11 racers undefeated in 2018 expected to be racing in upcoming Lucerna Hotels & Resorts Tijuana 22nd SCORE Desert Challenge

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

September 5, 2018

 

Sept. 20-23 in Baja

11 racers undefeated in 2018 expected to be racing in upcoming

Lucerna Hotels & Resorts Tijuana 22nd SCORE Desert Challenge

Round 3 of 4-race 2018 SCORE World Desert Championship is two-day, two-lap SCORE Baja race;

colorful pre-race Contingency Friday (Sept. 21)--Avenida Paseo de los Heroes in Zona Rio area of Tijuana,

 

motos, quads, some 4-wheel classes race in Group 1; cars, trucks, pro UTVs in Group 2 with first half on Saturday,

(Sept. 22) second half Sunday (Sept. 23) for two total laps over 68.0-mile loop course for 136 total race miles;

 

start/finish line at Rancho Casian in Southeast Tijuana, more info at www.SCOREInternational.com

 

    ENSENADA, Baja California, Mexico — As the field of entries from 21 U.S. States and seven countries climbs higher, 11 SCORE racers are undefeated in 2018 heading into this month’s special format Lucerna Hotels & Resorts Tijuana 22nd SCORE Desert Challenge.  Here is the link for the map of the race route on the SCORE website – Course Map for 2018 SCORE Desert Challenge.

      As racer registration continues online for Round 3 of the four-race 2018 SCORE World Desert Championship on the SCORE website atwww.SCOREInternational.com, dates for race-week festivities and the race are Sept. 20-23.

     Moving to the largest city on the Baja California peninsula last year, this race will again utilize a special split format two-day event with one lap each day as the Lucerna Hotels & Resorts Tijuana 22nd SCORE Desert Challenge.

    Hotel Lucerna Tijuana on Avenida Paseo de los Heroes in the Zona Rio area of Tijuana is the official event hotel and the hospitality group (Lucerna Hotels & Resorts) is the SCORE Official Hotel for the SCORE World Desert Championship.

THE UNDEFEATED

     Led by Rob MacCachren, Justin Davis, Kristen Matlock and Francisco Septien a total of 11 racers have won their class in each of the two grueling races held so far in 2018. And both were run over race-record long courses for each event.

     The race-record course length for the season-opening 32nd SCORE San Felipe 250 was 319 miles and for the BFGoodrich Tires 50th SCORE Baja 500 the race-record course was 542.12 miles long.

     MacCachren, a legendary Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Famer from Las Vegas, has 310 career short-course, stadium and desert race wins (including 67 all-time class wins in SCORE races), is the overall point leader and at the top of the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck division in his No. 11 Rockstar MacCachren Motorsports Ford F-150 built by Geiser Bros of Phoenix.

     Davis, Chino Hills, Calif., whose younger brother Jeremy is a rookie racer this year in the SCORE Lites class, has won both unlimited Class 1 races this year in his No. 185 Green Army Motorsports Chevy-powered Jimco open-wheel desert race car.

     Surely evolving as a dynamic desert diva, Kristen Matlock, Alpine, Calif., has made history while driving solo in winning her Pro UTV Naturally Aspirated class in both races in her No. 1954 Polaris RZR XP4 1000. In the SCORE Baja 500 she shocked a field of over 50 UTVs with the fastest time including beating all of the usually faster Pro UTV Forced Induction vehicles.

     Keeping it all in the family, her husband Wayne Matlock is leading the Pro UTV FI point standings at the midway point of the season in his No. 2971 Polaris RZR XP4 Turbo. Wayne Matlock joined his talented wife at the top of the podium in the season-opener as they both won their respective classes at the 32nd SCORE San Felipe 250 in April. Wayne Matlock is also the 2018 overall UTV point leader.

     With six career SCORE season class motorcycle point championships, Francisco Septien, Ensenada, Mexico, leads the Pro Moto Ironman class and is the overall motorcycle point leader so far this season riding solo on his No. 730x Honda CRF450X.

