Mexicana Logistics/Red Bull Ford driver Gustavo “Tavo” Vildosola Jr., has been in this position before.

After a rough-and-tumble first day at the 15th annual SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge, the young Mexican Trophy Truck driver completed eight laps of the short, technical and brutally rough 6.25-mile “short course” located just outside the gambling town of Laughlin, Nevada, on the Colorado River. Vildosola finished with a time of 58 minutes, 32 seconds, averaging 51.253 mph to win the first half of the event Saturday, beating a field of 19 other Trophy Truck entries that included the best of the best in SCORE racing.

However, Vildosola (above) learned the hard way at this same event in 2008 that it is best not to count his chickens before they hatch. After winning the first day last year, Vildosola suffered a grinding crash while exiting the “stadium” section of the course. Today, however, Vildosola appeared to display both maturity and good judgement as he smoothly negotiated the Laughlin course and conserved his truck. Vildosola just edged out a hard-charging Robby Gordon for the win. Barring a mechanical failure, he is in a position to claim his first career SCORE overall victory in Trophy Truck tomorrow. 

“It feels good, although we learned last year not to count our victory before it’s actually done,” Vildosola said. “I think we got Robby [Gordon] today by a couple of seconds, so we’re happy going first tomorrow. We’ve just got to keep it going. Last year we were in the same situation, but this year I think we’re a year older and a little bit wiser. It was an amazing race, and as the race went on, the course got a little bit tougher, and I had to deal with different issues. We repeated last year’s Saturday run, and we just need to duplicate it tomorrow. I decided early on that we were just going to take it easy and run the first five or six laps and see how everything was shaking down and then hammer down at the end.”

Gordon (above) and reigning SCORE Trophy Truck Champion BJ Baldwin got things off to a hot start when the Trophy Truck field left the line in pairs at 1 p.m. The two battled for the first lap, with Gordon setting a torrid pace. Baldwin would quickly drop back in the order, leaving Gordon alone and well in front of the pack. Gordon led for the first six laps with a 10-second edge over Vildosola, who gained the time adjusted lead on the seventh lap by posting a seven-minute, 20-second lap while Gordon dropped to a 7:41. Gordon crossed the finish line in 58 minutes, 45 seconds, leaving him 20 seconds down on Vildosola for tomorrow’s battle for the overall win. Gordon said that running alone was his undoing.  

“I didn’t have anybody to pace off of,” Gordon said. “I’ve got to be honest: I was half-throttle the whole time. I’m telling you, I idled around. Even the first lap, we just idled around. The truck is really good. It got really rough out there. Laughlin has always been a survival race. We came out here last year, Carl [Renezeder] and myself, and we were the two fastest by a long ways. Today, we just wanted to survive. The guys do a great job working on the truck. They’ll go back and put in a new drive shaft, gear and transmission, rear gear, and cross our fingers that it lives tomorrow. The track is horrible. It’s not even any fun.”

ARCA RE/MAX stock car series driver Justin Lofton (above) showed that he is just as capable in the dirt as he is on a paved oval track by finishing third, finishing with a time of one hour, six seconds, averaging 49.916 mph. But for some mechanical glitches, Lofton might have challenged for the day-one win.

“We lost fuel pressure right from the get-go in the race,” Lofton said. “We just kind of fought it the whole race and did what we could. It probably actually worked out better that way. We’ll go back and rebuild it. We got in the first turn and it started missing and everything else. This is a hell of a race for a Trophy-Truck; this is what it’s all about. We had lots of passing and a lot of good, fun racing. B.J. Baldwin is a blast to race, and Gustavo (Vildosola Jr.) and everybody else. It was just a lot of fun. Our body is kind of torn up, but we’ve got a body guy in the camp with us, so we’ll be all right. Tomorrow we’re going to do the first two laps and kind of see how everybody is going and see how the truck is handling, and then we’re going to let it rip.”

Reigning Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 champions Roger Norman (left) and Larry Roeseler -  driving separate Crystal Bay Casino/Roger Norman Racing Fords -  were among the top Trophy Truck men to have a bad first day at Laughlin. Norman actually posted the fastest first lap time and shared the lead with reigning Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 driver Brian Collins early in the race before an oil line came loose on one of his shocks, forcing him to pit and lose 11 minutes. Norman dropped to 13th place.

“The truck was running super smooth,” Norman said. “We were staying in the groove, and we weren’t bottoming out the truck. We were just trying to run a really smooth race. We’re going to have the same game plan for tomorrow. The truck handles this course great, and if we can run that kind of pace we should have no problems.”

Roeseler (left) chose to strap on Norman’s ex-Dan Smith/Duralast single-seat Trophy Truck for Laughlin. He flew the truck to a new record in the Laughlin Leap on Thursday night but was brought back to earth on Saturday with engine cooling problems that turned catastrophic, causing him to DNF.”

