Pierce in SCORE Trophy-Truck, Rigsby in Class 1, Pico in M/C, Greenhaw--ATV, draw pole slots for 40th Tecate SCORE Baja 500

Round 3 of five-race 2008 SCORE Desert Series
To be held May 29-June 1 in Ensenada, Mexico

LOS ANGELES—Prominent Southern California performance racing seat manufacturer Robbie Pierce, and fellow veteran desert racers Josh Rigsby, Anthony Pico and Jason Greenhaw all drew pole positions in their respective classes during Saturday’s computerized drawing for starting positions in the upcoming 40th Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 500.
Round 3 of the five-race 2008 SCORE Desert Series, the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Series, will feature over 300 entries, competing in 28 Pro and 6 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs, will be held May 29-June 1 in Ensenada, Mexico. Traditionally one of the most popular events on the SCORE schedule, over 150,000 spectators are expected to enjoy the world’s best desert racers in action at this year’s 40th anniversary of the Tecate SCORE Baja 500.
With late entries excepted up to race morning, over 300 entries are expected from 24 U.S. States, Mexico, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. The green flag will drop for the race at 6 a.m. on Saturday (May 31) for the motorcycle and ATV classes in the Tecate SCORE Baja 500, followed by the car and truck classes three hours after the last ATV at approximately 10 a.m. The final entry field is expected to be among the top 10 largest number of racers in event history.
Between them, the veteran racers who will start first in their respective divisions have an average age of 39.75 years.
Pierce, 48, of Santee, Calif., will drive the No. 35 MasterCraft Motorsports Chevy Silverado SCORE Trophy-Truck as he continues to compete in his first full season in the marquee SCORE racing division for 800-horsepower, high-tech, unlimited production trucks.
Owner of the popular MasterCraft Company of Santee, Calif. Pierce summed up the feeling off all four racers, who will each be starting first in their different classes for the first time in their careers.
“You’ve got to be kidding, I think I’ll retire a half-mile off the start line and go out on top” said Pierce, currently third in SCORE Trophy-Truck season points, after he heard the news. “It is honestly an unbelievable dream come true. First off the line for the 40th anniversary of the SCORE Baja 500 in a field that includes Robby Gordon, Rob MacCachren, Scott Steinberger and the rest of the best SCORE Trophy-Truck drivers in the universe. I think I’ll leave tomorrow and start pre-running.”
Rigsby, 37, Santa Fe, New Mexico, will start first in the unlimited Class 1 in the elapsed-time race. He is currently tied for eighth in Class 1 in a Chevy-powered Penhall open-wheel desert race car.
Pico, 38, Whittier, Calif., will lead the motorcycles into the Baja desert on a Honda CRF450X in Class 22 for open bikes. Currently listed as the only rider on his team, Pico has not yet declared if he is riding solo or not and can pick up additional riders between now and race morning.
Greenhaw, 36, Bakersfield, Calif., is leading a three-rider Class 25 ATV team on a Honda TRX450R. Splitting the riding with the eight-year veteran SCORE racer will be teammates Nick Nelson, 28, Tehachapi, Calif., and Nick Destout, 19, Oceanside, Calif.
All three overall winners from last year’s race are all entered and all three have won two consecutive years. Las Vegas’ Brian Collins, Las Vegas, returns seeking a third straight overall 4-Wheel vehicle victory with new teammate Chuck Hovey, Escondido, Calif. Collins, who drives the No. 12 Mopar Collins Motorsports Dodge Ram 1500, won the last two year with Larry Ragland as his teammate.
Returning as the two-time overall motorcycle and Class 22 champs is the team of Robby Bell, Murrieta, Calif./Kendall Norman, Santa Barbara, Calif., on the No. 1x Honda CRF450X. Back to defend their overall ATV and Class 25 victory is the team of Danny Prather, Ramona, Calif./Mike Cafro, Carlsbad, Calif., on the new No. 1a Honda TRXX700. Splitting the seat time with Prather and Cafro this year will be Chad Prull, Laveen, Ariz., and Levi Marana, Hemet, Calif.
