Freeman, Herbst score in Baja 2000

Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2000 | 10 a.m.

Bekki Freeman of Henderson, the only female to compete on a regular basis in the SCORE off-road desert racing series, was first in class Tuesday in the Tecate SCORE Baja 2000 in Baja California, Mexico.

Freeman finished first in Class 1/2-1600, covering the 1,679.54-mile course in 38 hours, 37 minutes and 20 seconds. She was the 13th overall finisher among cars and trucks.

Dan Smith and David Ashley of Riverside, Calif., won the featured Trophy Truck class and overall championship for cars and trucks in a time of 32:15:19.

Troy Herbst of Las Vegas was the Class 1 winner and finished second overall in 32:50:59. Las Vegan Tim Herbst, driving with his brother Ed, finished fourth in Trophy Truck and 12th overall and clinched the season-long Trophy Truck championship.

Freeman and her team of three co-drivers completed the treacherous course by averaging 43.486 mph and had few problems during the race.

"We had a really good run," Freeman said. "All of my drivers did really good jobs. By the time I got in the car (for the final 450 miles), we were 30 minutes down from (then-leader Kash Vessels).

"I just figured if I drove smooth and clean, we would make the time up on them because they were switching off (driving); there was nobody fresh. We knew that they were going to be getting tired and probably making some mistakes. We just drove really clean and I had no problems on my way in at all."

Although Freeman notched her third win in Baja in as many races, she said she fell short of her goal of winning the overall title.

"We didn't win the overall, Troy won the overall, so I was a little disappointed with that," she said. "But this was our third time to Baja and we've won all three years, so that was pretty cool."

Freeman expressed relief that the Baja 2000 will return to its normal 1000 miles next year.

"This is a bit much," Freeman said of the nearly 2000-mile race.