| SCORE Primm 300 |
| Terrible Herbst Home > Motorsports > News |
Shepard soars to Overall and SCORE Trophy-Truck victory;
Hardesty, Pfankuch, Noe, Hall, Vildosola Jr. LOS ANGELES—Using his normal waiting game to his advantage, Phoenix’s Bob Shepard powered his Chevy CK1500 race truck to the overall and SCORE Trophy-Truck Saturday at the 11th Annual SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 desert race. In earning his second career SCORE Trophy-Truck race win, Shepard, the reigning SCORE Trophy-Truck series point champion, covered the 296-mile race in five hours, 25 minutes, 24 seconds, averaging 54.58 miles per hour while covering the four laps over the rugged 74-mile desert course. Sixth after the first lap out of 23 starters in SCORE Trophy-Truck, Shepard climbed up two second behind midway leader Carl Renezeder’s Chevy Silverado, took the lead for good on lap 3 when Renezeder’s Chevy Silverado developed some mechanical problems. Second overall and winning Class 1 was Las Vegas brothers Troy and Tim Herbst, 4 minutes, 15 seconds behind Renezeder in the Terrible Herbst Motorsports Smithbuilt-Ford open-wheel desert race car. With Tim Herbst doing all the driving except the last 50 yards as Troy is still recovery from an Achilles tendon surgery, the brothers were third after the first lap, fifth midway through the race before jumping all the way to first on lap 3 where they stayed to the finish. “The race worked out really good,” said Shepard following his second career SCORE Trophy-Truck race win and his first SCORE Overall race victory. “ 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”. SCORE’s 33rd anniversary season continued with 86 survivors out of 168 starters, competed in 17 Pro and 2 Sportsman classes for cars and trucks finishing within the eight-hour time limit in the elapsed-time race. “I just finished the deal,” said Troy Herbst, who now has 21 SCORE Class 1 race wins since 1997. “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].” “We had a pretty good run,” said Tim Herbst, who normally drives with the eldest Herbst boy-Ed-in SCORE Trophy-Truck. “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.” Third overall and second in Class 1 were brothers Gary and Mark Weyhrich, Troutdale, Ore., in a Jimco-Chevy, just 2:04 behind the Herbsts and 6:19 back of Shepard. Finishing fourth overall and second in SCORE Trophy-Truck was Pete Sohren, Phoenix, driving a Ford F-150, ending up 9:41 behind Shepard. Round 5 of the six-race 2006 SCORE Desert Series, the world’s foremost desert racing series, featured racers from 13 States and Mexico racing on a typically rugged Southern Nevada race course under brilliantly sunny skies with a steady northerly wind keep temperatures fall-like in the high 80s. For the fifth consecutive year, the race was split into two groups with the open wheel and VW baja bug classes running in the morning. The truck classes, including the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division along with the unlimited Class 1 open-wheel class, raced in the afternoon. Hard-charging Darren Hardesty’s VW-powered AlumiCraft open-wheel desert race car was the fastest during the morning section of the race, winning Class 10 in 5:35:30, good enough for a surprising fifth overall in the race. For Hardesty, Ramona, Calif., it was his third SCORE Class 10 win of the year, having won his class previously at the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge in January and June’s Tecate SCORE Baja 500. Hardesty had a 6:22 winning margin in Class 10 over the Jimco-Honda of runner-up Doug Fortin, El Cajon, Calif., and an 11:39 margin over the third place Kreger-Honda of Las Vegas father/son team of Mark and C.J. Hutchins. In the SCORE Lite class, also run in the morning, two-time defending season point champion Tim Noe, San Diego and David Scaroni, Heber, Calif. came from behind in their Jimco-VW to defeat the Chenowth-VW of driving partners Chuck Sacks and Darren Ebberts, both of Canyon Lake, Calif., by 4:33. Adam Pfankuch, Carlsbad, Calif., took the lead on the second lap and held off the top challengers to earn his first win of the year in Class 1-2/1600 in an Amplified-VW. Arizona brothers Nick, Larry and Michael Vanderwey won Class 8 in their GMC Sierra for the third time this season as well as picking up their second career Primm win. Staying undefeated in Class 3 with a fourth-straight victory, and the winning the Primm race for the fourth time in five years were brothers Donald Moss, Sacramento, Calif., and Ken Moss, Marysville, Calif., in their sturdy Ford Bronco. In Class 7SX, John Holmes, Olivenhain, Calif., won for the third consecutive race in a Ford Ranger. Winning the Protruck class in a Ford F-150 for the third time this season was the team of Gus Vildosola Jr., Mexicali, Mexico and Bryan Freeman, Henderson, Nev. Mexico’s Eric Solorzano became the winningest driver in the race’s history, claiming Class 11 in his stock VW sedan for the seventh time in the 11-year history of the popular race. Mexico’s Eric Fisher, of Ensenada, powered his Garibay-VW to victory in Primm for the fifth straight year. Legendary veteran Rod Hall of Reno, Nev., the only driver who has raced in all 38 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 races (with a record 17 class wins), won Stock Mini in a Hummer H3. It was Hall’s first time to race in the SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300. Other class winners included Dave Bonner, Norco, Calif. (Class 5, VW Baja Bug), Danny Ledezma, el Centro, Calif. (Class 5/1600, VW Baja Bug), David Binns/Jared Teague, Las Cruces, N.M. (Class 7, Ford Ranger), Tyler Fox, Ramona, Calif./Steve Martz, San Marcos, Calif., (Class 7S, Ford Ranger) and Mark Handley, San Marcos, Calif. (Stock Full, Ford F-150). It was Handley’s third Primm win in the four year’s he has run this race. Leading several females entered in the race this year was the sister team of Beccy and Robyn Gordon, who won the Sportsman Car class in a Lothringer-Porsche. The Gordon’s older brother is NASCAR and SCORE desert racer Robby Gordon. The 2006 SCORE Desert Series includes chase for the $50,000 Kartek Off-Road contingency bonus to be awarded to several qualified 2006 SCORE Class point champions. The 2006 SCORE Desert Series also involves the hunt for the annual Toyota Milestone and $12,000 Toyota True Grit Awards. The prestigious Toyota Milestone Awards are presented to every racer who completes every required mile of every race in the 2006 SCORE Desert Series. The $12,000 Toyota True Grit purse is split among the SCORE season point champions who are also Toyota Milestone award winners in several non-factory-backed classes. Current SCORE official 2006 sponsors are: BFGoodrich Tires-official tire, Sunoco Race Fuels/C.L. Bryant-official fuel supplier, Bilstein-official shock, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance-official Mexican auto insurance, American Racing-official wheel, Airstar America-official space lighting provider. Associate sponsors are: Tecate Beer, Coca-Cola of Mexico, Las Vegas Events, Terrible Herbst Inc., Kartek Off-Road, Centrix Financial, NAPA Chassis, Fram, Autolite, Prestone, Suzuki, SignPros, P.C.I. Race Radios, McKenzie’s Performance Products and Advanced Color Graphics. Co-title sponsors for the 11th SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 are Las Vegas Events and Primm Valley Resorts. The season finale of the six-race 2006 SCORE Desert Series will be the 39th Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, the granddaddy of all desert racing will be a run down Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, , starting in Ensenada and finishing in La Paz.
For information contact: |