Rice won at Indy and Daytona, but not in Baja while Mears twice finished third at Daytona in his best results there. Jones won both at both Indy and Baja, but was a DNF in his only Daytona 24-hour appearance. Other Indy winners to tackle Baja include Parnelli Jones, Rick Mears, Buddy Rice, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Danny Sullivan. Huge shout out to Jeff Proctor for letting me drive his truck to our navigator, Evan Weller, he's 'the man' and the entire Honda Off-Road Racing Team for such a huge effort."Īlexander Rossi is the sixth Indianapolis 500 winner to compete at Baja, but the first to record wins in the "500", Baja 1000 and Rolex 24 at Daytona. To help give Honda this very big win is something very special to me. I feel very fortunate to be able to take part in it three times now, with Honda and HPD. It's equally chaotic, awesome and terrifying! To drive this truck through the desert, and the mountains, in the middle of the night, through fog that's rolling in from the ocean - with hundreds of other cars and their dust – is unlike anything else I've ever experienced. I can't even begin to explain what it's like.
And with Evan Weller's prep and expert navigation, I feel like we've covered our bases."Īlexander Rossi(driver, Honda Ridgeline Baja Race Truck) Class 7 winner, becomes first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 Rolex 24 at Daytona and Baja 1000: "What a wild ride this race, this event, is. Over the past year, we've fine-tuned our program, in particular, we switched to 40" Maxxis tires which has been a game changer for us. They've more than put in the hours of work required to bring the Ridgeline across the finish line.
Jeff Proctor(team owner/driver Honda Ridgeline Baja Race Truck ) won Class 7 for unlimited V6 Trucks first "point-to-point" Baja 1000 race win for Honda: "As always, I'm really proud of my crew and everyone here helping the Honda Ridgeline maximize its performance. It marked the fourth consecutive win for the Honda Off-Road Ridgeline in 2021, following victories earlier this year at the San Felipe 250, Baja 500 and Vegas to Reno off-road races. Proctor returned to the cockpit for the final hours, taking the finish with a time of 23 hours, four minutes and 59 seconds to claim the Class 7 win by just over three hours. Rossi successfully completed his overnight stint to turn driving duties over to Hegeveld during the pit stop at Mile Marker 883, with the lead for the Ridgeline now more than 100 miles over Chamlee and the rest of the Class 7 field. Starting driver Proctor handed off to Glaszcak at the 350-mile mark, then handed off to Rossi at the 632-mile pit stop as both began to build an ever-larger advantage for the Ridgeline. The Ridgeline started off strong, with Proctor battling for the class lead with the #700 Ford of Dan Chamlee for the first 300 miles before the Honda team established an advantage they would hold – and increase – all the way to the finish.
A total of 302 entries took part in this year's 54 th running of the event. The Honda Ridgeline Off-Road Racing Team returned to Baja California this weekend, and completed its string of 2021 success with the Class 7 victory at the iconic Baja 1000 off-road race.Ĭompeting in Class 7 for unlimited V6-powered race trucks, the #709 Honda Ridgeline driving lineup of team owner Jeff Proctor, 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi, Richard Glaszczak and Baja legend Steve Hengeveld - paired with navigator Evan Weller - faced a challenging course starting in the coastal city of Ensenada and finishing 1,226 miles south in La Paz.