You’d think a rollover and two flats would set a guy back in the running order of a race, but Andy McMillin overcame it to win the season-opening SCORE International San Felipe 250 in Baja, Mexico.
“What a day,” McMillin said. “That was a really fun race; a lot going on.”
In addition to being a great driver, McMillin may be a master of understatement.
“We rolled the truck, got a couple flat tires and still were able to pull it off because others like Bryce Menzies had more trouble than we did.”
Menzies reportedly suffered either a transfer case issue or a broken driveshaft while leading just five or six miles from the finish. The course was not only longer, but tougher, too.
“It was a gnarly course, but I really like it,” said McMillin, who is a third-generation desert racer. “It was very fun, very challenging. I think the more the challenging the better.”
Early on, the course bottlenecked in a spot called Matomi Wash, which was so clogged with boulders and sand and so narrow that SCORE officials were seen trying to mitigate the Matomi obstacles before the race.
Veteran Rob MacCachren got the #1 draw, started first and lead early but had a transmission issue. Ryan Arciero, of another famous racing family, took the lead after that and held the physical first place the rest of the day. But SCORE racers are released onto the course in intervals, so the winner is calculated on elapsed time. And that gave the victory to McMillin.
As for the added distance, even 350 miles is shorter than the Baja 1000, which McMillin has also won — several times.
“I like the longer courses, the rougher the better for me, more mentally challenging. SCORE does a great job challenging us and pushing us to the limits with their rugged race courses. We made one little mental error today and rolled it, but we kept pushing. We never gave up and it was a great day.”
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