GEORGE THOMPSON COVERS THE BAJA 500

George Thompson has been a part of Rod Hall Racing for almost twenty years. For most of that time he has done our newsletters, press releases and race reports. He will be covering the upcoming Tecate/SCORE Baja 500 on the Rod Hall Racing Blog beginning Friday, May 30 and will post updates throught the race.

George’s active roots in racing go back to the mid-sixties when he became involved in drag racing and later, drove his Porsche 356A in SCCA races at the old Riverside International Raceway. In the mid-seventies off-road racing caught his interest and he started attending races in Mexico and Nevada, helping friends with their racing programs. In 1982 he joined the Checkers Off-Road Racing Team at the suggestion of his friend, Hall of Fame inductee, Scott McKenzie, who sponsored his membership into the club. Soon after joining, he built a Class 1600 buggy, which he raced with partner, John Brooks in HDRA and SCORE races. Brooks-Thompson Racing had success at finishing desert races, including both the Baja 500 and Baja 1000 and took a 4th in class at the SCORE Off-Road World Championships in 1985.

From 1987-1994, George served as the administrator of the Competition Review Board (CRB), which heard and ruled on driver protests after each SCORE and HDRA event. He authored a Format and Guidelines for the operation of the CRB and assembled a group of racers to serve on the board after each race. Although he retired as administrator after 1994, the CRB is still in operation today basically unchanged from his original concept.

In 1989, George founded Sunrise Consulting, a company that specializes in motorsports management and communications for off-road racing teams. He has worked with a number of well-known companies and teams in the past 20 years, including Rod Hall Racing. In 1993, when HUMMER and Rod Hall Racing first joined forces to go off-road racing, AM General wanted TV exposure at the Baja 1000. Unfortunately, SCORE had a problem coming to an agreement with any TV production companies to cover the race. George obtained the TV rights from Sal Fish, CEO of SCORE International and made an agreement with Producer Jerry Garrett to co-produce the coverage for the 1993 Baja 1000 which was aired on ESPN. The event turned out to be a very successful off-road racing debut for Team HUMMER, as Rod and Chad Hall finished first and second in the Stock-Full Class.

George has also served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame in Reno, Nevada since 2002. He has written many articles on off-road racing and has participated in Baja racing in one way or another since the mid-seventies. Given his background and experience with the team, it would be hard to imagine a more qualified guide to serve as the voice of Rod Hall Racing on race weekend...