SCORE kicked off the 1999 season in grand style with the 5th running of the "Laughlin Desert Challenge", a race that has become "the" premiere event in American desert racing. The bright lights, big casinos, grandstand seating and semi-short course (11 mile) format combine to provide racers and fans alike with one of the most unique experiences to be found in the realm of motorsports.

Each and every year the city and businesses of Laughlin have worked on improving the formatof the Challenge, which now spans 4 days and includes 2 days of racing, contingency row, an increasingly popular pit crew competition, and of course, the $25,000 "Laughlin Leap". By and large they have been successful in their efforts, but there remains a bug or two to be worked out.

It seems that the event is to be forever plagued by problems in security / gate attendants. After last years episode in which SCORE CEO Sal Fish was denied access to the VIP tent, you'd think that these problems would be resolved. The fact is that if anything, they've worsened.

Gate guards - The "ultimate" power trip?

At this years event security was provided by Harrah's Hotel & Casino who by and large did an outstanding job. Unfortunately the problem can be traced directly back to "employees with an attitude". At the Challenge, the gambling wasn't going on in the casinos - it was going on at the "main gate" where the trucks entered contingency, and later staged for the starting line. Maybe you'd get in, maybe you wouldn't, and the "proper pass" changed from hour to hour. It didn't mater who you were, media, racer, crew, or event sponsor.

Picture this. I had the pleasure of riding to contingency row with the guys from event sponsor Duralast. They were in a chase truck painted front bumper to tailgate with the word "Duralast". You cannot mistake this vehicle since it matches the race truck, Semi, and every other corporate vehicle there. We were stopped at the gate and told "You aren't bringing this damn thing in here"

The crew politely explained who they were, where they were going (delivering needed equipment to the race truck now on contingency row and approaching tech), and showed what were supposed to be the proper passes. For their trouble they were told "I don't care, you aren't coming in here".

So I figured what the hell...I showed my media pass. Suddenly everything was just fine and away we went. Think that's ridiculous? Not 5 hours later I was turned away from the same gate, with the same pass, by the same excuse for a security guard. The next day required a different pass, and later in the day, yet another. We literally has to argue with this guy to get into that area to get to the media center to get a pass allowing us to get in there in the first place. If you understand the logic at work there, you're a better man than I.

It should be pointed out that this is not SCORE's fault. They were as flustered as we were with certain aspects of event security. The problem comes from incompetent guards that seemingly revel in "power tripping". Before the year 2000 event rolls around, it would behoove Harrah's and the city of Laughlin to resolve the problem. Racers and the media do not enjoy being treated like the dirt they race on.

Leapin' Trophy Trucks Batman!

That minor detail aside, there was only one word for the racing - and that word is INCREDIBLE! With around 200 vehicles, 35 in Class 1 alone, the "infield" saw a steady stream of competitors cross the start finish line in a flurry of nearly non stop action. But even before the green flag dropped, there was more than enough excitement to convert even dedicated pavement buffs to the "desert way" of doing' things.

Thursday night began with the pit crew competition in which competitors had to so a complete wheel & tire change 1 side of the vehicle at a time. A variety of vehicles from bugs to buggies to Trophy Trucks pulled into the shadow of the BF Goodrich semi to take their best shot at beating each other and an unforgiving clock. When the whir of impact guns fell silent, Dale Ebberts & Co. stood tall at the top of the heap with a time of 49 seconds ; A full 25 seconds faster than the winning truck team. All the more impressive when you consider there were no NASCAR / Indy style air jacks involved.

With the pit crew competition in the books, All eyes turned to the Laughlin Leap, a 6 foot tall wall of dirt that catapulted Jeff Lewis into the record books in 1998 with a distance of over 117 feet. While Jeff returned in MacPherson Motorsports Class 7 truck to take his best shot, the task of defending the title fell on the shoulders of Larry Roseler, who took over the controls of "The Beast" during the off season. Between Roseler's well known abilities and his complete unfamiliarity with the word "fear", a repeat performance seemed likely.

As some of the "smaller" classes began knocking awfully hard on the door to the 110 ft mark, excitement continued to build until the "big boys" came out to play. When Troy Herbst (Class 1) and Brian Collins (Class 8) both shattered the previous years mark, the focus shifted to the Trophy Trucks - Namely the F-150 Ford of Ed Herbst / Terrible Herbst Motorsports and Larry Roseler / MacPherson Motorsports.

It was a classic Ford vs.Chevy match up - the kind that motorheads from any sport can sink their teeth into. Bow ties, blue ovals, 750 horsepower, the smell of race gas, 30 inches of wheel trarg..arg..ARG!!!! Ed Herbst was first out of the gate, following the first commandment of the hardcore desert racer - "Thou shalt not Lift". Approaching the Leap at well over 90 mph, Herbst stayed on the gas and flew the big red Ford over 120 feet surpassing the previous years mark, but coming up short to both Collins and brother Troy.

