Collins helps ill friend at SCORE race; costs him win

PRIMM -- In one frightening moment, winning took a back seat to friendship for Las Vegas off-road driver Brian Collins.

Collins was aiming for his third straight SCORE Desert Series win in Class 8 Saturday at the Las Vegas Primm 300. But Collins put racing aside when he came upon his longtime friend, Troy Herbst of the Las Vegas racing family, who had climbed out of his truck after being overcome with carbon monoxide fumes during the race.

"I almost ran (Troy) over on the track, actually -- it was pretty close," Collins said after driving his White Lightning Racing Chevy C1500 to a second-place finish. "He had gotten out and he was laying on the berm, then he rolled into the tire tracks on one side.

"I went past him and he rolled back up on the berm. I was backing up and I didn't know he had rolled back down again. Billy (Goerke, Collins' co-driver) got out and I went on by myself."

Herbst was taken, via helicopter, to Valley Hospital where he was treated and released.

Although Collins lost valuable time stopping to help Herbst, he said it never occurred to him not to render aid.

"(The Herbsts are) like family, so I had to stop," he said.

"We have raced together for a long time and it was hard to get back in the race (mentally) until I found out he was OK.

"It made it tough -- especially since I almost ran him over. We were just riding along until I found that he just had carbon monoxide poisoning and he was OK and they were going again."

Dale White, owner of White Lightning Racing, agreed with Collins' decision to stop and help Herbst.

"That's good," White said. "We're friends of theirs and that's more important than the race. I would have done the same thing."

Tim Herbst got into his younger brother's Class 1 truck and completed the race for Troy, driving the Ford Smithbuilt to a finish of fifth overall and second in class.

Tim Herbst also was overcome by carbon monoxide fumes at the conclusion of the race and was treated at the scene with oxygen. A broken header in the truck caused the potentially deadly fumes to leak into the cab of the truck.

The day wasn't a total loss for the Herbst family as Tim and Ed Herbst piloted their Ford F-150 Trophy Truck to class and overall victory.

A third-lap flat tire foiled Henderson's Bekki Freeman in her attempt to capture her first SCORE victory in Class 1/2-1600. Freeman held a 20-second lead over Las Vegas' Robby Guevara after two laps until she was forced to change tires twice on the third lap.

Freeman, second in points in her class going into the season-finale Baja 1000, was nearly three minutes behind Guevara going into the final lap. Freeman managed to make up more than a minute and a half on the final 83.7-mile circuit but still finished 1:19 behind Guevara.

"It's a little frustrating," Freeman said of her second-place finish. "We had a flat on the third lap and had to change tires twice, then we lost our power steering on the final lap.

"We just needed another lap."

Freeman, who is attempting to become the first female class champion in SCORE history, closed the gap on Class 1/2-1600 points leader Jason Hatz of Laguna Beach, Calif., with one race remaining. Hatz lost his transmission during the race and was not able to finish.

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