Ford Bronco Makes its Return to Baja 1000 This Weekend
Photo: Ford
Friday marks the beginning of the 2020 SCORE International Baja 1000, and a legendary name is making its grand return to the off-road race. Among this year’s field is the new Ford Bronco R race prototype, and it looks to secure a splashy win for the recently revived Bronco brand.
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“The Baja 1000 has long been an important proving ground for Ford vehicles, from the original Bronco to F-150 Raptor to the all-new Bronco,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director, Ford Performance motorsports. “Successfully competing here means our customers can have additional confidence that Bronco’s powertrain, chassis and new terrain modes are up to the challenge of one of the most grueling off-road races on the planet.”
Baja pros look to bring Bronco a big win
Photo: Ford
Behind the wheel of the Bronco R are Cameron Steel and Shelby Hall, both of whom are more than comfortable in Baja races. The former is a member of the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame and the 2018 Baja 1000 champion — some even go so far as to call him Mr. Baja. The latter is a Rebelle Rally winner and granddaughter of racing legend Rod Hall.
Supporting this touring twosome is the team of Johnny Campbell, Curt LeDuc, and Jason Scherer. The team will take shifts over the next 24 hours in pursuit of victory. They’ll certainly have the hardware for the job — the Bronco R prototype race is the result of a team-up between Ford Performance and Geiser Brothers, featuring a race-spec’d version of the High-Performance Off-Road Stability Suspension System and FOX shocks.
Much of what underpins the Bronco R race prototype can also be found in the production Bronco set to arrive next year. Ford is drawing those parallels by also bringing a 2021 Bronco Outer Banks support vehicle to the race.
Ford is going all-in on letting folks know how much off-roading is part of its heritage. It announced last year that it’s the new official SUV and truck of SCORE International Off-Road Racing, and it’s also the official vehicle of ULTRA4 Racing and the King of The Hammers.
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Kyle S. Johnson lives in Cincinnati, a city known by many as “the Cincinnati of Southwest Ohio.” He enjoys professional wrestling, Halloween, and also other things. He has been writing for a while, and he plans to continue to write well into the future. See more articles by Kyle.