Dirtbits

The 2022 BFGoodrich Tires Mint 400 Set for March 9th-13th

The Great American Off Road Race™ announced that the 2022 BFGoodrich Tires Mint 400 has been officially scheduled for Wednesday, March 9th through Sunday, March 13th. The team of Mint 400 organizers are already busy scheduling events for next year's week of festivities that will once again culminate with two days of thrilling off-road racing on Friday, March 11th and Saturday, March 12th in 2022. All of the marquee Mint 400 festivities will remain in the same position as previous years, including the wildly popular Mint 400 Tech and Contingency Off-Road Festival, which will take place on Thursday of race week.

“We’re very excited to be sliding The Mint back into March next year,” said Mint 400 Co-Owner and CEO Matt Martelli. “The ongoing pandemic has certainly made producing live events a challenge these past few years, but we’re thrilled with the number of entries and partners we have lined up for this December’s race. The qualifying course is new, the bike course is new and nearly 35% of the car and truck course is new! We’ve really worked hard to make this year special and that is going to carry over when we return to our original spot in March of next year.”

The Mint 400 is no stranger to overcoming adversity. In the past 53 years the historic event has been held 35 times in five different months, with no less than ten different unique race courses, and a multitude of formats on every day of the week. It has rained and snowed, and for the first decade the classes were mixed with bikes and trucks starting side by side - unthinkable today.

“Off-road racing at it’s purest is about adapting to change in the blink of an eye,” said Mint 400 Co-Owner and COO Josh Martelli. “The second you put a tire on the dirt you’re challenging the odds. The Mint has always been a symbol of that challenge, going all the way back to its roots as America’s first desert endurance race. We’ve been a March race for the past ten years and we’re excited to be returning to our home position in the racing schedule next year. We have to thank the Southern Nevada BLM office once again for helping us flex our schedule this year to December and sliding us back into March next year. They have been fantastic to work with as usual.”

The Mint 400 is the longest-running motorsports event in the history of Las Vegas - and second only to the Las Vegas Marathon for the oldest sporting event. (Supercross didn’t come to Vegas until the early 1990’s and NASCAR made its debut in 1998 - 30 years after the first Mint 400.) The Martelli Brothers and their dedicated group of volunteers, support staff and Mad Media TV crew, have successfully grown the storied event into the largest and most important off-road race in the sport. The event attracts over 45,000 spectators to Las Vegas for the parade, parties, massive offroad festival, and two-day race. The race features over 500 race teams from over thirty different states and fourteen different countries, competing on a 100-mile loop that extends from the edge of Las Vegas to the California state line at Primm. With five massive spectator areas, The Mint 400 puts fans safely in front of highspeed off-road racing action for two exciting days.

More information regarding racer and spectator details for the 2022 event will be released in the coming months.

Fluidlogic Wave Offers In-Vehicle Hydration System

The new FluidLogic Wave is an easy-touse hydration system specifically designed to provide off-road enthusiasts with a ready source of fluid that is securely mounted to their vehicle. The system includes the FluidLogic Fluid Containment system, a double-wall vacuum insulated container that is rust resistant and available in 32oz or 64oz sizes. It’s secured to the vehicle via a quick-disconnect roll bar mount, making it suitable to attach to any UTV, Jeep or specialized vehicle with a roll-cage.

Fill the Fluid Containment system with your fluid of choice, and draw it through a dairygrade, 6-ft. fluid line that features a high-grade silicone bite valve. When you’re not drinking, the fluid line attaches to a mounting dock with a magnetic coupler, to secure it and keep it within reach for your next drink.

“After launching our professional racing hydration systems three years ago, we have had a demand for a simple-to-use consumer product,” says CEO Ed Jaegar. “We are excited to provide off-road enthusiasts with a product that uses some of the same components as our professional racing hydration systems, that are being used by NASCAR, Indy Car, Off-Road, IMSA and other sanctioning bodies. The FluidLogic Wave is a simple design, but the components have undergone such extensive testing and use in motorsports that we are confident it will be the last and best in-vehicle hydration system for consumers.” The FluidLogic Wave eliminates the need for searching for a water bottle, or water bladder hose to take a drink. It also improves safety while drinking, allowing you to focus on the trail ahead. The complete system retails around $189 for 64oz, $169 for 32oz, and comes with everything necessary for easy installation. For more information on the new FluidLogic Wave visit www.fluidlogic. com. www.sdiracing.com

BlueWater Desert Challenge Moved to Peralta Ranch, Name Changed to Cal City Desert Challenge

Best In The Desert, the world’s largest and richest off-road racing series has announced that its 2021 season-ending event, the BlueWater Desert Challenge Brought to You by Fox will be held at the Peralta Ranch in East Kern County, California near Cal City, moved from Parker, Arizona on Nov. 4-7, 2021. The event name will also be changed to Cal City Desert Challenge Brought to You by Fox.

