Baja 1000: Team Hummer race notes

Hall & Sons guide Team Hummer® to victory at Score Baja 1000.

La Paz, Mexico - Nov. 22, 2002: After just over 24 hours and 1017 bone-crushing miles of desert racing, Team HUMMER's Josh Hall took the checkered flag in La Paz, Mexico earlier today to claim the Full Stock Production Class victory in the 35th annual SCORE Baja 1000. This win marks the second consecutive Baja 1000 championship for Team HUMMER which has won this internationally recognized event six times since 1993 when HUMMER began competitive off-road racing. Team owner Rod Hall, who drove the first 230 miles to Puertocitos, celebrated his 65th birthday behind the wheel of the H1 Pickup during the race on Friday. "My lucky number for the rest of the year will be 65-35-17," said Hall. "I turned 65 while driving in my 35th consecutive Baja 1000 and have won this event 17 times since the first Baja 1000 in 1967." It would appear that rumors of the legendary Hall's retirement have been greatly exagger- ated.

Chad Hall, who took over from Rod and drove the second leg to San Juanico, said the truck had only one problem, a strange electrical issue which caused the transmission to shift erratically. "About 15 miles into the race the truck began to pop into neutral whenever Rod gave it too much gas. After I took over the problem persisted and finally went into neutral permanently at Coco's Corner, about 300 miles into the race. I'm no transmission expert," observed Chad, "but after working on the transmission wiring harness for about 10 minutes, I was able to get it to default into third gear only operation. Our new motor was giving us lots of low-end torque so third gear was good enough to get us back in the race although our top speed was now limited to 67 M.P.H. and we had dropped to second place during the repair."

South of Guerro Negro, at about the half-way point, Chad came across a number of vehicles hopelessly stuck in an `S' bend section of a riverbed which, over time had cut itself five or six feet below the surface of the surrounding terrain. Dominated by huge cactus bushes on all sides, none of the trucks seemed to be able to find a way out. Relying on the legendary HUMMER 4-wheel drive technology, Chad was able to put the truck in low-loc and power his way up over the walls of the riverbed and back into first place leaving those behind him to ponder the wisdom of having built 2-wheel drive off-road race trucks.

Under the Baja Harvest Moon the road to San Juanico (RM 655) and the final driver change was littered with race vehicles of every size and description mired in the silt beds outside of San Ignacio as deep as a snow drift. It was a eerie sight seeing the midnight glow of the full moon dance off the driver's helmets as they struggled to free themselves from the choking haze of the siltbed.

The silt posed no problem for Team HUMMER, however and at San Juanico, Chad handed the truck over to brother, Josh who took it the final distance to finish almost four hours in front of the next vehicle in class. At the end of the marathon event, it turned out to be another great victory for Team HUMMER and a memorable birthday celebration for the entire Hall family!

Our final race of the season will be the Best in the Desert Las Vegas 200, December 6-8, 2002 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

For more information about Team HUMMER visit us on the internet at www.rodhall.com. To learn more about HUMMER vehicles visit www.hummer.com.

- grt -