The iconic Bronco made its stunning return in late November 2019, as Ford Performance debuted its Bronco R racing prototype for that year's Baja 1000 during the SEMA Show outside Las Vegas, Nevada. And as a technical partner, FOX provided the suspension and tuning on a modern vehicle built to honor Rod Hall's historic Baja 1000 Bronco 4x4 victory 50 years prior.
One of the wheelmen for the Bronco R was 3-time King of the Hammers winner Jason Scherer, who realized a dream come true the following year when he was chosen to pilot one of three racing Broncos for the 2020 Ultra4 season. Initially the only one supported by FOX, by 2021 he was joined by 2-time KOH winner Loren Healy and popular drifter Vaughn Gittin, Jr. who became part of the FOX Motorsports family. We tripled the thrill factor.
This is why the Bronco Racing Trio of Scherer, Healy and Gittin, Jr. are the sixth featured drivers in our FOX Stories FARTHER video series.
Jason Scherer's dream come true
"To be part of that first Bronco team with Ford to be able to say, 'Hey, let's go race the Bronco at the Hammers' and be part of it was really the pinnacle of my off-road career," Scherer said. "Then getting those vehicles to go first, second, and third... I don't think it's respected enough because I don't think people realize how incredible that is. It's a feat to do that."
Read "FOX Painting 2022 King of the Hammers In Bronco"
"The statistics at King of the Hammers is that only 25 percent of the cars finish the race; that means 75 percent of the cars don't make it to the finish line," he added. "We not only qualified for second and third in the Broncos, but we finished in second and third. That means all three of those vehicles ran all the trails on the King of the Hammers and finished. It's pretty unbelievable. It's a testament to all the people who were part of it because every one of 'em put in that extra effort to make sure that that happened. And that's incredible."
Pushing the envelope with Loren Healy
“I love tinkering with stuff and making stuff better, and that's why I like partnering with a company like FOX,” Healy explained. “They, they wanna see things get developed and wanna see things grow and give you the best products out there. And there's no bigger part of your truck than the suspension; there’s so much engineering and development that go into the shocks."
Read "Glory and Anguish At 2022 King of the Hammers"
“We've been with the FOX family for a couple years now and I, I can't believe every time that I call (race tuner) Mike Kim and say ‘Hey, meet me in Barstow tomorrow, ‘cuz we want to try some new stuff and we wanna change some spring rates and we wanna change some valving and let's develop the RAD Live Valve shocks some more and the algorithms and let's keep making these trucks better…’ And he drops what he’s doing and says ‘Let's go! Let's make it better!’ I love pushing that envelope and we've never seen that service or that type of help anywhere else.”
Vaughn Gittin, Jr. has seen the light
"I'm newer to the FOX family," Gittin, Jr. said with a chuckle. "Last year we debuted our new 4400 Broncos with FOX suspension and I won my first race! It was a huge moment for me."
Read "Introducing The Fun-Haver Ford Performance Broncos Of Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Loren Healy"
"Without a doubt FOX, their tune and their support paid a huge part in it," he added. "You know, they just do things different. The mindset, the approach to supporting race teams, but also supporting enthusiasts. Whether I've bolted on a set of FOX shocks on my production street Bronco or I've put them on my race truck, it's just beyond what I ever imagined a vehicle could handle.
"My favorite thing about working with with FOX is not having to make compromises anymore because we have the Live Valve system. It does it for us where it used to always be a compromise; Live Valve is just game changer."
