JIM LOOMIS AND BUD
WRIGHT DRIVING
A STROPPE BUILT
BRONCO DURING THE
1971 BAJA 1000.
INSIDE BAJA
BRONCO
BROCHURE
THAT FEATURES
STROPPE'S
UPGRADES.
couple years earlier, when the
Ford Motor Company launched
its new Bronco in 1965, they
sent a couple to Stroppe for
him to evaluate. A year later,
1966, Stroppe took one of the
Broncos and entered it into one
of the first off-road races at
Riverside Raceway in Southern
California. Stroppe had a blast,
and immediately he set things
into motion. Within a matter of
weeks, Stroppe was back out at
Riverside Raceway with a flock
of automotive journalists to
promote the Ford Bronco. He
let them drive the track, burn
some film, fed them lunch, and
write about the experience.
It worked every time. Ford
loved the press coverage and
encouraged Stroppe to continue
building the Ford Bronco brand.
By 1967, Stroppe seized
the opportunity to race the
Bronco and signed up for the
first Baja 1000 race. Stroppe
would navigate and introduced
Ray Harvick as the driver. To
prepare for the race, Stroppe
would run the West Coast Ford
media-fleet operations and
continue to prep the Bronco into
a race truck at night. Stroppe
built his first race Bronco
with the same dedication and
craftsmanship he had applied
to the many winning race cars
he had built before. However,
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SCORE JOURNAL
