Primm 300: Great win after 300 hot miles

The start. From here it's all or nothing

Dear Friends, Partners and Sponsors,

This year's Primm 300 was hot! And the heat was on shortly after I checked into my hotel in Nevada. First I felt really hot, then I began to shake badly. I'd picked up a bad cold somewhere along the way from Europe to the States. Before the start of the race I spoke to Martin Christensen: “Martin, it could be that I'll fall out of the car after the first lap. Then you have to take over.” Martin replied with good humourt: “Okay, after what we've coped with during this last week, that sounds quite easy to me.”

What Martin meant was that the US customs had taken a very close look at our cars after they returned from the Baja 300 Powerdays Germany. And when the US customs take a good look that can take some time. Only on the Friday before the race week our Buggys were released. Our team had just four days (including the weekend) to get the cars ready to race. The crew's performance was simply stunning. They reminded me of a perfectly running gearbox. Everything ran perfectly. For this I want to thank you all at AGM!

Desert express, bound for class victory

The day of the start: A healthy 42 degrees centigrade in the Nevada desert – my body temperature wasn't much less than that. I drove the start and had almost an entire Grand Prix distance to tackle on Nevada's most brutal desert tracks. And friends, I can tell you it was tough! Above all, I'll never forget the “Powerline Service Road”. That is a dirt track used by a power company to check on the power lines in the desert. The rest of the time the wind, sun and torrential rains play havoc on the track. These 25 miles of the worst jumps and hardest landings almost made me give up. It took my breath away. I saw many competitors sidelined at this early stage of the race. The route was hard, and I have the feeling some of the guys were too hard on the accelerator.

But during the second lap I felt much better. I'd found my rhythm. The organiser had banned any pre-running, so we had to improvise. And that was obviously to our advantage. Our navigator Bryan Lyttle again did a super job. I finished the second lap leading our class. Martin leapt in the car and brought victory home after the second half of the distance of almost 280 miles in his unique way: ultra fast and unbelievably smooth.

Our class win was super. Third in the overall classification caused a furore. We were only 11 minutes behind overall winner Robby Gordon in his 800 hp Trophy-Truck. Again we proved that with a good handling racer you can beat most of the horsepower monsters. I strongly believe, that Class 1 Buggys are potential overall winners at the Primm. I hope we can prove this in 2010.

The winning three: Martin, Bryan, and me (l-r)

One thing became clear again on those tough miles. You can only succeed in an event like the Primm 300 if you have the best partners. It's unbelievable what the BF Goodrich tyres withstood, and what the Bilstein shocks and Eibach springs can take. The exhaust system from Remus worked perfectly without problems, just like the K&N Filters in the thickest dust. And with Liqui Moly we have a partner onboard that supplies only the best quality when it comes to everything from cleaning products to gearbox oil. Ingo Bender, the boss of Stammcut, brought 20 guests to Las Vegas and into the desert. And it was brilliant how their enthusiasm and fun were contagious. Several of them asked if we could organise something at the Baja 1000...

Now we rank second in the championship, just five points behind the leader Hurley Letner. Ronnie Wilson is breathing down our necks. One of us three will be Class 1 champion after the Baja 1000 (19 to 22 November).

Back here in two weeks with all the news from our preparations for the highlight of the year.



Until then
Best regards,
Armin Schwarz

Andreas Aigner: World Champion and AGM join forces

Andreas Aigner: World Champion and AGM join forces
Welcome, World Champion!
Welcome, World Champion!

Great news for us all: The reigning Production WRC World Champion joins us at AGM. Andreas Aigner (24) contests the Baja 500 with Armin Kremer, which takes off (5-7 June) on the dusty stage in three weeks. Andreas is hugely talented. We saw that years ago at our junior selection programme and then he went on to brilliantly clinch his world championship title. And he has the guts to take on a duel man to man at high speed in thick dust. That’s more the exception than
the rule.
SCORE Buggy Class 1
And that's waiting for Andreas Aigner: One of the last great automobile dventures

Now Andreas swaps his 280 hp production car for the 640 hp Buggy. This heavy monster handles totally differently but it won’t be a problem for Andreas. I can imagine for a young sprinter like him, it’ll not be easy to pace himself for the long way through the desert and conserve the car. And he has to, because the Buggy can withstand huge knocks, but if you’re too rough with it, you destroy it.

