McMillins, Menzies, Steele early entries in 53rd SCORE Baja 1000

SCORE MEDIA CONTACT: Dominic Clark, dominic@score-international.com
October 14, 2020
Race week Nov. 17-22

BFGoodrich Tires 53rd SCORE Baja 1000,

presented by 4 Wheel Parts

Early entries—McMillins, Menzies, Steele, Jax/Apdaly, Creel
Scanlon, Hall; from 14 U.S. States, Mexico, Bolivia, Ecuador

 

    ENSENADA, Baja California, Mexico— With online racer entry applications available for less than seven days, SCORE champion racers Andy McMillin, his cousins Daniel McMillin and Luke McMillin, Bryce Menzies, Cameron Steele, Jax Redline/Carlos ‘Apdaly’ Lopez, Santiago Creel and Chad Hall are among the earliest entries for November’s iconic internationally-televised season-ending BFGoodrich Tires 53rd SCORE Baja 1000, presented by 4 Wheel Parts, the final round of the pandemic-abbreviated two-race 2020 SCORE World Desert Championship.
Starting and finishing under strict BioSecurity health and safety protocols in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, race-week festivities and the Granddaddy of All Desert Races itself will be held Nov. 17-22.
Because of the Pandemic BioSecurity protocols, all race-week activities and the start/finish line area will be closed to the public. Spectators, adhering to the protocols, will be allowed to watch the race from around the race course.
The SCORE Baja 1000 is at the pinnacle of motorsports as the most iconic, oldest, prestigious, toughest and longest continuously held desert race in the world.
ONLINE RACER ENTRY APPLICATIONS
Racer entry applications are now available at www.SCORE-International.com under Race Info on the SCORE Baja 1000 page. Questions should be directed to SCORE Registration and Membership Director Audreonna Garcia at 775. 852.8907 or via email at registration@score-international.com. Online racer entry applications will be accepted through Friday, Nov. 6.
53rd SCORE BAJA 1000
Many of the world’s best desert racers will be in action at this year’s massive BFGoodrich Tires 53rd SCORE Baja 1000, presented by 4 Wheel Parts. The race will be televised on a delayed basis as a one-hour special on ABC TV’s World of X Games programming.
Ensenada, “The Off-Road Capital of the World” is a coastal city on the Bahia de Todos Santos area of the Pacific Ocean, 80 miles south of the U.S. border at San Diego.
Over 200 vehicles are expected at the start line with racers from nearly 30 U.S. States and as many as 15 countries anticipated. Long-time SCORE sponsor and race title sponsor BFGoodrich Tires has also posted a US$25,000 contingency bonus for the overall 4-wheel winner to help commemorate the renewal of this legendary SCORE race.
This year’s SCORE Baja 1000 will be a loop race of a spectacular 934.47 miles in the northern state of Mexico’s majestic Baja California peninsula.
It will start for the 46th time and finish for the 27th time in Ensenada and the race is annually the finale of the SCORE World Desert Championship, which has been held exclusively for the past five years in Baja California.
With a total time limit of 40 hours in the elapsed-time race, the motorcycle and quad classes will start at 4 a.m. (PT) on Friday, Nov. 20 and the car, truck and UTV classes will follow with their start on at 10 a.m. (PT).  While the fastest vehicles are expected to cover the course in approximately 18 1/2 hours, all vehicles will have 40 hours from the time each starts to become an official finisher.
THE BIG BLUE M
Andy McMillin, 32, a third-generation desert racer from San Diego, started his successful march to the 2019 SCORE World Desert Championship Overall and SCORE Trophy Truck point championship with his SCORE San Felipe 250 and SCORE Baja 500 victories.
