LOS ANGELES--Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas, both major resort destinations on opposite ends of the mysterious Baja California, Mexico, peninsula, will be the official start and finish line areas for the awe inspiring SCORE Baja 2000 desert race. The announcement was made recently by SCORE International, the sanctioning body and race organizer for the longest point-to-point desert race ever held.
Having reached agreements with the governors, tourism departments and hotel associations of both Baja California Norte and Baja California Sur along with the mayors of both Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas, Sal Fish, CEO of SCORE, has also announced that the SCORE Baja 2000, A Race for the Ages, will have a projected cash purse of at least $200,000 plus nearly $1 million in contingency posting. The event week schedule will run from Nov. 9-16, with the official race start on Nov. 12.
"We are honored to announce Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas as the official start and finish line areas for the SCORE Baja 2000," said Fish, who explained that this event is being held instead of the traditional SCORE Baja 1000 to help complete the festivities of the start of the new millennium. "We couldn't really go any further in course design until we identified the start and finish, so the final course layout will be relatively easy now. We are preparing for an event which will have global impact in the motorsports world and we are expecting entries from more countries and U.S. States than we have ever had at a SCORE race."
The fifth and final race in the 2000 SCORE Desert Series, the awe inspiring SCORE Baja 2000 will start in Ensenada, 65 miles south of San Diego, in the early hours of Sunday, Nov. 12. After criss-crossing the mysterious Baja California peninsula like the shoelaces on racing shoes, the SCORE Baja 2000 will finish in Cabo San Lucas in Baja California Sur, the southernmost tip of the unforgiving Baja.
Pre-race festivities, including racer registration, will start in San Diego, on Thursday, Nov. 9 and Friday, Nov. 10. The SCORE Baja 2000 experience will include the colorful pre-race Manufacturer's Midway and safety inspection of the race vehicles.
On Saturday, Nov. 11, a parade of all race vehicles will cross the border into Mexico in a major Hands Across America fiesta for final registration and technical inspection in Ensenada.
The survivor's celebration in Cabo San Lucas will be held on the evening of Thursday, Nov. 16 and will include a major music fiesta.
As in all SCORE races in Mexico, competition will be held in 23 Pro classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs along with six for Sportsman entries. While the fastest vehicles are expected to finish in approximately 41 hours, all racers will have a 100-hour time limit in the elapsed-time race to become an official finisher in the once-in-a lifetime event.
From the start in Ensenada, the SCORE Baja 2000 course will pass through or near eight towns in Baja California Norte and 11 in Baja California Sur before reaching the finish line below the Tropic of Cancer in Cabo San Lucas, the no. 1 resort destination in all of Mexico.
The terrain will include pine forests, boulder-strewn mountains, dry lake beds, trails, dry river beds, sandy beaches, and cactus-filled deserts. Elevation will range from sea-level to over 1,500 feet, and temperatures will fluctuate from 50 to 80 degrees in the day and 30 to 50 degrees at night.
From a press release
