SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1144819
While everyone in the off-road motorsports community mourns the passing of Rod Hall in June of 2019, his legacy left many racers and teams with inspirational memories that will continue to honor his legacy in the sport. Chad Hall Of all of the years that we raced together as a family the 2001 SCORE Baja 1000 was special because it was the only race that my brother, dad, and I shared a car. We were happy to win our class in our Hummer H1. Racing in general was probably my dad’s number one priority. Racing Baja was above that for him. My dad lived for racing in Mexico and when he got sick it was difficult for him to make it to the 50th SCORE Baja 1000, but his ego and love for the sport, it kept him in a position to participate and he sat in the car. The disease caused him to lose the use of his muscles and his last SCORE race was hard, but he pushed through and did it. My dad is best known for racing on a budget that was tighter that what most people would think. All of his accomplishments over his career came from the pure desire to finish. He would always tell us that to finish first, you first have to finish and I’ve taken that to heart. Josh Hall When I was younger, I gained an appreciation of how talented my father was, when we were doing a ghost town tour in the ’80’s. Dad was driving for Dodge at the time, so we had a stock W150 Stepside that had a lift kit and a few minor modifications. This off-road tour was my first time spending with my dad driving off-road to old ghost towns in northern Nevada. Watching him, I learned just how quick and talented my dad really was. I watched him with his craft and became really awe inspired by how effortless he made driving perfect looked like. A year later I had a chance to ride with him in a race and it was during that time that I realized how fast he really was as a race driver. I have never ridden with anyone so fast in my life. It was all business with him. When the green flag dropped, it was like he became a different person, focused and ready. Ironically, one of the reasons why he’s always said he wasn’t the “fastest” on the course, was because he never had the equipment to be the fastest. He never had the unlimited finances and vehicle to do that. What he did best, however, is to use the equipment he had and made it work all the way to the finish. Dad felt more comfortable with what made desert racing so fantastic. It was the fact that it’s a family sport and most people are doing it for the enjoyment. It was something that they are able to share with their family and have a good time. Dad felt very connected to those people. As a competitor, he was serious but he called it “serious fun.” In many instances, he would take the check from finishing race and gave it to the competitor who finished right behind him. It was all part of his generosity and gratitude for the sport he loved. I hope that his victories, and performance as a driver will last for generations. That’s all data, but to know him, he was really a generous man. Yes, he had an ego and wanted to win, but he didn’t allow it to rule his life. He wanted to give back to the sport and off-roading in many different ways. I hope that my own grandchildren, years from now, will learn what my dad has done to allow them to continue to do things like drive the Rubicon trail, or when he took the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame from a dusty old box, and with his own effort, create a team to turn it into what Mark McMillin has turned it into today. Shelby Hall I have so many memories with my “Papa”, most of which include dirt roads and adventure. But one that will always stand out to me is when I first learned how to drive. As early as I can remember, I was always included in off-road shenanigans with my family. In the late 90's, Rod was in partnership with AM General and running civilian H1 Hummers. He hosted Hummer Happenings, which were awesome multi-day events for Hummer owners to take their rigs out and explore the desert. Although I was not big enough to reach the pedals, Rod would insist on me driving...sitting on his lap of course. We would crawl up rocky hill climbs, maneuver across steep side-slopes and leave the guests in awe that a 10 year old was driving the whole time! He would work the pedals and guide me through the technical terrain with his words, all with patience and trust while I piloted the wheel. Shelby Hall CONTINUED As Rod once said, off-road racing was the heartbeat of his life. Truer words were never spoken! When he wasn't behind the race wheel, he found projects to keep himself in the dust from dawn to dusk: from helping our local racing association, VORRA, map out race courses; to developing new tire testing tracks; and reviving the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame. Rod fully loved and believed in off-roading, and dedicated his life to building and growing its notoriety and honoring those whose passion was as strong as his. Roger Norman We lost a good friend, the legendary Rod Hall. We became friends in our hometown of Reno. I started racing an old Class 10 beam car, and my wife and BFGoodrich were my chase crew. We were bare bones racing for two years. Then I sold the car and Rod called and asked if I would like to join his team. Racing with Rod was a dream come true and totally unexpected. The first time I went pre-running with him it was a driving lesson start to finish. He said the first thing you need to do is learn to drive with no brakes. He told me that he had finished more races with no brakes and come in first place than most people have raced