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Off-road Motorsports
Never in the long and colorful history of off-road motorsports has there been a better time to go out and get dirty. While other major forms of racing in America continue (with the exception of NASCAR) to struggle for survival in the new millennium, in many ways the past several years represents the Golden Age of our sport. From the surge of interest in professional rockcrawling events to record Trophy-Truck fields at this year's Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, off-road racing is alive, well, and looking toward a bright future. We've got to hand it to Sal Fish and SCORE International. Despite increased competition from other sanctioning bodies and a growing concern over desert usage (yes, even in an ever-growing Baja, Mexico), SCORE International has managed to maintain its status as the premier four-wheel desert racing sanctioning body in North America. In an age where too many desert sanctioning groups are overlapping race weekends and consequently diluting their entry base, SCORE is still the place to compete at the top level of the sport, and the series where participants still can enjoy the buzz that comes from being part of major events that average 150 entries in the U.S. and 225 in Mexico. Much of this strength comes from Fish's years of experience and his willingness to mix the sport's most traditional and important events like the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 and Baja 500 with new, more spectator-friendly venues like Laughlin, Primm, and now Henderson, Nevada. Although the race courses may change, the fact that some of SCORE's events are now in their third decade of existence can only serve to bolster the group's heritage and traditions.
The season once again kicks off at the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge with its 12-mile course and a two-day racing format. Grandstands, concession booths, pit stop competition, the Laughlin Leap, and the huge SCOREvision infield screen have made this a very popular event. The series next moves to the sunny shores of the Sea of Cortez in San Felipe for the very popular Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250, followed in June by the classic Tecate SCORE Baja 500. The hot desert of Henderson, Nevada, is next for the second running of the Henderson's Terrible 250, followed by a trip to the Nevada border resort at Stateline and the Primm 300. As always, the year is capped off by the ever-popular SCORE Tecate Baja 1000-still considered by many to be the pinnacle event in off-road motorsports. The growth of interest in the Trophy Truck division has been nothing short of phenomenal over the past year, with a number of brand-new, $250,000 trucks completed and ready to take on the championship team of Ed Herbst and Herbst Motorsports. Amazingly, the 2002 SCORE Tecate Baja 1000 saw a record number of 22 Trophy Trucks take the green flag, the most ever since the days of manufacturer involvement. The same growth and competition for overall victories is also evident in Class 1 for unlimited open-wheel cars. Here the horsepower race is on, and large numbers of the ultra-trick Class 1 cars will be fighting to take the title from the defending champion team of Mike Julson and Bob Jofton. Happily for SCORE, many of their 17 pro classes will feature the same intense amount of competition and top-level vehicle preparation.
Still one of the best success stories on the off-road racing landscape, Championship Off-Road Racing (CORR) provides Midwest and East Coast race fans great wheel-to-wheel short-course action throughout the summer of 2003. For thousands of enthusiastic fans that attend these events, along with millions more on television, CORR's Lucas Oil Series is as fun as it is addictive. CORR and President Marty Reid can be credited with keeping the sport, the outgrowth of a series once known as SODA, a truly viable one from a spectator and manufacturer standpoint, still succeeding years after the death of the highly popular Mickey Thompson stadium events of the '80s and early '90s. By combining both Pro and Sportsman categories in one action-packed weekend, CORR appeals to a broad range of participants while ensuring a great show for the thousands of fans that pack the races. These continue to be strong spectator events wherever the series goes. CORR Lucas Oil Series fans will enjoy hours of television coverage on Speed Channel as the sanctioning body has a three-year contract. It is expected that the Pro division will enjoy 48 hours of coverage, while the Sportsman ranks will be seen in 36 hours of television beamed to more than 55 million homes.
