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Primm: Series round four preview

Rd 4 of 2010 SCORE Desert Series Tight season point battles adding excitement to competition at upcoming 15th SCORE Las Vegas Terrible's Primm 300 SCORE's 37th season continues Sept. 10-12 with nearly 125 entries expected in 21 Pro & 2 Sportsman ...

Rd 4 of 2010 SCORE Desert Series
Tight season point battles adding excitement to competition at upcoming 15th SCORE Las Vegas Terrible's Primm 300

SCORE's 37th season continues Sept. 10-12 with nearly 125 entries expected in 21 Pro & 2 Sportsman classes for cars and trucks

LOS ANGELES--With just a total of 65 points separating the top 20 overall point leaders in the 2010 SCORE Desert Series, the battles in several individual classes for cars and trucks are even tighter heading into next week's 15th Annual SCORE Las Vegas Terrible's Primm 300 desert race. Round 4 of the five-race 2010 SCORE Desert Series will be held Sept. 10-12 in Primm, Nev.

While November's season-ending 43rd Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 race in Mexico will finalize the individual class and overall point champions for the 37th year of the world's foremost desert racing series, the SCORE Las Vegas Terrible's Primm 300 will surely determine the contenders for this year's titles.

The SCORE Las Vegas Terrible's Primm 300 will feature 21 Pro and 2 Sportsman classes for cars and trucks in Primm, located 45 miles south of Las Vegas at the California border. This year's starting grid is expected to reach nearly 125 vehicles. Late entries will be accepted up until race morning.

SCORE points include a set amount of points for starting and finishing (based on the distance of the particular race) that is the same for all classes and individual position points within each class at each race is set by the number of starters within each class.

With two wins in three races this year, third generation desert racer Andy McMillin of National City, Calif. leads the SCORE Overall and SCORE Trophy-Truck point standings with 249 championship points so far in the No. 31 McMillin Realty Ford F-150, but with all the points still remaining on the desert floor, his first SCORE championship is anything but secure. A total of 29 SCORE Trophy-Trucks are entered to date for this year, the second-most in the 15-year history of the race.

Especially in the marquee SCORE Trophy-Truck division for high-tech, 850-horsepower unlimited production trucks where his 24-point lead over second-place Jesse Jones of Litchfield Park, Ariz., can evaporate quickly in the desert terrain that can be so treacherous to both man and machine. Jones, who won the second round of this year's series in San Felipe, Mex., in March in his No. 76 Chevy Silverado, has 225 championship points heading into the Southern Nevada desert.

While no class point championships have been decided, the other car and truck classes besides SCORE Trophy-Truck with the tightest and most competitive point battles heading to Primm are the unlimited Class 1, Class 1-2/1600, SCORE Lite, Class 6, Class 10 and Class 5/1600.

"One of the things that makes SCORE desert racing so intriguing is its unpredictability," commented Sal Fish, SCORE CEO/President since soon after the organization was founded in 1973. "Prep work is paramount in any motorsport, but equally important in our sport is having a patient driver and an intuitive race crew that can not only fix things in a hurry, but anticipate potential issues during the ever-changing conditions on a desert race course."

"What our racers and their race teams do every race is really amazing and even awe-inspiring. I am sure the ingredients that work so well with our teams in the desert from planning, strategy, logistics, teamwork, creativity, perseverance, ingenuity and endurance all have significant carry-over values for all aspects of life away from the desert. SCORE desert racing has many parallels to daily living which adds even more excitement and enjoyment to the experiences we are able to provide in the desert for our sturdy adventurers."

For the ninth consecutive year, the race will be split into two groups with the open wheel, slower truck and VW baja bug classes starting at 6 a.m. 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. The faster classes will be required to cover four laps of the 68.6-mile loop course to become official finishers within the seven-hour time limit.

The main pits and start/finish area for the 68.6-mile loop course will be located behind Buffalo Bills Resort on the North side of the property. The race course, which will run again in a counter-clockwise direction, is virtually the same layout as last year, although weather and use has altered the terrain.

The course will have one designated spectator area, the parking lot behind Buffalo Bill's Resort adjacent to both the Start/Finish line and the straightaway that parallels the eastside of the parking lot. Admission is free to the designated spectator area.

"Very important at this event is SCORE's decision to increase safety by mandating a strict 30 miles per hour speed limit in all three of the pit areas, as well as the course loop outbound and inbound sections on NV Energy property," added Fish. "We are very fortunate that NV Energy continues to support this event by allowing SCORE to use their railroad overpass bridge to transition from the friendly and comfortable atmosphere at the Terrible's Primm Valley Resorts to the brutal outlying desert course."

In addition to SCORE Trophy-Truck's heated point battle, in Class 1, Kory Halopoff/Harley Letner, Orange, Calif., in a Tatum-Chevy has just a two-point lead over Daniel McMillin, El Cajon, Calif., who drives a Jimco-Chevy. In Class 1-2/1600, Daniel McMillin's brother Luke McMillin in a AlumiCraft-VW has just a one point lead over Hiram Duran and his brothers Eric and Evan of Tecate, Calif., who race in a Neth-VW.