Collins/Hovey drew the eighth starting spot in SCORE Trophy-Truck while Bell/Norman will be fourth off the line in Class 22 while Prather/Cafro/Prull/Marana will start seventh in Class 25.
As of the Start draw, the Pro 4-Wheel vehicles classes with the most entries are: Class 1 (23), SCORE Trophy-Truck (22), SCORE Lite (15), Class 1-2/1600 (12) and Class 5/1600 (11).
Leading the Motorcycle classes in entries so far are Class 22 (15) and Class 30 (11).
Class 24 leads the ATV classes with nine entries to date.
Among the Sportsman classes, SPT Motorcycles over 250cc has 25 entries and SPT Motorcycles under 250cc has 10.
Drawing the first start in SCORE Lite was Brian Burgess, Riverside, Calif., in a Moulton-VW, while on the pole in Class 1-2/1600 will be twin brothers Arturo and Abel Velazco, Banning, Calif., in a Porter-VW. First off in Class 5/1600 will be the team lead by Gustavo Avina, Ensenada, Mexico, in a 1600cc VW Baja Bug.
Leading Class 30 (motorcycle riders over 30 years old) to the starting line will be the team led by Chad Erl, Huntington Beach, Calif.
First off in Class 24 will be Kyle Needham, Truckee, Calif., on a Yamaha.
Among the other early entries is venerable veteran Rod Hall, Reno, Nev., who has entered the Stock Mini class in a Hummer H3. Hall, 70, is tied for first with 17 class wins in the Tecate SCORE Baja 500. Hall’s son Josh and Chad will driver separate Hummers in the Stock Full class. Josh will drive a Hummer H2SUT and Chad will drive a Hummer H3Alpha.
Several crossover/celebrity racers are already entered in this year’s race, led by NASCAR’s Robby Gordon. A second generation desert racer, Gordon, who has won this race three times, is a NASCAR Team Owner/Driver and is entered in SCORE Trophy-Truck in the No. 77 Chevy CK1500.
Germany’s Armin Schwarz, whose World Rally Championship career saw 119 starts, won Class 1 in this year’s Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 with Martin Christensen, Escondido, Calif. and are currently fourth in Class 1 points in a Jimco-BMW. Making his SCORE race debut in Jimco-Chevy in this race will be German Rally ace Armin Kremer.
Two celebrity drivers who are all SCORE regulars are SCORE Trophy-Truck drivers Cameron Steele and Jesse James.
Steele, San Clemente, Calif., is a TV sports announcer for Supercross and X Games and until the IndyCar merger this year was a Champ Car pit reporter. The Steele family and Desert Assassins race team drew three of a kind for this race as three family members each received the second starting position in their respective classes. Cameron will drive the No. 16 GMC Sierra in SCORE Trophy-Truck, while his wife Heidi will drive a Ford Ranger in Class 7SX and his younger brother Grant will ride a Honda CRF450X in Class 22.
James, whose wife is legendary motion picture star Sandra Bullock, lives in Sunset Beach, Calif., owns the world-famous West Cost Choppers company and was the star of the old Monster Garage television series. He will drive the No. 54 Chevy Silverado.
Debuting her new race team in SCORE Lite will be prominent Automotive journalist Barbara Terry, Clover, South Carolina, who will be the driver of record in a Bunderson-VW for this race and the season-ending Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 in November.
The 2008 SCORE Desert Series also includes the chase for the $20,000 Volkswagen Point Leader Bonus and the run for the Toyota Milestone Awards.
Current SCORE official annual sponsors are: BFGoodrich Tires-official tire, Sunoco Race Fuels/Bryant Petroleum-official fuel supplier, Bilstein-official shock, Volkswagen of America-official vehicle, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance-official Mexican auto insurance, Slime-official tire sealant, Red Bull--official energy drink and Bosch Power Tools-official power tool. Associate sponsors are: Tecate Beer, Coca-Cola of Mexico, Las Vegas Events, Terrible Herbst Inc., Blue C Enthusiast Advertising, Kartek Off-Road, American Suzuki, SignPros, P.C.I. Race Radios, McKenzie’s Performance Products and Advanced Color Graphics.
For more information regarding the series, contact SCORE at its Los Angeles headquarters 818.225.8402 or visit the official website of the SCORE Desert Series at http://www.score-international.com/

