After Jagged X/Polaris Driver Matt Parks won the opening
round of the 2013 SCORE Baja championship at the Tecate SCORE San Felipe
250, he knew he would need to share the driving duties for the second round,
the 45th Tecate SCORE Baja 500. Parks enlisted teammate Brandon
Schueler, who races in the Best In The Desert series, not only to drive, but to
start the race. The strategy paid off with the Jagged X Team winning its
second straight SCORE race.
"Schueler has more UTV racing experience than anyone out
there and I knew he would do a great job in Baja," Parks said.
Schueler and his co-driver Keith Redstrom took the green
flag in the No. 1932 RZR XP 4 900 and kept a steady pace through the
first fuel stop. However, encountered a huge bottleneck at the 100-mile mark
where a long line of cars were stuck in a particularly nasty section. Once
through that section, Schueler took off after the lead UTV. In second
place and 230 miles
into the race, Schueler handed the RZR over to Parks and co-driver
Jason Spiess.
"We were in second place approximately 35 minutes behind the
leaders, and while I knew we needed to make some time on them, we also needed
to keep the car in one piece," Parks said.
The race continued into the night as racers made their way
toward the Pacific side of the Baja peninsula. Despite getting a flat in a
very rocky section, Parks was making up time on the leaders. He got fuel 335 miles in and headed
to the coast, but encountered dense fog in the middle of the night, making
visibility and navigation tough. A few miles up the road, they encountered the
UTV class leaders who had crashed. Parks stopped to make sure their fellow
competitors were okay, and told them they would have the BFG pits relay their
location to their chase team. With the lead car out and Parks way ahead of
the rest of the pack, the team just needed to race the course to finish.
But Baja wasn't done with the No. 1932 Jagged X RZR XP
4 900. After the final pit stop, 415 miles into the race, they headed into the
hills and encountered one of the toughest parts of the course with heavy silt,
more fog, stuck vehicles and very steep rocky hills. But as daybreak
approached, they could see the lights of Ensenada
and ultimately the checkered flag.
"Winning the Baja 500 is a big deal," Schueler said. "And
racing in Baja has been a great experience."
The next race in the SCORE series is the 46th annual
Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, Nov. 14-17.
Jagged X is sponsored by Polaris, Walker Evans Racing
Shocks, Kroyer Racing Engines, Pure Polaris Extreme Duty Oil, Muzzy's, OMF,
Team Industries, CR Designs, Vision X and Simpson Safety Equipment.
