Meyers with his Manx buggy,
Parnelli Jones' Big Oly, Les
Choat's Burro, and Malcolm
Smith and Bud Feldkamp's Bel-
Ray Bullet parted the peninsula's
silt beds and shaped the future
of off-road race the world over.
In 1969, an up-and-coming
driver by the name of Rod Hall
pulled up to the starting line of
the NORRA Mexican 1000 in a
Bill Stroppe Ford Bronco. This
wasn't Hall's first rodeo—he
had run the `67 and `68 events
in a Jeep CJ-5—but he and his
teammate, Larry Minor, were
determined to land at the top
of the podium. When the dust
settled in La Paz they had not
only achieved a class win, but an
overall victory as well. Though
Hall went on to develop one
of the most successful race
teams to date, the Bronco, the
only four-wheel drive to take an
overall win in the history of the
race, would suffer a different
fate.
After carrying Hall and Minor
to victory, it was sold to fellow
racer Myron Croel for one last
hurrah, and eventually shoved
into the corner of a Southern
California auto wrecker…where
it sat until drifting sands covered
it to the dash. Around 1999,
restaurant owner Gale Pike
spotted the roll cage poking
out of the sand and recognized
it as a Stroppe creation. He
purchased the forsaken stallion
for $5,000, gave it a fresh paint
job, and placed it on display
in front of a local Denny's.
When Hall resurrected the
Off-Road Motorsports Hall of
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