The 99 Laughlin Leap mirrored the 98 contest in more ways than one. Both years saw the MacPherson truck pull to the line last in a make or break attempt at the jump. Both years saw crowds whipped into a fever pitch by the "down to the wire" competition. And both years saw the red white and blue Chevy obliterate that competition by a wide margin. Larry "the Rookie" (yea right) Roseler unleashed the Beast, flying to a record 140.5 feet before screaming fans and stunned competitors. At this rate you can look for the FAA to require permits in 2000.

2 Days in the Valley (in semi-random order)

Unlike traditional desert races, the Laughlin race runs a complete event on Saturday and another on Sunday. The results of the two are then totaled to determine the winners. The various classes are combined into groups (Class 9, Class 5-1600), (Class 8, Protruck, Trophy Truck and so on) and allotted a predetermined time limit to finish. Now in it's 3rd year, the format has proven wildly popular with both fans and racers. It's a drastic departure from the endless miles and distance of Baja, but by all accounts a welcome one. Spectator friendly, Photographer friendly, and Racer friendly, there seems to be little going against it.

Saturday saw the full armada of desert weaponry descend on the 11 mile course.

Trophy Trucks

What happened? Perhaps a better question would be "What didn't"? Saturdays race held more excitement than is considered legal in several eastern states, with Ed Herbst contributing no small amount of that on his own. Lap one saw the Terrible Trophy Truck avoid a 100 mph collision by the narrowest of margins after the MacPherson crew waved Larry Roseler back onto the course atop road crossing #2. Herbst jerked the Ford out of immediate danger, but launched himself sideways over the highway at over 90 MPH. When the truck came back to earth, it hit with enough force to blow the right rear tire and send it careening back and forth across the track for over a hundred yards. Somehow Herbst managed to stay in the throttle and power his way out of what could have been a truly ugly situation

And the weekend had just begun!

Lap 2 saw a somewhat more sedate Herbst over the crossing after a quick pit for a tire, but by Lap 3 he was.....possessed. You heard the big Ford screaming off in the distance - a Trophy Truck crusing at full song. As Herbst approached the crossing, the engine's tone stayed steady. He never lifted off the throttle. And he hit the road crossing at over 100 MPH, flying an incredible 300ft in the process. You'd be extremely hard pressed to find a single person at the crossing that wouldn't admit it was the most incredible thing they had ever seen.

As the race wore on, Roseler went down with cooling difficulties, and the all new Duralast / Ford F-150 experienced it's first "teething pains" "We tore a shock apart" said Ashley. "A $3 part put us on the sidelines. It won't happen again". In it's time on the course however, the truck showed incredible promise, due in no small part to the 32 valve V8 Triton motor with it's unique 8 into 1 exhaust (featured this month on Off-Road.com). If you thought Ivan's Toyota sounded incredible (and it does), wait till you hear this!

With Herbst controled by the demons of speed, the battle turned into a fight for second, with Kreg Donahoe and Jason Baldwin going down to the wire. Baldwin's F-150 won out over the Donahoe / Walker Dodge, but on Sunday fortunes would be reversed.

When Sunday rolled around, Tim Herbst was at the controls of the Terrible Trophy Truck, but early suspension problems forced him to run a much slower pace than he would have prefered. Larry Roseler had nearly cooked his engine on Sat. and finished the job on Sun. - or nearly so, as he nursed it lap after lap towards the finish line. Dan Smith went down to more new truck gremlins, and Lonnie Helmbolt had a couple stellar laps, then disappeared to problems unknown. Mike Tieman was a practical no show. Jason Baldwin had his own problems as well.

That left Kreg Donahoe and Todd Gatrell in a $15,000 prerunner from Baja Brokers (purchased as a fill in for starter points until his new truck is ready in San Felipe) to go at it to the bitter end. There was just one small problem. With radio broken, Donahoe thought himself behind Tim Herbst, and drove like a proverbial maniac (see photos in photo section) trying to catch someone who was far behind him.

All was going great until he "ran out of talent". Said Kreg ....

"What a Ride!! We hit that jump at 110mph flew 162ft!!!!! (22 feet farther then the winner of the Laughlin leap) And lost it big time. I just totally Ran out of Talent when we hit the ground side ways...... the truck bobbled for horsepower and by the time the rpms came up to correct my mighty misfortune, it was way past saving."

After 6 complete rollovers, the temporarily talentless Donahoe emerged from the twisted Dodge arms raised in a victory salute. It was a touch of pure class, and the crowd went bezerk!

