injured in mid-January. Hengeveld has six class wins and five overall titles in this race, riding every year for the American Honda factory team. The three-rider team will split the course up in thirds, Bell starting and riding to race-mile 121, Norman will run the second leg to race mile 252 and Hengeveld will ride the rugged final section of the course.

" I guess I hurt my arm pretty good, but I’m back and ready to roll,” said Hengeveld, who has earned five career Class 22 SCORE season point titles. “Robby and Kendall have been a very good team and they earned the 1X they have during last season and they won the first race this year, so we should have a pretty strong threesome for the rest of the season. It’s great to be back in the saddle again.”

This year’s massive field will challenge the very technical and rugged 420.11-mile course. Pre-running, or repeated practice driving and riding the course will be allowed up to the day before the race (Friday, June 1).

And, if anyone is able to cover the rough and tumble, serenely majestic course faster than one of the galaxy of SCORE Trophy-Trucks, their family name will probably be Herbst or McMillin, two of the winningest Class 1 families in all of SCORE Baja racing.

Both with SCORE Baja racing histories dating back to the 1970s, the Herbst family, of Las Vegas, has compiled nine class wins in this race since family patriarch Jerry Herbst won Category 3 in 1970 while the McMillin family, SCORE’s first three-generation race team based in San Diego, has notched 13 class wins since second-generation racer Scott McMillin picked up the first for his family in 1981 in Class 10.

In the hunt for the coveted Overall 4-wheel vehicle title, the Herbsts have two (Troy Herbst-2002, 2003) and the McMillins have four (family patriarch Corky McMillin and his second son Scott-1983, 1986 and Corky’s oldest son Mark McMillin-1988, 2001).

When it comes to Class 1 in the Tecate SCORE Baja 500, either a Herbst or a McMillin has won it in 11 of the last 13 years, and 10 of the last 11.

In that incredible string of Class 1 victories, Troy Herbst has captured the checkered flag seven times (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006).
Starting this stretch for the McMillins was Corky McMillin, who passed away in September of 2005 at age 76 while still a SCORE regular, and his son Scott in 1994. Mark McMillin picked up two more Class 1 wins in 1997 and 2001. In 2005, Scott McMillin and his son Andy McMillin won Class 1.

This year, Andy and Scott will be drive together in the No. 31 Chevy CK1500 in the SCORE Trophy-Truck division. Mark McMillin, the 2005 SCORE point series Class 1 season champion, will carry the McMillin colors in the No. 144 McMillin Racing Chevy-powered Jimco.

Daniel McMillin, 19, Mark’s son, will be the fourth McMillin competing this year, racing in Class 1-2/1600. The youngest member of McMillin Racing currently competing in SCORE races earned his first career SCORE class win in March at the Tecate SCORE Baja 250.

For the Herbst family, Troy Herbst and his older brothers Ed and Tim, will all be competing.

Troy, the youngest at 40, will split driving with Larry Roeseler, who has an amazing 16 class wins including 11 overall titles in this race. Herbst and Roeseler have teamed up for a rare triple, winning Class 1 in 2002, 2003 and 2004, including the overall the first two years. The will drive the No. 100 Terrible Herbst Motorsports Smithbuilt-Ford.

Ed Herbst, 46, and Tim Herbst, 44, the winningest team in SCORE Trophy-Truck history with 11 class wins and four season point crowns, will split driving in the No. 19 Terrible Herbst Motorsports Ford F-150 SCORE Trophy-Truck. Ironically, they are still looking for their first win in SCORE Trophy-Truck in this race.

At the top of the list of talented challengers to knock off Troy Herbst and Mark McMillin are Las Vegas’ B.J. Richardson, the current Class 1 point leader, Robert Ross, second in points and John Herder, third in points and who won Class 1 in the season-opening SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge in January.
Including Bell/Norman, defending class champions in two other motorcycle classes are back this year as well.

Including Prather/Cafro, the top five overall ATV finishers from last year are all entered this year as well.

Among the contenders to challenge the factory Honda team in the motorcycle race are the teams led by Chris Blais and Mike Childress.

::CONTINUED::
::Page 1:: 2

Copyright 2002-2022, ATV Riders All Rights Reserved - ATV Riders Forum - Message Board - Archive