Well as the press release says Ponce was introduced to Arturo Benavides, the 2011 SNORE VORE Class Champ, last year thru a drag racing buddy in Laredo Texas. http://www.4x4offroads.com/multiplatform-minority-racers-score-baja-250.html They finally got a chance to meet and in Feb 2013 they formed a partnership and decided to go race the Baja 2013 season. It was pretty much as last minute deal since the Arturo's old school Class 8 truck had been sitting for almost a year. So last minute prepping began with a new fresh motor, carburetor, and seam welding where needed. Arturo and Ponce got a chance to run a couple of miles on the truck and noticed a cooling problem, which was fixed pretty. The truck seemed to be running ok especially the suspension. Ponce did feel the steering a bit off, but there was no time to fix that since it was time to ship the truck off to San Felipe. It was showtime and the team that consisted of 2 semi pro racers and 3 ranchers were off to experience the Score Baja. Private First Class transport and accommodations were all handled by Laredo Choppers and ANB Cattle. This really helped out since we were there in no time. The team arrived in San Felipe, Baja California and felt welcomed. Ponce hooked up some free Tecate Beer from his old school partner, Tecate. Coming from Central Mexico and Laredo, the team thought they were in off road heaven with all the off road vehicles driving around. You would never see that in Central Mexico or Laredo with all the kidnappings and violence going on. Plus Ponce was happy to be back in Mexico with some sun. The team met up with other pro teams at the lodging, which included Mike Palmer, JT Taylor, Randy Ellis and the Ashcraft Team. It was great to be around these guys and learned a few things from them. Randy Ellis helped out by doing a quick run thru the Class 8 Truck to point out some possible gremlins. The pre run was great and both Arturo and Ponce thought of it more like the actual race. The Score Baja 250 course was marked very well, and there were many lines to take. Ponce hates using GPS and never uses it unless he has to look for an address on the street. These guys never even turned it for the pre run in the Wide Open pre runner car. Ponce prefers to race an old school style with no cel or sat phone, no gps, no map, no support crews...and so does Arturo so the 2 made a great combo. Ponce said that some sections reminded him of WRC Mexico and the whoops gave him memories of the King of the Hammers. The San Felipe is said to have the toughest whoops and more rocky sections. The team managed to pre run the whole 250 in less than 7.5 hours. They even managed to lose the wide open guides, when they took a rock crawling line and ended up passing them up by taking an alternate route without the guides noticing. That was one of the best things that both of them liked that you had so many lines to take, offering many options. Arturo pre ran the first section which was full of whoops and loose sand, and Ponce took over on 148 which had more fast rally style turns, wide open lake beds, and rocky sections. The only carnage during the pre run was a broken rear right coil and a flat and bent bead lock wheel. Which by the way the team thanx Mike Johnson and Daniel for the help on the pre run. The Team also highly recommends if you need to pre run do it with Wide Open crew. Those guys are pros and the vehicles are bullet proof and easy to drive. After the pre run fun, the team headed back to meet the with some TCM Motorsports out of Ensendada, to do a crash course on chasing with the ranchers and do a strategic plan where Arturo and Pablo Torres would start the race and Ponce would take over at mile 148. Ponce contacted Pablo Torres thru his Mexican connections and felt very confident since Pablo knew what lines to take to be able to finish the race in the allotted time. As far as the team's racing adventure is concerned, they did not finish due to some carburetor and electrical gremlins on the ten year old Class 8 Truck, but they did very well during the pre run in the wide open cars and got a chance to meet new people who joined their team for the Baja 500 and 1000. As a plus we made some great noise for our minority team once again. Ponce and Arturo looked at this as a learning experience and had a blast pre running which was what they wanted to really do at this event to get a taste of what the terrain in Baja California offers. They plan on doing their homework and return to the Baja 500 with more Bongo and try and finish and put on a good show. The 500 will be another chance to get more drive time and preparation for the 1000 in November. The team would like to congratulate all the finishers and say special thanx to the winning team Vildosola who helped them out on the rescue mission during the race. Congrats to Roger Norman for putting on a great event and special thanx to Jake Velasco for the tech guidance. The SCORE International Baja races re the toughest, most spectacular off-road races in the Americas since 1962 and are covered by several major networks at a worldwide level. In 2013, Ponce had an opportunity to pre run the Baja 250 and 500 when he helped Arturo Benavides, SNORE 2011 VORE Champion. Ponce has been offered a racing opportunity with a European Team and will be taking on the Imperial 250 and Baja 1000 for the new SCORE WORLD DESERT CHAMPIONSHIP in 2014. Ponce plans on using all the skills that he has learned from past multi world class motorsports where he managed to finish even though he had zero experience in those motorsports; such as UROC Super Crawl 2006, WRC 2008 & 2010, MXRRA 2007-2009, Venezuela Extreme Rally 2009, King of the Hammers 2011, Nordic and Euro Trials 2007, GORM (German Off Road Masters) 24 Hour Race 2012, and the Ultimate Rally Mexico. So keep an eye on this unique Mexican American Minority Racer in the Baja 2014 season. Pablo Torres will be one of the co-drivers in 2014. The Chase teams will be headed by Jose Arzate, Carlos Banos, Victor DeThomas, Luis Sotello, and Adan Legg. Mike Sanchez WRT Media Guanajuato, GTO Mexico