SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
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THE ROUGH RIDERS The First Factory Super Team in SCORE Off-Road Racing By Dan Sanchez Photos by Trackside Photo If there was a “golden era” of SCORE’s off-road racing history, some would agree it was between 1991 and 1995, when the Ford Rough Riders team dominated the Baja desert. Many who were involved with the Rough Rider program, including team owners, builders, advocates, and drivers, would eventually be inducted into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame for their achievements and contributions to off-road racing. The Rough Rider program has a unique place in SCORE history and it started from an idea by off-road pioneer Dick Landfield. At the time he owned Ford dealerships in Southern California, and began his off-road racing career driving a Ford Bronco with Irv Hanks at the 1968 Baja 500. Years later, he created the Enduro Racing team and joined off-road pioneer Charlie Erickson as one of the founding members to create the First Association of Independent Racers (F.A.I.R.). The association allowed members to pool their resources and provide pit support for their individual teams in off-road racing. ORMHOF Inductees In This Story Dick Landfield Sal Fish Charlie Erickson Bill Stroppe Frank De Angelo Dave Ashley Manny Esquerra Rob MacCachren Scott Taylor Parnelli Jones By 1986, Landfield retired from racing and maintained ownership of the team, hiring champion racer Dave Ashley to be the driver and manager. With two Ford dealerships, Landfield came up with an idea he presented to the Ford Motor Company, calling to create a factory-backed super team that would also promote the vehicles and improve sales. “Dick was close to the people at Ford and after talking about it, they decided to move forward with the idea,” said off-road racing advocate and marketing pioneer Frank D’Angelo. “It all sounded good but Ford wasn’t sure on what the program would look like. So they contacted me and a few other agencies to submit ideas and bids. At the time, I had left working for BFGoodrich Tires and started my own motorsports marketing company called D’Angelo, Minton, and Associates (DM&A). I still had very good relationships with both Ford Motor Company and BFGoodrich Tires, and they accepted my proposal. That’s when the Rough Rider program began to move forward.” At the time, former SCORE Owner Sal Fish had heard about the program as he was long-time friends with Dick Landfield. “I got wind of the team through BFGoodrich Tires and Dick,” said Fish. “For the first time, vehicle manufacturers had come together to get more attention, and I understood it would help SCORE and the sport. So the onset of the Rough Riders wasn’t “rough” for me, in fact, it was a pleasure.” The Teams & Drivers D’Angelo’s proposal showcased SCORE International off-road racing as the perfect marketing platform to sell trucks. When BFGoodrich Tires heard about this, they jumped on board as a partner, outfitting each race vehicle in the program with their tires, and gaining significant development information in the process. Initially, there were six teams that were asked to join the Rough Riders program, who were already racing a variety of the latest Ford model vehicles in various classes such as Ford F-150 and Ford Ranger trucks. The driver roster consisted of some experienced racers hired to drive on well-developed teams, and independent racers who were racing under their own name. In 1991, the first Rough Riders included Dan Smith, Dave Ashley, Rob MacCachren, Manny Esquerra, John Swift, Chuck Johnson, and brothers Paul and Dave Simon. Later, the Rough Riders added drivers to compete in Mickey Thompson and other Stadium Truck racing series. These included Jerry Whelchel who was later replaced by Danny Thompson, Scott Taylor, Steve Olliges, and Tim Casey. From time to time Parnelli Jones was added to replace Manny Esquerra in Class 7 when there were scheduling conflicts between stadium and SCORE races. Although the Rough Riders were a Ford factory-backed entity, the teams remained separate, but the vehicles they raced were all the latest model Ford truck products. What distinguished the team was that the trucks were all painted in a similar fashion, blue on top with white at the bottom separated by a red stripe, and the Ford logo on the side. Landfield’s Enduro Racing team already had Dave Ashley driving a Ford Ranger. The team added moto racer Dan Smith. Smith had several SCORE Baja 1000 wins on a motorcycle with Dan Ashcraft, and after coming to the Enduro Team, he co-drove with Ashley to win the race three more times in Class 3, Class 4, and Class 8. They moved into The SCORE Trophy Truck Class and won three more times, including the SCORE Baja 2000, the longest SCORE race in history. Bill Stroppe had already made a name for himself early in off-road racing and with the Ford Motor Company. At the time when the Rough Riders program came up, Stroppe had Manny Esquerra driving a Ford Ranger in Class 7. Esquerra had a huge number of wins including five SCORE Baja 500’s, and six SCORE Baja 1000 among winning SCORE Diver of the Year in 1980-81. Esquerra also had multiple wins in other off-road races and helped Ford develop the Ranger brand and was nicknamed “King of the Desert.” Brothers Paul and Dave Simon were independent racers from Fallbrook, California who were also brought into the Rough Riders program. The Simon and Simon Motorsports team had many career wins in Class 7 4x4 and Class 1, including four SCORE Baja 1000 class wins. The ability for the Simon and Simon team to be a part of the Rough Riders provided them with the support they needed to keep the talented duo racing and winning. John Swift raced with his dad Ray, creating Swift Motorsports. He later drove for Landfield in a Ford Ranger stadium truck with Curt LeDuc. When the Rough Riders needed a Class 6 racer, Swift got the position, driving a Ford Expedition SUV, and dominated the class, earning the most race wins for the Rough Riders team. “When I got started with the Ford Ranger, I brought in Curt LeDuc to build it and co-drive,” said Swift. “The Ranger competed in Class 7 and we won two SCORE Baja 500s and a Baja 1000. I had been working with Frank D’Angelo and when the Rough Riders team needed a driver, I was chosen to run the Ford Explorer. We campaigned the SUV in Class 6 for three years and won a Class Championship in 1992 and we finished the SCORE Baja 1000 fourth overall!” Spirit Motorsports was a distributor of