SCORE Terrible's Primm 300 Post Race Quotes

September 6, 2008

13th annual SCORE Terrible’s Primm 300
Round 4 of five-race 2008 SCORE Desert Series September 6, 2008
Primm, Nevada
Post-Race Quotes


SCORE TROPHY TRUCK
8 ROGER NORMAN/LARRY ROESELER, 1st (Roeseler drove first 3 laps; Norman finished) – Norman said: “Not bad for having no brakes. I can’t thank the crew enough. We had no GPS, no brakes and I couldn’t talk with Larry (Roeseler) for the last 50 or 60 miles. I’ve raced in the Pro Stock class, Class 8, Class 10, Class 1, a lot of other things, but not SCORE Trophy-Truck very much. This is only my third race in a fast SCORE Trophy-Truck. I raced a slow one for a while and this is a lot nicer. This race is at the very top of the list for me. We never did get the brake issue worked out and so I was downshifting quite a bit. It doesn’t really help a lot to lose your brakes. I don’t know how we pulled through it, but we did. There were a couple of turns where we were going like 30 miles an hour, but then you’re not trying to go too slow because the race was so tight. It’s probably the toughest thing I’ve ever done because that was a lot of pressure. I can’t believe it. After all of that, I can’t believe it. We lost the brakes about six or seven miles before Pit B on the last lap.”

Roeseler said: “It’s real simple. Before the race, we’ve got Rob MacCachren in front of us, we’ve got B.J. (Baldwin) and then Brian (Collins) behind us and those were the three Trucks we looked after all day. We pulled out a little bit, but then we had brake problems and then Roger had a flat and I thought, ‘OK, here comes Brian.’ He actually had us by about a minute and right at the end we saw him stopped. It was just neck and neck all day.”

12 BRIAN COLLINS, 2ND (drove all 4 laps) – “We were going to put Chuck (Hovey) in at the end. It was a tough decision. We were running close to them and I was tired, but I knew the truck was tired, too. Chuck was fresh, and if we put Chuck in we worried that he might drive a little hard for what was left of the truck. We only had one lap to go. I wish now I had put him in. I got two flat tires and just made mistakes. I’m happy, though, and hopefully Mopar Dodge is happy. Starting back in the 16th position, working through all that traffic, it was a long day. The first two laps we never saw the track. We were still fighting the third lap, but we were happy just to be out of the dust and stuff. I should have backed it down, but everyone was telling me to go. We had the two flats within the last 10 miles. I had one on the third lap. The first two were flawless. We drove hard and we did the best we could do. I’ll take a second any day. The heat doesn’t bother me at all, you just can’t see. You’re charging in zero-zero (visibility), you know.”

39 RON WHITTON/TODD LeDUC, 3rd (LeDuc drove first 2 laps; Whitton finished) – Whitton said: “We didn’t have any problems. It ran smooth all day. I was in the dust the whole day. I never once got out of the dust. That hurt me a lot. The truck was running good suspension wise and everything. It was just flawless.”

22 DAMEN JEFFERIES, 4TH (drove solo) – “It was good. We broke the coil way late, and that was it. It ran good. It’s good, to come to the this race (and finish well.) I know I don’t have the truck for this race. I’m very happy with fourth. I’ll take that all day long. This truck is a buggy; it doesn’t have a rear end in it. In my opinion, I’m second in Class 1.”

91 BILL McBEATH, 5TH (drove solo) – “We had a lot of fun. We did two and a half laps on seven cylinders. We tried to change the plug wire and that wasn’t the problem, it was the coil. We figured it would be better to run at the pace we could run at and just keep them on our tails. Instead of pulling over and putting a new coil pack on we decided to keep going.”

84 NICK WANDERWAY/LARRY VANDERWAY, 6th (Larry drove the first 2 laps; Nick finished) – Nick said: “We were third on the road when we hit the pavement coming in on the third lap and got a flat. I hit a rock back there or something. We lost three positions and then we came in sixth. There was just no passing after that. I almost had Whitton and McBeath on that uphill and ran out of road.”

