Ford Ranger Raptor takes class win at Baja

In its motorsport debut, the Aussie-developed desert racer has taken out the stock class at the famous Baja 1000

The Australian-developed Ford Ranger Raptor has won its first motorsport event this week, when it was the only vehicle in the ‘stock mid-class’ category to finish the grueling 2022 Baja 1000 in Mexico.

Prepared, entered and raced by a factory-backed Aussie crew, the near-standard Ford Ranger Raptor defeated a Lexus LX 600 and a Toyota LandCruiser – the only other street-legal vehicles entered in other ‘stock’ classes – to finish 83rd outright in a field of 137 finishers from 276 entries.

Crossing the line in 26 hours and 15 minutes, the Ranger finished the gruelling off-road endurance race in such good shape that Ford opted to have it driven back to base as opposed to trucked or flown.

This move echoed that of the bigger Ford F-150 Raptor, which achieved the same feat back in 2017, albeit without an Australian-led development.

The Ford Ranger Raptor racer was designed, built and developed primarily by Kelly Racing, in collaboration with Ford Performance, before being shipped out to California, where Lovell Racing honed and applied the finishing touches in the lead-up to the event.

Apart from safety prerequisites such as a roll cage and extra under-body protection, the Raptor was pretty much standard with the exception of two spare tyres and a 160-litre fuel cell in the tray, a Motec engine management system, racing brake pads and fluid, and a rear-facing Safari snorkel.

Importantly, the Ranger Raptor’s 3.0-litre twin-turbo petrol V6, 10-speed automatic transmission, Fox shocks and BFGoodrich tyres all remained standard.

Ford’s top brass executives were predictably smitten with the results and said the Baja had long been the proving ground for the Ford Performance off-roaders.

“This effort has been a global effort for Ford Performance from the beginning, with Ford Australia having done the design and initial development signoff, then shipping it to the States and working with all of our partners to pool all available resources for this common goal,” Ford Performance Motorsports global director Mark Rushbrook said.

“It takes a great truck and it takes great people. We’ve proved that we have both of those on a global level.”

Ford Performance Australia motorsports engineer Brendan McGinniskin was part of the expansive chase crew and said that while the Raptor was almost infinitely capable, it was largely a team effort.

“Spending the night out there chasing the truck was something I’ve never experienced before, and it was such a different experience of going racing,” he said.

“Everyone pulled together and not even the few tense moments we had were going to stop us from crossing the finish line together.”

Ford Performance Motorsports supervisor Brian Novak said: “It’s a stock engine, a stock transmission, a stock driveline in this truck. It was just flawless.”

One of four people who piloted the right-hand drive Ford Ranger Raptor – including Brad Lovell, Jason Hutter and ARB’s Andy Brown – US off-road ace Loren Healy was rapt.

“Right from when we first got in the truck, the track was just so tough and so technical and there were dead vehicles everywhere out there. We just picked our way through, stayed patient. I’m just so stoked to be here. Always great to see the sunrise in a race car,” Healey said.

As publicised before the event, the competing Raptor was run entirely on Shell low-carbon bio-fuel and, according to the team at least, the vehicle was running at full power with no changes to the engine or ECU mapping to accommodate the eco-friendlier fuel type.

The Raptor’s next international event will more than likely be next year’s edition of the Finke Desert Race in June 2023.

Ford Ranger Raptor takes class win at Baja

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