Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Heat-seeking missiles invade Henderson

SCHEDULE

2nd Annual SCORE Henderson's Terrible 250

Today

8 a.m.-noon-- Course reconnaissance (controlled speed pre-run for registered entries only).

10 a.m.-5 p.m.-- Driver registration, Henderson Convention Center.

5-10 p.m.-- SCORE tech, contingency & manufacturer's midway, Water Street, downtown Henderson.

6-7 p.m. -- IGT SCORE pit crew challenge, Water Street, downtown Henderson.

7-7:30 p.m.-- Driver's meeting, Henderson Convention Center.

7-9 p.m.-- Tommy Rocker concert, Water Street, downtown Henderson.

Saturday

6 a.m. -- Race Start -- GROUP A (8-hour time limit).

8 a.m.-- Race Start -- GROUP B (8-hour time limit).

6 p.m. -- Unofficial results posted, Terrible's Town hotel-casino, Las Vegas.

6 p.m. -- Post-race party, Terrible's Town hotel-casino, poolside.

7 p.m. -- Competition review board, Terrible's Town hotel-casino.

8 p.m. -- Awards, Terrible's Town hotel-casino, poolside.

When the Trophy Truck class hits the starting line for Saturday's SCORE Henderson's Terrible 250 desert race, all eyes will be on two trucks that feature local drivers and are at the top of the class points standings.

After all, the red Ford F-150 owned by Gus Vildosola and co-driven by Las Vegan Rob MacCachren and the similarly painted Ford driven by brothers Ed and Tim Herbst are 1-2 in Trophy Truck points after three of six races in the SCORE Desert Series.

But the favorite to win Saturday's grueling race just may be the black Ford sporting the No. 3 and driven by 44-year-old Mark Post.

Although Post may live in the Southern California coastal valley community of San Juan Capistrano, he has made himself at home in the Nevada desert. After stepping up from Class 1 to Trophy Trucks three years ago, Post has recorded three victories in the division -- all in Nevada -- including last year's inaugural SCORE Henderson's Terrible 250.

"We've had a lot of success in Nevada," Post said as he and co-driver Jerry Welchel prepared to defend their title in the Henderson/Boulder City desert. "We won the Primm race in 2001, Henderson last year and Laughlin this year so Nevada has been kind of a lucky state for us.

"We won some races in Mexico in Class 1 but in Trophy Truck, they've all been in Nevada. We consider this our good-luck state, for sure."

While Post, the driver of record in the No. 3 truck, may be the defending champion of this race, the course has changed from the 50-mile loop that used last year to a more challenging 79.4-mile circuit.

"Oh, good. I hope it's rough, rough, rough -- we like that," Post said when he was told that this year's course will be rougher and more technical than last year's. "I think we are good on the rough tracks."

Which may explain Post's success in SCORE'S Nevada races as opposed to those in Mexico. Post said the courses in Nevada tend to be rougher than those in Mexico.

"The ground is a little harder here, the holes are a little deeper and the rocks are a little bigger, that's for sure," he said. "They're different in Mexico; depending on the race, the Baja 1000, many times, has a lot of bigger, graded roads and faster areas with some mountain sections and technical areas.

"The Baja 500 is largely mountains and technical. But in Nevada, they tends to be a lot rougher courses -- wide-open desert but deeper holes, a lot more rocks and you deal typically with higher temperatures so there's an attrition factor in Nevada that's higher than Mexico."

Heat was such a factor in last year's Henderson race -- the temperature soared to nearly 120 degrees when the Trophy Trucks started at 2 p.m. -- that this year's starting times for 17 Pro and two Sportsman classes have been moved to 6 and 8 a.m.

"Last year was incredibly hot," Post said. "It was 128 (degrees in the truck) when the race started at 2 in the afternoon. We wear double-layer fire suits and full-coverage helmets and the engines run, typically, 300 degrees. You add that all up and it's extremely hot.

"Toward the end of the race, I was cramping; you lose all your fluids. I think a lot of drivers experienced that."

It was so hot, in fact, that Post joked with fellow Trophy Truck driver Ed Herbst of Las Vegas, whose family's company sponsors the race, that last year's 2 p.m. starting time in the middle of July was a conspiracy.

"My good friend is Ed Herbst and I said to him last year, 'Ed, you're trying to bring these California boys over to Nevada and kill them,' " Post said. "At the time, I was ahead of him in the points race and I said, 'I know your strategy now; you're trying to kill me. How did you come up with a 2 o'clock start time?' "

Although he may not be as accustomed to the stifling heat as the Herbstes or MacCachren, Post feels he has an ace in the hole in his Ford F-150, which Robby Gordon built and drove to four wins and the SCORE Trophy Truck championship in 1996.

"We have modified quite a bit since we purchased it ... but I think to this day, (Gordon) would love to have that truck back; it's a special truck," Post said. "He built another one after it that didn't quite have the same qualities and now he's sold that and he's building another one. But it's a solid truck and we've got it exactly where we want it now."

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