SCORE Journal

SCORE Journal - July 2018

SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing

Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1006877

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 14 of 90

Racing for Trophies SCORE Celebrates 25 Years of Trophy Truck Competition By Stephen Romero In a Las Vegas casino banquet room 25 years ago, Sal Fish faced off with leading car company executives in hopes of getting their full support for a new series called SCORE Trophy Trucks. As the story goes, Fish explained that SCORE Trophy Trucks would be the most unlimited rides that off-road desert racing had ever seen, based “loosely” on production model trucks of the era. Frank DeAngelo, an independent marketing executive at the time, was a SCORE consultant and witnessed their reaction to what Fish had pitched. “Since it had been discussed with them prior to the meeting, I think the manufacturers had a look of satisfaction and approval,” said DeAngelo. “It was going to be faster, bigger, and better than anything else at SCORE, and they knew it.” Fish entrusted DeAngelo with helping to bring in funding to make the concept happen, and in less than one year DeAngelo did. It was not a slam dunk for DeAngelo, however, nothing like this had ever been done in off-road racing. According to Fish, the manufacturers leaned toward unlimited horsepower trucks with custom tube-frames, fiberglass bodies, and mega-dollar long-travel suspensions, a definite departure from Class 8. Class 8 trucks like the Filmore Ford, were the dominant trucks in SCORE, and utilized factory frames and rear suspension systems The outlook is that these vehicles were going to be all-out, crazy builds that vaguely resembled the production models. They would be “factory-backed” and raced against each other, but not necessarily built by the individual car manufacturers. Rather, the new SCORE Trophy Trucks would end up being the creation of builders like PPI Motorsports, Bill Stroppe, Mike Smith and others of the era. Fish knew the OE manufacturers were onboard after that first meeting in Las Vegas. Everyone wanted to get started once the funding could be arranged. Fish cautioned them, however, that the costs to race unlimited Trophy Trucks would be very steep, much more expensive than the trucks racing Class 1 or Class 8, two of the most powerful classes in SCORE. Fish obviously realized that companies such as Ford would step up because they (and BFGoodrich Tires) had already supported teams like the legendary Rough Riders, Robby Gordon, and others, but to get more major OE players involved would be a feat. The winner of the first SCORE Tecate Trophy Truck race was Paul Simon (center holding trophy) with Dan Simon. Larry Ragland, far right came in second and John Swift, far left finished third at the SCORE Parker 400 in Arizona Tecate Trophy Truck Series “It was something that the automakers wanted to do, and they were willing to spend whatever it took to bring home a SCORE Baja Championship, at least initially,” said Fish about the new series of SCORE Trophy Trucks. After DeAngelo secured the funding, the new SCORE-approved class would make its debut in 1994, but it would do so in its own series known as the SCORE Tecate Trophy Trucks. It was exclusively campaigned by Toyota, Ford, Dodge, Jeep, Chevy, Nissan, and others, who were quick to seize the moment in the spotlight, given the fact that now they had the opportunity to advertise their brands as “Baja Proven” vehicles. The old NASCAR adage “Race on Sunday and sell on Monday” was a natural fit. Gordon Goes with Ford One of the first of many to race with a factory SCORE Trophy Truck team was Robby Gordon at the wheel of a Ford F-150, who had raced in Class 1 and Class 8 with tremendous success. He jumped into the SCORE Tecate Trophy Truck Series and enjoyed not having rules to drive the fastest vehicles in the desert. “My first SCORE Trophy Truck was sponsored by Tecate, La Victoria, BFGoodrich Tires, and Ford,” said Gordon. “The build was something so different. We went away from the rules of Class 8, requiring to use factory steel doors, a factory steel cab, and leaf springs. It changed the game of off-road racing from the buggies being the fastest cars, to trucks being the fastest vehicles in the desert.” DeAngelo agreed with Gordon’s view of early SCORE Trophy Truck racing, saying that the first season was incredible. “The SCORE Tecate Trophy Truck class gave the manufacturers and auto designers the freedom to develop whatever they wanted. There were factory teams that did small, nimble, and light vehicles, while others created big, brute-force trucks. It really stretched their imaginations.” Circa 1995, guys like Ivan Stewart began winning races for Toyota while Smith and Simon would also compete for the top trophies in each race No Rules Class Fish created the SCORE Tecate Trophy Truck series concept to run in conjunction with other SCORE events. Depending on the venue, they would sometimes run a day before or a day after the actual SCORE race that consisted of all the other classes. “We came up with the name Trophy Truck, because these vehicles were raced to win trophies for the manufacturers, and it stuck,” said Fish. “We told the manufacturers that they needed a marquee race vehicle to run SCORE events. We talked about the rules and they said they didn’t want any build rules, they