Finishing out the year and staying on the gas, Can-Am Factory Racers won the Pro Stock UTV Class, swept the podium of the Pro UTV Forced Induction Class, and won the 2023 Pro UTV Forced Induction class championship at the grueling 56th annual SCORE Baja 1000. Lia and Lucy Block and the Block House Racing team won the Pro Stock class with a finishing time of 35:50:38.956. Jason Murray secured the Pro UTV Forced Induction win in his Maverick X3 with a finishing time of 29:33:04.651. Matt Burroughs clinched second in the class with his Maverick X3 finishing time of 30:10:36.045. Phil Blurton rounded out the clean sweep of the podium in his Maverick R with a finishing time of 30:26:55.425.
“Wow, what a day! Our team did amazing… This Can-Am Maverick X3 was on rails, the motor was strong. The driveline was amazing. We run so many stock parts, we run a stock steering rack, stock diff, gearbox, stock motor. This car is light and virtually stock,” said Derek Murray, of the Can-Am Factory Racing Team.
The 2023 iteration of the race was one of the longest and most challenging routes in recent years, it covered more than 1,300-miles of racing up the Baja peninsula. Running from North to South, the race started in La Paz and ended in Ensenada, Baja-California Sur, Mexico. The peninsula, and the race course specifically, were in rougher shape than normal due to a hurricane that made landfall early in the month, adding another element to the challenge.
Off the line, Jason Murray would start second in class and 17th UTV overall. Matt Burroughs would start sixth in class and 21st UTV overall. Phil Blurton started at the back of the pack, 15th in class, and 30th UTV overall, which created many action-packed battles throughout the course of the race.
Despite starting in the back of the pack, early in the race, Phil Blurton made numerous incredible passes and would claw his way up to the front of the pack in his class, and even led the UTV class overall at mile marker 480 against vehicles with twice the displacement of his Maverick R; until technical issues befell him. Jason Murray and Matt Burroughs both managed the race very methodically, avoiding the bottlenecks, silt beds and broken vehicles that littered the race course.
At the halfway point, the Murray team got to the lead and would battle back and forth with the Blurton team close behind. After stellar driving by the Burroughs’ team throughout the latter parts of the race, they were able to capitalize on another issue that the Blurton team suffered and took over second place. Leading the pack to the checkers, the Murray team brought home the win, with the Burroughs’ and Blurton team’s securing second and third.
The Can-Am Factory Racing Team athletes will be back in action at the 2024 Dakar Rally on Friday, January 5, 2024 to see if they can make history and win their eighth straight Dakar Rally.
To learn more about the complete lineup of Can-Am Off-Road vehicles, please visit https://can-am.brp.com/off-road.
