Rod Hall (racer)

His racing career began in the 1960s, when organized off-road competition was just beginning. Traveling from his Hemet, California, home to races in the Rocky Mountains and desert Southwest, Hall quickly earned a reputation for going faster than other competitors – and surviving races with less vehicle damage. He won the 1964 Afton Canyon Jeep Junket near Riverside, California, in what may have been one of the first organized off-road races in the United States.[1]

As the popularity of organized off-road racing mushroomed in the late-1960s, so did Hall's success behind the wheel. In 1967 he won the inaugural NORRA Mexican 1000 Rally (the race now known as the SCORE International Baja 1000). He won the overall Baja 1000 race in 1969.[2] As of 2016, Hall was the only racer to have competed in every Baja 1000 in a four-wheeled vehicle.[3] He raced in the first fifty Baja 1000 races with his final start in 2017 when he was nearly 80 years old.[2]

Hall remains the only driver to win Baja overall in a four-wheel-drive vehicle. He has accumulated over 160 major event wins and more than a dozen SCORE/HDRA & Best in the Desert (BitD) championship titles. His string of 35 consecutive race wins in the early 1980s remains the longest unbroken string of race victories in off-road racing history.[4][5]

Hall and his wife Donna had two sons, and they now have third generation racers. Chad Hall races production vehicles, and currently runs Rod Hall Products amongst other businesses. Chad also raced Hummer H1s but has switched focus to the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2, Silverado T1XX, and his Spec Trophy Truck. Rod Hall Products currently works on the Colorado-based Infantry Squad Vehicle project of the United States Army with GM Defense and Hendrick Motorsports.

Josh Hall currently races a UTV in select races, with his daughter Shelby Hall.

He lived with his wife Donna at Reno, Nevada, at the end of his life.[5]

Hall died on June 14, 2019 at 81 years old.[2] He had progressive supranuclear palsy for the last few years of his life.[5]

Former SCORE owner Sal Fish said, "Rod Hall was one of the founding fathers of desert racing and certainly a major pillar in the history of SCORE desert racing. Rod was one of the elite racers for over 40 years but he always maintained his humble personality and was as approachable, as friendly and as open with a handshake and a friendly smile as the first time I met him when I did a little racing back in 1969."[5]