Volkswagen of American, Inc., has recently announced a multi-year partnership with SCORE International to become the Official Vehicle of SCORE and the six-race SCORE Desert series.

Volkswagen has made its official announcement at the pre-race conference at the 39th Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 500 which is the third race in the 2007 series. Both Volkswagen and SCORE officials were present to make the announcement.

Actually this is not the first time that Volkswagen has partnered with SCORE International way back in the year 1973 Volkswagen Thing has played a major part in the first three years of SCORE's racing series. This has paved the way for a number of strong future finishes by Volkswagen products in a number of categorical divisions.

For this weekend additional Flex a lite fan are going to be needed because it going to be hot, hot, hot! Volkswagen is fielding two official entries from its famous Dakar Rally Factory Team for the very first time. The two turbo-diesel Volkswagen Race Touareg 2s will compete in a special SCORE International Truck Class, which starts between the SCORE Trophy-Truck and Class 1 vehicles. The Race Touareg 2s are to be driven by American Mark Miller and South African Giniel de Villers. Miller has previously won the SCORE Trophy-Truck class twice in the SCORE Baja 500 and for this year's Dakar Rally he ranked fourth while de Villiers won four stages in the rally and was able to finish in 11th position overall.

The Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 is powered by a 2.5 liter inline five cylinder TDI engine with a two-stage intercooled turbocharger, and revs up 285 horsepower and 440 ft. lbs. of torque. The engine was placed longitudinally behind the front suspension and transfers power to a six-speed sequential race gearbox. A permanent four-wheel drive system features three mechanical differentials with viscous locking which provide superior traction.

SCORE International has also announced that unofficial checkpoint passing times are to be posted on www.score-international.com this weekend's 39th Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 500. RallyTrack.com of Lakewood, California will provide the technology for each of the four official SCORE checkpoints in the race which will include specially-designed, rugged satellite communications system to relay the unofficial passing time of every vehicle, by class, to SCORE operations as well as posting data on the SCORE website.

The RallyTrack.com computer system will update the data on the SCORE website every 10 minutes. The same data are gong to be displayed at the finish line area of the race. SCORE International and SCORE Radio, in association with Blue C Communications has launched a 90 minute, bi-weekly show available online. The show is to be hosted by Cameron Steele and Sal Fish will serve as a direct source of information, race updates, and interviews for the SCORE Desert racing community. For more details on SCORE and to check out the premier episode simply log on to www.score-radio.com or visit www.score-international.com and then click on the SCORE Radio button at the top right corner.

Volkswagen of America, Inc. was founded in the year 1955 and is headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG with headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. Volkswagen is Europe's largest automaker and one of the world's largest producers of passenger cars. Its products include Rabbit, New Beetle, New Beetle convertible, GTI, Jetta, GLI, Passat, Passat wagon, Eos, and Touareg which are distributed through 600 independent US dealers.