Radar Tires Racing and Mike Johnson Confident Heading into SCORE International Baja 500

UTV Weekly | May 31, 2013

Radar Tires Racing and Bronson Motorsports driver/owner Mike Johnson have 500 miles of high-speed dirt trails, sand, rocks and elevation changes ahead of them at the 45th Annual SCORE International Baja 500, on May 30-June 2.

Johnson, who doubles as Hollywood stunt driver, will channel his inner Iron Man for this weekend’s grueling 500-mile race as the lone driver of the No.1031 Radar Tires Racing Buggy. Johnson will start 12th in Class 10, as determined in a drawing by SCORE International.

As the second scheduled Class 10 race of the year for Radar Tires Racing, the flagship brand of Omni United, Bronson Motorsports and driver/owner Johnson is racing an Alumicraft chassis, Class 10 buggy with special non-DOT size 33X10.50R15 Radar Renegade R5 race tires.
During the SCORE International Baja 250 in March, Johnson and co-driver Mike Majesky finished third in class. This weekend Johnson will be without a co-driver since Majesky, also in the Hollywood action filming business, is on a movie set.

“Both Mike and I have been flat-out preparing for the LOORRS events, the Baja and filming Transformers 4, so this weekend I’ll be racing all 500 miles alone and I’m really excited about tackling that challenge,” Mike Johnson said. “With the way our short course season has been going, I should have a lot of aggression and stamina to get me to the finish without a problem. I’ve been looking forward to this race all season because Baja is one of my most sacred racing places. The guys have put in a lot of time sorting out the Radar Tires Racing Buggy over the past year and a half, so I really like our chances.”
Behind the wheel of the Radar Tires Racing Buggy, Johnson will take the green flag for the elapsed-time race at approximately 11:30 a.m. (PT) on Saturday, June 1. The entrants have 22 hours to finish the 500 miles to be considered an official finisher of the annual event.

Event organizers have mapped out roughly 500 miles of Mexico’s Baja California Norte for the annual event, including some new sections. The start/finish line is located in Ensenada, Mexico, the seaside port on the Pacific Ocean, 80 miles south of San Diego, but the course traverses the peninsula, taking in some very challenging terrain as it does.

Johnson and Bronson Motorsports will use the pre-race week to set the race strategy. The week’s agenda includes pre-runs of the course, determining pit stop locations and fuel strategy. During the 500 mile event, Bronson Motorsports will maximize their time on-track and minimize time during pit stops, as there will be no driver changes. The plan is to run a conservative pace the first 300 miles, then turn the wick up for a charge to the finish. The 45th running of the SCORE Baja 500 course includes four full-stop checkpoints and more than 90 virtual checkpoints.
Off-road motorsports was chosen by the newly-formed Radar Racing team to showcase the Renegade R5 M/T tire, which features open blocks for mud dispersion, deep tread blocks, and reinforced shoulders. This tread pattern and rigorous construction is ideal for the surfaces encountered on short course tracks such as Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, California and Firebird Raceway in Chandler, Arizona as well as the open desert of Baja California in the legendary SCORE Baja 1000, the most iconic of all off-road races.