CLASS 7SX
There were no finishers In the class that was introduced in 2003, Ricardo
Castanon (No. 757) did cross the finish line as an apparent winner, but was
later disqualified when a post-race inspection revealed that he did not use the
required SCORE ‘black box’, gps Rally Logger.
CLASS 8
Keith Fontana (No. 802) took the checkered flag for this class for his first
SCORE victory. “It was very, very good,” Fontana said. “Words can’t describe it,
the experience. The course was everything from fast to extremely rough. We knew
we just had to keep it at a steady pace. The vehicle ran excellent for us. All
our sponsors did a wonderful job. I drove the first and last third, Ron Lammer
drove the middle third. The last 80 miles were the best. I had a huge sigh of
relief and just huge excitement to come across the line.”
CLASS 9
Eric Fisher (No. 900) completed the sweep this year, winning Class 9 in all five
races this year. In the process, he got revenge for last year, when his
three-year Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 streak was ended.
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slower than their record pace in the 2002 version.
“It was a great race and we had a good time out there,” Hengeveld said. “Baja is
Baja and you never know how it’s going to be out there. It was pretty good; we
were about 30 minutes off what I thought we would finish. The course was great,
probably one of the toughest Bajas yet that I’ve raced in 10 years. That was one
of my goals, to extend the Honda streak. We pretty much prepare all year long
for this race. The bike ran flawless, it’s very reliable and we had no problems
with it all day. I was probably on it for about a total of six or seven hours. I
did the start to Nuevo Junction, a run in the middle, and Trinidad to the
finish.”
“The course is a blast,” exclaimed Bell. “I had lots of fun until I hit that
jump. It was at mile 70, there was a burm outside of a ditch. Right over the end
I hit it and it was too late. I went end-over-end there and beat up this bike
pretty good. My whole left side is pretty sore. Tomorrow it will be interesting
when I wake up. I was on the bike to about mile 95 from the start and did 143
miles from 390 to 533. Baja is pretty unbelievable. To start it was pretty
awesome, I’d never started one of these, it was pretty exciting to see all the
people, being on the bridge and everyone cheering you, it is pretty cool.”
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CLASS 10
Entering this race, Class 10 was another closely-contested battle for the season
points championship, with a tie at the top between Travis Brookshire (No. 1008)
and John Cooley (No. 1004), and Lobsam Yee (No. 1009) in third despite Yee
having been the only one of the three to have gotten a win this year. Yee added
another race win, outlasting Cooley, who finished second in the class, and
Brookshire, who was fourth.
SCORE LITE
Stan Potter (No. 1213) continued the tradition of having a different winner in
the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, as in the nine-year history of this class in this
race, only Jerry Penhall has been able to win more than once. Potter also was
the first SCORE LITE racer to win two races this season, as he took the
checkered flag in San Felipe in February.
CLASS 11
For the second time in three years, no Class 11 vehicle was an official finisher
in the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000.
STOCK FULL
Josh Hall (No. 861) was the first Stock Full finisher, edging out his brother
Chad (No. 863). Josh finished 40 minutes before his younger brother Chad, who
was second in this class. Combined with his father’s class win (Rod in Stock
Mini), the duo became the only father-son winners in this year’s contest. Chad
had won the last four Tecate SCORE Baja 1000s, including one with his father and
one with his brother. In the 13 years this class has been a part of this
prestigious race, a Hall family member has won this class nine times.
Josh Hall: “It was good, our Hummer ran like a winner. It ran smooth and we only
had to deal with ‘little fixes.’ It was rough and that brings out the best in
our team.”
Josh Hall laughingly added: “See that vehicle…it has a sticker on it….’Stupid
hurts’….That’s how it is in the SCORE Baja 1000.”
STOCK MINI
Rod Hall (No. 761) crossed the line in 28:11:21, and in the process extended his
record class win total to 18. Hall, who has competed in each of the 38 Tecate
SCORE Baja 1000s in a 4-wheel vehicle, has won a title in five different
decades. He drove a new Hummer H3 to its first SCORE desert racing victory. He
became the first Stock Mini racer to complete a SCORE race this season.
Driving solo for the first time in several years, the venerable Hall, who turns
67 on Nov. 22, quipped, “My sons won’t give me enough driving time so Hummer
gave me one of their new H3 vehicles to test. I’d say we passed the test. In all
the years of the SCORE Baja 1000, it was probably the roughest I have ever seen.
I wanted this one bad, and we got it. It’s great to see my boys finish 1-2 in
Stock Full as well. I guess you could almost say it was a ‘Hall’ of a race.”
PROTRUCK
Jim Nuckles (No. 288) won his first Tecate SCORE BAJA 1000 title, and in the
process collected his fourth SCORE victory of the year. Nuckles’ victory also
meant that there has been seven different class winners in the last seven Tecate
SCORE Baja 1000 races in this class.
