BIG BANANA UPDATED!: January 5, 2020
LAST UPDATED!
March 23, 13
Gabriel Garcia of El Vigia Newspaper Piles On the SCORE Donkey Show!
" Ensenada, BC - You need to start polishing Norman Score details
This year will be much learning and many changes for Score International and its new owner, Roger Norman, something that could be seen perfectly in the past San Felipe 250.
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More than 90 percent of the staff was changed Score Norman and that could bring positive results, as was the live broadcasting the start of the race, a drivers meeting open to the public, a spectacular exit very different from what we had become accustomed Sal Fish, a very different route, the alliance with the ASO to join the Dakar Challenge and many health care along the route, same tragedies avoided in many cases where they left fans affected by reckless act .
Touching on the negative, it was something that was expected, was the mixed classes at startup, which revealed a lack of coordination of the staff of Score, the public do not have more time to advance the new rule 500 feet maximum separation of the track for all riders, the problems of sanctions did not explain why the same to the same participants and a belated review of results in different categories of cars and motorcycles.
Those details are specific to American promoter work facing the Baja 500 with his group, as also with very talented people like Abelardo Grijalva, Art Savedra, Oscar Alfonso Ramos and Lacarra. Poncho is technical director CODE Mexicali, so his arrival will be very worth Score, as could be demonstrated in the 250, helping viewers who suffered accidents and saving their lives.
Another good point to Norman is being counseled by people with little experience in Baja and Off-Road, as it is the same Lacarra or the legendary promoter Lou Peralta, bringing the vision of U.S. will be higher for the remainder of this year and the future are changing times in SCORE International and is well aware that Roger."
March 21, 2013
Last Tuesday Night, After Five (5) Months of "Social Media Development" at SCORE, Roger Norman takes three days to Screw The Pooch at the San Felipe 250 OUTRAGE
Robby Bell Comments:
""Course cutting, Penalties and Protests. Oh my!
This year’s San Felipe 250 was chalked full of incident(s). Everyone has their opinion on what happened during the race, and the week leading up, and there’s really not a right or wrong point of view as it’s all in how the events have been interpreted by each individual. Having said that, here’s my take on our side of the drama.
Over the past few years it seems the athletes racing SCORE have become more “creative” with their line choices and it’s become more noticeable lately as the competition has elevated, the stakes have risen and more exposure has come into the sport of Baja racing. Line creativity has always been a part of racing south of the border as it was looked at as the Wild West, a last bit of freedom in an ever-condensing world. Even before Dust to Glory publicized Johnny Campbell’s “beach line” I’d heard stories of some extravagant course deviations. Bruce Ogilvie once told me that instead of using the nasty Old Puertecitos road, he jumped out onto Highway 5 for the forty-mile stretch without giving it a second thought.
The difference between then and now, of course, is that technology has allowed race officials and fans the opportunity to see these lines and since raised discussion in public view over whether taking them is fair or not. In my personal opinion I do believe in regulating how far racers can stray from the course, but I also feel it’s a bit of a sticky wicket because there are so many lines that have developed over the years that have previously been deemed legal and not every racer pre-runs with a GPS to know if he or she is within the limits of the racecourse. The obvious answer is to tell everyone to beat right down the arrows, but in the pro class, with money on the line and sponsor expectations high, it’s only natural to push the edges of what’s legal. I know from personal experience how salty of a taste it leaves when I’m working my butt off hitting a section of whoops only to later learn that I lost time to another rider who was on a smoother, faster line over half a mile off the course. At the end of the day, though, if the rules are in place, it’s up to us to follow them to the best of our ability.
Coming into the San Felipe race it was assumed that the “classic” SCORE rules still applied for this race; spreading is acceptable so long as you make the Virtual Check Points (VCPs). We had a meeting with SCORE and Johnny Campbell and left with the understanding that it wouldn’t be until the Baja 500 that a course width would come into effect. Flash forward to Thursday afternoon, less than a day and a half before the race, when I sign up and receive my race bulletin that states any course deviation further than 500 feet from centerline will be penalized. This came as a bit of a shock as my teammates and I (and a lot of other racers) had been pre-running with the classic rules in our minds so we had an informal meeting with Roger that night, which Johnny attended as well. We were informed that the rule change had been posted on Monday, on the Internet, but unfortunately for us, we had been in San Felipe since the previous Thursday without Internet or a way to understand that a change had been made. Johnny had an advantage as he was still in the States at that time and saw the changes online, so he informed his riders to pre-run both within the 500 foot limits and classic SCORE lines, and as a result was in favor of keeping the 500ft rule in place. My team and the KTM team both agreed the best thing to do was to revert to the classic rules, as the Honda boys still knew the wide lines and it would be a more even playing field, but the decision was made to keep the 500ft ruling.
