Jeff Proctor and Jason LaFortune drove the Honda Ridgeline Baja Truck to a Class 2 victory in last weekend’s Baja 500With the 2017 Honda Ridgeline set to go on sale this month, the automaker announced the good news today that its Ridgeline Baja Race Truck won the Class 2 division race of the SCORE Baja 500.
The victory comes on the heels of the automaker’s Class 2 win last fall at the Baja 1000 during which the Ridgeline Baja Race Truck made its racing debut.
In both races, Ridgeline had no other Class 2 competition. Still, to finish a Baja race is quite an accomplishment. Of the 236 contestants at the Baja 500, only 137 finished the 477-mile course. Ridgeline’s time was 14 hours, 19 minutes and 19 seconds.
Built jointly by Honda Performance Development (HPD), the North American motorsports arm of American Honda, and the Proctor Racing Group, the tube-frame Unlimited Class 2 race truck produces 550 horsepower through HPD’s 3.5-liter HR35TT engine which uses the same block, cylinder heads and crankshaft as the production V6 engine that will power the new 2017 Ridgeline.
The production model of the 2017 Ridgeline will feature Honda’s 3.5-liter V6 and a six-speed automatic transmission, the same match found in the Honda Pilot. For the Pilot, the engine is rated at 280 horsepower with 262 lb. ft. of torque.
The midsize, unibody truck is priced higher than other midsize trucks, but Honda’s banking on its unique design and features, including a dual-action tailgate, in-bed stereo speakers and a lockable trunk that doubles as a cooler.