in their entire careers. He asked me to stop and he went over to a tree. He cut off a branch and cleaned it with his pocket knife, then he started whipping it through the air testing it. When he sat back in the truck he said the rule for the day is you cannot touch the brake pedal. If you do, you get whipped with the branch. I don’t know who was laughing harder every time he left a welt on me. We won three of the four races that year and the championship. In 2001 I raced the SCORE Baja 1000 on Rod’s team with his son Chad and finished in first place with no brakes. All those welts paid off! We made some great memories over the last 24 years and he did a fair amount of land investments in our industrial park that turned out very well for the Hall family. Rod Hall will forever live in our hearts and in the history of SCORE International. Sal Fish Rod Hall was one of the founding fathers of desert racing and certainly a major pillar in the history of SCORE desert racing. Rod was one of the elite racers for over 40 years but he always maintained his humble personality and was as approachable, as friendly and as open with a handshake and a friendly smile as the first time I met him when I did a little racing back in 1969. When I remember Rod I think of the word consummate. Rod Hall was the consummate professional, racer, entertainer, gentleman and ambassador for our sport with a consummate positive attitude who shared his love of our sport with hundreds of thousands of people around the world. And he brought his family into the sport in big ways to the point that there are now second-generation Halls roaming the desert. In the name of the sport, Rod was always available as a mentor to individuals who had never raced before, whether they were the guy down the street or Mark Thatcher, the son of the then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He would give those people the thrill of a lifetime and as was his trademark, they would always finish the race that they had started. A major part of Rod’s lasting legacy, in my opinion, and a contribution beyond measure was back in 1995 when he resurrected the long-dormant Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame by finding a permanent home for it at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada. With the help of the Herbst family of Las Vegas a very proactive board of directors led by President Mark McMillin along with a small but mighty staff the ORMHOF is now housed at Terrible’s Hotel Casino in Jean, Nevada. With all of the other things he did for the sport, this has to stand out near the top of that long list. While everyone has their own collection of favorite Rod Hall anecdotes, I will long remember him saying, “When God created the Baja peninsula, he did it for off-road racing.” Well-spoken by one of the sport’s all-time greats. He was a tremendous spokesperson for our sport and truly one of the very first factory-backed racers in SCORE history. His tenure as a factory driver lasted until his last win in 2017, the longest for anyone in our sport. He will be missed by all of us who have ever stepped foot in the desert. Walker Evans Sometime around the mid 1970s I called up Rod and asked if he wanted to go with me to pre-run in Baja. At the time I lived in Riverside, California and Rod was in Hemet, California. To head to LaPaz and pre-run it would normally take two days down and two days to get back. Rod agreed and I picked him up in my Ford pickup. As we got into Baja it began raining and it ended up getting worse and worse. We made it down to one of the arroyos in Baja and it was about three-feet deep in water from the heavy rain. I began to go through it and the truck got stuck. Rod jumped out to see what was in the way. Mind you at that time, Rod was wearing a pair of cowboy boots and with the water up to nearly his waist, he pushed aside a big rock from under the right front tire and got back into the truck. The floorboards were already wet but I recall him pulling off his boots and dumping out the water. He was completely soaked. We made it to San Ignacio and it was raining so bad we couldn’t go any further and decided to turn around and head back North. A few minutes later the alternator began to squeal and we thought it was going to blow-up. We figured water and sand must have gotten into it and in order to keep if from getting more damage, we took the fan belt off the alternator and drove for about three hours. Without the alternator the truck soon began missing as the battery power decreased. We definitely didn’t want to get stuck in Baja by ourselves and somehow we put the fan belt back on the alternator and the pulleys of the engine and the motor and alternator ran fine. This was an example of the kind of person Rod Hall was. He was someone who did whatever it took to get the vehicle going and was up for anything that needed to be done. Although he was soaked from his head to his feet, he still had fun pre-running and was a game-guy and would do anything for you. Bruce Meyers A long time ago, in a place called Hussong’s Cantina, I sat with Rod Hall and his friend, potato farmer, Larry Minor. I said, “Off-road racing reminds me of the Spanish running of the bulls – part bravery, part stupidity”. Explaining how Ted Mangels and I had started off-road racing by lowering the original motorcycle ET record of 39 hours to 34 hours by driving non-stop from La Paz to Tijuana (there were no pits yet), carrying all the gasoline on board, some of it between our knees. This was the stupid, macho part. But, in our quest for a lower record we founded NORRA. This little snippet of off-road racing history is all I