For those readers who don’t know, the Vegas-to-Reno race is a race that spans 539 miles of rough terrain. The terrain includes dried up lake beds, deserts, and rocky mountain passes. About three hundred fifty competitors entered the race, and the only stock truck to enter or complete the route was the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2. Chad Hall and Frank DeAngelo of Hall Racing piloted the truck in just 18 hours and 50 minutes. That means they had an average speed of 28.6 mph. On the road, that would be slow, but if you’re traversing
"This truck is a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be," said Hall. "I clobbered some things on the course that would've broken many of the vehicles we competed with in the past."
Now, let’s point out the obvious. The truck had a few adjustments to make it race ready. These adjustments did not exclude it from the stock category as they didn’t influence the performance of the pickup. The alterations were limited to racing-mandated safety equipment. The changes included a 44-gallon racing gas tank, a roll cage, racing seats with safety harnesses, two-way radios, KC HiLites racing lights, and a new GPS system. Other than that, the truck featured a stock engine, stock suspension, and chassis components.
“ZR2’s performance went beyond our most optimistic expectations, completing ‘Vegas to Reno’ in its first outing,” said Mark Dickens, Executive Director of Global Accessories, Performance Variants, Parts and Motorsports for General Motors. “We learned a lot of things about the truck and could not be happier with the result, as well as the efforts of the Hall Racing team.”
The point of running this race was not only to show off what the current Chevy Colorado ZR2 can do but to learn how to make the truck better. “We cannot wait to pass along the benefits of what we’ve learned here under extreme use and at future races to our customers,” said Dickens.
The truck will run in other events as well. The next contest it will be entered in is the Best in the Desert VT Construction “Tonopah 250” race on October 19th.
