For years, professional racing teams, automotive manufacturers, and
adventure seekers
have looked to the annual running of the SCORE International Baja
500 as one of the
premier events in desert off-road racing.
Last weekend, over 200 competitors in a wide variety of car, truck
and motorcycle
classes participated in the annual classic held in Ensenada, Baja,
Mexico.

Friday, June 2°d provided thousands of spectators with the
opportunity to meet some
of their favorite racers while watching the race vehicles pass
through technical inspection.
The Land Racing Team participated in Contingency Row, representing
their sponsors
Quaker State 4×4, ISUZU, Pirelli Tire, and Harrah’ s Resorts &
Casinos.

Fans gathered early Saturday, June 3rd in front of the Riviera
Convention Center for
the start of the race. The third stop on the SCORE Desert
Championship Series
featured a rugged 439 mile course, encompassing every type of
terrain imaginable,
and requiring the ultimate in technical and logistical support. The
course turned out
to be one of the most demanding Baja courses ever, with an
attrition rate of over
50% at the end of the race.

The ISUZU Amigo, driven by Jim Winovitch and co-rider Paul
Connolly, ran hard through
the first half of the course, but ended up with front end
suspension problems mid-way
through the race.

Driver-of-record Bob Land, in the ISUZU VehiCROSS, was having a
great run with his
vehicle, with over a one hour lead over his closest competitor at
mile 350 of the race,
when a broken fuel line brought the VehiCROSS down for repairs. By
the time Land
and co-rider Dick Susag made the repairs, they were unable to make
the next
checkpoint by the official closing time, and the VehiCROSS had to
call it a day.

After the final results of the Baja 500 were collected, the
VehiCROSS moved into lst
place in the 2000 SCORE International Series Class Championship
Race, and the
ISUZU Amigo moved into 3rd place in the class points chase for the
season.

The team would like to thank its sponsors for their
continuing support: