SCORE Baja racing ‘Gold Standard’—McMillin, Wilson families each have three entries in 32nd annual SCORE San Felipe 250

SCORE MEDIA CONTACT: Dominic Clark, dominiccnv@aol.com

March 15, 2018

Race Dates April 4-8

SCORE Baja racing ‘Gold Standard’—McMillin, Wilson families

each have three entries in 32nd annual SCORE San Felipe 250

 

Pre-running opens Saturday on rugged record-long course;

race to be televised internationally, Start Draw March 27

    ENSENADA, Baja California, Mexico – Long admired as famous families in the sport of desert racing, the Wilson and McMillin families are at the pinnacle of the ‘Gold Standard’ portion of the foundation of SCORE Baja racing. To help launch the new season in next month’s 32nd annual SCORE San Felipe 250 in Baja California, Mexico, the McMillin and the Wilson families each have three entries in Round 1 of the four-race SCORE World Desert Championship.

     Over 250 entries in Pro and Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads are expected in the race. With many of the sport’s top stars among the first 130 official entries as of today from 21 U.S. States along with the additional countries of host Mexico, Austria, Canada, Germany, Italy and New Zealand, the McMillin family has three entries in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck division while the Wilson family has three entries in the unlimited Class 1.

     Featuring a rugged San Felipe race-record long route of 319 miles, the race will start and finish for the second straight year and just the second time in race history on the Malecon beach walk along the water’s edge in the heart of town. The event will be held April 4-8 in San Felipe, the peaceful fishing village on the Sea of Cortez, 125 miles south of the U.S. Border at Calexico, Calif.

FAB 50

     All four 2018 races will be held on Mexico’s magnificent Baja California peninsula for the third consecutive year.
The year of 2018 also marks the 50th anniversary celebration of the legendary BFGoodrich Tires SCORE Baja 500 to be held the end of May and beginning of June. The SCORE Baja 500 is one of the top 10 motorsports events held annually in the world.

SOLD GOLD MCMILLIN

     Just like their ‘sold gold’ family friends the Wilsons, a solid Gold Standard in SCORE Baja racing has been San Diego’s McMillin family. All third generation drivers, they are racing in the long shadow cast by the late family patriarch Corky McMillin and their fathers, Scott McMillin and Mark McMillin.

     Andy McMillin, 30, Scott’s son, and Mark’s sons Dan McMillin, 30, and Luke McMillin, 25, will each be racing in their own truck in the featured SCORE Trophy Truck division for high-tech, 900 horsepower, unlimited production trucks.

     All three of the third-gen McMillin racers have race wins in the SCORE San Felipe 250.

     Andy McMillin along with his father Scott McMillin, are two of just nine all-time winners of the SCORE Triple Crown of Baja award presented to racers who have won the overall title in the three historical SCORE Baja races—SCORE San Felipe 250, SCORE Baja 500 and SCORE Baja 1000. Andy McMillin won the overall and Class 1 race in San Felipe in 2005 while sharing the driving duties with his father Scott McMillin.

     This year in San Felipe, Andy McMillin will race the new No. 31 McMillin Racing Chevy Silverado built by Mason Motorsports. It will be the first SCORE race for the truck that debuted this year by winning a domestic race in Parker, Ariz.

     With both trucks built by Racer Engineering, Dan McMillin, who won Class 1/2-1600 in this race in 2007, will pilot the No. 23 Mark Racing Ford F-150 and his brother Luke McMillin, who won Class 1 in San Felipe in 2012, will be the driver of the No. 83 Mark Racing Ford F-150.

MORE SCORE GOLD STANDARDS

     A second and third-generation race team, the also ‘solid as gold’ Wilson Motorsports team, based in Long Beach, Calif., has three identically-equipped Chevy-powered Jimco open-wheelers entered in Class 1 for unlimited open-wheel desert race cars.

     Brothers Ronny Wilson, 56, and Randy, 59, will split the driving time in the No. 138 Jimco-Chevy, while the oldest Wilson brother, Rick Wilson, 61, will be the team pit/logistics manager.

     Ronny’s son Brad Wilson, 28, will drive the No. 153 Jimco-Chevy while Brad’s cousin Brian Wilson, 32, (Rick Wilson’s son) will be behind the wheel of the No. 100 Jimco-Chevy.

     The three race chassis were all built by champion builder Jimco Racing of Santee, Calif. and the three Chevy engines were built by award-winning Wiks Racing Engines of Las Vegas.

     The Wilson’s will debut a new Jimco-Chevy in this race with the Wilson brothers driving the No. 138 Jimco-Chevy.

     While Wilson Motorsports has numerous top five class finishes in this race, Ronny Wilson has three class wins in San Felipe (1999, 2009, 2016) while Brad Wilson won Class 1 in last year’s SCORE San Felipe 250 with Brian Wilson finishing fifth in class on the way to earning the 2017 SCORE Class 1 season point championship. Brad Wilson won the SCORE Class 10 season points championship in 2013.

MAS HOMBES DEL ORO

     Among the new entries among over 35 entries expected in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck racing division are two prominent SCORE racers who haven't been in San Felipe for several years. To date there are 30 official entries in the marquee racing division.

     Robby Gordon, the 1996 overall winner of the SCORE San Felipe 250, will be back in the field for this first time since 20012 and Bryce Menzies, the 2011 SCORE Trophy Truck season point champion and 2011 SCORE Rookie of the Year, has entered for the first time since 2013.

THREE DECADES-PLUS

     Celebrating the 32nd anniversary of the youngest of the three legendary SCORE Baja races, sometimes referred to as the SCORE ‘baby Baja’, entries are being accepted on the SCORE website under Race Info at www.SCOREInternational.com for Pro and Sportsman entries for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads.

