LOS ANGELES—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 Monday’s drawing for starting positions for the upcoming 18th Annual SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge.
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.
With entries accepted so far from 11 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 January 13-15 along the banks of the Colorado River in the Southern Nevada resort destination of Laughlin.
For the first time in the history of the event, each day of the two-day Laughlin event (Jan. 14, Jan. 15) will be separate race events for purposes of championship points, prize money and trophies.
The popular 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. The course, used for the last several years, will be approximately six miles with the classes divided into groups for several 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.
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.
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.
The featured SCORE Trophy 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.
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
Total Entries–66 (as of 1/03/12)
(from 11 States, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany & Mexico)
(Starting Order, By Class)
Pro Cars and Trucks
SCORE TROPHY TRUCK (17)
(Qualifying Order)
14 Cameron Steele
30 Robbie Pierce
95 Scott Whipple
2 Pete Sohren
24 Adam Householder
97 B.J. Baldwin
20 Rob MacCachren
65 Lloyd Sproule
94 Steven Strobel
18 Juan Carlos Lopez
84 Nick Vanderwey
47 James Bult
96 Bobby Baldwin
16 Cameron Steele
15 Armin Schwarz
68 Marc Ewing
19 Tim Herbst
CLASS 1 (16)
101 Damen Jefferies
102 Brian Parkhouse
103 Derrick Sproule
100 Justin Davis
105 Cody Parkhouse
106 Eric Hardin
107 Ronny Wilson
108 Steve Appleton
109 Conan Barker
110 Monica Greenhill
111 Grant Lenk
112 Harley Letner
113 Steven Eugenio
114 Clyde Stacy
115 Robert Archibald
149 Louie Serna
CLASS 1/2-1600 (7)
1601 Cody Robinson
1602 Brad Wilson
1603 Andrew Myers
1604 Brian Wilson
1605 J.J. Schnarr
1606 Robert S. Archibald
1607 Jason Markham
CLASS 3 (2)
301 Billy Bunch
300 Donald Moss
CLASS 5 (1)
500 Kevin Carr
CLASS 6 (6)
601 Jose Grijalva
602 Dave Caspino
603 Jeffery Holmes
617 Rene Brugger
618 Eduardo Laguna
619 Josh Quintero
CLASS 7 (1)
700 Dan Chamlee
CLASS 7SX (2)
741 Justin Fisher
742 Rich Severson
CLASS 8 (1)
839 Rodolfo Iribe
CLASS 10 (3)
1001 Peter Hajas
1002 Perry McNeil
1003 Matt Cullen
SCORE LITE (5)
1200 Rafael Navarro IV
1201 Jeff Sanca
1202 Brent Parkhouse
1203 Matt Laughlin
1204 Lobsam Yee
STOCK FULL (1)
861 Marc Stein
CLASS 7-2 (2)
721 Dana Dague
720 Reid Rutherford
CLASS 4 (1)
Mike Shaffer
Sportsman
SPT BUGGY (1)
1419 Jim Bunn