How One Man Becomes a Legend
Words: John Elkin
Photos: Provided by John Elkin & Reid Nordin
If you are into UTVs, then you should absolutely know who Walker Evans is. However, if you haven’t been briefed about the man, the myth, “The Legend,” we’re here to help. Some of you may know him as simply a manufacturer of shock absorbers, suspension upgrades, and wheels for your UTV. But is that all there is to Walker Evans? F*** no!
Swinging Hammers to Slinging Dirt
The foundation of our legend was started in 1969 when he was simply a general contractor building homes in Riverside, California. You see, Walker wanted to race, call it a hidden desire at the time. His first opportunity came from veteran off-road racer and occasional actor, James Garner. Garner was fielding a fleet of AMC Rambler sedans and needed anyone willing to drive. Walker stepped in and managed a very impressive third place in class at the inaugural Baja 500, sanctioned by the National Off-Road Racing Association (NORRA). Not bad for a guy who only had experience racing motorcycles on the flat track at Ascot as well as some desert events.
Walker thought he had started something great, but James Garner’s American International Racers team collapsed and left him without a ride. He started looking for a way to get into racing a two-wheel-drive pickup just like what AK Miller and Mickey Thompson were doing for Bill Stroppe. He located a one-year-old Ford pickup in a wrecking yard and approached Bill with his plan for a build. Stroppe told the young Evans he only builds racers from new vehicles, so he pointed him at a dealership with a stripped-down half-ton for $2,800, or $300 down and $120 per month. With stars in his eyes, Walker signed the loan.
Stroppe, good to his word, immediately had Evans strip the truck of its steel hood and most of the interior. Before long, Evans had a pile of new parts lying on the floor. After asking what he should do with it all, Stroppe said he just wanted it out of the shop. Walker borrowed a truck, loaded up the parts and headed right back to the dealership parts manager. Evans was able to recoup $300 for the parts and cover his first three payments.
Winning Was Becoming a Habit
With Shelby Mongeon in the right seat, Walker Evans started 174th in the 1970 NORRA Baja 500 production two-wheel-drive pickup class. His truck was painted in Stroppe Team colors and shod with Firestone tires, just like Parnelli Jones. The class was stacked with competitive drivers like Mickey Thompson and AK Miller, but Walker outdrove them all to win his first race in the new truck.
Walker narrowly won again in Baja at the 1000 mile run from Ensenada to La Paz – two minutes ahead of Donnie Beyer from New Mexico in a Chevy pickup. With every mile driven, Evans learned more, but prerunning the race courses with the best of the best on the Stroppe Team was far more productive than racing. Parnelli Jones, Larry Minor, Carl Jackson, Rod Hall and Stroppe himself were his teachers for days on end in Baja California. Through the end of 1974 Walker Evans had won more than he lost by a large margin. However, change was in the air.
Taking a Chance on Parnelli Jones and Chevrolet
At the end of 1974 Parnelli Jones retired his Big Oly Bronco and broke away from Bill Stroppe to start his own team with Chevrolet. Jones persuaded Dick Russell (the man who built Big OIy) to build his new racers and tempted Walker Evans away from Bill Stroppe.
Jones had the wild idea that he could duplicate the success of the Big Oly Bronco with the Chevrolet Blazer. Russell built a wild looking modified Blazer and a pickup for Evans. While the Blazers never really produced the results that Jones or Russell wanted, Walker Evans continued to produce wins and Top Three overall finishes.
In their time with Stroppe, Walker and Parnelli became very good friends. The long weeks of pre-running in Baja forged a relationship that remains to this day. Truth is; Walker idolized Jones, like a lot of young men.
Walker remembered he was working on his truck at Stroppe’s shop on Signal Hill when Parnelli asked if he knew how to fix a Kawasaki dirt bike. In moments, he had straightened out the machine, and took off riding it like Jones had never seen. This led to dirt bike trips to Baja, dinners together during long nights working at the shop, and some hilarious adventures.
Even after the Chevrolet deal came apart, Evans’ friendship with Jones remained steadfast. The pair own some property together in Utah where Parnelli introduced Walker to snowmobiles as well. Walker once wrote, “Of course, when he and I started snowmobiling, it was more like war. Throttle on, all day long!”
