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127 Entries from 13 States, Mexico, Canada & Germany
Ready for Saturday’s
13th SCORE Terrible’s Primm 300

LOS ANGELES—Hoping to become the first repeat overall winner in race history, Garron Cadiente, Mesa, Ariz., returns as the defending overall and SCORE Trophy-Truck champion for this weekend’s 13th annual SCORE Terrible’s Primm 300 desert race. Round 4 of the five-race 2008 SCORE Desert Series will be held Saturday in Primm, Nev., 45 miles south of Las Vegas at the Nevada/California border.

The 13th Annual SCORE Terrible’s Primm 300 will feature 18 Pro and 2 Sportsman classes for cars and trucks in Primm and this year’s starting grid is expected to reach over 140 vehicles. Entries will be accepted up until race morning.

With two career wins in the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck racing division for high-tech, 800-horsepower, unlimited production trucks, Cadiente will drive the No. 38 GNR Racing Ford F-150 and he will start 17th out of the 22 trucks entered to date in the class.

Eleven of last year’s 16 class winners have entered, including all of last year’s top five and eight of the top 10 overall finishers.

For the seventh 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. on Saturday. The faster truck classes, including 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. Pre-race festivities on Friday for the SCORE 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 in the conference center at Terrible’s Primm Valley Resort.

“We have been developing new elements with our racing program, so our results since last year’s SCORE Primm race haven’t been where we want them to be,” said Cadiente, who won the 2006 Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 on the way to earning 2006 SCORE Rookie of the Year honors. “We have made significant progress and look forward to seeing how far we’ve come in Primm. This will also be the first race for our new team sponsor—Empire Southwest-CAT—and both the GNR No. 38 and the GNR No. 39 SCORE Trophy-Trucks will be looking for spots on the podium.”

The main pits and start/finish area for the 72.0-mile loop course will be located behind Buffalo Bills Resort on the North side of the property. The faster classes will run four laps around the course while the slower ones will be required to run either three or two laps within the seven-hour time limit to become official finishers. A total of 22 SCORE Trophy-Trucks are entered to date, and the marquee SCORE racing division will lead the afternoon group into the Southern Nevada desert.

Starting behind the 22 SCORE Trophy-Trucks will be the unlimited Class 1 for open-wheel desert race cars, which has 24 entries to date. In the first 12 years of the SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300, SCORE Trophy-Trucks have eight Overall race wins while Class 1 has four. SCORE Trophy-Trucks have won five straight overall titles. In a sport where there is no qualifying or open pre-running (in the U.S.), the drawing for start positions has added significance and the No. 74 MasterCraft Racing Ford F-150 SCORE Trophy-Truck of Bill Varnes, Santee, Calif., was selected randomly in the computerized drawing at the SCORE Int’l headquarters in Los Angeles last month.

Drawing the first starting spot in Class 1 was the All-German Motorsports team of World Rally Championship veteran Armin Schwarz of Germany and Martin Christensen of Escondido, Calif. in the No. 101 BMW-powered Jimco open-wheel desert race car. Class 1 winners in this year’s Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 in March, the Schwarz/Christensen team is currently fifth in Class 1 season points.

The first vehicle to leave the start line in the morning portion of the event will be the Class 10 vehicle driven by the Las Vegas team of Michael Wichmann/Rick Lance, in a Volkswagen-powered Chenowth open-wheel desert race car.

Las Vegas’ Brian Collins, the 2005 Overall and SCORE Trophy-Truck winner in Primm will start 16th in class, just ahead of Cadiente, in the No. 12 Collins Motorsports Mopar Dodge Ram1500. Splitting the driving with Collins this year will be Chuck Hovey, Escondido, Calif. Collins/Hovey finished third in their first SCORE race together, the 40th Tecate SCORE Baja 500 this past June in Ensenada, Mexico.

