Bryce Menzies Outduels McMillins to Win 2021 SCORE San Felipe 250

In Thursday qualifying for the 34^th BFGoodrich Tires SCORE San Felipe 250 presented by Ford, Bryce Menzies led Andy and Luke McMillin on the leaderboard by a margin of just a few seconds. In Saturday’s race on the 280.2-mile San Felipe course, the margin of victory wasn’t much different.

Menzies would once again top the finishing order in the opening round of the 2021 SCORE World Desert Championship, posting a time of 4:28:00.803. After a tooth-and-nail battle with Luke McMillin all day, Menzies would defeat the defending SCORE champion by just under 16 seconds at the finish. Andy McMillin would complete the podium after recovering from multiple flat tires and steering issues, with Alan Ampudia and Jax Redline finishing out the top five.

“I tried to run a somewhat easy race and be smooth on the truck—it was very tough,” Menzies said at the finish. “Around RM 60, I think Andy double flatted, which allowed Luke to get by. The rest of the race was trying to keep Luke back behind me. He was about 30 seconds behind me on corrected time, but it was an unbelievable race. It’s insane to go 280 miles and have a split of about 12 seconds at the finish.”

“It was gnarly,” Luke McMillin added. “It was 280 miles, so we knew it was going to be a sprint, but a sprint was an understatement. We took off out of the gates, and I had a good feeling. With the two-wheel drive, we pushed as hard as we could all day, and it sounds like (Bryce) got us by about 15 seconds, which is insane after all we went through.”

Jason Coleman scored the Trophy Truck Spec victory by more than three minutes over Ryan Hancock, with top qualifier Kyle Jergensen completing the podium. Shelby Reid (Class 1) and Chase Warren (Class 10) kicked off the SCORE season with wins in the car classes, with Reid’s team skipping qualifying and coming from the back to do so. Meanwhile, Jeff Proctor bested Class 7 by more than 40 minutes to give the Honda Ridgeline team its first San Felipe win.

In the UTV divisions, Brandon Schueler defeated Austin Weiland by just over a minute in the Pro UTV Forced Induction class, while Wes Miller fought his way to the final podium spot after a 20^th place starting spot. Kristen Matlock earned the Pro UTV NA win over Dodge Poelman and Kaden Wells, while Mike Cafro topped the Pro Stock UTV class and Justin Elenburg won Pro UTV Open by 90 minutes.

The 2021 SCORE World Desert Championship continues with the 53^rd SCORE Baja 500 on June 9-13, 2^nd SCORE Baja 400 on September 14-19, and 54^th SCORE Baja 1000 on November 15-20. Coverage of the 34^th SCORE San Felipe 250 will air as part of ESPN’s World of X Games later this year.

Click here for full class-by-class results from the 34^th SCORE San Felipe 250.

Check out Ernesto Araiza’s full gallery from Saturday’s race below!