Use in Offroad Racing
Scout SSIIs took top honors in offroad racing during the late 1970s. In 1977, Jerry Boone, of Parker, Arizona, finished first among 4x4 production vehicles in the Baja 1000. Boone completed the run in 19 hours 58 minutes, crossing the finish line at Ensenada, Mexico, almost 2 hours ahead his closest competitor: a Jeep CJ7. Only nine of 21 vehicles that started the race finished the 1,000-kilometer (620 mi) course. Boone ran even faster than Class IV modified 4x4 racers. Mr. Boone later revealed that they only had a month to prep a stock SSII for the race and they were unsponsored by IH until after the race. Boone also won in 1978 at Riverside, California.
Sherman Balch, among many other accomplishments in offroad racing, won the off-road "world championship" in 1977 (the SCORE event in Riverside, California). Three other finishers along with Balch also drove Scouts. Balch also won the Baja 1000, the Mint 400 & three events in the fall of 1978 at Lake Geneva Raceway.
Sherman Balch and co-driver James Acker, driving a Scout SSII, went on to win virtually all major off-road races in 1982 offered on the West Coast/Mexico circuit by winning the Baja 250, The Baja 500, The Baja 1000, the Mint 400 and the Parker (Arizona) 400.
Read more about this topic: International Harvester Scout
Famous quotes containing the word racing:
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