BajaNomad - N.O.R.R.A. guys and photos...

N.O.R.R.A. guys and photos...

bajasol - 4-14-2006 at 09:49 PM

Anyone out there with information on the guys of N.O.R.R.A.? I know a few have passed on, but I am looking for a few old photos of the guys: Ed Pearlman, Ed Orr, Dick Cepek, Claude Dozier, Pete Condos and Drino Miller. Any help would be great. Thanks

thebajarunner - 4-14-2006 at 10:15 PM

The book "1000 miles to glory" by Marty Fiolka has lots of photos of all those guys and all the NORRA days.

Don Francisco, Ed's sidekick, died last year, see my Nomad post from 2005.

http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=8838#pid65328

bajasol - 4-14-2006 at 10:27 PM

Thanks for the post. Sorry to hear of Don's passing. I do have Marty's book, It is good but it does not have many photos of the guys. Yes Ed Pearlman and Bruce Meyers but not Ed Orr, Dick Cepek, Claude Dozier Pete or Drino Miller...Thanks

David K - 4-15-2006 at 12:14 PM

Bruce is doing well I hear from Dave Deal... who raced in the early NORRA days and is well known for his Baja and off road comics... Also the new PIXAR movie 'Cars' is coming out soon, the 'characters' are the creation of Dave Deal in part or whole. They both live in San Diego County.

surfer jim - 4-16-2006 at 07:16 AM

BAJASOL....will you be doing a book also?

I am thinking some of the race organizations have been honoring some of the off road pioneers also and are looking for past info/photos....

I like the DUSTY TIMES "old photo" every month also...except I can remember when those photos were "current"...

David K - 4-16-2006 at 10:31 AM

Hey Jim, do you like this one?

It is Parnelli Jones returning from a 'tire warm up' drive the day before the 1973 Baja 1000... I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time, with my camera!

David K - 4-16-2006 at 10:35 AM

Here's Mickey Thompson at the 1975 Baja Internacional (500) at Valle Trinidad... just got out of his damaged Chevy LUV (with a 454 V-8 in the bed on top of an Olds. front wheel drive installed on the rear tires!)... man he had some wild horsepower vehicles in Baja!

David K - 4-16-2006 at 10:38 AM

Finally, here's 'Iron Man' Ivan Stewart (BEFORE he became a racing superstar) at the 1975 Baja 300 in Santo Tomas... He just won the B.R.A. race when I took this picture at the El Palomar campground.

BajaNomad - 4-16-2006 at 02:29 PM

I noticed the Hurst-Airheart sticker on Ivan's vehicle. Those were the hot tip in the 70's/80's - especially in the stock car arena where I spent many-a-year. Haven't seen one of those stickers for a very long time.

Regarding Big Oly (also Hurst-Airheart equipped), here's an interesting read for anyone that hasn't seen it:
http://www.bajabronco.com/BigOly.shtml

bajalou - 4-16-2006 at 03:06 PM

Great story - thanks for pointing me to it!!

thebajarunner - 4-16-2006 at 04:09 PM

Wow, great memories, guys!!
I got passed two different times (different races) by the "Big Oly"
It was the only times in racing that I felt honored to be 'dusted'
We ran that BRA 300 around and around the Santo Tomas hill.
Ran it in the "Old Blue" pickup. We were not going anywhere, on the last lap a biker got hurt, real bad, and our relief crew stopped, loaded him on the tail gate, and eased him back to town, never heard how he came out of that.
I think Bobby Ferro was in that one as well, if old foggy memory is correct.

David K - 4-16-2006 at 05:21 PM

Then we could have met! I was down there with Mark Hanson (FAST Company) who raced a Baja Bug. I have a funny photo of a racer that broke down somwhere, borrowed a rancher's horse and rode back to Santo Tomas with his helmet and fire suit on!