After learning all of this, I had to go run my sections again Friday morning to measure what lines would be legal and also just to see the course, as in some spots with many parallel lines, I had to learn which one was the centerline racecourse. I got a basic grasp on what I was going to do on race day, but then another announcement was made at the rider’s meeting that made things even more vague than before: spreading would be allowed in the sand washes, the silt beds and lines deemed to be parallel. David and I both had “parallel lines” further than 500 feet off course, so we just left it at being a race day decision as to taking them or not. Come race day and I know all of us, the Honda included, took lines that were further than 500 feet off the course, it seems more of a judgment decision which lines would end up being penalized. As of right now I don’t know what lines we, and the KTM team, got penalized for and I’m also not saying the Honda took any lines that should have been penalized. It is my personal opinion at that the results should have stood the way the race ended. The KTM was the best team on the day, the Honda beat us fair and square and I think Kendall and Ryan were probably the only open pro team to pound the arrows around the entire track (maybe we should start a petition to give them the win!). I don’t feel we took any lines that “cut” the course so I’d be interested to see what lines we took that were deemed to be illegal.
Moving forward I am a fan of the 500-foot course width, but I feel their needs to be open discussion about it and the rules need to be solidly in place before pre-running starts. I feel the tracking data should be visible to all of the teams after the race so we can have a candid meeting over any deviations and more of a consensus rather than blaming and finger pointing. I believe narrowing the course boundaries will make the sport more competitive and affordable as racers who can’t spend a week and a half pre-running to find all of the lines will be on a more level playing field. Hopefully it will have an added benefit of pre-runners (cars and bikes/quads) putting in fewer miles over the already beat terrain, allowing the racecourses a little more recovery and it will also be safer from the standpoint that a rider won’t crash a quarter of a mile off course, making it difficult to find him/her. I feel there are a lot of positives that can come out of this rule change and I applaud Roger and SCORE for implementing it. It’s unfortunate all of the controversy that arose from San Felipe, but I feel it will improve our sport in the long run and allow us to continue to enjoy racing the sport we love in an ever-developing country.""
No Race Results For Over a Week! Can you Say SCORE SUCKS...Pending Final Review...Of Course!
Last Tuesday, For the first time since the launch, Roger "Flounder" Norman,
was NOT on the 'show'
Ruining the Racing Experience of Important, Major Teams, THE CUSTOMERS OF SCORE, So Badly, Bryce Menzies sez "What A Joke", "Hopefully this is not what the future of score is going to look like". San Felipe 250 OutRage Continues>>>
The 'Grand Whitewash' from SCORE has already begun. The 'Official' results will be shoved into everyones face, when we all know of the outrageous 'race directions changes' and what they've produced.
A Mexican Desert Off-Road Racer, Christian Salinas, from Tecate, Baja California described his race administration experience: "at the registration and tech inspection they said that it (Tracking services) was optional, they gave us the new blue transponder and said "YOU JUST NEED THIS TO RACE, THIS
Spokesman George Antill has made SCORE's intentions perfectly clear. Yesterday, he said, "over 100K watched our event" and days after the fuel debacle crippled any respect the racers had for the racing sanctioning body, Antill said then, "we haven't had any racers drop from the race because of the fuel issues" and no official press release responding to SUNOCO's statement, pointing at SCORE's unprofessional operations.
So, there you have the true truth of the intentions of the race organizer, SCORE-International. It's a business and as long as their customers are willing to get fucked and come back for more, they intend to continue to seek website hits and convert them into dollars.
Gary Newsome, Baja Racing News.com
CLICK HERE FOR THE SAN FELIPE 250 OUTRAGE
THE SCORE RACE FUELS SCANDAL NOW UPDATING!
