Monday, Aug. 1, 2005 | 9:29 a.m.
It was evident from the broad grin on Sal Fish's face Saturday night that the inaugural SCORE Las Vegas Terrible's Cup was a resounding success.
Fish, the president of SCORE International, knew he had a winner as he gazed out at the crowd of nearly 8,000 that packed the Las Vegas Motor Speedway's dirt track grandstand Saturday night for the short-course desert race. Almost immediately, however, Fish realized he now is faced with the dilemma of what to do with his successful motor sports experiment.
Although it was harder to tell whether the racers or the more than 13,000 fans who showed up for two nights of racing action had more fun during the weekend, Fish reiterated that similar stadium-style events will not replace the true desert racing on which SCORE was founded more than 30 years ago.
"This is really a unique form of motor sport and I don't want to turn this into something that these racers have to build a special vehicle to come out here," Fish said of the tight 1.5-mile course. "These vehicles, we were fortunate enough to build a track that could accommodate the true SCORE Trophy Trucks.
"I think we've got to look at this in perspective and (realize) that the people who make up the SCORE family -- the 350 racers who come out to the Tecate SCORE Baja 500 or 1000 -- they're really not prepared to do this kind of racing. They want to go out in the desert and they want the jackrabbits and the rattlesnakes (to be the only ones) to see what they do when they mess up."
Fish, who called the Las Vegas Terrible's Cup concept a work in progress, said his next goal would be to find out exactly how many of the rank-and-file SCORE desert racers would commit to running a stadium-style series.
"What we need to do is really look at this and say, are there 30, are there 40, are there 100 people in the SCORE family who want to do this kind of racing?" Fish said. "And if they do, maybe we can turn our Laughlin event into more of this kind of a show, the Primm event, maybe, because we're losing land all over Nevada and maybe this is the way to do it.
"But this is not going to replace the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, the flagstone of what off-road racing is about."
Ed Herbst, of the Las Vegas desert racing family who put up the prize fund for the event, agreed. Herbst noted that the Bureau of Land Management is selling off parcels of land on which several off-road racing series have been contested races over the years, but said the five-race SCORE Desert Series likely would always have its three annual races in Mexico.
"I think stadium racing is a neat deal," said Herbst, who did not race in the Terrible's Cup due to a shoulder injury. "But desert racing isn't going away; you'll see Mexico maintain its openness and those are three of our five races right now. We have Laughlin and Primm and we all know the issues with both of those areas."
Some of the land on which the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge has been held for the past 11 years has been auctioned off by the BLM and is scheduled to be developed. A portion of the Primm course is slated to be used for a new regional airport. Fish hinted that he might try to bring a stadium-style look to those two races in 2006.
"You might see, as early as 2006, three events similar to this," Fish said. "They won't be a mile and a half ... they might be 5 miles, they might be 11 miles like we do at Laughlin.
"Maybe the end result, in two years, is that we have a unique world championship series that will combine the best of the desert and we'll invite them to a motor speedway like (LVMS) at the end of the year and we'll have a championship shootout where the desert and the 'stadium racers' get together and race. We're thinking, we really are."
Before the first class champion was crowned Saturday night, Fish already was planning to huddle with Las Vegas Events, the Herbst family and officials from LVMS in an attempt to bring the event back to the speedway next summer.
"I want to continue this," Fish said. "I think (this crowd) shows there's a demand, especially in the Nevada area. This place is full and they love it. Everybody that's here is just waiting for another one and they're going to tell 10 other people about it.
"Here we are at a world-class raceway and we're putting on a show. The key thing as we look at this for 2006 ... maybe we do something like the top five in every class. As you could see, we don't need 100 vehicles; 50 put on an incredible show. I'm happy as heck with this, I really am."
So were the vast majority of drivers polled on the subject, including longtime desert racer Larry Roeseler, who won three heat races and the main event in Group 2 for SCORE mini-truck classes.
"We gained a lot of fans -- good fans," Roeseler said. "Our heart is in the (Baja) 1000 but to mix it up, spice it up with a short course, it is perfect to throw in a couple of these a year. It keeps it exciting."
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