So, once again, I went desert racing with my friend's race team. This time we went to the CA/Nevada state line for the SCORE Primm 300. We ended up finishing, albeit in fouth place in our class. This is a tough, technical course, and our truck being a big heavy diesel, is not built for it. We were lucky to finish it without major incident. One flat tire, and a torn intercooler boot. Anyway, on to the pictures.













I'll add more as I edit them. This trip, I had a lot more responsibilities, so less time for photos. I solo'ed our pit location at mile 28. Also, the BLM people were pretty strict as far as access. One of our guys has a hookup at FourWheeler magazine, so I might get media creds for the next event. That'd be sweet.

Also, on a sad note, I watched as a Class 1 unlimited buggy flipped over not 50 yards after the start line, ultimately killing the driver. Kind of weird since those things are basically bomb-proof, and he was only going about 40 mph at the time.

-Todd

Originally Posted by LateApex

Holy crap! That car's still running? That bug gets around, when did Dust to Glory come out?

Also, on a sad note, I watched as a Class 1 unlimited buggy flipped over not 50 yards after the start line, ultimately killing the driver. Kind of weird since those things are basically bomb-proof, and he was only going about 40 mph at the time.

-Todd

That's terrible. I don't have any words...











Nice shots by the way, how'd the trap shooting work for you?

Originally Posted by tardypizza

Nice shots by the way, how'd the trap shooting work for you?

Thanks, I don't have any that I'm particularly in love with, but it was good experience.
The trap focus method worked okay. I missed a few shots because the camera just never fired, so that was a drawback. Ultimately, I decided I didn't need it for the cars I was shooting. They weren't going all the fast out of the pits, and weren't very fast to begin with. There were two run groups during the day, slower cars in the morning (our truck), and the big boys ran in the afternoon. By the time the Trophy Trucks and Unlimited cars were running, I'd been out in the desert for about 6 hours, and was ready for a beer. Most of my pictures of the later run groups were taken from the top of a motorhome in the casino parking lot with a 2x TC. There were only a few holes in the trees I could shoot through.

That class 11 car is awesome. It's like he's the people's champion or something. I think everyone is a fan. He won his class by over an hour. He's very fast.

I took some photos of the accident involving the class 1 car, but to me it's bad taste to post them. I obviously didn't realize how bad it was when I took them.

I wonder how much of a difference it would make if you shot a few from a crouched position to put you more inline with the trucks. It may make the auto appear to be meaner or more powerful, that may appeal to the magazines more.

I guess?

Well, the shots of the trucks I posted here, were taken from quite a distance, so it wouldn't matter much for those. But the ground level shots, I could do that, and have in the past, the only thing is I like to remain fairly visible to the drivers, and also be able to get out of the way if something comes at me. The lower you are, the more likely you are to get pelted with rocks.

I know what you mean though. What I'd really like to be able to do is hike out to a location with a decent sized jump or a nice turn and shoot all day from there. My commitment to my friend's racing effort limits me quite a bit. I had to stay close to the radio in case something happened. At least, for this race. In some of the other races, we have more people, so I don't have to do as much.

Originally Posted by LateApex

the only thing is I like to remain fairly visible to the drivers, and also be able to get out of the way if something comes at me. The lower you are, the more likely you are to get pelted with rocks.

Good call

Originally Posted by LateApex

I solo'ed our pit location at mile 28.

-Todd

You guys really needed to pit after 28 miles? Or is that 128?

Anyway, how'd the pitstop go? That's pretty cool that you were in charge.

It was a 2-lap race(70 miles per lap) for us, so they blew through on the first lap. There was another pit location that I could get to if needed at about mile 40-ish. The co-driver was the guy in charge, I just readied everything and was a set of hands.

Here's a course map:
http://www.score-international.com/l...images/Map.pdf

I was at Pit B, but there was a paved road going to Pit C, if I needed to. We had more guys at Pit A, and used it for our main location.

Stupid question: Why's it called the 300 if it's only a 140 mile race? Different routes for different classes?

Originally Posted by tardypizza

Stupid question: Why's it called the 300 if it's only a 140 mile race? Different routes for different classes?

Yeah, 2, 3, or 4 laps, depending on class. I edited my last post, and added a map that gives specifics.

Wow, no pre-running? What were lap times like for you guys?

Too bad there were no bikes

Lap 1 = 2:42:00, Lap 2 = 2:16:51, Avg. Speed = 28.910 mph. (Yes, those are in hours)

Lap 1 included the flat tire change, but I think #2 was faster also because you'd seen the course once already. The truck went into "limp mode" for reasons we don't quite know yet in the later part of the race otherwise it might have been faster still.

Yeah, I wouldn't expect the first lap to be blazing fast anyway without any knowledge of the course. You guys run with GPS or does the co-driver just have a detailed map?

We use GPS. Two, actually... one zoomed in, and one zoomed out a bit. We were able to obtain an SD card with the cautions marked, so it wasn't a totally blind run, but cautions are different for everyone.

Of course, there is always a paper copy of the map taped to the dash just in case.

Cool stuff mang, I would love to get a shot at a race like that.