Parker off SCORE ‘98 slate

Friday, Aug. 1, 1997 | 11:11 a.m.

Citing skyrocketing costs as the reason for eliminating a longtime event, SCORE International's Sal Fish has announced a six-race schedule for the 1998 SCORE Desert Championship Series.

The schedule includes three races each in the United States and Baja California, Mexico, with two date changes and the suspension of the Parker 400 on the SCORE desert racing circuit.

"Given all the issues we have been faced with, we are confident that this is the best schedule we could possibly have for 1998," said Fish, chief executive officer of SCORE International, the premier desert racing sanctioning body in the United States and Mexico.

"We feel our six-race schedule will be very attractive to the desert racing community and gives SCORE a balance of events near high-profile areas in the United States and the opportunity to continue racing in Mexico, where SCORE races are the most popular special events held annually on the Baja California peninsula.

Regarding Parker, Fish said: "It's very unfortunate that we are forced to drop the Parker (Ariz.) 400, a race which SCORE has produced for 24 years. We sincerely appreciate the substantial community support we have had over the years in Parker, but we have been faced with incredible escalating costs over the past 10 years.

"We've enjoyed the relationship and hopefully, in the future, we can return to Parker. But it just isn't in the cards for now."

The 1998 SCORE Desert Championship Series will open the last weekend of January with the two-day SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge (Jan. 30-Feb. 1) along the banks of the Colorado River. In its first three years, that race was held in either September or October.

The third Las Vegas Primm 300, which was held in early spring, moves to Sept. 11-13, 1998 at the California/Nevada state line.

The third U.S. race will be the 27th SCORE Fireworks 250 set for July 17-18 in the Stoddard Valley Recreation area near Barstow, Calif.

SCORE's 1998 Mexico races will be the 12th Tecate San Felipe 250 (March 20-22), the 29th Tecate Baja 500 (June 5-7 in Ensenada) and the traditional season-ending SCORE Tecate Baja 1000 (Nov. 11-14).

The Baja 1000 will start at a yet-to-be-determined location in Baja Norte and finish near the southern tip of the peninsula on the outskirts of La Paz, located on the Sea of Cortez.