2008 brought us the 14th annual SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge. Undoubtedly the most popular trucks and drivers to watch in all of off-road racing run in the SCORE Trophy Truck class. This years race had a great turn out with a total of 29 Trophy Trucks set to take the green flag.
The Trophy Trucks ran 8 laps of the 6.25 mile long course and in the end the #4 Trophy Truck piloted by Gus Vildosola Jr. took the checkered flag first and the win for the first half of the racing weekend. This was an especially meaningful win for the whole crew after they rolled the truck on the first jump in qualifying on Friday.
"You know yesterday we had a rough day as most of you know we ended up rolling it off the first jump here... The boys from the crew, everyone worked really hard putting this truck back together until 2:00 in the morning. We had to cut and weld and replace parts, it was a long night but it was worth it obviously. It held strong for eight laps, but just eight laps at that. We started 20th today, and we thought we'd just cruise around and hopefully finish in the top 10 and then tomorrow start in the top 10 and move our way up. We didn't think we were going to finish in the top five for the weekend." - Gus Vildosola Jr.
After the crowds had gone home and the dust had settled on the first day of racing at the 2008 LDC many teams had a long night ahead of them, either celebrating a job well done, or rebuilding a truck from a hard luck first day. Either way, they would all be back lined up again on Sunday to go at it once more.
Class Leaders after Saturday:
SCORE TROPHY-TRUCK (Unlimited Production Trucks, 8 laps, 50 miles, 30 entries, 24 starters, 10 finishers)
1 - Gus Vildosola Jr. /Gus Vildosola Sr
2 - Rich Ronco
3 - Damen Jefferies
Be sure to check out pages 2 & 3 for even more photos!