After months of preparing to hold the event in Parker, Arizona, Best In The Desert was informed on October 9, 2021, that the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) would not allow the event to run as planned. The CRIT cited increased levels of COVID-19 amongst their community as a reason for their decision.

Despite the extremely disappointing news, Best In The Desert is very excited about the move to Cal City. Not only is the entire community behind the relocation of the event but Best In The Desert has access to over 80 acres of prime real estate to host an off-road race of epic proportions thanks to Lou Peralta and the Peralta Ranch.

The main pit, time trials course, and UTV Youth race course for the Cal City Desert Challenge Brought to You by Fox will be held approximately three miles from Cal City limits, an hour away from Barstow, while the main race course will run on private and county land.

The Time Trial course will be five to eight miles long and will set racers up for important start times. The UTV Youth course will be one to three miles long and will run in the same location as Time Trials and the Main Pit.

The main 30-mile course for the Cal City Desert Challenge Brought to You by Fox will start at a 2,500-foot elevation and consist of typical Mojave Desert terrain including the challenging decomposed granite dirt compound well-known to offroad racers in the region.

Registration, Tech Inspection, and Event Expo will be at a TBD location in Cal City and the host hotel will be the Best Western Hotel in Cal City. A racer discount code will be offered in the coming days and posted on the Best In The Desert website.

“While we’ve certainly had to deal with some challenges getting to this point, the end result could not have been better,” commented Best In The Desert CMO Bryan Folks. “I have to start by thanking Lou Peralta for all his help and support in making this happen. The race course being built will be very challenging and a true Best In the Desert type race. We also look forward to being welcomed by Cal City. Altogether, we feel we have an event venue that will more than live up to the expectations of all our racers.”

“With season-ending points on the line and a year of hard work and effort by all our race teams there was no way we were going to let our racers down and not hold an event,” stated Jeff Phillips Best In The Desert Race Operations Director. “At the Peralta Ranch, we have all the ingredients to put on not only a great truck/car/UTV race but also an excellent Youth UTV race as well. All I can say is everybody get ready, this is going to be special.”

Monster Energy Athlete Phil Blurton Wins Fourth UTV World Championship

For the fourth time in his career, Monster Energy athlete Phil Blurton took home the UTV World Championship in October on a 28.6-mile course in Lake Havasu, Arizona. In an exceptionally challenging race where less than a third of the field finished, Blurton and co-driver Beau Judge took the overall victory by more than 10 minutes.

Blurton, who won three consecutive UTV World Championships in 2017-2019, qualified third out of the three dozen entries in the premier Desert Pro Turbo class for Saturday’s race. The #T944 Can-Am remained with the front runners throughout the race, settling into a comfortable pace and picking off multiple other cars through attrition.

Blurton and Judge eventually climbed to the lead on the third lap, where they’d engage in a close fight for the top spot in the final two circuits. Despite a late-race tire change that saw them drop back to second, they would retake the top spot in the battle on the final lap and earn the victory with a five-lap finishing time of 3:52:17.359. “We decided in the morning that we were going to set a good pace and see where we were at about halfway,” Blurton said. “There were a couple guys on the first lap who were pushing at a crazy pace, and it sucks to let them leave you, but we knew what the car could take. Coming into the last lap we were six seconds apart, I made a mistake and had to change a tire, and thought ‘aw, man, second place,’ but then we saw him break down.”

Blurton and Judge will return to action in November for their first attempt at the SCORE International Baja 1000 and an attempt to claim the 2021 World Desert Championship. Blurton sits second in Pro UTV Turbo points in the four-race championship, with chances at both a class and overall SCORE title in his first full season in the series.

