Andy McMillin, in new Trophy Truck livery, performs number swap for Baja 500

This weekend’s SCORE International Baja 500 will be quite new for Andy McMillin aesthetic-wise. While he is known for piloting a predominantly blue #31 Red Bull Trophy Truck, his truck for the 500 will come adorned in blue and silver with #38 on the numberplate instead. The livery change was long planned for McMillin and his team, but the number switch was due to circumstance and provides him with a better advantage for the race than he normally would have.

The #38 is normally used by fellow Trophy Truck racer Eric Hustead, who finished sixth in class at the San Felipe 250 in April. The Baja 500’s starting lineup is determined by one’s finish in San Felipe, meaning overall winner and Andy’s cousin Luke McMillin starts on the pole ahead of runner-up Bryce Menzies while Hustead would roll off in sixth. Conversely, McMillin endured a difficult 250 where he lost both his spare tyres after the strap attaching them to the truck fell off, followed by an abrupt overheating issue and a transmission change for a broken torque converter; by the end of the race, he was a distant sixteenth.

However, Hustead was unable to make the trip to Ensenada for personal reasons. Rather than simply letting the sixth-place starting spot go unused (which would have bumped up seventh-placed Alan Ampudia), McMillin decided to reshape the second digit of his number into an 8; the new number was revealed during contingency on Friday. Had the change not happened, McMillin would have started eighteenth as Trophy Trucks Legends entries Gus Vildósola (eighth), Rolf Helland (eleventh), and Clay Lawrence (fifteenth) had better overall finishes than him at San Felipe while Chad Broughton (thirteenth TT in the SF 250) is not entered.

McMillin will still have his own team and equipment despite the change, though any points earned by him will go towards Hustead’s total in the SCORE World Desert Championship as Hustead is the official Driver of Record. While allowing the switch has raised some debate, it is not a new concept in motorsport, let alone in SCORE which has permitted medical and personal replacements for one race per year since 2014. As explained in Clause GCD3 of SCORE’s regulations, any Driver/Rider of Record who signs all documentation but neither starts nor finishes the race would still receive points.

The Hustead/McMillin swap is not the only change as Class 7F driver Justin Park turns over the reins of his #714F to Todd Fasching. Park is dealing with medical problems such as blood pressure that necessitated a trip to the doctor during the week, though he intends to be with the team for the race if he feels healthy enough.

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