For immediate release!
Mark Newhan Motorsports (MNM) has teamed with PAC Motorsports to build a new Chevrolet Class 8 truck to compete in this years 40th anniversary of the famed Baja 1000. This years event has a special place in Mark's Life, Mark also turns 40 this year. This is not only the year of the historical, extra long race to Cabo San Lucas, for Mark it is personal.

The truck will be built under the newly adopted rules for the class. Mark's fascination with class 8 began at the 1983 San Felipe 250, which was the first off road race he attended. " I remember being at San Matias Pass hearing the thunder of the approaching race engine, then the power slide as the trucks made a turn and off they went showering us all with the roads' surface", Mark recalls. Mark vowed to be the one in the truck giving the fans the vantage point that he got that day in March 1983, he was 16 years old at the time. In 1991, after crewing for some very prominent teams, Mark began the design and construction of a Chevrolet truck of his own to race. Once completed, Mark raced three Fudpucker races in 1992. His efforts were such that he set his sights on the San Felipe 250 in March of 1993 and entered the truck in class 1. This was ten years to the exact race that he had attended as a youth. It was to be his first SCORE race. "In those days I did not have a good prerunner and it took us two days to pre run the course in my stock two wheel drive Blazer" he recalls. Well as the history books show Mark won that race, his first SCORE race and fourth ever entry. Mark went on to campaign a class 8 truck for most of the 1995 season, a season that the class 8 trucks were plagued by some very inconsistent rules. For the past decade Mark has focused on business and family, although competing in an occasional race to keep his mind in check.

The engine is being built by Greg Grosset of Total Performance in Santee, California. Greg has been building racing engines for better than a decade and assembled the NASCAR Craftsman truck series engines for Ultra Motorsports. Using a Dart block, heads and intake manifold along with the Crower rotating assembly, the Drysumped package will produce about 700 horse power for this event, "we are going with a little less horse power to insure durability for the extra long Baja 1000 course this year" say Greg Grosset of T.P.. The vehicle is under construction and the team should be testing by late September. The team will be putting approximately 500 to 600 miles on the truck without changing any of the pieces to insure the durability, unless of course anything needs attention.

Mark's goal is to demonstrate that a well built, well prepared class 8 truck is not a rolling road block that the class has been relegated to, in the minds of those who are not passionate about the class. As Mark states, "the new rules combined with some of the new technology, that has not been implemented on a class 8 truck in over a decade, should demonstrate that the class is worth looking at for some smaller Trophy Truck teams, the class should be to TT as Busch is to the Nextel Cup".

As of this date MNM and P.A.C. are pleased to announce that they have entered into sponsorship agreements with Sway-A-Way Racing Shocks and Vision X racing lights. "I am extremely excited about the relationship with Sway-A-Way", said Mark Newhan. "the Sway-A-Way racing shock design is what I call the OG of the off road racing shock
world". "Their design is what spawned most of the racing shock companies that are active in the sport today". "S-A-W took the original Kuster design and refined it with the aid of their extensive manufacturing capabilities". "When you think of the old saying, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, it truly applies here", says Mark. I have also made some very good progress in development with my own shock program and look forward to building on my success with help from Sway-A-Way". As for Vision X, "What can you say about Vision X, Vision X has had an overwhelming amount of success in the short time that they have been active in the sport", " many teams can attribute their Baja victories to the reliability of the Vision X HID racing light", It is easy to conclude that without such a racing light victories in Baja would not be possible", Mark said.

Look for new associate sponsors as they become a part of this racing effort.