He will be driving his No. 1 all-wheel drive Chevy Silverado built by Mason Motorsports that he debuted last September at the SCORE Baja 400. Andy McMillin has five career overall race wins in the SCORE Baja 1000 (2006, 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2015). All totaled, the legendary McMillin family has 12 overall victories in the Granddaddy of all Desert Races. His first win in this race was as an 18-year old in 2006 as the second driver for Robby Gordon in a peninsula run from Ensenada to La Paz.
McMillin enters this race with 11 career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins. He is tied for second all-time with Robby Gordon, Ed Herbst/Tim Herbst and Larry Ragland. The group trails Las Vegas’ Hall of Famer Rob MacCachren who has 17 career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins.
BROTHERS McMILLIN
Third-generation desert San Diego racing brothers Daniel McMillin and Luke McMillin have each entered the race in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck division. Daniel, 32, will be driving in his new No. 23 Mason-Built Mark Racing AWD Chevy 1500 while Luke, 27, will be behind the wheel of his No. 83 Racer-built Mark Racing Ford F-150.
Luke has two class wins in the SCORE Baja 500. He won Class 1/2-1600 in 2011 as an 18-year old phenom and moved up to win Class 1 in the 2012 SCORE Baja 500.
Two of the rising stars in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck racing division, Luke finished in second place just one minute, 54 seconds behind his winning cousin Andy McMillin in the 2019 SCORE Baja 500 while Daniel finished eighth in last year’s race out of 38 starters in the division for high-tech, 950-horsepower unlimited production trucks.
In the season-opening SCORE Baja 500 this year, Daniel McMillin overcame a strong field and a treacherous race course to earn the overall and SCORE Trophy Truck victory for his first career SCORE Trophy Truck race win. His younger brother Luke McMillin finished in third place in SCORE Trophy Truck, just under six minutes behind his older brother.
MENZIES
Back for another run at a SCORE race win, former SCORE Trophy Truck season point champion and international rally racer Bryce Menzies, 32 of Las Vegas, has entered this year in his No. 7 Mason Motorsports-built AWD Ford Raptor.
Menzies has five career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins, including three in the SCORE Baja 500 (2011, 2012 and 2014) and he was voted the 2011 SCORE Rookie of the Year on his way to capturing the 2011 SCORE Trophy Truck season point champion.
He has won two major U.S desert events this year including the King of the Hammers.
MAN OF STEELE
SoCal’s veteran TV action sports announcer/SCORE champion racer Cameron Steele, 52, San Clemente, Calif., returns to the Baja desert in his Geiser Bros-built No. 16 Monster Energy Desert Assassins Ford Raptor in the SCORE Trophy Truck class.
A second-generation desert racer and popular Baja tour guide who also owns the BajaHQ aftermarket company in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., Steele, who has been SCORE racing for over 30 years with class wins in several classes, labored nearly 13 seasons in SCORE Trophy Truck until he ended the 2018 SCORE World Desert Championship by winning two consecutive races, including the season-ending iconic SCORE Baja 1000.
Another benchmark finish for the popular Steele was a second-place finish in the memorable 50th anniversary of the SCORE Baja 1000 in 2017.
JAX & APDALY
On paper, this pairing looks to be one of the proverbial matches made in ‘desert-racing heaven’. Jax Redline is driver of record and his second driver is Carlos ‘Apdaly’ Lopez.
Redline is the self-proclaimed ‘adrenaline addicted’ 15-year old from Amarillo, Texas who has raced in karts, sprints, short-course stadium racing and in desert racing with race wins in each category.
No longer a really ‘young gun’, ‘veteran’ 25-year old Apdaly Lopez, from Tecate, Mexico, is an X Games gold medal winner who also won three consecutive SCORE Trophy Truck season point championships (2015, 2016, 2017) while driving for the prominent RPM Racing team of Bristol, Tenn.
In 2017, Apdaly Lopez won the behemoth BFGoodrich Tires 50th SCORE Baja 1000 peninsula run with his father Juan C. Lopez as his second driver.
