This year, helping cap the week-long celebration of the 213th anniversary of Mexican Independence, Las Vegas’ Bryce Menzies repeated as overall and SCORE Trophy Truck winner for the third consecutive year at Saturday’s K&N 4th SCORE Baja 400, presented by VP Racing Fuels. The race launched the second half of the four-race 2023 SCORE World Desert Championship.
Menzies qualified sixth but moved up quickly, battling for over 100 miles with runner-up Luke McMillin and Alan Ampudia, who eventually finished fourth overall in his class. He eventually got by both and finished with a victory margin of two minutes, 16.73 seconds.
Menzies stayed in front of the race-record-hungry field of 207 starters in his Mason Motorsports-built all-wheel-drive No. 7 Menzies Motorsports Ford Raptor, posting an admirable error-free, penalty free winning time of seven hours, 53 minutes, and 54.72 seconds with an average speed of 48.70 miles per hour over the typically-challenging 384.66-mile race course.
“It was a good day,” Menzies said at the finish line. “We started sixth and it was dusty, we knew we were going to have to fight really hard, so we just charged as hard as we could. We got Letner (Harley, No. 70) early on, he had a big crash, and Tavo (Vildosola, No. 21) pulled off. We got Alan (Ampudia, No. 10) in the pits and then we caught Luke (McMillin, No. 1) right at the crossover. Down the highway, he pulled off in his pit and we got him there.”
“My plan was to try to be first on the road by the beach, but when I got there, around race mile 230, I lost my front-wheel drive. I knew it was going to be a long way from there with those guys charging hard from behind me. I just had to play it smart, keep my eyes on the ball and have no flats because that was really going to make it hard for us.”
“We kept those guys behind us and just kind of cruised all the way from there. I had to go back to my two-wheel drive days, but it was unreal. What a day. To win the SCORE Baja 400 three times in a row and get to start first in the SCORE Baja 1000, I can’t wait for it.”
Results were made official late Sunday morning by SCORE President/Race Director Abelardo Grijalva following a complete data tracking review of all finishing vehicles. There were a race-record 207 official starters and 143 official finishers for a solid finishing rate of 69.08 percent.
Be sure to come out to the Off-Road Expo from September 30th to October 1st and walk around the SCORE experience.