*SUNOCO Fuels Responds to SCORE
Roger Norman tries to explain the mess he created:
"It only concerns race fuel. Pump gas can be used by anyone. The prices on the SCORE website are prices delivered in San Felipe. It includes a 3.25% credit card fee. People can call ARS direct and get 30 days to pay by check. The website is just for ease of use. Sunoco is only interested in being the Spec Fuel like Nascar and every other big series and that's it. I don't believe it would be a good idea to do that at this time. F&L and VP are willing to let Sunoco in as an official fuel for all HDRA and SCORE. The ARS deal is only good for a year so I don't see them screwing it up. If everything is posted on the website then the prices are going to stay fare. It's always the top guys that get sponsored and everyone else pays a higher price. If there is one distributor the prices will go down because they will be hauling fuel much more efficiently. ARS has sponsored all 8 of our National TV shows and $25k in prize money. We are working on world wide distribution at this time for the all the shows. I believe Sunoco is subsidizing the price to try to get the entire market. I do not know if or when we would go to a spec fuel but Sunoco is a powerhouse and could easily squeeze out the competition. What people don't know is that race fuel in Baja is charged an 11% IVA Tax. It is also charged a duty and brokerage fee. So the fees are around $3.50 per gallon. Then you have transport, labor and accommodations on top. Oscar is going to verify these brokerage, duty and tax numbers on Monday. Cheers, Roger"
SUNOCO calls Roger a fabricator:
See Official Press Release HERE
CLICK HERE FOR THE SCORE MEDICAL RESPONSE CRISIS
CLICK HERE FOR THE SCORE SHOCKED STORY
THE SCORE RACE FUELS SCANDAL NOW UPDATING!
*SUNOCO Fuels Responds to SCORE
Roger Norman tries to explain the mess he created:
"It only concerns race fuel. Pump gas can be used by anyone. The prices on the SCORE website are prices delivered in San Felipe. It includes a 3.25% credit card fee. People can call ARS direct and get 30 days to pay by check. The website is just for ease of use. Sunoco is only interested in being the Spec Fuel like Nascar and every other big series and that's it. I don't believe it would be a good idea to do that at this time. F&L and VP are willing to let Sunoco in as an official fuel for all HDRA and SCORE. The ARS deal is only good for a year so I don't see them screwing it up. If everything is posted on the website then the prices are going to stay fare. It's always the top guys that get sponsored and everyone else pays a higher price. If there is one distributor the prices will go down because they will be hauling fuel much more efficiently. ARS has sponsored all 8 of our National TV shows and $25k in prize money. We are working on world wide distribution at this time for the all the shows. I believe Sunoco is subsidizing the price to try to get the entire market. I do not know if or when we would go to a spec fuel but Sunoco is a powerhouse and could easily squeeze out the competition. What people don't know is that race fuel in Baja is charged an 11% IVA Tax. It is also charged a duty and brokerage fee. So the fees are around $3.50 per gallon. Then you have transport, labor and accommodations on top. Oscar is going to verify these brokerage, duty and tax numbers on Monday. Cheers, Roger"
SUNOCO calls Roger a fabricator:
See Official Press Release HERE
CLICK HERE FOR THE SCORE MEDICAL RESPONSE CRISIS
CLICK HERE FOR THE SCORE SHOCKED STORY
CLICK HERE FOR THE ORIGINAL SCORE SALE STORY
Parody, Facts and a little 'bit of opinion'!
Amazing how after the update in 2020,
our reporting from 2013 could have predicted the future!
Maybe it did, with Johnny and Roger 'working together on
'fucking the motorcycles'. Caselli also complained about these
motorcycle goings on, saying, "Roger didn't do his homeowork".
Roger and Johnny were doing their DIRTY HOMEWORK!
Now we know, Campbell and Norman
were engaged in a conspiracy. Stay Tuned...
Gary Newsome, Editor and now Publisher
Baja Racing News.com Amazing how after the update in 2020,
our reporting from 2013 could have predicted the future!
Maybe it did, with Johnny and Roger 'working together on
'fucking the motorcycles'. Caselli also complained about these
motorcycle goings on, saying, "Roger didn't do his homeowork".
Roger and Johnny were doing their DIRTY HOMEWORK!
Now we know, Campbell and Norman
were engaged in a conspiracy. Stay Tuned...
Gary Newsome, Editor and now Publisher
