Motor Sports: NASCAR's Robby Gordon to race in Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250

NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Robby Gordon will spend the time off from his day job next week leading a race-record field in the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division into the 18th Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 desert race in Baja California, Mexico.

After this weekend's NASCAR Subway 400 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, Gordon will head south of the border, joining his Southern California-based Team Gordon and pre-run the desert race course in his new No. 31 Red Bull Chevy CK1500 SCORE Trophy-Truck.

Just like he faces every weekend in NASCAR, Gordon will have to contend with the world's best drivers, this time in the unforgiving desert. Instead of NASCAR Nextel Cup foes like Earnhardt Jr., J. Gordon, Kenseth, Stewart and Harvick, Gordon will face his SCORE Trophy-Truck rivals, including the teams of the Herbst brothers, Smith/Ashley, Ragland/Collins and Vildosola/MacCachren. In all, eight of the first 10 SCORE Trophy-Truck winners in San Felipe are entered this year including Gordon, who won the featured class for 750-horsepower, unlimited production trucks in 1996.

Round 2 of the five-race 2004 SCORE Desert Series will be held next Saturday (Feb. 28) in the tiny fishing village of San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico.

With over 260 entries expected to compete in 23 Pro and 5 Sportsman classes, the green flag will drop at 6 a.m. next Saturday (Feb. 28), for the motorcycle and ATV classes, followed by the car and truck classes two hours later at approximately 8:30 a.m. The start and finish line area for the 227.79 loop course will once again be the landmark San Felipe arches on Highway 5 on the outskirts of the village. All vehicles will have a nine-hour time limit in the elapsed time race and vehicles will start in 30-second intervals.

Following January's season-opening SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge, America's Foremost Desert Racing Series will visit Mexico for the first of three times in 2004.

"SCORE desert racing has been a major part of my life, and I will always find a way to fit driving at least one SCORE race a year into my busy NASCAR schedule," said Gordon, 35, who has four career race wins and the 1996 class championship in the 10-year history of the marquee SCORE Trophy-Truck division. "This will be my second SCORE race of the year and I haven't been able to run two SCORE races in the same year since I won my SCORE Trophy-Truck title in 1996. Team Gordon still has is very active in desert racing, building vehicles, and our new No. 31 Chevy CK1500, with a powerful Richard Childress Racing Chevy V8 engine, is on the cutting edge of the sport and we know it will run up front in San Felipe."

Including Gordon, 10 of the 23 SCORE Trophy-Truck entries in San Felipe have combined to win 42 of the 63 races held for these mighty monsters of the desert. Including racing in other classes, 18 of this year's SCORE Truck-Truck starting grid have combined for 47 class wins in the Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250.

The Herbst brothers, both of Las Vegas, are the all-time winningest team in SCORE Trophy-Truck history. Splitting the driving time in their No. 1 Terrible Herbst Motorsports Ford F-150, Ed, 42, and Tim, 40, have 11 career wins in SCORE Trophy-Truck, and four of the 10 season championships (1999, 2000, 2002, 2003). In San Felipe, the Herbsts have won three times in SCORE Trophy-Truck (1999, 2000, 2001).

Both from Riverside, Calif., Dan Smith and David Ashley are the second winningest team in SCORE Trophy-Truck history with nine career wins and two season titles (1998, 2001) in the No. 8 Enduro Racing Ford F-150. They also have a race-high 13 total class wins between them in the Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250. Smith has eight while Ashley has five. One of their San Felipe wins was in 2002 in the SCORE Trophy-Truck division.

Larry Ragland, Cave Creek, Ariz., and Brian Collins, of Las Vegas, share the driving time in the No. 12 Collins Motorsports Chevy Silverado. Ragland has seven career SCORE Trophy-Truck race wins while Collins has one. Counting all classes in San Felipe, Ragland and Collins have three class wins each and Ragland's win in 1995 was in SCORE Trophy-Truck. The team has also drawn the coveted first starting position among the over 200 cars and trucks entered in San Felipe.

Gus Vildosola, Mexicali, Mexico, and Rob MacCachren, of Las Vegas, are the defending SCORE Trophy-Truck and overall Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 winners in the No. 4 Vildosola Racing Ford F-150. While last year's win was Vildosola's first in the premiere SCORE racing division, it was MacCachren's fourth. Vildosola has two class wins in San Felipe.

MacCachren, the 1994 SCORE Trophy-Truck point champion, has four total class wins in San Felipe and will also be racing in Class 1-2/1600 this year in San Felipe. After winning Class 1-2/1600 in the season opener in Laughlin, MacCachren, who has seven career SCORE season class championships in five different classes, has decided to pursue another title with Las Vegas' Danny Anderson. Anderson, a two-time SCORE Class 10 season champion, will drive part of the remaining races in the MacCachren Motorsports VW-powered Fraley 1600cc open-wheeler when MacCachren is driving in Vildosola's SCORE Trophy-Truck.

Mexico's Juan Carlos Ibarra, of Ensenada, won the SCORE Trophy-Truck division in San Felipe in 1998 in the Chevy C1500 built originally by desert racing legend Roger Mears. This year Ibarra will drive the No. 32 Ibarra Racing Ford F-150.

The other previous SCORE Trophy-Truck race winners heading to San Felipe are: Mark Post, San Juan Capistrano, Calif./Jerry Whelchel, Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., with three wins in the No. 3 Riviera Racing Ford F-150 and the new team of Gary Dircks, Anthem, Ariz./Mark Porter, Cave Creek, Ariz., who earned their first win in Laughlin this year in the No. 23 Dircks and Porter Racing Ford F-150.

With 36 entries to date, the unlimited Class 1 and Class 1-2/1600 have the largest entry lists, followed Class 10 with 25, SCORE Trophy-Truck with 23 and SCORE Lite with 19.

Starting first in the motorcycle division will be the American Honda team of Steve Hengeveld, Oak Hills, Calif., and Johnny Campbell, San Clemente, Calif. With three consecutive San Felipe victories, Hengeveld and Campbell, who has six San Felipe wins including five straight, will ride the No. 1x Honda XR650R.

Pre-race festivities at the Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 will include the colorful SCORE Midway and tech inspection on the Malecon beachfront in downtown alongside the azure waters of the Sea of Cortez from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. next Friday (Feb. 27).

At 9 p.m. next Saturday (Feb. 28), the awards celebration will be held on the Malecon across from The Beachcomber Night Club.

Also next Friday (Feb. 27), at the Hotel Las Misiones, driver/rider registration will be held from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., followed at 7 p.m. by the mandatory pre-race driver/rider briefing.

SCORE official sponsors for 2004 are: BFGoodrich Tires-official tire, Southern California Ford Dealers-official vehicle, CL Bryant-official fuel supplier and Rental Service Corporation-official equipment supplier. Associate sponsors are: Tecate Beer, Coca-Cola of Mexico, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance, Fram, Autolite, Prestone, Bilstein, Signpros, P.C.I. Race Radios, McKenzie's, and Advanced Color Graphics.

Associate sponsors for the Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 are the Tourism and Convention Bureau of Mexicali/San Felipe, Cotuco, El Dorado Ranch, and Hotel Las Misiones.

The race annually provides a greater economic impact to San Felipe than the entire month-long "Spring Break."

For more information, contact SCORE at (818) 225-8402, or visit the Score-International web site.