SCORE International is set to kick off its golden anniversary with the thirty-sixth running of the San Felipe 250. Reigning champion Luke McMillin enters as the defending overall Four-Wheeler winner after battling with Bryce Menzies, while Juan Carlos Salvatierra is gunning for his second in a row on two wheels.
Qualifying will take place for Trophy Truck, Trophy Truck Legends, and Trophy Truck Spec on Wednesday, 29 March. Racing is on Saturday, 1 April.
While livestreaming options remain the same, San Felipe will be the first race under SCORE’s new partnership with Rugged Radios for communications after over four decades with PCI Race Radios.
The Course
The 262.8-mile course is a counter-clockwise loop that starts and ends in San Felipe. Much of the course is a break from recent editions by adding features that have not been used in years; perhaps the most notable and daunting feature is the Mini Summit, last used for the 250 in the 1990s but has seen action since with domestic desert championships. Located between Route Miles 138 and 154, the Summit contains a vast field of rocks that racers must navigate through akin to rockcrawling seen at King of the Hammers, which is a stark contrast to the sea of sand that it is sandwiched between. A boulder had caused the Summit to be blocked during pre-running before it was removed shortly after.
Two sections of the route are split off for Bikes and Quads to ensure rider safety: they deviate at RM 52.67 and rejoin shortly before RM 110 for the Four-Wheelers, followed by another break at the southernmost section of the track. The second alternate route is the longest as it ensures riders would not encounter cars for much of the remainder before meeting up again for the final twelve miles. Class 7SX, Class 11, and the Sportsman classes also have their own bypass between RMs 211.80 and 242.01.
Teams will have roughly fourteen hours to complete the race.
“This year’s SCORE San Felipe 250 race course will be another memorable one that will challenge even the veteran SCORE Baja racers,” stated SCORE race director Jose A. Grijalva. “There is a little bit of everything including the tire-crunching Mini Summit and the unforgiving metal-bending Boulder Canyon and five Baja washes that will help make this year’s race one on of the toughest ever. We are very pleased with the two special separate sections we have identified for the motorcycle and quad classes that will give them a beautiful race without having to look behind to see if a car or truck is catching them. This race and this race course will be a wonderful way to launch the 50th year of SCORE International.”
Pre-running opened on 18 March.
The Grid
Various regulars have backed out for the race and later rounds due to personal struggles. Perhaps the most notable absentee is Trophy Truck driver Broc Dickerson, who has put his #34 team on hiatus for family reasons. The #21L Trophy Truck Legend of Mark Winkelman is also out for the season as his co-driver Daniel Gonzalez undergoes spinal surgery, while Pro Moto Ironman rider Paul Hart broke his arm after an accident at a RECORD Off-Road race two weeks prior to San Felipe.
The San Felipe 250 will see the racing début of Polaris RZR Factory Racing and their new race-specific RZR Pro R Factory, which Brock Heger, Cayden MacCachren, and Austin Weiland will pilot in the Pro UTV Open class. The team uses the shop formerly owned by Baja star Andy McMillin, who has since retired from full-time racing and sold his Trophy Truck to Team Australia‘s Toby Price and Paul Weel, the latter of whom needed a new truck after their previous one burnt to a crisp at the Baja 1000.
Some categories like Classes 3, 8, and 5-1600 as well as TrophyLite only have one entrant each. Rhys Millen is the lone driver in Class 2000, though due to exceptional circumstance as his car does not meet the regulations for traditional classes; nicknamed “Jackal”, it is a four-wheel-drive buggy that previously competed in Classes 1 and 7 but now has a UTV engine and shares some characteristics with Trophy Trucks and even rally cars.
Five class champions from 2022 are not entered at San Felipe: Luis Ernesto Villafana (Pro Quad), Cesar Omar Iñiguez Cortez (Class 5-1600), Anibol Lopez Dominic (Pro Stock UTV), Martin Rangel (Class 1/2-1600), and Giovanni Spinali (Pro Moto 50). Pro UTV NA champion Kaden Wells has moved to Pro UTV Open for 2023. Both 2022 Sportsman champions, Dustin Davis (Moto) and Fidel Gonzalez (Quad), have respectively graduated to Pro Moto Ironman and Pro Quad.
