Terrible’s Primm Race
Posted in AGM-Team, Offroad, Puro Off Road, SCORE on September 7th, 2008
Roger Norman drove the last lap to victory after teammate Larry Roeseler had spotted him a 10-minute lead driving the first three of four laps in the No. 8 Norman Motorsports Ford F-150 race truck, capturing the overall and SCORE Trophy-Truck victory Saturday at the 13th Annual SCORE Terrible’s Primm 300 desert race. With Norman earning his first career SCORE Trophy-Truck race win and Roeseler his second, the duo covered the rugged 288-mile race in four hours, 50 minutes and 20 seconds, averaging a ground-pounding 59.52 miles per hour while covering the four laps over the rugged 72-mile desert race course in Primm, Nev., 45 miles south of Las Vegas.
Roeseler, Irvine, Calif., started seventh in the star-studded field of 20 starters in SCORE Trophy-Truck in the elapsed-time race, was second after the first lap, moved ahead on lap 2 and extended it to just over 10 minutes on lap three before turning the wheel over to Norman, the Reno, Nev., businessman who owns the Crystal Bay Casino for the final lap. The victory almost slipped away on the final lap when the brakes went out forcing Norman to drive nearly 50 miles of uncertainty before winning the race by one minute, 48 seconds. Roeseler run consistent laps of 1:09:23, 1:10:19 and 1:11:10 before Norman’s last lap struggle turned into a lap of 1:19:18.
Las Vegas Brian Collins not only closed the gap during the final lap, but actually took the lead by nearly a minute on corrected time before two flats in the final 10 miles put him back into second place at the checkered flag in the No. 12 Collins Motorsports Mopar Dodge Ram1500. Collins finished in4:52:08, averaging 59.15 mph.
Keeping SCORE Trophy-Trucks from sweeping the podium was the All German Motorsports unlimited Class 1 BMW-powered Jimco open-wheel desert race car driven by Germany’s Armin Schwarz and Martin Christensen of Escondido, Calif. With Schwarz starting and driving the first half of the race and Christensen bringing their car across the finish line in 4:58:54, averaging 57.81mph. It was the second Class 1 win of the year for Schwarz, a former World Rally Championship series star, and Christensen, a veteran SCORE desert racer.
SCORE’s 35th anniversary season continued with 86 survivors out of 124 starters, competing in 17 Pro and 2 Sportsman classes for cars and trucks finishing within the seven-hour time limit in the elapsed-time race.
