Wardy
Active Member
I'm going to start this thread from the beginning and try and tell the story of the Ivan Stewart PPI Toyota SR5 #001 to the best of my knowledge. At anytime, if anyone knows something that I have forgotten or needs to correct the story, please do and hopefully follow it up with some facts. Ok, so here goes....
2 stadium trucks were built in 1983-ish with the older body style and raced in the short course MTEG series....
PPI and Toyota were now planning on building 2 new trucks with the newer body style (1984) and they would be the supercab versions and used for desert racing in class 7. Some of the crew at PPI during that time were Tommy Morris, Lance Baron, Chris Hukill, Mike Schoffstall, Russ Wernimont and a list of others all under the watchful eye of Cal Wells III. I don't know why the 1983 stadium trucks were not numbered #001 and #002 but I can tell you that the 2 desert trucks were numbered that way, with the #001 being Ivan Stewart's truck and the #002 being that of Tommy Morris' truck. The trucks were built to race in class 7 in the SCORE and HDRA races along with a few stadium races as chassis #003 and #004 were being built to replace the two 1983 trucks.
Build Photo credits Chris Hukill/Lance Baron
The suspension was quite unique in these trucks with a 3 stage torsion bar set up in the front with the Bilstein shocks criss crossing where the radiator should be...
The rear suspension was a cantilever type suspension, also utilizing torsion bars...
Once the trucks were built they started racing the SCORE series but the controversy surrounding the "legality" of the trucks was in question. Looking at the picture above you can see one leaf spring attached to the rear suspension which pretty much didn't do anything (as far as I know) and I'm guessing it was there per the rules as to keeping the suspension as the way it was delivered from the factory. Well, Toyota being the "Official" vehicle of SCORE, they deemed it legal to race. HDRA on the other hand was playing hardball. The MINT 400 at the time was not sanctioned by either promoter at the time and was legal to race and stomped the field of class 7 trucks and also beat all of the class 8 trucks which was unheard of at the time prompting this ad from Toyota...
Fast forward to the 1984 HDRA Frontier 500, both class 7 trucks were told they could not race in class 7 but could race in the 2 seat unlimited class. All this happened approx 1 hour before the start and Ivan asked if he could race in class 1 and Morris would race in class 2, that way they could win 2 classes instead of just one. And so it goes, Ivan would have a pretty good day finishing 2nd to Larry Ragland as Tommy Morris and Frank Arciero would finish "Tied" for 4th place.....another story in itself.
The following year both trucks would receive updates to the front suspension getting another 6' of width and a little more travel, along with a wider rear end. The front fiberglass was also reworked so the tires would tuck into the fender wells, giving the Toyota an even meaner look than that of the more narrow class 7 fiberglass. Both trucks would race the entire 1985 season but PPI would retire the #002 truck and just concentrate on the #001. The #002 truck was sold off overseas sometime in 1986 or 87.
Photo credit Centerline Photo
Ivan would have great success in the #001 PPI Toyota during the next couple years but the more powerful 6 cylinder Porsche's were getting harder and harder to compete against, especially since Ivan was racing a truck that was at least 1000 Lbs heavier than the buggies. A new truck with a bigger engine (V6) had to be built to stay competitive with the class 1 and class 2 vehicles. The 1988 MINT 400 would be the final race for Ivan in the #001 and he would race the new truck, chassis #010 stating at the Baja 500....
Unknown photo credit
The truck was sold to someone south of the border and changed hands a few times. I would see glimpses of the truck in video's and scattered pictures over the last 2 years while tracking the truck down but all I know is Hugo Bojorquez owned it and was located in Constitcuion. I would love to fill in the timeline of the truck from late 1988 (when the truck was sold) to when it was sold to Hugo sometime in approx 1995-ish.
Pic's of the truck after PPI...
Unknown photo credit.
More later....
2 stadium trucks were built in 1983-ish with the older body style and raced in the short course MTEG series....
PPI and Toyota were now planning on building 2 new trucks with the newer body style (1984) and they would be the supercab versions and used for desert racing in class 7. Some of the crew at PPI during that time were Tommy Morris, Lance Baron, Chris Hukill, Mike Schoffstall, Russ Wernimont and a list of others all under the watchful eye of Cal Wells III. I don't know why the 1983 stadium trucks were not numbered #001 and #002 but I can tell you that the 2 desert trucks were numbered that way, with the #001 being Ivan Stewart's truck and the #002 being that of Tommy Morris' truck. The trucks were built to race in class 7 in the SCORE and HDRA races along with a few stadium races as chassis #003 and #004 were being built to replace the two 1983 trucks.
Build Photo credits Chris Hukill/Lance Baron
The suspension was quite unique in these trucks with a 3 stage torsion bar set up in the front with the Bilstein shocks criss crossing where the radiator should be...
The rear suspension was a cantilever type suspension, also utilizing torsion bars...
Once the trucks were built they started racing the SCORE series but the controversy surrounding the "legality" of the trucks was in question. Looking at the picture above you can see one leaf spring attached to the rear suspension which pretty much didn't do anything (as far as I know) and I'm guessing it was there per the rules as to keeping the suspension as the way it was delivered from the factory. Well, Toyota being the "Official" vehicle of SCORE, they deemed it legal to race. HDRA on the other hand was playing hardball. The MINT 400 at the time was not sanctioned by either promoter at the time and was legal to race and stomped the field of class 7 trucks and also beat all of the class 8 trucks which was unheard of at the time prompting this ad from Toyota...
Fast forward to the 1984 HDRA Frontier 500, both class 7 trucks were told they could not race in class 7 but could race in the 2 seat unlimited class. All this happened approx 1 hour before the start and Ivan asked if he could race in class 1 and Morris would race in class 2, that way they could win 2 classes instead of just one. And so it goes, Ivan would have a pretty good day finishing 2nd to Larry Ragland as Tommy Morris and Frank Arciero would finish "Tied" for 4th place.....another story in itself.
The following year both trucks would receive updates to the front suspension getting another 6' of width and a little more travel, along with a wider rear end. The front fiberglass was also reworked so the tires would tuck into the fender wells, giving the Toyota an even meaner look than that of the more narrow class 7 fiberglass. Both trucks would race the entire 1985 season but PPI would retire the #002 truck and just concentrate on the #001. The #002 truck was sold off overseas sometime in 1986 or 87.
Photo credit Centerline Photo
Ivan would have great success in the #001 PPI Toyota during the next couple years but the more powerful 6 cylinder Porsche's were getting harder and harder to compete against, especially since Ivan was racing a truck that was at least 1000 Lbs heavier than the buggies. A new truck with a bigger engine (V6) had to be built to stay competitive with the class 1 and class 2 vehicles. The 1988 MINT 400 would be the final race for Ivan in the #001 and he would race the new truck, chassis #010 stating at the Baja 500....
Unknown photo credit
The truck was sold to someone south of the border and changed hands a few times. I would see glimpses of the truck in video's and scattered pictures over the last 2 years while tracking the truck down but all I know is Hugo Bojorquez owned it and was located in Constitcuion. I would love to fill in the timeline of the truck from late 1988 (when the truck was sold) to when it was sold to Hugo sometime in approx 1995-ish.
Pic's of the truck after PPI...
Unknown photo credit.
More later....