wanted an unlimited class.” Vehicles had 18-20 inches of wheel travel and engine power shot up to 1000 hp in some vehicles. It was an era of trial and error where many parts were individually manufactured, tested, broken, then redesigned to be stronger for the next race. It was a scenario that worked well for a while and from 1994 to 1997, the factory teams raced like there was no end in sight. First Official Winner in 1994 The first driver of record to win a SCORE Tecate Trophy Truck race was Paul Simon driving a Ford F-150, at the SCORE Parker 400 race in Arizona. Simon was one of 13 drivers in the new SCORE Trophy Truck division and finished in three-hours 46-minutes. In second place, seven minutes behind Simon in another Ford truck was none other than Rob MacCachren. While MacCachren was an up and coming driver at the time, the SCORE Tecate Trophy Truck division ultimately led him to his current success as one of off-road racing’s top drivers in history. Although MacCachren didn’t win a race during the inaugural SCORE Tecate Trophy Truck season, his consistency of finishing in the top three at each event allowed him to capture the first SCORE Overall Tecate Trophy Truck Championship that year. Not to be out-driven, Gordon’s Ford F-150 backed team overwhelmed the field during the 1996 season and won all but one SCORE Tecate Trophy Truck race that year.” Gordon would be crowned season point champion in 1996. Rob MacCachren won the first SCORE Tecate Trophy Truck Championship with Venable Racing who was one of six teams backed by Ford. Observing the success from the start, DeAngelo pointed out that SCORE Trophy Trucks dominated off-road desert racing from the very beginning. “When was the last time you heard a motorcycle or buggy winning the overall championship?” asked DeAngelo. “The SCORE Trophy Trucks took the sport of off-road racing to a whole new level.” Engineering Support Factory support was critical to SCORE Trophy Trucks in those first few years. The vehicles were complicated builds for anyone but the best engineers. Cal Wells of PPI, who built and prepped race vehicles for Toyota with Ivan “Ironman” Stewart behind the wheel, knew there would be unknown obstacles. But PPI would claim a large share of Trophy Truck victories for Toyota from the onset. Wells loved the concept of SCORE Trophy Trucks immediately, and in comparison to the strict rules of Class 8, he became a believer in the concept. “The Class 8 rules were relatively restrictive at the time,” said Wells. “You were required to utilize a production base chassis. Although a Class 8 race truck in those days was highly modified, the fundamental suspension systems had to maintain the same architecture as was originally produced on a factory truck for that specific vehicle. “You could cross over suspension designs based on the years it was manufactured, (coil spring on a Chevy ’66 pickup truck with truck arms versus leaf springs, or Twin I-Beam on a Ford pickup truck versus upper and lower control arms, and so on). But you couldn’t do many other things to improve performance from a design perspective. So Class 8 vehicles were a steel body, a big hotrod engine, the biggest tires you can fit under it, and as much wheel travel as you can get out of a production based designed suspension system. Then you are off to the races. These trucks were very, very fast in Mexico with guys like Walker Evans and Robby Gordon winning races overall in this Class 8 category. As the buggies gained more horsepower the courses became rougher and the right vehicle in concept was a Trophy Truck.” The PPI Toyota Trophy Truck was another unique vehicle that was optimally configured for a single driver, Ivan Stweart, and pushed Trophy Truck design into a new era Wells pointed out that the basic Trophy Truck is fundamentally unlimited, anything you wanted to build. “The type and style of chassis, engine location, suspension design is a free and unique design, and with the only requirement being that the overall tubular space frame vehicle must be housed with the production-based/styled body. “Consequently you can build a tubular space frame, mid-engine, very low center of gravity, in a radically suspended vehicle that can provide the best compromise for the driver going over rough terrain through the deserts of Nevada, or the winding fast roads of Baja California.” Indeed, PPI was the first to be successful in creating a single-seater, mid-engine Trophy Truck that won races with Ivan Stewart behind the wheel. Factories Bow Out By the fall of 1997, the manufacturers had retreated from SCORE Trophy Truck racing, as Fish had predicted they might. The cost per season had dampened their enthusiasm to compete, and the future of the series swung in the balance. “ At the start, I explained the costs involved in such a class and that it might cost them millions of dollars to compete,” said Fish. “I recall them saying that it wasn’t a big deal. But ultimately they had an awakening and realized the costs were way too high. I figured that was the end of SCORE Trophy Trucks.” Davey Ashley and Dan Smith also drove for Dick Landfield’s Enduro Racing, which was a part of the Ford Rough Rider team. After Ford dropped out, Smith and Ashley continued to race in SCORE Trophy Truck Meanwhile, factory drivers, many of whom were SCORE Tecate Trophy Truck season champions from ’94 to ’97, appeared to have