      Also 2-0 to lead their class point standings in the 4-wheel vehicle classes are Vincent Munoz, Yucaipa, Calif. (Class 8, No. 894 Ford Ranger), Mark McNeil, El Cajon, Calif. (Class 5, No. 501 VW Baja Bug) and Jesus Mendez Jr, Mexicali, Mexico (Pro UTV UNLTD, No. 1872 Can-Am X3 XRS).

     Besides Septien, the other motorcycle class winners who are undefeated in 2018 with identical 2-0 records, the other four Pro moto racers are teams led by Justin Morgan, El Cajon, Calif/Mark Samuels, Yucca Valley, Calif. (Pro Moto Unlimited, No. 7x Honda CRF450X; Jano Montoya, Winter Garden, Fla. (Peru) (Pro Moto 40, No. 400x KTM 450EXCF), Giovanni Spinaly, El Cajon, Calif. (Pro Moto 50, No. 510x Yamaha YZ450FX) and Guy Laycraft, Canada (Pro Moto 60, No. 649x Honda CRF450X.

WHERE THEY’RE FROM

     With 122 official entries to date, there are racers from 21 U.S. States and seven countries. Nations are USA, host country Mexico, Austria, Canada, Germany, Italy and New Zealand. States with racers so far are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.

START/FINISH

     The unique-format race will be held in an area with a spectator-friendly start/finish line compound located on the southeast outskirts of Tijuana at the popular Rancho Casian off of Boulevard 2000 (Highway No. 201) at Km 22.

LA RUTA

     Starting and finishing adjacent to Rancho Casian in Southeast Tijuana, the race route travels in a counterclockwise direction over the nearly 68 tough terrain miles designed and put together by SCORE Race Director Jose A. Grijalva. It covers much of the land used in last year’s 23.4-mile loop, especially from Rancho San Vicente (where the race started last year) at around race mile 4 to race mile 17, considered the roughest section of the course.

     There will be two full-stop checkpoints on the course. Checkpoint No. 1 will be at race-mile 22.2 and Checkpoint 2 will be at race-mile 49.5.

     At race- mile 8, the course goes around La Mesa and at rm 11 is goes through Cerro Valadero and at rm 24 is Loma del Gato then to rm 30 and passing through Sierra Cipres.

     The course goes through the Valle de las Palmas area from rm 43 to rm 50, running on Arroyo Seco to Rancho Santa Anita.

     Heading back to Rancho Casian, the race course goes by the popular Rumorosita at rm 56.5, a very popular area that is very rocky and rough. Pancho’s Place is at rm 60 and then a sprint to the finish line.

     The last eight miles back into Rancho Casian look to be very fast.

START DRAW

     With no qualifying for any classes in this race, the drawing for starting positions within each class will be held on Friday, Sept. 14. To be included in the start draw, online racer registration will close at 8 p.m. PT on Wednesday, Sept. 12. Late, on-site racer registration will be held at the host hotel on Thursday and Friday (Sept. 20 and 21).

PRE-RUNNING

     Pre-running on the official race course, exclusively for all car, truck and UTV classes will be held on Friday (Sept. 14) and Saturday (Sept. 15) and pre-running exclusively for motorcycle and quad classes will be held on Sunday (Sept. 16). There will be no pre-running on the race course allowed on Sept. 17-21.

RACE HQ/CONTINGENCY

     Race headquarters will be the Hotel Lucerna in the heart of the Rio Zona area of Tijuana on Avenida Paseo de los Heroes. Racer registration will be held in the hotel on Thursday, Sept. 20 (2 p.m. to 8 p.m. PT) and Friday, Sept. 21 (9 a.m. to 4 p.m. PT).

     Media registration will be held at the Hotel Lucerna on Thursday, Sept. 20, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. PT and on Friday, Sept. 21 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT.

     Contingency will be held in directly in front of the headquarters hotel on the historic Avenida Paseo de los Heroes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT on Friday(Sept. 21) with tech inspection lasting one hour longer until 6 p.m.

