SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/555623
punched well above its weight from its earliest days, and which continues to do so today. The San Diego-area father and son duo of Doug Fortin Sr. and his son, Doug Jr., have racked up wins across six decades of com- petition, bringing innovative thinking and a close-knit family atmosphere to their own team and to the collective off-road world every step of the way. Together, they continue to be a driving force that helps to shape our sport and move it forward. Early Days Of Racing For Doug Fortin Sr. (though he and his son don't actually share the same middle name and are not actually Sr. and Jr., the Sr. and Jr. tags have stuck with them for a long time now), racing began before off-road was even considered a sport. Starting out in go-karts at the age of 14, Fortin Sr. found some success locally, before then moving on to try his hand at both drag racing and slalom events starting around 1960. Only a few years later, Fortin Sr. also began to experiment with building and driving off- road buggies. These first early cars had big V8s dropped into primitive chassis built out of water pipe, and afforded Fortin Sr. the chance to compete in hill climb and short course races out in the sand dunes of Glamis and Gordons Well. "These were the first real organized off- road races," Fortin Sr. recalls. Although he wasn't a winner straight away, the experience gained here from 1962-1964 helped to start a love affair with a sport in which he's still highly involved to this day. The Navy Calls Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at things, that path was then interrupted by a move north to Vallejo, California, where Fortin Sr. finished his machinist apprenticeship at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Working 12 hours a day, seven days a week, Fortin Sr. was a part of the Polaris Submarine team. At the same time, his wife Sandy became pregnant with their daughter Kelly, and the two moved back to San Diego, where Fortin Sr. took a job at NAS North Island as a journeyman machinist. While continuing his 84 hour-a-week routine by day, Fortin Sr. also returned to off-road racing after hours, building a customized Jeep CJ5 in his garage for use in the well-known Tierra del Sol Jeep Club. Outfitted with a 327 Chevy, a T10 4-speed, and a narrowed Chevy rear end, Fortin Sr. and his budding family did a lot of climbing in the local mud hills and sand dunes east of San Diego. FORTIN SR. LAUNCHES THE "PUPPY" THROUGH ONE OF MANY WATER CROSSINGS ALONG THE SANTA ANA RIVER BOTTOM DURING BRIAN CHUCHUA'S 1970 NATIONAL FOUR-WHEEL- DRIVE GRAND PRIX. IN THE EVENT'S MATCH RACE FORMAT, FORTIN SR. FLIPPED IN AN EARLIER RACE, BUT STILL MADE IT FURTHER THAN HIS OPPONENT, ROD HALL, AND WENT ON TO WIN THE FINAL AND TAKE THE OVERALL FOR THE WEEKEND. 058 SCORE JOURNAL