LOS ANGELES—Acting in response to the restructuring of the popular season-opening event, SCORE International has announced that it has taken over the spectator ticketing portion of the event as well as the racing for this coming weekend’s 18th Annual SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge. Always producing the racing portion of the event, SCORE was forced into this position when the Laughlin Tourism Commission elected this year to not continue the management of the spectator areas of the event.

SCORE has decided to use the all three of the spectator areas as the last several years—the start/finish line area at the Laughlin Events Park, the SCORE Hill overlooking the infield area of the start/finish line area, and the ‘Cougar Corral’ located adjacent to the west end of the course by Laughlin High School.

General admission, per person, per day, will be $10 for the start/finish and infield area, $5 for the SCORE Hill and $5 for the ‘Cougar Corral’.

Launching into its 39th year as the World’s Foremost Desert Racing Organization in 2012, Sal Fish’s SCORE International will hold the first major motorsports events of the year in the United States in Laughlin, 90 miles Southeast of Las Vegas.

With entries accepted so far from 13 U.S states along with Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany and Mexico, Rounds 1 and 2 of the five-race 2012 SCORE Desert Series will be held this coming Friday through Sunday (Jan. 13-15) along the banks of the Colorado River in the Southern Nevada resort destination of Laughlin. Competition will be held for 20 Pro and three Sportsman classes for race buggies and trucks.
For the first time in the history of the event, each day of the two-day Laughlin gathering (Jan. 14, Jan. 15) will be separate race events for purposes of championship points, prize money and trophies.

The exciting event will once again kick off the 2012 desert racing season on the Martin Luther King birthday weekend.

The Laughlin event includes course practice sessions for all classes and qualifying for SCORE Trophy Truck on Friday followed by two separate and independent races, the first on Saturday and the second on Sunday.

Starting at 2 p.m. on Friday, SCORE Trophy Truck qualifying will see each entry making one time lap over the course to determine Saturday’s starting positions. General admission is free to Friday’s SCORE Trophy Truck qualifying. Practice sessions will be held on the course Friday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The course, used for the last several years, will be 6.25 miles long with the classes divided into groups for five multi-lap races each day. The start/finish line area and main pits will once again be located at the Laughlin Events Park just off of Casino Drive in Laughlin. The day-long races will start each day at 7 a.m.

Also on Friday, contingency and safety inspection of the entries will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in front of the Edgewater and Colorado Belle Hotels on Casino Drive in the heart of the Laughlin resort area. Racer registration will be held at the River Palms hotel from 1p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 12 and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 13. Media registration will also be at the River Palms on Friday, Jan. 13, from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m.

The featured SCORE Trophy Trucks, the marquee SCORE racing division for high-tech, 850 horsepower unlimited production trucks,  and the unlimited Class 1 open-wheel desert race cars will both race eight laps on Saturday and Sunday with SCORE Trophy Trucks starting at 1 p.m. each day followed by Class 1 a 3 p.m.  With vehicles starting one every 15 seconds in the elapsed-time race, all vehicles will have 85 minutes each day to complete their required laps to become an official finisher in each race.

While Southern California desert racer Cameron Steele received the first qualifying spot in the featured SCORE Trophy Truck division, SoCal’s Damen Jefferies got a nice New Year’s gift as he received the first starting slot in the unlimited Class 1 in the drawing for starting positions last Monday for the 2012 SCORE season-opener.

Steele, an ESPN TV action sports announcer who lives in San Clemente, Calif., has two vehicles entered in SCORE Trophy Trucks and will be the first truck to qualify, driving his new No. 14 Geiser Brothers-built Chevy Silverado.
Jefferies, of Apple Valley, Calif. and three-time SCORE season point champion including the 1998 SCORE Overall point titlist, will start first on Saturday in Class 1 in his Chevy-powered Jefferies race car.

While the starting positions for the first race (Jan. 14) are based on the drawing (except qualifying for SCORE Trophy Trucks), starting positions for the second race (Jan. 15) will be based of Saturday’s placement order for classes with less than 10 finishers. For classes with 10 or more finishers there will be a random drawing of the top 10 finishers to determine the race two starting order. The remaining participants after 10th place will start Sunday in the order they finished on Saturday.

