Team HUMMER Sets Championship Sights at 2008 Baja 1000

In just a few weeks Team HUMMER will compete in the most famous off-road race in the world, the Baja 1000. As the final race in this year’s SCORE International racing season, it will also set the scene for Team HUMMER’s attempt to win the overall season’s points championship in both stock mini and stock full class.

Amazingly, this will be team owner and patriarch Rod Hall’s 41st running of the Baja 1000, and Hall remains the only car or truck driver to compete every year since the race started in 1967.

More on Rod Hall Racing and Team HUMMER as they prepare for the Baja 1000 in the next few weeks – full release after the jump.

Release:

HUMMER Racing Poised to Cinch Championships at Baja 1000

DETROIT – With only the infamous Baja 1000 left in the 2008 SCORE International racing season, HUMMER is well poised to clinch the 2008 stock mini and stock full season points championships. The team is also defending it’s 2007 Baja 1000 stock mini and stock full class wins where the H3 Alpha and H3 were the first stock class vehicles to cross the finish line.

The 2008 SCORE International Tecate Baja 1000, is scheduled November 21-22, and will consist of a grueling 629.74-mile loop that begins and finishes in Ensenada , Baja California, Mexico.

After dominating the 2008 season with class victories at the Laughlin Desert Challenge, Baja 250 and Baja 500, team owner Rod Hall, 70, and H3 pilot, merely needs to start this year’s Baja 1000 to earn his third consecutive season title in the stock mini class. However, Hall, the consummate competitor will be seeking victory to defend his 2007 stock mini class Baja 1000 victory and secure his record-setting 20th Baja 1000 class victory.

Hall remains the only car or truck driver to have competed in every Baja 1000 since its inaugural run in 1967.
“This year has the possibility to become the most successful season for Team HUMMER since it began in 1992,” said Hall. “Our ability to consistently finish at the top of the stock classes race-after-race is a great testament to the durability of HUMMER vehicles.”

Team HUMMER’s other two entries, the H3 Alpha and H2 SUT are piloted by Hall’s sons, Josh and Chad in the stock full class.

Chad Hall, H3 Alpha driver and 6-time Baja 1000 class winner is poised to secure the 2008 stock full class season championship, following class victories in the Laughlin Desert Challenge and Baja 500. Hall is also the reigning stock full Baja 1000 champion, following his 2007 Baja 1000 stock class victory, where the H3 Alpha was the first stock class vehicle to cross the finish line.

“The H3 Alpha has demonstrated the toughness to compete with the full-size and heavy-duty Ford and Dodge trucks in the hyper-competitive stock full class,” said Chad Hall. “A season championship for us would be great validation of the truck in its inaugural year.”

The eldest Hall son, Josh, returns to Baja in his full-stock class, 2008 HUMMER H2 SUT. He enters the 2008 race with a class victory at the Baja 250 and will look to start a new Baja 1000 winning streak in the SUT. Prior to 2007, Hall had amassed a 3-year Baja 1000 winning streak behind the wheel of his 2003 HUMMER H2 SUV.

“The team has done a lot of great work and fine tuning with the SUT since its initial race at the 2007 Baja 1000,” said Josh Hall. “We expect to be at the front of the pack when the checkered flag drops and the dust settles.”
Follow the team’s progress live by visiting Team HUMMER (www.rodhallracing.com) on November 21, 2008.