Lack of interest sinks SCORE event

The stadium-style desert race held the past three years in July at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was canceled Monday because of a low number of pre-entries and poor ticket sales.

The SCORE Las Vegas Cup — formerly the SCORE Las Vegas Terrible’s Cup — scheduled for July 18 and 19 was called off by the SCORE Desert Racing series and Las Vegas Events, which served as the event promoter.

“Unfortunately, we could not deliver a race experience this year that SCORE fans have become accustomed to and expect,” said Pat Christenson, LVE president.

Last year’s event averaged about 8,000 spectators each night.

This year’s event was hurt when SCORE president Sal Fish decided not to make it a points-paying event, unlike last year. He did so, he said, because most drivers did not want to use vehicles built for wide-open desert racing on the 1.5-mile course set up at the speedway’s dirt track.

With championship points as an incentive, entries increased to 81 last year from 49 in 2006.

Another blow came when Terrible Herbst, part of Herbst Gaming, withdrew its sponsorship of the event and participation in SCORE racing this year.

Herbst Gaming is privately held by desert racing brothers Ed, Troy and Tim Herbst. They have focused on racing in the Championship Off Road Racing series this year while restructuring their company’s debt of $1.146 billion, as reported in April by the Review-Journal.

In trying to keep the event afloat, Las Vegas Events last month received extra funding from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to compensate for the lost sponsorship. But abysmal advance ticket sales and less than a dozen pre-entries from SCORE racers forced the cancellation.

Refunds for ticket purchases can be obtained by calling (866) 388-3267.

For more on this topic, go to www.lvrj.com/blogs/heavypedal. Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.