The hope was that on the 50th anniversary of desert racing legend Rod Hall's 1969 overall win at the Baja 1000 in a first-generation Bronco, Ford's new model could at least place well.
After all, they had a Bronco that could win, 50 damn years ago, before computers, before cnc machines, etc etc that make creating a machine WITH 50 YEARS of EXPERIENCE of Baja racers to have worked out what it takes to make a winning machine, IN ADDITION TO having already made a winning Bronco....
and they couldn't even finish the race.
Shame. Shame. Shame. Either they can't pull their head out of the collective butt, or they didn't get a project manager on the job of winning the race that hasn't changed all that much in 50 years, even with the added benefit of 50 years of hindsight, 50 years of champions to hire as advisors, etc etc.
I think this takes failing to a whole new level, and ironically, at the same time as the Ford Vs Ferrari movie hitting theaters and displaying what little it DID take to win one race with the right people, dedicated to winning, not being distracted by stuff like social media maketing, etc etc
Maybe next time, Ford will get the right people, with the complete dedication to learning from the past, engaging all the champions to learn from their wisdom and experience, and having enough spare parts, redundant onboard systems, enough extra mechanics for pit stops, and all the rest of the support staff it will need to handle ANYTHING up to replacing ANYTHING that can possibly break down or fail, with truck loads of enthusiastic help, ready to install spare parts, and welders, fabricators, etc.
Given the results of a overall win and what that would do for the next decade of selling Broncos for racing and commuting, it seems like a no brainer to me to have the entire corporation focused on making a win happen.
https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/31201/prototype-ford-bronco-r-race-truck-fails-to-finish-2019-baja-1000