Andreas will share the AGM cockpit with Armin Kremer, who does the first stint, before handing the Buggy over to Andreas for the second 250 mile stretch. I’m sharing the AGM Buggy with Martin Christensen, with me doing the first stint. For this reason, Martin and Andreas will drive the prerun together, which is a real blessing for Andreas. There’s no better tutor of desert racing in the world than Martin. And Armin is delighted to receive support from such a hungry, fast and fit young driver. Armin is aiming for the podium. Last year he narrowly missed out on a top three result at the Primm 300.
Armin Kremer
At the Baja 500 Armin Kremer wants a
podium result

Sal Fish, the boss of SCORE International, is also keen to welcome Andreas with open arms. A World Champion from Austria in the Mexican desert. That’s very new – the fans will love it.

Okay, we’re ready and roaring to go! Not only do we have a new driver for the Baja 500 but also a new sponsor partner. The fine wire manufacturer Stamm from Germany produces fine and super fine wires as well as high performance wire electrodes and is known under the name of “StammCut” in Europe and in the USA: www.stammcut.de

While we are working at full revs for the Baja 500, preparations for the Baja 300 Powerdays Germany, to be held in the Lausitz region of Germany not far from Berlin, is also moving along at high speed. Take a look at our website: www.baja300-powerdays.com

Best wishes, Armin Schwarz

Tecate Score San Felipe 250: Tip-toeing at 190 kph to climb the podium

Third place at the second round of the SCORE Offroad Championship is reason enough to pop the cork! Oh well, I don’t want to moan, but to be honest I would have preferred a repeat result from last year when we won our class.

Start on San Felipe's Pacific beach



I reckon I’ve never driven our 640 hp Buggy so carefully. I knew after our practice that the torque limiter, which protects our drive train from hefty knocks, wasn’t working – like at the first race of the year. And that’s why my team mate Martin Christensen and I reined back the horses and concentrated on getting home. Over the first 15 kilometres I had to let four of my rivals pass me. For someone like me that’s not easy.

It was a long night before the start in the service tent ...

... and it was clear for Martin (r) and me: we had to conserve the car



But at the finish our caution proved to be right. These 232 miles or 370 kilometres of the 23rd San Felipe 250 were the worst that I’ve seen in a long time. I drove the first 80 kms over a washboard track – but you’ve got to imagine the corrugations were half a metre high. I felt like I was riding a bucking bronco at a rodeo and was completely hammered afterwards. For a change we then followed a river bed filled with rough, deep gravel – here you needed endless power, torque and momentum not to get stuck.

But then came a dry salt lake, normally a scorching oven, but today cool. Twenty minutes of full throttle, that’s over 190 kph. It was fantastic: Our eight-cylinder roared, the wind whipped around my helmet, and we sucked up those salty miles – awesome! The following dunes with powder-like sand and endless possibilities to get stuck quickly dragged us back into reality.



Fast but cautious: our drive at this year's San Felipe 250



Driver change after 122 miles. I felt a mixture of joy to have handed the car in good condition over to Martin, pumped with adrenalin but incredibly frustrated to be reined in. After all, I compete to win.

Martin had a tough job ahead of him. Down in the southern part of the loop (satellite photos are on SCORE-International.com) he was faced with huge dunes, mountains and a canyon which is an ultra tough and very difficult “trial” section. If Martin knows one thing, it’s to stay calm and drive through fast and clean. Hat off and thanks for the great team work!

Hat off to Armin Kremer as well: Armin drove the entire 232 miles alone. At the finish Armin was sure of one thing: He had never had such a tough experience in a competition car. But he brought our second Buggy home eleventh in our class and rounded off our team result perfectly.



Sunset over the Pacific: who could stay mad for too long?



Now we have a two and a half month until round three, the Tecate SCORE Baja 500. Still, over the next weeks we have a couple of extremely exciting and wonderful things to report. I’ll tell you more in 14 days. See you back here.

Until then,

best wishes,

Armin Schwarz





Armin Schwarz

Primm 300 to appear on German TV

From the Armin Schwarz newsletter.
Countdown to Primm 300 is on – Martin Christensen on US-German Combo

Dear Friends,

I dictated the lines you read right now in a hotel room in New Zealand. Together with Europe's biggest private TV station, RTL TV, I came here to cover the World Rally Championship round on this remote and beautiful island with its incredibly smooth and fast gravel roads.

Please read my short preview to the upcoming Terrible's Primm 300 and an interview we made earlier this week with my boss, driver colleague and friend, Martin Christensen.

From New Zealand it's only an eleven hours flight to LA and then I'll be back with the All German Motorsports team to tackle the SCORE Terrible's Primm 300 on 5 and 6 September held close to Las Vegas, Nevada. It will be great to see all my friends back in Escondido again. And it will be an exciting race: At the fourth of five rounds counting towards the SCORE Series, my team boss and driver colleague Martin Christensen and I want nothing less than grab the points lead of the world's toughest off-road championship with a top result.

