Alan Ampudia overcame an uber battle at the front of the King Shocks SCORE San Felipe field to claim his second consecutive victory at the popular series opener. The 2024 SCORE Trophy Truck series champion needed all his skill plus a fast tire change in the last section of race course to bring his No. 1 all-wheel drive Mason Motorsports Ford to victory over rival Luke McMillin.
Twenty-five-year-old Brock Heger of El Centro, California took yet another overall and class UTV victory in his Polaris RZR, extending a streak of major international race victories that includes the 2024 Baja 1000, the Dakar Rally, two wins at the King of the Hammers and the recent BFGoodrich Mint 400.
Ampudia, 34, from Ensenada, Baja, Mexico needed just 3h55m13s to navigate the rough seaside 250.06-mile San Felipe course, good for an average speed of 63.77 miles per hour. The Team Papas and Beer/Monster Energy backed driver topped a total of 251 teams hailing from the United States, the host country Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, India, Argentina, Australia, France, and New Zealand. Officially 191 teams made the checkered flag under the time limit, resulting in an impressive 76 percent finishing rate.
“That was insane. We had an all-day battle with Tavo (Vildosola), then Luke (McMillin) caught us in the pits,” said Ampudia after the race. “I knew we just had to stay in his (Luke’s) dust. Then he got a flat and I thought I was going to pass him, but then I messed up on a rock and had to back up. He re-racked and pulled out right in front of us. Luke got 30 to 40 seconds ahead. Then we clipped a rock and exploded another tire. I thought that was going to be the race but then we got to the corner, and he was changing a flat too.”
McMillin, 32, of San Diego, Calif., finished just 48 seconds behind Ampudia on corrected time. It was a one-two finish for Monster Energy, which also backs McMillin’s No. 83 Chevy 1500 Mason Motorsports AWD. Another 11 seconds back came Rob MacCachren, finishing third overall in his No. 11 Fastball Racing Jimco Chevrolet Silverado. MacCachren’s performance marked the highest finish for the recently upgraded Jimco AWD, breaking a Mason Motorsports stranglehold on the Trophy-Truck categories. Mason-built trucks accounted for nine of the top 10 finishes at San Felipe.
Australians Toby Price and Paul Weel combined to put in a hard charge from the 26th starting position after a serpentine belt failure in qualifying. They finished just 11 minutes behind MacCachren to take fourth overall, with the team of Kevin Thompson/Harley Letner coming home 98 seconds later to claim fifth.
The top five finishers were separated by just less than three minutes.
Cameron Steele became the first racer to win SCORE’s new Trophy Truck 2WD class in his Geiser–built Ford. The popular television personality took 4h18m02s to complete the run, beating Chad Broughton in second and desert racing veteran Tim Herbst in third.
A very close and competitive field in the growing SCORE Trophy Spec class was won by Jorge Sampietro of Ensenada, Baja California. Sampietro’s time of 4h 14m 20s in a Mason Chevrolet was faster than Steele’s time in a lower horsepower truck.
Motorcycle legend Ricky Johnson and race Grand Marshal made it 13 in a row for their No. 1L Mason Motorsports truck in the SCORE Trophy-Truck Legends class (for drivers over 50), finishing ninth overall.
The largest UTV field in SCORE history came to San Felipe, with a total of 91 UTV racers in five classes. The record high entry count failed to stop Brock Heger’s historical run of wins, however, claiming the Pro UTV Open class as part of the Polaris factory team/SCI Motorsports team. Overcoming a setback of getting two flat tires at once (the car only carries one spare), Heger charged back to capture the checkered flag in 4h37m47s in the No. 1896 Polaris RZR Pro R Factory over another Polaris driven by Brandon Sims. Heger’s time was good enough to post the race’s 22nd fastest overall time.
“It was crazy racing with the Spec (Trophy) Trucks at the end. We were getting dicey, and time was close for a little bit, so we just sent it,” said Heger. “At the end it pretty much blew up so the last few miles we could only go five miles an hour. So, it feels damn good to be here.”
The No. 7X Honda CRF450X of Tyler Lynn, Carter Klein and Ryan Surratt took the overall win in the SCORE Motorcycle categories. It was Honda’s 25th overall SCORE San Felipe victory.
