I killed the hometowns in the first graph. I left the rest in, but they are certainly not mandatory information.
Miles per hour can be abbreviated on all uses
SAN FELIPE, Baja California, Mexico — Turning the tables on last year’s results, third-generation desert racer Luke McMillin topped Bryce Menzies as he roared through the Baja desert in Saturday’s King Shocks 35th SCORE San Felipe 250.
Luke McMillin, 29, drove solo to power his No. 83 Mason-built all-wheel drive Chevy 1500 to lead the third-largest number of starters in race history in an error-free, penalty-free winning time of four hours, 25 minutes and 21 seconds.
Through the grueling 277- mile course, McMillin, who is from San Diego, set an average speed of 62.63 mph.
McMillin had plenty of competition behind him in the superb field of 42 of the marquee SCORE Trophy Trucks along with the 269 overall starters.
Menzies, 34, was the fast qualifier for the second straight year in San Felipe and ended up finishing second in the race, driving his No. 7 Menzies Motorsports AWD Ford Raptor built by Mason Motorsports with a time of 4:27:30, and an average speed of 62.13mph.
Rounding out the podium in third place was the team of Mike Walser, 55, Comfort, Texas, and Jax Redline, 17, Amarillo, Texas, with a time of 4:29:19 in their AWD Mason-built No. 89 Chevy Silverado with an average speed of 61.71mph.
Following in the dusty tracks of his grandfather Corky McMillin and his father Mark McMillin in desert racing, Luke McMillin, closed in on Bryce Menzies after getting by Justin Lofton early in the race.
The battle raged on for more than 100 miles as McMillin got by Menzies when the 34-year-old had to stop to change a flat tire. Later on, Menzies got by McMillin when the No. 83 had an issue while pitting, and then McMillin passed Menzies for the last time when the No. 7 had another flat.
After losing by just 15.54 seconds to Menzies last year, McMillin won this year with a victory margin of two minutes, nine seconds. It was McMillin’s first SCORE San Felipe 250 race with his AWD Mason SCORE Trophy Truck.
After winning the SCORE Baja 1000 in both 2020 (splitting driving with Larry Roeseler) and 2022 (splitting the driving with Rob MacCachren), McMillin drove solo to earn his first SCORE Trophy Truck win in San Felipe. He also won in the unlimited Class 1 10 years ago when he was just 19 years old.
McMillin has now earned three career SCORE Trophy Truck race wins and he also has four career SCORE season point championships including 2020 in SCORE Trophy Truck.
“It feels really, really good, we ran clean today, and had no issues at all,” McMillin said. “We just kept moving all day. We picked off (Justin) Lofton going up north and then there was some back and forth with Bryce (Menzies) on a couple of occasions. We passed them on the lake bed when they were changing a tire. We had a little hiccup on our pit and they got by us. We were 30 seconds behind him and we passed them as they pulled over. It was just cat and mouse.”