KORE Power Wagon Wins Primm 300!

The "Primm 300" is the roughest, most brutal race in the SCORE series. Hundreds of miles of rocks, sand and cross-grain pit drivers not only against each other, but against the terrain. Angered by a 3rd place finish at "Vegas to Reno" only two weeks prior, Team KORE worked non-stop, completely rebuilding the Power Wagon in record time.

"Primm is gnarly," said Team Manager, John Zambie, "In the short time allotted, we did everything we could to get the truck ready. Didn't sleep much – finished prep the morning of the race - but we got it done."

A 6am start from the back of the pack forced driver Kent Kroeker to fight tremendous dust while driving into the rising sun.

"A rear start is a huge disadvantage at Primm. The visibility was so bad we had to take a lot of chances to get past everyone. When we finally got behind Griffin, I hit him hard. Then it was a game-on for the rest of the race."

An all-out death battle ensued between John Griffin's Ford and Kroeker's Dodge. Swapping leads numerous times throughout the race caused a lot of nail biting in the pits. Both teams had to stop to refuel and each time the lead changed. For the entire second lap, both trucks remained within seconds of each other, going all out for the win.

With only 20 miles to go, Kroeker was in the lead. Then the motor stalled and Griffin got by, forcing Kroeker to drive inside his dust, all the way to the finish.

"They started 30 seconds in front of us, so I knew I could finish behind him and still win on corrected time," said Kroeker, "His dust was so bad, a lot of the time, I couldn't see anything. I had to flog our truck as hard as I could to stay with him and rely on my co-driver to navigate from the GPS."

With zero visibility, two miles from the finish, Kroeker hit a rock, exploding the right rear tire.

"There was no time to change it – no time to even think of that. I just kept it pinned and hoped most of it would stay on the wheel."

The crowd cheered as Kent Kroeker and co-driver Frank Martinek powered down the final mile with a mangled bumper, crumpled bedsides and a shredded tire, flapping on the wheel.

When they reached the checkered flag, KORE had the win by 16 seconds.