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Volkswagen driver Darren Hardesty crushes
V-8 power mongers at Baja 500
As They Put The #3 Riviera Racing Trophy Truck in The
Top Five at the SCORE Baja 500
Los Angeles, CA (June 15, 2007)
The power brokers of the unlimited buggy class (class 1) were thrust into a nightmare when the 150 HP class 10 Alumi Craft buggy of Darren Hardesty and Mark Randazo showed up on their entry list for the Baja 500 amongst the 54 class entries.
Darren just missed the Dirt Sports Driver of the Year award in 2006 as the runner up, he had also finished in the top ten overall in nearly every race he entered in ’06. The catch was Darren was entered in and driving what is commonly known as the third fastest class in SCORE Off Road racing, class 10 for limited motor buggies. The Desert Assassins team driver was constantly the talk of the post race chatter taking his lesser car out and continually doing more.
The problem for the unlimited class buggies at the Baja 500, which commonly have 600-700 horsepower, is that for the first time ever Darren withdrew his 10 car from its proper class and entered it in class 1. The unlimited buggy class would now have to deal with the official results of Darren’s race instead of just taking a ribbing form the industry.
Parallel to this controversial move by Darren the factory VW crew from Dakar had entered the Baja 500 in their multi million dollar turbo charged Touaregs. Darren now had the VW’s from the factory to show what his air cooled Major Performance VW motor could do in addition to the 53 Unlimited buggies he entered against.
Starting in the 48th position in class, behind nearly the entire unlimited buggy class, both factory Touaregs as well as thirty six 800 horsepower SCORE Trophy Trucks, Darren and partner Mark would have their work cut out for them.
The very tight single lane race course made for tough passing but the 2006 SCORE Class ten points champion kept picking off traffic. “It was tough to pass at times having as much as 500 less hp but the pre running I did with my Dad sure paid off” said Darren who commonly spends days doing course reconnaissance with his father Earl who is the 1980 SCORE overall points champion.
In the end a slightly bent a-arm would cost them as would a failed radio unit but the ORW/Bilstein/Fortin class 10 car would finish 4th amongst the unlimited buggys and would take down half of the factory VW team when the official results were posted. The top nine overall positions were held by the elite SCORE Trophy Trucks, Darren would finish 15th overall right behind former Trophy Truck winner Alan Pflueger. The factory VW effort would come home 11th and 18th with privateer VW pilot Hardesty right in between, one must wonder what they thought seeing their technology from the middle of the 20th century hanging with and beating their best from the 21st century?
Hardesty is in the midst of building a purpose built unlimited car and will next battle in class ten at the SCORE Terribles Cup in mid July.
The team would like to thank Bilstein/Yokohama/ORW/Fortin Racing/Alumi Craft/SLIME/Baja Designs /Major Performance/TNT Coatings/Dirt Bagz/Racer X/ATX Wheels
