Gus Vildosola with Team 12L at the 2017 Baja 1000 finish line with Mike Coleman, Scott Bailey and Rodrigo Ampudia

Gustavo Vildósola Ramos (born May 19, 1953, in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico) is a Mexican off-road racer and entrepreneur.

Racing career

Gus Vildósola driving his Trophy Truck during the 2005 Baja 500

Gus Vildósola has been in off-road racing since 1968. He started racing in local races in the Mexicali area.

Vildosola had his first taste of the Baja 1000 in 1984 when one of his cousins invited him to race with him in a 5-1600. In 1995, he decided to build his own 5-1600. He quickly jumped into larger engine vehicles.

In 1996, Ivan Stewart built a ProTruck for him which he raced for two years and achieved a second place in the championship.

Vildósola raced in the a SCORE Class 1 buggy from 1998 to 2001. The next year he moved on to the premiere class, the Trophy Trucks.

In 2003, Vildósola took his first overall race win during the San Felipe 250 sharing driving with Rob MacCachren becoming the first Mexico national team to win a SCORE International race.[1] In the Baja 1000 that year, Vildósola and MacCachren shared the wheel, again finishing third in the trophy truck class.

In the 2004 Baja 1000, Vildósola finished sixth in the trophy truck class timing 17:56.13 (56.65 mph).[2]

During the 40th Baja 1000 in 2007, Vildósola and his son Tavo Vildósola finished second place making it, at the time, the best finish position ever achieved by a Mexico national team in the Baja 1000,[3] This achievement was only surpassed by Vildosola Racing itself on 2010 winning the overall on the 43rd edition of the premiere off-road desert race.

Vildosola Racing SCORE Trophy Truck during the 2011 CODE Off Road Mexicana Logistics 300

Vildósola won the overall in the 43rd edition of the Tecate Score Baja 1000 making him, alongside his son Tavo Vildósola the first Mexican national to win the Baja 1000 overall.[4] His Trophy Truck #21 of team Vildosola Racing raced to the finish line in 19:00.04. Since 1973, the 4-wheel vehicles had not won the overall time over the motorcycles.

The 2011 season started with Vildosola Racing taking third place overall on the 2011 SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge with a final time of 1:56:37 (51.45 mph)[5]

Gus participated in the CODE Off-Road Casas Geo Grand Prix in 2011 where he raced a Class 11 bug. Gus and team finished third with a time of 3:26.14 and 33.17 mph (53.38 km/h) during the special race which had the peculiarity of having Trophy Truck drivers driving as guests of the Class 11 teams.

After a good start on the 2011 San Felipe 250, Tavo and Gus were leading the race until on race mile 90 the trophy truck had a broken transmission which took Vildósola's crew nearly an hour to fix. The team finished 13th with a time of 5:03.57.[6]

Vildosola Racing presented a new Trophy Truck for the 2012 Tecate SCORE Baja 500. The new Trophy Truck was built by Dave Clark and Vildosola Racing, its lighter and narrower than the old truck and also was built to use 42" wheels. The team started 22nd and was able to pass several drivers after a transmission failure left them out of the race while running 6th.

For the 2012 Baja 1000, Tavo and Gus had a 28th starting position draw, (started 25th after a few withdrawals) which would make things harder for them as they would have a lot of dust and trucks before them. Around race mile 1000, Vildósola had passed all of his competitors and for the second time in a row on a peninsula run won the Baja 1000 overall, beating the motorcycles again, only the second time this happens since 1973, the previous time been in 2010 when Vildósola won the overall. The father and son duo stopped the clocks at 19:45:00 (56.79 mph) and made history again, being the only Mexico national team to have two Baja 1000 titles as the overall winners of the race. Gus drove from race mile 618 to 785 leaving the rest of the driving duties to his son Tavo but managing all of the logistics and pit crews.

