Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Over 200 entries from 16 States, Mexico, Austria & Germany

Over 200 entries from 16 States, Mexico, Austria & Germany

Expected at Saturday's 12th SCORE Terrible's Primm 300

Field includes 9 of 11 overall race winners, 50 drivers with 92 class wins

For Round 5 of six-race 2007 SCORE Desert Series

LOS ANGELES—With over 200 entries expected from 16 U.S. States, Mexico, Austria and Germany, many of the world’s top desert racers are headed to Southern Nevada to compete in this weekend’s 12th Annual SCORE Terrible’s Primm 300 desert race. In what could be the best overall field in it’s 12-year history, Round 5 of the six-race 2007 SCORE Desert Series, will be held Friday and Saturday in Primm, Nev., located 45 miles South of Las Vegas at the Nevada/California border.

Nine of 11 former overall race winners and 50 racers with a combined 92 class wins will be part of the race that will feature 18 Pro and 2 Sportsman classes for cars and trucks. With 191 official entries to date, this year’s entry list is expected to reach over 200 vehicles by the time the green flag drops.

Celebrating its 34th season this year as the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Series, the SCORE Desert Series is returning to Southern Nevada for the last of its three annual races in the U.S.

Eleven of last year’s 17 Pro class winners have entered, including four of last year’s top five overall finishers.

Two second generation desert racers, Brian Ickler, Poway, Calif., and Justin Lofton, Westmorland, Calif., are now top racers in the NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series who are returning to their desert racing roots for a weekend. Ickler, the 2003 SCORE Lite point champion and the 2003 SCORE Rookie of the Year, will split driving in Class 1 with veteran Steve Sourapas, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., while Lofton has entered his own Class 1 entry. Ickler, who has three Grand National West wins and seven top 10 finishes this year, is currently fourth in points while Lofton, with six top 10s, is sixth with one race left on Sept. 15.

For the sixth consecutive year, the SCORE Terrible’s Primm 300 has been split into two groups with the open wheel, VW baja bug and slower truck classes starting at 6 a.m. The remaining truck classes, including the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division along with the unlimited Class 1 open-wheel desert race cars, will start at 1 p.m.

One vehicle will start every 30 seconds in the elapsed-time race with a seven-hour time limit to become official finishers. The course is a 72-mile loop starting and finishing directly behind the back parking lot of Buffalo Bill’s Resort. Vehicles will run either two, three or four laps, depending on the speed of the class.

Pre-race festivities on Friday for the SCORE Terrible’s Primm 300, including tech and contingency and the SCORE Manufacturer’s Midway, will be held from 10a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Star of the Desert Arena at Buffalo Bill’s. The post-race awards celebration will be held at the Star of the Desert Arena at 10 p.m. on Saturday.

Heading into the final two races of the 2007 season, the highly-competitive SCORE Desert Series has 21 racers separated by just 54 points in the Overall point standings after the first four events and the top five all have one driver from Southern Nevada. They are separated by just 22 points

B.J. Richardson of Las Vegas leads the Overall and Class 1 points with 284 in a Bunderson-Chevy while B.J. Baldwin of Las Vegas leads SCORE Trophy-Truck and is second overall with 281 points in the No. 1 Baldwin Motorsports Chevy Silverado. Third overall and second in SCORE Trophy-Truck with 278 points is the team of Mark Post, San Juan Capistrano, Calif./Rob MacCachren, Las Vegas, in the No. 3 Riviera Racing Ford F-150.

“This has been a tough race for us over the years, but if we can hold our own this year, we’ll be ready to battle for the Class 1 and SCORE Overall point championship at November’s SCORE Baja 1000,” said Richardson, who finished a close second in Class 1 in 2005 but had a rare did not finish in Primm last year. “It’s a great course, just what you want in a desert course, but I have to keep from being over-confident and pushing the race car to far off the edge. I will need a lot of patience on Saturday, that’s for sure.”

Fourth overall and third in SCORE Trophy-Truck is the team of Ragland/Collins with 264 points in the No. 12 Collins Motorsports Chevy Silverado and fifth overall and leading Class 1-2/1600 with 262 points is the team of L.J. Kennedy, Orange, Calif./Sammy Ehrenberg, Las Vegas, in a ChenoSPF-VW.

Bob Shepard, Phoenix, returns as the defending overall and SCORE Trophy-Truck winner in this race in the No. 82 Arciero-Miller Racing Chevy CK1500 but he has a new racing partner this year in Ryan Arciero, Foothill Ranch, Calif., who is actually the team’s driver of record this year.

