Kickoff! - 2006 SCORE Off Road Season

Each November, SCORE winds its season down with what's often called the Super Bowl of off-road racing: the Baja 1000. Just shy of two months later, the next season launches at Laughlin. We can't think of a more fitting way to wind a season down, or a more fitting way to start another one up.

The Baja 1000 is a 32-hour-long test of endurance that's often punctuated by trailside vehicle repairs to bandage things together just long enough to get the truck across the finish line. The Baja is often remote; the amenities you have are the ones you bring along. Break down for an hour during the Baja 1000, and you've still got a fighting chance to pull off a class win. Break down for an hour in Laughlin, and you'll be trying to figure out a way to get your wounded truck off of the course before it's mangled into a pretzel by the next wave of race traffic because racing classes take to the track in groups and run for a specified number of laps. However, an hour later, you can relax in a hotel room or catch a movie in front of a fullsize theater screen. The Laughlin Desert Challenge condenses the roughness of the 1000 into a sprint race and juxtaposes it with the creature comforts of the First World. The differences don't end with a shorter course and creature comforts. Laughlin racers don't have to hassle their way across an international border. While the Laughlin fans can't be described as docile, they also never get the chance to play chicken with passing race traffic as often happens south of the border. It's a great combo.

If there is a disadvantage to putting on a stateside race, it's the ever-shrinking availability of open land. During its inaugural run in 1995, the Laughlin course was a 42.5-mile loop. That number was reduced to 25 a year later. The '06 course felt the pressure of land development and was a fraction of the first year's course length at a scant 8 miles. Flowing with the changes, SCORE President Sal Fish pitches it thusly: "Our new 8-mile course means more laps, more action through the stadium infield area, and more opportunities for the thousands of spectators on hand for the event to enjoy the best desert racers on the planet. And, we can all experience it for two straight days!"

The new course shows changed racing strategies. As in past years, the course started and ended in the infield area in front of spectator grandstands and a jumbotron projection screen. After the racers wound their way through the Caterpillar-sculpted infield, it was out into the open desert to test human and machine against what nature had created. The desert sections of the course were narrower than in previous Challenges, making passing difficult. Therefore, speed through the infield became a critical component to beating the competition.

Thanks to the extended infield course and the jumbotron feeding footage from the course's desert sections, fans were treated to great views of their favorite racers. Fans may have found a new favorite in B.J. Baldwin, who took top Trophy Truck honors for the first time at Laughlin. Baldwin notes, "This is my first SCORE race win and first Trophy Truck win. This is a new truck, and this race was the truck's maiden voyage. My number, 97, is the year 1997 that I first started racing. When you're on the course, everything is huge out there. We added some compression damping to make the suspension a little bit stiffer, so it wouldn't bottom out so much. I'm definitely looking forward to San Felipe."

As journalists, we enjoy Laughlin too. Two days of racing and multiple laps mean we have the chance to photograph the racers several times, and we can shoot the photos from different vantage points. Running around in the name of photography can take its toll, so we're just as glad as the racing field to be able to partake of civilization after a day of dusty photography. We've been to Baja, and we'll be back in Baja -- there's nothing quite like the legendary Baja 1000. There's also nothing like the fast, furious Laughlin racing action with creature comforts close at hand. Did we mention it was a great combo?