Five days after the 2012 Baja 1000, a protest was filed against Vildósola from the BJ Baldwin team which accused Vildósola of having made an illegal pit on the highway. The protest was accepted by SCORE International against their own rules, since protests cannot be filed after 24 hours of the unofficial results being made public. SCORE penalized Vildósola by 90 minutes, demoting him to eighth place overall and stripping him from the race win.

The 2013 San Felipe 250 was won by Vildósola who finished second only three seconds behind Bryce Menzies, but Menzies had failed to cross a Virtual Check Point which cost him a 5-minute penalty giving Vildósola his second overall win on the San Felipe 250.

Best results

Year Series Race Finish Class
1996 SCORE International San Felipe 250 1st[7] ProTruck
2000 SCORE International Baja 2000 5th[8] Class 1
2003 SCORE International San Felipe 250 1st SCORE Trophy Truck
2003 SCORE International Baja 1000 3rd[9] SCORE Trophy Truck
2004 SCORE International Baja 1000 6th SCORE Trophy Truck
2007 SCORE International Baja 500 9th[10] SCORE Trophy Truck
2007 SCORE International Baja 1000 2nd SCORE Trophy Truck
2009 CODE Off-Road Race Ready 275 1st[11] SCORE Trophy Truck
2009 SCORE International Baja 1000 4th[12] SCORE Trophy Truck
2010 Best In The Desert Vegas to Reno 5th[13] SCORE Trophy Truck
2010 NORRA Mexican 1000 Rally 1st Class 12
2010 CODE Off-Road Mexicana Logistics 300 1st[14] SCORE Trophy Truck
2010 SCORE International Baja 1000 1st SCORE Trophy Truck
2011 SCORE International SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge 3rd SCORE Trophy Truck
2011 CODE Off-Road Casas Geo Grand Prix 3rd Class 11
2012 CODE Off-Road Mexicana Logistics 300 4th SCORE Trophy Truck
2012 SCORE International Baja 1000 8th SCORE Trophy Truck
2013 SCORE International San Felipe 250 1st SCORE Trophy Truck

Vildosola Racing

Gus Vildósola founded the Vildosola Racing team in 1968. Today, the team races two Trophy Trucks and two Pre-runners and several chase trucks.

Personal life

Vildósola is the CEO, founder and owner of Mexicana Logistics.[15]

On June 8, 2012, Vildósola was awarded the 2012 Distinguished Executive award by the Asociación de Ejecutivos de Ventas y Mercadotecnica de Mexicali, an award that his late father and grandfather had also been awarded.

He is the father of the off-road racer Tavo Vildósola

References

  1. ↑ "Vildosola Racing". Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2010-12-06.
  2. ↑ Race History Archived 2012-03-21 at the Wayback Machine at rlhcomm.com
  3. ↑ Press Release, Baja Racing
  4. ↑ Josh Burns. 2010 at Off-Road.com
    - Ken Hutchinson. 2010 at Motorcycle-usa.com
    - Red Bull
  5. ↑ Jason (January 16, 2011). "2011 SCORE LDC Photos – Sunday". race-dezert.com. Retrieved January 17, 2011. Gus Vildosola Jr/Gus Vildosola Sr, Mexicali, Mexico, Ford F-150, SCORE Trophy-Truck, 1:56:37 (51.45 mph)
  6. ↑ SCORE (March 13, 2011). "Race Results From San Felipe 250". SCORE International. Archived from the original on March 23, 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2011. 13. Gus Vildosola Jr. /Gus Vildosola Sr., Mexicali, Mexico, Ford F-150, 5:03:57
  7. ↑ Press Release, dirtnewz.com
  8. ↑ Press Release, clandestineloaner.com
  9. ↑ SCORE Baja 1000 Official Finishers, desertrides.com Archived July 24, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ Official Results, off-road.com
  11. ↑ Vildosola Racing Archived 2012-03-15 at the Wayback Machine, vildosolaracing.com
  12. ↑ Baja Racing News, baja racing news.com
  13. ↑ Official Results Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine, bitd.com
  14. ↑ Official Results Archived 2010-04-20 at the Wayback Machine, codeoffroad.com
  15. ↑ Mexicana Logistics website
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