The Baja 1000 will be on TV this year.
SCORE International, the governing body that runs the Baja 1000, San Felipe 250 and other high-profile desert races in Mexico and the US, has announced a TV deal with CBS Sports that will see all five of the races in the series broadcast. They’ll show at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday nights. There’ll be a one-hour telecast for each event in the month following the event. There will also be a sixth show covering the Baja 1000 qualifying event, which runs Nov. 4-7.
What this means for the Canadian television market isn’t clear yet, but SCORE officials tell CMG they’re working on signing international broadcast hosts. They say there are more racers from Canada at SCORE events than any other country besides Mexico and the US. With that in mind, it would seem to make sense to break into the Canadian TV market as well.
The move is the latest in a series of changes for SCORE and the Baja series; while motorcycles have historically been a high-profile part of the Baja races (trucks, quads, cars and other vehicles also race), the press release now states “Created by SCORE in 1994, the marquee racing division in the sport is SCORE Trophy Truck which features high-tech, 850-horsepower unlimited production trucks,” with no mention of the two-wheeled pioneers who blazed the way for the race’s success. It’s not surprising, though, considering the series is now owned by Roger Norman, a Trophy Truck champion who bought out previous series owner Sal Fish in 2012.
