In a rare off weekend from
his Nextel NASCAR Cup schedule, Robby Gordon led his off-road
race team to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in search of victory
amongst the nation's top off road desert racers.
Late Saturday night, with
a large Las Vegas crowd exceeding 8,000 fans watching the
action, Gordon dominated the final race of the weekend 's
festivities, crossing the finish line with a huge 35 second
lead over Hawaii's Alan Pflueger.
Gordon arrived to Las Vegas
with his off road race team on Thursday morning and set
up race headquarters in the asphalt parking lot, only several
hundred yards away from a very familiar Nextel NASCAR Cup
track. As part of his support efforts, Robby Gordon Motorsports
rolled out their Mercedes HUMMER/Jim Beam DAKAR support,
truck along with all the usual support trucks, allowing
fans to get up close and personal and experience Robby Gordon
Motorsports.
With fans perusing through
the pits on Friday and Saturday afternoon, they had the
opportunity to chat with the Nextel NASCAR Cup team owner/driver
and grab an autograph or two.
However, when it was time
to race, the Red Bull /Toyo Tires sponsored off road desert
racer demonstrated his fierce competitive spirit, as he
charged the #83 Chevy C/K 1500 around the 1.5 mile race
course with a vengence.
SCORE, along with tremendous
support from the Terrible Herbst Motorsports family, built
a "chunk of Baja" at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Dirt Track that featured a short strip of asphalt, transitioning
the dirt infield with the big whooped out backstretch. The
long backstretch was the only spot on the closed race course
where the field of SCORE elite Trophy Trucks reached high-speeds
while flying through the big bumps.
The SCORE Trophy Trucks ran
two heat races before the final race in the main event where
Robby Gordon dominated the race after starting the night
in the front row. He led from the start line, as his new
40" Toyo Open Country M/T rockcrawling tires provided
him the traction above and beyond the competition. He led
the first lap and then checked out on the competition, all
the way to the finish line where he gave Toyo Tires their
second Trophy Truck victory of the season. Gordon put his
Hummer H3 Dakar vehicle in victory lane at the Parker 425
early in the season.
Robby told DirtNewz, "We
struggled in Friday's races and didn't get the hook up we've
experienced with our Toyo's in the past. I called and conferenced
with the Toyo Tire guys, Vandermark and Yama, on Friday
night and they got us a new 40-inch tire that they just
developed for rockcrawling and the rest is history. The
tires were great and made the difference in this win."
Chasing down the #83 Red
Bull Trophy Truck was the Ed Herbst driving the #19 Terrible
Herbst Trophy Truck. However, Herbst suffered a rear flat
tire three laps into the race that slowed him considerably.
Not long after Herbst suffered a rear flat, Friday winner,
Marty Coyne suffered a rear flat that took him out of the
race.
Coyne won the 2006 SCORE
Terrible's Cup inaugural race and was very fast on Friday
and Saturday. Being sidelined by a flat tire in the 9.0
mile main event race was disappointing for the off road
racing veteran.
With the Herbst and Coyne
Trophy Trucks slowed by rear flat tires, it didn't take
long for the Flyin' Hawaiian, Alan Pflueger, to move his
Monster Energy Drink sponsored truck into the second position
for his chance to chase down Gordon. Pflueger pushed his
Hoffman Motorsports prepped truck as hard as it would go,
but to no avail did he have a chance to catch the veteran
NASCAR driver, Robby Gordon.
Gordon later commented, "We
got beat up a bit yesterday, but I got be honest, we came
back today. I’ve raced off-road… I think this
year’s SCORE Baja 1000 will be my 23rd year in Baja.
It always feels good to get a little dirty. It was just
a great run tonight for us. I‘m just really, really
happy. I’m happy for the guys at Red Bull. They set
up a tent down here and they had a bunch of guests, so it’s
great to come out and play in front of all these off-road
fans. The track was good. It got pretty rutted out. Toyo
brought me great tires."
