BFGoodrich Tire Failure Attributed To Big Oly Roll-Over Crash In Baja Mexico!
The "Big Oly" Bronco is a famous Jones Bronco, built by Parnelli Jones, for use exclusively for desert racing in the southwest.
One year ago in May 2021 Baja Racing News included the Big Oly sale in our reporting.
Baja Racing News LIVE! BIG OLY CRASH!
UPDATED FROM BAJA MEXICO
Mark Vaughn with needed editing. Sunday, May 8, 2022, 7:29 AM
The iconic Oly Bronco, raced to victory in two Baja 1000s by Parnelli Jones, was rolled twice in the recent Slow NORRA event. Big Oly has always been notoriously difficult to keep upright, even Parnelli Jones rolled it numerous times while racing. The drivers this time were Meyers Manx' new owner Phillip Sarofim and Mark Porsche, great grandson of Ferdinand Porsche. As you may have heard, the great icon of an off-road racer the Oly Bronco rolled over last week. Actually it rolled twice, with two different drivers. No one was hurt and the tubeframe chassis appears to have survived intact. The only damage was to the rear end bodywork and the big wing that served as a roof.
Fact is, even the great Parnelli Jones rolled it back when he was racing it to victory in two Baja 1000s. The problem is the basic dimensions of the big brute. And its rear differential—or lack thereof. The Bronco was thought up by racing legend Parnelli Jones and designed by him and fabricator Dick Russell. Earlier Broncos Jones had tried off-road were four-wheel drive and heavy. They were also based on production frames. Parnelli wanted a tube frame with a fiberglass body. Along with master fabricator Russell, Parnelli drew it out on a napkin, according to longtime Vel’s Parnelli Jones team member Jim Dilamarter. The resulting car was built at Bill Stroppe’s shop and driven by Jones—with Stroppe in the passenger seat yelling for him to slow down—to two wins in the Baja 1000, 1971 and 1972. The off-road racing world was never the same after that and you can trace the lineage of today’s million-dollar Trophy Trucks to the Big Oly Bronco. The famous rig has always had some design shortcomings that made it a real handful to drive, however. To find out more, we called up Dilamarter himself and asked him what Big Oly was like to drive. “The Bronco has several things that kind of would contribute to the flip,” Dilamarter said. “One: it’s a short wheelbase, two, it’s a narrow track, three, it has a high center of gravity, and four, it has a spool rear end. Those are the things that contribute to that. Plus, you know, over exuberance, whatever.”
Those in touch with rear end componentry, so to speak, know that a spool rear end differs from an open rear differential, limited-slip diff, and locking diff in that it’s just a 90-degree bend for the torque to go from the driveshaft and through before going to each rear wheel equally. “For a dedicated drag car that goes in a straight line, it’s pretty much a no-brainer that a spool is the way to go”, says the spool page at Mark Williams Enterprises, which specializes in axles and other parts for drag racing. “With torque applied equally to both rear wheels, it makes for optimum acceleration potential. Of course, with both rear wheels ‘locked’ in unison, when it comes time to make a turn the rear end is ‘fighting’ it, as opposed to a car equipped with a differential that allows the outboard wheel to rotate slightly more than the inboard wheel and go through an arc smoothly”. “Spools are all about getting full lockup on a budget… 100% lockup 100% of the time”. “There are two types of spools: full spools and mini spools. Each attains the same objective, ensuring both drive wheels on a given axle receive full torque and rotate at the same speed all the time. They create a solid axle.” Back to Dilamarter: “So when you have a spool rear end, obviously, if you’re turning left, the left wheel turns just as much as the right turns. So if you try to make a sharp turn you’re gonna flip, it’s just automatic.”