1 MARK POST/ROB MacCACHREN, 7th (Post started; MacCachren drove final 2 and a half laps) – MacCachren said: “When I got in the truck, as soon as I took off I started getting water on the visor, on my shield. I said, ‘you know what, it’s a long way from Pit C to the finish, about 30 miles or so.’ So I figured it was best for us to stop. We went back to the pit and got everything checked out. We figured something in the engine was leaking water, so we put some engine sealer in there, and it held on really well. It’s a mystery what happened and why it was leaking water. We lost the race because of the water leak. We were still in the points, trying to win the Trophy-Truck points, so we just cruised. It was rough; a lot of rocks, a lot of flat tires.”

CLASS 1
101 ARMIN SCHWARZ/MARTIN CHRISTENSEN, 1st (Schwarz drove the first two laps; Christensen finished) – Christensen said: “Armin did a really good job at the beginning of the race, getting it done and getting us a lead. I cannot thank the All-German Motorsports team enough. The crew was giving me perfect splits the whole day so I knew when to take it easy and keep a good 10-minute gap to the other guys and keep rolling around. It was unbelievable out here. We should have had 10 flats, but we had only one on the course and (co-driver) Bryan Lyttle changed it in one minute and five seconds. That was incredible. We were first at San Felipe, third at the Baja 500 and now first at Primm. We’re hoping it’s going to get us up in points to where we want to be because we’re really, really looking forward to the Baja 1000. That’s hopefully going to be a good one for us.”

103 B.J. RICHARDSON, 2nd (drove solo) – “Man, it was hot out there today. We were points racing today. I got a flat early, on the first lap, and then just kind of said, ‘we’ll see what happens and let the race come to us.’ This should give us a good boost, a good lead in the points. Coming in here with the points lead, we couldn’t get too crazy out there. The car was running hot all day. Now I’ve just got to go down to Baja and drive around – if I don’t do anything stupid, I think I’ll get it (the season points title). This is twice I got second to them (Schwarz and Christensen) this year, but I’m beating them in points so I’ll take it. That was our goal this year, to win the points and we’re in really good shape right now.”

102 DALE LENK/RANDY PERRY, 3RD (Perry started and drove 3 laps; Lenk finished) – Lenk said: “It was a good day.” Perry said: “He’s the car owner, so I figured I want him to have at least some fun. The only problem we basically had was we kept overheating, and when it would overheat it would go into limp mode, and we’d have to shut the engine down and turn it back on. We only had to do that about 40 times. Other than that it was fun. This has been a problem we’ve had on this car more often than not. It’s something we need to work on. We’d have to shut it off and turn it back on. Then we’d have to back off on the power because we had the overheating problem.”

108 BRIAN PARKHOUSE/TOM RIDINGS, 4th (Parkhouse drove the first two laps; Ridings finished) – Ridings said: “We missed on the setup.It was a real rough course and we had no real problems. We just drove it around and had no flats, no anything. This is the fourth race in the car and it just keeps sneaking up there, sneaking up there, sneaking up there. We’ll have our day one of these days real soon. We stopped and fixed the setup … we just missed it and it’s nobody’s fault but mine. We’ve had the car real good here in the past, we just missed it this time. Once we made the adjustments, we just ran right along.”

114 RANDY WILSON, 6th (drove solo) – “We got a flat out there on the last lap and that did us in. We caught up to (fifth-place Tim McDonnell) at one point and he ended up finishing about a flat ahead of me. We caught up to him at one point, but it got real dusty and we just couldn’t make a pass. The first two laps were real dusty and we never got in that clean air that you live for. We did on the third lap, but on the last lap we caught up to (McDonnell) and got caught up in his dust. We were in the dust the first two laps and I just never could get a rhythm going.”

