SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/555623
so I worked on it like 20 hours a day and finished it in 14 days." While the car's debut wasn't a success (Fortin Jr. lost a motor), things improved quickly. A year later, having raced only a couple of times in between, Fortin Jr. picked up his first career win at the age of 18, against a field of some 52 Class 1600 cars at the 1988 Fireworks 250. Fortin Jr. picked up three more wins that season, and while his parents wouldn't yet let him race in Baja, his accomplishments were still enough to earn him the title of SCORE Rookie of the Year. For the 1991 season, father and son took their proven 1-1600 Chenowth, widened the beam, added longer rear arms and a family built Hewland 5-speed gearbox, along with a more powerful Type I VW engine, and made the move up to Class 10. That year, Fortin Jr. was finally permitted to race south of the border, where he quickly realized that Baja was "my style of racing. It felt more like racing," Fortin Jr. says. "You had graded roads and actual corners versus a bunch of bumps; it wasn't just memorizing a course. (In Baja,) driver talent matters, and people who are really good continue to win." Fortin Jr.'s talent indeed showed through, as he won both the SCORE Baja 500 and the SCORE Baja 1000 on his first tries. He even led the 1000 overall at one point, before getting the ignition system wet out on the beach near Erendira and losing time, which dropped him back to fifth overall. Still, Fortin Jr. brought home five wins that season, earning him the Class 10 and overall points championships, as well as Driver of the Year honors. Moving Up The Ladder Having shown himself to be an outstanding rising talent, Fortin Jr. had started to develop a lot of sponsor interest, and with that, he and his dad decided to take a big leap and try and go after the top of the off-road heap, Class 1. In the days before the Trophy Truck class, unlimited trucks raced as part of Class 1, and the best of the best was Ivan Stewart in the PPI Toyota T010. The Fortins decided to try a similar vehicle, albeit with their own ever-present unique approach. Like Stewart, Fortin Jr. would drive a pseudo truck, a buggy disguised in a truck body. With an A-arm suspension up front, the engine in the middle, and a transaxle behind it (a Fortin unit, of course), the Fortin truck was similar to Stewart's, but differed noticeably at the back. Here, they opted for a five-link rear suspension, as opposed to Stewart's A-arm setup. Indeed, this truck would be a big step into the unknown for the family team. Unfortunately, a recession hit just as the effort was taking shape, and sponsorship involvement all but dried up completely. The team, like much of off-road, struggled onwards, racing the truck in a heavily underfunded capacity, and while there were flashes of brilliance. Fortin Jr. physically passed Stewart in the truck's first race, the 1992 SCORE Baja 500, and the team later heard Ivan on the radio, telling his team that there was "no way I can catch him." The results just weren't coming however. In 1995, the team retired the truck, but in hindsight, Fortin Jr. still considers some aspects of that effort to have been a big success. "The odd-fire V6 Chevy we had was the worst off-road motor, but it was lucky for us, because it was hard on parts, and we broke more drivetrain components than anyone," Fortin Jr. recalls. "We learned a lot. And that truck had the first ever power rack in off-road, the first mid-board hubs. It changed the course of buggy racing. Our old 5-speed became a wide gear 4-speed, and eventually, it had the first torque converter fitted to a manual gearbox. That truck allowed us to do so much R&D." Back To Buggies Fortin Jr. returned to the open-wheeled ranks in 1995, teaming with Ryan Thomas to take the Class 1 victory at the 1995 Baja 1000. The following year, Fortin Jr. began to campaign a new two-seat Chenowth Class 1, giving his long-time crew members a chance to ride in testing and at races. Fortin Jr. would win the 1000 in 1997 with this car and consistently ran up front until he retired the car at the end of 1998. A new single seat Jimco Class 1 followed, but in 2000, Fortin Jr. broke back into truck racing as the new driver of Team MacPherson's "Big Mac" Trophy Truck. Fortin Jr. ran well here, too, but a tragic accident (with which he was not involved) during a test session brought an instant and unfortunate end to the program. 065 SCORE JOURNAL