40th Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 500
May 29-June 1, 2008--Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
Total Entries: 227 (as of 4/19/07)
(24 States; Mexico, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan)

Pro Cars & Trucks
SCORE TROPHY-TRUCK (22)
35 Robbie Pierce
16 Cameron Steele
1 Mark Post
39 Ron Whitton
4 Gus Vildosola
97 B.J. Baldwin
2 Pete Sohren
12 Brian Collins
33 Chad Ragland
8 Roger Norman
28 Alan Pflueger
96 Bobby Baldwin
22 Damen Jefferies
54 Jesse James
38 Garron Cadiente
84 Nick Vanderwey
7 Scott Steinberger
34 Danny Sullivan
77 Robby Gordon
71 Rick D. Johnson
60 Mike Voudouris
50 Jason McNeil
CLASS 1 (23)
101 Josh Rigsby
100 Bill Gasper
103 Enrique Bujanda
104 Paul Keller
105 Jeff Farris
106 Chuck Dempsey
107 Pat Dean
108 Armin Schwarz
109 Luis Ramirez Jr.
110 B.J. Richardson
111 Dale Lenk
112 Ryan Sharman
113 Eric Chase
114 Mike Voyles
115 Robert Ross
116 Rob Bruce
117 Will Higman
118 Lobsam Yee
119 Ron Brant
120 Brian Parkhouse
121 Armin Kremer
122 Rick Ellison
123 Dale Ebberts
CLASS 1-2/1600 (12)
1601 Arturo Velazco
1602 Adam Pfankuch
1600 David Caspino
1604 Roman Pereyra
1605 Edgar Alvarez Jr.
1606 Cory Boyer
1607 Viry Felix
1608 Max Hanberg
1609 Arnoldo Ramirez
1647 Eliseo Garcia
1648 Josue Delgado
1649 Juan Gallo
CLASS 3 (1)
301 Donald Moss
CLASS 5 (3)
501 Kevin Carr
502 George Seeley
519 Carlos Albanez
CLASS 5/1600 (11)
551 Gustavo Avina
552 Ernie Negrete
550 Mario Reynoso
554 Rubern Gutierrez Jr.
555 Tommy Craft
556 Alonso Angulo
575 Javier Morales
576 Saul Garcia
577 Marcos Nunez
578 Omar Nunez
579 Jose Montoya
CLASS 7 (3)
701 Brandon Walsh
700 Dan Chamlee
719 Rick Battey
CLASS 7S (0)
CLASS 7SX (4)
740 Rich Severson
741 Heidi Steele
758 John Holmes
759 Jeff Fuller
CLASS 8 (1)
801 Noah Ostanik
CLASS 9 (0)
CLASS 10 (6)
1001 Mark Hutchins
1002 Mike Lawrence
1003 Brendan Fikes
1004 Alex Crostwaithe
1005 Tito Robles
1006 Will Higman
SCORE LITE (15)
1201 Brian Burgess
1202 Tim Pangborn
1203 Jake Jones
1204 Gary Johnson
1205 Luis Barragan
1206 Perry McNeil
1207 John Padgett
1208 Bill Hernquist
1209 Barbara Terry
1210 Steve Mamer
1211 Aaron Payne
1212 Rick St. John
1213 David Callaway
1214 Ricardo Malo
1215 Lee Banning
CLASS 11 (5)
1101 Eric Solorzano
1102 Ernesto Martinez Jr.
1103 Neri Sanchez
1148 Carlos Villa
1149 John Ledyard
STOCK FULL (5)
861 Josh Hall
862 Chad Hall
863 Pedro Vargas
864 Kent Kroeker
879 Clyde Stacy
STOCK MINI (2)
760 Rod Hall
779 Gavin Skilton
PROTRUCK (4)
250 Gary Magness
203 Dave Creagan
234 Rob Reinertson
240 Rob Kittleson