By 1978 the Parnelli Blazer experiment had run its course and the racers were sold off. In the end, Walker Evans drove that Chevrolet truck in 15 races, and he won 11 of them. But Walker Evans had started his own business of building off-road vehicles by this time though. He had done some projects with AMC for the Javelin and was chosen to build nine Jeep CJ-7 Renegades for the Jeep Celebrity Challenge.
Dodge Days
For the first half of 1978, Walker raced a Ford pickup truck while he was finalizing a deal with Chrysler to change his racing future. John Baker, a Hallmark card shop owner, was currently running a full-size Dodge truck in the Two-Wheel-Drive Class. Chrysler was interested in promoting the new D-50 mini truck in Class Seven and wanted Baker to drive. Evans was picked to run the big truck and continued to do so for 22 years.
Things were really jumping now at Walker Evans Racing in 1978. Walker Evans had taken a lesson from Bill Stroppe about how to make it in the racing business. Dodge trucks were being constructed, Jeeps were being prepared for AMC, and other racers were coming to have their own trucks built, including the iconic Budweiser Jeep Honcho driven by Roger Mears.
The 1979 SCORE Baja 1000 was slated to be a peninsula run from Ensenada to La Paz, a course to bring out the best of the best. The Open Wheel classes were loaded with talent and horsepower; big names like Mickey Thompson, Bobby Ferro, Glenn Harris and Don and Doug Robertson were expecting to take the overall win for four wheeled vehicles.
Walker Evans took Bruce Florio with him on the 986 mile race to La Paz. They ran all day and into the night and in the later stages they passed front runners, some broken down, some running on the side of the road. It took 20 hours and 48 minutes of flawless running, but Walker Evans and Bruce Florio took the overall win for four wheeled vehicles, a historic first for pickup trucks. After the race the ignition coil was found broken from its mount and lying between the intake manifold and exhaust, how it held in place remains a mystery.
When the Dodge program started, Walker’s first truck was blue with a yellow stripe. Then at the start of the 1980 season Walker debuted what would become his iconic paint scheme; expanding rainbow stripes over a field of blue and white. The colors would change through the years, but the basic layout remained the same, instantly recognizable from a distance in the desert, and the sight of it coming would get spectators on their feet to cheer.
Sponsors clamored for spots on the sides of the Dodge, and Walker started long term relationships with not only Dodge, but Goodyear Tires, Rough Country Suspension, several casinos in Las Vegas, and KC HiLites.
Titanic Battles with Ivan Stewart
In the early 1980s Walker had a tremendous rivalry with Ivan Stewart. These two had some epic races, often finishing within seconds of each other. Their rivalry continued into the 1990s in short course racing, Walker behind the wheel for Dodge and Jeep, and Ivan for Toyota.
As hot as their rivalry was, Ivan remembers, “After a few years of buggy racing, I got to know Walker and took an instant liking to him. He had a down to earth cocky way about himself.” Funny thing about the rivalry of Ford versus Dodge, Walker Evans built the Ford for Ivan’s race team owner Coco Corral. There were other rivalries over the years with greats like Mickey Thompson, Stan Gilbert, Dave Shoppe, Robby Gordon, Michael Nesmith, Steve Kelley, and a host of others. But the Ivan Stewart battles were something else to watch.
At the end of his desert racing career in 2000, Walker Evans would record 142 class wins and 21 championships. He scored wins for Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge and raced in every major off-road racing championship and the beginnings of the NASCAR Truck Series.
No One Does It Alone
Back in the 1970s a friend of Walker’s had a son named Randy who wanted to work in the race shop. He started sweeping, emptying trash cans and cleaning parts. Randy Anderson eventually advanced through the ranks of the racing team to become crew chief. He passed this passion for motorsports on to his son RJ who has been present throughout Randy’s long-career, and eventual inspired his own professional path behind the wheel as an accomplished racer. A Polaris factory driver, RJ has recently sat down with UTV Sports for a Campfire Chat.
UTVs Are the Future
Walker Evans Racing took a different direction as its namesake retired from desert racing by going into the wheel business. This author believes that Walker Evans wheels are the best he’s ever seen. Still looking for that next big thing, Randy and Walker eyed the UTV aftermarket, specifically wheels, shocks and suspension pieces. The company also offers lines of shock absorbers for Polaris snowmobiles and Jeep vehicles.
