Gus (Tavo) Vildosola Jr. charges hard toward his Trophy Truck victory and first overall in the 2014 Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250.
Image: Mad Media

Originally scheduled to cover 274 miles, SCORE International was forced after the March 2, 2014 Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 off-road race had started to significantly re-route the course because an area called the Summit was impassable due to torrential rains that pelted the northern section of the race course Friday and during the early morning hours Saturday.

The Melacon is the street full of shops, restaurants and bars lining the bay that the town of San Felipe sits upon. This is also where contingency and tech inspection was held the day before the race.
Image: SCORE International

Because of the shortened course, Gus (Tavo) Vildosola Jr. of Mexicali, Mexico, a well-liked driver among SCORE off-road racers decided to make no stops in his Ford Raptor Trophy Truck for a driver change with his normal co-driver and father Gus Sr., and the strategy turned out to be a winning plan. Tavo topped the class and took first overall with a time of 3:31:27 (62.14 MPH average).

Tavo said, “We drew 25th (starting position) and I was extremely worried about that. It really changed my game plan during the race. We got around a bunch of guys and it was a good clean race. “That’s what we needed. We were running in the dust, bushes, and things sometimes bigger than bushes got in the way.

“We started seeing nice compacted dirt near San Matias and it was really slippery around Mike’s loop. I had to do some creative things to get around other trucks. We were pretty aggressive with our truck. Going up to Borrego we could really push the truck and we made up some good time. A lot of the track played to our strengths.”

For a deep dive into the action-packed day of racing for Tavo, and all the hard work the entire family run team put in that day, as well as a look at some of the pre-race festivities and interviews (in Spanish) with Gus Sr., check out the video below.   

Larry Roeseler, Boulevard, California, and co-driver Tim Herbst, Las Vegas, Nevada, were second in class and second overall four-wheel vehicle in their Ford F-150 Trophy Truck at 3:36:51 (60.60 mph); Steven Eugenio of Carlabad, California, piloting a Chevy Silverado Trophy Truck for a time of 3:38:04 (60.26 mph) took third in class and third overall four-wheel vehicle.