Round 2, SCORE Desert Series
Defending SCORE Trophy-Truck winner Mark Post leading
Race-record field to 19th Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250
Over 280 entries from 15 States, Mexico, Canada & Japan
Practicing this week for Saturday’s popular desert race

SAN FELIPE, Mexico (February 21, 2005) -- Defending overall 4-wheel vehicle and SCORE Trophy-Truck race winner Mark Post has added 1997 race winner Curt LeDuc as a co-driver in hopes of becoming just the second team to win back-to-back years in this week’s 19th Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250. Round 2 of the five-race 2005 SCORE Desert Series will be held Saturday in the tiny fishing village of San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico.

With a race-record field of over 280 entries scheduled to compete in 24 Pro and 5 Sportsman classes in the world’s foremost desert racing series event, the green flag will drop at 6 a.m. on Saturday for the motorcycle and ATV classes, followed by the car and truck classes two hours later at approximately 8:30 a.m.

The start and finish line area for the 240.34-mile loop course will once again be the landmark San Felipe arches on Highway 5 on the outskirts of San Felipe. All vehicles will have a 10-hour time limit in the elapsed time race and vehicles will start in 30-second intervals.

Last year’s top defending champions are all entered. Besides Post, San Juan Capistrano, Calif., who is the defending Overall and SCORE Trophy-Truck champion in San Felipe, Mark McMillin, El Cajon, Calif. is returning Class 1 winner and American Honda’s Steve Hengeveld, Oak Hills, Calif./Johnny Campbell, San Clemente, Calif., are back with three straight Class 22 and Overall motorcycle division victories in San Felipe. With 10 consecutive SCORE race wins together over the last four years, Campbell has seven class wins in San Felipe while Hengeveld has four.

Following January’s season-opening SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge, America’s Foremost Desert Racing Series will visit Mexico for the first of its traditional three stops on the majestic peninsula.

Pre-race festivities at the Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 will include the colorful SCORE Midway and tech inspection on the Malecon beachfront in downtown alongside the azure waters of the Sea of Cortez from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Friday.

Also on Friday, at the Hotel Las Misiones, driver/rider registration will be held from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., followed at 7 p.m. by the mandatory pre-race driver/rider briefing.

At 10 a.m. on Sunday, the awards celebration will be held on the Malecon, across from the Beachcomber.

In the hunt for the overall 4-wheel victory in San Felipe, SCORE Trophy-Trucks have won nine of the first 19 years while the unlimited Class 1 for open-wheel desert race cars has won seven times. SCORE Trophy-Truck, however, has only been around for 11 years and the last time Class 1 won the overall was in 1998 when Mark Post won in a Riviera-Chevy. In 2004, the first four finishers were all SCORE Trophy-Trucks.

“SCORE Trophy-Trucks do well on SCORE’s San Felipe course, but we do have a little less dust to contend with because we start first,” said Post, a Southern California businessman. “We have won this race in both classes and I’d much prefer the class I’m in and adding Curt to the team is going to help us even more.”

“SCORE Trophy-Trucks are built for speed and as rugged as those washes are, we really make up for it on the high-speed sections. I think the bigger question isn’t will a SCORE Trophy-Truck win the overall, but rather which SCORE Trophy-Truck will win the overall. We have incredible racers, machines and crews and while we are definitely going for a repeat, our bigger goal is to finish and stay in the hunt for the season point title.”

With 31 entries so far, Class 1-2/1600 has the most entries, followed by Class 1 with 30, Class 10 with 27, SCORE Lite with 26, SCORE Trophy-Truck with 24 and Class 5/1600 with 19. Late registration will be accepted up until race morning.

Drawing the pole position in SCORE Trophy-Truck in the computerized drawing (by class) for starting positions was Gary Dircks. Dircks, Anthem, Ariz., who earned his only SCORE Trophy-Truck race win in Laughlin in 2004, is teaming this year with Jeff Darland, Peoria, Ariz., in the No. 23 Ford F-150.

Besides Dircks/Darland, the stellar SCORE Trophy-Truck field includes Las Vegas brothers Tim and Ed Herbst, with eight combined San Felipe class wins, including four overall victories in their No. 19 Terrible Herbst Motorsports Ford F-150. Despite an extremely rare did-not-finish last year, the Herbst brothers won the SCORE Trophy-Truck division in San Felipe three straight years (1999, 2000, 2001).

