After forty-eight years and a plethora of victories starting from the Baja 1000 to the Mint 400, “Lightning” Larry Ragland is looking it a profession.
He introduced his retirement from driving shortly after securing the NORRA Mexican 1000‘s Historic Truck victory, driving the “Arnold” 1995 Trophy Truck with which he gained the Baja 1000 4 instances; his son Chad additionally raced Arnold through the 2000s. With Preston Schmid as co-driver, Ragland took each the category and general lead on the primary day, and though he shortly misplaced the previous to fashionable Evolution automobiles like eventual winner Steve Menzies, he bolstered the latter following rival Mark Put up‘s retirement. Regardless of shedding the V-drive early within the penultimate day, he beat Pedro Perezpliego by over 4 and a half hours for the category win. His ultimate time of 20:47:08 ranked twenty-second amongst all Professional Automobiles.
“I bought it began each infrequently and fired it up and drive across the neighborhood, then parked it once more. I wished to do yet another race with it, and I wished to do it on my eightieth birthday, which was final yr. Now it’s 81,” mentioned Ragland throughout NORRA’s awards banquet. “We did a whole prep. Preston right here bought all of the prep on it, bought it prepared, after which navigated with me down right here this week. We’ve by no means been collectively doing it. Arnold was completely good apart from the V-drive and myself getting a number of flags, however I like the truck. It actually made all of my reminiscences down right here. The locals down right here come up on a regular basis for years, they are saying, ‘When are you going to convey Arnold again to Baja?’ I at all times instructed them it is going to come, I simply don’t know when.
“However anyway, it’s occurred. We each have had our final race, that’s it. It was an excellent, great point to do. I’ll take it again residence and I’ll restore it again the best way it was after which simply preserve it. I had a good time.
“My aim initially was to come back down right here and make an excellent exhibiting with it and present them what a thirty-year previous truck was actually like in these days and why we may accomplish what we did. I used to be blown away. First day, we gained the day, and I believed, ‘Mission achieved.’ I mentioned, ‘We will go put it on the trailer and go residence. We don’t want to hold on.’ That was our day within the solar and we loved it, and I had a good time, and Arnold might be round for a very long time.
Ragland started his profession in 1976 on a motorbike earlier than switching to 4 wheels, partnering up with Jim Halford in a Class 1 on the 1980 Baja 500. They gained the next yr’s Parker 400 in simply their third begin collectively, then constructed upon it by claiming the San Felipe 250 and Baja 500 in consecutive years. He shaped his personal group in 1983 and loved success out of the gate once more with back-to-back SCORE Worldwide Class 1 championships. His success continued by means of the last decade with victories on the Mint 400 in 1986 and 1988, the 1988 SCORE Class 7 title, and race wins just like the Frontier 500 and repeating at Parker.
As vehicles started to eclipse buggies because the preeminent class within the Nineties, Ragland simply made the transition accordingly in Class 8. He gained the Baja 1000 for the primary time in 1991 en path to the category title, adopted by one other Mint and repeating the SCORE championship. The late Jon Nelson constructed “Arnold” for Ragland in 1995, with which he gained the Baja 1000 three years in a row adopted by a fourth in 1999. Ragland, Rob MacCachren, and Luke McMillin are the one drivers in historical past with three straight Baja 1000 wins.
In 2014, he started getting into NORRA occasions, which have decrease stakes and are extra targeted on competitor enjoyment. Ragland was the grand marshal for the 2023 Mexican 1000.
“I’ve gotten away with numerous issues,” Ragland continued. “Each day we exit, my greatest concern coming down right here is I’m going to harm my co-rider, I fear about that, I fear about hurting myself, after which most of all I fear about hitting a neighborhood. I’ve gotten away with it, had some extraordinarily shut calls through the years, and I simply suppose it’s time I’ve had my day within the solar. I’ve loved it, however I can’t do it ceaselessly. I believed we’d exit collectively.
“I’ve loved it. I like coming down right here. I like the locals. I like all of the individuals and I like the followers that I’ve and all the chums that I’ve made. My finest mates are all on the market, that’s why I preserve doing it. It’s not as a result of I don’t actually take pleasure in driving—it’s not a lot anymore and it’s too doggone tough—however I benefit from the occasion, I’ve to do the driving to have the ability to be there with everyone else.”
His portfolio additionally extends past the desert, successful the Pikes Peak Worldwide Hill Climb in 2000 and even dabbling in pavement racing when he did a one-off in Nelson’s Spec Truck Sequence at Mesa Marin in 1997. He was inducted into the Off-Highway Motorsports Corridor of Fame in 2016.