Walker and Randy Anderson also sponsor other racers and use the data from those teams to help refine their products. Not only does Walker Evans Racing sponsor frontrunners but up and coming drivers too. They even branch out from UTVs to snowmobiles, rock crawling and Jeep events.
Walker keeps busy these days with personal appearances and flies his own airplane and helicopter. When he has a chance, you can catch him running a NORRA Mexican 1000 Rally or being the Grand Marshall. Up until recently, he was still teaching the kids how it is done in rock crawling.
Walker Evans Racing is so adept at meeting the demands for the off-road aftermarket, Walker was recently inducted into the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association (SEMA) Hall of Fame.
Accolades for “The Legend”
Speaking of Halls of Fame, Walker has residency in several. In 2004 he was inducted into the Off Road Motorsports Hall of Fame, in 2015 the Motorsports Hall of Fame, in 2017 he received a Father of the Year Award from the American Diabetes Association for his contributions to make family a priority while balancing demanding careers and being an outstanding community leader. Of that award Walker said, “Once you reach a certain level, you look at all the blessings around you and say ’now it’s time to give back,’” He continued, “And that’s what I want to do and continue to do.”
Do not take Walker’s word for it, a lot of people think quite highly of Walker Evans:
Jim Rader, former head of motorsports for AMC Jeep said, “Walker told me on more than one occasion that he was living the American Dream. If I had to come up with one word for Walker, it would be ‘tenacious’.”
John Baker was a fellow Dodge teammate and fierce competitor himself; he said this about The Legend. “Walker Evans was a great driver and admired by many people. I remember a quote that he said to me back in the late 70’s: ‘I drive a truck like I drive a nail, hard and straight.’ And yes, he did drive hard and fast!”
Off-Road legend Carl Jackson ran with Walker a few times in the mid-1970s, both as drivers for Bill Stroppe. Carl remembers, “We were pre-running the 1970 Mexican 1000 and Walker and Parnelli Jones were Walker’s prerunner together. Walker was almost to La Paz on the pavement, he hooked a guard rail and rolled the truck completely over taking out a stretch of the guard rail. The Mexican officials refused to let him leave until he paid for the damage. The officials hinted that his rolled truck would exactly cover the costs of the repairs. Walker surrendered the truck and was able to leave Mexico.”
Steve Kelley, a longtime friend and championship winning driver in his own right, had some epic battles with Evans. Years before he had a chance to race with him back in the late 1970s at a Mint 400. Steve remarked, “He has an ability to concentrate like no one I have ever seen. I mean for hundreds of miles he is locked on to the road and making small adjustments all the time.”
Parnelli Jones has often been quoted saying that, “Walker Evans is one the best off-road racers.”
Ivan Stewart recently said, “Walker Evans is probably one [of the] biggest reasons I got involved in off-road racing. I really admired his off-road driving abilities. Always fast and made few mistakes and won lots of races.”
Don Barlow, the builder and original driver of the legendary Crazy Horse Ford Bronco, said recently, “One of the best off-road racing drivers I have ever seen.”
That’s Who the F*** Walker Evans Is!
His life is the stuff of legend and worthy of a book on his accomplishments alone. Walker Evans sits in halls of fame from off-road to motorsport in general, to his hometown of Riverside, California. It was all earned with rock hard determination and a sturdy work ethic. He knew enough to surround himself with the best people and to pay attention when people he idolized talked.
It helped that he possesses a singular talent to wheel anything on two or four wheels into a winner’s circle. I remember talking to Walker before a 1984 off-road race in Laughlin, Nevada; Walker looked ill and told me he had the flu, he looked like he could topple over at any moment. But he mounted that iconic Dodge truck and spent the next 250 miles wrestling the desert into a head lock and taking the win.
He knows, because Parnelli Jones taught him well, that the fans matter and deserve his attention. Whether at trade shows, races, on the streets of Ensenada or Fremont Street in Las Vegas, he stops to acknowledge his fans. And make no mistake, there are a lot of Walker Evans fans out there.