PRO MOTORCYCLES
CLASS 22 (15)
2x Anthony Pico
3x Grant Steele
4x Jimmy Roberts
1x Robby Bell
6x Cory Brewer
7x Jesse Sharpe
8x Ryan Penhall
9x Cory Evenson
10x Michael Gordon
11x Nick Blais
12x Nick Saia
13x Caleb Goselear
14x Keith Webster
15x Terence Montelongo
49x Daniel Allford
CLASS 20 (3)
151x Chad Black
152x Larry Perkins
179x Anna Cody
CLASS 21 (4)
101x Robert Gustine
102x Jonah Street
103x Edy Garcia
104x Bernard Bohner
CLASS 30 (11)
301x Chad Erl
302x Chris Parker
303x Scott Myers
304x Dennis Green
305x Ricardo De La Pena
300x Jim O’Neal
307x Matt Reynolds
308x Joey Mayortena
309x Javier Hernandez
310x Mike Johnson
311x Jamey Kabish
CLASS 40 (4)
400x Brett Helm
401x Stuart Goggins
402x Kevin Newton
449x Todd Winslow
CLASS 50 (6)
501x Jaime De La Torre
502x Eizaburo Karasawa
500x Jim O’Neal
504x Charles Marshall
505x Kenny Hayden
506x Lyman Scherer
CLASS 60 (1)
600x Don Lewis

PRO ATVs
CLASS 25 (8)
2a Jason Greenhaw
3a Wayne Matlock
4a Javier Robles
5a Reid Rutherford
6a Max Hernandez
7a Stefano Caputo
1a Danny Prather
9a Travis Dillon
CLASS 24 (9)
101a Kyle Needham
102a Craig Christy
103a Benjamin Lopez Jr.
104a Ray Fay III
105a Javier Beltran
106a Francisco Servin
107a Carl Penny
108a Rodrigo Gonzalez Jr.
149a Luis Berumen

SPORTSMAN
SPT CAR (2)
1401 Wendell Mortensen
1400 Peter Lang
SPT TRUCK (1)
1501 Bob Land
SPT UTV (3)
1800 Thomas Graves
1801 Mark Page
1819 Mark Lindsay
SPT M/C< (10)
201x Tony Gurule
202x Glen McGuire
203x Anthony Arballo
204x Nemrod Bracamontes
205x Todd Goetze
206x Fred Sobke
207x Matt Ladendorf
208x Trisha West
209x Marco Bernaldez
210x Scott Anderson
SPT M/C> (25)
251x Hiroshi Hirakawa
252x Chad Thornton
253x Thomas Cushman
254x Andy Padulo
255x Adam Neuwirth
256x Carlos Becerril
257x Masaaki Senoo
258x Andrew Hursh
259x John Crowley
260x David Rentfro
261x Pat Moore
262x Gary Sparks
263x Thierry Mas
264x Bryce Wright
265x Craig Anstine
266x Kazuhiro Nakamur
267x Jason Scherer
268x Jorge Rivas
269x Brent Deaton
270x Jeb Avery
271x Bill Gilbert
272x Andrew Gutierrez
273x Randy Roy
274x Bryan Slaughter
299x Jeff Leonard
SPT ATV (8)
51a Luciano Felix
52a Daniel Montana
53a Julio Gomez
54a Flavio Perez Jr.
55a Charles Barfield
56a Ken Lehmann
57a Derek Christina
58a Alan Wahlstrom

Cherry 350z Racer for sale

From a friend.

http://www.race-cars.com/carsales/other/1208472164/1208472164ss.htm
and
http://www.racecarmagazine.com/ForSale/AdDetails.asp?Ad_ID=7932&Ad=Nissan-350Z-NASA-PTB

1808 Race Report

At 6am on Wednesday the 16th, with my parents in tow we headed for the Terrible's 250 in prim. As I left the house a funny feeling rolled through my body like I was forgetting something, I wouldn't figure that one out until much later.
The adventure in spending money didn't take long to start. Within 75 miles from home I started seeing people honking at me and pointing, turns out it wasn't my cool truck they were pointing at it was one of the tires on my trailer that was flat. By the time I found a safe place to pull off on I-580 all that was left was two side walls that barely protected the lip of the rim and tire dust up the side of my freshly waxed, soon to be trashed, race truck.

