Hummer Guy Hummer News and Opinion from an experienced off-road instructor
The Baja 1000 is one of the longest and toughest off-road races in the world, and was the SCORE season finale for Rod Hall and Team HUMMER racing. This past weekend, both Rod Hall and son Chad clinched points championship titles after strong finishes in this year’s Baja 1000.
This year’s race had its fair share of unusual circumstances that are common in off-road racing and particularly frequent at the 1000. Nearing the finish, two stock-mini competitors were battling for first place: The Toyota FJ and Honda Ridgeline. The two were a full hour and a half ahead of Rod Hall’s HUMMER H3, when just 5 miles from the finish the Toyota FJ hit a large boulder, tearing the front end of the FJ apart and rendering the vehicle immovable. While trying to avoid the wreck, the Honda Ridgeline ended up buried in a bed of silt just a few feet away from the Toyota. Nearly an hour of race traffic passed before another competitor freed the Ridgeline, allowing it to finish just 30 minutes ahead of the Team HUMMER’s H3. The second place finished locked Rod Hall into his third consecutive SCORE Desert Points Championship in the stock-mini class.
The stock-full class had Hall brothers Chad and Josh vying for top placement among each other and several other competitors. The rough Baja course took a toll on Josh’s HUMMER H2 SUT’s front suspension. A few repairs along the way kept Josh in the race long enough to place third in the stock-full class after racing for 24 hours and 50 minutes. Brother Chad in the HUMMER H3 Alpha took the top spot in the stock-full class after 19 hours and 22 minutes, securing his 7th Baja 1000 victory and earning him the 2008 SCORE Stock-Full Desert Points Championship.