SAN FELIPE SKED

     Pre-race festivities will be held in San Felipe on April 4, 5 and 6 with race days on Saturday, April 7-8 concluding with the post-race awards fiesta at 10 a.m. PDT on Sunday, April 8.

     The colorful pre-race contingency and Manufacturer’s Midway will be held on Friday, April 6 starting at 9 a.m., the starting line and the finish line will be on the Malecon in the heart of San Felipe for the second straight year.

     The RACELINE Wheels SCORE Kick-Off Beach Party will be held on the Malecon on Friday, April 6 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. PDT

     The deadline to enter in time to be in the drawing for starting positions within each class is 8 p.m. PT on Tuesday, March 27.

     Motorcycles and quads will leave the start line first in the elapsed-time race, starting at 6:20 a.m. PDT on Saturday. The car, truck and UTV classes will begin their journey at approximately 9:30 a.m. PDT with a minimum two and one-half hour gap between the last SPT quad and first SCORE Trophy Truck.

     While the fastest vehicles are expected to complete the course in just over five hours, all vehicles will have 16 hours from the time each starts to become an official finisher.

FAB FIVE

    While three racers have three overall victories in the SCORE San Felipe 250, Las Vegas’ Hall of Fame racer Rob MacCachren might have set a standard that will last for awhile, unless he breaks his own record of five overall and SCORE Trophy Truck wins this year.

     MacCachren, who won the overall in San Felipe last year to give him nine class wins in this race, earned his first SCORE Trophy Truck overall in this race in 2003 when he split the driving with Mexico’s Gustavo Vildosola Sr and his second in 2007 when he split the driving with Mark Post.

     MacCachren earned back-to-back wins in 2011 and 2012 driving solo and won his fifth last year driving solo again in his No. 11 MacCachren Motorsports Rockstar Ford F-150.

BIG DEAL

     For over three decades, the annual motorsports festival that has brought the largest economic impact of any single event held annually in this lightly-populated portion of the rugged, rough and bountifully beautiful Baja peninsula has been the SCORE San Felipe 250.

ANOTHER GOLDEN YEAR

     Following last year’s epic celebration of the 50th BFGoodrich Tires SCORE Baja 1000, this year’s SCORE World Desert Championship includes the special tribute to the 50th BFGoodrich Tires SCORE Baja 500 when it is held this year in Ensenada on May 30-June 3. Like all SCORE races, there will be classes for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads.

     The SCORE Baja 500 is one of the top motorsports events in the world. It was started originally in 1969 by the NORRA organization. Mickey Thompson and his SCORE International organization were invited by the Mexican government to take over the event in 1974. Sal Fish ran and later owned and produced the SCORE Baja 500 for 39 years until he sold SCORE to Roger and Elise Norman in December of 2012.

     The first Baja 500 organized and produced by SCORE was held on July 26, 1974 as the first of over 150 SCORE Baja races that have been held to date.

     Ensenada is the heart and soul of the SCORE Baja 500 as the popular summertime race. It will start in Ensenada for the 45th time and finish in Ensenada for the 41st time.

     BFGoodrich Tires, the SCORE official tire for over 40 years, has posted a $25,000 contingency bonus for the overall winner of the golden anniversary race.

SCORE RULE BOOK UPDATE NOW ONLINE

     Under the supervision and direction of SCORE CEO/President Roger Norman, SCORE Race Director Jose A. Grijalva and SCORE Tech Director Dan Cornwell with editing and updating by SCORE Ops personnel Lawton Shank and Christine Wait, the 2018 SCORE Rule Book has been updated along with the 2018 Rule Book Addendum and is now online.

     All relevant items are available on the SCORE website under the race info page and the Addendum summarizes the additions and changes to the SCORE rule book starting with the 2018 SCORE World Desert Championship.

SCOREscope

     Below is the four-race 2018 SCORE World Desert Championship schedule. For the third consecutive year all four races are being held in Baja California, Mexico. Here is the complete 2018 SCORE World Desert Championship schedule:

32nd SCORE San Felipe 250, April 4-April 8, San Felipe, Mexico
50th BFGoodrich Tires SCORE Baja 500, May 30-June 3, Ensenada Mexico
Tijuana 22nd SCORE Desert Challenge, Sept. 19-23, Tijuana, Mexico
51st SCORE Baja 1000, Nov.14-18, Ensenada, Mexico

SCORE SPONSORS…

     Official SCORE Sponsors: BFGoodrich Tires-Official Tire and official race title sponsor, Monster Energy-Official Energy Drink, King Shocks-Official Shock Absorber, Polaris RZR-Official UTV, RACELINE Wheels-Official Wheel, VP Racing Fuels-Official Fuel, El Rey Network-Official Television Partner, Wide Open Excursions-Official Arrive and Drive Company, Crystal Bay Casino-Official Casino.

     SCORE Official Partners: PCI Race Radios, 4 Wheel Parts, The Satellite Phone Store, Satellite Del Norte, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance, CETTO Vineyards.

     Additional SCORE Associate Partners: Proturismo Ensenada, Baja California Secretary of Tourism, Baja California Sur State Government, Baja California Sur Secretary of Tourism, Mexicali Ayuntamiento, COTUCO Mexicali/San Felipe, Cruz Roja Mexicana, Corporate Helicopters, McKenzie’s Performance Products, Advanced Color Graphics.

     Tijuana SCORE Desert Challenge Special Partners: XXII Ayuntamiento de Tijuana, Baja California State Secretary of Tourism, Comite de Turismo and Convenciones, Comite de Marcadotecnia Turistica, Asociacion de Hoteles del Noroeste.

     For more information regarding SCORE, visit the official website of the SCORE World Desert Championship at www.SCOREInternational.com.