At the recent 2020 SCORE Baja 500, Redline was a co-rider on the team led by his father Shane Redline that finished second in the Sportsman Motorcycle class. With approval from the SCORE insurance provider, Redline, who also has skydiving on his ‘adrenaline’ resume, will be the youngest driver of record in the 27-year history of the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck division.
Together Redline and Lopez will split the driving in the No. 22 Redline Racing Chevy Silverado in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck division.
CREEL
Mexico’s international motorcycle rally racer Santiago Creel, 34 of Mexico City, won two 2019 motorcycle class point championships and became the first racer to earn three Rod Hall SCORE Milestone Awards, presented by VP Racing Fuels, in the same season. In his fourth regular season racing in the SCORE World Desert Championship, Creel has often entered as driver or rider of record in four classes.
For this year’s SCORE Baja 500, Creel entered both the Trophy Truck Spec and the Pro Moto Unlimited classes. With driving assistance from Ensenada’s Jorge Sampietro, won the Trophy Truck Spec class and he and his team finished second in the Pro Moto Unlimited class.
In the SCORE Baja 1000 he has entered as driver of record in Trophy Truck Spec in the No. 260 Jefferies-Chevy and rider of record in the Pro Moto Unlimited Class in the No. 66x Husqvarna FC450.
SCANLON
Automotive industry key executive Craig Scanlon, 45, Yorba Linda, Calif., currently with 4 Wheel Parts, returns in the Pro UTV Forced Induction (FI) class in his No. 2931 Polaris RZR Turbo. He finished eighth out of 27 finishers in his class in last year’s SCORE Baja 1000 and he won his class in last year’s SCORE Baja 500.
CHAD HALL
The eldest son of the late, great Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Famer Rod Hall, Chad Hall, 57 of Reno, Nev., is one of the first entries in this year’s SCORE Baja 1000. Chad Hall, with 11 career SCORE Baja 1000 class race wins, has entered his No. 230 Mobil 1 Chevy Performance Samco-Chevy Silverado in the Trophy Truck Spec class.
Scheduled to be his second driver is his 34-year old son Austin Hall of Reno.
Chad Hall’s father Rod Hall who passed away in 2019, was the only driver who raced in all 50 of the first SCORE Baja 1000 races, earning a race-record 25 career class wins in the world’s most iconic desert race.
STATES, COUNTRIES
Included in the first 32 official entries of the more than 200 anticipated for this year’s renewal of the world’s most iconic desert race are racers from 14 U.S. States and four countries.
U.S. States represented in the field of competitors to date are from Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.
Besides the United States and host Mexico, countries represented to date in the total entry field are from Bolivia and Ecuador.
PRE-RUNNING
Pre-running on the official race course will open on Saturday, Oct. 24. The course will run in a counter-clockwise direction after the two-way section to the Ojos Negros area and down along the Pacific Ocean and around San Felipe and the Sea of Cortez before heading back up through Cordillera de Molina and back to Ojos Negro and the finish in Ensenada.
Pre-running will start at race-mile 33.53 and finish at rm900.97. The first 33.53 miles of the course, which will be run in both directions during the race, will be open for pre-running outbound only on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday or race week (Nov. 17-19).
This year’s course map and schedule of events are available on the SCORE website under race info on the SCORE Baja 1000 page at www.SCORE-International.com.
BIOSECURITY PROTOCOLS
As was the case at the recent SCORE Baja 500, significant BioSecurity health and safety protocols are being finalized by SCORE and the government authorities and health officials to be implemented at the event. With everything still fluid in regards to this pandemic, announcement of the specific protocols for this race are expected to be announced within the next two weeks.
For certain though, no spectators will be allowed to attend pre-race contingency, the start or the finish of the race itself. They will be allowed to watch the race around the course, following BioSecurity protocol requirements.
OH! WHAT A COURSE
This year’s 53rd SCORE Baja 1000 race course will be the longest loop race in the history of the Granddaddy of all Desert Races at 934.47 miles. The previous longest loop race course was 883.1 miles in 2013.