Great stories...

bajasol - 4-17-2006 at 10:13 AM

Not working on a book, working on a travel magazine TV show on Baja. My pitch pilot episode has a segment on Baja Racing's beginings. The other two are on The Rosarito Beach Hotel and a christian school for blind children in Valle de Guadalupe named Rancho Sordo Muno. Ivan Stewart and Parnelli Jones and Walker Evans take a motorcycle ride down every year with a group of friends to donate and help the school out. Racers giving back to the land and to the people of Baja. Great story. Any ideas of places and people to meet, please do tell. I have many like CoCo and Mama Espinoza...

Baja Sol

[Edited on 4-17-2006 by bajasol]

[Edited on 4-17-2006 by bajasol]

thebajarunner - 4-17-2006 at 04:47 PM

Uhhhhh, slight correction.
Rancho Sordo Mudo is for deaf kids.
(and a wonderful place to boot)
Great you are featuring this kind of thing for publication!!

David K - 11-2-2012 at 01:58 PM

Bump... where is bajasol today? (last post Feb. 2010)

thebajarunner - 11-2-2012 at 02:44 PM

Great bump David
Never get tired of looking at those old photos
I keep expecting to see my face somewhere in the background

David K - 11-2-2012 at 04:24 PM

Yah, I have been spotting some great threads that are worthy of bumping up so the newer Nomads can enjoy them and us old fart Nomads can too!

Is this where I get to mention my NORRA accomplishments?

thebajarunner - 11-2-2012 at 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
Yah, I have been spotting some great threads that are worthy of bumping up so the newer Nomads can enjoy them and us old fart Nomads can too!

Ahem, well, modesty demands that I refrain unless asked...
Thanks for asking,
My partner Chuck and I took second in the pickup class (Class 8) in the 1972 Mexican 1000.
Over a 12 year span I raced in six 1000's and finished all six....

O.k. back to the rocking chair...

BajaBlanca - 11-2-2012 at 08:29 PM

enjoy your rocking chair but keep sharing stories !

Don't tease me, girl

thebajarunner - 11-2-2012 at 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaBlanca
enjoy your rocking chair but keep sharing stories !

Got a lot of stories yet to tell
Thanks for the reminder

willardguy - 11-2-2012 at 09:05 PM

its all in the tires!

[Edited on 11-3-2012 by willardguy]

acadist - 11-3-2012 at 06:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
Bruce is doing well I hear from Dave Deal... who raced in the early NORRA days and is well known for his Baja and off road comics... Also the new PIXAR movie 'Cars' is coming out soon, the 'characters' are the creation of Dave Deal in part or whole. They both live in San Diego County.

A Baja Cars movie.....AWESOME

bajabrant - 11-3-2012 at 06:29 AM

i raced the bra race also--the driver's name on the horse is rick pacquate
( bad spelling on last name )

acadist - 11-3-2012 at 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
Here's Mickey Thompson at the 1975 Baja Internacional (500) at Valle Trinidad... just got out of his damaged Chevy LUV (with a 454 V-8 in the bed on top of an Olds. front wheel drive installed on the rear tires!)... man he had some wild horsepower vehicles in Baja!

In high school in the late '70s one of my buddies bought one of his trucks from Arcadia Datsun. Every year he had to take it to the dealership to get it 'smog checked' since everything smog related was welded shut. To this day one of the best custom built 4X4 trucks I have ever seen.....even for a Datsun :lol:

1975 BRA BAJA 300, Santo Tomas

David K - 11-3-2012 at 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bajabrant
i raced the bra race also--the driver's name on the horse is rick pacquate
( bad spelling on last name )

What a great place Baja Nomad is that people who were at the same event, 38 years ago can share about it here!

75 Baja 300.jpg - 37kB

BRA (Baja Racing Association)

thebajarunner - 11-3-2012 at 04:47 PM

Man does that bring back memories

Help me a little here with my fading memory.
The head dude was Bill Martin? or was it Miller?
Whispery little voice, came across cranky, but had a big heart.
I seem to remember that his world headquarters was KM37 just west of Mexicali, at the head of the Laguna Salada.
Everything (except the above noted Santo Tomas race) began there.
We won the Laguna Salada 200 in 1973 in the Old Blue pickup
(Had to stand on a stool to take the trophy down, wipe off the dust and read the inscription)
Went down and ended in San Felipe.
Threw off a power steering belt right away, what a b-tch it was to steer that truck.
When we came close to the pavement our crew was there and we yelled at them to go on down to the hiway crossing and take the belt off my family truck- they did, we took a couple minutes to install it on the race truck and away we went.

