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SCORE Tecate Baja
250 ATV & UTV Race
March 9-10, 2007 - Ensenada,
Mexico
By: Levi Merriman
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Ensenada, Mexico (3/10/2007) –
This years SCORE Tecate Baja 250 was quite different.
Ten days before the race and after months of planning
the Baja 250 was suddenly switched from San Felipe to
Ensenada due a local land owner group who decided they
did not want the race in their backyard. With the new
216 mile course laid out, a record 423 racers would start
on the east side of Ensenada and finish down the coast
line in Santo Tomas making for one of the quickest races
in SCORE history. After the Motorcycles started, the quads
would line up to take on Baja.
Shortly after 6:30am the 2a Pro YFZ ridden by Jovany
Pimental, and Rafeal Guzman(more to share with this
crew later) would lead the ATV’s down the course
on to the first road crossing before Ojos Negros. They
would lead the race up until the 80 mile marker, when
the 1a Honda 450R ridden by Danny Prather, and Mike
Cafro would snag the lead after starting fifth in class.
As the racers took off in numerical order, for the first
twelve miles they blazed up the mountain side out of
Ensenada were they met the fog at the first road crossing.
The fog took its toll on the riders smearing their goggles
with the damp dust and forcing most of them to abandon
their eye protection all together. As they filed through
the early stages the leaders were setting a quick pace
leaving the rest of the pack to stay hard on the throttle
in hopes of making up some positions early on before
they were too spread out. With the race only 15 miles
old, there were no real problems coming from the quads.
Although the 18a Epic Can-Am Renegade was having an
electrical issue that put the team down for some time
as they swapped out the entire electrical harness.
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| With
a quick clance 5A James
Woodford's Honda 450R looks like any other, but
when you look closely, you will discover the front
end is completely different with a very unique
front end A-Arm design |
With the Pro ATV’s off the line, it was time
for the Sportsman and Ironman racers to take to the
course. Leading the Sportsman was the 51a Suzuki Z400
Piloted by Luis Salgado who would end up with a 3rd
place in class finish with a time of 5:16:28 averaging
40.9 mph showing you that even the older four strokes
can still be competitive. The Sportsman class leader,
50a Honda 450R ridden by David MacCarroll and Brett
Callen would be fifth off the line making their way
up to a solid second place finish with a time of 5:12:29
and average speed of 41.5 mph. But it was the 70a Honda
450R ridden by Alfonso Cota who would go on to claim
first for the sportsman class with his time of 4:59:08
averaging 43.3 mph.
The very last racers off the line were the UTV’s.
They took to the course around 1:00pm which made chasing
them impossible for me since I was already 150 miles
away on the coast trying to out run the ATV’s.
However luck was on there side as two of the five racers
were able to complete the course in time making a first
for the UTV’s. 1805 a Polaris Ranger driven by
Matt Parks won the class with a time of 6:59:20 and
an average speed of 30.9 mph. In second place was the
1803 Yamaha Rhino driven by Rut Tabcum with a time of
7:50:48 averaging 27.5mph.
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