Jan. 12-15 in Laughlin, Nev.
T. Coyne in SCORE Trophy-Truck, Rigsby-Class 1 draw first starts
Among 208 early entries in 12th SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge
Final field of nearly 250 expected; Four-day event includes
$26,000 SCORE Laughlin Leap and SCORE Pit Crew Showdown
LOS ANGELES—Southern California’s Travis Coyne and New Mexico’s
Josh Rigsby received the No. 1 starting positions in the top two
classes in Tuesday’s computerized draw for starting positions, by
class, for next month’s 12th Annual SCORE Laughlin Desert
Challenge. Representing the highest number in the event’s history,
a total of 208 vehicles, in 17 Pro and 2 Sportsman classes,
officially entered in time for Wednesday’s drawing at the Los
Angeles headquarters of SCORE International. It will be the first
time either Coyne or Rigsby will start first in a SCORE race.
For the 12th straight year,
motorsports fans and racers from across the United States, Mexico,
Canada and Japan will flock to Laughlin, Nev., the desert resort
town near the shores of the Colorado River for the vastly popular
SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge. The first major race of the year
will be held Jan. 12-15, launching the six-race 2006 SCORE Desert
Series, the world’s foremost desert racing series.
When late registration is complete,
nearly 250 expected entries will compete for nearly $400,000 in
prize money and contingency postings during the four day SCORE
Laughlin Desert Challenge.
A total of 17 different Pro and two
Sportsman classes for cars and trucks will be split into several
groups in Laughlin, each running as part of one of separate
multiple-lap races over the much-abbreviated 8-mile loop each day.
Racing action runs from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day (Jan. 14-15).
The marquee racing division is SCORE Trophy-Truck, featuring
high-tech, 800-horsepower, unlimited production trucks along with
the unlimited Class 1 for open-wheel desert race cars. Those two
classes will run the final two races each day with Class 1
followed by SCORE Trophy-Truck.
Dale Dondel, Hemet, Calif. (SCORE
Trophy-Truck, Chevy Silverado) and Dale Ebberts, Canyon Lake
Calif. (Class 1, Jimco-Toyota) are the defending Laughlin race
winners.
Travis Coyne, 26, El Centro, Calif.,
will make his driver of record debut in the featured SCORE
Trophy-Truck division, driving the No. 6 Coyne Motorsports Ford
F-150, after driving the last two seasons with his father Marty
Coyne in the No. 5 Coyne Motorsports Ford F-150. The No. 6 SCORE
Trophy-Truck was previously owned by veteran Steve Sourapas (who
is now driving in Class 1) and finished second in Laughlin in
2005.
A SCORE-record 32 vehicles have
entered to date in the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division,
including defending SCORE Desert Series Champion Bob Shepard,
Phoenix, in the No. 1 Chevy CK1500.
Among the other SCORE Trophy-Truck
entries are Las Vegas brothers Ed and Tim Herbst, the winningest
team in class history with 11 career race wins in the No. 19
Terrible Herbst Motorsports Ford F-150. Andy McMillin, Poway,
Calif., who finished third in Class 1 points in 2005 with his
father Scott, will make his SCORE Trophy-Truck debut, driving the
No. 83 Chevy CK1500 of NASCAR team owner/driver Robby Gordon.
Rigsby, 35, Santa Fe, New Mexico,
drives a Chevy-powered Penhall open-wheel desert race car. In
2005, Rigsby ran his first full season in the SCORE Desert Series,
finishing tied for sixth in Class 1 points with 236. His best
finish with fifth in Class 1 at June’s Tecate SCORE Baja 500 in
Ensenada.
Class 1 leads the way with 38 entries
to date, followed by Class 1-2/1600 with 35, SCORE Trophy-Truck
with 32, Class 10 with 21, and SCORE Lite with 20.
Drawing the first starting positions
in those high-entry classes were Rigsby (Class 1), brothers Eric
and Hiram Duran, Tecate, Calif. (Class 1-2/1600), Travis Coyne
(SCORE Trophy-Truck), David Reyes, National City, Calif. (Class
10), and Flavio Navarro, La Paz, Mexico (SCORE Lite).
Daily general admission tickets, good
for grandstand seating, are $15 each for each day (Thursday,
Saturday and Sunday), children five and under are free. Daily VIP
tickets are $35 each for each of the 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,
showing live footage from various locations around the race
course.
