Who is the most accomplished off-road desert racer?

Jammminjay

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Ok. Here we go.

Who is the most accomplished off-road racer based on wins, but I am not sure what a short course win is worth vs a Baja 1000 win? Each can be measured differently. This would take hours to compile all the data. Even SCORE doesn't have the driver statistics listed.

Here is the most information I could find, please correct me if I am wrong or add to the list.

Rob MacCachren - 200+ wins (most wins in short course)
Ivan Stewart - 84 Career wins (17 Baja 500 & 3 Baja 1000)
Larry Ragland - 35 Career wins
Larry Roseler - 40 Career wins
Robby Gordon - ??? A lot

Who do you think is the best off-road racer of all time?
 
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jon coleman

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Jammminjay said:
Ok. Here we go.

Who is the most accomplished off-road racer based on wins, but I am not sure what a short course win is worth vs a Baja 1000 win? Each can be measured differently. This would take hours to compile all the data. Even SCORE doesn't have the driver statistics listed.

Here is the most information I could find, please correct me if I am wrong or add to the list.

Rob MacCachren - 200+ wins (most wins in short course)
Ivan Stewart - 84 Career wins (17 Baja 500 & 3 Baja 1000)
Larry Ragland - 35 Career wins
Larry Roseler - 40 Career wins
Robby Gordon - ??? A lot

Who do you think is the best off-road racer of all time?
Click to expand...
Larry Roeseler( Larry Ragland, too)
 
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Crusty Shellback

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If you are counting short course wins, Rob Mac has over 300.

Larry Ragland and Rob Mac are the only 2 with 3 peat Baja 1000 wins on 4 wheels.
Larry Rossler has more on a bike.

If you count bikes, then it's a toss up between LR and Rob Mac.

And both are humble champions.

And I can say I've had the pleasure of pitting both, LR on Team Green and Rob Mac with his #11 TT.
 
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Current- Rob Mac, but if you want to go back a bit, Jim Summers probably had the most dominate run of any driver ever and in what was probably the most competitive class at the time- 1600 with 20-60 cars in class pretty much every race.
 
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stephenrjking

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This issue gets complicated by the issue of multiple-class races, and really complicated by people who race in classes that aren't, er, quite so challenging.

From the outside, there seems to be a bit of a difference between winning the Baja 1000 overall and winning Pro Stock UTV and winning a relatively low-entry division like Class 7. Still wins, still great, but...

This is not exactly like baseball, where you can still compare players across eras based on shared statistics, and where you can absolutely compare players within their own eras that way. There are a lot of contextual issues, lots of series, lots of places to get wins. Or not get wins because you're racing against stiffer competition. The short course neighborhood has had multiple series, often at the same time, and sometimes wins are hard-earned against a stacked field (like Pro-2 last year and this year) and sometimes it's CJ Greaves winning a 5-truck race where three of them are on the same team.

Since Ivan and Rob are the topics here (and, I suspect, the field from which the correct answer can be chosen) it looks like we're examining top-end classes. That has to factor in to big win numbers for guys that have racked up titles in classes that aren't as hotly contested. And one has to consider the relative significance of races and occasionally even seasons; MTEG, for example, was a heyday for the sport. There were a lot of factory trucks and a lot of great drivers. KOH is becoming a big deal, and if a guy like Cam Steele can get that notch in his belt, it's a big feather in the cap, IMO.

All this is a bunch of claptrap to say that not every win is equal, not every championship is equal, and it doesn't matter because the correct answer is probably Rob Mac anyway.
 
Chris_Wilson

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One way to look at it is by Baja 1000 wins. And looking at that you have some greats that had incredible records in the limited classes like Johnny Johnson with 15 Baja 1000 wins.
In the top categories, Larry Ragland and Mark McMillin stand out, and of course on bikes Rossler, Campbell, etc. Bottom line is it's impossible to compare all the different eras, classes and handlebars vs steering wheels. It seems about the only thing most can agree on is that Rob Mac is the GOAT.
 
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