70 percent of starters survive Baja’s 1,600-plus miles

Friday, Nov. 17, 2000 | 10:20 a.m.

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico -- The longest nonstop, point-to-point desert race held, the Tecate SCORE Baja 2000, came to a surprising finish Wednesday in Mexico with 70 percent of the 262 Sunday starters completing the 1,679.54-mile, brutal terrain of the Baja California peninsula.

A total of 185 vehicles and their drivers, led by overall winners Johnny Campbell of San Clemente, Calif., (two-wheel vehicles) and Dan Smith of Riverside, Calif., (four-wheel), officially survived some of the toughest desert landscape in the world to reach the finish line near Cabo San Lucas and complete the rugged route within the 80-hour race limit.

Campbell, along with co-riders Tim Staab, Craig Smith and Steve Hengeveld, recorded the fastest time of the race in a record 30 hours, 54 minutes and 12 seconds aboard a Honda XR650 motorcycle.

Campbell's team averaged 54.348 mph in the once-in-a-lifetime race that included drivers from 31 states, Washington, D.C. and 11 countries. Smith, a race truck driver from Riverside, Calif., and his co-driver David Ashley posted the best overall four-wheel vehicle time in their Ford F-150 pickup at 32:15:39 for an average of 52.061 mph.

No significant medical incidents were reported in the four-day event.

Several phenomenal wheel-to-wheel battles took place during the historic race including in Class 8 (full-sized trucks) with winner Curt LeDuc; in Class 10 (1650cc cars) with champion Steve Myers, and in Class 3 with the father-son finish of Darren and Clive Skilton.

LeDuc, the 1997 SCORE Trophy Truck point champion, along with co-drivers John Swift and Austin Robinson in a Jeep Grand Cherokee, battled Chris Wilson and his team for nearly 24 hours before taking the victory in 39:08:35.

"We had to play the Baja game," said LeDuc, who has now won the longest North American race as well as the famed Paris-to-Dakar Rally from Europe to Africa.

"For 24 hours, we'd pit at almost the same time. But on radio I'd say I was 100 miles ahead of where I actually was. I didn't want to race him. I'd pull over and let him by; he was really aggressive and I was more cautious. He would get lost or miss a turn, then I would go by him."

The Class 10 division saw Myers and his two brothers, Dan and Andrew, in their Jimco compete against Don Hatch, Whit Courtney and Ben Schlimme for more then 41 hours before the Myers team nipped Hatch's squad by just 19 seconds. It was the closest class competition in the entire event.

Skilton, with co-driver Barry Thompson, defeated his father, Clive, in the Class 3 battle that lasted nearly 50 hours. Darren, driving a Kia Sportage, averaged 34.083 mph to best Clive's Jeep Grand Cherokee which averaged 32.587 mph. Skilton successfully defended the title he claimed at last year's SCORE Baja 1000 and his third consecutive SCORE season point championship.

A one-hour televised highlight package of the Baja 2000 will air on the Speedvision Network, with the first airing scheduled for Friday, Dec. 15, at 7 p.m.