SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1473600
ORMHOF ANNOUNCES CLASS OF 2022 INDUCTEES The committee members of the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame (ORMHOF) voted on inducting nine new members who make up the Class of 2022. These include Randy Anderson, Lance Clifford, Vic Curl, Butch Dean, Jim Fricker, Brad Lovell, Eric Solorzano, Scott Taylor, and Mike Thomas. The ORMHOF Class of 2022 will be celebrated at the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame Induction & Awards Gala presented by 4 Wheel Parts, on Sunday, October 30 at the South Point Hotel Casino & Spa in Las Vegas, Nevada. More than 700 guests are expected to attend. Tickets, program ads, and sponsorship opportunities are available at ormhof.org. Randy Anderson is the president of Walker Evans Racing where he began his career at age 16. “When I first met Randy Anderson, he was still in high school and he worked after school sweeping floors for Walker Evans,” wrote Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame (ORMHOF) inductee Dick Landfield before he passed away, “Randy was motivated, and his desire was not limited to getting a faster broom. Walker saw the raw material of a future super star and he trained Randy to be a good mechanic, a fabricator, and a machinist.” By the time he graduated from high school, Anderson was in line to become Walker Evans’ crew chief. Together, Evans and Anderson won 122 races and 16 championships. Many other successful drivers spent time behind the wheel at Walker Evans racing, including ORMHOF inductee Rob MacCachren. Walker Evans Racing teams won 178 races and 31 championships. More than four decades later, Anderson is still with Walker Evans, as president and managing partner of Walker Evans Racing products. He has designed, engineered, developed, and fabricated suspension components and shock absorbers, building Walker Evans Racing products into one of the largest manufacturers in the off-road industry. Lance Clifford combined his passion for recreational off-roading and competition rock crawling and harness it into the Pirate4x4.com website. Clifford and the Pirate4x4.com moderators brought the off-road community together under the umbrella of an often rowdy and raucous forum format that offered opinionated energy and a strong voice for many important causes and campaigns. “Lance Clifford gave me, and fellow land use advocates the most prominent and influential platform for communication and engagement in the world,” said ORMHOF inductee Del Albright. “He did this freely and openly as his part of keeping our trails open and helping save our off-roading sports.” Clifford was also a pioneer in bringing live coverage to off-road competition and events. Years before YouTube offered live-streaming video on Pirate4x4.com. Vic Curl is considered one of off-road motorsport’s biggest contributors on hard work, a no-nonsense personality, and the backbone to always stand up for the truth. His career can be categorized into three distinct eras – the Jeep years, the SCORE/PPI years, and the Trackside Performance years. From 1975 to 1988 Curl worked with Jeep, leading dealer groups on the Rubicon Trail and supporting Jeep racers at off-road events. In 1978, he convinced Jeep brass to allow him to take a corporate mobile training semi to Baja for race support. Curl got his CDL so he could drive it himself. As one of the first corporate support vehicles for racers, the semi made a huge impression at the 1978 SCORE Baja 1000. In 1989 Curl went to work for future ORMHOF inductees Sal Fish and Bill Savage doing event logistics and tech inspection under the SCORE International umbrella. In 1990 Curl received a call from future ORMHOF inductee Cal Wells to join the PPI team. Curl oversaw portions of the team’s Mickey Thompson stadium effort with future Hall of Fame inductees Ivan Stewart and Roger Mears. He also managed PPI division’s Precision Service Racing Group (PSRG), supplying trackside and engineering tire support for Yokohama. From 2000 to present Vic has supported Yokohama’s North American motorsports activity through Trackside Performance, a company he founded with partner Chikara (Cheech) Yamaguchi. Butch Dean has been in the off-road industry for more than fifty years. In 1968 he opened a small shop in Las Vegas with Orlo Cox and Jim Dixon. Butch Dean’s Valley Speed Shop remains at the same location to this day. “He was always trying to better the performance of the engines, transmissions, and suspension of his cars,” said Pat Dean of his dad, Butch. “He was willing to provide any help needed to his fellow racers and always and always had a trailer full of spare parts and equipment to share.” Some of the winningest drivers, many of whom are in the Hall of Fame, were mentored by Butch Dean, including Rob MacCachren, BJ Baldwin, Bud Feldkamp, Jack Johnson, and generations of the Herbst and Gaughan families. Jim Fricker is most know for riding with Rod Hall in Ford Broncos during his career which started in 1958 after serving in the Marine Corps. With the help of the G.I. Bill, Jim started trade school to become a mechanic. By 1961 he completed not only trade school but a stint at the General Motors Training Center. From 1961 until his retirement in 1991 Jim wrenched at the Hemet Buick-Pontiac dealership. Fricker’s first foray into off-road racing came in 1969 with his friend Carl Jackson, who had secured a seat in one of the James Garner (Off Road Motorsports Hall of Fame 1978) American International Racers Ramblers that was experimental with four-wheel-drive. Jackson and Fricker brought that Rambler home fourth in class and were the first of the Ramblers back to Ensenada. Fricker continued to ride with Jackson for three more years in Bill Stroppe (Off Road Motorsports Hall of Fame 1978) prepared Ford Broncos. After the 1973 season Stroppe moved Jackson into a Courier mini truck which was too small for his tall frame. Fricker then moved to the Bronco of Rod Hall, which would start a partnership that would last through 1994. When Fricker retired from the right seat, he amassed an impressive list of wins. Twelve SCORE Baja 1000s, eleven SCORE Baja 500s (or International’s), eight Mint 400s, and a host of Parker 400s, Fireworks 250s, Frontier 500s and 250s, and many others. Jim Fricker won races