Live Pre-Race Coverage

Coyne comes out hard during AM practice showing he has what it takes

Reporters Notebook:

Hello and welcome from the Dirt Track at the sprawling Las Vegas Motor
Speedway. Off-Road.com is happy to be here to provide our vast network of fans across the Off-Road Nation with a preview of the events that are leading up to tonight’s Terrible Cup II.

In just its second year of operation, the latest race in SCORE’s long history of creating unique short course events that compliment such long distance classics as the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 is looking like a winner. While the lack of SCORE series points and the potential for car-injuring havoc may have kept some competitors away, there is a strong field of racers looking to taste (or re-taste) some of the intense fun and competition that was so prevalent last year at this event.

Jesse Jones flying high during AM practice

Like Chula Vista last week (and like this event here last year), the word of the day and evening is heat. It is 109 degrees in the pits currently (6:15pm PST), and spectators, racers and crew alike are getting set to watch some great racing and stay cool.

Monster Party at the Pflueger Pit

One solution to the heat is the sudden proliferation of swimming pools in the pit area. Not surprisingly, the biggest is a hard-sided version in the Terrible Herbst pits that looks like it can hold at least 50 people. Next up is a more moderate swimming hole of the Plueger Racing, a nice Wal-Mart sized unit that was cooling off some of John Hoffman’s boys. Finally, in grand Desert Assassin style, Cameron Steele’s group made the ultimate redneck pool by filling the back of their Ford F150 with a big blue tarp and filling er’ up with a nearby hose. Classic.

Pflueger showing his big Hawaiin smile before the race

The grandstands here are said to hold about 8,000 folks, and by the looks of the people streaming through the front gate, that number should be pretty obtainable tonight. For certain, the big names in Trophy-Truck like Plueger, Herbst, Baldwin, Jones, Steinberger are the centerpoint for all the buzz, but one guys is on everyone’s mind – Robby Gordon. Off-road racing’s prodigal son is back for his first go in short course event since his Mickey Thompson Stadium Racing days (at least to our best recollection) and by the sounds of the exhaust coming out of his Red Bull/ Toyo Tires – sponsored Chevy, he might have a little more under the hood than normal.

This young lady seems to be enjoying the blue tarp pool at the DA Camp

Should Gordon be successful, a win here would also be the first for Toyo in SCORE Trophy—Truck competition; something extra to watch for.

While ORC will be providing full and complete race coverage of the racing action here later this evening, here is a quick run down of what we’ve learned today….

Jeff Quinn, winner of last year's Class 1 is here to re-peat history

Roaming the Pits

• It’s the first short course race in a long successful career for Monster Energy-drink sponsored Alan Pflueger. Alan was all smiles tonight, not only for the fact that he posted the fastest time today behind Marty Coyne (Gordon wasn’t on the track), but also the fact that after more than a year his new, radical “Project X” Trophy-Truck is finally being tested. All we know is that it’s a radical departure from what is out there today, and it was designed by engineering overlord Trevor Harris.

• For those of you not familiar with Harris, he has designed sports cars, open wheel cars, short course and desert trucks for decades. You can read about the colorful history of Trevor Harris in a forthcoming issue of DIRTsports – also a co-sponsor for this weekend‘s Terrible Cup II.

• Jesse Jones is here once again, the Arizona maniac loved coming short course last year. We hear a rumor that the affable Jones has purchased the CORR Pro-2 truck from Herbst Motorsports, who has stated that they want to build only Pro-4 trucks for Ed and Tim. Can’t wait to see the balls to the walls Jones taking on the boys in CORR – it could be interesting. We’ll see if we can confirm it later.

• Finally, we spotted Dust to Glory motorcycle star Andy Grider roaming around with his family here. Grider now has a nicely put together Class 10 car he is preparing to race at this year’s Tecate SCORE Baja 1000. He told us in secret that his co-driver may be another D2G star and a huge name from the freestyle / motorcross world. Andy may be the most humble guy here considering his accomplishments. Gotta love that guy…

Vaya Con Dios,

Marty Fiolka