ENSENADA, Mexico – Rob MacCachren added another amazing accomplishment to his Hall of Fame record Saturday, overcoming a field of 259 starters and a rugged race course to capture the Overall and SCORE Trophy Truck victory in the BFGoodrich Tires 54th SCORE Baja 500, presented by 4 Wheel Parts.
MacCachren worked his way to the front of the field in his No. 1 Ford F-150 to an admirable error-free, penalty free winning time of nine hours, 22 minutes and 47 seconds with an average speed of 49.37 miles per hour over the gut-wrenching 463.12-mile course.
“It was a good day. We started out on our pace,” MacCachren said. “The three all-wheel-drives in front of us were pulling away a little bit at a time. When Bryce (Menzies) lost a motor, that put us third on the road to the bottom of the Summit. It is an unbelievable pass; it takes probably 20 minutes to get down it. It is awesome. Half way down we caught up to (Mike) Walser but then he took off again. But then he got a flat and we started hauling ass knowing Luke (McMillin) was ten minutes ahead of us. I couldn’t see his tracks anymore after a while. So that meant we were first on the road. I just had to maintain the gaps back to (Broc) Dickerson and (Alan) Ampudia. We started taking it easy and being cautious and careful about everything and it went well.”
An estimated 200,000 fans were in attendance for the event, which included tech and contingency on Friday and the race itself on Saturday and Sunday.
Podium Finishers
Following the ‘Mac Attack’ closely to the finish line for one of the closest podium finishes in race history was SoCal’s young gun Broc Dickerson.
Dickerson started 20th physically and finished the course just one minute, 24 seconds behind MacCachren on corrected time in 9:24:11 in the No. 34 TSCO-built Ford Raptor with an average speed of 49.25 mph.
Completing the podium in third place was last year’s race winner, ageless Hall of Famer Larry ‘Mr. Baja’ Roeseler, 65, with a time of 9:35:43 in the No. 43 Baja Jerky Cantina Racing Toyota Tundra with an average speed of 48.27 mph.
Mac Nuggets
Starting fourth in the elapsed-time race out of 31 starters in his class, MacCachren, in his dependable two-wheel drive Geiser-built truck, was positioned behind Luke McMillin, Bryce Menzies and Mike Walser.
MacCachren, with nearly 300 career race wins in the desert, is the reigning SCORE Trophy Truck point champion.
Content to maintain his position to see how the race unfolded, McMillin built a lead of nearly 10 minutes on the field nearly more than half-way through the race before his steering box went out which cost him valuable time. The motor in Menzies truck blew early in the race and MacCachren got around Walser when his truck had a flat tire.
After getting past McMillin, MacCachren weaved his way through slower traffic of motorcycles and quads to hold onto the victory by holding off Dickerson and Roeseler.
The victory was MacCachren’s SCORE-record 19th career SCORE Trophy Truck race win. It was also his seventh class win in this race including three overall triumphs.
Other class winners were Juan Carlos Salvatierra (Pro Moto Ironman), Austin Weiland (UTV and Pro UTV FI), Mike Pratt (Pro UTV Open), Zach Sizelove (Pro UTV NA-Naturally Aspirated), Anibal Lopez (Pro UTV Stock), Cody Reid (Unlimited Class 1), Jim O’Neal/Giovanni Spinali (Pro Moto 50), Ramon Fernandez (Class 5), Daniel Chamlee (Class 7), Jano Montoya (Pro Moto 50), Said Sanchez (Pro Quad Class), Doug Smith/Guy Laycraft (Pro Moto 60), Jason Trubey/Ryan Liebelt (Pro Moto 40), and Dan Worley/Stan Potter/Freddie Willert (Class 10).