can brag about. First, one must know Rod Hall was a Jeep guy, and that he had a riveting way of telling stories. Maybe a pool shark who hung out with a potato farmer brought a country charm and warmth to his stories. The following words are from an unknown source. The author and publication are a disgraceful insight to my casual record keeping, but the author (God love him) saw the same good humor in Rod Hall as I did. “We thought the Jeep CJ-5 was the greatest off-road vehicle ever built… that could ever be built,” said Rod Hall, who would become one of the first to make a career out of desert racing. “We learned pretty quickly you probably couldn’t have built a worse vehicle for off-roading if you tried. It had too short of a wheelbase, a track that was too narrow, and too high a center of gravity. It would roll over if you so much as sneezed”. “It came with a three-leaf spring that you could upgrade to 13 leaves for heavy-duty use, we thought that those must be that much better, but all that did was wipe out what little bit of wheel travel the CJ came with in the first place. Then we put really stiff shock absorbers on it that just made it run rock hard.” The real shock absorbers were in fact the vehicle’s occupants. “We put a springy seat in it, but we made the mistake of anchoring the seatbelts to the floor. Five miles into the race, we thought those seatbelts were going to cut us in half, and we only had about 995 miles to go.” As hilarious as memories are, they attract us to his warmth and good-natured humor, qualities I will never forget about him. Rod Hall’s over fifty years of Baja races are credentials unequaled by all but a few of the other off-road racers. Off-road racing did not start as a dust cloud of the rich. Its grimy, smiling faces are a portrait of its success, Father and son, with Mom in chase. A love affair with a racecourse of mystery, Rod Hall was its first and best coach with outstanding humor and dignity. Larry Minor Rodney and I started racing short races and were a part of the Hemet California Jeep club. It was big fun going four-wheeling. I remember one run around Blythe, we tagged along behind the rest of the club and came up to this large pond with tracks going in and out of it. The club was always trying to pull tricks on us and taunted Rodney to go through it. He did and we found ourselves stuck in four-feet deep mud. We had to be winched out but it was quite a laugh. We raced around the country and heard about the Mexican 1000 in 1967. We had a Jeep and knew we needed tires so we sent our wives over to Dick Cepek and they actually came back with new tires and wheels. We entered the race having never been beyond Tijuana in our entire lives. Didn’t know how long it was going to take so we packed funnels for fuel and ice chest with some chicken and water. We were chasing Bill Stroppe in a Bronco and when we got to a gas station around midnight, we had heard that Stroppe was about two hours ahead of us. We drove the heck out of the Jeep and at sun up we caught up to them on the beach outside of San Ignacio. They were going the wrong way. Our compass showed we were going south but we left them and finished the race. In ‘68 Rodney went with the Jeep and I went with Stroppe, but in 1969 we teamed up again and won the Mexican 1000 overall. Rodney and I made a good team. He was really good at slowing down when necessary and taking care of the vehicle, so Rodney would drive the hard stuff and I drove the fast sections. Rodney wasn’t a big guy but he had a big heart. He would make the best out of anything. He was the kind of person who never gave up and had the desire to win. Gilberto Morales I first met Rod at a training event he held, before he started slowing down from racing. He inspired me to off-road at a young age, watching his Hummer race vehicle flying across the desert, so I knew of the legend. He had me off-roading at age 18. I felt honored when Rod wanted to meet me at the event, He said I inspired him because of my disability. I've had arthritis since I was diagnosed with it at age four. I'm now 37 and I have known Rod for five years. We talked for a bit about it and I told him "It just doesn't slow me down, we have to keep moving". Once he was diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, we got closer. I will always remember him with a smile on his face whenever he would go off-road. We took a few trips and he was always ready to go. We once took a 12 hour road trip to watch his son Chad Hall race from Vegas to Reno. We left Reno and met up in Tonopah with the race team, then headed back. There was never a time he looked exhausted or was distracted. His focus was always on racing the desert and watching his team. Love you Rod you will definitely leave a legacy being the legend you were. Much love to the Hall family. Frank DeAngelo To me Rod Hall was more than an off-road racer. Yea, he’s the only person to have raced in the first 50 Baja 1000 events and the only person to have won his class 25 times. He has a 50-percent win ratio in the longest toughest race on the planet. He won the event overall as well. He was one of the original pioneers. But more so, Rod was a giant of a man with a passion for the sport like no other. His passion also extended to people giving many, myself included, the opportunity to compete in the sport whether as a driver, co-driver or crew member. I met Rod Hall in 1979 at Bill Stroppe’s shop when he was racing for Dodge. We became friends and he treated me, a truck driver at the time, the same as he did the program managers. He didn’t really care about the title but more about the person. In the mid-80s I was