With entries late entries accepted up to race morning, among the desert racing stars entered in time for the drawing were eight-time Laughlin class winner Donald Moss, Sacramento, Calif. (Class 3), seven-time Laughlin class winner Rob MacCachren, Las Vegas (SCORE Trophy Truck) and five-time Laughlin class winner Kevin Carr, San Diego (Class 5) as well as 2011 SCORE class champions. Justin Davis, Chino Hills, Calif. (Class 1), Donald Moss (Class 3), Kevin Carr (Class 5), Dan Chamlee, Carpenteria, Calif. (Class 7), Rafael Navarro IV, Temecula, Calif. (SCORE Lites) and Reid Rutherfort, Montrose, Colo. (Class 7-2).

The five-race 2012 SCORE Desert Series, which features 36 Pro and 6 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, buggies, motorcycles and ATVs, will kick off January 13-15 with the 18th Annual SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge in the Southern Nevada resort city of Laughlin on the banks of the Colorado River. The season will conclude November 14-17 with the 45th Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, the granddaddy of all desert races, which will start in Ensenada, Baja California and finish in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Rounds 3 and 4 of the 2012 SCORE Desert Series will both be held in Mexico. The 26th MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 is set for March 9-11 in San Felipe, followed by the vastly popular 44th Tecate SCORE Baja 500, June 1-3, in Ensenada.

Tecate Beer is the title sponsor of November’s 45th Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 which will be a peninsula run starting in Ensenada, Baja California and finishing in La Paz, Baja California Sur.
Official Sponsors of the SCORE Desert Series are:
-BFGoodrich Tires, Official Tire
-Volkswagen of America, Official Vehicle
-Sunoco Race Fuels, Official Race Fuel
-Slime, Official Tire Sealant
-Symons Ambulance Company, Official Ambulance
-Bilstein, Official Shock Absorber
-Instant Mexico Auto Insurance, Official Mexican Auto Insurance
Official Sponsors of the SCORE Baja 1000 are:
-Coca-Cola, Official Soft Drink
-Volaris Airlines, Official Airline
-Lightforce Performance Lighting, Official Driving Light

Additional SCORE Sponsors are – Las Vegas Events, Proturismo Ensenada, Baja California Secretary of Tourism, COTUCO Mexicali/San Felipe, Blue C Advertising, SignPros, PCI Race Radios, McKenzie’s Performance Products and Advanced Color Graphics.

For more information, contact SCORE at its Los Angeles headquarters 818.225.8402 or visit the official website of the 2012 SCORE Desert Series at www.score-international.com.

SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge
Rounds 1 & 2 —  2012 SCORE Desert Series
Jan 13-15   — Laughlin, Nevada

Schedule of Events
Thursday, January 13, 2012
1 p.m. – 6 p.m.  Driver Registration   2700 Club, River Palms Hotel

Friday, January 13, 2012
8 a.m. – 1 p.m.  Race Course Practice Sessions  Official Race Course-Laughlin Events Park
9 a.m. – 10 a.m.  Express Driver Registration  2700 Club, River Palms Hotel
10 a.m. – 5 p.m.  Regular Driver Registration  2700 Club, River Palms Hotel
9 a.m. – 6 p.m.  Media Registration   River Room, River Palms Hotel
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.  Contingency & Technical Inspection Edgewater & Colorado Belle Hotels
2 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Qualifying-SCORE Trophy-Truck  Official Race Course-Laughlin Events Park

Saturday, January 14, 2012
6 a.m.   Late Registration & Tech Inspection Start/Finish Line area-Laughlin Events Park
6:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Media Center Open   Start/Finish Line area-Laughlin Events Park

Sunday, January 15, 2012
6 a.m.   Late Registration & Tech Inspection Start/Finish Line area-Laughlin Events Park
6:30 a.m. – 6 p.m. Media Center Open   Start/Finish Line area-Laughlin Events Park

DAILY RACING SCHEDULE (Subject to Change)
7 a.m.  RACING STARTS (5 groups each day) Start/Finish Line-Laughlin Events Park
85-minute time limit for each group
Starting intervals–one vehicle every 15 seconds

7 a.m.–Group 1
Classes 1/2-1600 (6 laps), 5-1600 (6), 2 (6), SPT Buggy (6),  SPT 5-1600 (6), 9 (4), 11 (3)
9 a.m.–Group 2
Classes 8 (6 laps), Protruck (6), 6 (6), 7-2 (6), 7 (6), 7SX (6), Stock Full (5), Stock Mini (5), Class 3 (5), SPT Truck (5)
11 a.m.–Group 3
Class 10 (7 laps), SCORE Lites (7), Class 5 (7), 4 (7)
1 p.m.–Group 4
SCORE Trophy Truck (8 laps)
3 p.m.–Group 5
Class 1 (8 laps)