Good, bad news for Herbsts in Mexico

Monday, Nov. 24, 2003 | 10:25 a.m.

The 36th annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 proved to be a case of good news/bad news for Las Vegas' racing Herbst family.

Older brothers Tim and Ed Herbst drove their Ford F-150 to a second-place finish in the featured Trophy Truck class and clinched their fourth season-long Trophy Truck championship while younger brother Troy Herbst failed to finish in Class 1 and saw his record streak of season class championships end at six.

Dale Ebberts of Canyon Lake, Calif., and co-drivers Ernie Castro Jr. and Darren Ebberts finished third in class and won the 2003 SCORE Overall and Class 1 season championships.

The Class 1 team of Doug Fortin Jr. and Charlie Townsley of El Cajon, Calif., were the first overall finishers among four-wheel vehicles in the season-ending Baja 1000, which started and finished in Ensenada, Mexico. The duo completed the 808-mile course in 16 hours, 24 minutes and 2 seconds for an average speed of 49.27 mph.

"It feels great to win this race," Fortin said. "There was dust in your eyes the whole time. At 4:30 p.m. (Friday), it was a nightmare -- no breeze -- and driving into the sun was horrible. This course was tougher than in 2001; the first 325 miles was incredible; it was a race in itself."

Team Honda riders Steve Hengeveld and Johnny Campbell of Southern California were first overall in the motorcycle class in 15:39:32 and won their seventh straight Baja 1000 title. Hengeveld and Campbell averaged 51.58 mph.

Tim and Ed Herbst's bid for the Baja 1000 Trophy Truck title came to end when they suffered a mechanical failure, but they were able to repair their truck and finish second in class and third overall with a time of 17:17:04.

"We lost the race but won the war," Ed Herbst said of capturing the 2003 Trophy Truck championship. "We may not have won, but we were the third truck halfway and finished second in class and third overall.

"We lost our driveline and were able to change it, but eight to ten cars got by. We picked it back up and we (finished). It was a neat, neat, neat course."

Tony McCormack of Las Vegas teamed with David Sykes of Del Mar, Calif., to win Class 8 for full-sized, two-wheel-drive trucks and Las Vegan Jack Johnson was part of a six-rider team that won Class 40 for motorcycle riders 40 years of age and older.

Only 153 of the 272 entries finished the grueling race. Among the finishers from Southern Nevada was Las Vegas' Rob MacCachren, who co-drove with Gus Vildosola and finished third in Trophy Truck and fifth overall, and Bekki Freeman of Henderson, who was seventh in the Baja Challenge class with an all-female team.

Other local finishers included B.J. Baldwin and Larry Job (fifth in Trophy Truck), Danny Anderson (ninth in Class 1 with John Marking of El Cajon, Calif.), Rudy and Carlos Cortez (third in Class 10), Kenny and Cody Freeman (fifth in Class 10) and David and Bradley Hite (second in the Baja Challenge class).

The Baja Challenge class, which featured identically prepared Wide Open Baja touring cars with 2.4-litre Porsche engines, drew several celebrities. CART team owner Stefan Johansson was part of a five-driver team that won the class, CART driver Michel Jourdain Jr.'s team finished sixth and auto racing commentator Paul Page and his son, Brian, finished eighth.

NASCAR stars Robby Gordon (Trophy Truck) and Brendan Gaughan of Las Vegas (Class 1) failed to finish.