Ensenada Cruisers

Pre-Running Starts Friday for 44th Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 desert race                       

Official Race Start - November 18

Sturdy adventurers and the world’s best desert racers will begin practicing Friday as official pre-running on starts for November’s 44th Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 desert race. With over 250 entries expected to compete in 36 Pro and 6 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs, the granddaddy of all desert races will be held Nov. 17-20 in Ensenada, Mexico. Completing its 38th year as the world’s foremost desert racing sanctioning body, the iconic racing extravaganza event is the finale of the five-race 2011 SCORE Desert Series. To date entries have come from 32 U.S. States and 15 countries. This year’s race will be a loop race starting and finishing in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.

The race itself starts on Friday, Nov. 18 and official entry forms are available online along with all pertinent race information and pre-running rules on the SCORE website at www.score-international.com.

This year’s race will start for the 37th time and finish for the 21st time in Ensenada. The race will start and finish on Boulevard Costero adjacent to the picturesque Bahia de Todos Santos in front of the historic Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center in the heart of Ensenada. With late entries accepted up until race morning, the 692.82-mile race course this year is a combination of much of the 2008 and the 2009 courses.

The rugged course travels from Ensenada east through Ojos Negros, down Laguna Salada to San Felipe, down through the three legendary Baja canyon washes of Matomi, Huatomote and Chanate, joining familiar routes to the six-mile turnoff before Mike’s Sky Rancho, heading over to the Pacific Coast crossing Highway 1 near San Vicente and to Erendira, then 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. Except for the San Felipe loop, the course travels in a clockwise direction. The San Felipe loop will be run counter clockwise. The race course features six physical checkpoints along with 64 virtual checkpoints. At the physical checkpoints vehicle numbers and passing times are recorded to help verify the information gathered on the electronic recording devices that are mounted on all vehicles in the race.

The locations of the six physical checkpoints are: Checkpoint 1 (race-mile 82.49, North of Santa Catarina), CP2 (rm213.70-west of Borrego), CP3 (rm319.40-South of San Felipe), CP4 (rm464.75-west of Borrego), CP5 (rm 559.20-south of San Vicente) and CP6 (rm651.92-South of Ojos Negros).

The challenging course also has five pavement sections for a total of 14.17 miles. The pavement sections are controlled speed areas with maximum speeds of 60 miles per hour. In addition to the 32 States represented on the entry list to date, racers have already officially entered from Australia, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands and the US Territory of Guam. It’s the oldest and most well known of all desert races, and it remains as the single most appealing accomplishment to a racer. Since 1967, the race has been run over the mysterious Baja California peninsula every year except 1974 when the international fuel crisis forced a cancellation.

Reality TV star Jesse James has received the first starting position in the drawing earlier this month for 44th running of the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000. While James, who lives in Austin, Texas, will pilot his No. 54 Chevy Silverado SCORE Trophy Truck, starting first among the motorcycle and ATV classes will be Craig Bowman on a Honda CRF450X. Drawing the first start among the ATV classes was the Class 25 team led by Richard Stanley.

The motorcycle and ATV classes will start their journey at 6:30 a.m. (Friday, Nov. 18) with the car and truck classes starting at approximately 11:45 a.m., or four hours after the last ATV leaves the line. With the course open for 32 hours in the elapsed-time race, the fastest finishers are expected to complete the course in approximately 14 hours.

Pre-race festivities on Thursday, Nov. 17, including the vastly popular tech and contingency of all vehicles and the SCORE Manufacturer’s Midway will be held from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Boulevard Costero in front of the Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center. The pre-race mandatory driver/rider briefing will be held Thursday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. in the Cathedral Room at the Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center. Racer and media registration will both be held at the San Nicolas Resort Hotel in Ensenada on Wednesday, Nov. 16 and Thursday, Nov. 17. The post-race awards celebration will be held poolside at the San Nicolas Resort Hotel at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 20. The featured SCORE Trophy Truck division for high-tech, 850-horsepower unlimited production trucks has 32 vehicles enters to date.

Starting second will be Mexico’s son/father team of Gus Vildosola Jr./Gus Vildosola, who teamed last year to become the first Mexican national team to win the overall 4-wheel title of the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000. Driving the No. 21 Vildosola Racing Ford F-150 SCORE Trophy Truck, the Vildosolas, of Mexicali, were also the fastest vehicle overall in the race down the Baja California peninsula to La Paz.

Starting second among the motorcycles will be last year’s overall motorcycle winners in this race, Kendall Norman, Santa Barbara, Calif./Quinn Cody, Buellton, Calif. on the No. 1x JCR Honda Racing Honda CRF450X.