SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/668518
need, but it created something for BFGoodrich internally that we never forgot. We made a lot of teams happy. We quickly realized that If you can enable people to do what they really love to do, your circle of friends gets big really quick." DeAngelo moved from driving the tractor trailer to managing the pit program in 1983. "Some of our top teams joined the program and helped us put together a network of pits every 100 miles along the course," said DeAngelo. "Later on, Dan Newsome took over the pit program, but by that time, some of those original teams that helped out thought the pits were becoming more competitive. So we began contracting other groups to provide pits for us. We ended up contracting with organizations like Spirit Racing to help us out, but we also had lots of people who wanted to volunteer. The program grew to the point where we had lots of trucks, trailers and teams, including Gary Johnson, father of NASCAR driver Jimmy Johnson. We eventually had to move away from teams participating and gathered people who were more specialized in pitting so that it could be done quickly, efficiently, safely, and without any bias. To this day, BFGoodrich continues to use two or three of its own trailers and have three pit-teams that we contract with, to run a pit for us. We plan about 20 people in the pits, welders, fabricators tire changers, mechanics, cooks, medics, and even bi- lingual workers to manage communications. What's amazing is that 90 percent of all those people are volunteers. They take their vacations to come down and support the pit program, and many have been doing this for 15 to 25 years!" Needless to say, the pit program was very successful not only for racers but for BFGoodrich as well, as the only requirement to utilize them was to run the company's tires. Over the years, many racers, teams, and champions have utilized BFGoodrich's Pit Program, including now SCORE International owner Roger Norman, who won the overall SCORE Baja 1000 in 2008. "My first involvement with the BFG pit program was with my Class 12 car in 1996,"said Norman. "I purchased BFG tires and got free pit service. My wife Elise was driving a truck with a trailer, and only had a few parts, not even any spares for the vehicle." For those racers who were first getting involved with SCORE, utilization of the BFGoodrich pits was a great way for them to stay in competition. "The development of the BFGoodrich Pit Program was key for SCORE and many teams," said Norman. "When you're starting out in desert racing, you don't know what you're doing. BFG's pit program to this day makes it easy and affordable." TIME FOR A FULL- RACE ONLY TIRE As the pit program grew from its beginnings in the early '80s, BFGoodrich's line of off- road tires also grew. The Sport Truck T/A debuted in the mid '80's, which was the same tire used in Baja racing, with a three-ply design, but had a different tread. With more teams running BFGoodrich tires, it was inevitable that the company would enjoy its first SCORE Baja 1000 overall win in 1986, with Mark McMillin and Ralph Paxton in a Porsche- powered Chenoweth running on the Radial All-Terrain T/A. Following that overall victory, BFGoodrich had a winning streak with several Class 1 and Class 2 wins which included an overall win with Bob Gordon and Malcolm Smith in 1987, then with Mark McMillin again in 1988. In 1983, Corky and Scott McMillin won the SCORE Baja 500, with a repeat victory in 1988. ONE OF BFG'S BIGGEST SUCCESSES WITHIN SCORE HAS BEEN THE PIT PROGRAM, RUN EARLY ON BY FRANK DEANGELO AND CONINUED BY HIM AT JMG MOTORSPORTS. 014 SCORE JOURNAL