     Both being held at the Hotel Lucerna on Friday (Sept. 21), the mandatory aircraft pilot safety meeting will be held at 6 p.m. PT followed by the mandatory racer meeting will be held at 7 p.m. PT

RACE DAYS

     The event features two days of racing scored as one race. SCORE Race Director Jose Grijalva has put together a 68-mile loop course through the challenging hills in the area that each class will run a total of two laps over for 136 total race miles.

     In the elapsed-time race with a three-hour time limit each day, starting at 7 a.m. PT each day, motorcycles, quads and several car classes will race their two sessions first on Saturday (Sept. 22) and second half on Sunday (Sept. 23).

     The other car and truck classes, including the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck and SCORE TT Legend divisions will run the first half of their race (one lap) on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 22) and final half (one lap) on Sunday afternoon (Sept. 23).

     Racing for those classes will start each day at 12:15 p.m. PT and racing will finish each day at approximately 5 p.m.

     Celebrating its 25th year as the featured SCORE racing division for high-tech, 950 horsepower unlimited trucks, SCORE Trophy Trucks, the post-race awards celebration will be held in the start/finish line area on Sunday (Sept. 23), starting at 6:30 p.m.PT.

TIJUANA START

     Prior to last year’s SCORE Desert Challenge, only two races in SCORE history had started in Tijuana. The first was the inaugural SCORE Baja 1000 (then called Mexican 1000) in 1967 and then again in 1995.  In both of those years the SCORE Baja 1000 finished in La Paz.

SCOREscope

2018 REMAINING SCHEDULE

Lucerna Hotels & Resorts Tijuana 22nd SCORE Desert Challenge, Sept. 19-23, Tijuana, Mexico
51st SCORE Baja 1000, Nov.14-18, Ensenada, Mexico

2019 SCHEDULE

     Here is the four-race 2019 SCORE World Desert Championship and for the fourth consecutive year all races are being held in Baja California, Mexico:

33rd SCORE San Felipe 250, April 3-7, San Felipe, Mexico
51st SCORE Baja 500, May 29-June 2, Ensenada, Mexico
Inaugural Lucerna SCORE Baja 400, Sept. 19-23, Ensenada, Mexico
52nd SCORE Baja 1000, Nov.12-17, Ensenada, Mexico

TV TIME

     Next on the broadcast airwaves for SCORE, the BFGoodrich Tires 50th SCORE Baja 500 race coverage show is scheduled to debut on the El Rey Network at 3 p.m. PT on Sunday, Sept. 9.

     El Rey Network is a 24-hour, English-language lifestyle network and is available in 45 million homes across the country through cable and OTT providers and via satellite on DirecTV Channel 341 and Dish Network Channel 253. For more information on how to watch El Rey visithttp://elreynetwork.com.

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, Lucerna Hotels & Resorts-Official Hotel and official race title sponsor, 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.

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

     Lucerna Hotels & Resorts 22nd 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, Lucerna Hotels and Resorts, Asociacion de Hoteles del Noroeste.

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

Lucerna Hotels and Resorts Tijuana

22nd SCORE Desert Challenge

Sept. 22-23, 2018—136 total miles (2 laps, 68.0-mile loop course)

Round 3 of four-race 2018 SCORE World Desert Championship

Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico (Rancho Casian)

Total Entries: 122 (as of 9/5/18)

(from 21 U.S. States, Austria, Canada, Germany, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand)

(numerical order by class—prior to start draw)

 Pro Cars & Trucks

SCORE TROPHY TRUCK (10)

1 Carlos ‘Apdaly’ Lopez

*5L Clyde Stacy

10 Alan Ampudia

11 Rob MacCachren

*12L Gustavo Vildosola Sr

15 Billy Wilson

16 Cameron Steele

28 Corey Keysar

40 Chris Miller

50 Zak Langley

  *SCORE TT LEGEND

CLASS 1 (6)

100 Brian Wilson

129 Brandon Bailey

150 Morgan Langley

153 Brad Wilson

168 Shelby Reid

185 Justin Davis

TROPHY TRUCK SPEC (12)

