BFGoodrich Tires® Celebrates 30 Years of Desert Domination

ENSENADA, MEXICO (June 2, 2005 ) -- With 19 consecutive Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 overall wins, BFGoodrich Tires® is celebrating its 30th anniversary in off-road racing and is again heading south of the border to demonstrate its desert dominance. What began with “The Other Guys” continues today with the BFGoodrich Tires name being inexorably connected with Baja.

“Desert racing is BFGoodrich Tires’ product proving ground, and for 30 years we’ve used the knowledge gained in off-road racing to make the world’s toughest off-road tires,” said Thom Peebles, brand director for BFGoodrich Tires. “We at BFGoodrich Tires are honored to have helped desert racing reach the status of a world-class sport and to have helped thousands of desert racers participate in a sport that we all love.”

“When we first went to Baja, we had a truck full of test tires and our guys were coming back with as many tires as they left with,” said Todd Steen, motorsports marketing manager for BFGoodrich Tires. “Today, we are honored to be the number one tire in desert racing and we do not take that responsibility lightly. We are humbled by the efforts and racing success of our teams, volunteers and crews during the past 30 years.”

Over the past three decades, countless drivers have taken top overall or class honors in desert races on BFGoodrich tires. Legendary names like Bob Gordon and son Robby Gordon, Larry Ragland, Rod Hall, Rob MacCahren and Troy Herbst have helped create and extend the BFGoodrich Tires legacy of desert domination by taking the overall win at the granddaddy of off-road races, the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000.

“BFGoodrich tires are the most dominant desert-racing tires in the world,” said Sal Fish, President and CEO of SCORE International. “I’ve been involved in desert racing for more than 30 years and I’ve seen firsthand BFG’s excellent grassroots support and commitment to the sport and its racers. BFGoodrich produces the toughest off-road tires I’ve ever seen and their support and dedication to desert racing is second to none.”

A first-generation Radial All-Terrain T/A tire was the first BFGoodrich tire raced off road, and its introduction marked the first time a radial tire was used in competition. “The goal of us bringing the All-Terrain T/A tire to Baja was to put it through some of the most extreme conditions known to man,” said Peebles. “The lessons we learned and continue to learn help us not only improve our race tires, but the tires consumers can purchase at their local BFGoodrich tires dealer every day.”

Driving Vehicle Design
Many times over the last three decades, BFGoodrich tire engineers have created tires that outperformed the top off-road race vehicles of the day. In response, racers would create new suspension components, use more powerful engines and add beefier components to their vehicles, which would trigger further tire engineering and a continuous, mutually beneficial development cycle that continues today. The technology and design techniques developed through this cyclical process have been shared across the BFGoodrich light-truck tire family every step of the way. Three-ply TriGuard® construction and ShoulderLock™ upper-sidewall traction bars – two features prominent on BFGoodrich Tires’ current lineup – trace their roots to this cycle. There’s a little bit of desert in every BFGoodrich tire.

Winning Partnerships
Along with race vehicles, another important stimulus for BFGoodrich tire development, and therefore the development of desert racing, was a series of partnerships between BFGoodrich Tires and leading automotive manufacturers. In the late 1980s and through the mid-1990s, BFGoodrich Tires partnered with Chevrolet, Toyota and Ford. Results from these partnerships, besides overall wins in numerous major desert races, include the tire known today as the Baja® T/A and tire inner liners, which are found on most off-road racing tires today.

Support The Sport
Perhaps more famous than any of BFGoodrich Tires’ partnerships or desert racing technology is the extensive support BFGoodrich Tires provides for desert racers. The BFGoodrich Tires pit network set up at every SCORE desert race allows numerous teams to participate in desert racing by providing them free logistical support. To utilize the company’s industry-leading pit support network, a team is only required to run BFGoodrich tires. “Our goal with this support is to be there for those who are there for us and they trust us to provide critical race support and we take that very seriously,” said Steen. BFGoodrich Tires has been recognized 18 times as SCORE’s top pit support team. Without the BFGoodrich Tires system, participation at SCORE races would be nowhere near current levels.

“For a team to race without BFGoodrich Tires’ support, you’d need at least 24 people, and then there’s the money, vehicles, equipment, mapping, planning and about a million other things,” said Steen. “With the BFG pit crews, teams who never could have taken on a desert race can compete with only one or two chase vehicles for support and use BFGoodrich support for everything else – no one else offers such extensive support in any form of racing.”

Mapping The Course
BFGoodrich Tires does more than just support teams at each race. In the months before major races, BFGoodrich Tires pre-runs courses to assist SCORE officials map the race route, prepare driver instructions, find any and all access routes from the pavement to the race course and set up the infrastructure of the BFGoodrich race communications network. All of this information is compiled with printed course maps and pit stop location diagrams and distributed free-of-charge to all teams using BFGoodrich Tires. Over the years, this resource the BFGoodrich Tires team assembles has become known as “The Desert Bible.”

Throughout its three decades of desert racing, BFGoodrich Tires has seen tire competitors come and go. At the height of tire competition in the mid 1980s, nine tire companies fought their battles off road. Many companies and brands have tried to stake their claim in off-road racing, using the desert as a way to promote their products and gain notoriety. Through it all, BFGoodrich Tires has passionately and consistently delivered the tires that teams need to win, the support they need to compete, and the experience synonymous with desert racing.

BFGoodrich Tires combines technological expertise with vast motorsports experience, delivering a high-performance tire for every type of vehicle from ultra-high performance tuner vehicles, sports cars and SUVs to the hottest sport trucks, pickups and rock-crawling rigs in the world.

BFGoodrich Tires has built its reputation on using motorsports as a proving ground. Success on the street begins with winning on the track and BFGoodrich Tires is involved in every type of racing, including oval, road, drag, desert and extreme rock-crawling. With 19 consecutive Baja 1000 wins, the most wins in rock-crawling history and an unmatched record on pavement, BFGoodrich Tires has proven the only records it breaks are its own. Visit BFGoodrich Tires online at www.bfgoodrichtires.com.