fortunate to travel with Rod to Australia for a race that coincided with the launch of the BFGoodrich tire brand. We spent three weeks together racing and touring the country, and I really got to know him. There were several opportunities and projects after Australia that I enjoyed working with Rod. Rod has always been known for his easy-going manner and quick with along with funny story telling. His passion for the sport was reflected in the people he helped along the way, but especially for bringing the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame to life. He single handedly, and with his own money, obtained the rights and brought it back to life after it had been sitting in boxes for several years. The sport now has its own Hall of Fame thanks to Rod. A little over three years ago I was having a conversation with him when he mentioned his goal was to race in all 50 Baja 1000 races. He had completed 48 when he was diagnosed with a neurological disease. He also had 23 wins. A little while later he called to ask if I would drive for him in the next SCORE Baja 1000. I couldn’t believe it and I asked why me, because there were so many others probably more capable. He mentioned my 40-plus years of pre-running, mapping, and the ability to bring the truck back without breaking it. He also wanted my knowledge of Baja and the roads and finally, he thought due to my years of service in the community, I deserved a chance. This is exactly the type of person Rod was, always caring and always giving. BFGoodrich and Jackson Motorsports allowed me to be able to honor Rod’s request and we went on to race and win the 49th and 50th SCORE Baja 1000 with Rod and son Chad. His granddaughter Shelby Hall also drove in the 49th SCORE Baja 1000. I will never forget handing the Hummer over to Chad and then going to La Paz to put Rod back in for the finish. We stood on the roadside waiting in the dark for the Hummer. Rod was all suited up, helmet on, waiting. He was just as excited and passionate about his last race as I am sure he was his first one. Vaya con dios my friend, until we meet again. Jim Ober I was photographing at a SNORE Desert race in 1974 or 75 (near Las Vegas), and it was the last race of the season. All of the cars had gone by me on the first lap, except for one, Rod Hall and his co-driver of many years, Jim Fricker. They were coming down the course in a leisurely fashion, and they pulled up and stopped right where I was standing. Rod and Jim said “Hi, Jim, how’s everything?” and after a second of being speechless I answered “you know there is a race going on?” Rod said, “yeah, but all we need to do is finish the race and we get enough points to still win our class championship, so we’re just driving around saying hello to friends.” Nico Saad My very good amigo Rod, is someone I have known since the early 1960s. He told me once, that even before the Baja races, he was riding down the Peninsula. The last time I talked to him was at the lobby of the hotel. He proudly mentioned that he had been in all the Baja 1000 races and that his last race he was going to start and drive for a few miles. For me, Rod was just a great modest guy who just loved to come down and enjoy his friends who lived down Baja. For sure we will all miss him. Emily Miller There was no one like Rod Hall. The man, the myth, the legend. I met Rod when he was in his early 60’s. He had “been there, done that” and was still doing it. We spent a decade together - day after day, month after month, mile after mile. He taught me to drive and race off-road, route plan, and the finer points of a stock four-wheel drive vehicle. He told me it was “easier to teach someone from scratch than to break a racer’s bad habits.” He became a client, my race boss, business partner, mentor and encourager, but most importantly, he became my friend. I called him my dirt dad – the off-road Yoda. Rod was the sport’s best storyteller. He was the master of the pre-race, starting line in-car nap. The author of random 5 a.m. text messages. He judged people by the quality of their handshake. He spoke in the third person. “Rod’s not cheap, Rod’s thrifty. Rod’s not short, he’s compact.” “Rod is thirsty.” …He loved a good Scotch. He needed a regular dose of “windshield time” and told people that, “off-road racing is great if you like the color brown.” One time, he showed up in a parking lot in Meknes, Morocco with a tool kit he assembled, handed it to me and all he said was, “drive smart and you won’t need this.” The book of Rod Hall is filled with wisdom from miles and years of experience distilled down into unforgettable one-liners. He instilled in me that lessons learned off-road are powerful metaphors for life and work. Rod taught us all how to look for and prevent problems, not the glory. I remember a time when we were pre-running the SCORE Baja 1000 and we spent two long, hot days walking around an innocuous looking section near San Felipe, searching for the line around the mayhem he so wisely predicted. He knew after a couple hundred race trucks thundered by, it would “leave us stockers with a used up, silty mess.” When I pulled up, he was right. It was absolute chaos, but our plan was spot on. Rod had the experience, did the work, and didn’t say much. But when he did speak, you listened. He may be gone, but he will remain the voice in my head. I’m sure that is true for many. I got a front seat to decades of unforgettable stories. So I will leave you with one of the most memorable, which he recounted at least 30 times. He and his beloved co-driver Jim Fricker were in a race and lost all their forward gears. They had over 20 miles to go, and it was