For Best In The Desert (BITD) founder Casey Folks, the desert racing season will reflect both lessons learned after several years of refining his relatively new desert series, and a recently announced media package intended to help push the sport into the future. While still strongly popular with the two-wheel motorcycle crowd thanks to special motorcycle events, Best In The Desert has made encouraging progress in attracting larger four-wheel entries to their unique and always well organized races. The basis of this strength has been in the Nevada desert, which in 2003 will see the Terrible's Town 250 in April, the Las Vegas 200 in December, and the longest continuous point-to-point race in America-the Tube Specialties Company "Vegas to Reno" event in June. More significantly, the year is set to begin in February with BITD's return of professional desert racing to legendary Parker, Arizona, at the series' inaugural Blue Water Resort and Casino Parker 425. Finally, Folks has resolved to return to Baja for his second annual Baja Mex in August, an event which saw a limited four-wheel entry but promising potential in 2002. All of this action is truly hard-core desert racing of the best kind, with a majority of races taking on the roughest, rockiest, and remotest terrain that Casey and company can find. More importantly, the series' commitment to limited chase-crew access and prerunning not only opens up more great areas to race in, but also makes "chasing" the event from pit-to-pit easy and fun for spectators. Expect large fields at special Best In The Desert events, especially the welcome return to Parker and the challenging run from Las Vegas to Reno. Most of the sport's best drivers will be on hand for these races, including the Herbst Motorsports gang from Las Vegas, the two-time BITD Trick Truck champion Damen Jefferies in the beautiful Herman Motorsports/K&N Filters Ford F-150, and the factory Kia of Darren Skilton. You can expect a strong showing from the Protrucks ranks, as well as the giant Hummers of off-road legend and 2002 stock full-size class champion Rod Hall. Not to be outdone, big groups of unlimited and limited open-wheel cars will also add spice to the races, including defending Class 1 class winner Gary Weyrich and the BFGoodrich/ Toyota-powered team of former Indy 500 drivers Mike and Robbie Groff. Like the rest of the sport, the future looks good for the hard-working Folks and his staff at Best In The Desert. It looks like all of them are taking their company's simple corporate motto to heart - "Life Is an Adventure." At the beginning of 2003, Casey Folks announced a much-needed return of television to the desert thanks to The Outdoor Channel and its Speedzone motorsports show. Self-produced by Best In The Desert and an outside video firm, the new shows have the potential to reach 20 million homes. In order to assist in the high costs of these productions, racers and their sponsors have the opportunity to support a wide variety of onboard cameras, in-show commercials, and specially produced segments.
The National Mud Racing Organization (NMRO) sanctions two distinct types of racing-straight-line mud drag racing and Tough Trucks racing. The NMRO Championship Mud Drags are contested using a single-pass format, with no eliminations and the lowest e.t. wins. The side-by-side lanes range from 140 to 200 feet long. Races are started using a drag racing pro style "Christmas tree." All events use electronic timing. Basic drag race rules apply. There are six classes of NMRO Mud Drags split into Sportsman and Pro Series classes. Classes 1-2 are for sportsman competitors using road-ready or daily driver trucks. There are no points awarded and competitors run for trophies. The NMRO Tough Trucks are split into two divisions. Stock, whose trucks run for trophies on a single-pass format, is designed for the daily drivers and they must run helmets and some basic safety items. Modified Tough Trucks are purpose-built four-wheel-drive race vehicles. They must maintain a stock body appearance and are allowed basic engine modifications. They have naturally aspirated engines that use gasoline or diesel for fuel. Modified Tough Trucks run qualification rounds. The top 16 qualifiers are set into a bracket, and this class runs side-by-side, with the number-one qualifier racing against the number 16 qualifier. The winners advance; the losers prepare for the next event. NMRO is a member of the SFI Foundation, a non-profit organization established to issue and administer standards for specialty/performance automotive and racing equipment. To understand the concept behind Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Protruck series, look no further than the formula used to propel NASCAR's Winston Cup to the highest levels of American motorsports and spectator interest. Like modern stock car racing, the Protruck idea is based on a stable set of rules, identical chassis, carefully managed competition, and strong manufacturer identity since its inception in 1997. Ivan and Linda Stewart have taken several important steps to insure the future success of their series. While it's safe to say that the initial flurry of Protruck sales have slowed a bit, the interest from competitors and race fans grows with each passing race. Just like in his days of racing Toyota's factory trucks, it looks like hard work and perseverance will once again be paying off for the guy known throughout the off-road world simply as Ironman. After several years of trying, the Stewarts have managed to put together a total of 40 hours of action-packed television for Protruck, including eight, one-hour shows on Outdoor Life Network (OLN), a growing cable entity that now reaches over 53 million American homes. In addition, ESPN International will broadcast the always entertaining Guam event to a huge potential worldwide audience. This is welcome news to Protruck teams and manufacturers alike, with both Ford and Toyota now adding to a Contingency awards program that has topped $120,000 in cash and products. Along with Goodyear as its official tire, Protruck also receives corporate support from an A-list group of suppliers including American Racing Wheels, VP fuels, MSD Ignition, Bilstein shocks, AFE filters, and Wells Cargo. The Protruck season will include all of the SCORE and Best in the Desert events, along with an appearance at Crandon, Guam, and a possible race in Phoenix. All of this excitement should add up to one of the best Protruck seasons ever, as competitors try their best to take over the top spot from two-time series champ Steve Barlow and his familiar Red Bull-sponsored Ford. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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