14 of 21 Classes and Top 4 Sweep
The recent BFGoodrich Tires 34th SCORE San Felipe 250 Presented by Ford was a master class in competitive dominance, as FOX-equipped racers won 14 out of 21 classes with five class podium sweeps (and the overall Top 4 sweep) and 35 podiums total. This race also saw six SCORE Trophy Truck racers with average speeds of over 60 mph, the most in race history.
FOX driver Bryce Menzies, 33, powered his No. 7 Mason-built all-wheel drive Ford Raptor to lead 269 total starters—the third-largest number of entries in race history—to an error- and penalty-free winning time of 4:28:01 over 280.20 miles for an average of 62.73 miles per hour, second only to Mexico’s Tavo Vildosola’s 63.77 mph, set in 2015.
FOX drivers Luke McMillin and his cousin Andy McMillin finished the podium in second and third, respectively.
“We qualified P1 and started out front,” Menzies said at the finish line. “It’s tough leading the whole race with those guys chasing you down. About race mile sixty, Andy (McMillin) flatted which let Luke (McMillin) by, and he made up that minute gap in between so the whole race he was only thirty seconds back, so I was pushing as hard as I could towards the finish.
“When I turned the corner on that last bit, it was really rough and I pushed as hard as I could and turning that last corner they said I had twelve seconds on Luke. To think that 280 miles and we were only separated by 12 seconds. Unbelievable race. The truck ran flawless. This course was the funnest I have ever been on in San Felipe – all the washes were amazing, so many spectators out there, I’m just so glad to be back in a SCORE Baja race. We are running for a championship this year so it should be lots of fun.”
Menzies returned to Baja to earn his first race win in San Felipe and his sixth career SCORE Trophy Truck race win. He was the leader from start to finish with clean air favoring his push to the finish.
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The popular ‘Spring Break’ season-opener of the four-race 2021 SCORE World Desert Championship was held in San Felipe, a village on the Sea of Cortez in Baja California, Mexico, 125 miles south of the U.S. Border at Calexico, California.
The Race
Under sunny skies and warm temperatures in the low 80s, Menzies had plenty of competition behind him in a field of 35 of the marquee SCORE Trophy Trucks and 269 total starters—tying 2005 as the third-highest overall total of starters in the 34-year history of this race. In front of him was what finishers call “the most brutal course ever” in this race.
FOX driver McMillin, 28, finished second, just 15.54 seconds behind the winning Menzies in 4:28:16, averaging 62.67 mph. As defending SCORE Trophy Truck season point champion, he piloted his No. 1 Big Blue M McMillin Racing Racer-built Ford F-150 that he’s driven for just over seven years.
Finishing third overall and in SCORE Trophy Truck was his cousin and fellow FOX driver Andy McMillin—the 2019 SCORE Trophy Truck season champ also won the SCORE San Felipe 250 that same year—in his No. 31 Big Blue M McMillin Racing Mason-built all-wheel drive Chevy 1500 in 4:35:17 with an average speed of 61.07 mph.
The race included 35 entries in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck division (including four SCORE TT Legend vehicles for SCORE Trophy-Truck drivers over 50 years old), the marquee racing division for high-tech, 950-horsepower unlimited custom trucks.
Mother and son victory
Racing in separate classes for a number of years, winning the Unlimited Class 1 in their new No. 168 Alumi Craft Chevy was FOX driver Shelby Reid, 53, and Cody Reid, 28, both of Apple Valley, California.
Both former SCORE season class point champions, Cody Reid started the race, driving to race mile 158 where Shelby took over and drove virtually half of the race to the finish.
“We had no problems,” Shelby said. “Brand new car, very first race, we had nothing go wrong. We did have some GPS problems, but nothing with the car. But my air conditioning froze up, which sucked. It was a perfect race. You couldn’t ask for anything better. We don’t have a lot of seat time in it, it is an all-wheel drive vehicle built by Alumi Craft and I’ve never driven an all-wheel drive before, so it took a little bit, but then we got in our groove.”
UTV results
Combining a former champion with a SCORE rookie, FOX drivers Brandon Schueler and Cayden MacCachren beat 63 UTVs in four different classes including a SCORE-record 33 in their Pro UTV FI (Forced Induction) class.
“We had one flat and we ended up running out of fuel but we were really close to the pit stop,” Schueler said. “It was a pretty flawless day. It was a good time.”
Schueler, 32, and MacCachren, 19, split the driving in their No. 2919 Polaris RZR XP4 Turbo with Live Valve in a winning time of 6:17:46. MacCachren—who was making his first start in a SCORE race—is the son of legendary Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Famer Rob MacCachren, who finished sixth in SCORE Trophy Truck in this race.
Winning the Pro UTV NA (Naturally Aspirated) class that had 12 starters for the third consecutive San Felipe race was the first lady of SCORE racers, FOX driver Kristen Matlock, 40, of Alpine, California.
Matlock, whose champion husband Wayne Matlock finished in fourth place out of seven starters in the Pro UTV Open class, won her class driving solo once again in the No. 1954 Polaris RZR XP4 1000 with Live Valve.
“It was a lot rougher than I anticipated after pre-running all week,” Kristen added. “We thought it was going to be a fast, smooth, easy-going run but after those SCORE Trophy trucks got out there and tore it up a bit, it gave us a little bit of a challenge. They turned up some rocks for us. So we had to dodge some bullets.”
Capturing the checkered flag over seven starters in Pro UTV Open was FOX driver Justin Elenburg, 43, of Mesa, Arizona in his No. 1870 Can-Am X3.
The race will air as a one-hour special on the World of X Games programming on ESPN2 and be syndicated to nearly 25 countries around the globe.
FOX Results:
Top 4 Overall/Trophy Truck: 1st – Bryce Menzies, 2nd – Luke McMillin, 3rd – Andy McMillin, 4th – Alan Ampudia; Top 3 Class 1: 1st – Shelby Reid, 2nd – Mason Cullen, 3rd – Mario Fuentes; Top 2 Trophy Truck Spec: 1st – Jason Coleman, 2nd – Ryan Hancock; Top 4 (9 out of Top 10; 13 of Top 15) Pro UTV Forced Induction: 1st – Brandon Schueler/Cayden MacCachren (Live Valve), 2nd – Austin Weiland, 3rd – Wes Miller, 4th – Phil Blurton; Top 3 Pro UTV NA: 1st – Kristen Matlock (Live Valve), 2nd – Dodge Poleman, 3rd – Kaden Wells; Top 4 Pro UTV Open: 1st – Justin Elenburg, 2nd – Josh Herzing, 3rd – Cameron Ornelas, 4th – Wayne Matlock (Live Valve).
Other Class wins: Class TT Legends – Rolf Helland; Class 10 – Chase Warren (8 of Top 10 in class; 10 on FOX); Class 7 – Jeff Proctor; Class 7F – Arturo Montano; Class 5 – Greg Sullivan; Class 5-1600 – Jorge Gutierrez; Class 11 – Luis Fernando Garcia.
// ridefox.com