Carl Renezeder bristles with driving talent, and he has multiple CORR wins to show for it. He left his Pro-2 and Pro-4 trucks at his Lake Forest, California, shop for the weekend and brought out the Lucas Oil Chevy Trophy Truck to do battle. It was a two-feat weekend. The first feat was winning the Laughlin Leap jump contest with a whopping 159-foot pass through the Nevada night sky. Part two was taking Second in the 33-strong Trophy Truck field, finishing just 30 seconds behind B.J. Baldwin.	We've seen him time and again at MDR, and we've been nerfed by him in Baja. What we didn't know was that real estate agent Jeff Lloyd is also a philanthropic supporter of Covenant House California. CHC is an organization that gives housing and counseling to homeless and at-risk youth, helping them to put their problems behind them and carve out productive lives. We nabbed this photo of Jeff on the back stretch of the Laughlin course, a whooped-out section that was one of the few places outside of the infield with room enough for passing.	He's back! Steve Kurtyka was at the track, video camera in hand. Steve suffered burns last year at the M.O.R.E. Beard Seats 1450 shootout when a helicopter carrying him and two others went down in a fiery crash. Although he's not yet 100-percent healed, Steve's recovery has been faster than expected. To help with Steve's ponderous medical bills, JD Films has released a new video entitled Rebound, the proceeds of which will go to offset medical expenses. For more information, go to www.reboundvideo.com.
Girthy Super Dutys usually see the races from the parking lot, but Greg Foutz's Fabtech-backed SD proved there's no reason not to take to the race course in a Super Duty. Since weight reduction is paramount on any race vehicle, Foutz elected to go with a standard cab and a Triton V-10 gasoline engine instead of a Power Stroke diesel mill. Foutz took the top spot in the Stock Full class on both days with Fabtech CEO Dave Winner on board as codriver. "I can't believe how well that truck works for a stock truck," he commented after the race. Winner clearly enjoyed the ride, as he teamed up with Foutz again at the BITD Parker 425 a few weeks later.	After frying a race-tuned 3L V-6 during a heartbreaking Baja 1000 (see "How to Win a War," Apr. '06), John Holmes and Mark Landersman decided to try a stock 4.0 SOHC engine instead. The 4.0 is bigger than the 3L displacement limit in Class 7s, so Holmes and Landersman jumped into Class 7sx, which allows engine displacement up to 4.3 liters. A set of JBA headers helped make the most of the impressive, out-of-the-box SOHC V-6. On the last lap of day two, the temperature gauge pegged. Since Number 743 was in First Place with an eleven-minute class lead and the finish line wasn't far away, they decided to go for it, only to have the engine fry 150 yards from the finish line within sight of the checkered flag. More heartbreak. This team has experienced tremendous success in the past, and with two DNFs in a row, is hungrier than ever to pull off a win. Stay tuned.	Since the Trophy Trucks run last on both days, we weren't able to catch Overall and Trophy Truck winner B.J. Baldwin under the best of lighting. In the past, the Trophy Trucks took to the track mid-morning and many fans left shortly after seeing the marquee TTs in action. B.J. took his Chevy the required total of 96 miles (two races of six laps each, 8 miles per lap) at an average of almost 55 mph. With the slow, tight turns of the infield in mind, averaging 55 means hitting 100-plus on the faster sections. The show put on by Baldwin and the rest of the TT field was more than worth waiting all afternoon to see.
While it's cool to watch the big dogs play, when we finally get on the racecourse in our own truck it's gonna be in the Prerunner class. Widely known as 1450, the Prerunner class is labeled Sportsman Truck in the SCORE series. Usually seen in places like MDR and ROR (RIP), Matt Torian, Dan Vance, and Robert Anderson showed up on the Laughlin starting line to face off against the desert and each other. Dan Vance's supercharged (you can supercharge your motor in the Prerunner class) Toyota was running strong and smooth when a flat tire temporarily halted his charge and allowed Torian to take the Sportsman class lead. The white '99 Ranger handles the rough exceptionally well, and Torian used his smooth suspension to help make up for the mild motor output. Robert Anderson's black '93 Ranger uses a Full Tilt Off-Road Dana 60 in place of the more common Ford 9-inch rear axle. The 60's beefy eight-lug hubs are complemented by a matching set of eight-lug hubs pivoting on a set of Giant Motorsports I-beams up front. Anderson's weekend was far from dull - in heavy dust, he drove off a 13-foot cliff, soaked up the impact, and kept going. Later on in the infield, he put the truck up on two wheels while snaking his way through a chicane. Anderson unsuccessfully tried hitting the gas and turning left before a quick turn to the right finally set the Ford on all fours. Torian, Vance, and Anderson finished in First, Second, and Third, respectively, at the LDC.	We saw the Red Bull TT spinning the Toyo donuts and thought "Robby Gordon," but it was Andy McMillin behind the wheel both days. Andy has proven his skills behind the wheel of father Scott McMillin's Class 1 buggy, and he recently teamed up with Robby Gordon for the 2006 SCORE season. At 18 years, Andy is the youngest driver ever to race a Trophy Truck in the SCORE series. At the Primedia desert cleanup at the Stoddard Wells OHV area a few weeks later, we got a chance to ask Andy about the differences between Class 1 and TT from the driver's point of view. "There's a definite learning curve," Andy revealed. "The Trophy Truck has 250 more horsepower than the Class 1 and 3 feet of rear suspension travel compared to the 2 feet of rear travel in the Class 1. It's like comparing a Cadillac to a bike." With McMillin and Gordon alternating in the driver's seat, number 83 is a threat to win anywhere it shows up to race.	An extensive win record has hollow meaning if a company doesn't produce tires that are useful and affordable for everyday driving and off-roading. The information gathered during racing and incorporated into BFGoodrich's top-drawer Baja T/As is incorporated into more familiar BFG offerings such as the Radial All-Terrain and the Radial Mud-Terrain, as seen on Chuck Strange's Caddie-powered Rolls Royce. Strange relies on his BFG-shod Rolls to extract stricken race vehicles ranging from featherweight Class 11 Beetles to 6,000-pound TTs. Strange's BFGs are wrapped around a set of 17-inch Walker Evans wheels fitted with a one-off set of 17-inch OMF scalloped bead locks. Strange had the 'locks made to match the shape and spacing of the Evans wheels. In this rotation, they seem to fill the voids in the wheels. Changing the entire look of the wheel is a matter of unbolting the rings and re-attaching them two notches in either direction. Cool! As for the color, it's a perfect match for the rest of the Rolls. Those who have met Strange face-to-face know he's anything but drab.