By this time (7am) Wendy (my wife) was busy back home on the computer finding out (a) exactly where we were and (b) where the closest tire shop was. Bingo we found a Big O not one mile from the exit ramp I pulled off on, bongo they don't open till 8:00. By 8:30 and $400 less dollars in the race budget We were on the road again with 4 fresh tires and Mc D's in our belly's.

Ten hours later we all arrived in Primm, check in was smooth, rooms were clean, we set up a meeting place and I headed for the shower. Once I got out of the shower I had a little surprise. I had no cloths. I packed everything but my cloths. There was my race suit, nomex sox, gloves, helmet etc but no fresh underwear. Drrrrr. Lucky me there is a fashion outlet mall in my hotel so off to GAP I went. Sweet I found a clearance rack where everything was marked down to regular retail prices, $50 more race budget money gone for socks, undies and shorts. Good thing Wendy's scheduled to arrive on Friday, sucked for her because she had twice the luggage to fly with now.

In my new duds I headed out to find Aaron and Jim with Dixon Bro's Racing. I was looking forward to showing Aaron my fancy new roll cage I had built in the last three weeks. Aaron is a master fabricator and an amazing race truck builder. Upon finding them and seeing his sweet 7100 Ford I realized I had a lot to learn about lay out and design. As usual what I think I know hurts me (like my seat hight in relation to one of my top bars, safe but a dinger on off camber right-turn woops I would soon find out). Aaron did a quick inspection of my truck and pointed out about 30 things I didn't need and shouldn't have in my race truck, like say..... the dash with a stereo in it ( I was still planning on keeping this street legal, WAS). It was a great learning experience for me because working on my own truck gave me perspective on how much knowledge people like Aaron have and how generous they are with that information. So thanks Aaron for everything. If you think something is cool and some
one that has raced before just looks at you blankly..... tear whatever it is out!

Woke up on Thursday to the alarm at 6am. Walked down the hall and knocked on my Dad's door and off we went to air up the shocks and do the final prep for the Pre run. Some time the night before my co driver left San Diego but arrived too late for the pre run so I needed to find another co-driver. One of the members of the Dixon crew is Ed Ramirez , he and his brother Phil have been racing with the Dixons for over 10 years and Ed had agreed to ride with me for the day. We put our helmets on and plugged the air and intercom in and took off. Ed was giving me pointers on what lines to pick and how to brake into corners on dirt etc. when we heard a bit of a sound coming from the rear. We stopped and pulled over to take a look. I had kept the stock drive shaft in which in the 94 Toyota 4x4's are a split shaft with a carrier bearing in the middle, well that bearing was no where to be seen which meant if we kept driving the bearing race would eventually cut the shaft in half. Out came the
tools and we took the drive shaft out, bummer was that we could not get the bolts out of the flange that connected to the third member so we slid the shaft off the splines, stuffed rocks into the U-joint to keep it from flopping around then wrapped that ghetto fix with electrical tape.

This is when we noticed something bad, fluid coming from the front. We popped the hood pins and found that the battery box had broken free and the whole works had acted like a wrecking ball under the hood. We grabbed a ratchet strap and fixed the battery in place, taped up the severed electrical wires, spliced the important ones together, found someone to pull- start us and we limped back to the main pit. In that time I had placed a call to my co-driver (Micha (hater) Newton) and informed him what was happening.