Last year we just missed the Class 1 Podium here. This year we are #101 and the first Class 1 Buggy on the road behind the Trophy Trucks. So let's see what we can do. I'll drive the start and the first to laps of 72 miles each, Martin does the second two laps.


Primm 300 premieres on European TV thanks to RTL TV and Anchor Nazan Eckes


We at AGM enjoy very special support at the Primm 300: Nazan Eckes, star anchor at Europe's biggest private TV station, RTL TV, swaps her normal working field of Formula 1 for the world's most popular desert racing series. Nazan will report on her off-road experiences in a special 30-minute programme within the RTL coverage of the Italian Formula One Grand Prix on 13 September from 15.20 hrs Central European Summer Time. That's a great chance for us and gives us tons of extra motivation. We've got to be there at the front with millions of people watching in Europe!


Nazan Eckes, top anchor of RTL TV, Europe's biggest private TV station will report from the Primm 300

So keep your fingers crossed, we'll be out there and do our very best for a great performance and a great show!

Best wishes,

Armin

Newsletter Armin Schwarz 2008-05-15

Hi Folks,

today’s newsletter is packed with interesting views of interesting people. My friend Michael Heimrich – editor-in-chief in the German publication rallye-magazin.de - contributes a foreword. And you’ll find interviews with our two new team members at AGM, America’s desert racing ace and SCORE points leader, Adam Pfankuch, and Germany’s Armin Kremer, the ex European and Asia Pacific Rally Champion. Adam and Armin are going to share the driving duties in our second AGM Buggy from now on. So we built another great American-European crew!


Michael Heimrich: Thanks, Armin!



The spectacle was always the same. Whenever the crowds along the rally tracks of the World Championship expected Armin Schwarz’s car, expectations were mounting high. And there he came: Where other drivers carefully tiptoed their vehicles around the corner, Armin would tackle it with speed and aggression, totally sideways. Those were the moments that made rallying unforgettable for all of us! Even if at the end of his career in the World Championship the very big successes eluded him, the memories of this incredibly spectacular driver remain. Until today, reminiscing on Armin’s drives ist the favourate topic, whenever rally fans sit together.

So we were more than delighted to hear that his retirement from driving actually only lasted for two years. And that he had found a new passion: Baja. The Baja? This kind of racing was quite unknown in Germany at the time, but it got very quickly clear that Armin found a new passion. The American way of Off-Road racing suits him: Clear rules, no politics, but heeps of fun. And those who

are lucky enough to experience this racing live can’t get enough of it. “Not a sport for softies”, that’s what Armin called the wild rides in the monster buggies, which could even frighten a lion with their roar, and which can overcome any obstacle out there in the desert.

Armin quickly found his way around in America, and in Martin Christensen’s All German Motorsports Team he soon found a home and perfect partner to bring his his wealth of experience. After a first testing year Armin’s expectations are high – especially when it comes to his own performance. He has long gained his competitors’ respect, and he has clinched his first win with cleverness and a very sensitive throttle foot. I keep my fingers crossed that more successes follow!

All the best, Armin!
Michael



Adam Pfankuch: Welcome to a Champion

We are very pleased and honoured to welcome Adam Pfankuch to AGM. Adam, 26 years old and a resident of Carlsbad, CA, is the current overall points’ leader in the SCORE Championship, and his list of successes in desert racing is truly impressive. At just 21 years of age Adam clinched the SCORE 2003 Class 1600 Points Championship and was second overall. The following year he was crowned the SCORE International Overall Points Champion!

Unbelievable but true, Adam tackled his first race at 14 and at the same time started working with desert race cars. Today he is not only considered a great racer, but an expert in race pit strategy with great practical abilities like welding, fabrication, shock tuning, race car preparation. As the co-owner of Powerbox Transaxles he has vast experience in building and servicing off-road and racing transmissions.

I am very much looking forward to meeting Adam. Everybody says he’s a great guy. As a driver I can only say that I am looking forward to learning from his experience. And at the same time, I know it’s

going to be a great challenge to have him with us. Adam’s navigator is Tyler Irwin, a member of our crew who has proven more than once that he has what it takes. And apart from navigating he’s a top technician, which comes in very handy when you want to win desert races ...

Here’s a short interview that Adam gave us via telephone:

Adam Pfankuch: “My Wife, my Buggy and 20,000 Gallons of Gas ...”

What success sticks to your memory most?
That’s without doubt my first SCORE championship in 2004. It was my first major one, people started recognising me as a driver.

