Motor Sports: Happy Birthday SCORE International

SCORE International, which produces and sanctions the six-race SCORE Desert Series in the U.S. and Mexico, is having it's 30th birthday. Next weekend in Ensenada, the historic Tecate SCORE Baja 500 will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the first SCORE desert race ever held in Mexico.

SCORE launched its venerable, long-standing tenure in Baja California, Mexico, on July 26, 1974, with an open desert race in Ensenada called the SCORE Baja Internacional. This popular race, now held regularly the first weekend in June, has become the SCORE Baja 500. It will be held for the 35th time this year. (It was produced from 1969 through 1974 by the old NORRA racing organization).

Started in 1973, when it was founded by the late Mickey Thompson, SCORE continues today under the direction of Sal Fish as the world's leading sanctioning body in the sport of desert racing and is most famous for its flagship event -- the legendary Tecate SCORE Baja 1000.

Founder Mickey Thompson recruited Sal Fish, then the publisher of Hot Rod Magazine, to be president of SCORE. Fish unofficially started in early 1974 and officially became SCORE president on Dec. 1, 1974. Fish began to develop the Riverside event, and began to expand the venues for SCORE desert races throughout Baja California and the Southwest U.S. Fish was a consultant to Thompson at the first SCORE race in Mexico.

When final pre-race registration is complete, over 260 entries, from 15 U.S. states, Canada, France, Japan and Mexico, competing in 24 Pro and five Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs, are expected to take the green flag.

Attempting to cover a 452.93-mile race course, motorcycle/ATV classes will be first off the starting line at 6 a.m., followed two hours later by the car/truck classes. In the elapsed-time race, vehicles will leave the start line adjacent to the Riviera del Pacifico convention center in downtown Ensenada, one every 30-seconds. There will be an 18-hour time limit to be an official finisher in the event.

"SCORE is a lifestyle for me and producing races in Baja California has been an unbelievable experience for 30 years," said Fish, who turned 64 on May 2, of his passionate three-decades at the helm of SCORE. "With all of the rain that Baja has had, we were able to design a race course this year that gives racers the opportunity to enjoy the majestic beauty of Baja while helping maintain the fragile ecology of the peninsula. It is greener in Baja than I have seen in the last 15 years."

A lot has changed since those early days in the back rooms at the "speed king's" shop in Wilmington, Calif., when Thompson dreamed of bringing the excitement of desert racing to the masses and his newly hired assistant, Sal Fish, saw a major motorsport in the offing. A recreation activity has blossomed into a motorsport that has developed an international cache, a dedicated and fast-growing television audience.

SCORE continues to set the standard for the sport and while there exists today a couple of other professional desert racing groups and several club organizations, it is the rule book designed and maintained by SCORE International which remains the ultimate guide for the sport.

SCORE was officially launched with a short course race at the old Riverside International Raceway in California in October of 1973. The race at Riverside, which came under Fish's stewardship within two years, became world famous itself as the SCORE World Championship. It was held before massive crowds until the raceway shut down in 1988.

For seven years (1985-1991) SCORE ran a combined desert series of eight events with the now-defunct High Desert Racing Association (HDRA) of Las Vegas. SCORE acquired HDRA prior to the 1993 season and in 2003 the series feature three races in Southern Nevada and three in Baja California, Mexico.

The late Mickey Thompson was part of SCORE (although behind the scenes) until he sold his interest to Fish and Ted Johnson on December 23, 1986.

Fish is CEO and President of SCORE while recently-retired Johnson is CFO emeritus and Sue Johnson, Ted Johnson's daughter, is the SCORE administrative office manager. The two provide the nucleus for the Los Angeles-based racing organization that employs as many as 300 dedicated race personnel on an event-by-event basis.

The long path that took Sal Fish, 64, to the CEO position of SCORE International and the top of the desert sport began on May 2, 1939 when he was born in Los Angeles. Educated in parochial schools - Transfiguration Grammar School and Loyola High School, where he was class president for three years -- and earned an industrial relations degree at the University of San Francisco.

After graduation, waiting for an army induction that didn't happen and not ready to start a mainline career, Fish began working in his father's auto repair business. He attended Rochester carburetor school, General Motors transmission school and Bendix brake school and was managing the family business in 1966 when he decided to take a job selling advertising for Petersen Publishing Company.

That job led him to the publisher's office. In 1970, Fish was travelling the country attending races for Hot Rod Magazine when he met VW aftermarket parts manufacturer Joe Vittone, who eventually talked him into driving an off road race in Baja California.

The rest, as they say, is history, as Fish met the legendary Mickey Thompson who brought him into the SCORE family.

SCORE races offer 17 pro and 2 sportsman classes for cars and trucks in the United States and 7 pro and 3 sportsman classes for motorcycles and ATVs for events held in Mexico.

The SCORE racing season begins in mid-January and continues through mid-November with the legendary season-ending Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 desert race.

Long-time key support personnel include Oscar Ramos-SCORE's liaison to Mexico, technical director Bill Savage, contingency directors Charlie and Linda Engelbart, start/finish director George Hinton, SCORE Officials Association director Bill Wick, medical director Dr. Dale Carison, rescue director Rod Gamble and the timing and scoring team of Jim and Wanda Russell, Carl and Mendy Jackson, and start/finish administrators Teri Rodriguez and Mary Rodriguez.

The SCORE race operations crew includes John and Lucy Ving. The SCORE tech inspection team includes Art Savedra and Red Longacre.

Image Media of Las Vegas has been involved with SCORE in various capacities since 1985 and since 1997 has exclusively handled its media relations as well as producing the SCORE Race Day souvenir programs.

The year of 2003 marks another benchmark year for SCORE International as the Laughlin Visitors Bureau, in association with the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority and Las Vegas Events, began it's ninth year with a marketing agreement with Laughlin, Nev., as the title sponsor of the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge, a new three-year agreement with Henderson, Nev., as the co-title sponsor of the new SCORE Henderson's Terrible 250 (started in 2002) and a continuing marketing agreement with the LVCVA and LVE for the 8th SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300. The three events comprise the new SCORE Triple Crown of Southern Nevada.

Pre-race festivities for the 35th Tecate SCORE Baja 500 will center around the Riviera del Pacifico convention center in downtown Ensenada on Friday, May 30. The race will start on the boulevard adjacent to the Riviera del Pacifico and finish on the Northeast outskirts of town at the end of Avenida Ruiz.

Traditionally drawing thousands of spectators, the pre-race Manufacturer's Midway and display off all the race vehicles will be held adjacent to the San Nicolas Hotel, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, May 30. The post-race awards celebration will be held at the Riviera del Pacifico on Sunday, June 1 at 10 a.m.

SCORE official sponsors for 2003 are: BFGoodrich Tires-official tire, Southern California Ford Dealers-official vehicle, 76 Racing Fuel-official fuel and Rental Service Corporation-official equipment supplier. Associate sponsors are: Tecate Beer, Coca Cola of Mexico, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance, Bilstein Shocks, Downey Off-Road, Signpros, P.C.I. Race Radios, McKenzie's, Rancho, Off-Road Innovations and Advanced Color Graphics.

Additional associate sponsors for both the Tecate SCORE Baja 500 and November's 36th Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 are Cotuco and Fondo Mixto Turistica de Ensenada.

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