ENSENADA, Mexico — The BFGoodrich Tires 52nd annual SCORE Baja 1,000 will feature competitors from a number of different motorsport disciplines on Nov. 19-24.
Among those expected to take part across the various classes include Dakar Rally winners Nasser Al-Attiyah and Toby Price, 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button, Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi, Coca-Cola 600 winner Casey Mears, Formula Drift veteran and Pikes Peak Int’l Hill Climb champion Rhys Millen and NASCAR veteran Brendan Gaughan.
Winners of the top two divisions of the 2019 Dakar Rally in South America, Al-Attiyah and Price will be paired with 2010 SCORE Trophy Truck season champion Jesse Jones. The talented trio will pilot Jones’ new No. 76 Mason Motorsports-built all-wheel drive Ford F-250.
Al-Attiyah is a Qatari rally driver, sport shooter and sheik. He was the 2006 Production World Rally Champion, a 13-time Middle East Rally Champion, 2014 and 2015 WRC-2 champion, three times winner of FIA cross-country rally Cup (2008, 2015 and 2016) and the 2011, 2015 and 2019 Dakar Rally winner.
He currently competes in the World Rally Championship and Middle East Rally Championship for the Qatar World Rally Team. His three victories in the Dakar Rally make him the only Middle Easterner and West Asian to win the competition more than once.
Price, whose racing career has been primarily on motorcycles, has competed before in SCORE Baja races in SCORE Trophy Truck with Jones as driver of record as well as driving in several of Robby Gordon’s Stadium Super Truck series events over the past several years.
Price is an Australian off-road and enduro motorcycle racing world champion riding for the Red Bull Factory KTM Rally Team. He is a two-time motorcycle champion in the Dakar Rally, having won in 2016 and 2019. In 2016 he won five of the stages to dominate the race and this year he won while riding with a broken wrist.
After warming up with two domestic desert races in the U.S., Button will be the driver of record in the No. 203 Chevy Silverado (Builder-Mason Motorsports) in the highly competitive Trophy Truck Spec class.
His second driver will be long-time friend Chris Buncombe. Buncombe is a former LeMans Series racer who is a former Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2 class winner.
Button won the 2009 Formula One World Championship driving for Brawn GP. He currently competes in the Japanese Super GT Series driving a Honda NSX-GT for Team Kunimitsu.
Rossi, the International open-wheel racer who won the 2016 Indianapolis 500 as a rookie, became the sixth former winner of the great American race to compete in the Baja 1,000 when he raced in Class 7 in last year’s race with Jeff Proctor.
Proctor won his class in the SCORE Baja 1,000 in 2015 and ’16 and finished second in last year’s race with Rossi in his No. 709 Honda Ridgeline factory-supported race truck. The team’s third driver will be off-road veteran Pat Dailey.
Class 7 is the division for Unlimited, six-cylinder production appearing trucks or SUVs.
Returning to the desert after a few years in Indy car racing and 15 years in the NASCAR Cup Series, Casey Mears comes from one of the legendary families of motorsports.
A third generation racer, Mears returns to Baja in the dusty trail of his grandfather, Bill Mears, his father, Roger Mears, his uncle, Rick Mears, and his brother, Roger Mears Jr. All of this group, except Casey Mears, have at least one SCORE Baja 1,000 race win.
Despite the heritage and growing up in the deserts of Baja, Nevada and California, Casey Mears will still be considered a SCORE rookie in this year’s SCORE Baja 1,000 as he has never raced or navigated in a SCORE race.
For this year’s SCORE Baja 1,000, Casey Mears will be the driver of record for the No. 42 Axalta Ford Raptor (Geiser Brothers-built). His second driver will be veteran desert racer Doug Fortin, a three-time SCORE Baja 1,000 overall winner.
In a pairing of former Formula Drift racers, Millen and France’s Stephan Verdier have teamed up for this year’s race to run together in the unlimited Class 1. Millen is driver of record in the Ford-powered, Rhys Millen Racing-built No. 167 open-wheel desert race car with Verdier as his principal additional driver.
Millen is a Formula D champion, Global RallyCross racer and is also a noted Hollywood stunt driver with numerous movies and commercials to his credit. His famous father Rod Millen is a former desert racer, stadium off-road racer, rally racer and overall champion of the Pikes Peak Int’l Hill Climb.
Verdier is a retired Pro Skier who has competed in the X Games both in skiing and rallycross. He is a former pro drifting racer and Global RallyCross competitor. Like Millen, Verdier is also a prominent Hollywood stunt driver.
Las Vegas NASCAR Cup racer and second-generation desert racer, Gaughan has competed in nearly 500 total in his long career in the three top tier NASCAR race series. This year he has scaled back his NASCAR schedule, having raced in four NASCAR Cup Series races with a high finish of eighth at Talladega Superspeedway. He is competing full-time in the unlimited Class 1 in the SCORE World Desert Championship.
Driving the No. 162 South Point Racing Chevy-powered HMS open-wheel desert race car in the unlimited Class 1, Gaughan opened the season with a fifth place finish in the SCORE San Felipe 250 and followed that with an eighth place finish in his class in the SCORE Baja 500 and ninth at the SCORE Baja 400.
He is currently in fourth place in the Class 1 season points as just 12 points separate second through fourth place entering the season finale.