UPDATE: This story has been corrected.

One of the closest Pro UTV Forced Induction finishes in SCORE Baja 500 history saw Craig Scanlon eventually declared the winner on Sunday afternoon. Marc Burnett was the first driver to the finish line, but Jason Murray was initially declared the winner on corrected time; however, a late 10-minute VCP penalty was applied to Murray, dropping him to third and elevating Scanlon to the top of the class standings.

Defending overall SCORE World Desert Champion Wayne Matlock was fourth to the finish line, while Cory Sappington completed the top five. A majority of the big names made it through the entire 483.9-mile course, but a handful of the first starters—including Mike Cafro, the first Pro UTV FI racer on the road—took DNFs.

In Pro UTV Normally Aspirated action, Kaden Wells returned to the class where he won last year’s championship and took the victory over Kristen Matlock and Adrian Orellana. Sole Pro Stock UTV entrant Brad Lovell was also able to make it to the finish line, but none of the Pro UTV Unlimited entrants were scored as official finishers. 19 of the 38 UTVs to enter this year’s event made it to the finish line.

Ernesto Araiza

Pro UTV Forced Induction finishers were as follows:

  1. #2931 Craig Scanlon, 13:26:40.997
  2. #2905 Marc Burnett, 13:27:19.881
  3. #2917 Jason Murray, 13:33:52.138
  4. #2971 Wayne Matlock, 14:14:48.261
  5. #2904 Cory Sappington, 14:16:33.863
  6. #2918 Justin Lambert, 15:03:34.098
  7. #2919 Brandon Schueler, 15:10:39.744
  8. #2942 Casey Currie, 15:12:34.601
  9. #2948 Matt Burroughs, 15:20:30.572
  10. #2910 Scott Trafton, 15:41:22.068
  11. #2927 Justin Smith, 16:00:09.491
  12. #2912 Tony Riggs, 16:03:25.469
  13. #2978 Jose Juarez, 17:15:23.335
  14. #2903 Juan Antonio Martinez, 17:22:28.530

Pro UTV Normally Aspirated finishers were as follows:

  1. #1995 Kaden Wells, 13:41:31.365
  2. #1954 Kristen Matlock, 16:25:55.879
  3. #1985 Adrian Orellana, 17:10:50.651
  4. #1950 JT Holmes, 18:52:14.592

Pro Stock UTV finishers were as follows:

  1. #3937 Brad Lovell, 18:15:12.307

The 51st Annual SCORE Baja 500 will air on ABC’s World of X Games later this year as part of coverage of the 2019 SCORE World Desert Championship. The championship takes a break until mid-September, when the inaugural Lucerna SCORE Baja 400 marks the third of four rounds on the season.

Check out our exclusive gallery from the weekend below!

Words by: Chris Leone // UTVUnderground.com
Photos by: Ernesto Araiza // UTVUnderground.com

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