in America, Mexico, Australia, and Africa. Brad Lovell is one of off-road’s greatest ambassadors who played a leading role in bringing Ford back to rock sports, promoting the importance of responsible use of public lands, and representing off-road in professional manner. With 19 years in competition, Brad has had a tremendous effect on Off-Road. From a start in a two-car garage and a used Ranger, Lovell has built a small empire demonstrating that the little guy can build it, can win, and can be successful. Lovell has worked to tirelessly to promote responsible land use, most notably through three successful “Expedition Colorado” events. Since 2017 Lovell has worked with Ford Motor Company as Bronco & Limit Off-Road Training Manager. He works with the Bronco product development team to offer engineering feedback, product validation, and host remote testing operations. He acted as logistics manager and guide during multiple trips in Johnson Valley CA, Moab UT, Durhamtown GA, and through the Rubicon Trail. He is the lead off-road development driver for the program, and also manages, and is the lead trainer for the Ford Limit Off-Road Endorsement. Eric Solorzano rose from humble beginnings as an orphan boy in Tijuana, Mexico, to becoming the winningest Mexican national in off-road racing history. In 1974, he started racing off-road on motorcycles in local races around Tijuana and continued until 1988 when he decided to trade two wheels for four after an injury. Solorzano bought his first VW Bug in 1989 and competed in his first race in 1991. Solorzano still owns and races the same car more than 30 years later, and has a second VW in his stable of which he competes in Class 11, the stock VW class. He first competed in the Mexican Record Series and then SCORE International, where he has won 11 championships and still competes to this day. “Class 11 was the only real option for my budget without compromise,” he said. “It’s really easy to spend more than what you really have in off-road racing. This is more than enough to keep me busy and be happy which is the point of all this, to have fun and not feel like you have to prove anything to anyone, pure passion.” “Eric became the ‘King of Class 11’ by working six days a week as a mechanic while being a husband and father with eight children, sending them to college,” said nominator Robert Lawrence. “He has used his success to promote the sport of off-road in the press, in movies, as a mentor, and to inspire the less fortunate who dream of racing.” Scott Taylor started his path to the Hall of Fame at a young age. “I was hopping up my dad’s lawn mower to make it mow faster when I was 6-years old,” Taylor was quoted as saying in a 2012 interview. His first off-road vehicle was Volkswagen powered buggy he acquired in 1972 as a junior in high school, then began off-road racing in 1974 at Lake Geneva Raceway. In a career spanning five decades, Taylor won 18 championships and received many awards. During the 1990s, competing in the Short-course Off-road Drivers Association (SODA) series, he was honored as a sportsman of the year and driver of the year, and received a best pit appearance award. Taylor raced Ford Motor Company vehicles for much of his professional career, receiving a Ford/SODA Hard Charging Award and being selected to drive for the popular Ford Rough Riders team. He dominated CORR Pro2 from 1999 to 2004, winning six consecutive championships. A privateer racer with a limited budget, Taylor’s wife Kellie served as team coordinator. In 1984 Taylor opened Taylor Off-Road Racing, manufacturing performance race parts. He retired from racing in 2013, changing the name of his company to Scott Taylor Engineering. “You can do anything you want to do. You just have to want to do it bad enough,” said Taylor. “That’s been my legacy, and that has been my words of wisdom to everyone I’ve crossed paths with. I’ve spoken at schools and churches, and I’ve had people come up to me years later and thank me for those words.” Mike Thomas is a Hall of Fame legacy inductee who passed away in 2007. As owner of Chenowth Racing Products from 1979 to 2007, Thomas took the brand around the globe amassing an impressive list of accolades, including six SCORE chassis manufacturer of the year awards. By the time of his death in 2007, Chenowth race cars had 12 SCORE International overall victories at the SCORE Baja 1000, more than any other manufacturer. Chenowth cars were raced by some of the top names in the sport, including ORMHOF inductees Rob MacCachren, Bob and Robby Gordon, Corky and Mark McMillin, Jack Johnson, Ivan Stewart, Roger Mears, Johnny Johnson and others, winning hundreds of races and multiple championships in every off-road series in North America. Competitive success in North America eventually led to interest from racers around the globe. Throughout the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s Chenowth cars won events in Australian and South African race series. Jean-Louis Schlesser took a Chenowth based chassis to several 2WD victories and two overall victories in the formidable African rally. Thomas is also responsible for selling the first recreational buggies in the middle east. In the early 1980’s several clients from Saudi Arabia purchased Chenowth recreational cars. These early trips and subsequent sales in the middle east laid the foundation for a lucrative overseas future for several US based off-road buggy manufacturers. Thomas also worked with motion picture and television studios, providing vehicles and training to stars like Tom Selleck, Chuck Norris, Wesley Snipes, and James Brolin. He provided vehicles for stunt shows at Universal Studios and produced six replica Batmobiles for Six Flags Theme Parks. By the late 1970’s Thomas learned that the U.S. Military was preparing for the battles that would be fought in the deserts of the Middle East. Chenowth built over 300 highly specialized off-road vehicles for several branches, including the Army, Marines Force Recon, and Navy Seals. Putting personal risk aside, Thomas accompanied the vehicles to the war zone, providing training and support to the troops on the operation of his Chenowth FAV Fast Attack Vehicles. At the time, Chenowth vehicles were the only “battle proven” vehicles to be manufactured from within the off-road racing industry.