Laughlin, NV – January 25, 2009: The 2009 SCORE off road series got underway in Laughlin Nevada this past weekend with 2 full days of racing. On the banks of the beautiful Colorado River, Laughlin is one of the favorite races on the SCORE schedule with plenty of racing action in one of Nevada’s favorite gambling towns. The weather couldn’t have been better and Racers Only Motorsports got the season off right with its 2nd straight Laughlin Desert Challenge win.
The race started early Saturday morning with no dust what-so-ever after a steady drizzle the night before. Roberts Kukainis, the BFGoodrich motorsports manager would be my co-pilot for the day and did an outstanding job. Roberts pointed the way as we finished 2nd on day 1, only 2 ½ minutes out of 1st. Attrition is always high in Laughlin so we decided to play it cautious knowing that the race would not be won on Saturday, but surviving on Sunday.
Going into the Sunday race, Long time friend Chuck Soper would ride along side as our race plan was the same as Saturday…survive. Drag racing off the start with the 1st place finisher on Saturday (#1403), we kept him in sight for most of the race until the water temp started creeping up to an uncomfortable level. We backed it down a little but kept on the pressure. Low and behold, on the last lap we found 1403 stopped on the side of the course with a motor problem. Our race strategy would pay off with ANOTHER Laughlin win!
I had 2 guys work their butts off for me this week, Pete VanRooy and Matt Bare. They went over the car with a fine tooth comb and found a couple minor problems after Saturday’s race that could have become BIG problems if not corrected for Sunday! Thanks guys.
Huge thanks AGAIN to my sponsors that stepped it up in 2009 to help us go racing: Herb Hess @ JET JOC, Dr. Stamper @ Tri-state CareFlight, Jason, Kim and Mike @ Wide Open MRI, BFGoodrich Tires, Ironclad, Beard, C&R, MSD, Vision X, Butch’s speed shop, Artistic Curbing, Got Sand? and KING shocks. I’d also like to thank the rest of the crew that helped out before the race, Pete Corwin, Chuck Soper and Ted Ward. Tracy, Lindsey and Hanna ran the Racers Only booth all weekend and I definitely could not have done it without them! Next, the Parker 425 in 2 weeks…….see you their!