Advance tickets for the Laughlin
Events Park are on sale at 800.308.2253.
Tickets will also be available for two other designated spectator
areas around the course at the event.
At a cost of $10 per vehicle, there is
one area 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. Overnight
camping is permitted at the 163 area with event pass, but no
overnight camping is permitted on ‘SCORE Hill’. These areas will
both have concession stands and public safety services available.
One of the event's most popular
features, the SCORE Laughlin Leap, revs up the fun and gets the
weekend off to a roaring start at 6 p.m. on Thursday (Jan. 12).
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 2006 champions. The SCORE Laughlin Leap, a dirt ramp built
into the middle of the stadium infield, challenges the most daring
of drivers. This year’s competitors will be looking to break the
event record set in 2004 by Mark Post in the SCORE Laughlin Leap
(160’6”).
On Friday (Jan. 13) at 4:30 p.m. at
the Laughlin Events Park, the SCORE 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. Challengers in this
event will be hoping to break the standard set in 2004 by Rob
MacCachren’s crew in the SCORE Pit Crew Showdown (40.60 seconds).
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, woop-t-doos, minijumps and the Laughlin Leap.
The 12th 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.
Current SCORE official annual sponsors
are: BFGoodrich Tires-official tire, C.L. Bryant-VP Racing
Fuels-official fuel supplier, Bilstein-official shock. Associate
sponsors are: Tecate Beer, Coca-Cola of Mexico, Instant Mexico
Auto Insurance, Las Vegas Events, Terrible Herbst Inc., Kartek
Off-Road, Centrix Financial, Fram, Autolite, Prestone, Suzuki,
SignPros, Cotuco, Fideicomiso Publico para la Promocion Turistica
de Ensenada, P.C.I. Race Radios, McKenzie’s Performance Products,
McGraw Insurance, Lucas Oil and Advanced Color Graphics.
More event information is available at
www.visitlaughlin.com or www.laughlinchamber.com.
For more race information, contact SCORE at its Los Angeles
headquarters 818.225.8402 or visit the official website of the
2006 SCORE Desert Series at www.score-international.com.
12th Annual SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge
Draw Results
Official Entries--208 (as of Dec. 28)
PRO CARS & TRUCKS
SCORE TROPHY-TRUCK (32)
6 Travis Coyne
39 Ron Whitton
7 Scott Steinberger
85 Todd Wyllie
36 Wayne Lugo
90 Tony Murray
20 Mike Julson
51 Kory Scheeler
26 John Marking
97 B.J. Baldwin
96 Bobby Baldwin
19 Ed Herbst
62 Mike Voyles
86 Josh Baldwin
2 Pete Sohren
28 Alan Pflueger
17 Carl Renezeder
11 Dale Dondel
12 Brian Collins
40 Chet Huffman
3 Mark Post
83 Andy McMillin
55 Luis Wallace
92 Allen Cluck
4 Gus Vildosola
5 Marty Coyne
76 Jesse Jones
15 Jim Beaver
38 Garron Cadiente
16 Cameron Steele
23 Gary Dircks
1 Bob Shepard
CLASS 1 (38)
101 Josh Rigsby
102 Dennis Boyle
103 Mark Weyhrich
104 Kevin McMullen
105 Buddy Feldkamp
106 Steve Sourapas
107 Harley Letner
108 Steve Sullivan
109 Dan Myers
110 Shawn Croll
111 Martin Christensen
112 Randy Wilson
113 John Gould
114 Kory Scheeler
100 Mark McMillin
116 Shawn McCallum
117 Raymond Potter
118 Rich Ronco
119 Ronny Wilson
120 Rick Romans
121 Kash Vessels
122 Damen Jefferies
123 Dale Ebberts
124 Troy Herbst
125 Cam Thieriot
126 Brian Ickler
127 Cesar Fuentes
128 Jim Birmingham
129 Pat Dean
130 B.J. Richardson
131 Mike Brunning
132 Brian Kirby
133 Brian Parkhouse
134 Richard Boyle
135 Gary Weyhrich
136 Danny Anderson
137 Jeff Quinn
149 Mark Peterson
CLASS 1-2/1600 (35)
