Method Race Wheels Qualifying ‘Tavo’ Vildosola, Menzies, McMillin, top qualifiers Thursday for Saturday’s King Shocks 38th SCORE San Felipe 250 Daniel top qualifier in SCORE TT 2WD; Vildosola Sr top qualifier in SCORE TT Legend; McNeil top qualifier in Trophy Truck Spec.
248 entries to date from 23 States, 8 Countries; Start/Finish on El Malecon; Method Race Wheels Qualifying for 2025 SCORE World Desert Championship Opener, SCORE Live –Contingency, S/F Line–Rat Sult host, assisted by Kevin Johnson
Vehicle Tracking throughout the race at www.score-international.com
Saturday—Motorcycles/quads start at 6 a.m. (PT), cars/trucks/utvs at 10 a.m.(PT)
San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico – Launching its sixth decade as the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Organization this year, the top three Method Race Wheels qualifiers Thursday among over 250 racers expected to start Saturday’s King Shocks 38th SCORE San Felipe 250 were Mexico’s Gustavo ‘Tavo’ Vildosola, Las Vegas’ Bryce Menzies, and Luke McMillin.
Held over a 4-mile course North of downtown, Gustavo Vildosola Junior, 43, Mexicali, Mexico, powered his Vildosola Racing No. 21 Ford Raptor, built by Mason Motorsports to the fastest qualifying time of four minutes, 33.506 seconds. He was fastest of the 34 SCORE Trophy Trucks out of 40 entries in the class that attempted to qualify.
Las Vegas’ Menzies, 37, who finished four in San Felipe last year and won this race in 2021, finished with the second-fastest qualifying time this year, driving his No. 7 AWD Ford Raptor to a time of 4:33.795.
Multi-time SCORE Baja 1000 winner Luke McMillin, 32, San Diego, Calif., powered his way in a time of 4:35.943 to finish third in qualifying in the No. 83 all-wheel drive Mason-built Chevy SCORE Trophy Truck.
Top qualifier out of a 16 entries in the new SCORE TT 2WD class was Ryan Daniel, 41, Huntington Beach, Calif., in a time of 4:51.311 in the No. 28T Jimco-built Chevy Silverado.
Fastest in the SCORE TT Legend class for SCORE Trophy Truck racers over 50 years old was Ricky Johnson, 60, El Cajon, Calif. (Driver of Record–Gustavo Vildosola Sr, 71, Mexicali, Mexico), in a time of 4:46.413 in the Vildosola Racing No. 1L Mason-built AWD Ford Raptor.
Top qualifier out of a 29 entries in the Trophy Truck Spec class was Jason McNeil, 47, El Cajon, Calif., in the No. 234 TSCO-Chevy in a time 4:53.501.
SCORE Trophy Truck, SCORE TT 2WD, SCORE TT Legend, and Trophy Truck Spec were the only four classes required to participate in the Method Race Wheels Qualifying sessions for starting positions as the other start positions in the various classes were determined by a drawing.
WHAT’S UP
The colorfully challenging 250.06-mile race course will start and finish and pre-race contingency will be held on El Malecon in the SCORE start/finish line compound alongside of the picturesque Sea of Cortez.
Entering Friday’s final days of late, on-site race week registration, 248 official entries to date represent 23 U.S. States, one U.S. Territory and 7 countries. In addition to the USA, host country Mexico, racers so far have also come from Australia, Canada, Argentina, Costa Rica, France, New Zealand and India.
With double figure entries so far are SCORE Trophy Truck (40), Trophy Truck Spec (31), Pro UTV FI (Forced Induction) with 33, Pro UTV Open (26) and Pro UTV Stock (22).
In motorcycles, the class with the most entries is Pro Moto Ironman with 16 entries, followed by the Pro Moto Limited class and the Sportsman Quad, both with 7 entries, as well as the Pro Moto Unlimited class with 5 entries.
San Felipe is 125 miles south of the U.S. Border at Calexico, Calif. on the eastern side of the Baja peninsula along the azure waters of the Sea of Cortez.
All four 2025 SCORE races will be held on Mexico’s magnificent Baja California peninsula for the ten consecutive years.
SCORE, the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Organization, is celebrating its 52st season in 2025.
It is expected that the overall winners of the SCORE San Felipe 250 will cross the finish line in 5 hours for motorcycles and 4 hours for cars. The time limit for the racers to finish the race is 12 hours.
SCORE LIVE
During Method Race Wheels Qualifying on Thursday, contingency on Friday and the race on Saturday until the course closes on Sunday early morning, SCORE Live streaming will be broadcasting race activities and start and finish line interviews as well as live action from Drones, ground cameras and in-car cameras from around the race course. There will also be live Zoom interviews for individuals around the race course as part of SCORE Live for this race.
Popular Rat Sult, who is starting his ten seasons as the voice of SCORE, will once again serve as host and lead ramp announcer of the expansive SCORE Live streaming. Assisting Sult will be Kevin Johnson.
Sult and Johnson will be announcing from the SCORE start/finish ramp while the show will also include SCORE studio announcers in El Cajon, Calif., providing live info and updates throughout the race. Host announce in the SCORE Studio will again be Brandon Johnson while co-hosts during the race will be Wes Miller and Heidi Steele.
SCORE live is being produced again by SCORE Media House, Bud Brutsman, producer, Alberto Luna, on-site director.
Coverage will also include Austin Farner and Nick Isenhouer in the studio announcing during qualifying.
SCORE live may be launched from the home page of the SCORE website or from the SCORE App.
GREEN FLAG SATURDAY
The King Shocks 38th SCORE San Felipe 250, will be an elapsed-time race with staggered starts as the green flag on Saturday, April 5 will drop first for the motorcycles and quads at 6 a.m. (PT) and 10 a.m. (PT) for the cars, trucks and UTVs. While the fastest vehicles are expected to finish in around four and one-half hours, all vehicles will have a 12-hour time limit in the 250.06-mile race to become official finishers in the iconic race