In SCORE Lite, Justin Davis, Chino Hills, Calif., has a four-point lead in a Seagrove-VW over defending class point championship team of Brent Parkhouse, Long Beach, Calif./Brian Burgess in a Moulton-VW and Lee Banning Sr. and Junior are just two points behind Parkhouse and six behind Davis. In Class 10, San Diego's Alex Crosthwaite in a Jimco-Honda has just a one-point lead over Sergio Salgado, Mexicali, Mexico, who races in another Jimco-Honda.

In another competitive group, Class 6 for unlimited, production mini trucks, Dave Caspino, Woodland Hills, Calif., in a Ford Ranger has won his class in all three races this year in his first season in the class and leads the defending Class 6 season point champion Heidi Steele, San Clemente, Calif., who also drives a Ford Ranger, by 29 points.

Another close class point race is in Class 5/1600 for 1600cc VW Baja Bugs where there is a pair of Mexican nationals from Ensenada who are leading with Gustavo Avina having a four point advantage after three races over Alonso Angulo, the defending season point champion in the historic class.

Ten of last year's class winners in the SCORE Las Vegas Terrible's Primm 300 have also entered so far, including seven of last year's top 10, and 11 of the top 15 overall finishers.

NASCAR Cup team owner/driver and defending overall race and SCORE Trophy-Truck winner Robby Gordon is entered again this year. Gordon, of Charlotte, N.C., who drives the No. 1 Team Gordon Chevy CK1500 SCORE Trophy-Truck as the reigning SCORE Overall point champion, is a two-time overall winner in this race, having won both the inaugural race in 1996 as well as last year's event.

Like he did last year, Gordon is scheduled to have a replacement driver behind the wheel of his NASCAR Toyota Camry in Richmond, Va., while he competes in his SCORE Trophy-Truck in the Southern Nevada desert. He will be starting 14th in the SCORE Trophy-Truck class this year.

Starting behind the 29 SCORE Trophy-Trucks will be the unlimited Class 1 for open-wheel desert race cars, which has 18 official entries so far. In the first 14 years of the SCORE Las Vegas Terrible's Primm 300, SCORE Trophy-Trucks have 10 Overall race wins while Class 1 has four. SCORE Trophy-Trucks have won seven straight overall titles.

Among the entries in Class 1 is the international team of Germany's World Rally Championship veteran Armin Schwarz and Denmark's Martin Christensen, who lives in Escondido, Calif. Schwarz/Christensen have teamed up to win Class 1 in this race the last two consecutive years. They drew the seventh starting slot in Class 1, giving their BMW-powered Jimco No. 107 for this race. Driving the second All German Motorsports entry in Class 1, the No. 111 Jimco-Chevy, will be the veteran WRC team of Germany's Armin Kremer and Austria's Andrea Aigner.

Behind SCORE Trophy-Truck and Class 1, the class with the most entries is SCORE Lite with 13 entries to date.

Besides Gordon and Schwarz/Christensen, the other defending class winners entered as of today are Justin Smith, Capistrano Beach, Calif. (Class 1-2/1600, Fraley-VW), Dan Chamlee, Carpenteria, Calif. (Class 7, Ford Ranger), Norm Turley, Long Beach, Calif. (Class 7SX, Ford Ranger), Clyde Stacy, Bristol, Va./Justin Matney, Bristol, Tenn. (Class 8, Chevy Silverado), Ronny Wilson, Long Beach, Calif. (SCORE Lite, Jimco-VW), Mike Lawrence, Sunset Beach, Calif., (Class 10, Lothringer-VW), Peter Lang, Santa Rosa, Calif. (Sportsman Car, Homebuilt-Chevy) and Joe Aguayo, San Jacinto, Calif., (Sportsman Truck, Ford F-150).

Pre-race festivities on Friday, Sept. 10, for the SCORE Las Vegas Terrible's Primm 300, including tech and contingency and the SCORE Manufacturer's Midway, will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. behind Buffalo Bill's Resort. The post-race awards celebration will be held at 10 a.m. on Sunday (Sept. 12) in the conference center at Terrible's Primm Valley Resort.

The highly-competitive 2010 SCORE Desert Series has 20 racers separated by just 65 points in the Overall standings after January's 16th SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge, March's 24th Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 and June's 42nd Tecate SCORE Baja 500 desert races.

In addition to season point class point championships, drivers in the Pro car and truck classes are also racing to earn prestigious SCORE Toyota Milestone Awards given to all car and truck class drivers who complete every required mile of the five-race season. Being presented by Toyota Motorsports for the 25th consecutive year, a total of 22 drivers remain eligible after Round 3 of the 2010 SCORE Desert Series. Racers are also competing for the annual SCORE Off-Roadsman of the Year awards, including the MasterCraft Safety SCORE Rookie of the Year award.

For more information regarding the series, contact SCORE at its Los Angeles headquarters 818.225.8402 or visit the official website of the 2010 SCORE Desert Series at www.score-international.com. JJ 15th Annual SCORE Las Vegas Terrible's Primm 300

-source: score

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