Post returns in his No. 3 Riviera Racing Ford F-150. Also in the field is 2003 overall winner Gus Vildsola, Mexicali, Mexico, who teamed with Las Vegas’ Rob MacCachren in the No. 4 Vildosola Racing Ford F-150. LeDuc was the Overall and SCORE Trophy-Truck winner in 1997 in a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Drawing the first starting slot for the motorcycle classes was Southern California’s Brian Pinard in Class 22.

McMillin Racing, the prominent three-generation racing team from San Diego, will field four separate cars featuring four different family members for just the second time in SCORE racing history.

Family patriarch Corky McMillin, 76, will race in Class 1 as will his grandson Andy McMillin, 17, (who will also have his father Scott McMillin, 44, driving) and his oldest son Mark McMillin, 48. Daniel McMillin, 17, Corky’s other grandson and Mark’s son, will drive in Class 1-2/1600. Corky McMillin will drive the No. 118 Chenowth-Chevy, Andy McMillin and his father Scott McMillin will drive the No. 120 Jimco-Chevy, Mark McMillin will drive the No. 118 Jimco-Chevy while Daniel McMillin will be the driver of the No. 1610 Jimco-VW.

Last year, Mark McMillin won Class 1 by just one second over the team of his nephew and brother.

The senior statesman and only other septuagenarian who is driver of record this year, besides Corky McMillin, is Ed McLean, of Severna Park, Maryland. McLean, who will be 79 on March 8, will lead a team in Class 9, the same class he finished second in last year.

The field also includes a SCORE record four entries with female drivers as driver/rider of record.

Two-time SCORE Class 1-2/1600 point champion Bekki Wik, of Las Vegas, is racing in Class 10 in a Jimco-Honda, while Sigal Greenberg, Long Beach, Calif., is racing in Class 9 in a Chenowth-VW, Nancy Spirkoff, Lemon Grove, Calif., is entered in Class 5 in a VW Baja Bug and Ginn Downey, Castro Valley, Calif., is rider of record in the Sportsman ATV class on a Yamaha Raptor.

Among the other racers to draw the first starting position in their respective classes were: Arden Dennington, Tracy, Calif. (Class 1-2/1600, Fraley-VW), Lobsam Yee, Tijuana, Mexico (Class 10, Jimco-Honda) and Mitch Mitchell, Laguna Beach, Calif. (SCORE Lite-Kreger-VW).

Content as the relative unsung second-driver on two consecutive championship teams, Adam Pfankuch has stepped out of the shadows in a big way, assuming the Class 1-2/1600 and Overall point leads in the 2005 SCORE Desert Series. Pfankuch, 23, of Carlsbad, Calif., drove his new VW-powered Amplified 1600cc open-wheel desert race car past a race-record field of 46 starters in his class in the season-opening 11th SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge, Jan. 16-17.

After helping two different lead drivers win season point championships the last two years, Pfankuch is the primary driver of record this year. His victory this year in Laughlin provides ample proof of his significant contributions the last two years.

With the $50,000 Kartek bonus also awaiting the top three 2005 SCORE Overall point leaders, a total of just 15 points separate the top 12 overall point leaders after the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge.

Second in overall points with 58 after Round 1 is Class 10 point leader Kash Vessels, San Marcos, Calif., who won in Laughlin in a Jimco-Toyota. A second-generation desert racer, Vessels beat a field of 33 starters in Laughlin, earning the $10,000 first place bonus in the $25,000 Jason Hunter Memorial Class 10 race.

Las Vegas’ Rob MacCachren and Bryan Freeman, in their first season racing together, are second in Class 1-2/1600 and third in overall points with 54 in their Fraley-VW.

Fourth in overall points and second in Class 10 is Darren Hardesty, Ramona, Calif., with 52 points in a Alumi-Craft-VW.

Leading the unlimited Class 1 after his win in Laughlin and fifth in overall points is Dale Ebberts, Canyon Lake, Calif., with 51 points in a Jimco-Toyota open-wheel desert race car. Ebberts, who splits the driving time in the rest of the SCORE races with Ernie Castro Jr., Newport Beach, Calif., was the overall race winner in Laughlin for the second time in three years. Ebberts and Castro also won the 2003 SCORE Overall season point crown. Among their Class 1 race wins was the 2003 Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250.

