El Rey Network To Air Legendary "Baja Desert Championship: Baja 500" On August 6th At 5 PM ET

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- El Rey Network's adrenaline charged premiere of "Baja Desert Championship: Baja 500" will air on Sunday, August 6(th) at 5:00pm et. Take a high speed ride with El Rey over the Baja Coast's brutal terrain along with hosts Baja Champion Tavo Vildosola, professional BMX rider Mike Escamilla and car artist Cherry Martini. The Baja 500 special will feature commentary by Executive Producer Sung Kang (The Fast and the Furious). This is the second race within the SCORE off-road series airing on El Rey Network. Start your engines and experience the break-neck speeds and high stakes drama of the Baja Desert Championship.

"Baja Desert Championship" is built around the races of the 2017 SCORE International off-road series, and includes the stories of racers and teams in each division. People from all walks of life modify or build their own vehicles to join the race, including motorcycles, stock Volkswagen, production vehicles, buggies, trucks, and custom fabricated race vehicles. The modified cars, extreme conditions, terrain and speed lead to captivating drama and suspense.

All races in the four-race 2017 SCORE off road series, along with the special SEMA Baja 1000 Qualifying Experience at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, will air on El Rey Network. The specials feature not only SCORE Trophy Truck coverage, but also top action and highlights from many other classes of trucks, cars, UTVs, motorcycles and quads - making sure that the most exciting footage and most compelling stories continue as part of each race event broadcast.

ON THE AIR
2017 El Rey Network "Baja Desert Championship"

    --  SCORE San Felipe 250
    --  SCORE Baja 500
    --  Tijuana SCORE Desert Challenge
    --  SCORE Baja 1000 Qualifying @SEMA SCORE Baja 1000 Experience
    --  50(th) Anniversary SCORE Baja 1000 (two-hour special)

About Sung Kang
Sung Kang is an American born Korean actor that is most recognizable from the multi-billion dollar Fast And Furious franchise for Universal. He will soon be seen as a new series regular in the hit Starz series Power. Sung was last seen in the indie film The Free World and also as the lead in two Chinese features: Hollywood Adventures for producer Justin Lin and Pali Road directed by Jonathan Lim. On television, he most recently starred as a series regular for the FOX action/drama Gang Related. He first rose to fame following the success of the independent feature Better Luck Tomorrow which was nominated for the Grand Jury prize at Sundance in 2002. Additional notable credits include the Warner Bros. features Bullet To The Head opposite Sylvester Stallone and Ninja Assassin for director James McTeigue. Sung also starred in the 2007 20th Century Fox feature Live Free Or Die Hard.

About Tavo Vildosola
Gustavo Vildosola Perez Tejada better known as "Tavo Vildosola", is a Mexican professional off-road racer and entrepreneur who started racing at a very young age. Starting off in a Class 1 buggy in the San Felipe 250 in 2000. By 2003 he would win the SCORE Lites class in the 2003 Baja 1000. In 2005 he raced an Ivan Stewart built pro truck and was crowned the champion of its class in 2006 and 2007 in the SCORE series. He then jumped into the Trophy Truck class with his father Gus Vildosola and had a podium finish in the 2007 Baja 1000 making it the best finish position ever achieved by a Mexican national team. This achievement was only surpassed by Vildosola Racing itself on 2010 winning the overall on the 43rd edition of the Baja 1000. With over 16 off-road racing championships, Tavo is also the CEO of Mexicana Logistics. Additionally Tavo has worked on occasion as guest co-host for the CBS SPORTS Network's SCORE International Off-Road Racing making his debut in 2014 at the Imperial Valley 250, a race in which he was also the driver of record for Vildosola Racing. His knowledge and enthusiasm for all things off-road has made him an international fan favorite whether he is behind the wheel of a SCORE Trophy Truck, a TV microphone or both.

