Luke McMillin goes back-to-back in San Felipe 250

Luke McMillin traded in #83 for #1 as the 2022 SCORE International champion, and kicked off 2023 on a high note when he won the San Felipe 250 for the second year in a row.

McMillin qualified fourth but he only needed less than a quarter of the race to take the lead as the manifold absolute pressure sensor broke on qualifying winner Toby Price‘s Trophy Truck, knocking him out of the race. McMillin’s cousin Dan McMillin was eliminated from contention just two miles in with a power steering pump failure, while his Baja 1000 team-mate Rob MacCahren broke an axle after thirty miles.

Other victims were claimed as close as the final ten miles like the Trophy Trucks of Kyle Jergensen, whose truck had its portal hub lock up, and Mikey Lawrence‘s broken rear axle. Christopher Polvoorde was the Trophy Truck Spec leader in the closing stages before running out of fuel, while Branden Sims led in Pro UTV Open until a mechanical failure resulted in a rollover.

In contrast, McMillin and Alan Ampudia stayed out of trouble with near flawless runs, the former winning by over seven minutes. Bryce Menzies, who battled six flat tyres, held off Andrew Meyers and Tavo Vildósola for the final Four-Wheeler podium spot. Vildósola’s truck lost power after reaching the finish, prompting Menzies to tow him onto the finish ramp.

Upon getting his issue repaired, MacCachren decided to link up with his son Cayden MacCachren, only for the latter’s studs to break two miles from the finish. When the elder MacCachren attempted to help, his Trophy Truck got stuck in the dirt and the two had to wait for outside assistance. Rob finished eighteenth in class.

Cayden was fourth in the Pro UTV Open category, making up the tail end of a Polaris top four sweep led by his boss Craig Scanlon. Scanlon is the team principal of Polaris RZR Factory Racing, a new UTV desert racing programme with MacCachren, Austin Weiland (finished sixth), and Brock Heger (tenth) as members.

While McMillin’s title defence is off to a good start, the same could not be said in the two-wheel division as the #1X bike of Juan Carlos Salvatierra and Shane Logan suffered an electrical failure. This enabled the #3X of Ciaran Naran and co-rider Tucker Hopkins to cruise to an easy Moto win, beating Derek Ausserbauer by over ten minutes. Salvatierra salvaged a sixth-place finish.

Penalties caused the Trophy Truck Spec and Class 1 victories to trade hands. Travis Williams had claimed the former but received a ten-minute penalty for missing a Virtual Checkpoint and Thor Herbst instead notched his first win. Cody Parkhouse was the new Class 1 winner after Brad Wilson was busted for the same infraction, dropping the latter behind by forty-eight seconds.

Adam Lovell, the sixteen-year-old son of Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee Brad Lovell, ended his SCORE driving début tenth in Pro UTV FI. His father served as navigator.

Long after the winners had left for the night, the #1121 Class 11 of Dennis Hollenbeck was the final official finisher as he reached home in San Felipe at roughly 1:20 AM. Hollenbeck’s Volkswagen Beetle, which he shared with Armando Salazar and Luis Humberto Vazquez, was marred by electrical problems throughout the race before being getting stuck in silt shortly the finish. Upon being pulled out by the team’s Jeep Cherokee chase vehicle, the Beetle’s transmission failed with three miles to go. The car was towed to the finish where SCORE president Abelardo Grijalva and general manager Juan Tintos helped push it up the finish ramp.

Hollenbeck officially recorded a time of 13 hours, 59 minutes, and 50 seconds, just ten seconds beneath the fourteen-hour cut line to be classified as a finisher.

“I was blown away how people I did not even know jumped in to help,” Hollenbeck recalled. “The crowd went crazy cheering us on as we struggled to push Bochito up the ramp. Total epic moment, ending to this race, and the last official car to cross the finish line. And an epic ending for the legendary Cherokee Chase.

“I never knew that being last place could be so gratifying, and special. I’m very proud of this team, and was honored to have Score’s race director and officials push Bochito up the ramp, then some time with my buddy Rat Sult (SCORE announcer). Love just opening up and expressing our passion for this sport.”

The Pro UTV Open of Kristen Matlock nearly achieved a last-minute finish of her own but finished just seven minutes over. Sebastian Vega (Class 5-1600) and Edgar Felix (Sportsman UTV) reached the finish after Hollenbeck, though they also passed the time limit.

The Class 5-1600 of Marco Gomez and Pro Quad of Dario Rabago were disqualified for cutting the course and going backwards on it, respectively.

Class winners

Four-Wheelers

Class	Number	Driver of Record	Time
Baja Challenge	BC3	Bud Pecoy	9:08:56.145
Class 1	127	Cody Parkhouse	5:26:33.234*
Class 1/2-1600	1625	Eric Pavolka	7:48:46.586*
Class 2	N/A	No Finishers	N/A
Class 3	N/A	No Finishers	N/A
Class 5	511	Eli Yee	7:14:06.536
Class 5-1600	579	Edgar Ruiz	11:49:21.794
Class 7	700	Dan Chamlee	6:31:05.517
Class 7F	714F	Justin Park	9:02:43.356
Class 7SX	740	Armando Duron	10:22:46.470
Class 8	N/A	No Finishers	N/A
Class 10	1064	Justin Buckley	5:50:17.251
Class 11	1105	Oliver Flemate	8:52:22.264
Pro Stock UTV	3900	Anibal Lopez	7:42:19.239
Pro UTV Forced Induction	2910	Rodrigo Ampudia	6:16:17.770*
Pro UTV Naturally Aspirated	1957	Joe Bolton	7:30:00.706
Pro UTV Open	1831	Craig Scanlon	6:22:56.294*
SCORE Lites	1221	Scott Wisdom	7:24:36.743
Stock Mid-Size	N/A	No Finishers	N/A
Trophy Truck	1	Luke McMillin	4:29:27.050
Trophy Truck Legends	1L	Gus Vildósola	4:58:53.284*
Trophy Truck Spec	219	Thor Herbst	5:07:03.473*

* – Received a time penalty

Moto/Quad

Class	Number	Rider of Record	Time
Pro Moto 30	300X	Jano Montoya	6:40:36.892*
Pro Moto 40	441X	Alirio Armado	7:58:37.909
Pro Moto 50	501X	Robert Creemers	7:06:05.173
Pro Moto 60	644X	Kevin Ward	8:44:59.382
Pro Moto Ironman	793X	Juan Zunino	6:19:31.720
Pro Moto Limited	100X	Fernando Beltran	6:11:38.389*
Pro Moto Unlimited	3X	Ciaran Naran	6:10:02.200*
Pro Quad	1A	Nicolas Verez	6:24:55.907&
Pro Quad Ironman	83A	Faelly Lopez	10:19:06.469*

Sportsman

Class	Number	Competitor of Record	Time
Sportsman Buggy	1556	Alejondro Arroyo	10:21:49.546*
Sportsman Moto	249X	Armando Ortiz	7:37:22.422
Sportsman Quad	105A	Francisco Valle	7:09:49.739*
Sportsman Truck	1474	Garrete Wolfard	8:24:08.203*
Sportsman UTV	N/A	No Finishers	N/A