Ford Ranger Raptor wins Baja 1000 in stock mid-size class

The Baja 1000 would have to be one of the toughest off-road races in the world, so we here at 4X4 Australia were beyond excited to hear Ford was entering a stock Ranger Raptor – albeit prepped for racing but still in street-legal trim.

Well, not only did the team come first in the Stock Mid-Size class, the vehicle was deemed to be in good enough condition to drive it on the road all the way back to the team’s base in Riverside, California.

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This is a seriously impressive result, with the team reporting back that the vehicle completed the gruelling race without any major incident or repairs being required.

The race team was managed by a legend of Baja racing, Curt Leduc, and was made up of four race driver and co-driver teams who each had a stint behind the wheel. These teams were Brad and Byam Lovell (Lovell Racing), Jason Hutter and Paul Blangstead (Fire Guys Racing), Loren Healy and Eric Davis (Fun-Haver Off-Road), and ARB’s Andy and Danny Brown.

“This is the Baja 1000, one of the toughest off-road races in the world,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director for Ford Performance Motorsports. “It’s a key proving ground for Ford Performance and our vehicles to earn the badge of Raptor.

“This has been a global effort for Ford Performance from the beginning, with Ford Australia having done the design and initial development sign-off, then shipping it to the States and working with all of our partners to pool all available resources for this common goal. It takes a great truck and it takes great people. We’ve proved that we have both of those on a global level,” Rushbrook added.

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“What we had was a really good global team working with a really good global truck in Ranger,” said Brian Novak, off-road motorsports supervisor for Ford Performance. “Ford Performance Australia put its heart and soul into this project with Kelly Racing to start us off. When we took it over on the North American side with Lovell Racing and Huseman Engineering, it all came together seamlessly. There’s just so many people who came together to do this, and I couldn’t be prouder.”

“It’s truly awesome,” said Brendan McGinniskin, motorsports engineer for Ford Performance Australia. “Spending the night out there chasing the truck was something I’ve never experienced before, and it was such a different experience of going racing.

“It was so cool and wouldn’t have been possible without all of the expert chase crews we had out here. Everyone pulled together and not even the few tense moments we had were going to stop us from crossing the finish line together.”

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As the drivers from ARB had the challenging role of driving the last section of the race, that could make or break the result, we were particularly keen to hear their thoughts on the race and the vehicle.

“Coming all the way over here and entering this event has been on our bucket list for years and years, said ARB managing director, Andy Brown. “It never came together before, so to be here with Ford has been just fantastic.

“The Ranger Raptor? Unbelievable, what a truck. It feels ready to go again. I can’t believe how reliable it was, how strong, how stout, how it handles, how it goes, how it stops. It’s just the complete package.

“The track? Hell. It was rough and we did pre-running, but honestly the track was so cut up and different that we felt we were tackling it for the first time. But a challenge is what we came for; and the group we came here with, and the truck, were perfect for it.”

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“We’re off-roaders at heart, so this is very big for us,” said Danny Brown, regional export manager at ARB. “Dad’s been racing for probably 40 years, I’ve been racing for 20-odd years, I think. This is a pinnacle of our sport, for sure.

“Physically, this is about as tough as it gets and it’s a big honour for us to come over here and drive for Ford. To help this great group of drivers get to the finish on this extremely rough and demanding course, every piece of the puzzle had to be perfect.”