Eric Solorzano, Tijuana, Mexico, has the most class wins in the SCORE Terrible’s Primm 300. Solorzano has won Class 11 in eight of the first 12 years of this race in a VW Sedan. Donald Moss, Sacramento, Calif., is third on the all-time list with five Class 3 wins in a Ford Bronco, including the last four straight years. Behind SCORE Trophy-Truck (22) and Class 1 (24), the classes with the most entries to date are SCORE Lite and Class 1-2/1600 (14 each).

Among the other racers drawing first starting positions for this race is Adam Pfankuch, Carlsbad, Calif, who will lead Class 1-2/1600 in the No. 1601 1600cc Mirage-VW. Pfankuch, who has won his class twice this season, leads not only his class, but is the 2008 SCORE Overall point leader after the first three races of the season. Pfankuch will be one of several drivers pulling double duty as he is also now a driver as well for the All German Motorsports team and will drive part of the race in Class 1 for driver of record Armin Kremer of Germany.

The talented field in Saturday’s race also features two female drivers of record, who are both among the favorites to win their respective classes.

Bekki Wik of Las Vegas, a two-time SCORE Class 1-2/1600 season point champion, returns to Class 10 where she will start second in class and split driving with her husband Adam Wik, a noted desert racing engine builder. The Wiks will drive their new Honda-powered Bunderson open-wheel desert race car.

Heidi Steele, of San Clemente, Calif., is leading this year’s SCORE point standings in Class 7SX where she has two SCORE race wins this season and will start first in here class in a Ford Ranger. Heidi’s husband Cameron Steele drives the No. 16 Cadillac Escalade SCORE Trophy-Truck and will be the third vehicle off the line in the afternoon portion of the race. Cameron Steele will also drive in the morning portion of the race, splitting time in the SCORE Lite class with Brian Burgess, Riverside, Calif.

The highly-competitive 2008 SCORE Desert Series has 20 racers separated by just 48 points in the Overall standings after the 14th SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge, 22nd Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 and 40th Tecate SCORE Baja 500 desert races. In the tight point’s race in SCORE Trophy-Truck, 2006 season point champion Las Vegas’ B.J. Baldwin leads and is coming off his seven-second victory over defending series point champion Mark Post, Laguna Beach, Calif./Rob MacCachren, Las Vegas in June’s Tecate SCORE Baja 500. Baldwin has 211 points in the No. 97 Baldwin Motorsports Chevy Silverado while Post/MacCachren is second with 190 in the No. 1 Riviera Racing Ford F-150. Third in SCORE Trophy-Truck points is Robbie Pierce, Santee, Calif. with 185 points in the No. 35 MasterCraft Racing Chevy Silverado while Collins is fourth with 180.

Fifth with 179 points in the 2008 SCORE Trophy-Truck points is Damen Jefferies, Oak Hills, Calif., in the No. 22 Herman Motorsports Chevy Sivlerado while sixth with 165 points is Reno’s Roger Norman/Larry Roeseler, Irvine, Calif., in the No. 8 Norman Motorsports Chevy Silverado.

In Primm on Saturday, Post/MacCachren will start fifth, Norman/Roeseler seventh, Jefferies 11th, Baldwin 12th, Collins 16th and Pierce 19th.

The 2008 SCORE Desert Series also includes the chase for the $20,000 Volkswagen of America Point Leader Bonus and the run for the Toyota Milestone Awards for car and truck racers who complete every required mile of the season. To date, 16 drivers are still eligible for the Toyota Milestone Awards.

Current SCORE official annual sponsors are: BFGoodrich Tires-official tire, Sunoco Race Fuels -official fuel supplier, Bilstein-official shock, Volkswagen of America-official vehicle, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance-official Mexican auto insurance, Slime-official tire sealant, Red Bull--official energy drink and Bosch Power Tools-official power tool. Associate sponsors are: Tecate Beer, Coca-Cola of Mexico, Las Vegas Events, Terrible Herbst Inc., Blue C Enthusiast Advertising, Kartek Off-Road, American Suzuki, SignPros, P.C.I. Race Radios, McKenzie’s Performance Products and Advanced Color Graphics.

Co-title sponsors for the 13th SCORE Terrible’s Primm 300 are Las Vegas Events and Terrible Herbst Inc.