About Monster Energy

Based in Corona, California, Monster Energy is the leading marketer of energy drinks and alternative beverages. Refusing to acknowledge the traditional, Monster Energy supports the scene and sport. Whether motocross, off-road, NASCAR, MMA, BMX, surf, snowboard, ski, skateboard, or the rock and roll lifestyle, Monster Energy is a brand that believes in authenticity and the core of what its sports, athletes and musicians represent. More than a drink, it’s the way of life lived by athletes, sports, bands, believers and fans. See more about Monster Energy including all of its drinks at www.monsterenergy.com.

It’s more than a race, it’s an Adventure... The legendary, iconic SCORE Baja 1000

As the World Series is to baseball, the Super Bowl to football, the Olympics to athletics and the World Cup to soccer, the legendary SCORE Baja 1000 stands as tall at the pinnacle of the motorsports world today as it did when it began 54 years ago. FLASHBACK

Last year’s epic 53rd anniversary race started and finished in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico covering much of the northern part of the majestic Baja California peninsula for 898.40 grueling miles. It was the 53rd anniversary of the race shrouded in mystery that continues to lure the world’s best racers and adventurers from around the globe who all continue to share the dream to conquer the Baja.

A total of 185 starters, competing in Pro and Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads were part of last year’s annual odyssey. Racers came from 26 U.S. States and 14 countries. There were 111 official finishers in 2020. FLASH FORWARD

In 2021, the BFGoodrich Tires 54th SCORE Baja 1000, presented by 4 Wheel Parts, will be a point-to-point race starting in Ensenada and finishing in La Paz. This year’s Granddaddy of All Desert Races will be held Nov. 15-20. Nearly 300 entries are expected from nearly 40 U.S. States and 20 countries.

The rugged race route covers 1,224 miles down Mexico’s magnificent Baja California peninsula. More information is available at www.score-international.com.

File photo by GETSOMEPHOTO.com

ONLY ONE It’s the oldest and most well known of all desert races, and it remains as the single most appealing accomplishment to a driver. Since 1967, the mother of all desert races has been run over the mysterious, majestic Baja California peninsula every year except 1974 when an international fuel crisis forced a cancellation.

COUNT ‘EM

The SCORE Baja 1000 has captured the imagination of the entire world as entries have come not only from every state in the United States, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories Guam and Puerto Rico, but also has attracted racers from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Great Britain, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Monaco, Morocco, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Uruguay, Yugoslavia as well as the host country of Mexico. Over the years, SCORE races have been televised in more than 100 nations worldwide.

THE PIONEERS

The first known record run occurred in 1962. Dave Ekins and Bill Robertson Jr. timed their trip from Tijuana to La Paz on a pair of Honda 250 motorcycles. Ekins made it in 39 hours, 54 minutes, Robertson less than an hour slower. There were no official timers, of course, and to establish that they had made the trip, the two motorcycle racers time-stamped a sheet of paper in the Tijuana telegraph office and time-stamped it again at the telegraph office when they arrived in La Paz. They began their journey at midnight in Tijuana.

Capitalizing on the pioneer effort of Ekins and Robertson, Chevrolet commissioned car builder Bill Stroppe to prepare a small fleet of trucks for the run to La Paz. Late that year they left Long Beach, Calif., and all of them reached La Paz. Advertising and publicity campaigns heralded the feat as “the roughest run under the sun.”

1967

Enthusiast Ed Pearlman founded the National Off Road Racing Association (NORRA) and established the Mexican 1000. It started officially in Tijuana on October 31, 1967 with 68 entries. They actually motored at leisure speeds to Ensenada and restarted the next day, finishing in La Paz.

NORRA continued to organize the Mexican 1000, which came to be known as the Baja 1000. In 1968, Pearlman moved the start of the race to Ensenada, where it stayed with one exception until 1993. In 1972 NORRA started at Mexicali and ran the first half of the race down the east coast of the peninsula through the treacherous Three Sisters section. Pre-running for this race, Parnelli Jones and Walker Evans were among a group of competitors who nearly got swept out to sea during a tropical storm.

ENTER SCORE

After the fuel crisis of 1974 forced local officials to cancel the event, SCORE International, founded by the late Mickey Thompson and headed soon after by Sal Fish (until 2012), was invited by the northern state of Baja California to hold the race in 1975. The SCORE Baja 1000 became a loop event starting and finishing in Ensenada.

