SCORE TROPHY-TRUCK
For the third straight year, the Baja 1000 title in the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck belonged to the duo of Dan Smith and David Ashley. Riding in their Ford F-150, Smith and Ashley covered the course in a blazing time of 16 hours, 19 minutes and three seconds, averaging 62.34 mph. “I´m a little bit tired but I feel good,” said Smith just after taking the checkered flag. “I´m real happy to win this for Optima. We spent almost four weeks down here practicing, and we finished faster than we even expected. In Mexico it´s faster racing and more fun. There´s more people and they are so hospitable. Dave did a super job this morning – he is a patient man. He got the lead around mile 470 as the Herbsts (Ed and Tim) were in the pit doing something and Dave went by them. We switched at San Ignacio and we had the same old game plan – we knew that people were going to make problems for themselves. Dave passed most of the motorcycles, I only passed three, but of course I have a big advantage at night with all these lights – they know I´m coming.”

Ed and Tim Herbst placed second in the featured class, behind the leaders by 45 minutes. “It wasn´t faster than we expected, not from the pre-running we did,” said the elder brother Tim, who took control of the truck from Ed 40 miles north of San Ignacio. “We had something like seven flats. I got caught in fog and couldn´t see anything for about 150 miles – we had to rely on our GPS. But from the beach in it was all people and they were sure having fun.”

Placing third was Robby Gordon, in over two hours behind the winners. “I´m a little disappointed,” Gordon said. “I came down to win this race but we came up a little short. I didn´t have rear brakes most of the day and I never got to push it all the way. The game plan was to be the first to San Felipe and we were. But I ended up driving the whole way as my dad didn´t get to San Felipe in time.”

CLASS 22
Steve Hengeveld won not only Class 22, but claimed the overall crown as well, finishing in a time of 16 hours, 17 minutes and 28 seconds. He edged out the first four-wheeled vehicle, Dan Smith, by a mere 1 minute and 35 seconds. His 62.45 mph average is the fastest average speed in the history of the Baja 1000. Co-rider Johnny Campbell won his sixth straight Baja title, and the duo finished the season undefeated with four wins in four events. For Campbell, this marked his fifth Class 22 and fifth overall SCORE motorcycle point championship while Hengeveld won his second straight Class 22 and first overall point championship. The third rider, Andy Grider, completed his rookie season racing with SCORE and his first year with Honda. The three riders broke up the race with Campbell starting, then handing over the Honda XR650R to Grider at El Crucero. Hengeveld rode the bike from La Parisma to the finish.

“The delayed start worked out good, “ said Campbell, “its been so cold so this was better. I started 10th, but by mile 62 I was in the lead physically. Once I got the lead, I backed it down a little bit. I monitored my lead via the radio and it was growing. Winning six in a row is incredible, really awesome. Of course, it´s not really over until the bike is here so it was great to see Steve cross the finish. You can´t do this without great partners.” Grider added “We had no problems at all, it was flawless. I had one flat but we had a planned tire change anyway.” Hengeveld, who rode mostly at night and crossed the line shortly after 1 a.m. local time, only had a couple of “light problems. The biggest thing was dealing with the fog – I couldn´t see much, about 10 feet, at times. You can´t see anything on these turns. The thing is, you know that everyone else has to go through the same stuff.”

CLASS 1
Mike Julson, who was the only driver to win more than once in the first five events in Class 1, claimed the crown in the Baja 1000 with a time of 17:04:48. Despite winning two races prior to the Baja, he was eighth in the class point standings coming in. “It was fantastic, “Julson said, “even though we had three flats today. There was a lot of dust, a lot of Trophy-Trucks. What can you say, it was the Baja 1000!” Co-driver Bob Lofton drove from the start to the highway after San Ignacio around mile marker 520. “We went good all through the mountains, “Lofton said. “We broke an exhaust so we went slow, and there was a lot of fog around Constitution. But the last part was flawless. I can´t believe all the people.”

Finishing second in Class 1 was the team of Doug Fortin and Charlie Townsley, over half an hour behind Julson. Troy Herbst and Larry Roesler placed third. Both of those two teams have each won the Baja 1000 twice in the last seven years (Fortin in 1997 and 2001, Herbst in 1999 and 2000). “I had one flat and ripped the hood off,” said Herbst. “I got in an accident with (Trophy-Truck driver) Nick Baldwin, so that slowed us down.” Herbst handed the reigns over to Roessler at San Ignacio and then the real troubles began. “The fog was so gnarly,” said Roessler. “We lost our transmission and we also lost our alternator. Our radio didn´t work all day. There was a 110-mile an hour straightaway that we had to go through in second gear. I bumped Robby (Gordon) coming in, then he got a flat right after that.”

