SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/555623
the sport of off-road racing. Armed with four-wheel disc brakes, true IRS (as opposed to the swing axle technology that most teams utilized), ball joint sliding axles, a split and widened beam, Crower fuel injection, a heim-joint shifter, and perhaps most importantly to Fortin Sr., his first converted Hewland transmission, this car carried high hopes for the many people involved in its inception. Like many such projects, it may not have been the dominant force that perhaps those behind it had hoped it would be, but the car was nonetheless successful, and certainly a regular frontrunner. At the same time, Fortin Sr. and Clark began a partnership with Los Angeles-area Jeep dealer Brian Chuchua. Having won Chuchua's own race in their "Puppy," Fortin Sr. and Clark got to know Chuchua somewhat, and in 1972, they started driving Jeeps for his team. Despite limited success here, as well a very trying three-day experience getting themselves back home in the racecar after crashing it out of the '73 SCORE Baja 1000, Fortin Sr. and Clark teamed with Chuchua in a new, three- seat Jeep CJ6 for an all-new challenge in 1974, the World Cup Rally. The World Cup Rally Taking teams from London to Munich via Africa and southeastern Europe, the 1974 UDT World Cup Rally was an 11,000-mile, 21-day marathon that pushed teams to unthinkable limits. Up against factory sports car- based vehicles from the likes of Porsche, Mercedes, Citroën, and Peugeot, the three Americans came to the race with an unassembled, untested Jeep CJ6, powered by a 360 cubic inch V8 that Clark and Fortin Sr. had built in Clark's garage. With full-time four-wheel drive, the car had potential, but with a weight somewhere upwards of 5,000 pounds; thanks to the five different fuel tanks needed to make the great distances between refueling points, as well as a considerable amount of spare parts. The brute would prove to be a handful. Nonetheless, Fortin Sr. wowed the crowds on the opening stage, even earning praise from the legendary driver Sir Stirling Moss, who said, "wow, nice job guys," on the boat ride down to France afterwards. After running south through France and Spain, the race entered north Africa for a 2,800-mile run down to Kano, Nigeria. Along the way, Fortin Sr. recalls fixing a leaking radiator, which he feels cost them a chance to be in the running for the overall victory. He had to manually break the beads on over 20 flat tires (the 2-ply sidewalls weren't exactly up to the job at hand), and soldiering through temperatures as high as 137 degrees on their dashboard thermometer. With no service breaks until Kano, the three took turns driving, navigating, and sleeping, before getting only one day for repairs in Kano. The return trip north to Tunis, Tunisia was much the same, with the boys using maps and compasses to search out the piled-up rock cairns that marked the course through the sand dunes of the Sahara desert, and only a double dipping of the wings of the organizer's airplane overhead to let them know they were still in the race each day. Nearing Tunis, Clark managed to flatten all four tires at once after jumping over some sand that had formed into a drift along a paved section, but after some 5,000 miles without seeing their crew since first entering Africa, Chuchua's dad came to the rescue by driving 100 miles backwards down the course to bring them some fresh rubber. After returning to Europe, the race entered Italy, before heading east and into Turkey. Running first in class and fifth overall, the trio was looking solid for a class win and a great overall result. However, near Izmir, Turkey, shortly after Fortin Sr. had finished another stint at the wheel, a very large sheep dog suddenly ran in front of Clark, who swerved but still hit the animal at about 85 mph, sending the car into a violent crash. Rolling end for end for nearly 100 yards and ejecting the engine into the adjacent field, the vehicle was destroyed, and while all three men were hurt, Fortin Sr. sustained the most serious injuries. With a broken femur and broken taluses in both ankles, he returned home after having both taluses removed in a surgery in Turkey. In the subsequent recovery, he would spend nearly four months in a body cast, would lose some two inches in height, and would never regain more than minimal articulation in either ankle, both of which are now prosthetic. 063 SCORE JOURNAL