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For immediate release!
Mark Newhan Motorsports (MNM) has teamed with PAC
Motorsports to build a new Chevrolet Class 8 truck to
compete in this years 40th anniversary of the famed Baja
1000. This years event has a special place in Mark's Life,
Mark also turns 40 this year. This is not only the year of
the historical, extra long race to Cabo San Lucas, for Mark
it is personal.
The truck will be built under the newly adopted rules for
the class. Mark's fascination with class 8 began at the 1983
San Felipe 250, which was the first off road race he
attended. " I remember being at San Matias Pass hearing the
thunder of the approaching race engine, then the power slide
as the trucks made a turn and off they went showering us all
with the roads' surface", Mark recalls. Mark vowed to be the
one in the truck giving the fans the vantage point that he
got that day in March 1983, he was 16 years old at the time.
In 1991, after crewing for some very prominent teams, Mark
began the design and construction of a Chevrolet truck of
his own to race. Once completed, Mark raced three Fudpucker
races in 1992. His efforts were such that he set his sights
on the San Felipe 250 in March of 1993 and entered the truck
in class 1. This was ten years to the exact race that he had
attended as a youth. It was to be his first SCORE race. "In
those days I did not have a good prerunner and it took us
two days to pre run the course in my stock two wheel drive
Blazer" he recalls. Well as the history books show Mark won
that race, his first SCORE race and fourth ever entry. Mark
went on to campaign a class 8 truck for most of the 1995
season, a season that the class 8 trucks were plagued by
some very inconsistent rules. For the past decade Mark has
focused on business and family, although competing in an
occasional race to keep his mind in check.
The engine is being built by Greg Grosset of Total
Performance in Santee, California. Greg has been building
racing engines for better than a decade and assembled the
NASCAR Craftsman truck series engines for Ultra Motorsports.
Using a Dart block, heads and intake manifold along with the
Crower rotating assembly, the Drysumped package will produce
about 700 horse power for this event, "we are going with a
little less horse power to insure durability for the extra
long Baja 1000 course this year" say Greg Grosset of T.P..
The vehicle is under construction and the team should be
testing by late September. The team will be putting
approximately 500 to 600 miles on the truck without changing
any of the pieces to insure the durability, unless of course
anything needs attention.
Mark's goal is to demonstrate that a well built, well
prepared class 8 truck is not a rolling road block that the
class has been relegated to, in the minds of those who are
not passionate about the class. As Mark states, "the new
rules combined with some of the new technology, that has not
been implemented on a class 8 truck in over a decade, should
demonstrate that the class is worth looking at for some
smaller Trophy Truck teams, the class should be to TT as
Busch is to the Nextel Cup".
As of this date MNM and P.A.C. are pleased to announce that
they have entered into sponsorship agreements with
Sway-A-Way Racing Shocks and Vision X racing lights. "I am
extremely excited about the relationship with Sway-A-Way",
said Mark Newhan. "the Sway-A-Way racing shock design is
what I call the OG of the off road racing shock
world". "Their design is what spawned most of the racing
shock companies that are active in the sport today". "S-A-W
took the original Kuster design and refined it with the aid
of their extensive manufacturing capabilities". "When you
think of the old saying, imitation is the most sincere form
of flattery, it truly applies here", says Mark. I have also
made some very good progress in development with my own
shock program and look forward to building on my success
with help from Sway-A-Way". As for
Vision X, "What can you say about Vision X, Vision X has had
an overwhelming amount of success in the short time that
they have been active in the sport", " many teams can
attribute their Baja victories to the reliability of the
Vision X HID racing light", It is easy to conclude that
without such a racing light victories in Baja would not be
possible", Mark said.
Look for new associate sponsors as they become a part of
this racing effort.
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MNMRelease.pdf