pitch black. Fricker turned the lights around and Rod put it in reverse and kept going. He said, “I got pretty quick as I got used to the oversteer.” The story goes that one guy called race ops and said, “I just saw Rod Hall going backwards on the course. I mean backing up on the course. I mean backing down the course. Hell, I’m not sure what I saw, but Rod Hall just passed me.” Rod crossed the finish line in first place. That was who Rod was. He always found solutions, and never, ever, quit. May we all be more like Rod Hall. We will all miss him dearly. Mark McMillin Have known Rod since I started racing back in 1976. Before that, we would go down to Baja to watch Parnelli Jones but by the time we began racing, Rod and I were already friends. He’s a quality person and did a good job at bringing the manufacturers to our sport. I am extremely honored that he reached out to me personally, to be on the Board of Directors of ORMHOF. He originally wanted me to be the chair of the organization and I eventually did after a year. I attended meetings for four or five years and I still look forward to carrying the organization on in his honor, and for the honor of our sport. One of my best memories of Rod was during the 1982 Baja 1000. I was driving a Class 2 car and got stuck in a lake bed near San Ignacio. I ended up sitting there watching all the cars go by me and was extremely frustrated. Finally, Rod came down the same tracks I did and saw that I was stuck. He got out of his race vehicle and asked me where the correct route was around the lake bed so he wouldn’t get stuck. I replied that if I told him the way around, he would then have to help me get unstuck. I told him the correct route and he went around and left me. Tom Heyl I bought a Hummer in 2003 and also met Rod Hall that same year. He became my mentor, trainer, employer, and my introduction to off-roading experiences; my best friend forever. Bob Bower I believe Rod Hall was an unreasonable man. It was unreasonable of him to expect to do anything past being a Jeep enthusiast in Hemet, California. At least that’s what he thought, but he ended up proving himself and others wrong. So I guess that makes him a liar, but in a good way. What affected me so strongly about Rod Hall was not what he did between the green and checkered flag, but what he did between races. Running a race program I expected Rod to perform during a race. He told me that what you do after the race, is what separates you from everyone else. He was right. He thought he could do more than drive a truck and ended up forging bonds with many sponsors like BFGoodrich Tires for what he did in between races. I think he’s probably one of the longest sponsored drivers in off-road history. Another quality of his was that he relied on himself only to the degree that he knew he should. He was selfless enough to admit when he was out of his league in certain matters, and didn’t mind leaving things for others to do better. That was the case with him taking on the ORMHOF. He was given a box of memorabilia from Ed Pearlman and had a vision of what this could be and do for the sport, but didn’t know how to do it. We met and admitted he didn’t know what to do, and asked if I would formalize it and run it, he would support me. He had a great work ethic and if you were paying attention, you’d actually learn something from him. He had a knack for that. Driving for example, he would quickly put someone in the driver’s seat and ask questions like, “how long do you think the truck will last driving like that?” I guess he figured he didn’t need the practice. To successfully drive a race car, you have to have some ego, but Rod only had enough required for him to carry in the battle between the green and checkered flags. Frankly, I would say that he was almost a recluse. He didn’t boast about winning and outwardly acted humble about it. In fact, he often said he wasn’t smart enough or fast enough. It was his original lie. I knew him to be very smart and had a strategic mind. He was always focused on what off-road racing could do for him. I admire him for that. He did touch me in many ways, and like so many things he did, I didn’t know I was getting a lesson at the time. Honestly, I don’t think I’m going to miss Rod. He instilled himself so deeply in my fiber that he’s still a part of me. I feel completely fulfilled. Dominic Clark I have worked with SCORE and known Rod since 1985. While we will miss his smile, his friendship and his ceaseless anecdotes, we have comfort in knowing that his time of pain and suffering has past. Rod was a PR guy’s best friend. He was always first in line to offer his time and services for a media conference or some other activity that would help promote the sport. And, the amazing thing about it, he was so entertaining behind the mike and he never told the same story twice. Well, except for reminding people anytime and anywhere that in desert racing ‘to finish first, you must first finish.’ He embodied that moto. At the finish line for 50 years, Rod was never at a loss for words and his descriptions of the course would give you chills and start the fire burning in the pit of our own stomach as to how magnificent and spectacular our sport of desert racing is. He seldom repeated his descriptions and he was such a gifted driver, his race trucks seldom were torn apart with body parts missing like so many other racers at the finish line. Sponsors appreciate Rod for this reason alone, but there was always enjoy dirt and scratches that you always knew he had just finished another grueling race. Thanks for the everlasting memories Rodney Hall, a true champion of champions! SJ