From Hobby To Hero: Rod Hall And The SCORE Baja 1000

[PressRoom-GFN]

DETROIT – Like baseball’s World Series and football’s Super Bowl, the Baja 1000 is the ultimate competition for a breed of racers like no other.

The legendary race is shorthand for one of the most grueling events in off-road racing, one that pits its participants and their vehicles against the extreme and rugged terrain, along with the intense daytime heat and nighttime cold of Mexico’s northernmost state. Making fuel and repair stops in the desert and remote locations, racers navigate close to 1,000 miles across silt beds and sand washes, through cactus fields and fishing villages, and over rocky and dangerous mountain passes.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, this famed event has lured the giants of off-road racing, who gather annually in Mexico’s Baja California to compete against themselves and the clock in a race now considered one of the most challenging and alluring event in North America.

During its history, the Baja 1000 has attracted numerous celebrities and professional drivers from other motorsports, with James Garner, Steve McQueen, Parnelli Jones, Bill Stroppe, Mickey Thompson, Rick Mears, Rogers Mears, Ivan “Ironman” Stewart, Walker Evans, Malcolm Smith and Robby Gordon among the thousands who have graced the race.

Surrounded by these Baja racing greats, Rod Hall stands out. Hall, who has raced in HUMMERs since 1993, has competed in every race since its inception in 1967 as a formal event, and he owns the title of winningest racer of record of the Baja 1000.

Hall began his off-road career in the late 1950s and early 1960s in a Jeep CJ5. At that time, he had to drive from California to New Mexico and Colorado to compete in organized, semi-professional races. Today, Hall possesses the distinction of being one of the winners of the inaugural Baja 1000 in 1967, and the only driver to win the Baja 1000 overall in a 4WD vehicle, accomplishing the feat in 1969.

Rod Hall’s legacy

What is Hall’s secret to off-road racing success?

“It’s this simple,” he said. “It’s more important to keep your vehicle together during the race than it is to be the fastest.”

That philosophy helped Hall on his way to becoming the winningest driver in the history of the Baja 1000.

Born in 1937, Hall grew up in Hemet, Calif., where he took up four-wheeling as a hobby during his early years. Hall joined the Hemet Jeep Club and began fixing up Jeeps for four-wheeling and camping adventures.

Hall’s first off-road race was a 17-mile run in Afton Canyon, Calif., a race he handily won, “because I learned that if you lay out a course, it’s easier to win.” Such was not the case, however, when Hall entered the “Mexican 1000” in 1967, as the Baja 1000 was called at the time. Without the opportunity of pre-running the course, Hall and partner Larry Minor piloted their Jeep CJ5 to a class victory, navigating by compass and rudimentary directions, starting in the last group of racers to leave the line.

“This was my first experience in true adventure as a young man,” said Hall, whose adventures and 4WD training have now taken him across the globe. “Minor and I had no idea of where we were going, and at times had to ask locals for directions. We were very fortunate not to get lost, and I realized that I really liked the desert and the wide open spaces, but I also liked the feeling of making a vehicle do what you wanted it to do – it fits my personality!”

Hooked on desert racing, Hall later partnered with other racing greats and earned a factory ride with Ford, in 1969, driving a Bill-Stroppe-built Bronco to an overall Baja 1000 victory. After racing for Ford through 1975, Hall competed for Dodge for the next 18 years.

In 1993, Hall began his racing career with HUMMER, racing the stock HUMMER H1 at a time when his rides had become more modified, and he realized he preferred the challenge of a stock vehicle.

“HUMMER saw racing as a great product development program,” explained Hall, who set up a Nevada-based, off-road training program and test facility. “When General Motors purchased HUMMER, we began to race H2s and H3s.”

Hall added sons Chad and Josh to his racing team, whose wins have begun to match those of their father. Together, with 26 class wins, the Halls are the winningest family in Baja. Rod and Chad Hall also raced and completed the famed Paris-Dakar Rally in HUMMERs.

Today, Hall drives the Team HUMMER stock-class H3, which he has piloted to numerous first-place finishes, including the 2005 Baja 1000 and 2006 Baja 500.

Hall’s awards include more than a dozen SCORE/HDRA [High Desert Racing Association)] titles and hundreds of individual-class wins. He is a member of the Off Road Motorsports Hall of Fame, recognized not only for his racing and wins, but also for his work on behalf of off-road sports. Now 69, Hall has traveled around the world; conducted driver schools and training for the U.S. Army Special Forces; led adventure trips; organized corporate 4WD events for vehicle manufacturers and tire makers; and built specialized off-road vehicles.

“With 42 years of experience in off-road racing, I can comfortably say that HUMMERs are the most capable and rugged vehicles I’ve ever driven,” said Hall, who also is the longest-sponsored racer in the history of BF Goodrich Tires.

