Two time world speedway champ and AMA Hall of Fame’r Bruce Penhall has been etching a solid mark in Baja’s SCORE series, and over the course of his racing partnership with Joe Black, has earned championships and a bunch of podiums in Mexico. Older son Ryan Penhall has paid some heavy dues along the way, including a head on collision under a race truck in 2008. They’ve been going for it against JCR in class 22 for 2 years and are going into the 2009 BAJA 1000 with loaded cannon.
Today, Bruce Penhall said he signed a one-race deal with KAWASAKI to race their KX450 with the 1x plate of Robby Bell in the upcoming B1000. Joining the former champ and the Penhall brothers , Ryan and Connor, will be Steve Hengeveld and most likely Destroy Abbott. Bob Bell from Precision Concepts will be building the bike. It all makes sense now. We talked to Bruce not long after the Ryan pulled up to the house with the 1x race bike in the back of the truck.
“We just picked up the bike today, the deal just happened yesterday”, says Penhall, who just announced his team lineup for this November. “I’ve been working on this for a while and my boys used to be on contract with Team Green.”
Penhall was particularly pleased with arrangements.
“Kawi dug deep. They didn’t hem haw a bit. My deal is what I consider to be a very good one in this economy. Four years ago it wouldn’t have looked like the best deal out there, but what they’ve offered us is fantastic considering the circumstances”
The bikes are coming directly from the manufacturer with works components from Team Green and final blueprint from Precision Concepts.
“Bob is building the bike and PC is really stepping up with all the testing, Baja Designs also. Reid and Jason from Team Green have been a big part of this and they‘ve even got the PR dept. behind the thing.”
The team is as fierce a challenge to Johnny Campbell Racing as they’ve yet to face despite the fact that neither of the Penhalls are in contention for the series points. Robby Bell and the more experienced Steve Hengeveld both raced with and against each other while on contract under Bruce Ogilvie’s American Honda Racing. Ryan Penhall won a championship in class 20. If Destry Abbott comes on board (which is all but done at press time), you have a real threat to Norman, Weigand and Udall.
“I’m going into this with a solid team. I think I run a real tight ship and a professional team. I don’t have any shortcuts and I want the riders to be comfortable.”
Penhall explained that of these riders have their own preferences as to everything from handlebars, to tires to energy drinks and described the way they’re coming together as a team.
“I’m not into pre-madonnas. I want to make everyone happy, but I expect the same in return.”
Some of these riders have contracts coming up and this huge effort by Penhall to create a winning team gives each rider the same opportunity to leverage a success when they sit down to work out deals for 2010. Penhall is doing everything he needs to gear up against the Hondas of JCR and he’s getting the support of the manufacturer. Penhall was also happy about SCORE’s impulsive move to start enforcing deviation and speeding violations.
“It’s awesome. It couldn’t be better, should’ve happened years ago. First, from a father’s standpoint, when you’re pre-running, you drop the kids off in Ojos and wait for em in Valley T. You know exactly how long it takes to pre-run. But you can add 3-4 hours onto that when the guys are looking for the best lines. As a father, you can’t help but wonder where they are.”
Penhall was firm about the new requirements to stay on course.
“But this time you’re gonna run the arrows. Everyone stick to the arrow. It’s a great thing. We go down there to win. We need to win the right way. This gives more of an even playing field.” Penhall further explained another benefit of the strict rules enforcement. “Some other teams have been down there with machetes and we’ve have to go out and find those lines.” Obviously that’s a time consuming and disadvantageous position to be in.
Whether or not Destry Abbott gets added to the roster is just a technicality. And while Abbott doesn’t have a name in SCORE yet, he did win the Tecate Hare Scrambles in 2006. “It’s not a money thing for Des, who is a real Gem of a guy. It’s whether or not our deal had KAWASAKI’s blessing.”And things are starting to look that way.
Standby for more coverage as we follow this team along with class 22 contenders JCR, Ramirez and Corfman into the next granddaddy of em all, the BAJA 1000.