The race features a course, as finalized and plotted by SCORE President/Race Director Jose A. Grijalva runs in a counterclockwise direction on both the West and East sides of the Baja California peninsula.
The historic race course is another memorable example of all that Mexico’s Baja California has to offer, including high-speed dirt trails, sandy, rocky and silty natural terrain, dry lake beds, majestic Baja washes and canyons, stretches along the ocean with elevations from sea level to over 3,000 feet. The course is another jewel reflecting the stark beauty of Baja California.
There will be four physical full-stop checkpoints and over 200 virtual checkpoints.
     The course starts with a two-way section to Ojos Negros before heading down the Pacific coast through Uruapan, Santo Tomas, San Vicente, Colonet, Camalu, San Quintin and El Socorro.
The course then turns northeast back to Vicente Guerrero on the east side of Highway 1, through Pena Colorada/Santo Domingo wash, Rancho Meling, Rancho El Coyote, downhill on Simpson’s trail, Leandro Valley, Valle de Trinidad, San Matias pass and Las Cuevitas canyon.
The challenging race course then winds its way through four of Baja California’s infamously magnificent washes: Amarillas, Chanate, Huatamote and Matomi before heading through the San Felipe area along the Sea of Cortez and through Cordillera de Molina and then back to Ojos Negros to the finish in Ensenada.
All Sportsman classes along with Pro classes 7SX, 11 and 9 will run an abbreviated course of 803.65 miles.
SCOREscope
2020 SCORE SKED
BFGoodrich Tires 53rd SCORE Baja 1000, presented by 4 Wheel Parts—
November 17-22, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
2021 SCORE SKED
Here are the dates for the four-race 2021 SCORE World Desert Championship which will be held in Baja California, Mexico for the sixth consecutive year:
34th SCORE San Felipe 250—
February 9-14, San Felipe, Mexico
BFGoodrich Tires 53rd SCORE Baja 500, presented by 4 Wheel Parts—
April 14-18, Baja California, Mexico
2nd SCORE Baja 400—
September 14-19, Baja California, Mexico
BFGoodrich Tires 54th SCORE Baja 1000, presented by 4 Wheel Parts—
November 15-20, Baja California to La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
ABC TV AGAIN IN 2020
For the second straight year, the 2020 SCORE World Desert Championship will air on the ABC family of networks. The two-races will air as specials on ABC TV’s World of X Games program with replays on ESPN2.
ABC first covered the 1967 and 1968 Baja 1000 races on the old ABC Wide World of Sports show with Jim McKay and again in the late 1980s with veteran motorsports journalist Sam Posey.
All of the SCORE race coverage shows also continue to air internationally in nearly 25 countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America and South America via syndication and ESPN International. The shows are co-produced by SCORE International and SoCal’s award-winning BCII TV.
SCORE SPONSORS…
Official SCORE Sponsors: BFGoodrich Tires-Official Tire and Race Title Sponsor, Monster Energy-Official Energy Drink, 4 Wheel Parts-Official Off-Road Retailer and Race Presenting Partner, Ford-Official Truck and SUV, King Shocks-Official Shock Absorber, Polaris RZR-Official UTV, RACELINE Wheels-Official Wheel, VP Racing Fuels-Official Fuel, Wide Open Excursions-Official Arrive and Drive Company, Crystal Bay Casino-Official Casino.
SCORE Official Partners: PCI Race Radios, The Satellite Phone Store, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance, Lucerna Hotel.
Additional SCORE Associate Partners: Baja California Secretary of Sustainable Economy and Tourism, XXIII Ensenada Municipal Government, XXIII Mexicali Municipal Government, Mexicali and San Felipe COTUCO, Cruz Roja Mexicana.
For more information regarding SCORE, visit the official website of the SCORE World Desert Championship at www.SCOREInternational.com.