nowhere to go. They had reached the top of the mountain in racing and now their dreams seemed over. One by one both automotive and lifestyle sponsors began to pick up the pieces left by the absence of the manufacturers, and SCORE Trophy Truck racing got a reprieve in 1998 from what could have been its final chapter. By this time, Fish decided that the SCORE Trophy Trucks would now run against the other classes, no longer in its own series. With new sponsors emblazoned on each Trophy Truck team in 1998, racers such as Gordon, MacCachren, Larry Roeseler, Larry Ragland, and Ed and Tim Herbst, and others battled it out across the Baja Peninsula in these top-flight machines. Wells and PPI hung in there too as privateers. The Geiser Brothers became one of the industry’s leading Trophy Truck builders. One of their first creations was the Ford F-150 for Gus Vildosola Sr. By 2001, the SCORE Trophy Truck field had exploded, the championship-winning vehicle builds of Geiser Brothers, Herbst Smith Fabrication, Jimco, and others were adding to the excitement of SCORE racing. Its growth was spurred in part by the overwhelming support of race fans and the immense television coverage in households around the country. The growing TV audience and the automotive magazine coverage made rock stars of the drivers. In the years that followed, global sponsors like BFGoodrich Tires, Monster Energy, Duralast Batteries, Bud Light, and Toyo Tire wanted to support SCORE Trophy Trucks, many more would follow their lead. The Future of Trophy Trucks So where do SCORE Trophy Trucks go from here? Longtime SCORE racer Mark McMillin shared some of his thoughts. “My boys Luke and Dan, as well as my nephew Andy, are all racing SCORE Trophy Trucks,” said McMillin. “They are the second generation of McMillins to race the class. My brother Scott and I both raced SCORE Trophy Trucks and now that experience is passed to them. I witnessed the factory teams in the ‘90s and then it went to privateers, but it’s now financed by the rich guys chasing rich guys. But it is good for the sport because there is no comparison between Class 1 and SCORE Trophy Trucks. I see the future in the next generation of four-wheel drives vehicles coming.” Privateers like current SCORE International CEO Roger Norman got into SCORE Trophy Truck racing and has helped carry it through to its modern-day success Since the beginning of Trophy Truck competition, the driveline configuration has always leaned to two-wheel drive vehicles, but according to several teams and vehicle builders, that is slowly being challenged by guys like the Geiser Brothers. The all-wheel-drive Geiser-built Trophy Truck that was built for RPM OffRoad team owner and driver Justin Matney, is pushing the limits of the modern SCORE Trophy Truck. RPM OffRoad also has a vehicle with a twin-engine, also built by Geiser, and driven by Clyde Stacy. It’s another example of the evolution of Trophy Truck performance. Stacy’s vehicle is equipped with two V6 engines, one drives the front and the other drives the rear wheels independently of the other. It’s a concept created by the Geiser Brothers and it is breaking new ground. “My brother Jeff worked for Walker Evans’ team early on, and that’s where we got our start in Trophy Truck racing,” said Rick Geiser. “Our first actual Trophy Truck build was for Gus Vildósola Sr. back in 2002. Modern Trophy Trucks like RPM Off Road’s 4wd Geiser built Chevy, are testing the limits of new designs and drivetrains Over the years we have built about 50 Trophy Trucks so far. From where it started in the ‘90s the only thing that’s gotten better with Trophy Trucks is the quality of the parts. The costs of these parts today are really expensive. A transmission used to be $3,500 and now they are $24,000. The rear ends have gotten bigger and the big block engines are making 1,000 horsepower. The tires have gone from 37-inches to 40-inches. From where we are today, you will ultimately see more drivability, reliability and superior electronics, but it ultimately comes down the efficiencies in pitting support. Seconds separate first to second place in races like the SCORE Baja 500, so track and pit support really matters most once the truck is built.” The Top Class Continues As of 2018, SCORE Trophy Truck competition ranks as SCORE’s top-seated classes. A total of 33 SCORE Trophy Trucks started the 50th annual SCORE Baja 500 and it continues to draw in new competitors who have the opportunity to race in various segments of the SCORE Trophy Truck class, including Trophy Truck Legends and Trophy Truck Spec classes. “The SCORE Trophy Truck class itself is awesome,” said Gordon. “Nowhere else do racers get to line up against 30 to 40 of the best trucks in the world. Every year it gets bigger and bigger, and it’s been one hell of a ride!” Even with build costs averaging $500,000 or more per vehicle, the future of SCORE Trophy Trucks is secure. While the auto manufacturers no longer fund the build of these vehicles, some still lend support to certain teams such as BJ Baldwin’s Toyota effort. SCORE Trophy Trucks are only limited by the builder’s imagination, and as long as the sponsors and fans want to see these monsters race, SCORE Trophy Trucks have an unlimited future in a sport that is constantly evolving. SJ

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of SCORE Journal - SCORE Journal - July 2018