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* |
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 |