Primm 300 post race quotes, notes

SCORE Trophy-Truck

1 Bob Shepard (1st place)
The race worked out really good. Nothing happened. Not one flat. Luckily, we didn't need any lights. As soon as I saw Larry Ragland pulled over that last lap (with a blown motor on his Chevy Silverado)...I didn't want to have to race with Larry. I thought 'not again! It happens every time!' It was nice I didn't have to worry about him. I was a little worried to take it too easy on the last lap. I drove the whole time. It got easier. The first lap was hard because it was dusty. The last couple of laps got a little easier. As soon as we had the lead, there was no reason to push too hard and make any mistakes. So we just took it kind of easy. It would be nice to win an overall.

2 Pete Sohren (2nd place)
I drove the whole thing. I had the first flat right behind B.J. Baldwin. I had a flat before Pit C. My guys changed it there...I had a front flat. Then I had a rear flat on the other side of the mountains on the far side. I hit a rock when I was first in the road. It was the stupidest thing. It was just a battle for us all day. We had the oil problems and the flats but got back in front of people and really, really worked hard. It was a great day for us. We're a low-dollar team battling the multimillionaires. We had a great effort today from the whole team.

17 Carl Renezeder (3rd place)
We had a pretty good day. I think on lap three, we were the first truck. Then on the last lap, we blew an o-ring on the fuel injector rail. We had to go to the pit and pull that apart to fix it. I don't know how we did. The truck ran great we just had that one little problem at the end. Otherwise we would have been out in front. I drove the whole race. It was an average performance. I have a little bit of the flu. I've have better days. The track was really rough. This truck is really tough and I'm glad to bring it to the finish line.

Class 1

122 Troy Herbst (1st place)
I just finished the deal. Timmy Herbst drove the race today. I did the finish for the points. Hats off to my brother! We had a great run. Everything was outstanding. We finished the race. It feels great and Timmy did a hell of a job [loud cheers]. (Tim Herbst) We had a pretty good run. We had two flat tires that cost us the overall for the day but the truck ran well. We had it a little too harsh up front to run real fast on the whoops, but all-in-all it ran great. Hopefully we'll be up to first in Class 1. The Primm race is always exciting. It's close to home and we come to test here all the time. It's kind of like our home track. We have a lot of family and friends here and it's just fun.

112 Gary Weyhrich (2nd place)
I'm hurting [from driving the entire race]. I'll never drive this long again. It was stupid. It looked like we had the lead for a while. We got stuck behind a Protruck coming in and the sun was coming down so I couldn't see. I didn't want to do something stupid. We had one flat [on lap three], but everybody had flats. The course was really rocky, horrible.

125 Richard Boyle (3rd place)
[The race] was good. There was a lot of dust, some big rocks. It was a pretty good day. I did the last two laps. We had a lot of fun. The car ran great. No mechanical problems.

126 Jamie Campbell (4th place)
I drove the entire way myself. The course was actually really good today when we started. Then it just started getting worse. We were trying to keep the car light. We were only putting a certain amount of gas (about 30 gallons) in it at certain pits. Anyway, the car just got a little soft so we had to stiffen it up on the last lap. We had a couple of flat tires. Other than that, we just tried to be consistent. I've never raced Primm before. It was good. I'll be back next year.

Class 1-2/1600

1610 Adam Pfankuch (1st place)
[I drove the] whole race. It was great. It was a little hot later on. The track got really worn in, so cars started working a little worse toward the end of the day but it worked out. Not one mechanical problem...nothing. I got stuck behind some traffic for one lap that's why I was behind a little bit. I just decided to play it safe. When I got in the clear, I opened it up and made sure I was safe all day and didn't make any errors and here we are! It's dusty so if you get stuck behind the wrong competitor, you're losing time on the people in the front.

1605 Brian Burgess and Daniel Folts (2nd place)
(Brian) Rocky! Rocky! And more Rocks! It was good. We didn't get a flat all day. [The course] was good. It got a little tore up in some areas and other areas were a little smoother than I thought it was going to be. No flats. No mechanical problems. Daniel Folts did two [laps]. We did a driver change, I got in and did the last two.

Class 3

349 Kirk Kovel
I drove the whole time. The first lap, a rear shock broke off and it took out the oil filter. It put us behind all day [laughs]. We didn't have any oil. Some guys [from our pit] hiked out about a mile and gave me some. [The course] is pretty rough. It was hot, and it was fouling the plugs a lot so I had to shut off the fuel pump.

Class 5

502 David Bonner,
I drove the whole time. The car owner couldn't make it because he had a wedding to go to, so I drove the race solo. I had two flat tires. But other than that it was perfect. I got two flat tires in the same spot around mile marker 74. I don't really know why. It's real rocky out there. We started the race with the same tires we won the Baja 500 with. Maybe it was just too much for a set of tires. I had flats on laps 1 and two. I ran a clean third lap. The course was good. It's rough and technical. But that's what off-road racing is about. I had a lot of fun out there. A lot of high speed stuff. A lot of what I call tank traps. You know where you just roll over all the stuff. You can't get on top of it or any of that stuff. It was great. I thought it was a wonderful course. The dust wasn't too terribly bad. The early morning start was wonderful and I had a great time. I didn't deal with a lot of traffic. After I got my flat tire, I got past quite a few 1600 cars and it created some traffic for me but for the most part it was pretty spread out. It was pretty nice.

