Father-son team sets Class 1 race record

Monday, Feb. 28, 2005 | 9:34 a.m.

Southern California high school basketball star Andy McMillin teamed with his father, Scott, and conquered the elements and a race-record field of 269 starters en route to the overall victory Saturday at the 19th annual Tecate SCORE desert race in Baja California, Mexico.

The father/son team won the unlimited Class 1 class for open-wheel desert racecars, covering the rugged 240.34-mile course in 3 hours, 48 minutes, 6 seconds with a race-record average speed of 63.06 miles per hour.

The new KTM team of Chris Blais, Andy Grider and Quinn Cody captured the overall motorcycle victory and stopped the 10-race winning streak of American Honda factory team stalwarts Steve Hengeveld and Johnny Campbell.

Andy McMillin, 17, took over from his father at the 130-mile mark in the race and passed his last challengers on his way to the finish line. McMillin, one of the top basketball players on his Poway (Calif.) High School basketball team, became the first third-generation desert racer to win an overall title in a SCORE race.

Defending SCORE season points champion Jason Baldwin was second overall and won the marquee Trophy Truck division in a Ford F-150 with a time of 3:51:22. It was the first Trophy Truck victory for Baldwin, who won last year's season championship without winning a single race.

Finishing third overall and second in Trophy Truck were Las Vegas brothers Tim and Ed Herbst in their Terrible Herbst Motorsports Ford F-150, 7:55 back of the McMillins in the hunt for the overall win and 3:39 behind Baldwin.

Las Vegas resident Bekki Wik, the only female racer to win two SCORE season class point championships (Class 1-2/1600), teamed with her husband Adam to pull off her first victory in Class 10. Driving a Jimco-Honda, the Wiks powered past a field of 26 starters in the class for single or two-seat open-wheelers with up to 1650cc engines.

In Class 1-2/1600, which had 27 starters, Las Vegas racers Rob MacCachren, Danny Anderson and Bryan Freeman teamed up in a Fraley-VW to earn a hard-fought victory margin of 6:16 over Caleb Gaddis. It was MacCachren's fifth class victory in San Felipe.