Team Australia tops San Felipe 250 qualifying

It did not take long for Toby Price and Paul Weel to get used to their new Trophy Truck. Purchased from Andy McMillin in December, the two put their #46 truck atop the leaderboard in Wednesday’s qualifying for the SCORE International season-opening San Felipe 250.

With Price behind the wheel, the #46 set a fastest time of 5:39.616, over two seconds faster than second-placed Tavo Vildósola. The Price/Weel duo, dubbed Team Australia, are in an AWD TT similar to the one they ran at the 2022 Baja 1000 before it was destroyed in a fire; after McMillin, a five-time Baja 1000 winner, announced his retirement from full-time racing, he sold his truck to the Australians. For Price and co-driver Kellon Walch, the start comes four weeks after racing in the World Rally-Raid Championship’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge where Price competed on a bike and took the RallyGP points lead while Walch rode shotgun to Mitch Guthrie in T3.

McMillin commented on Weel’s post about the pole, “Way to go boys and the whole team!”

His cousin Luke McMillin was fourth fastest to begin his SCORE TT title and San Felipe victory defence. Bryce Menzies, who finished second to Luke in the 2022 points battle and teamed up with Andy at the last two Baja 1000s, qualified one spot ahead. Menzies topped qualifying at the 2022 San Felipe 250.

Rob MacCachren was eleventh in class. MacCachren, who helped Luke McMillin win the 2021 and 2022 Baja 1000s, is racing with a heavy heart after losing his father Bob MacCachren earlier in the week.

Qualifying took place on a 5.1-mile course separate from the route used for the race. While this meant qualifying times were under eight minutes, some encountered problems that they will have to fix before race day on Saturday. For example, the Trophy Truck Spec of Ryan Hancock suffered a transmission failure while the engine on Kyle Jergensen‘s Trophy Truck shut off four times due to high oil temperatures.

Chris Miller topped Trophy Truck Spec after Ray Griffith received a time penalty for cutting the course. The same occurred in Trophy Truck Legends where Vildósola’s father Gus Vildósola beat Rolf Helland by ten seconds with help from the latter’s penalty.

Vildósola was the fastest non-traditional TT as his time was the tenth best of the seventy-six to set a time. Forty-two of the qualifiers are in TT Spec, an increase by six from 2022.

Reigning TT Spec champion Jorge Sampietro qualified ninth in class.

Unlike previous years, only Trophy Trucks and their related subcategories qualified on Wednesday versus when Class 1 also took part. In lieu of qualifying, the rest of the field had their starting order set by random draw.

Qualifying leaders

Trophy Truck

Trophy Truck Legends

Trophy Truck Spec

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