Part 1: 30 Years Of Going Fast Everywhere: Desert, Mud, Rocks, Swamps, Ice, Gravel, Jungle...
We like to get up close and personal with our race coverage, much to the chagrin of our spouses and the delight of our dry cleaners and camera repair shops.
The term "off-road racing" seems like a contradiction. A lot of folks still believe driving off road is about "going as slow as you can and only as fast as you need to." Yet there's something almost hard-wired in the human psyche that pushes us to go fast, especially if there's a guy nearby who thinks he can walk/run/bicycle/ride a horse/drive/fly/you-name-it faster than we can.
Off-road racing is no different. This magazine has been around to document various forms of motorsports for 30 years, but off-pavement racing has been around far longer than that. November, in fact, will mark the running of the 40th Baja 1000 desert race. But really, motor racing predated what we now know as roads, so go back far enough in the history of the motor vehicle and all racing was "off-road."
Don't worry; this retrospective won't go back that far. But we'll start with the very first monthly issue and our never-ending fascination with hauling ass in the desert.
Desert Racing
March 1978: In our very first monthly issue, staffer Jim Brightly rode along with Walker Evans as he raced the Baja 1000, setting a precedent that just about every staffer on this magazine has followed in one way or another. The technology aboard Evans' F-100 impressed Brightly: "With $25,000 invested in the race truck, Walker Evans owns one of the most expensive '72 F-100s in existence."
May 1979: Performance pioneer Mickey Thompson was an avid off-road racer. He formed SCORE in 1973, the sanctioning body that started short-course off-road racing in stadiums and eventually took over the Baja 1000, and he appeared many times in our racing coverage. This sad scene took place during the '79 Parker 400: "When his motor went sour, Mickey Thompson lost his spot in the victory circle. All he could do was stare in disbelief and hope that his crew could solve the problem."
March 1980: The most extensive desert race coverage in our history filled some 12 pages when just about the entire staff covered the '79 Baja 1000. Editor Craig Caldwell's infamous ride-along, in which he barfed (among other things) in his helmet, is probably the best race story this magazine has produced, but a close second is Technical Editor Jay Sadler's tale of building a Baja racer out of-get this-his "grocery getter" Dodge Challenger. Sadler made it 7 miles before a broken wheel put him out of the race.
March 1987: Despite the awesomeness of this cover image, martial artist/action star Chuck Norris didn't drive in the '86 Baja race. Still, Steve Campbell and I had a blast chasing Jim Connor, Norris's brother Aaron, and the rest of Connor's Nissan race team down the peninsula.
August 1989: Ivan Stewart earned his "Ironman" nickname by tackling endless desert races driving solo. He became somewhat controversial when his Toyota racing "truck" evolved into a Class 1 single-seat buggy with trucklike body panels, but it proved to be a potent competitor. Here he's on his way to an overall win at the '89 Mint 400.
March 1994: Veteran racer Rod Hall (the only person to have raced every Baja 1000 since its inception in 1967) brought "a couple of surprises to Baja" for the '93 race: Hummers. He and his son, Chad, ran H1s in the Stock Full class and finished First and Second. To this day, the Halls are still racing-and winning-in Hummers.
May 1994: Desert race technology took a big leap with the introduction of the Trophy Trucks at the '94 Parker 400. With their long-travel (20-some inches) suspensions and gobs of power, the high-tech/big-buck Trophy Trucks took off-road racing to a new level-one that couldn't be any further away from the short-travel, stiffly suspended, nearly stock vehicles that started desert racing decades earlier.