Daughter knows best in desert race
PRIMM — About two years ago, Jessica McBeath received her driver’s license, and now the 18-year-old gets to tell her father where to go.
It almost helped Robert McBeath on Saturday win his first SCORE Desert Series title.
The 45-year-old Las Vegas urologist finished second in Class 10 in the SCORE Terrible’s Primm 300 desert race about 45 miles south of Las Vegas along Interstate 15. He finished 8 minutes, 47 seconds behind class winner Chris Harrold of Chula Vista, Calif., after each lapped the 72-mile course four times.
McBeath’s daughter and co-pilot, a student at the University of Arizona, is responsible for “looking in front of me, behind me. She’s very good at remembering treacherous parts of the course,” Robert said.
Mechanical gremlins caused their Honda-powered Jimco to lose power near the end of the third lap, and that cost them about 30 minutes for repairs to be made.
McBeath’s younger brother, Bill McBeath, competes in Trophy Truck, where he completed three of four laps within the seven-hour time limit.
“This was our favorite sport growing up in Las Vegas,” Robert said. “I got back into it about 2 1/2 years ago, and then Bill jumped in. We might split some time in his Trophy Truck in longer races.”
Harrold was the first to finish in the class, but races begin with vehicles starting at 30-second intervals. He was expecting the second vehicle to finish with possibly a quicker time to be the one driven by Rob MacCachren, who drove the last two laps for Larry Job, both of Las Vegas.
MacCachren, who drove the last two laps, was behind the wheel when a suspension part broke near the end of the last lap and relegated his team to finish third, almost 19 minutes behind Harrold.
In SCORE Trophy Truck, Garron Cadiente of Mesa, Ariz., finished first and was the overall event winner. Larry Roeseler of Hesperia, Calif., and Troy Herbst of Las Vegas won Class 1 and were fourth overall.
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ACCIDENT CLAIMS LIFE OF 33-YEAR-OLD RACER
PRIMM — Erick Morales died Saturday from injuries sustained in an accident on the first lap of the SCORE Desert Series race behind Buffalo Bill’s.
Morales, 33, of Ensenada, Mexico, was riding with driver Eddy Gonzalez, 32, of Chula Vista, Calif., when their Class 1 open-wheel buggy accelerated over a jump just off the starting line, landed nose first and flipped end over end, according to a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department accident report.
Morales died at the scene. Gonzalez complained of lower-back pain and was transported to University Medical Center for evaluation.
The SCORE Terrible’s Primm 300 was not stopped, but the course was rerouted away from the accident scene as Bureau of Land Management officials investigated the crash, according to a SCORE official.
It’s the second Nevada desert racing death in three weeks. Motorcycle racer Brandon Smith, 19, of Hesperia, Calif., died when he crashed in northern Nevada on Aug. 24 during a Best in the Desert Series event.
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