Herbsts to start first in Laughlin

Friday, Jan. 11, 2002 | 10:35 a.m.

Already the winningest drivers in the event's history, Las Vegas racing brothers Ed and Tim Herbst have drawn the first starting position in the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division for the eighth annual Laughlin Desert Challenge.

The No. 19 Terrible Herbst Motorsports Ford F-150 was the first vehicle assigned a starting position in the computerized drawing held at SCORE's headquarters in Los Angeles.

The race, the first for the 2002 Duralast SCORE Desert Series, will be held Jan. 24-27, along the banks of the Colorado River in Laughlin.

Sixteen classes, including the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck and unlimited Class 1 divisions, will compete in the event.

Unique in format in all of desert racing, the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge kicks off Thursday, Jan. 24 with the $25,000 Laughlin Leap and Pit Crew Showdown.

The race itself is split into two days of action (Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 26-27) with the 16 classes for desert race cars and exotic race trucks divided into seven groups for seven separate races each day. From sunrise to sunset, SCORE desert racers will run the abbreviated 13-mile desert course in multiple-lap races with time limits of 75 or 85 minutes each.

The event finishing order, by class, will be based on the combined two-day elapsed time of each racer.

Besides Ed and Tim Herbst, who have teamed up to win this race in 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2000, the only other four-time winners, Brian Collins and George Seeley Jr., also are entered this year.

Collins, a Las Vegan who won the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division last year for his third straight SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge, picked up his first victory in 1996. His first three wins were in Class 8.

Leading the group of reigning SCORE season champions is Las Vegas' Troy Herbst, the youngest of the three racing Herbst brothers, who has won a record five consecutive titles in the unlimited Class 1 division.