In years gone by, Walker Evans was a fixture of the Dodge "Direct Connection" team. While he's now in the Chevy camp, his association with the Gaughn family (of "Barbary Coast" fame) continues unabated.

Talk to any desert rat and ask "Who was the greatest desert racer of all time?" After some in-depth soul searching, fondly relived memories, and another long pull on his beer, you'll likely get the following response....

"Hell, I don't know, there were a few of'em."

The best, the greatest, "The Man". Everyone has their favorites, but to date, no one has ever come up with a efinitive answer. There are so many variables - What class? Bike, Buggy, or Truck? A person could go nuts trying to pick one guy. What you'll usually hear are the same names popping up over and over. Invariably, Walker Evans is among them.

Recently, Evans was among those honored at the "Baja 1000 Tribute Night", held at Peterson's Automotive Museum in Hollywood Ca. The event brought out many of the legends of the sport to pay homage to a race that has for years, defined the sport of off-road racing. Said Evans, "Marty Fioka's Tribute to the 1000 was just great. It was great to be there with all the guys I've raced with over the years. We've really needed something like that for a long time."

Aside from the memories of Bajas gone by, the Tribute Night served as a platform for several surprising announcements. Among those was Evans' return to the desert - for one last race down the peninsula.

From his shop in Riverside CA, Walker and co. are hard at work putting the final touches on the latest entry into SCORE's Trophy Truck class for the coming assault on the Baja 2000. Along with Brendan Gaughn and the Bob Gray family, Evans will be back behind the wheel, putting the Goodyear/Day Chevrolet up against the fastest trucks in the sport today.

Vernal Utah was the site of Evans' first career win in the professional rockcrawling arena. His Goodyear/Chevrolet sponsored S-10 is among the trickest vehicles on the circuit.

"We're planning on prerunning the course three times, beginning about October 8'th, but we're still trying to get our hands on a map. I understand that SCORE has run into problems with some of the ranchers, and that the course from Loretto to LaPaz is just about washed out. It's pretty wet down there right now. We'll have to see what happens."

What Walker is looking to happen, is a repeat performance of his 1999 CORR Championship. The "Walker Evans Farewell Tour" came to a close in Las Vegas NV, with the desert veteran emerging triumphant in what many believed would be his final appearance in the world of off-road racing. Appearances it seems, are deceiving.

"Yea' we would really like to win the 2000," he said with a laugh, "We aren't just going down there to see the sights!"

The Baja 2000 aside, the man in the Stetson has been retired from the desert scene for a few years now, but he hasn't been wiling away the hours sipping Margaritas. Well, maybe just a couple.....

"It takes "something" with a motor in it to get my heart started in the morning" says Evans, "I love everything about them. The power, the speed, all of it."

Lately, that love has taken the form of competitive rockcrawling. Far removed from the throttle up, high speed, airborne action of the deserts and short course series, Evans finds the sport has an intensity all it's own.Even more importantly, he finds it....

"Fun! It's a lot of fun! Rockcrawling has a lot of great people involved with it. And ya' know what? It's nice to not have to get up at 4 AM in the middle of nowhere with your race face on, to go out and have to kick the snot out of a bunch of hyped up 22 year olds!" he says with a chuckle. "Racing guys like MacCachren and Leduc is one thing, but here in the rocks, it's a different kind of competition."

Walker's first competitive rockcrawling rig, this S-10 Blazer, broke all the rules of conventional rockcrawler design. Heavy in desert derived technology, the truck paved the way for the tube chassis S-10 now being campaigned in the Goodyear/ARCA series.

Walker's association with the rockcrawling community began a couple years back on a trip to Moab.

"Goodyear (one of Walker's major sponsors) has had a big interest in the rockcrawling world for some time. One day, Ron Wells called me up, and asked me to go up to Moab to do some PR with them. They had a bunch of rental jeeps shod with Goodyear tires, and we went out to do some crawling. You know, gave rides, and all. Later on, we went up and did the Rubicon as well. I really enjoyed getting out there under God's blue sky, and not having it fly past at 140 MPH.

"Eventually, we built the Blazer (Evans first competitive rockcrawler), and got into the competitive side of the sport.It was a good truck, but I'd say it was only 12th to 15th best out there. It wasn't enough to win with. That's when we built the S-10. After about 3 events, we got our first victory, and we're going from there."

"When I started doing this competitively, it was all new to me. One of the hardest parts was getting the rules down. When I started, I was backing up a lot and losing points, knocking gates over, and losing more. Once I got a handle on it, I started doing a lot better."

As competitive rockcrawling continues to grow in popularity, it's experiencing some growing pains.

"It's all new territory," said Evans, "but eventually, we'll get it sorted out"

As the courses set up for the rockcrawling events become increasingly difficult, one area that Evans feels needs a closer look is the rules governing time limits.

Ready to roll? Not exactly.... According to ORC's Eddie Perez, "Not even close." After the Baja 2000, Walker will be concentrating on the Goodyear Extreme Rockcrawling Championship title for 2001.

"Too-tough courses aren't the problem. In fact, the tougher, the better! But what we're seeing is short time limits, and drivers trying to make up lost time. Add to that the closeness of the spotters and crowds, and someone could get seriously hurt. The sport has grown a lot in a short time, and things like this are a part of the process. We all want to see it grow in a positive direction."

When Walker made the move to the crawling side of the sport from the racing side, he found that the land use battles faced by promoters like SCORE and BITD were very much like those faced by ARCA/Goodyear (the American Rock Crawlers Association), and the Warn series.

"Overall, I think it's easier for the crawler guys to deal with the BLM. Let's face it.Most rockcrawling events take place on less than a square mile of land, and that includes the 5,000 people we've been getting to come and watch!. It's a lot harder in the desert, where the course is spread out over hundreds of miles.

Another thing is that the rock events take place on "rock". When we leave, and the cleanup is done, it's hard to tell anything had ever been there.On the other hand, people need to understand that mother nature has a way of taking care of herself. After a rain or dust storm, it's hard to tell where a lot of a desert race course ever was."

After the checkered flag drops in Baja, and the last of the gringos travel back across the border, Walker Evans will be back in his shop, making another round of last minuet mods to the Goodyear/Chevrolet S-10 rockcrawler, and preparing for a whole new year of competition in the rocks. With his desert days behind him, and a mountain of rocks before him, the wieley veteran finds himself presented with a considerable challenge.

He's been there before. He came out on top.