Baldwin Racing, Darland draw spots up front

Friday, Aug. 24, 2001 | 10:20 a.m.

Southern California's Baldwin Racing and Arizona's Jeff Darland have drawn the first starting positions for next month's sixth annual SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 off-road race.

Baldwin Racing's Ford F-150, with Jim Baldwin sharing driving duties with his sons Jason and Josh, will be the first vehicle to leave the starting line, leading the field in the featured Trophy-Truck division. Darling will start first in the unlimited Class 1, which features a race-high 32 entries, in his Jimco open-wheel desert racecar.

Nearly 150 vehicles, competing in 17 classes for cars and trucks, will begin taking the green flag at 6:30 a.m. Sept. 15, as the SCORE Desert Series makes its only visit to the Las Vegas area for round 4 of the five-race 2001 season. Vehicles will leave the start/finish line area, located in the special events compound on the grounds of Buffalo Bills resort in Primm, every 30 seconds in the elapsed-time race.

Nine of the classes will be required to cover four laps of the 69.8-mile course within an 11-hour time limit to be considered official finishers in the 279.2-mile race. The eight slowest classes will be required to cover three laps for a total distance of 209.40 miles within the 11-hour time limit.

Among the top challengers for the overall title will be Class 1 points leader Steve Sourapas, of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., and Las Vegas racing brothers, Ed, Tim and Troy Herbst. Troy Herbst, who won Class 1 in this race in 1999, is just three points behind Sourapas this year in Class 1.

Tim and Ed Herbst, who won the SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 in the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division in their Ford F-150 in 1998, are very familiar with the desert terrain where they honed their gifted racing skills.