PROTRUCK
Rookie Alan Pflueger and co-driver Dan Ragland took the flag with a time of 20:35:06, just under 50 minutes faster than their nearest class competitor. Pfluefer won his second straight race (also won the SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300) but couldn´t catch class points leader Steve Barlow for the season title. The last four Baja races have been won by Barlow (in 1998 and ´99) and Scott Steinberger (in 2000 and ´01), who placed second this year. “Being a rookie, I´m going up against some people with a lot more experience,” Pflueger said. “But we didn´t come to race, we came to win. Our plan was to run our race and not worry about the other guys. We ran a steady pace, absolutely no problems, and had great pit stops. ProTruck has a bunch of good drivers and there´s been some really close racing this year.” Pflueger began the race and handed off the driving duties to Dan Ragland at Coco´s Corner, then returned to the driver´s seat at San Ignacio to take it across the finish line.

CLASS 1/2-1600
In come-from-behind fashion, Brian Jeffrey took the checkered flag, ending a three-race winning streak by rival Kash Vessels. Vessels, who would have won the overall truck points title with a victory in the 2002 Baja 1000, led by 45 minutes at checkpoint eight. But Jeffrey got his first 1/2-1600 victory ever instead.

On the other end of the spectrum, Dan Martin was the ninth class finisher, coming in with a time of 30:32:30. “Testing the day before, the engine case broke,” Martin said. “I had everything paid and people waiting to drive across Baja – I didn’t want to disappoint anyone, so I decided to go ahead and race.” Martin had to add oil every 10-20 minutes, and estimated that 55 gallons of oil were used during the race. “You’d drop a quart in and half a quart would come out. The Honda pits were amazing.”

CLASS 7
Perry McNeil was the first Class 7 vehicle to cross the line, making him the first two-race winner on this year´s circuit. The victory also gave him his first Baja 1000 title since the 1997 event.

CLASS 10
Steve Myers, along with George Erl, became the sixth different winner to win this class this season. Myers also won the Baja 2000, and is now the only driver to repeat as winner of the Baja 1000 in the last six years as five different people have won this race.

SCORE LITES
David Calloway and Scott Mapes finished first with a time of 23:16:34, marking the sixth different race team to win in this class this season. In fact, last season was similar, with five different teams winning the five races. Calloway also won the Baja 1000 title in 1998.

CLASS 22 (additional)
Finishing in eighth place in Class 22 was Robert Barnum, who it appears will have to replace a co-rider he recruited just this year. Annie Seel, RallySweden´s 34-year old racer, took part in her first SCORE race, and liked what she saw. “It was too short,” said Seel, who is known in her homeland as the Rally Princess. “I´m missing out on a lot – I want to do all the bits. I first rode from the Bay of LA to San Ignacio. Our chase car was running late and we had no lights. So I´m going along in the pitch black. Bike 306X caught me and we parallel rode for 30-45 minutes. It was a bit difficult but no one crashed. Mike Kay took it over and we still had no lights, so he stayed the night (six to seven hours) at a Honda pit until daybreak. I rode the bike again from checkpoint 13 to the finish. I definitely want to come back and do it myself. I now know what type of tires to use and know to prerun. I guess you could say this was my prerun for next year.”

CLASS 30
In winning his second consecutive and third overall race this season, Kevin Ward also became the fifth different Baja 1000 winner in the last five years. Perhaps more importantly, he ended the letter “M” winning streak. The past four years´ winners were Mike Barnhill, Cliff Matlock, Tex Mitchell and Ricardo Malo. “I´m just happy to break that long string of winners with an ´M´ in their name,” Ward said. “I totally turned that M thing upside down with this win.” Ward started the race and five different riders on his team took turns, with Daryl Hambleton riding the final stretch. “The course was really fast,” Hambleton said. “It was kinda tough at night but we hung in there. I had to take my goggles off as I couldn´t see any more – my eyes were wrecked. The bike ran fine, but someone threw a beer bottle and it killed my lights. I thought it hit the light but it only turned the switch off and both lights went off.”

CLASS 40
In the three previous motorcycle starts this season, Jim O´Neal had claimed victory. But in the Baja 1000, Chris Haines let history repeat itself. Last year O´Neal won both “regular season” titles, but Haines claimed the crown in the granddaddy of desert racing. Haines has now extended his Baja 1000 win streak to four straight. “We had a really close race all day with Jim,” Haines said. “We were within two minutes all the way to La Parisma. My partners, Craig Adams, Jack Johnson and Bob Johnson, all did a great job – we were faster than expected. Bob hit a car that did a u-turn right ahead of him. But we were close to a pit so we were only down 10 minutes.”

For information contact:
SCORE International at its Los Angeles headquarters
(818) 225-8402 or visit
the official Optima SCORE Desert Series website at:
www.score-international.com