Dilamarter said that Parnelli warned Oly’s new owner, off-road racing enthusiast Phillip Sarofim when Sarofim bought Big Oly at a Mecum’s auction last year for $1.87 million. “He’s warned everybody who’s ever driven it”, said Dilamarter. Many others have rolled the Bronco, too. “One time, at one of his (Firestone Tire) store openings, one of the mechanics was goofing off in a parking lot and he tipped over exactly how Parnelli was talking about. That was on pavement, but it doesn’t matter, dirt or pavement.” Indeed, Parnelli’s son, former Indycar racer PJ Jones, who finished 18th in the Slow NORRA this year driving his own Evolution Modified Turbo Can AM X3 4 UTV, compared the damage of the Bronco this time to what his father used to do to it in a race. “It’s in better condition now than when Parnelli brought it back,” Jones reportedly said at the finish line in Cabo San Lucas. Dilamarter, who was there for Oly’s Baja 1000 wins in 1971 and ‘72, said, “There’s a great picture of one of the 1000-mile races, I don’t know which one. Anyway, he (Parnelli) flipped it more than once in the same race. And the wing is all battered. There’s nothing left of the front fender. I mean, it looks like a total wreck—and he won the race. A friend of his at the finish line said, ‘Geez, if you won the race, what does the second-place car look like?’” That thing’s hard to keep upright, true, and it certainly not the only vehicle to roll over in the Slow NORRA.
Still, the fact remains the Oly wasn’t actually competing outright and was simply a participant in the Slow NORRA class. [Editors note: Everything in NORRA isn't really anything]
What is the Big Oly?
Parnelli has confirmed that he was goaded into entering the Baja races.
Bill Stroppe, the longtime NASCAR team owner Jones drove for in the Sixties, supposedly needled Jones at a party that he wasn’t tough enough to enter the grueling Baja race. So, in 1968, the pair entered with a Stroppe- prepped, production-based, four-wheel-drive Ford Bronco.
Carrying solid front and rear axles and with a heavy transfer case keeping weight up high in the stock pig-iron ladder chassis, this Bronco was neither rugged enough nor optimized for Jones’s balls-out driving style. It broke at the 150-mile mark, at that event.
Jones and Stroppe won the 1970 Baja 500 in the “Pony,” a Stroppe-modified two-wheel-drive Bronco that at least had some connection with the production vehicle.
Parnelli Jones had already raced Mexico and demanded more from his rigs.
This vehicle won the 1971 and 1972 Baja 1000s, then sat in Parnelli Jones’s personal collection virtually untouched for decades. Then sold at Mecum.
It was not a "Baja Bronco", which was a platform built by Bill Stroppe.
The Big Oly was designed with a large 'aerodynamic' wing, which was badly damaged in the crash in Mexico.
In interviews with Parnelli recently, Baja Racing News was told by Parnelli the wing was designed for two reasons, to provide some downforce at high speeds and as physical protection for the driver and co-driver in the event of such an accident that the occupants were at risk.
This is the truck that holds claim to being one of the first Baja trucks overall winner of the 'Baja Mil' and is considered one of the first real Baja racing trucks.
The Big Oly is the most valuable Bronco in the world, having sold at a Mecum auction for $1.87 million USD.
One year ago in May 2021 Baja Racing News included the Big Oly sale in our reporting.
In the frenzied bidding, Sarofim, the new owner who rolled with the truck, bought it (including the 10 percent buyer’s premium) at the auction in Indianapolis last May, 2021.
What happened in Mexico?
"Big Oly" was running in Baja Mexico at a week-long event that started on Friday. Video obtained by Baja Racing News shows the Big Oly spinning out of control mid-corner, proving the tire problems rather than driver failures.
The Bronco then slides off the side of the road, tipping over before ultimately coming to a stop on its massive front wing.
The recently purchased 'Big Oly Bronco' for just under two-million dollars was rolled and crashed in Mexico yesterday, after what the co-driver called, "badly built tires and badly maintained air pressures in the tires used for racing, which resulted in our crash", from Bahia de Los Angeles this morning.
BajaRacingNews.com ARCHIVE
Gary Newsome, Publisher, Ensenada, BC
Javier Xmorai, reporting. Los Cabos, BCS
BajaRacingNews.com
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