Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Two SCORE drivers will pull double duty

Thursday, Sept. 11, 2003 | 9:05 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

As if driving for 315 miles on a dusty desert race course isn't difficult enough, two drivers are planning to do "double duty" in Saturday's SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 off-road race.

Mike Voyles of Temecula, Calif., and Mark Kyle of Austin, Texas, will take advantage of the race format -- which splits the 19 Pro and Sportsman classes into morning and afternoon groups -- and enter two classes each in the race.

Voyles will be the driver of record in both unlimited Class 1 and Class 10 while Kyle will race in both the SCORE Lite and Protruck classes.

Kyle, who didn't begin his off-road racing career until he decided to enter the Baja 2000 three years ago with friend and co-driver Larry Nash, said he quickly caught the racing bug.

"Back in 2000, Larry and I were driving on regular roads to my house south of La Paz (Mexico)," Kyle said. "We were doing the 'I will, if you will' thing back and forth until we talked each other into (entering the Baja 2000). The rest, you might say, is history.

"We plan our lives pretty much around the SCORE Desert Series schedule right now. It's an amazing sport to be a part of and my children already want to go racing."

The eighth annual Las Vegas Primm 300 is expected to draw up to 150 entries, with cars and truck running five laps over a 63-mile course north of the Nevada /California border town. Open-wheel and VW Baja bug classes will start at 6 a.m. while the truck classes, including the featured Trophy Truck division, will start at 1 p.m.

Mike Julson of Santee, Calif., and Bob Lofton of Westmorland, Calif., are back to defend their overall and unlimited Class 1 titles in their Jimco-Chevy. They won last year's race by a mere one second over Trophy Truck class winners Ed and Tim Herbst of Las Vegas. Julson and Lofton completed the race, which was 284 miles, in 4 hours, 44 minutes.

George Seeley of Glendale, Calif., has the most class victories of anyone in the history of the race. Seeley has won five of the first seven races in Class 5.

Allen, 20, and Pfankuch, 21, won the first three races of the season and overcame power steering and brake problems in the SCORE Henderson's Terrible 250 in July and finished third in class. They lead Dale Ebberts and Ernie Castro Jr. (Class 1) by 14 points going into Saturday's race.

SCORE Lite driver Brian Ickler of Poway, Calif., is third overall with 274 points, the Class 1 duo of Mark and Gary Weyhrich of Troutsdale, Calif., are fourth with 265 points and Troy Herbst of Las Vegas, the defending SCORE overall champion, is fifth with 262 points.

Herbst has won four of the past six overall championships.