SCORE points are determined both on final finishing position and number of vehicles that started the race within the individual class.

SCORE official sponsors for 2005 are: BFGoodrich Tires-official tire, C.L. Bryant-VP Racing Fuels-official fuel supplier. Associate sponsors are: Tecate Beer, Coca-Cola of Mexico, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance, Las Vegas Events, Herbst Gaming, Kartek Off-Road, Centrix Financial, Fram, Autolite, Prestone, Bilstein, Signpros, Cotuco, Fideicomiso Publico para la Promocion Turistica de Ensenada, P.C.I. Race Radios, McKenzie’s Performance Products, and Advanced Color Graphics.

Associate sponsors for the Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 are the Tourism and Convention Bureau of Mexicali/San Felipe, Cotuco and El Dorado Ranch.

The race annually provides a greater economic impact to San Felipe
than the entire six-week-long ‘Spring Break’.

For information contact:
SCORE International at its Los Angeles headquarters
(818) 225-8402 or visit
the official 2005 SCORE Desert Series website at:
www.score-international.com

Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250
All-Time Overall Champions
Cars & Trucks
Year Driver(s), Vehicle (Class)
1982 Dan Cornwell, Chenowth-VW (Class 1)
1983 Mike Julson, Jimco-VW (Class 1)
1984 Larry Ragland, Chaparral-VW (Class 1)
1990 Brian Collins/Jack Johnson, Chenowth-VW (Class 1)
1991 Larry Ragland, Chevy C1500 (Class 8)
1992 Bob Richey/Boyd Cox, Raceco-Porsche (Class 1)
1993 Scott Douglas, Ford Ranger (Class 7)
1994 Ivan Stewart, Toyota SR5 (SCORE Trophy-Truck)
1995 Ed/Tim Herbst, Smithbuilt-Porsche (Class 1)
1996 Robby Gordon, Ford F-150 (SCORE Trophy-Truck)
1997 Curt LeDuc, Jeep Grand Cherokee (SCORE Trophy-Truck)
1998 Mark Post/Jerry Whelchel, Riviera-Chevy (Class 1)
1999 Ed Herbst/Tim Herbst, Ford F-150 (SCORE Trophy-Truck)
2000 Tim Herbst/Ed Herbst, Ford F-150 (SCORE Trophy-Truck)
2001 Tim Herbst/Ed Herbst, Ford F-150 (SCORE Trophy-Truck)
2002 Dan Smith/David Ashley, Ford F-150 (SCORE Trophy-Truck)
2003 Gus Vildosola/Rob MacCachren, Ford F-150 (SCORE Trophy-Truck)
2004 Mark Post/Jerry Whelchel, Ford F-150 (SCORE Trophy-Truck)

Motorcycles
Year Rider(s), Vehicle
1982 Bob Balentine, Honda XR500 (Class 22)
1983 Jack Johnson, Honda XR500 (Class 22)
1984 Dan Smith/Dan Ashcraft, Husqvarna XR500 (Class 22)
1990 Dan Smith/Danny Hamel, KTM (Class 22)
1991 Larry Roeseler/Ted Hunnicut Jr, Kawasaki KX500 (Class 22)
1992 Larry Roeseler/Ted Hunnicut Jr, Kawasaki KX500 (Class 22)
1993 Danny Hamel, Kawasaki KX500(Class 22)
1994 Danny Hamel, Kawasaki KX500 (Class 22)
1995 Danny Hamel, Kawasaki KX500 (Class 22)
1996 Paul Krause, Kawasaki KX500 (Class 22)
1997 Tim Staab, Honda XR650 (Class 22)
1998 Johnny Campbell/Tim Staab, Honda XR650 (Class 22)
1999 Johnny Campbell/Cole Marshall, Honda XR650 (Class 22)
2000 Johnny Campbell/Tim Staab, Honda XR650 (Class 22)
2001 Steve Hengeveld/Jonah Street, Honda XR650R (Class 22)
2002 Steve Hengeveld/Johnny Campbell, Honda XR650R (Class 22)
2003 Steve Hengeveld/Johnny Campbell, Honda XR650R (Class 22)
2004 Steve Hengeveld/Johnny Campbell, Honda XR650R (Class 22)

For information contact:
SCORE International at its Los Angeles headquarters
(818) 225-8402 or visit
the official 2005 SCORE Desert Series website at:
www.score-international.com