The Baja 1000 History

In 1962, Dave Ekins and Bill Robertson Jr. sped from Tijuana to La Paz on a pair of Honda 250 motorcycles. They made the 950-mile trip on a whim. Because there were no official timers, the riders carried sheets of paper and had them stamped in the telegraph offices in each town. Ekins made the run in 39 hours, 54 minutes. Robertson came in less than an hour later. The Baja had entered the record books. That same year GM's Chevrolet division commissioned a handful of custom-built trucks for a run from Long Beach, Calif., to La Paz. Although the trucks were not especially fast, the run garnered valuable publicity for the automaker. It also introduced a new segment of off-road desert racing. Advertisements of the period billed “the Baja” as the "roughest run under the sun."

The real shock to the off-road community came later, when a lowly passenger car tackled the Tijuana -La Paz journey. Journalist Ralph Poole and Spencer Murray borrowed a 1967 Rambler American two-door from American Motors. In this basic car, the duo made the trip in an astonishing 31 hours flat, giving pause to motorcycle and truck enthusiasts alike.

Momentum to race what became known as "the road" [when there really wasn't a road at all] built quickly. The summer of 1967 saw two important Baja runs. In June, two Toyota Land Cruisers with powerful Chevrolet V-8 engines made the trip under the leadership of Ed Orr, Claude Dozier, Ed Pearlman, Dick Cepek, John Lawler and Drine Miller. Their 41-hour time was unremarkable and showed that Baja could not be won on horsepower and 4WD alone. By the fall of 1967, it was becoming clear that more organizations would be needed to coordinate and organize the future runs, and make them easier. Under Pearlman’s leadership, off-road enthusiasts formed the National Off-Road Racing Association and established the Mexican 1000 [the original name of the Baja 1000]. The first official race began in Tijuana on Oct. 31, 1967, with 68 entries.

With the exception of the legendary 1972 run, the Baja ran essentially the same course until 1993. In the 1972 run, NORRA set the start in Mexicali, east of Tijuana, on the Mexico-California border. The race's first half coursed down Baja's East Coast through the treacherous area called the Three Sisters. There, during practice trials, a group of racers, including Parnelli Jones and Walker Evans, were nearly swept to the sea in a tropical storm.

Over time, the Mexican government understandably grew tired of no-hold racing through the populated Tijuana outskirts, and officials insisted the trip shift from Tijuana to Ensenada, 60 miles south. This change made it possible to compare the old time (Tijuana-La Paz) to the new shorter run. The 950-mile Mexican 1000 in November 1967 was won by Vic Wilson and Ted Mangels in a Meyers Manx, a dune buggy build on a Volkswagen Beetle chassis. They had a very respectable time of 26 hours and 8 minutes. This historic run marked the beginning of a distinguished era of off-road motorsports competition. In 1975, the government of Baja California chose SCORE International to host the race. SCORE International was founded in 1972 by Mickey Thompson of Wilmington, Calif., who was called the Speed King. Many changes have occurred since Thompson dreamed of bringing off-road racing to the masses, and his aide, Sal Fish, saw a major motorsport in the offing.

Now under the leadership of Fish, what began as a recreational activity has grown into a sport with international prestige, a dedicated and ever-growing following, and has earned spots on Speedvision, cable, and high-definition TV networks, along with other motor press coverage.

In 2000, to honor the millennium, racers began at Ensenada and ran nearly 2,000 miles by a circuitous route to Cabo San Lucas at the peninsula's very tip. Times for the fastest vehicles were just under 31 hours, with an overall time limit of 100 hours.

The 2003 edition of the Baja 1000 was made into a big-screen documentary film, “Dust to Glory,” by filmmaker Dana Brown. A crew of more than 80 workers assisted Brown, whose father, Bruce Brown, helped as a creative consultant. Bruce Brown made many popular specialty films including “On Any Sunday,” “Endless Summer” and “Step Into Liquid.”

Growing more popular each year, the 2006 event attracted a race-record 431 starters and a record 234 official finishers for the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, now sponsored by Tecate Beer and organized and operated by SCORE International Off-Road Racing. There were more than 300,000 spectators.

Today, the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 includes 27 pro and six sportsman classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs. Last year’s race drew racers from 38 states and 12 countries. It is expected that some 500 adventurers from more than 40 states and 20 countries will compete in the 28 pro and five sportsman classes this year.

The 2007 40th Anniversary Tecate SCORE Baja 1000

Concluding nearly a year of celebration, the 40th anniversary Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 is Nov. 10-16, beginning with a ceremonial start at the bull ring in Tijuana, Mexico, and festivities that will include a unique parade of vehicles. The race will proceed to Ensenada, and following tech inspection and contingency, along with more festivities and pre-race pageantry in Ensenada on Nov. 11 and 12, the green flag will drop on Nov. 13. Racers will travel 1,200-plus miles, finishing at the tip of the Baja California peninsula, in Cabo San Lucas, with the last checkered flag dropping early on the morning of Nov 16.

###

Courtesy of GM Communications