Terrible Herbst Motorsports received a special Christmas present Saturday, drawing the no. 1 starting positions in the computerized drawing for the 10th Annual SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge.
The first major motorsport event of the year will be held Jan. 15-18, launching the six-race 2004 SCORE Desert Series, the world’s foremost desert racing series.
With 156 total vehicles entered in time for Saturday’s drawing, Ed and Tim Herbst drew the pole position in the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division while Troy Herbst received the top spot in the unlimited Class 1.
Motorsports fans and racers from across the United States, Mexico and Japan will flock to Laughlin, Nev., the desert resort town near the shores of the Colorado River for the popular SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge.
Since its debut in 1995, the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge has helped establish Laughlin as a viable host for special events. Thousands of spectators will join nearly 170 racers and their crews converging on the city to watch the best of the best desert racers compete in a unique-format, two-day race that includes a temporary stadium surrounding the start/finish line area and the main pits.
A total of 16 different classes for cars and trucks are split into seven groups in Laughlin, each running as part of one of seven races of two to five laps each over the much-abbreviated 11-mile loop each day. Racing action runs from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.
Drivers and pit crews will compete for more than $300,000 in prize money and contingency postings during the four day SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge.
Among the early entries are most of SCORE’s top racers, including some who are switching classes along with a growing group of newcomers who will give SCORE one of its largest ever groups of rookies. As SCORE begins is fourth decade as the world’s oldest and most prominent desert racing organization, several drivers have entered more than one class.
NASCAR Winston Cup regular Robby Gordon, whose racing roots are in the desert, is slipping away from his testing for Richard Childress Racing to race in the marquee SCORE Trophy-Truck class in the No. 31 Chevy CK1500 he built in his own Team Gordon Racing shop in Southern California. Gordon drew the 22nd starting spot out of 23 entries in SCORE Trophy-Truck. Also entered is ESPN sportscaster Cameron Steele, San Clemente, Calif., who won Class 1-2/1600 in November’s SCORE Baja 1000.
At the top of the early entry list are brothers Ed, Tim and Troy Herbst, Dale Ebberts, George Seeley and Brian Collins.
Two racers, Las Vegas’ Rob MacCachren and Tom Ridings, Long Beach, Calif., have entered three classes, two as driver of record and one as a co-driver.
MacCachren, who has won seven SCORE class point titles, is driver of record in SCORE Lite and Class 1-2/1600 in addition to being the co-driver for Mexico’s Gus Vildosola in the No. 4 Ford F-150 in the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division.
Ridings is driver of record in SCORE Lite and Class 10 and is co-driving in the unlimited Class 1 with Brian Parkhouse, Bell Gardens, Calif.
Ed Herbst, 42, and Tim Herbst, 40, are the reigning SCORE Trophy-Truck season point champs in their No. 1 Ford F-150 and each have four class wins in Laughlin. Troy Herbst, 36, the youngest of the three Las Vegas brothers, is a perennial favorite and six-time SCORE Class 1 season point champion in his Smithbuilt-Ford.
Ebberts, Canyon Lake, Calif., is the defending Laughlin race winner as well as the 2003 SCORE Overall and Class 1 point champion. Ebberts will debut a new Jimco desert race car powered by a V-8 Toyota racing engine.
Seeley, Glendale, Calif., is the all-time class winner in Laughlin with five race wins in Class 5. Collins, also of Las Vegas, has four class wins in Laughlin, including one in SCORE Trophy-Truck (2001). Collins will be the co-driver this year in the Collins Motorsports No. 12 Chevy Silverado, with veteran Larry Ragland, Cave Creek, Ariz., as the team’s driver of record.
SCORE points are determined both by finishing order and number of starters in each class. In the drawing for the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge, classes with the most entries were Class 1 and Class 1-2/1600 with 28 each, Class 10 with 24 and SCORE Trophy-Truck with a record 23.
With two vehicles starting side-by-side every 30 seconds in the elapsed-time race, starting alongside of Ed Herbst in SCORE Trophy-Truck in the No. 5 Ford F-150 of Marty Coyne, El Centro, Calif.
Starting on the outside of row 1 in Class 1 next to Troy Herbst will be the Porter-Ford of casino CEO Bobby Baldwin of Las Vegas.
Late entries, receiving the next available starting position in each class, will be accepted up until race morning.
Daily general admission tickets, good for grandstand seating, are $15 for each Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, children five and under are free. Daily VIP tickets are $35 each for three days, good for admission to the Laughlin Hospitality Chalet, including food beverage and special seating.
The stadium seating area will include the immensely popular SCOREvision large-screen LCD display that debuted last year, showing live footage from various locations around the race course.
Tickets will also be available for the three other designated spectator areas around the course.
At a cost of $10 per vehicle, there are two areas off of Nevada State Highway 163 adjacent to the racecourse as well as the popular “SCORE Hill,” which overlooks the infield, start/finish area and the main pits. Admission to these areas is on a first-come, first-served basis and no camping is permitted. These areas will have limited refreshment and public safety services.
Tickets for the Laughlin Events Park are now on sale at 800.227.5245.
One of the event’s most popular features, the Laughlin Leap, revs up the fun and gets the weekend off to a roaring start at 6 p.m. on Thursday (Jan. 16). Drivers and pit crews will share the spotlight at the Laughlin Events Park, competing for a $16,000 purse and the honor of being the 2004 champion. The Laughlin Leap, a dirt ramp built into the middle of the arena, challenges the most daring of drivers, and the top car or truck traditionally goes airborne for more than 110 feet.
On Friday (Jan. 16) at 4:30 p.m. at the Laughlin Events Park, the Pit Crew Showdown focuses attention on the entire racing team to compete for a $10,000 purse. Like other pit crew events, the vehicle must pull into the pit, have all four tires replaced, and then race out of the pit before the clock stops. But there’s a twist. This competition doesn’t take place on a level slab of concrete, and the unusual shocks required to compete in desert racing require that the vehicle be lifted several feet into the air.
The Events Park with grandstand seating, vendor’s village and food court is just minutes from the destination’s nine resorts and includes an infield packed with switchbacks, wooptydoos, minijumps and the Laughlin Leap.
The 10th annual SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge is sponsored by the Laughlin Tourism Committee, the Laughlin Visitors Bureau, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority in association with Las Vegas Events. The race is sanctioned and produced by SCORE International of Los Angeles.
The upcoming 2004 race will be the first of a new three-year contract extension between Laughlin, the LVCVA, LVE and SCORE International, confirming the event’s significant economic and promotional impact.
SCORE International, founded in 1973 by the late Mickey Thompson and headed by Sal Fish since 1974, continues today as the premier sanctioning body in the sport of desert racing. SCORE races feature 16 Pro and two Sportsman classes for cars and trucks in the U.S. with seven additional Pro and three more Sportsman classes for motorcycles and ATVs competing in the races in Mexico. SCORE races in the U.S. average 130 entries while the average in Mexico, with motorcycle and ATV classes running as well as the cars and trucks is 250.
Current SCORE official annual sponsors are BFGoodrich Tires-official tire, Southern California Ford Dealers-official vehicle, 76 Racing Fuel-official fuel and Rental Service Corporation-official equipment supplier. Associate sponsors are: Tecate Beer, Coca-Cola of Mexico, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance, Fram, Autolite, Prestone, Bilstein, Signpros, P.C.I. Race Radios, McKenzie’s, and Advanced Color Graphics.
For more information, contact SCORE at (818) 225-8402, or visit the Score-International web site.
By Dominic Clark
Published: 12/29/2003