In 1979, the government of Baja California Sur granted permission to resume the Ensenada-to-La Paz format and SCORE has used this route intermittently ever since.

The 1979 race was notable for Walker Evans’ overall win in a Dodge truck, the first truck to win the overall title of the race.

CELEBS/CROSSOVERS

The famous and not-so-famous have tried their hand at conquering the Baja and they have come from all walks of life. Mark Thatcher, son of Great Britain’s then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher, raced in the 1982 SCORE Baja 1000. Celebrities James Garner, Ted Nugent and the late Steve McQueen all battled the Baja in the early 1970s and many racers from other forms of motorsports crossed over to try their skills.

Among the drivers from other arenas who have tested the Baja were Indy Car racers Rick and Roger Mears, Parnelli Jones, Danny Ongias, Danny Sullivan, Jimmy Vasser, Buddy Rice, Sebastien Bourdais, Alexander Rossi, Oriol Servia, Roberto Guerrero, Michel Jourdain Jr., Johnny Unser and Mike and Robbie Groff, NASCAR’s Robby Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Boris Said and Brendan Gaughan, SCCA legend Elliot Forbes-Robinson, World Rally Championships’ Armin Schwarz, Armin Kremer, Andreas Aigner and Harri Pavanpera,, Pikes Peak Hill Climb record holder Rod Millen, Formula Drift and Pikes Peak champion Rhys Millen, world motorcycle champions Malcolm Smith, Larry Roeseler and Destry Abbott, Motocross legends Ricky Johnson and Jeremy McGrath, XGames star Travis Pastrana, drag racers Don Prudhomme and Larry Minor and legendary SCORE founder and motorsports innovator Mickey Thompson. The late Academy Award winning actor, racer and race team owner Paul Newman raced in the 2004 event. Jesse James, of ‘Monster Garage’ fame, and Hollywood film and TV star Patrick Dempsey both have raced in this classic several times.

Larry Roeseler at the 1992 San Felipe 250. Photo by TracksidePhoto.com

LASTING LEGACY

This year’s race will commemorate the achievements of legendary desert racers like Rod Hall, Ron Bishop, Johnny Johnson, and Larry Roeseler. Hall, who passed away in 2019 at 81, retired with an unbelievable record of 25 class wins (including one overall win in 1969), and was the only racer who competed in the first 50 SCORE Baja 1000 races. Bishop, now also deceased was the only racer who competed in the first 40 SCORE Baja 1000 races all on a motorcycle.

Johnson, now retired, had 15 class wins, amazingly in eight different classes.

Roeseler, has won his class 18 times in this race, including 14 overall wins (10 on a motorcycle). Roeseler won the unlimited Class 1 for four consecutive years (2004-2007), driving with the youngest of three racing brothers, Troy Herbst, in the Smithbuilt-Ford open-wheel desert race car that was known as the ‘Land Shark’. Roeseler is the only racer in the history of the event to win the overall 4-wheel in a truck and also in a car as well as the overall 2-wheel title.

In 2020, Roeseler was the second driver for Luke McMillin as the pair teamed to win the overall.

In 2008, Roeseler split the driving with driver of record/team owner Roger Norman when they were the overall 4-wheel and SCORE Trophy Truck champions and the pair was second in 2009. In 2010, Roger Norman drove solo the length of the peninsula and finished third overall.

Special history was also made in 2010 when the father/son team of Gustavo Vildosola Sr and Gustavo ‘Tavo’ Vildosola Jr drove to the overall 4-wheel and SCORE Trophy Truck victory to become the first Mexican national team to win the legendary race and it was a peninsula run from Ensenada to La Paz.

That landmark was reached again during the 50th anniversary when Mexico’s Carlos ‘Apdaly’ Lopez and his father Juan C. Lopez split the driving to win the mammoth 2017 peninsula run from Ensenada to la Paz.

In 2019, Mexico’s brothers Allan and Aaron Ampudia became the third team of Mexican nationals to earn the overall 4-wheel and SCORE Trophy Truck win.

BAJA CALLING

Lured by the same siren that enraptured the Ekins brothers in the 1950s, the SCORE Baja 1000 remains as the No. 1 target of adventurers the world over, not to mention the cadre of pro and semi-pro desert racers who consider it the fitting climax to their racing season each year.