S.N.O.R.E. 250

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 SNORE stands for Southern Nevada Off-road Racing Enthusiast.  Basically you take a big open bit of desert and carve out a race track that includes moguls, hairpin turns, jumps, and all kinds of interesting “natural” elements.  Then you take cars like the ones below and go as fast as you can!

You can find their web site here; www.snoreracing.net.

These are the desert buggies; they come as single seaters and double seaters.  On a desert course it’s often helpful to have someone next to you to navigate.

This is an example of a Trophy truck.  Don’t let the size fool you, these guys can really fly!  Their supped up suspension rival anything a normal 4 x 4 can do.  Jeeps dream of growing up big and strong like a Trophy truck.  This above photo is of the race winner, Ron Whitton and co-pilot Chas Dana.

  Then you have the bugs!  It’s really fun to see these guys racing around with “the big cars”.  The bugs have a personality all their own and are a blast to watch.

 I was lucky enough to get too cover this race with a fellow photog Felix out in Primm Nevada.  The race course is set up for this race to start in Jean Nevada and wind its way through the desert to Primm.  I would show you the race map but I never got one.  We just walked out into the desert until we found those little orange signs that marked the track.

Felix and I set up camp in Primm, using the Sazzy mobile as a home base parked next to the portapotties.  I got a great shot of Felix as he was trying to track the action.

Little did I know that he got a great shot of me as I “purposely” slide down a sand hill to get into position.

 Photo by Felix Gonzales

The part of the course we were on didn’t see a ton of action.  A lot of the drivers were taking it easy on the first go around the track so I can’t say we got all the action we wanted.

 Here you can see one of the buggies coming around a natural banked turn.

 Here is another one coming around a hairpin turn in a silt bed.  If the car is going fast enough you can usually get a great spray of sand and dirt.

 Unfortunately for us it was very windy that day.  The wind was reaching 40 miles an hour, it dam near blew me off my feet.  Felix and I took a break between laps for a little lunch and to check and see what photos we did get.  After lunch we were back out on the course to catch some action.

 

All we really got was sand and dirt.  We decided to call it a day when we realize we couldn’t get a clean shot to save our lives.  I was shooting on a natural platform and got this shot.  The power line pole supports had blown into my shot.

 Those yellow support lines are not supposed to move!  It was time to call it a day!

 Catch you at the next race!