CYPRESS, CALIFORNIA – Toyo Tires and Team Toyo racer BJ Baldwin scored their second consecutive Baja 1000 victory and second consecutive SCORE Overall Point Championship this weekend at the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000.  Baldwin “iron-manned” the race, driving the entire 883.1-mile course on his own.  His Monster Energy / Toyo Tires Chevy^® Silverado^® trophy truck was equipped with Toyo Open Country M/T-R tires.

Both starting and finishing in the port city of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico; this year’s winding course was highly technical with 251 competitors dealing with massive fields of rocks and continuous obstacles.  Baldwin finished first for the four-wheel vehicles with a time of 18:36:10. 

This year’s Baja 1000 was the most difficult race I've ever done.  Mentally and physically it was just a brutal race especially since I drove the entire race myself. Most teams have two or three drivers,” said Baldwin.  “All of the other teams had at least one flat and most had several flats. Thanks to our Toyo's we didn't get any flats which helped us conserve our energy. We didn't have to get out of the truck to change tires. We couldn't have won this race without our high performance Toyo Open Country M/Ts.”

“Toyo Tires congratulates BJ Baldwin on his epic back-to-back Baja 1000 victories and SCORE International championships,” said Amy Coleman, senior director of marketing, Toyo Tire U.S.A. Corp.  “With this being our third Baja victory in a row, I am proud to say the Toyo Open Country M/T-R is the tire of champions.”

Baldwin won the 2012 Baja 1000 and SCORE Overall Point Championship in similar fashion, then finished the 2013 Baja 500 in second place during behind overall winner and fellow Team Toyo racer, Robby Gordon. 

Gordon was an early contender to win this year’s Baja 1000 until a broken front spindle required a lengthy 1.5-hour pit stop for repairs.  The determined Gordon fought his way back to a remarkable sixth place finish in the Trophy Truck division.

Winning Class 1 and finishing seventh in the four wheel category was Damen Jefferies driving his #121 Jefferies-Chevy open wheel buggy equipped with Toyo Open Country M/T-R tires.

About Toyo Tire U.S.A. Corp.

Toyo Tires offers Proxes^® and Open Country^® tires for a variety of motorsports applications.  Proxes equipped cars have won championships in autocross, road racing, time attack and drifting, while Toyo is the Official Tire of NASA, The Cadillac Challenge and PCA HPDE.

Our Open Country tires for off-road competition have won stages in the Dakar^®, the Baja 500 and 1000 overall, three SCORE-International Overall Championships, the 2012 Best In The Desert series Grand Champion, 2012 Lucas Oil^® Off Road Racing Series Pro 4 Class Championship, 2013 Stadium SUPER Trucks™ championship; and in other forms of motorsport such as rock crawling and rock racing.

For more information on competition Toyo tires that deliver championships, log onto www.toyotires.com and connect with the community at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google+.