SCORE SAN FELIPE TOP OVERALL FINISHERS
Pro Cars &Trucks
Top 20 Overall Trucks & Cars
1. 1 Alan Ampudia, 34, Ensenada, Mexico, Ford Raptor (Mason) 3h 55m 13s (63.77 mph) (SCORE Trophy Truck)
2. 83 Luke McMillin, 32, San Diego, Chevy 1500 (Mason) 3h 56m 02s (63.55 mph) (SCORE Trophy Truck)
3. 11 Rob MacCachren, 60, Las Vegas/Rafael Navarro IV, 31, Ensenada, Mexico, Chevy Silverado (Jimco) 3h 56m 13s (63.59 mph) (SCORE Trophy Truck)
4. 46 Toby Price, 37, Australia/Paul Weel, 45, Australia, Chevy Silverado 3h 56m 25s (63.45 mph) (Mason)
5. 70 Kevin Thompson, 51, New Braunfels, Texas/Harley Letner, 40, Corona, Calif., Ford Raptor (Mason) 3h 58m 03s (63.01 mph) (SCORE Trophy Truck)
6. 21 Gustavo Vildosola Jr, 43, Mexicali, Mexico, Ford Raptor (Mason) 4h 01m 36s (62.08 mph) (SCORE Trophy Truck)
7. 41 Justin Lofton, 38, Lockney, Texas (Brawley, Calif.), Chevy 1500 (Mason) 4h 01m 46s (62.04 mph) (SCORE Trophy Truck)
8. 7 Bryce Menzies, 37, Las Vegas, Ford Raptor (Mason) 4h 04m 29s (61.36 mph) (SCORE Trophy Truck)
9. 1L Gustavo Vildosola Sr, 71, Mexicali, Mexico/Ricky Johnson, 60, El Cajon, Calif., Ford Raptor (Mason) 4h 10m 54s (59.80 mph) (SCORE Trophy Truck Legend)
10. 297 Jorge Sampietro, 34, Ensenada, Mexico/Miguel Castelan, 34, Ensenada, Mexico, Mason-Chevy 4h 14m 21s (58.98 mph) (Trophy Truck Spec)
11. 16T Cameron Steele, 57, San Clemente, Calif., Ford F-150 (Geiser) 4h 18m 02s (58.13 mph) (SCORE Trophy Truck 2WD)
12. 285 Justin Davis, 31, Chino Hills, Calif./Troy Holes, 50, Victorville, Calif., TSCO-Chevy 4h 18m 16s (58.08 mph) (Trophy Truck Spec)
13. 264 Arnoldo Gutierrez Jr, 36, Mexicali, Mexico/Edgar Sotelo, 29, Mexicali, Mexico, TSCO-Chevy 4h 19m 59s (57.71 mph) (Trophy Truck Spec)
14. 242 Bryce Swaim, 37, El Cajon, Calif./Josh Burrows, 36, Ramona, Calif./Ronnie Swaim, 66, El Cajon, Calif., TSCO-Ford 4h 22m 11s (57.23 mph) (Trophy Truck Spec)
15. 2T Chad Broughton, 29, Lompico, Calif./Paul Broughton, 58, Scotts Valley, Calif., Chevy Silverado (Geiser) 4h 23m 34s (56.91 mph) (SCORE Trophy Truck 2WD)
16. 246 Ben Hagle, 35, Somis, Calif./Ruben Garcia, 65, San Felipe, Mexico, Alumi Craft-Chevy 4h 29m 09s (55.74 mph) (Trophy Truck Spec)
17. 168 Adam Pfankuch, 43, Carlsbad, Calif./(DOR-Cody Reid, 32, Apple Valley, Calif.), Alumi Craft-Chevy 4h 29m 50s (55.60 mph) (Class 1)
18. 214 Sean Geiser, 34, Phoenix/Stephen Beal, 53, Ford Davis, Texas/Jared Lubeck, 34, Phoenix/Preston Schmidt, 41, Phoenix, Geiser-Chevy 4h 30m 34s (55.45 mph) (Trophy Truck Spec)
19. 19T Tim Herbst, 61, Las Vegas, Ford Raptor (1 Nine Industries) 4h 30m 46s (55.40 mph) (SCORE Trophy Truck 2WD)
20. 42T Mavrick Gaunt, 30, Torrance, Calif./Chasen Gaunt, 27, Torrance, Calif., Chevy Silverado (Geiser) 4h 35m 21s (54.49 mph) (SCORE Trophy Truck 2WD)
