SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1526915
OREN ANDERSON Bryce Menzies’ Co-Driver Is Part Of The Team’s Winning Formula Story by Stuart Bourdon Photography: Get Some Photo Unless you’re deeply involved in off-road racing, you probably don’t know who Oren Anderson is. That’s the way it is with navigators. They may stand atop the vehicle with the driver, awash in champagne when the race has been won, but often the camera and microphone are in front of the driver when it comes time to tell how they got to the finish line first. There are some navigators, however, who stand out among the crowd. Anderson is one of those. He began prepping trucks and doing some navigating at Riviera Racing from 2003 to 2007. He worked with Casey Currie for about 10 years and raced with Justin Smith and Tracy Graff for two seasons. Anderson was offered the co-driver seat with Bryce Menzies in 2018 and has been part of the team ever since. “I heard he didn’t have a committed navigator and was looking around,” said Anderson. “The Menzies team was getting ready to pre-run the SCORE Baja 1000. Bryce asked me to come down for one of the sections to see how it goes. We clicked right away.” “From that point on, we just kept getting stronger together. Bryce is so fast. It motivated me to become faster and better at my job. I want to be able to deliver at the same level he does. I’m feeding Bryce course information and updates so that he always knows what’s ahead of him, and tire changes are being done in 45 seconds. It helps keep us up front with consistently good finishes.” Qualifying Sets The Pace As a multi-race winner and the only driver to win SCORE’s “Grand Slam,” winning all four of SCORE’s current races, (SCORE San Felipe 250, Baja 500, Baja 400, and Baja 1000), Bryce Menzies and the team have always been out front setting the pace for the SCORE Trophy Truck class. “Often it’s qualifying that determines the pace for how busy your day’s going to be from the right seat,” says Anderson. “One of the most important responsibilities of a co-driver is delivering the information the driver needs to know at that specific point in the race – what’s coming and what to expect next so they can run the pace that they want to race.” “Qualifying well and having less dust is a big help. When you are farther back, and visibility is bad, you have to keep your eyes on the GPS and try to maintain a fast pace with just your notes because you can’t see anything ahead or around you. This is when you can get surprised. Dust or no dust, Bryce is always focused on driving, so the game becomes one of relaying course information second by second to him, while at the same time providing accurate information to our crews about the truck’s performance and our position on the course.” If spare parts are needed, Anderson is the one who lets the crews know where and when those parts are needed. There’s a lot of information juggling going on, as well as details on two completely different levels. According to Anderson, the co-driver must deliver vehicle locations, conditions, and possible needs to the crew, all while relaying racecourse information to the driver. Higher Speeds, Higher Risks Anderson admitted that as SCORE Trophy Trucks get faster, the driver’s and co-driver’s jobs become more difficult. “The pace is so much faster now that little mistakes are happening more often because we’re going so much faster. We’re getting to spots on the course faster than we can anticipate as a navigator. If you take your eyes off the GPS for more than a few seconds in a high-pace scenario, your chances of having something bad happen grow exponentially.” “We’ve been bitten a few times in different situations because our speeds are so high there’s no time to react. Things have changed a lot in the 20-plus years I’ve been in the right-hand seat. It used to be a reward to ride in a SCORE Trophy Truck and you might have a few hundred notes. It’s still a thrill, but now the top teams have between 3,000 and 5,000 waypoints in the GPS for every race.” Of his ever more demanding role, Anderson was clear, “a navigator has to be able to juggle the GPS, keep one eye on the notes, and the other eye on what’s ahead. I’ve always enjoyed the team aspect of the driver/navigator partnership and am perfectly suited for the right-hand seat in one of the fastest SCORE Trophy Trucks driven by one of the fastest drivers in off-road racing.” SJ