Ford parts and BFGoodrich Tires and was a natural fit for the Rough Riders. Steve Spirkoff owned and operated the endeavor and hired Chuck Johnson to drive the team’s Ford Ranger. After the team joined the Rough Riders, Johnson earned six SCORE Baja 1000 races and multiple class victories. Johnson also won a SCORE Championship in Class 7s. Venable Racing, owned and run by racer and truck builder Jim Venable, was another team in the Rough Rider program. He had a popular Robbie Gordon driving for the team until Gordon left to pursue other opportunities. Venable hired a 25-year-old Rob MacCachren to race his trucks in Class 8 and then in SCORE Trophy Trucks when that class emerged. “I raced for Walker Evans for three years and then in 1991, Robbie Gordon left Venable Racing. So the ride opened up and I was asked to join,” said MacCachren. “My first year with Venable was also the first year they had teamed up with the Rough Riders. I raced a Class 8 and also a Stadium Truck in the Mickey Thompson series.” With six teams and multiple drivers, the Rough Riders became a force in SCORE off-road racing, and fans loved watching them compete. Their huge presence was intimidating and with several models of vehicles racing, it provided Ford and BFGoodrich Tires with the best opportunity to test new components which would later become production pieces in the vehicles sold to the public. “I recall the 1992 SCORE Baja 1000, and it was a peninsula run,” said MacCachren. “We all showed up with six semi-trucks and had ten pit areas along the route. The resources we had were incredible and the manpower available of all the teams working together was amazing. We were learning from each other and had access to new technologies. Ford also learned a lot from our testing and racing, especially in developing its new transmissions.” A Marketing Powerhouse On the flip side of the Rough Riders team was a huge marketing campaign that proved to be as demanding on the drives as it was racing in the deserts of Baja. When they weren’t racing, drivers had to attend various events, dealership openings, television interviews, and much more. “My contract stated I had to do 22 personal appearances at trade shows and other events,” said Danny Thompson, who was on the stadium truck team. “At one time, I remember we signed almost 1000 autographs at a Ford factory assembly plant. Ford spent a lot of time taking us around Detroit. In fact, the head of Ford Motorsports North America at the time, Lee Morris, sent us to train on how to talk to the media and the public. It was that important to them.” The Rough Rider’s large presence in off-road was attractive enough for the marketing team to also sell additional team sponsorships. “To do this there had to be a promotional effort which included a newsletter and a bunch of PR,” said D’Angelo. “We had a full-time PR person, Madeline Bullman, who did most of our public relations and a lot of our marketing.” Bullman had her own PR and motorsports management agency, which included Ford and BFGoodrich Tires. “We merged with Frank’s group and we did everything from PR, merchandising, and team management,” she said. “Part of this was getting the drivers to various places for appearances. The core group of team owners and drivers were the most fabulous people I ever worked with. I don’t think there was ever a program with that kind of star power.” One of the key mechanisms for the Rough Rider’s star power was getting the teams in front of the media as much as possible. “The caliber of media we acquired was important,” said Bullman. “Getting a broader spectrum of media to acknowledge the sport, including race win ads in major newspapers across the country. The goal for Ford and BFGoodrich Tires was to show they had a great product that was used off-road racing, making it better than any other manufacturer in the sport.” Bringing Score Races To Wider Audiences In the early 90’s satellite uplink technology was beginning to be used regularly among news agencies. It had the ability to broadcast from ground receivers or upload recorded video so it could immediately become available for broadcast when it was needed. “We were probably one of the first teams to start doing a video uplink,” said D’Angelo. “There were shows on race day, as well as motorsports shows on Sunday evenings that used our footage. After a SCORE race, we would do a satellite video uplink so those stations could grab and then play the footage of our team’s efforts.” The results brought this form of racing to new audiences. The exposure of the team and their wins also brought new sponsors to the sport as well as other factory teams from Chevrolet, Dodge, Jeep, Toyota, and Mazda, who wanted to grab a share of the media exposure. “Back in the day, it was guys like Ivan Stewart, myself, Roger Mears, Rod Millen, and all those guys,” said MacCachren. “I remember we had to go to the local television station at 4 am to be on the morning news. Then we had to be back there at 11pm to go sit down and do interviews.” With numerous wins, the Rough Rider program was the most highly-visible and successful off-road team in the history of the sport. The pinnacle of the program was during the 1992 SCORE Baja 1000 Peninsula run. Five of the six Rough Riders won their class and were top 10 Overall. “That race was amazing,” said MacCachren. “I think all of us but one had won our class!” Although the Rough Riders were a factory-sponsored team, the program allowed the individual teams to manage themselves. “That was an important part of what it didn’t do,” said Fish. “ I didn’t want it to turn SCORE racing into being so sophisticated that people felt they had to have a major sponsor to enjoy being a part of it. The Rough Riders were still made up of family-based teams and it promoted that effort” The program lasted until the end of the 1995 SCORE season when Ford limited their marketing expenditures, causing the teams and marketing agencies to slowly fall off. Without the support of the factory and each other several teams also ended up competing in off-road motorsports while a limited few continued on as independents once again. Nevertheless, the Rough Riders provided off-road racing with a new audience, inspired many of today’s SCORE Champions, and continues to be a sport made up of generations of family efforts who continue to love the sport and Baja. “Off-road has what not all forms of auto racing have, and that is the family element,” said Bullman. “Without that it only comes down to putting somebody in the seat of that pickup truck.” SJ