Larry Roeseler, Hesperia, Calif., and Las Vegas’ Troy Herbst, who finished second overall last year (4 minutes, 15 seconds behind Shepard) and won Class 1 last year, return in the No. 100 Terrible Herbst Motorsports Smithbuilt-Ford. Tim Herbst drove the majority of last year’s race in Class 1 while Roeseler drove some of the race in the Terrible Herbst Motorsports No. 19 Ford F-150 in SCORE Trophy-Truck with Ed Herbst.

In the hunt for the prestigious overall victory as the fastest vehicle in the race, Southern Nevada racers have done very well on their home desert. Either one of the three Herbst brothers or Brian Collins of Las Vegas have won the overall title at the popular desert race five times in the first 11 years of the race. Ed and Tim Herbst, the oldest of the three Las Vegas brothers, won the overall in both 1998 and 2003 while Troy Herbst, won the overall in Primm 1999 and again 2001. In 2001, Troy Herbst had driving assistance from Larry Roeseler, Hesperia, Calif.

Collins, splitting driving with Larry Ragland, Cave Creek, Ariz., won the 2005 overall title. The Ed and Tim Herbst and Collins wins were in the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division while Troy Herbst earned his in the unlimited Class 1.

The non-Nevadans who have won the race overall and are entered this year are Steve Sourapas (2000, Class 1), Mike Julson, Santee, Calif. (2002, Class 1), Alan Pflueger, Honolulu (2004, SCORE Trophy-Truck) and Bob Shepard, Phoenix (2006, SCORE Trophy-Truck).

Starting behind the 30 SCORE Trophy-Trucks will be the unlimited Class 1 for open-wheel desert race cars. In the first 11 years of the SCORE Terrible’s Primm 300, SCORE Trophy-Trucks have seven Overall race wins while Class 1 has four.

Behind Class 1 (38 entries), the classes with the most entries to date are: SCORE Trophy-Truck (30), Class 1-2/1600 (25), SCORE Lite (18), Class 10 (16) and Class 7 (11).

Eric Solorzano, Tijuana, Mexico, and George Seeley, Glendale, Calif., have the most class wins in the SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300. Solorzano has won Class 11 in seven of the first 11 years of this race in a VW Sedan while Seeley has six victories in Class 5 in his unlimited VW Baja Bug.

Among Southern Nevada racers, Tim Herbst and Rob MacCachren each of four class wins in this race while Colins and Ed and Troy Herbst have three class wins each.

Donald Moss, Sacramento, Calif., has four wins in Class 3 in Primm while Pflueger has three, two in Protruck and his one overall in SCORE Trophy-Truck.

Veteran racer and TV sportscaster Cameron Steele drew the first starting position in both the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck and the SCORE Lite divisions in the computerized drawing for starting positions.

In a sport where there is no qualifying or open pre-running (in the U.S.), the drawing for start positions has added significance and Steele’s No. 16 Desert Assassins Cadillac Escalade SCORE Trophy-Truck and No. 1201 VW-powered Desert Assassins open-wheel desert race car will be the first off the line in each class.

The first vehicle to leave the start line in the morning portion of the event will be Class 10 husband and wife racers Adam and Bekki Wik of Las Vegas, in a Honda-powered Jimco open-wheel desert race car. Both have one class win in this race, Bekki in 2000 in Class 1-2/1600 and Adam in 2005 in Class 10.

Starting first in Class 1 will be Todd Cuffaro. Coronado, Calif., in a Chevy-powered Porter open-wheel desert race car.

The 2007 SCORE Desert Series also includes the chase for the $75,000 Kartek Off-Road contingency bonus to be awarded to several 2007 SCORE Class point champions along with the run for the $12,000 Toyota True Grit and Toyota Milestone Awards.

Current SCORE official annual sponsors are: BFGoodrich Tires-official tire, Sunoco Race Fuels/Bryant Petroleum-official fuel supplier, Bilstein-official shock, Volkswagen-official vehicle, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance-official Mexican auto insurance, American Racing ATX Series-official wheel, Slime-official tire sealant, Airstar America-official space lighting provider, Red Bull--official energy drink and Bosch Power Tools-official power tool. Associate sponsors are: Tecate Beer, Coca-Cola of Mexico, Las Vegas Events, Terrible Herbst Inc., Blue C Enthusiast Advertising, Kartek Off-Road, Fram, Autolite, Prestone, Bendix, American Suzuki, NAPA Chassis, SignPros, P.C.I. Race Radios, McKenzie’s Performance Products and Advanced Color Graphics.

Co-title sponsors for the 12th SCORE Terrible’s Primm 300 are Las Vegas Events and Terrible Herbst Inc.

For more information, contact SCORE at its Los Angeles headquarters 818.225.8402 or visit the official website of the 2007 SCORE Desert Series at www.score-international.com.

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