CLASS 1-2/1600
1609 AARON HAWLEY/BRYAN FREEMAN, 1st (Hawley drove the first 2 laps, Freeman the final 2.) Freeman said: “Aaron started and drove the first two laps. We had no problems the first two laps. Our game plan was to go out there and make it around the course the first two laps, get me in the car and then go racing from there. I got in the car and was almost getting ready to pass the first car and I lost the power steering belt. I got that back on and lost about a minute doing that and finally got by them on the last lap and kind of put it in cruise. We started so far back that when we passed the guys physically, I knew I was ahead. So we kind of cruised the last little bit. It was really, really rocky out there, but I’m from here so I knew how it was going to be. Other than the power steering belt, which is kind of a fluke thing, we had no problems.”

1610 STEVE EUGENIO, 2nd (drove all 4 laps) – “The carburetor was cutting out on me a little bit, but that didn’t have all that much to do with it. I had two flats and I rode 30 miles each lap on the flats. Early in the morning dust was a big problem.”

1600 DAVID CASPINO/MIKE MALLOY, 3rd (Caspino drove the first lap and injured his wrist; Malloy drove the final 3.) Malloy said: “Dave thinks he broke his wrist so I got in the car and finished up. We were just trying to catch up. I think we were the sixth or seventh car on the road and we finished third car in. We did everything we could do. I had a ball and I had no real problems with the car. I think we had two flats. We tried to make it interesting.”

1601 ADAM PFANKUCH, 4th (drove all 4 laps) – “I had lots of down time. I’d rather not discuss why, but we had about 20 minutes of down time. We were running about second place all day, but that’s what happens at these short races. A couple of minutes of down time and it’s over.”

CLASS 3
301 DONALD MOSS, 1ST (drove solo) –“It was just really rough out there, but I didn’t have one problem. We stopped three times to change riders, but we had no problems. It was a good run for us. We solved all of our electrical problems that we had in the Vegas-to-Reno so I was happy about that. There were some huge rocks out there because of all the rain; they got washed down into the course. It was a typically rough course.”

CLASS 5
501 KEVIN CARR, 1st (drove all 3 laps) – It was a good trip. No real problems. Lots of rocks. We had one problem. The ignition shut off and we had to stop and figure out what was wrong there. One of the wires had gotten disconnected and we had to find it and reconnect it. It started to heat up a little bit so we took it a little bit easy coming back in, but really no problems. It was a great race. I actually had three co-drivers – Danny Rodriguez, Raoul Gilbert and then my dad, Bob Carr. We were like the school bus picking up kids.

CLASS 5/1600
579 MARCOS NUNEZ, 1st (Nunez drove solo; does not speak English) – “It was a good race for us. I’d like to thank our sponsors. Thank you very much.”

553 RAUL SOLANO, 2nd (drove all 3 laps; does not speak English.) Co-driver Ruben Garcia said: “Raul drove the car. It was a lot of run and a lot of dust. We did what we could and Raul did an awesome job. We were trying to make up time on Marcos Nunez. It’s really exciting when you think about it – you drive 200 miles, pushing so hard and it comes down to a few seconds. That makes it exciting.”

CLASS 7
717 CHRIS TAYLOR/JOSH QUINTERO, 1st (Quintero drove first lap and a half; Taylor finished) – Taylor said: “That was fun. There was no down time at all; no flats, no nothing. Everything was just perfect. That means I’ve got to do the 1000. I hadn’t planned on doing the 1000, but this puts me back in the points, so I’ve got to go. It was a good day; we had fun. We got robbed. Our truck got ripped off last night. All I had was tires and gas. We lost everything; even our E-Z Up. We didn’t have any shade. People were offering us motor oil and help. (Pete Sohren’s team did some engine work for them in Pit C and let them share shade, etc.)”

