September 24, 2014
Televised on CBS Sports Network
Round 4 of five-race 2014 SCORE World Desert Championship
split into three days of racing starting Friday night;
Classes to run in groups as16-lap race over 7.85-mile course in two segments
at Coyne Powersports Motorplex;
Imperial Street Fair, Imperial Big Air Shootout Thursday; SCORE Contingency-Friday
IMPERIAL, Calif.—Returning to SoCal’s Imperial Valley desert for the second time this year, festivities start Thursday for this week’s three-day 19th annual Rigid Industries SCORE Desert Challenge, presented by the City of Imperial, Calif. With racing starting Friday night and continuing through Sunday afternoon, pre-race festivities will be held near or on Imperial Ave. in downtown Imperial, approximately 115 miles east of San Diego.
Round 4 of the 2014 five-race SCORE World Desert Championship will have the event split into multiple days with classes divided into groups as is typical with a SCORE Desert Challenge. Each class will run two, eight-lap segments over a 7.85-mile course at the Coyne Powersports Motorplex near Plaster City, Calif. in Imperial Valley. The race festivities will be held starting Thursday with racing on Friday night, all day and into Saturday evening and Sunday morning and afternoon. The race venue is located approximately 100 miles east of San Diego just north of Plaster City, Calif.
With late entries accepted up to 1 p.m. Friday, the final field is expected to include more than a dozen racers from the Imperial Valley area including Imperial, El Centro, Brawley, Holtville and Calexico. SCORE Trophy Truck, SCORE’s marquee racing division for 850 horsepower, high-tech, unlimited production trucks had the most entries with 15 vehicles, including the top five point leaders. One of the late local entries came from NASCAR Truck racer and Brawley, Calif. native Justin Lofton, a second-generation desert racer who will race in Class 1.
IMPERIAL STREET FAIR THURSDAY & FRIDAY
Pre-race festivities will be held in downtown Imperial Calif. On Thursday, from noon to 7 p.m. will be the Imperial Off-Road Showcase and Street Fair. At 7 p.m. on Thursday will be an escorted vehicle procession from downtown Imperial to the California Midwinter Fairgrounds. The Imperial Street Fair will include live music, food and beverage vendors, merchandise vendors, interactive games, vehicle displays and autograph sessions with many of the world’s top desert racers.
IMPERIAL BIG AIR SHOOTOUT THURSDAY
With a purse of nearly $9,000 sponsored by Rogers & Rogers automotive group, the Imperial Big Air Shootout, presented by the City of Imperial, Calif. will start at 8 p.m. on Thursday (Sept. 25) at the California Midwinter Fairgrounds. Patterned after its popular predecessor the Laughlin Leap, this jump competition will have the various classes divided into different groups with the long jump with cash payouts in all six groups. In Group 1 (SCORE Trophy Truck, Trophy Truck Spec) will have a prize of $2,000 for the longest jump and a top prize of $1,500 for Group 2 (Class 1, Class 10).
All the details are available at this link (http://score-international.com/RISDC-Jump-Contest/) on the SCORE website.
SCORE CONTINGENCY ROW FRIDAY
The colorful SCORE Contingency Row and Manufacturer’s Midway will be held on Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., joining the Imperial Off-Road Showcase and Street Fair on Imperial Avenue in downtown Imperial. All race entries are pushed through contingency row and tech inspection offering fans up close views of the exotic desert racing machines along with their drivers and riders.
VERY FAN-FRIENDLY
SCORE has developed plans with the staff of Coyne Powersports Motorplex to create fan-friendly spectator areas around the entire perimeter of the racecourse as well as the start/finish line area off of Wheeler Road north of Plaster City.
Surrounding the entire Coyne Powersports Motorplex is Southern California’s massive Superstition Mountain/Plaster City OHV use area. This OHV recreational area will provide event spectators the opportunity to enjoy the entire race weekend with overnight camping and off-road vehicle use (allowed under normal BLM restrictions in the OHV recreation use area.)
SCORE TROPHY TRUCK POINT LEADERS
Led by Las Vegas’ Rob MacCachren, the top six 2014 SCORE Trophy Truck point leaders are all in the field for this weekend’s race. With both halves of their race on Saturday (11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.), in a close battle for the season championship are Rob MacCachren, Ford F-150, 244 points followed by Mexico’s Gus Vildosola Jr, Mexicali, Ford Raptor, second with 231, with Clyde Stacy, Bristol, Va., Chevy Rally Truck, fourth with 228, Juan C. Lopez, Tecate, Mexico, Chevy Silverado fourth with 225 and tied for fifth are Las Vegas’ B.J. Baldwin, Chevy Silverado and Steven Eugenio, El Centro, Calif., Chevy Silverado each with 213 points.
SCORE DirtLive HD ON-SITE
The Rigid Industries SCORE Desert Challenge, presented by the city of Imperial, Calif. will include live internet coverage for three days on SCORE DirtLive HD platform from the Imperial Big Air Shootout as well as internet coverage from the start/finish line area at the Coyne Powersports Motorplex. Coverage can be viewed on the SCORE website.
COYNE POWERSPORTS MOTORPLEX
The Motorplex is owned by El Centro, Calif., businessman Marty Coyne, a former SCORE Trophy Truck racer who won the SCORE Las Vegas Terrible’s Cup. The one-square mile land area is inside of the massive 41,000-acre Superstition Mountain/Plaster City OHV area.
Coyne’s private land has an eight-mile course already developed that was part of the 82-mile loop used by SCORE on April 26, for which racers were required to cover three laps, for the Inaugural SCORE Imperial Valley 250 desert race.
