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.
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