CLASS 7SX
759 JOHN HOLMES, 1st (Holmes drove final 2 laps; Carl Pitt drove the first 2.) Holmes said: “We had no problems; no flats on our Goodyears and no problems at all. It’s a very rough course, for a limited suspension vehicle. We pushed pretty hard through the rough stuff. I think that’s where we got ahead of them. We took some chances. It was very rough. We took the lead about mile 26 (on the first lap).”

CLASS 10
1002 BEKKI WIK/ADAM WIK, 1st (Bekki drove first 2 laps, Adam the second 2) – Bekki said: “Adam had a flat on this last lap and other than that we had a perfect day. We got out in front. Honestly, after I got around the first car, I started driving kind of hard and I thought, ‘you know what, don’t stop with a flat. It’s too early to be driving hard.’ I backed off and because I was first and I didn’t have any dust, it was easy. I was able to go and didn’t have to make any mistakes, didn’t have to take any chances, and that’s the difference here at Primm. It was awesome. We had an awesome car. You dream of these days. These days don’t come that often. So when you have a day where you don’t have any problems and one flat, at a Primm race, you don’t ask for anything more. It was an awesome course. It was fast, it was rough, it was rocky, it was everything you want in a race. (This was her third race this year, but first SCORE event; also ran Mint 400 and Midnight Special.) I told him (Adam) there’s just a lot of rocks, so don’t take any chances.”

Adam said: “(They had a) passenger-side rear flat about six miles from the finish line up in the rocks. We had to stop and switch it because it was so rocky we were afraid we wouldn’t make it. It took us a little longer than expected, but I think we still got them. We had a great day and the car worked beautiful. It was a good, good day.”

1004 ADAM ASHCRAFT, 2nd (drove all 4 laps) – “I got a flat (and lost about 11 minutes on the first lap) and I was in that wash out there. I kept trying to run my (impact) jack down and it kept sinking into the wash. It was a great race. I just had a couple of rookie mistakes, basically, running in the dust when I shouldn’t have been. I knew there was rocks coming up and I just kept pushing too hard. That’s what caused the flat. Driver error. After that I knew I was on a mission so I
just had to keep my foot planted the whole time. I’ve never been on two wheels so much in my life in a race. (Said it was his fourth race and first finish in the car).

1009 MIKEY LAWRENCE, 3rd (drove all 4 laps) – “Third place? That puts me over 50 points ahead in first. We were running a little hot once it got hotter in the day. We got stuck behind the Bronco and I wasn’t being patient and got stuck for a minute. Aside from that, no flats, nothing. It was flawless. The dust wasn’t too bad, but it’s definitely rocky. You’ve definitely got to pick your lines right, especially down that last canyon. It’s brutal. (Lawrence is 20 years old, in his second year of racing).”

SCORE LITES
1204 PERRY McNEIL, 1st (drove all 4 laps) – “It was a real good day. There were tons of rocks. I feel sorry for the Trophy-Truck drivers. There were no problems at all. I stopped once to get gas and that was it. We started fourth or fifth. I think we took the lead on the last lap.”

1207 BRIAN BURGESS/CAMERONSTEELE, 2nd (Burgess drove first 2 laps, Steele the last 2) – Steele said: “The whole front end is broken. The trailing arm (on left front) sheared off. I drove about 40 miles with the front end torn off. It started drifting on me and I didn’t know what was wrong. I pulled into my pit and asked if I had a flat and everyone said no, it’s good. They just didn’t know the trailing arm was bad. We were about 8 minutes in the lead at Pit C.”

Burgess said: “It was good. I was charging the dust too much on lap 2 and made a boo-boo and popped a tire. It was my mistake. The track was terrible at the start. We came across at the end of the first lap just the way we started, the dust was so bad. When the trailing arm broke, we had a 6½-minute lead.”

1200 TOM WATSON, 3rd (drove last lap; nephew David Scaroni drove the first 3) – Watson said: “I haven’t driven here in a long time. We were down on the third lap for about 15 minutes. I’m not sure what happened, but he was out of the car for a while.”

