Collins/Ragland Roar to Overall & SCORE Trophy-Truck Win,
Herbst/Roeseler Capture Class 1 at 2006 Tecate SCORE Baja 500
compiled by connie ellig
source: www.score-international.com
photos by botello/hopps off-road photographers

Collins and Ragland captured the 4-wheel vehicle win with a flawless, flat-free race over a boulder-strewn, silt-grabbing desert course in front of a massive crowd estimated at nearly 200,000 spread out along the course. The race was filmed for television by Aura360, SCORE’s TV production partner, to air in December as a one-hour special on NBC in the U.S. and ESPN International worldwide.

After maintaining a slight early lead on corrected time, Honolulu’s Alan Pflueger drove solo in his No. 28 Pflueger Racing Chevy Silverado in his best race of the season with a second-place overall and SCORE Trophy-Truck finish, only 7 minutes, 16 seconds behind Collins/Ragland. Third overall and in SCORE Trophy-Truck was Josh Baldwin, Newport Beach, Calif., in 10:03:40 in the No. 86 Baldwin Racing Ford F-150.

Winning the unlimited Class 1 with a dominating 14-minute, 23-second class victory margin, the team of Troy Herbst, Las Vegas, and Larry Roeseler, Canyon Lake, Calif., finished fourth overall in a time of 10:09:20 in the No. 112 Terrible Herbst Motorsports Ford-powered Smithbuilt open-wheel desert race car. For Herbst, who is the youngest of the three racing Herbst brothers, it was an amazing seventh Class 1 win in this race since 1996 and his fourth with Roeseler, who acquired his sixteenth career class win in the Tecate SCORE Baja 500.

Mexican racers seized a fair share of first place finishes. Ensenada’s Marcos Nuñez picked up his eighth class win in this race by capturing Class 5/1600 in his No. 550 1600cc VW Baja Bug. In Class 9, Ensenada’s Eric Fisher collected his fifth class win in this race in his No. 900 Garibay-VW. Gerardo Iribe, also from Ensenada, won Class 1-2/1600 in his #1645 Curry-ISRT.

The two vehicles that covered the course the fastest were both motorcycles. The two factory Honda teams captured the top two overall motorcycle positions and Class 22 wins. Riding a Honda CRF450X, Robby Bell, Murrieta, Calif., and his teammate Kendall Norman, Santa Barbara, Calif., completed the course in 8:59:04, averaging 47.22mph. Second overall and in Class 22 was the American Honda team of Steve Hengeveld, Oak Hills, Calif., and Mike Childress, Wrightwood, Calif., in 9:09:20, on a Honda XR650R. In a remarkable and unprecedented finish in SCORE racing, Class 30 riders Brian Pinard, Murrieta, Calif., and Ron Wilson, Encinitas, Calif., tied for the class win and third overall among motorcycles with an identical time of 9:45:10.

Danny Prather, Ramona, Calif., and teammate Mike Cafro, Carlsbad, Calif., were the fastest overall ATV, out-dueling this year’s Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 winners Wayne Matlock, El Cajon, Calif. and Chad Prull, Laveen, Ariz. Both teams rode Honda TRX450R ATVs, with the Prather/Cafro team finishing in 10:23:45 (40.81mph), only 1 minute, 40 seconds faster than Matlock/Prull.

This year’s Baja 500 featured a race-record 438 starters from 28 U.S. states, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, France, New Zealand and Japan, who competed in 25 Pro and 6 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs. It was the largest starting field in the three-decade-plus history for SCORE racing in Mexico, and second-most in the entire history of SCORE, behind the 1988 SCORE Parker 400 which had 452 starters. A total of 222 survivors out of 438 starters made it to finish line within the 18-hour limit. The 222 finishers represent the largest number of finishers ever in a SCORE race in Mexico.

For more information and complete race results, visit the official SCORE website or contact SCORE at its Los Angeles headquarters at tel. 818-225-8402. Don’t miss the remaining three events in this year’s six-race SCORE Desert Series: the SCORE Las Vegas Terrible’s Cup II on July 27-29, the SCORE Las Vegas PRIMM 300 on September 8-10, and the 39th Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, an epic desert race down the Baja California peninsula from Ensenada to La Paz on November 15-18, 2006.

“It was an incredible coincidence that President Fox was in town on the eve of the oldest desert race in the world and it was very gracious of him to meet with us,” declared Sal Fish. “We spent about five to seven minutes talking – he is very charismatic and has a presence about him. He thanked us for our thirty-plus years of bringing tourism to the Baja peninsula. Meeting President Fox is definitely one of the highlights of my involvement with SCORE International Off-Road Racing.”

“President Fox was very interested and aware of our race,” stated Oscar Ramos. “It was a unique opportunity to meet him and invite him to our November Baja 1000, which will be the last SCORE race under his presidential administration.”

With the right timing, perhaps President Fox will be among the hundreds of thousands of race aficionados who turn out for the 39th Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, an epic desert race down the Baja California peninsula from Ensenada to La Paz on November 15-18, 2006.
 

Left to right: SCORE Mexican Liaison Oscar Ramos and SCORE President/CEO Sal Fish greet Mexican President Vicente Fox during his visit to Ensenada on June 1 and present a handsome plaque featuring a three-dimensional scale model of a SCORE Trophy-Truck. Photo by Botello/Hopps Off-Road Photographers.

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