Two in So. Nevada, three in Mexico
SCORE International Announces Five-Race
Schedule for 2005 SCORE DESERT SERIES
SCORE developing additional special racing event
To feature SCORE Trophy-Trucks in Southern Nevada

LOS ANGELES, CA (07/12/04) -- Still in the midst of it’s 31st year as the World’s foremost desert racing sanctioning body, SCORE International officially announced today its five-race schedule for the 2005 SCORE Desert Series.

Keeping the same venues and race weekends for its five open desert races as this year, the 2005 SCORE Desert Series will again feature two races in Southern Nevada and three in Mexico. The announcement marked the earliest the schedule has been officially released in the three decade-plus history of SCORE.

“We have incredible marketing partners on both sides of the border, the world’s greatest desert racers and the world’s toughest race courses, so there was no need to make any changes for the 2005 SCORE season,” said Sal Fish, CEO/President of SCORE, which is based in Los Angeles. “Our five-race schedule in both the U.S. and Mexico offers tremendous variety for the racers, sponsors, media and fans.”

“With necessary restrictions in place for spectators in the U.S. are attendance continues to rise modestly, but in Mexico, it’s absolutely unbelievable. Our crowds for the last three races in Ensenada have been in excess of 100,000, and SCORE racers are as popular in Baja California as any racing figure in the world. From a participant perspective, there have never been more desert racers and SCORE entries continue to rise at a phenomenal rate of over 20 percent for the last two years.”

The SCORE Desert Series, which features 27 Pro and five Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycle and ATVs, will kick off Jan. 13-16 with the popular 11th Annual SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge in the Southern Nevada resort city of Laughlin on the banks of the Colorado River. The season will conclude Nov. 17-20 with the legendary 38th Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, the granddaddy of all desert racing.

“The SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge is the most unique and popular desert race in the U.S. and the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 is the best known desert race in the world,” added Fish, who has been at the head of SCORE since 1974. “With the theater debut of Dana Brown’s Dust to Glory full-length feature documentary film about the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 within the next six to seven months, SCORE International is on the threshold of unprecedented notoriety. SCORE has always been the standard-bearer for our sport and we are raising the bar higher than ever.”

SCORE is also in negotiations for a unique non-points race that would feature SCORE Trophy-Trucks.

SCORE also announced that it has decided to postpone an open desert race in Henderson, NV, for the second straight year because no suitable date other than July, when temperatures hover around 120 degrees, could be found. The SCORE Henderson’s Terrible 250 was held in both 2001 and 2002.

“We have great sponsorship partners in the Henderson Convention and Visitors Bureau and Terrible Herbst, and we are working diligently with both groups as well as others to bring a very special racing event featuring SCORE Trophy-Trucks to Southern Nevada next year as well,” added Fish. “A desert race in 120-degree heat in the scorching Southern Nevada desert just isn’t a safe project to consider.”

The 2005 SCORE Desert Series will again start with the most unique and the shortest race of the season and finish with the oldest and most recognized desert race in the world. After starting the season in Laughlin, 90 miles south of Las Vegas, it will conclude with the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, which will start and finish in Ensenada in the Northern part of the majestic Baja California peninsula.

Since its debut in 1995, the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge has helped establish Laughlin as a viable host for special events. Thousands of spectators join over 160 racers and their crews in converging on the city each year to watch the best of the best desert racers compete in a unique-format, two-day race that includes a temporary stadium surrounding the start/finish line area and the main pits.

A total of 17 different Pro and two Sportsman classes for cars and trucks are split into seven groups in Laughlin, each running as part of one of seven races of two to five laps each over the much-abbreviated 11-mile loop each day. The SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge also includes a pre-race activity that is not part of any other race on the schedule—the $26,000 Laughlin Leap and SCORE Pit Crew Showdown. The Laughlin Leap is held under the lights on Thursday evening of race week and the SCORE Pit Crew Showdown is held on Friday afternoon as the final pre-race special event at the Laughlin Events Park.

The 2005 race will be the second of a current three-year marketing agreement to bring the event to Laughlin.

Round 2 and 3 of the 2005 SCORE Desert Series will both be held in Mexico. The 19th Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 is set for Feb. 25-26, followed by the 37th Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 500, June 3-5, in Ensenada. The series returns to Southern Nevada for Round 4, the 10th Annual SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 which will be held Sept. 9-11 in Primm, NV, 35 miles south of Las Vegas.

SCORE International, founded in 1973 by the late Mickey Thompson and headed by Sal Fish since 1974, continues today as the premier sanctioning body in the sport of desert racing. SCORE races feature 17 Pro and two Sportsman classes for cars and trucks in the U.S. with seven additional Pro and three more Sportsman classes for motorcycles and ATVs competing in the races in Mexico. SCORE races in the U.S. average 150 entries while the average in Mexico, with motorcycle and ATV classes running as well as the cars and trucks is 250.

Current SCORE official annual sponsors are BFGoodrich Tires-official tire, Southern California Ford Dealers-official vehicle and CL Bryant Racing Fuel-official fuel. Associate sponsors are: Tecate Beer, Coca-Cola of Mexico, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance, Fram, Autolite, Prestone, Bilstein, Signpros, P.C.I. Race Radios, McKenzie’s, and Advanced Color Graphics.

The SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge is sponsored by the Laughlin Tourism Committee, the Laughlin Visitors Bureau, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and Las Vegas Events.

The SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 is sponsored by Primm Valley Resorts, Las Vegas Events and 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

2005 SCORE DESERT SERIES
Schedule of Events

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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