Courtesy photos
Gina Colosimo of Las Vegas is ready for Saturday’s SNORE Knotty Pine 250. She will compete in the Class SXS Limited category.

A strong field of more than 100 entries along with an all-new course layout will welcome the SNORE Knotty Pine 250 here Friday and Saturday.

Always a favorite, the Southern Nevada Off-Road Enthusiasts event again promises to present a wide variety of challenges with everything from trees to your typical whoops and bumps that are so typical of SNORE events.

In addition, what is referred to as “Oh my God Hill” sits waiting for off-road competitors headed for the start-finish line south of town.

The wildy-popular event will also feature women competitors including Jessica Freeman in Class 12; Journee Richardson in the very competitive Class ½ 1600; Gina Colosimo in Class SXS Limited; Noelani Austin, Heather Herrmann, Bree Cloud and Tammie Gubler, all in Limited Sportsman.

A competitor who works in sales, Richardson won’t soon forget the 2016 event which was dominated by heavy rains. She is ready for this year’s event.

“I will have a couple of co-riders this year in Caliente,” she said. “Ashley Rossall (17) and Harley Hendrickson, whose brothers prep my car, are also going to ride with me.”

Richardson, who started in Powder Puff in 2015, is among the many drivers who experienced heavy rains in the 2016 event. With a layout that is challenging enough, some drivers saw their cars flooded out thereby making the race even tougher.

“I raced the 2016 season in the MORE Class 1300 and took second,” Richardson said.

With so many drivers traveling hundreds of miles to compete in the Knotty Pine 250, Tammie Gubler will not have to travel far since she’s a resident of Caliente.

“We have been in Caliente for the past 16 years,” said Gubler, who along with her son, Colton, enjoys the freedom and peace and quiet of this small town about 180 from Las Vegas. “I am going to run the race without a co-rider this year.”

Gubler has been racing SNORE events for about 23 years. She, too, recalls the conditions during the 2016 event.

“It was pouring,” she said. “It started at about 4 in the morning and didn’t stop until noon. It was horrible.”

“I love racing SNORE,” she said. “It’s my drug. If I don’t race, I get a little ornery.”

Tammie Gubler is eager to get back in the car, but she knows it’s not going to be an easy race.

“It’s going to be very technical,” Tami added.

Herrmann, the mother of two including an eight-week-old boy named Cody, is set to compete in the Sportsman Class.

“I used to race dirt bikes starting when I was about 12,” said Herrmann, who owns a race shop with her husband, Justin, in Vista, Calif. “This race is a real blast. The terrain is gorgeous. It was so freezing cold last year that I shook for an hour after I got out of the car. I was a navigator last year and this will be first year that I will drive it. My husband will be my co-driver.”

Herrmann, said the entire family will be in Caliente including her five-year-old son, Seth.

“I have a pretty flexible schedule since I’m a professor at Cal-State San Marcos,” explained Herrrmann. “I usually just bring my papers with me so that I can grade them while I’m on the road.”

Herrmann said this race would be unique.

“I get to race my women friends in my class,” she said. “It’s not often that women are racing against one another, so this is very different. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Colosimo, a Las Vegas competitor who has been running with SNORE for the past two years, is a regional sales manager for T-Mobile.

“It’s the excitement of the race that keeps drawing me back to the sport,” she said adding that she’s running in the side-by-side limited category. “This is only the second year that the Polaris Side by Side has run in SNORE.”

Colosimo said the 2016 event with the rain and the mud is one that she’d never forget.

“We had no idea that the storm was going to hit,” she said. “I just powered through it, but my Polaris 900 gave out. I have upgraded to a Polaris 1000 for this year.”

Cloud, a Las Vegas native, is tickled that so many women are competing in the event.

“We have really concentrated on getting more women into off-road racing,” she said. “The men had better keep their eyes on their rear-view mirrors, because we are coming after them.”

The weekend will kick off with the traditional meet and greet from 9-10 a.m. at Caliente Elementary School.

A Fun Run is scheduled for Friday from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. The cost of participating is $20 with proceeds being donated to local organizations including The City Box Car Museum, the City Beautification Committee, Caliente Elementary School PTO, the Girls Rodeo Fund, Caliente Volunteer Fire Department and the Caliente Girls Camp.

The race is set to begin at 8 a.m. Saturday with staging set for the open area outside of the main pit across from the cemetery/BLM office and Young’s RV.

SNORE’s 2017 Patrick’s Signs/McKenzie’s series will also include the KC Hilites Midnight Special Aug. 4-6 in Jean, the PCI Radios SNORE 250 Oct. 7-8 and the McKenzie’s Rage at the River in Laughlin Dec. 8-10.

Further information can be found by visiting www.snoreracing.net.