By the time we arrived back at the main Hater (Micah) had shown up and had found most of the parts we would need to fix the truck. Without shutting the truck down we loaded onto the trailer and headed for Henderson. There we found Pep Boys for the Alternator and Battery. Napa for the 40' of 1guage wire to re- locate the battery to the bed. The coolest guys at Nevada House of Hose who's motto is " Happiness is a good hose job" who fixed the power steering. Finally to aDAMs (thats how it's spelt) drive line where they dropped everything and not only fixed the drive shaft but modified a stronger Ford Carrier bearing to work for racing. All said and done we were loaded up and fully operational by 5pm and $375. Pretty sweet. Getting back to the pit with the truck we (Aaron and Phil) discovered that the crush sleeve in the third member was messed up so they crawled under and fixed that, then tuned my shocks, I just watched trying to learn what the heck they were doing.

Tech inspection was uneventful other than the double D rings I needed for my shoulder belts and the sun burn.

Start time 4:45am Saturday the 19th. Early. Having learned a lot about what tools I didn't have the day before the truck was now well equipped. Another Rookie mistake, two Starbucks coffee's before the start. Stupid with out a pee kit. Micah and I just sat around talking smack about.... well everything in our new helmets through our new intercom, listening to radio jibber jabber through our new radio sitting in our new seats with pressure building in my ever expanding bladder.

Sweet we have the first start position. We start.Trucks running great, suspension is working great, engine is strong and we were flying. Mile 2 GPS dies. Oh well, we call in for a course map. The first 38 miles we averaged 54 miles per hour according to IRC (the GPS tracking / safety device mandatory in all BITD race vehicles) the truck was great. Slowly the steering was growing heavier but I thought it was just because of the heat. Turns out he mount we had made for the reservoir was not strong enough so it flopped around until all the lines were empty. Oh well keep flying at about 40 mph getting bigger biceps by the bump, its all good. Rolling up to pit 1 Ed Ramirez hands us a course map and there goes our competition. We give chase.

Inspired by a Rod Hall Hummer branding a class 1800 number Micah and I found new speed in the Toy right up until we noticed the hood had a little extra movement in it and the hood pins seemed to be rattling freely in there little holes, "F' it", "if she goes, she goes". We make the pass on some of the gnarliest woops ever. The TC Suspension was eating them up. We come to a sharp right turn and bam there goes the hood accept one pin wouldn't let go, we make our second stop, attempt to strap it down and start the Hummer chase all over again.

Passing the start/finish line they watered the crap out of the area so it was this big slick muddy section, we radio up that we may have a flat. It was so slick that my rear end was all over the place. We pull into the Main pit to fuel up and we got to see my gorgeous wife, frantic Mom and determined-to-get-gas-in-truck Father. It was awesome. The pit crew next to us was adding power steering fluid, cleaning the windshield, zip-tying fenders etc. all at an awesome pace. Off we go again.

Micah calling out mile markers, Andrea (Phil and Ed's Mom) saying copy, me hanging onto the now stiff steering wheel again. It was so awesome, flying. sometimes literally. We nailed a rock with the front passenger which in turn ripped the wheel from my hand and broke the pinky on my left hand, that didn't help the no power steering but I noticed that when I was in the groove, not much matters. It was incredible.

Around mile 127 the truck just died. Intake. five times this happened. Despite my balking Micah finally used about a 3/4 roll of duct tape on the entire assembly which fixed it. We lost an hour but we were back to flying around the course again calling out mile markers. By this time Aaron and Phil had just lapped us which never feels good but it was cool to see his truck working so well.

We got to the finish line. Turns out everyone was betting on which lap we were going to be out of the race. No faith I tell ya. Actually I was quite surprised my self to not just finish but to place second. Once getting out of the truck we saw that we had lost one of the bed sides and broke many other (fixable) things on the truck. I felt so proud that we finished it. My Dad ran up and hugged me, mom was close behind him, then Wendy, all the Dixon guys were there. It was awesome. I couldn't think of a better weekend other than my wedding and honeymoon. I cant wait to get my truck in the shop and cut the front off and install the new Tundra clip and cage, cut the back off and install the Total Chaos 4-links and get out and race again.

Tires-$400, replacement parts $375, gas $570, hotel $185, adventure of a lifetime with my family........ Priceless.

Will I do it again? Definitely