RPM ROCKIN’ THE DESERT
Based in Bristol, Tenn., prominent RPM Racing has six entries in this week’s starting grid. While Justin Matney, 29, leads Class 1 in points, Clyde Stacy, 69, and SCORE Young Gun Carlos ‘Apdaly’ Lopez, 19 of Tecate, Mexico is third in SCORE Trophy Truck points and Juan C. Lopez is fourth. Derek Fletcher, Abingdon, Va. is second in Sportsman Buggy and Jim Bunn, Bristol, Va. is leading SPT Unlimited Truck with two race wins. For this race, RPM has also entered a sixth vehicle. Team driver Eduardo Laguna, Mexicali, Mexico will race in the Trophy Truck Spec class where he finished third out of 10 starters in the class at the SCORE Baja 500.
SCORE DESERT CHALLENGE
Held from 1995 through 2012 in Laughlin, Nev., the Rigid Industries SCORE Desert Challenge, presented by the City of Imperial, Calif. will be held for the first time in the Imperial Valley with the same format as the original SCORE Desert Challenge events from past years. The SCORE World Desert Championship, the world’s foremost desert racing organization, features competition in 25 Pro and 5 Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and ATVs.
ROLL-BACK ENTRY FEES
As an added incentive for this race, SCORE has reduced the entry fees for participants to the lowest in recent history. For registration information, including the list of classes offered as well as entry fees and only line registration, visit the following link https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/?eventid=1579114.
SCORE’s Norman commented, “SCORE has rolled back entry fees to the lowest in more than a decade because of the ability to race on private property and the significant support from the local community and Imperial Valley.”
2 SPECIAL ‘BUDGET’ UTV CLASSES
SCORE has added two special entry level UTV classes exclusively for the Rigid Industries SCORE Desert Challenge, presented by the city of Imperial Calif. The two special classes for this race are the Pro UTV Single-Seat and Sportsman UTV Stock.
The Pro UTV Single-Seat class is for modified UTVs up to 1000cc engine displacement with stock chassis and stock appearance. The Sportsman UTV Stock class is a stock UTV class for production UTVs, manufactured by registered companies with vehicle VIN numbers.
Detailed information is available under Tech Notes on the SCORE website at http://score-international.com/tech-notes/ or by calling the SCORE Tech Office in El Cajon, Calif., at 619.938.2135.
CBS SPORTS NETWORK COVERAGE
All races in the 2014 SCORE World Desert Championship series, along with the special SEMA SCORE Baja 1000 Experience and qualifying for the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway, are televised on a delayed basis in the USA and Canada as a one-hour special on the CBS Sports Network. The shows, produced by SoCal’s acclaimed BCII TV, air a minimum of two times on the CBS Sports Spectacular show.
All shows are scheduled to premier in the next month following the event. The success of the productions has enabled CBS Sports Network to air multiple airings of the first three 2014 races. The SCORE San Felipe 250 had 17 extra airings, the SCORE Imperial Valley 250 had five extra airings, and the SCORE Baja 500 garnered seven hours of extra airings in CBS Sports Network.
Following the CBS Sports Network telecasts in the US, the SCORE races air worldwide in over 100 countries through international distribution.
Following are the air dates for the debut of the remaining 2014 SCORE shows on the CBS Sports Network…
• Rigid Industries SCORE Desert Challenge, presented by the city of Imperial (Sunday, Nov. 2, 9 p.m. ET)
• Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 qualifying from Las Vegas Motor Speedway/SEMA SCORE Baja 1000 Experience (Sunday, Dec. 21, 9 p.m. ET)
• Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 (Sunday, Dec. 28, 9 p.m. ET)
CBS Sports Network is available across the country through local cable, video and telco providers and via satellite on DirecTV Channel 221 and Dish Network Channel 158. For more information, including a full programming schedule and how to get CBS Sports Network, go to www.cbssportsnetwork.com.
SCORE SPONSORS…
Official Sponsors: Tecate Beer-Official Beer/Official Race Sponsor, Monster Energy-Official Energy Drink, BFGoodrich Tires-Official Tire, Rigid Industries LED Lighting-Official Lights/Official Race Sponsor, King Shocks-Official Shock Absorber, Polaris-Official UTV, Volaris Airlines-Official Airline, CBS Sports Network-Official Television Partner, Wide Open Excursions- Official Arrive and Drive Company, Coca-Cola-Official Soft Drink, Crystal Bay Casino-Official Casino, Hotel Coral and Marina-Official Hotel.
Associate Sponsors: SatellitePhoneStore.com and Symons Ambulance Company.
Additional SCORE Partners: Proturismo Ensenada, Visit Baja California Sur, Baja California Secretary of Tourism, Baja California Sur State Government, Mexicali Ayuntamineto, COTUCO Mexicali/San Felipe, Cruz Roja Mexicana, Corporate Helicopters, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance, GoPro, PCI Race Radios, McKenzie’s Performance Products and Advanced Color Graphics.
For more information, visit www.score-international.com.
RIGID INDUSTRIES
Thanks to its unparalleled patented Hybrid, Specter and Hyperspot optics and its torture-tested housings, Rigid Industries is a world leader in the forward projecting LED lighting industry. Rigid Industries ranked 150th on the Inc. 500 list for 2013 and ranked as the fastest growing LED lighting manufacturer in America. Rigid LED lighting products can be used in a plethora of applications across industries such as: agriculture, construction, emergency response, industrial, marine, military, mining, and, of course, off-road and power sports.
Rigid Industries is committed to providing top-notch innovative technologies and always guarantees a quality product which has been designed, engineered, and assembled in the USA. For more information visit www.rigidindustries.com or follow the company on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
SCORE MEDIA CONTACT: Dominic Clark, dominiccnv@aol.com