Frank “Scoop” Vessels' 1972 Ford F100 Race Truck Goes To Auction - Four Wheeler Magazine
Frank “Scoop” Vessels was one of the greatest off-road racers in history who battled the deserts of Baja for almost three decades. SCORE (Southern California Off-Road Enterprises) named Vessels “Offroadsman of the Year” in 1978. You’re probably wondering how Frank Vessels got the nickname “Scoop”. Frank "Scoop" Vessels was inducted into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2007 but tragically lost his life in a plane crash just outside of Burns, Oregon on August 11, 2010. The truck started out life as a 1972 Ford F-100 and was built by... BFGoodrich decided to partner up with Frank “Scoop” Vessels to use his Class 8 race truck to test their first generation off-road radial tire. Prior to this, off-road tires were agricultural-based bias-ply tire designs which were not ideal for high-speed durability or control. Frank “Scoop” Vessels raced through the desert in his Class 8 1972 Ford F100 and proved that radial tires were the wave of the future after winning the 1977 Baja 500 and Baja 1000 on the new BFGoodrich Radial All-Terrain T/A tires. The famed ’72 Ford F100 race truck became the first truck to win an off-road race on radial tires but that wasn’t the only new ground it broke. Source: www.fourwheeler.com
