SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1543953
REACHING THE PODIUM TSCO Race Trucks Have A History Of Winning By Dan Sanchez Over the past decade, more TSCO-built trucks have crossed the finish line first in many SCORE races within the SCORE Trophy Truck Spec class. What originally started as an automotive and trucking business by Dick Weyhrich and his sons, Mark and Gary, TSCO began making race vehicles after the family began pursuing their passion for off-road racing. Its current owner, John Vance, began working at TSCO around 2011. After managing the racing program, the family sold the racing portion of the company to Vance in 2016. Since then, many racers have raced in TSCO trucks, including SCORE Champions such as Andy McMillin, Toby Price, Bryce Menzies, and many others. Most recently, during the SCORE 2025 season, Justin Davis of the Green Army took the SCORE TT Spec Championship and Overall Truck Points Championship in a new TSCO-built truck. “We’ve built anywhere from 24 to 25 TT Spec trucks and a few Unlimited Trophy Trucks,” says Vance. “We’ve even built several other projects, including side-by-sides, which are cranking along now.” Vance has kept TSCO in the winner’s circle with its TT Spec program, concentrating on those types of vehicles since he first took control of the company. “We now have three different versions of off-road race trucks,” he says. The Gen 1 has dominated the class, and the truck is built specifically for this type of racing. It’s smaller, lighter, shorter, and narrower. We have several SCORE Baja 1000 wins in TT Spec and multiple class wins.” According to Vance, Gen 2 and Gen 3 trucks represent the company’s move to manufacturing most of the chassis components in-house. Some of the newer models are 2WD Trophy Trucks with specialized components designed for this level of competition. “We had recently finished a Gen 2 truck for Coastal Racing (Keiger family), and we also keep all of their chase trucks and pre-runners here,” said Vance. TSCO also builds trucks for Australian desert racers with right-hand drive and nearly identical to Baja-ready trucks. A visit to the shop showcases various truck chassis in different stages of the build. “We can build a truck in about three months, but most of it usually depends on us waiting for components like engines, drivetrains, and other things we don’t make here,” says Vance. When it comes to complete chassis, wiring, and everything else, however, TSCO has state-of-the-art machining, laser cutters, and more to build the truck to their specs. Seeing their manufacturing capabilities and attention to the smallest details, the obvious question was whether TSCO would ever get into building AWD trucks. “When AWD began dominating, we focused on what we knew best and concentrated on the TT Spec trucks,” said Vance. “We’ve been in conversations, however, with suppliers, and we hope to have new things coming soon that will put us in the AWD market.” One of the areas that TSCO is already getting into is building specialty Can-Am and Polaris side-by-side race vehicles. “The SXS market is a huge industry, and it seems to come and go,” said Vance. “We began building a race-specific SXS and found there is a market for a car that is better than what the factory is offering. People are going to want a competitive edge, and we hope more people get into a TSCO-built SXS and give guys like Brock Hegar and Cayden MacCachren a run for their money.” “It doesn’t matter what we build here; it all comes together on our fixture tables,” added Vance. “Then we laser cut and bend everything in-house. It gets welded here, and we add all the accessories. Then it goes to paint and final assembly.” The process is impressive as the welds on the chassis and other components, like the suspension control arms and rear axle housings, look like a lesson from a master class. It’s no wonder that TSCO trucks keep winning races and why so many of them are still around. Many of the older 2WD models came out of the woodwork to race in SCORE’s 2WD TT class. “Many of our customers took their truck out of retirement, and we help with prep and parts,” says Vance. “This is good for the sport, and we need them all out racing. Off-road racing is silly in itself, but I can’t think of anything else that you can go do and have so much fun!” SJ