SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/972318
Returning To BAJA Pat Bell’s earliest memories of racing are of family traditions forged in Baja racing By Stephen Romero Photography Courtesy of Pat Bell Pat Bell’s earliest childhood memories of SCORE desert racing were as a four-year old boy watching his father Patric race in CLASS 11 (#49) in the 1975 SCORE Baja 1000. He never forgot the experience. Little did he know that decades would fly-by before the thought of seriously racing a SCORE Baja 1000 like his dad, would actually become a reality for him. “Dad loved the challenge of off-road desert racing and as a family, we loved everything he did,” said Pat Bell from his home in Anchorage, Alaska. “Dad made off-road racing so exciting for our entire family when we were young. It was something my two brothers (Kash and Kolt) and me always did growing up.” A Big Move From Arizona to Alaska During the 1970s, and ‘80s, Bell’s father raced off-road desert events in Mexico, with Pat and his brother by their dad’s side. Living in Arizona, it was only a day’s drive to Ensenada, which made their racing efforts accessible. Eventually, the family packed up and moved away, but they never lost their love of the sport. What the young Bell boys couldn’t imagine, however, is how far away they were going to be from Baja. Moving from Arizona to Anchorage, Alaska, it was 3,784 miles away from Mexico, and with temperatures dipping to minus 20 degrees, it was a big environmental change as well. Nevertheless, Alaska is where Bell’s father decided to set up shop as an electrician. It was at this time, that off-road desert racing looked like it would become a faded memory as their new life in Alaska took on a whole other set of priorities. In Alaska, Pat grew into a businessman like his father, and ultimately formed a successful flooring company called Big Bob’s Flooring. Racing Baja was always good family conversation at the dinner table, but it was never as attainable as it was when they lived back in Arizona. Work dominated their time and the years in the Great White North drifted by until in the 1990s when Pat got an idea to bring his family back to off-road desert racing. Rod Hall Off-Road School Pat made a decision in the early ‘90s, to do something special for his father’s birthday. Bell and is brothers took their father to Rod Hall’s Off-Road Racing School to reinvigorate their passions once again. It worked. They returned to Alaska with fresh hopes of one day racing Baja again. With renewed enthusiasm to be in a Baja race, the Bell family was hit with some unfortunate news. Patric Bell had developed an environmental type illness and the long-term prognosis was not looking good. The Bell’s sold off their dad’s electrical business in Alaska and they began to travel through the U.S. over the following five years, trying to enjoy what years they had left with their dad. A Second Chance By now any thought of racing together as a family seemed over for the Bell family. But Pat, Kash and Kolt weren’t giving up on the family’s dream to visit Baja again. The brothers decided to fly to Mexico and participate in the Wide Open Baja Experience, just prior to the 2007 SCORE Baja 1000. Driving the vehicles in Baja, Pat realized they could rent a race vehicle from Wide Open Baja and participate in the 40th annual event in 2007. “We went to Wide Open Baja and it was a blast, so when I came back to Alaska I told my dad that I wanted the family to race Baja in one of their cars. He was really excited, and seemed to get better just thinking about it,” said Bell. “He was genuinely thrilled with the idea, and he actually started recovering with the anticipation of racing again as a family” said Bell. But instead of renting one of the Wide Open Baja vehicles for the race, we ended up buying a Class 10 car instead. My dad even went down and personally checked out the race car, and we did some preliminary races to get an idea of what we were about to do. Everything was great, but what we didn’t know is how competitive Class 10 was in SCORE. It shocked all of us.” The Bell family’s first official race with the new race car was disastrous. After 20 miles in, they blew an engine. Determined to get ready for the upcoming SCORE Baja 1000, they towed it back to Alaska and figured out how to repair it in time for the event using a builder in California. Finally, the day came to enter the 2007 40th anniversary of the SCORE Baja 1000. The Bell family was pumped, and Pat was ready to make good on the promise to his dad. This time, they drove a better race and made it 240 miles into the race before having to withdraw due to transmission issues near Mike’s Sky Ranch. “We didn’t pre-run the course,” said Bell. We really didn’t know what we were doing, but at least we had returned to race the SCORE Baja 1000 as a family once again. My dad was a huge part of that and it meant everything to him.” A Family Legacy Patric Bell died a year later, and although the Bell family was happy they were able to give their dad another taste of SCORE racing before his passing, they felt their previous attempts were left unfinished. Determined to start and finish a SCORE Baja 1000, Pat returned in 2017 participating with a team that had a new Class 1 vehicle. He raced at the 50th Anniversary of the SCORE Baja 1000 in his dad’s memory. In the biggest race of his life, Pat finished in seventh place during the most celebrated peninsula run from Ensenada to La Paz. It was a special day that he relives with a sense of satisfaction, like that first time he saw his dad race in 1975. The Bell family and their memories speak volumes of the values and inspiration that are at SCORE’s foundation, and are a perfect example of what Baja can do to bring families together.