Canadian rally racers Stanick, Willetts, Bailey to make SCORE debuts at Baja 400

The SCORE International Baja 400 on 13/14 September will receive a northern infusion as the #203 Trophy Truck Spec entry is an all-Canadian lineup led by Ken Stanick with Jamie Willetts and Jason Bailey. It will be their first foray into SCORE competition as they will see if their rally experience can translate into desert racing.

Stanick, the Driver of Record, primarily competes in the Canadian Rally Championship‘s Open 4WD category in a Subaru. He is currently thirteenth in the overall standings after running two of the first three rounds. The 52-year-old North Vancouver native also has experience in the United States with the American Rally Association, including winning in the ARA West Championship and competing in the North American Rally Cup (a joint championship between CRC and ARA), and Northwest Rally Association.

Outside of racing, he is well versed in extreme sports from paragliding to kayaking. In 2003, he finished runner-up in the Yukon River Quest, the world’s longest kayaking marathon.

Stanick spent Thursday testing a Brenthel Trophy Truck for the 400. He wrote in an Instagram Story that he “was giddy” about the experience and the truck was “[t]he most badass toy I’ve ever played with”.

His Baja team-mates also race in CRC, with Willetts mainly being a co-driver while Bailey races in the Open 2WD class. Willetts won the 2020 ARA West overall and O2WD championships, and currently works alongside David Clark in ARA and Graham Bruce in the CRC’s O4WD. Bailey began his CRC career in 2013 in the underperforming “FrankenSAAB” 1968 SAAB 96 before working his way up to a Ford Fiesta and winning for the first time in 2017; he has four career class victories and scored the 2021 CRC 2WD title.

Bailey and Willetts have also teamed up to compete in ARA events. While Bailey sits fourth in 2WD points, Willetts is nineteenth for the co-driver classification.

“SCORE welcomes its international competitors and expects racers from as many as 10 countries for this race, including several from Canada,” reads a statement from the sanctioning body.

While not as abundant as their counterparts from the United States, Mexico, and Latin and South America, Canada has seen more than its share of SCORE entries over the years. The 2021 Baja 1000 saw Darrin Rideout of Ontario finish sixth in the Pro Moto Ironman class, a feat that Lawrence Hacking—the first Canadian to complete the Dakar Rally when he did so in 2001—called “one of the truly heroic efforts in endurance sports.” Brothers Karl and Marc Edbrup, who hail from British Columbia like Stanick, race in Class 10 with Karl once remarking that “being a Canadian and jumping into desert racing with both feet couldn’t be more stressful.”

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