Laughlin: Pre-race news and notes

Friday in Laughlin, Nev.
SCORE Laughlin Leap contest launches final pre-race festivities to join over 130 entries at 16th SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge

Festivities Friday:
Manufacturer's Midway and Tech Inspection at Colorado
Belle/Edgewater Hotels--9 a.m.--4 p.m.
Laughlin Events Park: SCORE Trophy-Truck Qualifying at 1:30 p.m.,
SCORE Laughlin Leap and Fireworks at 7 p.m.

LAUGHLIN, Nev.--Pre-race festivities begin in earnest Friday with tech inspection, qualifying, fireworks and the fun-filled SCORE Laughlin Leap on tap in final preparation for this weekend's 16th Annual SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge.

For the 16th straight year, motorsports fans and racers from 11 U.S. States, Mexico, Denmark and Germany will gather in Laughlin, the Southern Nevada desert resort town along the shores of the Colorado River, for the popular SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge. The first major motorsports event of the year in the United States is launching the five-race 2010 SCORE Desert Series, the World's Foremost Desert Racing Series.

One of the event's most popular features, the SCORE Laughlin Leap, revs up the fun and helps get the weekend off. Moved to a new day, the SCORE Laughlin Leap will be held at 7 p.m. on Friday. The SCORE Laughlin Leap will start with a fireworks display. General admission grandstand tickets, priced at $20 each, will be available at the gate.

Drivers will enjoy the spotlight at the Laughlin Events Park, competing for a $16,000 purse and the honor of beating the 2009 champions. The SCORE Laughlin Leap, a dirt ramp built into the middle of the stadium portion of the race course, challenges the most daring of drivers. This year's competitors will be attempting to break the event record in the SCORE Laughlin Leap of 161' 6" set this past January by Larry Roeseler in the Norman Motorsports Ford F-150.

For the third straight year, qualifying for starting positions for the marquee SCORE Trophy-Truck division will be held on Friday. With free admission to the grandstand seating area, SCORE Trophy-Truck qualifying will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and each truck will be timed over one solo lap of the 6.25-mile course to determine the start order in that class for Saturday's first half of the race.

Friday's pre-race activities will also include the SCORE Manufacturer's Midway and vendors village from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. SCORE Contingency, which includes each vehicle being pushed down the lanes in front of the Colorado Belle and Edgewater Hotels, alongside Casino Drive.

Laughlin Tourism officials have reported that tickets sales and entries for the SCORE Laughlin Leap are 20 percent higher than they were last year one day prior to the event.

With 19 classes divided into five groups, the single race is divided into multi-lap segments split over two days. Starting at 7 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division will run 8 laps over the 6.25-mile course at 1 p.m. each day followed by the unlimited Class 1 open-wheel desert race cars that will run their 8 laps at 3 p.m. each day. The combined elapsed time and number of laps completed from both days will determine the final finishing position for each vehicle. Two vehicles will leave the start line every 15 seconds.

With the different classes combined into five groups for the SCORE Laughlin Leap, among the stars who expected to participate in the marquee high-tech, 800 horsepower unlimited production trucks are Ed Stout, Adam Householder, Cameron Steele, Gus Vildosola, Robbie Pierce, Chad Ragland, Bobby Baldwin, Rusty Stevens, Greg Nunley, Scott Whipple and Travis Coyne.

Among the Class 1 entries in the leap are Josh Daniel and Louie Serna while among the Class 1-2/1600 entries expected to compete in the leap competition are two-time group winner Rob MacCachren, Justin Smith and Steven Eugenio.

Daily general admission tickets, good for grandstand seating, are $20 each per day for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, children 10 and under are free. Daily VIP tickets are $40 each per day for the each day, good for admission to the Laughlin Hospitality Chalet, including food, beverage and special seating.

Returning to the stadium seating area once again will be the immensely popular SCOREvision Large-screen LCD display, showing live footage from virtually the entire race course.

Tickets, priced at $5 each per person, will also be available each race day for 'SCORE Hill', which overlooks the infield, start/finish area and the main pits. The SCORE Hill will have grandstands and standing room areas along with vendors, concessions and the other public safety services available. Grandstand GA tickets also have access to SCORE Hill during the two race days.

The Laughlin Tourism Commission is also selling three-day general admission passes for $50 and three-day VIP passes for $100. With the purchase of a general admission or VIP ticket, spectators can also buy pit passes for an additional $10 per day.

The newest spectator area, opened in 2008 adjacent to Laughlin High School off of Cougar Drive, allows entry at $10 per vehicle, as space allows, to the backside of the course with a view of much of the 6.25-mile loop. Tickets for the Laughlin High spectator area will be available only on each day of racing at the entrance off of Cougar Drive.

The Laughlin Events Park, with grandstand seating, vendor's village and food court is just minutes from the destinations eight resorts and includes an infield with switchbacks, whoops, minijumps and the SCORE Laughlin Leap.

The 16th annual SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge is sponsored by the Laughlin Tourism Commission and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority in association with Las Vegas Events. The race is sanctioned and produced by SCORE International of Los Angeles.

-source: score