Tundra Trophy Truck

[SOAZ]

T-Force Motorsports just launched their site and you can see some pics and info about the team.
Its a brand new toyota Tundra Trophy truck team.
Not a Toyota factory effort, but the team owner is Toyota fan.

I was lucky enough to fly out to the shop a couple of weeks ago to check out the truck and learn the operation before the race. Its like a doctors office. Every tool in its place and the floor clean enough to eat off of.


www.tforcemotorsports.com

 

[CYi5]

Look forward to seeing the results of the race!

 

[neliconcept]

looks like a ford ranger wth a tundra front clip. cool none the less

 

[SOAZ]

looks like a ford ranger wth a tundra front clip. cool none the less

Haha! I don't see it, but it had to be hard to make a tube frame chassis resemble what ever factory truck its supposed to. Its a huge truck, a huge work of art.

 

[ckkone]

That is sick!

 

[DaveInDenver]

Haha! I don't see it, but it had to be hard to make a tube frame chassis resemble what ever factory truck its supposed to. Its a huge truck, a huge work of art.

Yeah, Trophy trucks, NASCAR, etc., share pretty much nothing with our trucks. But this one does use a Toyota V8 (I assume the 5.7L or is it the pushrod stock car engine?) and has at least vague Tundra lines. Pretty cool.

Edit: Just because I mentioned it, here's some Toyota NASCAR 5.9L engine p0rn...

 

[Clutch]

I would love to get my hands on that, it has been a long time dream to race Trophy Trucks.

And since I am not a wealthy man, it is never going to happen.

 

[BajaTaco]

What a gorgeous truck. Very cool to see a full-size Toyota TT in the limelight Thanks for posting up. So tell us more about your trip - sounds really cool!

Kermit, never say never.

 

[Clutch]

Kermit, never say never.

Oh, I know enough people, I could probably race it on a bike. That is the one race I would like to be in cage.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

That is cool!!!

 

[SOAZ]

What a gorgeous truck. Very cool to see a full-size Toyota TT in the limelight Thanks for posting up. So tell us more about your trip - sounds really cool!

Kermit, never say never.

Thanks guys. I'm really excited. Out of nowhere the oppurtunity came up through a "friend of a friend" to help out a new team. The team is made up of racers from different sports. The team Manager and main driver is Chad Ragland (long time baja racer and winner. Son of Larry Ragland--> A legend in desert racing). Danny Sullivan of road racing fame is also a driver. The team owner and other driver is a great guy who fell in love with baja doing a "rent the drivers seat" class (baja or BC clas for those that know of it) in a past race.
He's jumped into this full bore. I'm impressed by how first class the operation is. The idea is to have a F1 type team. (read: innovative, clean cut, organized etc)
I'll be running their Valley de Trinidad pit. We should be dumping some gas and thats it.
I'm a small part of a big operation! I can't wait!
I'll take a ton of pics whenever possible!
:cow:

Kermit: Its amazing how much fun you can have driving a relatively slow class like a 9 or 1600 car! :wings: AND driving one of those is a real possibility.

 

[Westy]

Congrats! That will be a great experience and fun to boot!

 

[SOAZ]

I just got back from Mexico. Baja was predictably unpredictable.

While waiting for the truck we watched a helicopter hit some power lines a few hundred yards away. Sadly 2 perished and 2 more are critical. Most of the day the weatherman was code red as we listened to emergency call after call.
Several dirt bikes down etc. Serious reminder that baja can be brutal. We somberly waited for #33.
Once we saw the first 1600 come through we headed into the town of valley T to get cell phone reception to try and figure out what happened.
We heard the truck had been hit by terrible herbst and was being fixed.
When they finally made it to the pit we dumped fuel. The rear axel was puking oil. Thankfully my buddy I race the 1600 with was there. He's a genious when it comes to this stuff.
He pulled the hub off and got the seal back in. After asking Chad if it was okay to ruin the hub to fix the leak he bashed the back of the hub in to hold the seal in place. Off they went and off we went back to arizona. Got home this morning at about 2.
Now I'm watching the truck's progress and text messaging the team its location and speed every hour.
Man I wish I could be at the finish line.
I'll post pics and a full story when I get some sleep. Definately a more somber adventure in baja than usual.