The winning 2010 Baja 500 McMillin truckThe 42nd annual Tecate SCORE Baja 500 attracted a record 41 Trophy Trucks to Ensenada. Most of the big names in off-road racing have long ago switched from the open buggies to the 800 horsepower Trophy Trucks, even in these challenging economic times. And the Trophy Truck lineup reads like a Who’s Who of desert racing — Robby Gordon , Larry Roeseler and co-driver/owner Roger Norman, the father-son team of Andy and Scott plus Mark McMillin in a second entry, Rob MacCachren, BJ Balwin and father Bobby, and the Las Vegas multi-truck team of Tim and Troy Herbst. Almost 300 motorcycles and vehicles were entered in off-road racing’s second-oldest event, which also represented the midpoint of the SCORE season.
The son-father team of Andy and Scott McMillin won the overall four-wheel title. The McMillin’s Ford F-150 Trophy Truck finished the 438.8-mile course, which started and finished in Ensenada, in 9 hours, 15 minutes and 13 seconds for an average speed of 47.20 mph. Andy and Scott also teamed to win last November’s Baja 1000. It was the third win in the past four SCORE races for 23-year-old National City, California’s Andy, who won the season-opening SCORE Laughlin Challenge driving solo. It was the second Baja 500 class win for Scott and Andy as a team. Scott McMillin, 50, claimed his third Baja 500 overall win and sixth Baja 500 class win. He previously won the overall title in 1983 and 1986 while co-driving with his late father, Corky McMillin. Andy drove the first half of the race and Scott drove the return leg to Ensenada. Scott pulled away from his closest pursuers over the final 150 miles and won by seven minutes and one second over Baja's Gus Vildosola Jr. of Mexicali.
The speeds were lower this year on the boulder-strewn course. The unusually wet northern Baja winter made the course rugged and rough and very technical and challenging for the competitors. But 192 of the 289 starters finished — the 66.4 percent finish rate being the fourth-highest in history.
Economically the event was a far better influence on local businesses than previous Baja races this past year. The competitors were spread evenly between the two extremes of the Ensenada area. The Coral Hotel and Marina had a large contingency of teams staging their race effort, and the San Nicolas Hotel hosted a gathering of racers as well as the Estero Beach Hotel to the south. Each team brought a large group of support vehicles and participants – the guys that do the dirty work that win races here in Baja. The McMillin team entered 4 vehicles in various classes, a family affair for that race group. The team pre-ran the course 3 times prior to the race, marking all the difficult parts of the course in their GPS units. “We’re starting to click as a team and I think we’re the team to beat if we’re having a good day — and we’ve been having a lot of good days lately,” Andy McMillin said.
In Memory of Steve McQueen
Angling is extremely time consuming. That's sort of the whole point.
Thomas McGuane
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