“We had engine temperature issues right from the get-go,” Roeseler said. “Even after qualifying yesterday we were having some pretty high temperatures. The guys made a bunch of changes, but I think the damage was already done. That truck has a 630 cubic-inch, big-block motor that makes 930 horsepower, and we’ve been battling it. Even just cruising around – I wanted to finish – the water and oil temps were just skyrocketed. So, we brought it back in here, and water is leaking out the exhaust port, which means a blown head gasket or cracked head or something like that.”

Roeseler said he expects to be a spectator tomorrow.

“That truck is not going to run, and as of right now Roger is going to drive his truck tomorrow,” Roeseler said. “He’s doing a great job with it.” 

Collins (left), meanwhile, appeared to be maintaining a strong pace until the left front A-arm broke on his Collins Motorsports Dodge just as he was making the hard right turn to enter the sand wash that leads to the hot pit area on lap five. The breakage upset the truck, causing it to roll on its side. Collins lost two laps waiting to get the truck back on its wheels, only to find that he could not continue in the race.

“It’s too bad, because this is the fastest truck out here,” Collins said.

Master Craft Chevrolet driver Robbie Pearce drove a solid race to finish fourth, ahead of BJ Baldwin, who completed the top five.

CRAZY CLASS 1

The Class 1 finish was as wild as they come at Laughlin. With 19 racers taking the green flag, the race for the lead was close for the entire eight-lap distance, After Letner Racing’s Harley Letner (above) led the first lap, All German Motorsports driver Armin Schwarz appeared to be in control of the race even though several drivers, including Letner, Danny Anderson and Dale Ebberts were in the hunt for the win on adjusted time.

The race turned chaotic for Schwarz (left) on the last lap, however, as he suffered a broken front A-arm on the final run through the sand wash toward the stadium section. Schwarz attempted to nurse his ailing car to the finish but lost complete control of his steering after rolling over the Laughlin Leap and made an unexpected hard right turn into the infield between the Leap and the start/finish straightaway. Schwarz desperately tried to get the car back on course, spinning several doughnuts in the infield, which sent photographers and track officials scattering in all directions. Just when it appeared that he was going to be able to make it back onto the track, Schwarz lost control again and crashed into an ambulance that was parked on the infield. Schwarz eventually limped to the finish line, but he lost over two minutes in the process, effectively handing the win to Letner, with Anderson finishing second.

To add to the craziness, Ebberts, who had led six laps of the race, wound up driving the final three quarters of the race distance – including the Laughlin Leap – in reverse after having lost the forward gears in his transmission.

Letner, who finished with a time of one hour, two minutes and five seconds and an average speed of 48.322 mph, will have a 51-second advantage over Anderson to start tomorrow’s final leg. If today’s race was any indication, that’s a big advantage.

“I was waiting to see cars pulled over when I got here [to the finish line] because it was so rough out there,” Letner said. “When I came in I saw all these cars, and I started thinking we didn’t do that well, and then Danny [Anderson] said he was the only one that finished and I thought, ‘Maybe I got him on time.’ It feels good [to be leading] because I had four seconds last year, and I wanted to finish and hopefully get a win to start the year off right. I’m going to try to pick it up a couple of notches tomorrow and see if I can put some time on him so I can relax a little bit. It’s hammer down tomorrow.”

BEST OF THE REST

Photo by Matt Kartozian/Durka Durka Photo

With the racers divided into five groups, the first group of the day for Class 1-2/1600, Class 5/1600 and Sportsman Car. Adam Pfankuch and Steve Eugenio (above) finished first among the 18 starters to earn the Group 1 and Class 1-2/1600 win in their Mirage chassis. The pair posted a time of 51 minutes, 31 seconds over six laps to average 43.675 mph. Alonso Angulo of Mexico finished first by default in Class 5/1600 after the only other starter in the class posted a DNF. Lou Serna drove a Tatum Chevrolet to win in Sportsman Car.

Group 2 hosted 23 starters among several of the lower SCORE truck divisions. Greg Adler finished first in the group in his Class 8 Ford with a six-lap time of 50 minutes, 35 seconds and an average speed of 44.481 mph. Single-entry winners included Heidi Steele in Class 6, John Holmes in Class 7SX, Justin Matney in Stock Full, Gavin Skilton in Stock Mini and Donald Moss in Class 3. Jose Canchola Jr. won Class 7, while Gary Messer drove his TROPHYLITE to victory in Sportsman Truck.

Group 3 featured 19 starters among three classes – Class 10, SCORE Lite and Class 5. Only four of the nine starters finished in Class 10, with Robert McBeath (left) piloting a Jimco-Honda to the class win with a time of 59 minutes, 1 second and an average speed of 44.478 mph. The SCORE Lite class had a perfect eight-of-eight finishing record. Rick St. John won the class in a Duvel-VW. Only two of the three entries finished in Class 5. Kevin Carr, the defending Laughlin Desert Challenge Champion in Class 5 led from the start and claimed an easy win over Carlos Albanez.

Racing resumes tomorrow at 7 a.m. Log back on to Off-Road.com for a full recap and photos.