1601 Eric Duran
1602 Lorenzo Rodriguez
1603 Randy Jones
1600 Caleb Gaddis
1605 Chad Shupp
1606 Matt Gumz
1607 Cory Boyer
1608 Nick Tiedemann
1609 Travis Fletcher
1610 Joe Barboa
1611 Ken Tapert
1612 Rob MacCachren
1613 Andrew Neal
1614 Sammy Ehrenberg
1615 Brian Steele
1616 Byron Ziegler
1617 Artura Velazco
1618 Lisa Herbst
1619 Curt Geer
1620 Aaron Hawley
1621 John Krempp Jr.
1622 Adam Pfankuch
1623 Daniel McMillin
1624 Rick Boyer
1625 Arden Dennington
1626 Brent Parkhouse
1627 Bryan Freeman
1628 Ray Files
1629 Rodrigo Ampudia Jr.
1630 Brian Burgess
1631 Dave Caspino
1632 Gerardo Iribe
1647 David Pulley
1648 Adam Ashcraft
1649 Billy Skinner
CLASS 3 (4)
301 Chris Raffo
302 Matt Eubanks
300 Donald Moss
349 Ken Leavitt
CLASS 5 (2)
501 Michelle Bruckmann
519 Kevin Carr
CLASS 5/1600 (12)
551 Mike Simpson
552 Brent Shermak
553 Gary Messer
554 Billy Gereghty
555 Chris Andrus
556 Richard Garavito
557 Danny Ledezma
558 Mark McAnelly
576 Greg Horr
577 Scott Pellerin
578 Raul Solano
579 Chad Mayernick
CLASS 7 (6)
701 Barry Karakas, Jr.
702 Doug Siewert
703 A.J. Rodriguez
704 Larry Roeseler
705 Dan Chamlee
706 Scott Brady
CLASS 7S (6)
721 Tyler Fox
722 Mike Horner
736 Roger Byrd
737 Aaron Gomez
738 Craig Wilk
739 Nick Moncure
CLASS 7SX (5)
741 Jesse Rodriguez
742 Cody Swanty
743 John Holmes
744 Jeff Lloyd
759 Noe Sierra
CLASS 8 (3)
801 Joe Patelli
802 Rodrigo Ampudio Sr.
803 Dave Raimonde
CLASS 9 (4)
901 Forest Creasy
902 Sigal Greenberg
900 Eric Fisher
949 Brian Church
CLASS 10 (21)
1001 David Reyes
1002 Russ Florence
1003 Shane Brown
1004 Eduardo Gonzalez
1005 Eli Yee
1006 Trevor Scherrer
1007 Phillip Finch
1008 Ron Dalke
1009 Mark Weger
1010 Mark Hutchins
1011 Lobsam Yee
1012 Darren Hardesty
1013 Adam Wik
1014 Will Higman
1015 Lee Olibas
1016 Dennis Hunter
1017 Carlos Cortez
1018 Tim Scalzo
1019 Guy Evans
1000 John Cooley
1021 Brian Freemal
SCORE Lite (20)
1201 Flavio Navarro
1200 Tim Noe
1203 Ruben Gutierrez
1204 Allen Russell
1205 Cameron Steele
1206 Ken Stroud
1207 Richard Cassey
1208 Craig Brabant
1209 Chuck Sacks
1210 Stan Potter
1211 Jason Batulis
1212 Rodney Smith
1213 Vic Bruckmann
1214 Randy Ross
1215 Jim Greenway
1216 Greg Gustin
1217 Red Burgin
1218 Jeff Lloyd
1219 John Kawell
1249 James Marquez
CLASS 11 (2)
1100 Eric Solorzano
1149 Gary Helming
STOCK FULL (4)
861 Gregory Foutz
862 Bob Graham
860 Johh Griffin
864 Terry Henn
PROTRUCK (4)
204 Gus Vildosola Jr.
299 Joe Bednar
207 Alan Levinson
203 Dave Creagan
CLASS 17 (1)
1701 Bob Land
SPORTSMAN
SPT CAR (3)
1497 Brad Wilson
1498 Rory Ward
1499 Carlos Orozco
SPT TRUCK (5)
1501 Chris Solis
1500 Mark Growe
1503 Nick Tonelli
1504 Matt Lovell
1599 Matt Torian