Class 5/1600

554 Danny Ledezma
[The course] was fast, rough. It had a little bit of everything. I lost my tranny after second gear at 20 miles. We just came in second gear for like 20 miles we just ran second gear. The first lap, third and fourth were popping out of gear but on the second [lap] first gear went out so coming in...just second gear. We also had one flat on the first lap. My cousin, Mario Ledezma drove the first lap and a half. He was having problems with the transmission. He gave it to me in first [place]. But we got a flat after that and we got it in.

Class 7

719 David Binns
It was a little rough today. We had broken parts. We were in the lead about 27 miles into the race. We started last, passed them all and stayed in front. About 20 miles back, we broke [something in our suspension] and we were lucky to make it here...period. So we kept the lead and did what we had to do. I drove the whole way. My co-pilot, Jared Teague, stayed with me the whole time, too. It was my first time here at Primm so it was a good race for us. We'll probably do this race again next year.

Class 7S

721 Tyler Fox and Zach Stephens
(Zach) The race was rough. We had some mechanical problems. Then the fuel pump started going. So the last lap was a little challenging. (Tyler) We stopped three times within ten miles to make sure we could cool it down enough to get it into the finish. It was a long day. Overall we had a pretty good day except for the last 40 miles. We're glad to win. We're pretty stoked and we'll be at the 1000!

Class 7SX

759 Mark Landersman and John Holmes
(Mark) I just did the last lap and John did the first two laps. I know when he gave it to me we were in a lead, which takes a lot of pressure off me. I give him all the credit. He's the best driver in the world! [The race was] excellent! No problems! The truck was flawless. We did lose a fuel pump early on so we lost a couple minutes to change fuel pumps but after we got that going the truck ran great. We had a flawless day and just had a lot of fun. It was surprising that we didn't get to pass anybody. A couple of 10 cars and one 16 car came up on us so I let them around. Other than that, we had a nice smooth, easy day. It was great. It was a lot of fun. We had a blast out there. It's our third one!

Class 8

802 Nick Vanderwey
It was an awesome course! I really love this course. I like the fast and I really like the rough. This truck just goes through it. It was awesome! We got the lead at Pit C on the first lap...Larry got the lead. Then I gave it back to him just to make it interesting. We got a flat, then changed it we took it back in lap two and stayed ahead all the way through lap three. Larry drove a lap and a half and I drove a lap and a half. One stop, fuel, tires, and ready to go. It was a piece of cake. The truck runs great. This is an awesome truck. It's incredible. It's perfect. All you have to do is drive it. We knew we were only doing three laps. This course is so rough, three is fine. Our goal was to finish first before the first Trophy-Truck. The first Trophy-Truck got a 37 minute head start on us and we still beat them.

Class 9

900 Eric Fisher
It was tough. It was getting rougher each time we made a loop. We only had one flat. We were expecting a little more competition in our class. But we're doing a good job. Issac Chapluk drove the first one and a half loops, I drove the second part. The second half of the course is rougher than the first one. So it was easier for [Issac]! I took the beating. Look, I'm the old guy! We took care of the car and tried not to hit it and just go as fast as we can. When I was just getting in it, I was told not to fly in it too much because there's a problem with the rear suspension. They break easy. There are some parts of the course that you have to go in first gear for five, ten minutes. It was tough and also [the course] was very worn. Behind the hills, there is no wind. That's bad...you just start sweating and there are many turns where you pick up a lot of dirt. You have to keep your helmet on.

Class 10

1001 Darren Hardesty (1st place)
It was a great run we had today. This buggy really hauls ass. Everybody that did work on this car did a great job. I'm a little winded because our last 40 miles I was driving as fast as I possibly could. We stopped to change a tire and I heard the next guy was pretty close behind me and they told me it was Jeff Gordon so I was going to drive as fast as I can because I wasn't going to get beat! We actually had a flat on mile 15 on the first lap. We changed that and didn't have a problem at all but I went into the pits on the last lap for some gas and they changed the tire because they thought it looked bad. The course was really fast. There was a lot of rocks the first lap, but everyone moved them out. It was a great race. I couldn't do it without the Desert Assassins. They're my team. I think it's the whole package of this car. I just drove the snot out of it!

1010 Doug Fortin (2nd place)
It was fast. The course is rough but it's a fast rough. But this car works so good that with a class ten motor in it instead of a class one motor, it kind of seems like slow motion. It didn't really beat me up too bad. I lost a CV boot on the end of the second lap and that cost us about seven minutes. I told the guys when I left going on the last lap...second place or DNF, it doesn't matter to me [laughs]! So we tried to catch them but when we went through, they still had about six minutes on me when we went through Pit C, so there was just not enough race course left.