1205 MIKE SANDOVAL, 5th (drove all 4 laps) – “It was really dusty. It was fun. I had a good time. We had one flat tire and had to get out and change it ourselves. That was kind of a bummer. All the way around, it was good.”

CLASS 11
1100 RAMON FERNANDEZ, 1st (drove both laps) – “No problems. Last year we ran out of gas; we were right behind first place. We start first (today). All we wanted to do was finish to get enough points to defend our championship. I think with this win we have the championship already and all we have to do is start the 1000. The second year in a row (to win the title).It was a fun race. It was a pretty clean race. The course was real tough. We were taking our time and we’d move when the other cars would catch us. But we had no problems.”

STOCK FULL
878 KENT KROEKER, 1st (drove both laps) – “John Griffin and I went back and forth the whole race, hitting each other, smashing our trucks up, passing other people, ramming other people. That’s why we came here. That was great racing. That was the best race I’ve ever had. I’ve never had a better race in my life. It was like Mad Max out there. The first lap was the most heinous lap I’ve ever had. I’ve been racing desert for 25 years and that was the worst I’ve ever had; the dust and going right into the sun. We started all the way in the back and we had to pass four guys to get to where we needed to be. It was a punishing nightmare. This was the greatest desert race of my life. (Kroeker finished the race with a flat right rear tire) “I don’t even know when that happened – I just had it pinned.”

861 JOHN GRIFFIN, 2nd (drove both laps) – “It was the closest racing action ever, for me. We didn’t know they were back there. We were out of radio (contact). All of a sudden they came up behind us, so we had to get on it. We noticed them at probably about mile 50 on the first lap. We passed them again, then they came up behind us again. It was exciting racing. I haven’t seen the bumper (on his truck), but yeah, he did (bump them a few times). We didn’t have any mechanical. No flats. The truck’s good. We’re leaking gasoline, though.”

862 CHAD HALL, 3rd (drove both laps) – “We had no problems at all, we just didn’t have quite enough truck today. We’ll screw a little bit more speed in it and come back next time. My wife, Paige, ran with me today, and she said she’d like to have just a little bit more dirt in her face. She ran Vegas to Reno with me last year and gave me my first win in like 13 tries. So I felt I needed a little good luck and threw her in this hot rod. We couldn’t quite run with Kent and John, but we did good and had a great run. It’s (the truck) sitting here probably just as good as it left the line. We did great (in points). John caught us a little bit, but we’re way out in front, so all we’ve got to do is finish the 1000.”

STOCK MINI
778 GAVIN SKILTON, 1st (drove solo) – “We had zero issues, no flats. Steve Kovach (761) chased me hard all the way to the finish. It was a good, fun race. It was dusty, it was rocky and it was whoopy. I didn’t take the lead until about mile 15 of the second lap and then we held it all the way to the finish. I sat in third the whole first lap. Once I got the lead, Kovach tried really hard to catch me but it was difficult to pass in the dust.“

761 STEVE KOVACH, 2nd (drove solo) -- “This morning it was rough. The dust, you couldn’t see anything. There was no visibility this morning. Then the sun came up and you couldn’t see diddly squat. My team did such an awesome job because we hit it hard every lap and we didn’t have a problem and we stayed right with the Honda team. It was probably the best race I’ve had in 14, 15 races. It was the first time I’ve ever beaten Rod Hall. A race like this, it’s like winning big at the tables in Vegas – it keeps you coming back.”

PROTRUCK
235 JASON VOSS, 1st (drove solo) – “We had a flat tire right after the main pit, right before Pit B, on the second lap. That was it. (told by one of crew members a ball joint was almost gone and said, “It looks like we barely made it.”) It was rough the last lap. It was warm in the truck today. It was one of the warmest races I’ve had in the truck. Traffic wasn’t a problem. We were right behind the Class 1s. The guy before broke right off the line and up a little bit a guy had a flat and that gave some time in the beginning to spread everyone out, and from there we pretty much had no dust the rest of the day. It was a good race.”