200 Elias Hanna

204  Sara Price

208 Andrew Entwistle

225 Brian Trotter

242 Austin Jones (DOR-Bruce Swaim)

245 Mark Winkelman

250 John Langley

252 Gonzalo Pirron

266 Scott Biernot

267 Hammond Meredith

276 Gerardo Iribe

299 Charles Dorrance

HAMMER TRUCK UNLTD (2)

4400 Joshua Bertschy

4422 Casey Currie

CLASS 10 (10)

1002 Clay Lawrence

1016 Hiram Duran

1022 Rafael Aguirre

1023 Broc Dickerson

1030 Vic Bruckmann (DOR-Jim Anderson)

1049 Ty Godde

1062 J.J. Schnarr

1063 Ruben Torres

1068 Cody Reid

1081 Matt Winslow (DOR-Todd Winslow)

CLASS 8 (2)

849 Gabriel Arce

894 Vincent Munoz

CLASS 1/2-1600 (4)

1603 Oscar Alvarez

1613 Dana Jussila

1614 Bruce Yee

1644 Cesar  Fiscal

SCORE LITES (5)

1218 Gustavo Pinuelas

1240 Miguel Bonilla

1255 Darren Walsh

1258 Jeremy Davis

1269 Robert Archibald

CLASS 5 (1)

501 Mark McNeil

Pro UTV FI (16)

2900 Marc Burnett

2903 Juan Martinez

2904 Cory Sappington

2912 Tony Riggs

2916 Cody Rahders

2919 Brandon Schueler

2920 Dan Eckardt

2922 Aldo Salazar

2937 Alex Nicholas

2946 Jose Juarez

2949 Alonso Lopez

2966 Rhys Millen

2968 Paul Kraus (DOR-Christine Giampaoli Zonca)

2971 Wayne Matlock

2978 Luis Fontanel

2989 Wes Miller

Pro UTV (4)

1954 Kristen Matlock

1955 Paul Champion

1985 Adrian Arellano

1995 Kaden Wells

CLASS 7 (2)

700 Dan Chamlee

711 Carlos Diaz

CLASS 5-1600 (4)

553 Cesar Iniguez

577 Luis Herrera

580 Luis Macias

596 Mark Winston

CLASS 11 (4)

1100 Dennis Hollenbeck

1104 Viry Felix

1111 Eric Solorzano

1113 Mario Vazquez

Sportsman

SPT TRUCK UNLIMITED (1)

208 Andrew Entwisle

SPT CAR (1)

1577 Diane Gianelli

SPT UTV UNLIMITED (1)

1818 Jessalyn Sells

SPT UTV STOCK FI (1)

3969 Robert Archibald

SPT UTV STOCK NA (1)

3975 Torrey Rush

Pro Motorcycles

PRO MOTO UNLIMITED (10)

1x Shane Esposito

4x Santiago Creel

5x Colton Udall

6x Brandon Prieto

7x Justin Morgan

25x Massimo Mangini

30x Nic Garvin

33x Garrett Poucher

37x Roberto Villalobos

66x Santiago Creel

PRO MOTO LIMITED (4)

100x Santiago Creel

125x Fernando Beltran

151x Edgar Cota (ROR-Juan Lopez)

171x Luis Flores

PRO MOTO 30 (5)

300x Ryan Liebelt

303x Edgar Espinoza (ROR-Luis Gomez)

310x Enrique Fuhrken

360x Santiago Creel

365x Nick Lanning

PRO MOTO 40 (1)

427x Salvador Sainz

PRO MOTO 50 (1)

510x Giovanni Spinali

PRO MOTO IRONMAN (3)

714x Lawrence Janesky

721x Jose Carrasco

722x Liz Karcz

PRO MOTO 60 (1)

649x Guy Laycraft

Pro Quads

Pro Quad (1)

1a Said Sanchez

Sportsman

SPT QUAD (3)

110a Danny Magdaleno

123a Ismael Hernandez

125a Cristobal Quezada

SPT M/C (6)

200x Miguel Pena

201x R. Hank Salyer

213x Bradley Loveday

216x Luke Berlet

247x Michael Boge

299x Tyler Cash