Mexico's Vildolsola Racing Dominates Baja 1000 J Burns - Off-Road.com | |
go to original November 18, 2012 |
In this episode of Meet the Drivers we see what's on the mind of the 2010 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 winners Vildosola Racing. Gustavo and Tavo, a father/son team are a fan favorite in Mexico, and are taking a hard look at what it's going to take to win the 45th Tecate SCORE Baja 1000. (ScoreInternationalTV)
LA PAZ, Mexico — For the second time in three years, Mexico’s father and son race team of Gus Vildosola and Gus Vildosola Jr have etched their names again on the granite history of the world’s most legendary desert race along with the team of Colton Udall/Timmy Weigand/David Kamo who added their names to motorsports history by capturing the overall 4wheel and 2wheel victories in the 1121.55-mile 45th Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 desert race down Mexico’s mysteriously magical Baja Califonria Peninsula from Ensenada to La Paz. The season-finale of the five-race 2012 SCORE Desert Series ended Saturday.
Gustavo, 59, and Gustavo Jr, 30, of Mexicali, Mexico, repeated the history they made in this race in 2010 when they became the first Mexican national team to capture the overall title in the granddaddy of all desert racing in their No. 21, Red Bull Vildosola Racing Ford F-150. With Gustavo Jr driving large starting and finishing sections of the course and his father Gus driving a small section in the center of the course, the dedicated pair covered the exasperating course in 19 hours and 45 minutes, averaging a strong 56.79 miles per hour.
The Vildosola team also recorded the fastest time on the course for all vehicles, including motorcycles, which have recorded the fastest time in 36 of the 45-year history of the race.
Udall, San Clemente, Calif./Weigand, Valencia, Calif./Kamo, Caldwell gutted out a tough, hard-fought race against the elements as well as factory-supported team from KTM and Kawasaki, recording a team of 20:09:30 on their JCR Honda Honda CRF450X while averaging 55.64mph.
Vildosola Comments
Following his team’s overall victory, which included defeating a large field of 33 SCORE Trophy Trucks, Vildosola Jr said, “It was tough going at the beginning and there were a lot of trucks in front of us. Getting around them was a little difficult but our plan was to be in 10th place by Puertecitos but we were actually in 10th place at the goat trail. We decided to take it easy from there on down and try to conserve the truck through San Felipe. This is a new (driver’s) suit that I put on at race mile 785 and it looks like it went 1000 miles. We went through the first 618 miles and I got out at San Ignacio. It was just an amazing race and I’m extremely proud of our guys and extremely proud of Javi (Valenzuela, the team’s riding mechanic.)”
“We come down here and say that we represent Mexico and we went out and won another one for Mexico. We lost three or four minutes with a flat. We were behind B.J. (Baldwin) at that time and (Ryan) Arciero was behind us. I thought I lost it (the race) there because I was pushing hard to catch B.J. and we got the flat and all of a sudden at about race mile 1000 we saw him (Baldwin) so we chased after him and passed him. We got some clean air after that which was nice. I’m in love with the new truck. The truck is amazing and we drove by everyone today.”
“We actually spent some time looking at some video of the start from the SCORE Baja 500 from 2011 in preparation. I drove really hard at the start (of the 2011 SCORE Baja 500) and it didn’t get me anywhere. At the SCORE Baja 1000 in 2010 I drove extremely smart and went really hard when I could and I just laid back when there was no visibility. I did the same thing this time and it ended up working out for us. We passed about five trucks before Ojos Negros and we were 10th place. By Puertecitos we were running in the top seven. We just had a good, smart race.”
Read SCORE Official Results for the 45th Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 at Off-Road.com
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