After a very exciting off-season in desert racing, HDRA kicked off 2013 with the South Point Vegas 250.  This is the first race of the year following the big news this past December. Toward the end of 2012, off-road racer Roger Norman purchased SCORE International from CEO Sal Fish, who oversaw and ran the race organization for the past 40 years. It was big news for the off-road racing world, as well as the passing of the SCORE torch from Fish to Norman.

Norman made the SCORE purchase after restarting the High Desert Racing Association and running it during 2012. This deal positions him to now operate both HDRA and SCORE moving into 2013. The deal came on the heels of a controversial announcement with the 2012 SCORE Baja 1000, where overall winner Gustavo Vildosola Jr. was penalized and the win was given to second-place finisher BJ Baldwin. It was quite an off-season to say the least.

Looking ahead to 2013, Norman explained in his first of live weekly podcasts that SCORE will remain the race series for Baja events, and it will not be returning to the US. HDRA will remain a US-based race series. Aside from the fact that the rules books are now merged (so rules and tech specifications are identical in both series), the race connection between the two series now is the World Championship of Desert Racing. There will be a title for truck, buggy and bike race classes where there are five racers in every race. The title will be awarded to the racer who has the best combined finishes of the entire three SCORE races as well as the top three finishes of the four HDRA races.

The South Point Vegas 250 had a decent turnout, but the attendees are expected to increase at the next race in April.  The turnout might have been larger but the announcement of SCORE’s purchase and the resulting World Championship race occurred so recently it meant some teams who might have competed in the Vegas 250 were simply not prepared.

One thing’s for sure: the 2013 racing season looks to be an exciting year in the sport. For more information on the HDRA series, visit http://www.hdrarace.com/.

HDRA South Point Vegas 250 Results

Trophy Truck
1. Cameron Steele
2. Jimmy Nuckles
3. Tim Herbst
4. Justin Davis
5. Toy Herbst
6. BJ Baldwin
7. Glen Greer
8. Brandon Arthur

Class 1
1. Dustin Miller
2. Richard Boyle
3. Chad Dohrman
4. Brad Vicic

Class 10
1. Ander Myers
2. Peter Hajas
3. Christian Hall
4. John Langley
5.  Perry McNeal

1-2/1600
1. Lucas Knecht
2. Daniel Reyes Jr.
3. Chad Baekens
4. Jonny Burnworth

Class 3000
1. Ryan Frisby
2. Allan Lee
3. Reid Rutherford
4. James Crawford

Class 7
1. Al Hogan
2. Steve Kovach
3. Robert Ford
4. Matt Lovell
5. Josh Quintero

Stock UTV
1. Douglas McCrady

Class 5/1600
1.Donald Harper

Class 7S
1. Justin Fisher
2. Elias Hanna
3. James Burman

Stock Full
1. Robert Roglin

Class 9
1. Sean Malabanam

Sportsman Unlimited Truck
1. Eric Ludian
2. Steven Mann

Baja Challenge
1. Jon Largent