Herbsts look for continued success at Laughlin event

Friday, Jan. 9, 2004 | 10:02 a.m.

Las Vegas-based Terrible Herbst Motorsports hopes to make itself at home in Laughlin when the 2004 SCORE Desert Series kicks off its fourth decade of racing next weekend with the 10th annual Laughlin Desert Challenge.

Ed and Tim Herbst, the reigning SCORE Trophy Truck season points champions, drew the pole position in the featured Trophy Truck division while younger brother Troy Herbst will start first in Class 1. The computerized draw for starting positions was held Dec. 27 in Los Angeles.

The SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge is billed as the first major motor sports event of the year and will be held next Saturday and Sunday near the banks of the Colorado River. More than 170 entries are expected for the unique two-day race to be run over an abbreviated 11-mile course.

Ed and Tim Herbst have four class wins in Laughlin while Troy Herbst, a six-time Class 1 season points champion, scored his lone Laughlin victory in 1999. Last year, the younger Herbst was leading his class after three laps on the final day before clutch problems and a flat tire relegated him to a fifth-place finish in Class 1.

Defending Laughlin Class 1 champion Dale Ebberts, the 2003 SCORE overall and Class 1 season champion, is pulling out all the stops in an effort to repeat his class victory. The Inland Truss Racing team will debut a new Jimco racer with a 640-horsepower Toyota Tundra V8 in Laughlin.

"With the new racecar and an awesome team, I have never looked forward to a new season more than I am this year," Ebberts said. "We have done a reasonable amount of testing and we knew the Jimco chassis would be magnificent, the Toyota engine would be a monster, the BFG project tires would be unbelievable and the Albins AGB 6-speed transmission would be super trick.

"Now, our mission is to get all of these elements working together and that's where our great team does its thing."

Ebberts and co-driver Ernie Castro Jr. will have a difficult time topping their 2003 season, which saw them put a halt to Troy Herbst's remarkable stretch of six consecutive Class 1 season championships. Ebberts and Castro won two events last season and finished on the podium at all six SCORE events.

"What an unbelievable SCORE season we had last year," Ebberts said. "I knew we could do it but until you actually do it, you're never quite sure. I've been racing for 16 years and the difference (last) year was that we were able to keep the majority of our team together for more than just one season.

"This is a tough sport that way for us privateer racers. To think that we stopped the six-year run of Troy Herbst, who is such a great racer and who has such a solid team, makes the championship ten times more rewarding. Ernie and I have really blended well into a very competitive team and hopefully we can keep the rhythm going in 2004."

The SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge weekend will get under way Thursday at 6 p.m. with the popular Laughlin Leap. The annual Pit Crew Showdown will be held Friday at 4:30 p.m. and racing will be held from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. A complete schedule of events can be found at www.score-international.com.