Walker Evans, one of the all-time greats of desert racing, who was also one of the inaugural drivers of the NASCAR Truck Series in 1994, has died. He was 86.
You could always tell Evans in a crowd by his white cowboy hat, and you could usually tell him because he was the guy who had just won the race.
In a long and storied career Evans had 142 class and overall wins in off-road racing competition from Baja to short course series. He won the Baja 1000 overall in 1979 driving a Dodge truck running on Goodyear tires, two corporate associations that helped him get ahead in the sport. In addition to his 142 victories in both desert racing and short-course competition, Evans claimed 21 championships, and nine Baja 1000 class wins in the process.
Walker got his introduction to off-road racing when he drove a Rambler Sedan in the 1969 NORRA Baja 500 for actor James Garner's American Motors Team, Marty Fiolka wrote upon Evan’s induction to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2015.
“I took a third place finish, and knew I had to get serious about desert racing, so I built my own vehicle, and began competing,” Evans said of that race.
"The sport was just something that I thrived on," he once told Fiolka. "I just loved it – just driving, driving and driving all through the night. You know how you can get hooked on something? Everybody who's ever driven the Baja knows it's the greatest experience of his or her life. And it definitely took over mine."
Evans was a key figure in enlisting factory support for desert and short-course racing. In 1994 he built and raced the first Dodge pickup in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series and later helped pioneer competitive rock crawling.
"My commitment to winning came off to some people as being too aggressive," he told Fiolka. "I've often said—and I learned this from Parnelli Jones—that I'd take out my best friend to get to the finish line first. Show me a guy that's happy with second, and I'll show you a guy that's always second."
Evans began racing motorcycles, racing sanctioning body SCORE International said. That drive in the Rambler showed he had talent.
“From my motorcycle experience I could read the terrain, and was also a pretty good mechanic. It all fit together.”
Evans drove for Bill Stroppe, and Parnelli Jones, but eventually built his own Class 8 vehicles before working with Dodge and winning the 1979 SCORE Baja 1000, making him the first driver in off-road racing history to win the race overall in a Class 8 truck, SCORE noted.
"In what turned out to be an incredibly clean run totaling 20 hours and 48 minutes, Walker Evans and passenger Bruce Florio beat the fastest single-seat VW by an hour from Ensenada to La Paz," wrote John Elkin on offroadextreme.com. "It was an incredible feat and if he already was not, it had certainly cemented Walker Evans as a legend."
His efforts led to a relationship with Dodge and in vehicle design and driving capabilities, changing the face of SCORE and off-road racing to this day. That Class 8 truck lead the way to the modern SCORE Trophy Truck.
Evans founded Walker Evans Racing products with Randy Anderson. The company designs, engineers, develops, and fabricats suspension components and shock absorbers. It's now one of the largest manufacturers in the off-road industry. But it was his driving that he will be remembered for.
“Simply one of the best off-road racing drivers ever, Walker Evans would always captivate and dazzle the fans whenever he powered his desert truck to the start line,” the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame noted upon his induction there in 2004. “Throughout his thirty-five year career, he has been applauded for his exhilarating racing skills and his informal, gentlemanly manner.”
I once got to ride with Evans in a commemorative drive from Tijuana to Ensenada in one of his old race trucks. We talked about all kinds of things one that drive. At one point, the line of historic race vehicles pulled into a street with an orphanage, one of the many charities SCORE racers support. Evans handed me a wad of cash, hundred-dollar bills. I didn’t count it but it had to be a couple thousand dollars.
“Here,” he said to me, handing the bankroll to me. “Give it to ‘em.”
That’s the Walker Evans I remember. If you have any stories, share below in the comments.
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