What’s the greatest memory you have from your sporting career?
I really can’t say, I am in the middle of it! What comes to my mind first when I think about the really good moments of racing is that I am so lucky to compete against all those fantastic drivers and teams.

What’s the toughest race on the SCORE calendar?
They’re all tough in their own way. But the hardest of them all is without doubt the Baja 1000. It is much more than just a race. I think of it more as an adventure. You never know what is going to happen.

The motorsports personality you admire most?
Hey, there’s bunches of excellent drivers here in the U.S.! But seriously, it would be Rob MacCachren. He has an incredible feeling for the car, he can drive it just the way you want him to. He is really fast, and he never makes mistakes. Apart from that Rob is a well rounded person, he is simply good to talk to.

What kind of motorsport would you like to try?
I’d love to try rallying like in the WRC. The cars seem very sophisticated from the technical side, the whole thing is more like a sprint, it’s more aggressive ...

If you were not a racer, what would be your profession?
Not a racer? Well, hard to think of that one ... I think I’d put together big motorsport events.

Best thing that happened to you in the last 365 days?
Getting married on December 27, 2007!

What do you do when you’re not racing?
I love being together with the family. We would all hang out together in the desert, take the pre-runners and drive, have fun! And I like fishing or shooting to relax.

Honestly: what would you take if you were to stay on a remote island?
Honestly: my wife, my buggy and 20,000 gallons of gas!

Concerning your new driver colleague: did you ever hear of Armin Kremer?
I looked him up on the net. Very impressive: European and Asia Pacific Rally Champion, three times German Rally Champion. I’m itching to meet him and see him drive. It’s going to be great!


Armin Kremer: “640hp – now that’s a word!”

Armin Kremer is one of Germany’s most successful rally drivers. He won the Asia Pacific Championship in 2003, one year before he had clinched the European Rally Championship. Armin was the German Rally Champion in 1996, 1998, and 1999. Today Armin runs a family business together with his brother. He is married, has one daughter. Armin’s hobbies: “Everything with an engine, preferably on the water, and skiing.


Armin, you visited the Baja 1000 and you saw the pre-running for the San Felipe 250. Which impressions did you bring home from the desert?

SCORE desert racing, that’s pure fascination. The cars are incredibly spectacular. The regulations are clear and liberal, the organisations don’t overregulate the whole thing. The fans are always close by, and really everybody wants to have a great time with a breathtaking show.

You tried the pre-runner and later the race car. How do they feel?

In the USA I drove the pre-runner and was in the navigator’s seat in the race car. Later I sampled the race car here in Germany. I have to say: 640hp – now that’s a word! This cars have a mighty punch. And with those suspensions they can take almost everything. You simply keep your foot on the throttle and iron that crest or ditch out. You couldn’t do that with any other race vehicle I know. Still, if you’re crazy you can even destroy such a fantastic car. You’ve got to be fast and sensible – that adds to the thrill.

You won three national German rally championship titles, you were European and Asia Pacific Champion. Then you retired – why are you now going to the desert?

Once a driver – always a driver! No, seriously: Two years ago I retired from motorsport in order to fully concentrate on our family business. Since 1990 my father and I built up a good business with breeding turkey, processing and selling the meat. My brother joined in later. We all put a lot of effort and passion into our business. I love this family enterprise. On the other hand I was always keen to return to the sport. Now my chance has come with a totally new challenge, with totally different dimensions. And I don’t have to put too much time in.

You are a rookie in desert racing. And you will share the AGM cockpit with the current points leader. Any stage fright?

No, I am very much looking forward to it! It’s great that Adam and I can form another American-German crew besides Martin and Armin. I know that Sam Osman is a brilliant navigator, who knows his business like only very few. I know that I’ve got the speed and that I am able to adopt very quickly to new situations and challenges. I am absolutely looking forward to racing with Adam.

A short look back in history: who’s your all time motorsport hero?

No doubt, that’s four time rally world champion Juha Kankkunen. Until today I find his speed, his Finnish coolness and his self confidence extremely remarkable. But you know, we all had to find our own way in motorsport.

Which race car would you like to try?

For me the greatest challenge is to get everything out of a World Rally Car on a special stage. To convert high tech into sheer speed and reliability: that’s the highest art and the biggest fun. And directly after this comes to drive one of this old Group B monsters like the Audi quattro S1. But this is just another different world.

And apart from motorsport: what are your interests?

First and foremost my wife and daughter, than comes our family business.

The last question: What would you take to the famous remote island?

My wife, my daughter. A jet ski and lots of turkey meat. Try it! It’s really yummy!



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