Great memories.....

David K - 11-4-2012 at 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by thebajarunner
Man does that bring back memories

Help me a little here with my fading memory.
The head dude was Bill Martin? or was it Miller?
Whispery little voice, came across cranky, but had a big heart.
I seem to remember that his world headquarters was KM37 just west of Mexicali, at the head of the Laguna Salada.
Everything (except the above noted Santo Tomas race) began there.
We won the Laguna Salada 200 in 1973 in the Old Blue pickup
(Had to stand on a stool to take the trophy down, wipe off the dust and read the inscription)
Went down and ended in San Felipe.
Threw off a power steering belt right away, what a b-tch it was to steer that truck.
When we came close to the pavement our crew was there and we yelled at them to go on down to the hiway crossing and take the belt off my family truck- they did, we took a couple minutes to install it on the race truck and away we went.

Great memories.....

EPIC story! Love the original days of Baja Racing (1960's and 1970's) when it still was mostly a 'family' sport with only a few hot shots like Parnelli Jones and Mickey Thompson!

I got my dad to take me to see the 1973 Baja 1000 (Mil) in Ensenada and then out past Ojos Negros just beyond where the pavement towards San Felipe ended.

Mickey Thompson didn't pass his own SCORE rules (or whatever the real story was) and he, Danny and his mechanic drove out to where we were and camped by us with his race pickup on the trailer and watched the race the next morning from the boulders we and others were sitting on. I remembered the morning of the race, at 15 years old saying to myself... wow, that is the world's land speed record holder over there warming himself by a campfire.

Love Off Road Racing stories... The next race I went to was the first SCORE race, The Baja Internacional, in July, 1974... I was camped at Mike's Sky Rancho (where there would be a mandatory 1 hour down time)... Parnelli Jones had a terrible accident in the pine forest near Laguna Hanson as he and Bill Stroppe in the Big Oly Bronco crashed head-on with a motorcycle going backwards on the race course! Biker (an American) was killed, and Parnelli never raced Big Oly again.

Other than that terrible moment (we learned about much later), the race was a huge success and ushered in SCORE as the main race promoter in Baja ever since.

Look at what I dug up...

David K - 11-4-2012 at 11:14 AM

I still have the race program I got in 1974... and we see that thebajarunner is in race car #125 (starting at 9:32 am)!

Looks like I recording you at 4:34 at Mike's. :light:

Oh, look who started next to you... Ivan Stewart!

Yep, you got me....

thebajarunner - 11-4-2012 at 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
I still have the race program I got in 1974... and we see that thebajarunner is in race car #125 (starting at 9:32 am)!

Looks like I recording you at 4:34 at Mike's. :light:

Oh, look who started next to you... Ivan Stewart!

Hard to escape your past :lol:

I am remembering a 4th place finish, not positive about that.
What I do remember was the terrible incident Parnelli had with the wayward biker.
Parnelli's business partner, Marv Porter, was a very close friend of ours, and he had promised to make us a quick lunch during the one hour down time at Mikes.
Marv had brought PJ's slick FMC motor home all the way up to the Sky Ranch, and as soon as we timed in we made a beeline for the motor home.
Marv gave us the sad news about the crash, said PJ and Stroppe were singed by a bit of fire flash but basically o.k.
He made us tuna sandwiches (man, the little things you remember) we stretched a bit, strapped up and away we went.
Sad memory of a great time!!!
And, David, thanks for reminding all of us that we were in there in much better time than most.... :yes:

Dick

David K - 11-4-2012 at 06:49 PM

Yes indeed... Ivan Stewart only was an hour ahead and he was in a race buggy and you were in a pickup truck! Good job Dick! Another great story about Parnelli's motorhome making it into Mike's.