About Mike Escamilla
Mike Escamilla spent the last 25 years changing the sport of BMX and traveling all over the world. With over 60 countries under his belt he has worked jobs in most of them, everything from silver mining in Bolivia to disposing of unexploded ordinances in Vietnam. Voted one of Rolling Stone Magazine's top 100 Instagram accounts to follow, Mike is a true renaissance man. From setting Guinness World Records on his bike, being a New York Times photographer, and a Hollywood stuntman Mike has crashed and exploded all over the silver screen in some of your favorite movies like Captain America Winter Soldier, American sniper and Guardians of the Galaxy vol.2. If you didn't catch him there just look up, you might see him whipping around the skies in his wing suit or cruising the LA streets on his Custom Ural Sidecar motorcycle. Always up for an adventure you never know where you will see Mike next.

About Cherry Martini
With a deep love of cars and an innate talent for auto design and fabrication, Cherry Martini is a Southern California-based hot-rodder, artist, writer and model. Surviving a tumultuous youth in Thousand Oaks, California - a teenage runaway whose delinquency, including grand theft auto, saw her incarcerated for a year - she began to turn her life around as an apprentice for BMW Designworks USA. A dedicated "shop girl," she went on to learn all aspects of fabrication, from welding to pinstriping, while studying both Transportation Design and Advertising at ArtCenter College in Pasadena and, subsequently, Fine Art and Photography at Slade School of Fine Art at University College London. Deeply rooted in the hot-rod community, Cherry has spent most of her adult life working for prominent fabricators and shops from Hollywood to Burbank, including Jesse James' infamous Monster Garage, as well as her personal custom projects, among them a 1955 Ford Customline, 1929 Briggs Essex Roadster, and 1969 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. As an artist beyond the shop, her paintings are influenced by cubism and surrealism, and she has been tapped to curate and organize a number of successful "Low Brow" art shows in the Hollywood and Los Angeles areas. Cherry is also a model who has appeared in publications such as Vogue, and a writer for over a dozen hot-rod magazines.

About SCORE International
SCORE International, which produces and sanctions the four-race SCORE off road series, began in 1973 when it was founded by the late Mickey Thompson. SCORE continues today for the fifth year under the ownership and direction of Roger Norman following nearly 39 years under the ownership of Sal Fish as the leading sanctioning body in the sport of desert racing. Most famous for its flagship event the legendary SCORE Baja 1000, SCORE began its 44th year of producing championship desert racing in 2017. SCORE races offer classes for Pro and Sportsman cars, trucks, UTVs, Motorcycles and Quads.

About El Rey Holdings, LLC
El Rey Holdings, LLC is a Latino-infused entertainment brand that revels in the courage, capacity, and creativity of ordinary people on extraordinary journeys. Launched by maverick filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and run by Rodriguez and his artistic collective, El Rey Holdings, LLC oversees El Rey Network and El Rey Studios. El Rey Network is a 24-hour English-language entertainment and lifestyle channel that focuses a distinctly Latino lens on popular culture. Targeted at an ethnically diverse and multigenerational audience, the programming lineup features heroic series and movies and presents original content that celebrates the ingenuity, craftsmanship, courage, and creativity of everyday people. El Rey's slate is anchored by signature originals including "Man at Arms: Art of War," "Rite of Passage," "Lucha Underground," and "Baja Desert Championship". El Rey Network's lineup also showcases a wide range of iconic feature films and television series including genre, action, and sci-fi/horror. El Rey Studios develops and produces original linear, digital and branded content for all platforms. In addition to crafting original series and shows for El Rey Network, the Studio creates content for linear/digital channels and collaborates with consumer product companies to create evocative branded entertainment experiences. Committed to inspiring and championing modern Latino storytellers, El Rey Studios gives voice to creators with bold and imaginative visions that defy convention. El Rey Studios has produced "The Director's Chair," "The People's Network" and "Artists in Residence" for El Rey Network. El Rey Holdings, LLC is jointly owned by Robert Rodriguez and FactoryMade with a minority stake held by Univision Networks & Studios, Inc.

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SOURCE El Rey Network