BAJA CHALLENGE
BC8 Sebastian Bourdais
“We had this broken brake line and we had to fix it because we need brakes at
the front and they don’t work well on the sand. We got stuck for 40 minutes and
Michel (Jourdain Jr.) went by so then we tried to get him but we got in touch,
and we sat the car in a pile of sand just to dig it , and we lost even more time
so just managed to get it back home. It was a tough race. But it feels good to
finish, it is probably the toughest SCORE Baja 1000 in a long time, so it’s good
to see the end. We raced last year, we didn’t end well, so everybody put the car
back together and took care of it. We tried to finish to receive a podium but
four is not bad. Claire, my girlfriend, started the race and drove the first 80
and then they gave it to me. Then we gave it to Jim until mile 200, and then
Wally took over. Then Glenn took over and gave it to us right back at pit 5 and
we drove until here. It was very nice at the end, nice roads and we just had a
good time. When we saw the finish line, we felt such relief. We saw the checkerd
flag, that’s all we wanted to see. Compared to what I usually drive, you just
have to forget what you know, begin from scratch and enjoy yourself.”
MOTORCYCLES
CLASS 22
The three races in 2005 produced different class winners each time, with the
season point title going to the winner of the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, Steve
Hengeveld/Johnny Campbell/Mike Childress (No. 1x). Hengeveld / Campbell won this
race for the fifth straight year, while Campbell earned his ninth consecutive
overall motorcycle victory in this storied race. Averaging 49.42 miles per hour,
they finished in 14 hours, 20 minutes and 30 seconds, over 13 mph
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CLASS 30
Brian Pinard/Scott Myers (No. 307x) won the class, as the sixth motorcycle and
ninth overall finisher to cross the line. “I started the race today,” Myers
said. “It was really rough this year, one of the roughest I can ever remember.
Especially at the time we went over the mountain when the sun was coming down,
the dust. It was one of the toughest I’ve ever done in my life. Once the sun
goes down it is actually easier.”
“I did not have any problems,” Pinard said. “Earlier in pre-running I crashed
and blackened up my eye and hand but today I kept it together. I will never not
race in Baja, I just love it.”
CLASS 40
Jim O’Neal (No, 400x), who recorded his first win in this race last year, again
shared the duties with several others, including Jeff Kaplan. Kaplan won the
1979 edition of the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 (with Rick Finger) in Class 21. This
race they had the dubious distinction of becoming the first incident for SCORE’s
Medical Team, as Luis Franco started the race but hit a booby trap three miles
from Highway 3, at KM 77.
“We just kept chipping away once we got the bike going,” Kaplan recalled. “We
had bent the front brake really bad. Other than that, though, it was pretty
uneventful. The only other person I saw was Tim (Morton, 103x).
Co-rider Randy Morales contributed to the win, which extends O’Neal’s streak to
six SCORE wins in as many starts since the beginning of the 2004 season. “It was
real good at the summit, but then I had to do Mike’s Loop,” Morales observed. “I
got my butt handed to me once the sun went down. That was one of the toughest
rides I’ve ever had to do.”
CLASS 50
Chris Haines/Scott Forward/Jim Castillo (No. 549x) won their class as the ninth
fastest time of all motorcycles. “Are we really ninth overall?” Forward inquired
at the finish line. “That’s great! I saw some headlights behind me and I said
‘screw it,’ I’m not going to give up a class win to get passed by a quad. We had
a great time, we had a fun time as usual. We had a few problems but we got
through them; a broken muffler, a bent shifter but we got it fixed all in one
shot. The course was great this time. The split up was I started and then Jack
Johnson went over the summit, Jim Castillo took it at Borrego and then Bob
Johnson around Matoni up to St. Matias and Jack got back on the bike and Chris
Haines into Santo Tomas and then I finished it, from Santo Tomas in.”
The win gave Haines his seventh consecutive Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 title, and
12th since 1987. Only three other people have won more SCORE Baja 1000 titles in
their careers (Rod Hall, Jimmy Johnson and Larry Roeseler).
“The ride was fine, with extra traffic for a while, we were sitting back with
the dust,” Haines said. “The course is one of the roughest courses in the last
five years that I remember. We changed from a Honda XR650 which we normally
ride, and actually for our team this is our 7th consecutive Baja. The six before
this we rode XR650’s, this is the first time on a 450x. It went perfect.”
CLASS 25
Wayne Matlock/Chad Prull (No. 9a) were the first ATV finishers, clocking a time
of 18:06:53. “When you pre-run it’s not that bad,” Prull observed. “But it’s so
different on race day when you get that adrenaline going. I ran 80 to 85
percent, I never hit 100 percent but I kept it on the throttle.”
SPORTSMAN MOTORCYCLE >250cc
The winner of this Sportsman class, which with 28 starters was tied for the
second most of any class, was an individual who rode solo. Robert Laughlin (No.
278x) had the eighth fastest time of any motorcycle, at 19 hours and 12 seconds.
“I didn’t fall once, but then almost fell two miles from here coming down a
hill,” Laughlin said at about 2:00 am at the finish line. “I was hoping to beat
all those things (Trophy-Trucks); they look really cool coming, but not so good
going as they kick up a lot of dust. I beat my goal by about an hour; the key
was to set easy goals. There was a lot dust but no traffic from Tres Hermanos to
here. It is better at night because you can see others coming for a while. Will
I do this again? Ask me in a month. Now I can go home and work again; I have
been addicted to the gym and a lot of spinning classes.”
SPORTSMAN MOTORCYCLE <250cc
202x Nobyuki Tsugita
“Today my ride was tough. We had 3 riders. I took the start to mile 190,
Rusibara took it next, then Masami Ishii. The course was very tough. This is my
third time in the SCORE Baja 1000 for me, this is the toughest. We didn’t have
any problems, the course is very nice. I feel very happy.
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