SCORE’s 37st year culminates with SCORE Off-Roadsman awards,
Presentation of 2010 SCORE Desert Series champions

LOS ANGELES—SCORE International officially announced today that the 2010 SCORE Awards Night, honoring the world’s foremost desert racing series, is returning to Southern California for the first time in a decade and will be held Saturday, Dec. 11. SCORE has selected the boutique-style Atrium Hotel in Irvine, Calif. as the host venue for the first time.
At the newly renovated Atrium Hotel, located adjacent to the John Wayne Airport, nearly 400 SCORE racers, family, friends, crews, sponsors and media will bask in the Southern California sunshine as the SCORE Awards Night will honor the 37-year history and fame of the name which is the standard for desert racing world-wide.
This year will not only mark the first time that the annual SCORE Awards Night has been held at the popular Atrium Hotel, but the first time the historic evening has been held in Southern California since 2000, when it was held at Joe’s Garage automotive museum in Tustin, Calif.
“First of all I want to thank Eric Morley and Blue C advertising for all of their efforts in helping identify the venue as well as committing their professional resources to once again produce the evening,” said Sal Fish, the SCORE CEO/President who has been part of the desert racing organization for nearly four decades. “We have been working with the Atrium for a couple of years and it’s great to see all the pieces come together because I know how especially convenient it will be for all of our Southern California racers to come to a great resort like the Atrium, which is so centraly located straight across the street from John Wayne Airport. This should be one of our greatest SCORE Awards weekends of all time. We expect a standing room only crowd so we encourage everyone to book their rooms early and plan on making a weekend out of it.”
Commenting on behalf of the hotel, Dean Yamashita, Director of Sales and Marketing for the Atrium Hotel, said, “We are very excited and extremely honored that an organization with the reputation and stature in the motorsports world like SCORE International would select the Atrium Hotel as the host of its annual awards weekend. We have made the commitment to help turn our property into a special SCOREtown for the weekend, welcoming the SCORE nation while providing racers, their families, support crews and sponsors a very unique personal environment to relax and celebrate their racing season at a great hotel in the heart of Orange County. Our goal is to become the SCORE hotel of choice in Orange County.”
In addition to the special SCORE Achievement Awards and the 28 Pro, 6 Sportsman class champions and three overall point champions who will be honored in at the Atrium Hotel, another highlight of the evening will be the presentation of the annual SCORE Off-Roadsman Awards.
Individuals as well as manufacturers and organizations are honored through 11 distinct awards, whose winners are decided by vote of the entire SCORE membership of more than 2,000. Among the awards to be presented are MasterCraft Safety Rookie of the year, Contingency Company of the year, Pit Support Team of the year, Sponsor of the year, Mechanic of the year and Person of the year.
Another element of the diverse program will be the presentation of the SCORE Toyota Milestone Awards.  As it has for 25 years, the coveted Toyota Milestone Awards are presented to those drivers in four-wheel vehicle classes who finish every required mile of the 2010 SCORE Desert Series. Last year 14 drivers received this honor and 22 racers are still in the hunt after three events in the five-race SCORE Desert Series.
The evening will include a colorful video/photographic tribute to the 2010 SCORE Desert Series produced by Blue C Advertising, highlighting the still photography of Trackside Photo.
A pre-awards reception will start the festivities at 6 p.m., followed by the dinner, a special tribute to the 2010 SCORE season and presentations at 7 p.m.
Individual ticket reservations as well as reservations for tables of 10, priced at $850 per table, are being accepted through the SCORE offices at 818.225.8402. Individual tickets are $85 each.
For the SCOREtown weekend, a special SCORE room package is available at the Atrium Hotel. For $199, based on double occupancy, the SCORE package includes a room for Friday and Saturday nights, Dec. 10-11, two buffet breakfast certificates for Saturday in the Waterfalls restaurant and two Buffet brunch certificates for Sunday, poolside at the Atrium. This SCORE Awards package will be available until midnight, Friday, Dec. 3. On a space-available basis, room-only rates for Saturday, Dec. 11 only, will be available at a rate of $109. The hotel code for the package is SCORE Awards.
Hotel guests on Saturday, Dec. 11 will also have available complimentary shuttle service to the massive South Coast Plaza retail complex.
SCORE championship vehicles will be on display during the weekend and SCORE also expects that the very accommodating hotel lounges will be the site of both pre-awards ‘pit stops’ and post-awards after parties.  Special beverages available at SCOREtown throughout the weekend will include Tecate cerveza, Red Bull energy drink and Azunia Tequila.
Started in 1973 with a short-course race in Riverside, Calif., the SCORE desert legacy officially began in July of 1974 in Ensenada, Mexico. Founded by the late Mickey Thompson, himself a motorsport legend, SCORE International continues to this day under the gifted guidance and dedicated leadership of Sal Fish, who has been with SCORE since shortly after Thompson started it.
SCORE International, based in Los Angeles, continues today producing its five-race SCORE Desert Series which is anchored by the legendary granddaddy of all desert races—the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000. SCORE presents two races in Southern Nevada—the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge and the SCORE Las Vegas Terrible’s Primm 300. In Mexico, SCORE also annually produces the SCORE San Felipe 250 and the SCORE Baja 500.
Current SCORE official annual sponsors are: BFGoodrich Tires-official tire, Volkswagen of America-official vehicle, Sunoco Race Fuels-official fuel supplier, Bilstein-official shock, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance-official Mexican auto insurance, Slime-official tire sealant and Red Bull-official energy drink. Associate sponsors are: Tecate Beer, Coca-Cola of Mexico, Las Vegas Events, MasterCraft Safety, Blue C Advertising, SignPros, P.C.I. Race Radios, McKenzie’s Performance Products and Advanced Color Graphics.
Additional sponsor for the Laughlin event is the Laughlin Tourism Commission and for the Primm event is Terrible’s Primm Valley Casino Resorts.
Associate sponsors for the SCORE Baja races include the Baja California State Secretary of Tourism, ProTurismo de Ensenada and the Baja California Sur State Secretary of Tourism.
For more information, contact SCORE at its Los Angeles headquarters 818.225.8402 or visit the official website of the 2010 SCORE Desert Series at www.score-international.com.
For more information on the Atrium Hotel, contact the property at 949.833.2770 or 800.854.3012 or visit their website at www.atriumhotel.com.