Round 5 of 2003 SCORE Desert Series
Mike Voyles, Mark Kyle both attempting to get double wins
This weekend at 8th Annual SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300
SCORE's 30th anniversary year continues with nearly 150 entries
expected in Southern Nevada

LOS ANGELES (September 8, 2003)-- Desert racers have always been known as mavericks in the motorsports world, but Mike Voyles and Mark Kyle will take it to the extreme Saturday by each entering two classes in hopes of earning double wins in the 8th Annual SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 desert race. Round 5 of the six-race 2003 SCORE Desert Series will be held in Primm, Nev.

Coming from different backgrounds, both are business owners and both share the passion of racing in SCORE International events. Both have also decided to enter an additional class this weekend "just for the fun of it" and because the race format makes it easier to do it.

Voyles will be the driver of record in his regular unlimited Class 1 and Class 10 while Kyle has not only entered his normal SCORE Lite class, but also the Protruck class as well.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year as the World's Foremost Desert Racing Series, the SCORE Desert Series stays in Southern Nevada 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, located 35 miles south of Las Vegas at the California border.

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. The truck classes, including the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division along with the unlimited Class 1 open-wheel class, starting at 1 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 only designated 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 three or four laps. Admission is free to the spectator area, which will have grandstands as well as the SCORE Vendor's Village.

Voyles, 40, who owns a concrete construction company in Temecula, CA, will be the driver of record in the No. 1019 Chenowth-Toyota in Class 10 in the morning before coming back in the afternoon behind the wheel of the No. 101 Penhall-Chevy to start first in Class 1. Voyles is currently 17th in Class 1 points.

Kyle, 46, who owns a pharmaceutical distribution company in Austin, Texas, will be the driver of record in his regular No. 1213 Mirage-VW in SCORE Lite and then will return in the afternoon in the No. 213 Ford F-150 in Protruck. Kyle is in sixth place in SCORE Lite points after four races this season.

The paths Voyles and Kyle have taken to the SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 are as different as their careers.

Voyles has raced and won his class in SCORE races since he started out in the mid 1980s, although he has only been back for two years after taking 14 years off to start his family and build his business. Splitting the driving with Voyles in Primm will be veteran SCORE racer Craig Forrest, 42, of San Clemente, Calif. The pair went to grade school and high school together in Southern California and raced personal watercraft along side each other before starting their SCORE desert racing careers as teammates.

Kyle, who grew up around Southern California's Hermosa Beach participating in traditional school sports, eventually playing linebacker for Oregon State, always dreamed about the SCORE Baja 1000, but didn't get into desert racing in until 2000 and even then it was on a lark.

Kyle, who splits driving time with his racing partner Larry Nash, 35, of San Luis Obispo, CA, joked about possibly racing the once-in-a-lifetime Tecate SCORE Baja 2000 to help celebrate the new millennium.

"Back in 2000, Larry and I were driving on regular roads to my house south of La Paz (Mexico)," said Kyle, who now admits he and Nash are both totally addicted to SCORE desert races and want to be in a truck class next year.

"We were doing the 'I will, if you will' thing back and forth until we talked each other into it. The rest you might say is history. We plan our lives pretty much around the SCORE Desert Series schedule right now. It's an amazing sport to be a part of and my children already want to go racing."

As for the number 13 on his vehicles, Kyle says he has finished every race when he had that number.

Twelve of last year's 15 class winners have entered this year's SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300, including eight of last year's top 10 overall finishers.

George Seeley, Glendale, CA, has the most class wins of anyone in the history of this race, having won five Class 5 races in the first seven years in his unlimited No. 500 VW Baja Bug. Eric Solorzano, Tijuana, Mexico, returns in Class 11 with four Primm wins in his No. 1100 stock VW sedan.

Mike Julson, Santee, Calif./Bob Lofton, Westmorland, CA, are back to defend their overall and unlimited Class 1 titles in their No. 116 Jimco-Chevy. The pair won last year's race by a mere one second over SCORE Trophy-Truck winners Ed and Tim Herbst of Las Vegas. With Tim as driver of record this year, the Herbst brothers return in their No. 1 Terrible Herbst Motorsports Ford F-150.

Pre-race festivities on Friday 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.

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. They drive the No. 4 Ford F-150.

Behind Vildosola/MacCachren in SCORE Trophy-Truck points are Las Vegas brothers and defending season champs Tim and Ed Herbst and Laughlin winners Mark Post, San Juan Capistrano, Calif./Jerry Whelchel, Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. (No. 3, Ford F-150).

With their victory in Henderson, Tim, 40, and Ed Herbst, 42, 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). The Post/Whelchel team earned their first SCORE Trophy-Truck victory in Primm in 2000.

Fifth in overall points, and third in Class 1, is Las Vegas' Troy Herbst, who has won an unprecedented record six straight SCORE Class 1 season point crowns in the Terrible Herbst Motorsports No. 100 Smithbuilt-Ford. Troy Herbst, 37, the youngest of the three brothers, won in Primm in 1999 and 2001.

Veteran driver Steve Sourapas, 45, of Rancho Santa Fe, CA, has been winning SCORE races since 1982, is finishing his first full season this year in the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division and has drawn the coveted first starting position for the afternoon portion of the race. He drives the No. 6 Ford F-150.

The first vehicle to leave the start line in the morning portion of the event will be Class 10 racer Brandon Aymar, 24 of Santee, CA, in his No. 1001 Honda-powered Elite Off-Road Engineering race car.

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 more information, contact SCORE at its Los Angeles headquarters 818.225.8402 or visit the official website of the 2003 SCORE Desert Series at www.score-international.com.

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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