The first of 6 SCORE Riverside Off-Road World Championships in Class 7 that we were involved with. In 1981 we were a part of the student group of the Society of Automotive Engineers at Cal Poly SLO when we convinced Roger Mears to drive our student built Toyota Hilux in the famous venue. Originally slated to drive the Jim Conner Olympia sponsored Nissan (Datsun back then?), and after an initial test run, Roger agreed to drive our Cal Poly truck in the race. Jeff MacPherson then took over his ride in the Oly Datsun, and ironically was the only truck to beat Roger into the first turn after the traditional land rush start. However Roger wasted no time in overtaking the leader in the S-turns and then led the rest of the race for the victory!
The Cal Poly Toyota in the Mears Gang pits at the 1981 SCORE Riverside Off-Road World Championships. In those pre-wrap days, most of the graphics were air brushed on the vehicle for each race as needed. Our student built motor was to go up against the other competitors professionally built motors. We spent countless pre-race hours and all-nighters in Roger's shop and in the race pits working out a few issues leading up to the race ... but come race time, it didn't miss a beat and all the hard work paid off!
For the 1981 Score Riverside Off-Road World Championships we built a custom short course fuel cell for our Cal Poly Toyota Hilux that weighed much less than our regular desert race cell. In those days, everyone in the truck classes would simply run their desert trucks in the occasional short course races during the busy desert race season. Not many competitors went through the trouble that we did to make our truck lighter: notice also the aluminum rear bumper and the holes in a lot of the brackets ... not common at that time. The relatively heavy trophy in this photo was not there during the race.
I remember years later Roger told us it was still one of his favorite wins ... I believe because he made it happen and made a huge impression on an underdog bunch of hardworking college kids who were overjoyed at the outcome and stamped forever with the impression of the experience. Jack Auld, Mario Santellan, Al Bodey, and Bryan Kudela (Lanternmark Industries) all ended up working in the off-road space for Cal Wells at Precision Preparation Inc ... and onward with many others. Rick Sturckow went on to become a pilot for the Marines, a top test pilot, and eventually flew 4 space shuttle missions, 2 as a Pilot and then 2 as the Commander. And some of you may recognize Alan Roach as the founder of Baja Designs ... all from that era at Cal Poly ... to name a few. HAPPY CAMPERS to say the least!
