Las Vegas driver won’t hold back

Thursday, Sept. 25, 1997 | 9:06 a.m.

With one off-road championship to his credit already this season, Las Vegas resident Brian Collins isn't about to get greedy.

Trailing fellow Las Vegan, White Lightning Racing teammate and team owner Dale White by three points in the SCORE Desert Championship Series Class 8 division going into this weekend's Laughlin Desert Challenge, Collins is feeling a little generous.

"Dale and I are so close now that I think it's going to come down to the (Baja) 1000 so we've got to go out and have a smart race in Laughlin," said Collins, who earlier this month captured the 1997 SODA Class 13 championship in Wisconsin. "If Dale wins the championship, I think that would be great -- he's been running Class 8 for a long time.

"For me to come in the first year and win Class 8 would be awesome, but second would be OK, too. My big deal is I would like to win the 1000 and see him win the points but, for some reason, I think whoever wins the 1000 is going to win the points."

That's not to say that the 34-year-old Collins is going to hold anything back on the 13-mile desert course in Laughlin.

"Just like SODA, it's going to be a battle to the finish," Collins said. "But it's going to be fun and it certainly is a battle that I'm looking forward to fighting."

Collins and White will be among 13 Southern Nevada drivers entered in the third annual Laughlin Desert Challenge for desert race cars and trucks. The event will feature two full days of racing in 16 classes.

Collins and White will run identically prepared Chevy C1500 two-wheel drive trucks in the race, which will cover four laps each day, with final results based on a combined total elapsed time for each day's race.

"This (format) is quite unusual -- actually it's more like the SODA racing I was doing all summer long, where it's 65 miles each day," Collins said. "I haven't really seen the course we're going to run but I'm assuming it's going to be dusty and it's going to make for interesting racing.

"I think it's going to be a deal of survival where you still have to be smart and you can't make any mistakes. You only have an hour and a half time limit to run so it's going to be different, but it's going to be fun."

Collins, who won the Class 8 division at the Las Vegas Primm 300 in April, is confident after testing his truck earlier this week.

"I feel we have a really good truck underneath us," Collins said.

"We have prepped this truck for a big race -- it's not prepped for a 125-mile, two-day race, it's prepped to run a 500. We're going to run hard and concentrate mainly on not having flat tires on the BF Goodrichs because I think any kind of problem in this race will put you down, but I don't think it will necessarily put you out."

Racing in the Laughlin Desert Challenge will begin at 6:15 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday at the start/finish line, located at Laughlin's event venue at the corner of Big Bend Drive and Edison Way. Groups will start at 2-hour intervals until 4:15 p.m., with the Class 8, Trophy Truck and ProTruck divisions taking the green flag at 12:15 p.m. both days.