Hall Will Hum a Few Sand Bars in Baja

Thirty years ago, a group of 68 off-road racing pioneers gathered in Tijuana for what would become known as the Baja 1000. One of them was Rod Hall, a 29-year-old Jeep driver from Hemet.

The 30th anniversary SCORE Tecate Baja 1000 will start and end today in Ensenada. One of the 225 entries will be the same Rod Hall, driving a Hummer.

He is the only driver who has been in every Baja 1000, having won his class title 15 times and the overall championship with Larry Minor in a production Ford Bronco in 1969.

“I used to say that my ambition was to drive in 30 straight Baja 1000s,” Hall said. “Well, I’ll make it this year, so now I don’t know what will happen. I don’t know whether it’s because I love winning so much or that I hate losing so much, but something just keeps me coming back.”

The 1000 will be Hall’s only adventure with SCORE this year, but he has been busy elsewhere with his Hummers.

“We took two Hummers to the Paris-to-Dakar rally--which really started in Granada, Spain--and although we didn’t win, we were the first Americans to finish in 18 years,” Hall said. “We finished fifth and sixth. It was quite an experience. It lasted 17 days and covered 6,000 miles.

“It was quite different from running Baja, where we pre-run and do a lot of our running over existing dirt roads. In Africa, there was no pre-running and most of it was over no roads at all. They tell you where to end up and send you on your way. They don’t even have arrows [to mark the course].

“At night, if you make a wrong turn, you can end up in a wash with a dead end. All you can do is turn around, go back and try again. They tell you the checkpoint is on the other side of the mountain, but they don’t tell you how to get there.”

Hall and his sons, Chad and Josh, also ran the Silver State desert series in Nevada. In the feature Las Vegas-to-Reno race of 553 miles, they finished first and second.

“The Hummers were called Humvees at first, when they were introduced during the Gulf War as a military vehicle. We run them against Fords, Chevies and other sports-utility trucks in production classes.

“Production cars were always what I liked most. I never was one of those bullet drivers, I would rather go along steady and make sure I got to the finish line.”

In the Baja 1000, Rod and son Josh will compete in the “stock full” class.

*

Trophy trucks are the glamour class of the Baja 1000 and this year’s crop is one of the strongest.

Robby Gordon, still without a Winston Cup, CART or Indy Racing League ride next year, is bringing his Ford F150 truck out of mothballs to drive where he built his reputation as one of the hardest chargers in racing.

“The last time I won the Baja 1000 was 1989,” he said. “It’s time I won it again. I had a 45-minute lead last year when we had a breakdown and before we got it fixed we were 12 minutes behind.”

Gordon plans to drive the entire 707 miles--1,140 kilometers-- himself.

Lined up against Gordon will be such stars as Jeep’s Curt LeDuc, the SCORE leader with three victories in six races; Chevrolet’s Larry Ragland, winner of the last two Baja 1000s, driving for the Las Vegas White Lightning team; Toyota’s Ivan Stewart, a two-time winner driving solo, and Ford’s racing brothers, Ed and Tim Herbst.

WINSTON CUP

Jeff Gordon is in an enviable position going into the season’s final race Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. If he finishes 18th or better, or if he leads a lap and finishes 20th or better, the championship and its $1.5 million bonus are his for the second time.

But that doesn’t mean Gordon isn’t nervous.

“We know we can finish better than 18th, but we can’t do it if we have problems,” Gordon said. “That’s basically what the championship comes down to. It doesn’t matter how many races you’ve won or how great a year you’ve had. That doesn’t guarantee the championship.”

Gordon, who won the title in 1995, has won 10 races. Dale Jarrett, who won two weeks ago in Phoenix, has won seven.

Jarrett is 77 points behind Gordon and Mark Martin, a four-race winner, is 87 back. Either could win if something happened to Gordon.

Jarrett, who once considered becoming a golf professional, put his chances in golf terms.

“Remember the 1996 Masters, where Nick Faldo was maybe seven shots behind Greg Norman, but it did happen,” Jarrett said. “You’ve got two of the greatest players in the world and one is trying to protect the lead and the other is doing everything he can to come from behind. It does happen. That’s the analogy I like to use, because the guy did come from behind and win.”

Martin was more pragmatic about his chances.

“If Jeff runs pretty well and runs all day long, well, you can pretty much figure he’ll finish at least in the top 10 and he’ll be spraying champagne in victory lane,” Martin said. “Still, he can have bad luck again. It’s not like he is going to be able to just ride around at Atlanta, wave to the fans and wait until they bring him the trophy. Lay back [purposely] and you’re going to be lucky to finish in the top 25.”

The race will mark the end of the Ford Thunderbird era as a Winston Cup car. Jarrett, Martin and other Thunderbird drivers helped Ford clinch the NASCAR manufacturers’ championship earlier in the season. Thunderbird, the Ford representative since 1978, will be replaced by Taurus next year.

This race may also mark the end of Dale Earnhardt’s streak of having won at least one race a year at 17 years. The seven-time Winston Cup champion has gone 58 races without winning.

DRAG RACING

Although two-time NHRA top-fuel champion Scott Kalitta and his legendary racing father, Connie, are dropping out of dragster competition to devote more time to their expanding airline businesses, the Kalitta family name will remain. Doug Kalitta, 1994 U.S. Auto Club sprint car champion, will be the new driver of the family’s American International Airlines/Kitty Hawk top-fuel car.

A new class, pro stock truck, was introduced as an exhibition last week at the Winston Finals and it will become a fifth professional class on a limited basis next season. . . . In an unusual match of age versus youth, Eddie Hill, 63, faced Cristin Powell, 18, in a top-fuel elimination last Sunday. Youth won.

SCRA

For the second consecutive year, Richard Griffin leads Ron Shuman going into the final race of the 35-event Southern California Racing Assn. season Nov. 22 at Perris Auto Speedway, but it’s only five points, 2,038-2,033. Last year, Griffin failed to qualify for the season finale and Shuman won the race and the championship.

This year’s 40-lap main event will also be the last for Shuman, six times a champion in the wingless sprint cars of the California Racing Assn. and the SCRA, as he has announced his retirement.

TURKEY NIGHT

Billy Boat will be back to defend his Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix crown on Thanksgiving night at Ventura Raceway, but he will race a formidable field. Among the drivers expected are Tony Stewart, the Indy Racing League champion and a former USAC midget champion; Jason Leffler of Long Beach, who is close to clinching the 1997 championship; Sleepy Tripp, who has 99 USAC midget wins and wants 100 before retiring, and Shuman, an eight-time Turkey Night winner.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NASCAR Leaders

A look at the Winston Cup leaders going into this weekend’s season finale in Atlanta:

POINTS

1. Jeff Gordon: 4,598 ($4,160,072

2. Dale Jarrett: 4,521 ($2,432,782)

3. Mark Martin: 4,511 ($1,816,839)

4. Jeff Burton: 4,224 ($1,822,064)

5. Dale Earnhardt: 4,096 ($1,619,944)