Start draw Friday in LA.
Six-time SCORE Class 5 season champ George Seeley Jr.
Looking for sixth win at 8th SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300
SCORE's 30th anniversary year continues with nearly
150 entries expected, Sept. 12-13, in Southern Nevada

LOS ANGELES (August 12, 2003) -- Ever in the hunt for an individual race win or a season class title, cagy veteran George Seeley Jr., will be seeking his sixth Class 5 win in next month's 8th Annual SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 desert race. With the computerized drawing for starting position, by class, on Friday at the SCORE headquarters in Los Angeles, Seeley will be looking for his 21st career SCORE class victory on Saturday, Sept. 13, during Round 5 of the six-race 2003 SCORE Desert Series.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year as the World's Foremost Desert Racing Series, the SCORE Desert Series stays in Southern for the last of its three U.S. races.

The 8th Annual SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 will include nearly 150 vehicles competing in 17 Pro and 2 Sportsman classes for cars and trucks in Primm, Nev., located 35 miles south of Las Vegas at the California border. In a sport where there is no qualifying, the drawing for start positions has added significance.

The 315-mile race will be run as a five-lap race over a desert course of 63 miles. As it was last year for the first time, it will be split into two groups with the open wheel and VW baja bug classes starting at 6 a.m. and the truck classes, along with the unlimited Class 1 open-wheel class, starting at 2 p.m. One vehicle will start every 30 seconds in the elapsed-time race, with an eight-hour time limit. The start/finish line area, the primary spectator area and main pits will be located in the special events compound behind Buffalo Bill's Resort in Primm. The slower classes will run four, three or two laps.

In the first seven years of the SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300, Seeley, 44, of Glendale, Calif., drove his unlimited VW baja bug to Class 5 wins in in1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001.

The winningest racer in the event doesn't ever feel he wears a bullseye on his back.

"I don't need to, my bright yellow VW Rabbit-style chassis is the only one in Class 5 and it can be seen for miles," said Seeley, who has won the SCORE Class 5 season championship in 1993 and 1997 in addition to the last four consecutive years. "We love racing, even though sometimes we don't even know if we are going to get our racecar ready in time for the next race or not. As a matter of fact, we didn't even register until the afternoon before the last SCORE race in July."

Seeley tweaked his vehicle just enough to earn his first victory of the season and the 20th of his illustrious SCORE career on July 12. He seemed to have just enough, indeed, winning Class 5 in the 238.2-mile SCORE Henderson's Terrible 250 by a mere three seconds over Joe Heger, of Imperial, Calif.

That victory also closed the gap between Seeley and Heger in the SCORE season point standings, with Heger holding a slim three-point advantage heading over Seeley into the SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300.

"I learned a long time ago that anything can happen in desert racing and it usually does," Seeley added. "The desert is the great equalizer, so nobody's a true favorite like in pavement racing. I'd like to think we have one of the top teams, and we certainly have been pretty consistent in our finishes, but after the SCORE Henderson's Terrible 250, people are calling me 'three-second George'. Maybe I should bet #3 on the roulette table."

Pre-race festivities on Friday, Sept. 12, for the SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300, including tech and contingency and the SCORE Manufacturer's Midway, will be held from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. behind Buffalo Bill's.

Despite a third-place finish in July's SCORE Henderson's Terrible 250 ending their three race winning streak, San Diego County youngsters Eric Allen and Adam Pfankuch continued to lead Class 1-2/1600 and the overall point standings after four of six races in the 2003 SCORE Desert Series. Their lead in the overall point standings, however, has been cut in half to just 14 points.

After impressive victories in Class 1-2/1600 at the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge in Nevada and a pair of wins in Mexico at the Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 in San Felipe, and the Tecate SCORE Baja 500 in Ensenada, the Allen/Pfankuch duo overcame power steering and brake problems to finish third in the recent SCORE Henderson's Terrible 250. The young guns lead not only their very competitive class, but the overall SCORE International point standings in their K.I.T. Racing VW-powered Jimco 1600cc open-wheel desert race car.

SCORE points are determined both on final finishing position and number of vehicles which started the race within the individual class.

After finishing second in the season-opening SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge, winning in San Felipe, and finishing third both in Ensenada and Henderson in the marquee SCORE Trophy-Truck division, the team of Gus Vildosola, of Mexicali, Mexico and Rob MacCachren, of Las Vegas, are holding onto their lead in the division for 750-horsepower, high-tech, unlimited production trucks.

Behind Vildosola/MacCachren (who are 7th in overall points with 250) in SCORE Trophy-Truck points are Las Vegas brothers and defending season champs Tim and Ed Herbst (Ford F-150) with 242 and Laughlin winners Mark Post, San Juan Capistrano, Calif./Jerry Whelchel, Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. (Ford F-150) with 196 points.

With their victory in Henderson, Tim and Ed Herbst became the winningest drivers in the 10-year history of SCORE Trophy-Truck, capturing their 10th race in the 60th SCORE Trophy-Truck event. The Herbst brothers have won the SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 twice (1998 and 2002). Last year, the won SCORE Trophy-Truck and finished second overall, just once second behind the overall winning Class 1 team of Mike Julson and Bob Lofton. The Post/Whelchel team earned their first SCORE Trophy-Truck victory in Primm in 2000. After four of six races in the 2003 SCORE Desert Series, Allen/Pfankuch have 303 points to lead Class 1-2/1600 and the SCORE Overall point standings.

Second overall with 289 points is Class 1 point leader Dale Ebberts, Canyon Lake, Calif., who masterfully won the first two races of the SCORE season, finished third in Ensenada and second in Henderson in his unlimited Toyota-powered Jimco. He drove solo in Laughlin and starting with San Felipe, is splitting wheel time with Ernie Castro Jr., Newport Beach, Calif. Castro finished second to Allen/Pfankuch in Class 1-2/1600 in Laughlin before the team merger with Ebberts' Inland Truss Racing.

Third in SCORE overall points, 15 points behind Ebberts and 29 behind Allen/Pfankuch, is SCORE Lite leader Brian Ickler, Poway, Calif. (Jimco VW) at 274 points. Just 17 years old, Ickler, who moved up to a faster class this year after finishing seventh last year in Class 1-2/1600, drove solo while winning his class in the first two races, split the driving with veteran Brian Ewalt in Ensenada to earn his third straight class win and then drove solo again in Henderson, finishing second.

Second in Class 1 and fourth in overall points are brothers Mark and Gary Weyhrich, Troutdale, Ore. (Jimco-Chevy) with 265 points. The Weyhrichs have two seconds, a fourth, and a fifth in Class 1 so far this season.

Rounding out the top five overall, and third in Class 1, just three points behind the Weyhrichs, is Las Vegas' Troy Herbst, who has won a record six straight SCORE Class 1 season point crowns in his Smithbuilt-Ford. Troy Herbst, 36, the youngest of the three Herbst brothers, won the SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 in 1999 and 2001.

SCORE official sponsors for 2003 are: BFGoodrich Tires-official tire, Southern California Ford Dealers-official vehicle, 76 Racing Fuel-official fuel and Rental Service Corporation-official equipment supplier. Associate sponsors are: Tecate Beer, Coca Cola of Mexico, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance, Bilstein, Signpros, P.C.I. Race Radios, McKenzie's, Off Road Innovations and Advanced Color Graphics.

The title sponsors of the SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 are the Primm Valley Resorts and Las Vegas Events in association with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

For information contact:
SCORE International at its Los Angeles headquarters
(818) 225-8402 or visit
the official Optima SCORE Desert Series website at:
www.score-international.com

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