Gus Vildósola

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 got his first taste of the Baja 1000 in 1984 when one of his cousins invite him to race along 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 thru 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 duties with Rob MacCachren becoming the first Mexico national team to win a SCORE International race.[1] In the Baja 1000 of that same year Vildósola and MacCachren shared the wheel again finishing 3rd in the trophy truck class.

In the 2004 Baja 1000 Vildósola finished 6th in the trophy truck class timing 17:56.13 (56.65 mph).[2]

During the 40th Baja 1000 in 2007, Vildósola and son Tavo Vildósola finish 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][5][6] 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 3rd place overall on the 2011 SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge with a final time of 1:56:37 (51.45 mph)[7]

Gus participated in the CODE Off-Road Casas Geo Grand Prix of 2011 where he race a Class 11 bug. Gus and team finished 3rd with a time of 3:26.14 and 33.17 mph (53.38kph) 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.[8]

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 got a 28th starting position draw, (started 25th after a few withdraws) 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 been the only Mexico national team to have 2 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.

5 days after the 2012 Baja 1000 a protest was filed against Vildósola from the B.J. 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 protest can't be filed after 24 hrs of the unofficial results are made public. SCORE penalized Vildósola with 90 mins demoting him to 8th place overall and stripping him from the race win.

The 2013 San Felipe 250 was won by Vildósola whom had end up 2nd only 3 seconds behind Bryce Menzies, nevertheless Menzies failed to cross a Virtual Check Point which cost him a 5-minute penalty which gave Vildósola his 2nd overall win on the San Felipe 250.

Best Results

Year Series Race Finish Class
1996 SCORE International San Felipe 250 1st[9] ProTruck
2000 SCORE International Baja 2000 5th[10] Class 1
2003 SCORE International San Felipe 250 1st SCORE Trophy Truck
2003 SCORE International Baja 1000 3rd[11] SCORE Trophy Truck
2004 SCORE International Baja 1000 6th SCORE Trophy Truck
2007 SCORE International Baja 500 9th[12] SCORE Trophy Truck
2007 SCORE International Baja 1000 2nd SCORE Trophy Truck
2009 CODE Off-Road Race Ready 275 1st[13] SCORE Trophy Truck
2009 SCORE International Baja 1000 4th[14] SCORE Trophy Truck
2010 Best In The Desert Vegas to Reno 5th[15] SCORE Trophy Truck
2010 NORRA Mexican 1000 Rally 1st Class 12
2010 CODE Off-Road Mexicana Logistics 300 1st[16] 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 Vildódolsa founded Vildosola Racing team in 1968. Today the team races 2 Trophy Trucks and 2 Pre-runners and several chase trucks.

Personal life

CEO, founder and owner of Mexicana Logistics.[17]

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 in the past.

Father of off-road racer Tavo Vildósola

References

  1. ↑ Vildosola Racing vildosolaracing.com
  2. ↑ Race History http://www.rlhcomm.com/BFG/RACES/archives.htm
  3. ↑ Press Release Baja Racing News.com
  4. ↑ Josh Burns. 2010 Off-Road.com
  5. ↑ Ken Hutchinson. 2010 Motorcycle-usa.com
  6. ↑ Red Bull redbull.com
  7. ↑ Jason (January 16, 2011). "2011 SCORE LDC Photos – Sunday". race-dezert.com. Retrieved 17 January 2011. Gus Vildosola Jr/Gus Vildosola Sr, Mexicali, Mexico, Ford F-150, SCORE Trophy-Truck, 1:56:37 (51.45 mph)
  8. ↑ SCORE (March 13, 2011). "Race Results From San Felipe 250". SCORE International. Retrieved 13 March 2011. 13. Gus Vildosola Jr. /Gus Vildosola Sr., Mexicali, Mexico, Ford F-150, 5:03:57
  9. ↑ Press Release dirtnewz.com
  10. ↑ Press Release clandestineloaner.com
  11. ↑ SCORE Baja 1000 Official Finishers desertrides.com
  12. ↑ Official Results off-road.com
  13. ↑ Vildosola Racing vildosolaracing.com
  14. ↑ Baja Racing News baja racing news.com
  15. ↑ Official Results bitd.com
  16. ↑ Official Results codeoffroad.com
  17. ↑ Mexicana Logistics mexicanalogistics.com
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