Four Days after Crossing the Finish Line, Larry Roeseler Wins Baja 500—at Age 64

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There’s a famous quote by American playwright David Mamet that says, “Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance.” While that’s often true, there was no treachery involved in Larry Roeseler’s win in last weekend’s Baja 500. Instead, Roeseler used almost 50 years of racing experience and a remarkable, total, lack of flat tires.

Oh, and Roeseler is 64 years old.

“My very first SCORE Baja 500 was in 1972—I rode a 175cc motorcycle,” said Roeseler at the finish line. “And here I am, over 40 years later and still hitting it. This is a very, very awesome finish and we’re really, really happy.”

Roeseler drove his Baja Jerky Cantina Racing Toyota Tundra built by ID Designs to a third-place overall finish in the elapsed-time race. He completed the grueling 466.00-mile desert duel in a winning time of 10 hours, 16 minutes and two seconds with an average speed of 45.39 miles per hour. At that point, he was happy just to have finished in an apparent third place in the BFGoodrich Tires SCORE Baja 500.

He was only third for a few days, though. It was later that the rest of the story came out.

First across the finish line Saturday night was multiple race winner and scion to the reigning McMillin family of desert racers, Luke McMillin. Evidence suggested that Luke McMillin had taken a line that was not exactly on the race course. Race-dezert.com said that there were people camped out on race day in a spot that had been empty during pre-running, McMillin had to get around them and in doing so drove through their poorly placed campsite. The move, whether his fault or the campers, was grounds for SCORE to disqualify him.