1015 C.J. Hutchins (3rd place)
Mark drove the first two laps. He did a real good job. The radio fell out of the dash the first lap. So we had to stop and pull that out. It took about three or four minutes to pull it all out. Other than that, it was a pretty good day. I think we were in the pits for three minutes, 15 seconds. We've had a lot of bad luck this year and last year. Finally this year, we crossed the line at San Filipe and we made it back here today. It's looking better! It's rough out there today!

SCORE Lite

1200 Tim Noe and David Scaroni (1st place)
(David) Tim did the first lap I did the last three. He let me in after lap one. We were able to push hard all day and pick off some people and we won. We actually got nailed by the class 12 behind us in the end. But he was just trying to get the win, too. So you can't blame him too much. We had a flat coming in and didn't even know it. But we're here. It was a good day for us. When you're lucky, you're lucky!

1203 Darren Ebberts (2nd place)
I drove the second half. Chuck Sacks drove the first half. We had a good race going. We got a front flat and that took a long time to change. After that, about 30 miles from the finish, we lost all our brakes and we came in with no brakes. There was a lot of slower 16's, but no big deal. But it was just a good clean race. The course is fun. I've been doing it a long time and it's a good, fun, rough course.

Class 11

1100 Eric Solorzano
It was rough but it was fun, you know, quick. No problems. [I drove] the whole time. We just went smooth and tried to finish. This is our second win here at Primm!

Stock Full

879 Mark Handley
I had a great run. The truck ran fantastic. No flats. I only stopped for a little gas and that was it. I drove the whole time. The course is normal Primm rough, really rough. We got out front at about mile 15 and just stayed there and drove our own pace the rest of the way. It's my third time winning here...three out of four. It makes it a little more exciting.

Stock Mini

761 Rod Hall
I'm just hoping that we didn't tear up that truck too bad for those Trophy-Trucks and those Class 1 cars going out next with the big ruts and big rocks we kicked up and all that. It's great. This little Hummer ran just beautiful. Fast as any person would want it to go. For once, I didn't get lost. I didn't have a flat tire once. But two laps was enough for me. This is my first Primm race and my second SCORE race for the year. So that gives us two wins for the year. You know, I really did like it. There was a lot of rough stuff for a stock truck but still there was that fast stuff where we would think we were going pretty fast then you just have to soldier through the rough stuff. If you don't get in a big hurry with [the hummer] it just goes through that stuff pretty good. [Did you drive the whole time?] Yes I did! I never got out! I had a couple of glasses of Gatorade and so now I'm going to get some coffee, something to really give you a buzz. You don't want to get that buzzed up when you're driving. The car may not last. So you have to get your coffee afterwards!

Protruck

299 Joe Bednar
It was a good race. We had a good run. There are only three of us Protrucks out there. Voss team had some problems. They had three flats. I came up on them too fast. I thought I was going to hit them, maybe take their legs off. So I stopped my car and got stuck in the sand. So I was done. Finally, the Voss boys got me out and I gave them a tire. Then I towed them out and said 'boys, let's make it a race!' They got their car running. We started running full speed -- just the two of us. I don't know where they are now, but...[loud cheers]. I drove the whole race. I had two new co-pilots...first time in the car! The track is tough. It's got some Volkswagen size bumps in it you got to go real slow. It's a tough track. Great fun!

204 Gus Vildosola, Jr.
(Bryan Freeman) Gus "Tavo" Vildosola, Jr. drove the first two laps. We damaged a driveline so we were down 30 minutes. We had a game plan today. That was just to keep moving. The second lap it all came to us. Everybody else had problems and we just kind of drove around. I got in the last lap to take it in to the finish. We had no problems and just kind of cruised around...we're here first again. Jimmy, the head mechanic, rode the whole way. No flats. Just a rock was in the road and hit the driveline. It's really rocky. You just have to go real slow. Everybody wants to go dice with each other and you just can't do that. You just have to drive your own pace. That's what I did last year. It's just very treacherous out there. [Would you do anything differently?] No! Not at all!

Sportsman SPT Car

1402 Heather Bonnani
(Robyn Gordon) We had two flats on the first run...the last lap. We probably got it about ten miles coming into main pit. We thought we'd gotten a flat and we were surprised we hadn't gotten anything. When we came in, we saw we'd ripped it all the way off the rim. We did pretty well. We didn't get passed by any cars all day long. (Beccy Gordon) It's awesome just to come and win for the second time. It's great to come here and show that we can race against the guys and we can hold our own and we didn't get passed. If we were out here getting in everybody's way it would be another story but I think we're actually competing.

SPT Truck

1501 Steven Looney
(Mike Ballard) It was great! I loved it. It was fun. It was kind of interesting we were trying to stay out in front of those trophy trucks but after we lost a belt, Baldwin and quite a few of them passed us. It's kind of scary that they come up behind you like that. Other than that, we had a good trip all day long. It was a great experience. I just hope we can do it again next year.

-credit: score