And what of Todd Gatrell? Well he won Sunday's race in a prerunner built of 3 different years of Chevy trucks. Embarrassing to the big boys to say the least, but it once again proves the old Maxim - "You can't finish First if you don't first finish"!

When the numbers were tallied, the Herbst bros. had tied for 1st with Flip Donahoe and went on to win day 2 via tie breaker, followed by Donahoe, Baldwin, Gatrell, Roseler, Smith, Helmbolt, and Tieman.

Protrucks

Veteran Protruck jock Scott Stienberger was considered by some to be the odds on favorites for the checkered flag, but like a presidential impeachment proceeding, things don't always go the way you think they oughta. While winning day one, Scott lost a tranny on day 2, resulting in a lot of checkpoint worker confusion as he backed his way back to the pits. How's the neck? we asked after the race. "Sore" he quite literally croaked.

Mike Hardaway wasn't croaking, but crowing, after a win and good placing brought him into the winners circle. New to the Protruck ranks, Hardaway has set the standard in 99 for others to follow. And follow they do - rather closely. Larry Plank's star spangled F-150 finished in second, a mere 5 points behind the leader, while 3rd place Rick Johnson is only 6 back. In fact, only 10 points separate the top 5 competitors. Ivan Stewart has certainly met his goal of a competitive class!

Class 8

Brian Collins dominated the pack with no breakage, consistently fast lap times and the best set up truck in the field. With 98 champ Dave Westhem AWOL in New York, James Hall stepped up to challenge the Baja 1000 winner, but his best (at least at Laughlin) was only good enough for second. Collins stood victorious on both days, with an eye already on the San Felipe Trophy.Third place went to Rich Thomas on a tie breaker with 4th place Mike Doherty, who seemed to be experiencing suspension problems throughout the event.

Class 1

Would you believe 33 entries? Due to their sheer quantity and blistering performance, the decision was made to launch the speed demons at 15 seconds rather than the traditional 30 seconds to avoid a situation where the first car would be back to the line before the last car had even left.

It proved to be a wise choice, as the 1 cars turned in 12 min lap times that would have guaranteed a real mess. 1998 season champ Troy Herbst and the ballistic missile known as "Truggy" took up their winning ways once again, passing car after car during both days of competition, taking both days and the overall class win, and racking up an incredible 70 points in the process.

Back in second, Johnny "the flyin'" Phillips combined his new Type 4 powered Jimco 2000, the increasingly popular ORC decals (guaranteed for a top 3 finish - sort of) and no small amount of talent to spank many a more powerful car in the field. Who says the days of VW / Porsche power are over? Ronny Wilson took the familiar white blue and yellow Jimco into a 3rd place slot, while Baja 1000 co-winner Ryan Arciero cruised into a 4th place finish.

Despite some incredible driving by Troy Herbst (what's the record for cars passed per lap anyway?) he highlight of Class 1 was without a doubt John Herder's miraculous recovery on day 1 at the 2nd road crossing. The Arizona wildman got crossed up bad in a 200 foot skyshot, and landed tail first leaning wayyyy over to the left. After dancing the Jimco into a cloud of dust, we waited for the distinctive "thud, thud, thud" that only a rolling car can make.....It never came.

Herder was soon back into the throttle and back in hot pursuit of lost time. It should be noted however that the fearless flyer was rumored to have spent considerable time in a post race porta potty extracting large quantities of seat cover from his nether regions. More on the "Sit"uation as it develops......

Group 1

As the first traces of light broke over the mountains, the Class 9's, 11's, 5-1600's and Sportsman buggies went out to do battle in the cool winter sands. From the outset, it was a 3 way battle between Carlos & Gerardo Iribe, Eric Deen, and Dave Gasper in 5-1600. While team Iribe remained winless for much of the 98 season, it seems they've cured their problems in 99, combining Carlos' 2n'd place Saturday finish with Gerardo's 1st on Sunday to take the title home to Baja. After the event, the normally quiet and introverted Carlos was quick with a quote. Said the mad Mexican "I can tell you this, Laughlin isn't the only win we're gonna get this year, and you can take that to the bank!"

Class 9 was the sole province of Jimmy Messick, with wins on both Sat. & Sun. In fact, the finishing order was mirrored on both days, with Rick Poole, Dan Mora, Forest Casey and John Sheble ordering up the pack. A mere 5 entries in Class 9 shows a marked decline in turnout for the little buggies, however with increases in the larger ranks, it's opened the door for some fresh blood at the so called "entry level".

