Off-Road Racer Walker Evans Is Surprise Entrant at Goodyear Event
9 March 2000
Off-Road Racer Walker Evans Is Surprise Entrant at Goodyear Event
PHOENIX, March 9 Legendary off-road racer Walker Evans
isn't slowing down with age, despite "cutting" 56 mph from his runs at the
Goodyear Extreme Rock Crawling Championship here.
Evans normally averaged 60 mph in off-road racing; in rock crawling on
Friday, he'll be "speeding" along at 4 mph. The 60-year-old CORR champion is
a surprise entrant here, having never competed in a race at a snail's pace.
"It's extremely different for me, but I'm all excited about this. I'm
really looking forward to it," Evans said. Speed notwithstanding, what hasn't
changed is Evans' dedication to his racing equipment, in this case a modified
1977 Chevrolet Blazer engineered to drive over rocks and boulders.
Evans is hands-on in everything he does -- from tire testing to preparing
his truck for racing. With nearly 140 victories and 20 championship titles to
his name, he is one of the most accomplished racers in off-road history.
"I got my first taste of racing when I drove a Rambler sedan in the Baja
500 for actor James Garner's American Motors Team back in 1969. I took a
third-place finish and knew I had to get serious about desert racing. So I
built my own vehicle and began competing," Evans added.
Winning the Baja 1000 nine times, Evans became the first driver in off-
road racing history to win the "overall" grueling event in a truck in 1979.
His other multiple desert victories include the Mint 400, the Baja 500, the
Parker 400 and the Fireworks 250.
"We were always trying to build better equipment and make the trucks go
faster and faster," Evans said. "It always was a challenge -- from the
competition and Mother Nature. No two races ever were the same."
Evans was one of a handful of off-road drivers to join the NASCAR
Craftsman Truck Racing Series on Goodyear Eagles when it was formed in 1994.
Since 1977, Evans has dished out the punishment to Goodyear Wrangler tires
on the most demanding proving grounds in the world -- the off-road race track
-- and now is preparing to test the new Wrangler MT/R tire on the rocks.
Mike Kolowski, chief engineer of light truck tires, agreed. "He's
definitely a Wrangler person. He has tested tires for us around the world, at
racetracks and at our Proving Grounds in Luxembourg and San Angelo, Texas.
"Walker has been Goodyear's most loyal racer," Kolowski said. "I always
tease Walker that he wants to race on 17-inch tires so he can fit bigger
brakes on his No. 20 Chevy Thunder truck. The funny part is, he's so
aggressive, such a charger, that he rarely uses his brakes."
Evans raced last season on 17-inch Wrangler MT/R tires. "Tire performance
is critical to our assault on the racetrack," he said. "In fact, without an
extremely tough set of tires under you, it would be like taking a knife to a
gunfight. We'd never get to the finish line. This new Wrangler MT/R tire is
our 'secret weapon' at the track.
"I don't care if you're going 1 mph straight up over huge rocks, 60 mph
down a sandwash or 120 mph on a Baja dry lake bed. You want to win and will
use every advantage you can muster."
Jim Alexander, Goodyear's marketing manager for off-road racing, said,
"The CORR (Championship Off Road Racing) closed-course events, like desert
racing, deliver the kind of truck-jumping and banging excitement that thrills
fans and proves tires in a testing element that's tough to duplicate.
"We call it the track-to-street connection," Alexander said. "Much of
what we learn with race tires in terms of handling, cornering and overall tire
response, we can transfer to the design of tires sold to consumers. We use
technology in the same way Eagles racing know-how finds its way to the street.
"Drivers like Walker give the tires a pounding in torture tests that even
we'd be hard pressed to devise -- and they let us know immediately where we
need to make improvements," he added. "In rock crawling, he's still punishing
tires, albeit at a slower pace."