Pre-Running the Baja 500

On Friday, May 28, Quinn Cody began pre-running the 438 mile course for the rugged Baja 500 – 2010 desert race. He joined the world’s top desert racers in Mexico last week, all  hoping to win the world’s 2nd oldest desert race, the Tecate SCORE Baja 500, which begins at 6 am on Saturday June 5.

Many race teams will spend up to 5 days pre-running the rugged terrain that varies in extremes of desert, to a flat dry lake bed, to a sheer mountain crossing which runs between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez.

JCR/Honda team Kendall Norman and Quinn Cody are on board the SCORE championship 1x bike for this year’s Baja 500, riding the dominate JCR/Honda CRF450X race bike.

The rugged 438.81-mile course in 2010 is very similar to the last two years, although it is about eight miles longer and the terrain has changed significantly due to torrential rains that impacted both sides of the race course on the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez and in the middle in the summit section.

Traditionally one of the most popular events on the SCORE schedule, over 100,000 spectators are expected to enjoy the world’s best desert racers in action at this year’s 42nd anniversary of the Tecate SCORE Baja 500, the original desert race produced by SCORE on July 26, 1974.

With late entries accepted up to race morning, entries are expected from 26 U.S. States from Hawaii to Connecticut, and along with the additional countries of Mexico, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Japan. The green flag will drop for the race at 6 a.m. on Saturday (June 5) for the motorcycle and ATV classes in the Tecate SCORE Baja 500, followed by the car and truck classes three hours after the last ATV at approximately 10 a.m. The elapsed-time race will start and finish in front of the Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center on Boulevard Costero in the heart of Ensenada, leaving and returning into the city through the spectator-laden Arroyo Wash.