Class 11 saw Eric Solorzano hot off his Baja 1000 win, battle to a tie against Mark McKinley in the 4 car field. The 2 VW pilots traded checkered flags over the weekend, while Chris Woodwind and Greg Horr held down the 3rd and 4th slots respectively.

Group 2

Group 2 shifted the battle to Class 5, Class 10 and SCORE Lites, where there was no shortage of cars or competitors. With the sun climbing ever higher, the Sofa Dude, George Seeley lost on Sat., lost on Sun., and went home a winner thanks to back to back second place finishes. Dave Cua and Larry McCallum swapped wins for 2nd & 3rd, but 3rd & 4th place finishes kept them out of the winners circle

Class 10 was a 4 way race to the flag in a 19 car field. Chris Harrold added up a 1st and a 2nd place finish to win the overall in the class, closely followed by Rick Ellison, Danny Anderson and BJ Baldwin. Notable in the 10 ranks was the addition of several new cars, including several Chenowth "Millenium" chassis, and a new Jimco 2000, giving lie to the rumor that Class 10 was dying out after the split (into 10 & SCORE Lites).

Speaking of SCORE Lites, Jeff Kawell and Jeremy Gubler swapped wins over the weekend as well, with Kawell emerging as the overall victor. The race was tight clear back to the 8th slot, with Steve Greinke, Dan Worley, Scott Jones, Arturo Honold, Jim Greenway, and Jerry Penhall, bad motor and all all within striking distance of each other. When a full 50% of the class is that close, you KNOW you've been in one hell of a battle!

Group 5

Group 5 saw the Class 7, 7s, 3, Stock Full, and Stock Mini's go at it in an all out truckfest, a virtual orgy of sheetmetal and fiberglass. At the top of the heap, Jeff Lewis took the wheel of an all new "Little Mac" to spank the field silly. Long winless in the MacPherson Trophy Truck, Lewis had something to prove, and prove it he did. (you just know he had to be saying "See??? See??? I told ya" ;-)

Craig Turner moved the shortbox GT Bicycles 7s Ranger up into Class 7 to go heads up with Lewis but found the equipment outclassed. His driving however is more than up to par, and it will be interesting to see him behind the wheel of a competitive Class 7 truck.

In Stock Full, Many Esquerra, Christine Reno, and the Beaver Built F-150 walked proudly over the likes of Sykes, Stien, and a worthy collection of adversaries. Powered by a monster 460 Ford, and with a suspension dialed in to perfection, Manny was flying the road crossings like a Class 8, and leaving nothing but dust for others to follow.

Stock Mini

Tim Casey & Rob Rinerton took the top 2 slots in Stock Mini With the Toyota 4Runner besting the veteran Ranger after the 2 day period. Macre Glass avenged a dismal Saturday outing with a win on Sunday, but the top slot for the day was only good enough for a 3rd in class.

Rounding out the 6 truck field were Mark Turner, Dennis Milner and Bob Land in an imported Isuzu Vehicross. And yes it has it's steering wheel on the "wrong" side!

While the Isuzu was an impressive looking vehicle, it ran at a snails pace at Laughlin. While it's possible that Land was just out cruzin for points, it's unlikely, and thus, the Ford / Toyota hold on the top slot will be safe - for a while at least.

7s

Independent racers Stankavich Motorsports are looking for a sponsor, and their 7s win just put them one step closer to getting it. Initially tying with Kyle LeDuc (son of TT champ Curt Leduc) for the win, the nod went to the Stankovice crew in a tie breaker.

With 9 cars in the class, the field was more populous than recent events, a point that bodes well for the sport. Adding to that greater good was Cory Susag (4th), Tim Braden (5th), Bruce Landfield (6th), Cody Swanty (7th). Art Grajeda (8th), and Gary Mecham in 9th.

No matter what, you gotta give Gary and Mecham Motorsports credit. After loosing the Class 7 truck in a freak fire on the peninsula, these guys bounced right back in feet first. Way to go guys, and better luck to you in 99!

Class 3

Darren Skelton's got to be a lonely guy. His stranglehold on Class 3 continues unabated, but he's got some new competition in the form of John Kearney and the Bob Land Motorsports Isuzu Amigo. Known for their toughness, the Amigo may prove to be Skeltons best competition in a long while. Now If we could just get Ford or Toyota to cough up an SUV.......

Overall, The Laughlin Race more than lived up to it's hype, and that hype grows with each passing year.

Where will it go from here? No one really knows for sure, but if it's anything to go by, Dusty Times guru Judy Smith made an interesting statement. "This race is beginning to remind me of events like the Mint 400". Wishful thinking? Maybe. Hope she's right? Definitely!

As we went to Press, the 1/2 - 1600 results and lap times were unavailable. Please see the Score Website for further details.