FLASH - Bronco Daze 2009 was a special year loaded with historic Broncos, and one of them (a factory stock restored Bronco) won the best in class awared.  Here's a summary of a few of the special treats that we there.  

- Rod Hall's former Class 3 Stroppe Racer.  Todd Zuercher located this one in Arizona 15 or so years ago.  It's finally ours (we partnered on it), and it's one of the least-changed Stroppe racers in existence.  It started life as an engineering Bronco U13 for FoMoCo and became a Stroppe truck as early as 68 and was used by them right up until mid-late 76 as far as we can tell.  It's currently named "Red Racer" by Todd and it's history is still being examined.  However, several wins including the Baja 500 and 1000 and Parker 400 are confirmed!

- Bobby and Al Unser's 1969 Mint 400 Stroppe Bronco Racer.  Bobby and Al got frustrated and gave up the first day, then Parnelli and Al finished the 2nd day, in 3rd place, driving this Bronco only to be disqualified for a driver change!  Rebuilt in 1981 as a regular Bronco built for mild trails,  it has survived and many Stroppe and race details were retained.  On top of that History, it has the most "Broncocentric" nightmare Previous owner modifications of any nice-driving Bronco out there.  It's coming under it's own power to FFF this year.  The cherry on the icing, on the whipped cream, on the cake, is that from what Willie Stroppe and I can tell, this truck is one of the first 2-3 Stroppe racing Broncos and is likely the 68 season truck of Larry Minor and Jack Bayer, which won Stardust, Baja, and Mint races that year.

- Silver Fox.  Duane Kennedy's famous Bronco.  Affilliated with James Duff at the time, the Silver Fox had all the chrome and custom paint, plus all the popular mods at the time.  It was featured in magazines and in Duff's catalog in the 70s and 80s and was many a current Bronco buffs secret crush Bronco.  Terry Marvel recognized it and snapped it up and has been gathering the parts necessary to make it a clean driver while not changing ANYTHING.  Many of us today perusing FFF would love to see this truck in all it's glory rather than the poster on the wall we all grew up with!

These trucks, all 3, were discovered last year and are HUGE finds for the Bronco hobby.  Quite possibly the 2 winningest Stroppe Broncos (aside from Big Oly), and the most state of the art, cleanly executed Bronco Part supplier's calling card Bronco of the 70s.   As you can tell I'm excited, and I think it might be cool to find a special spot for these 3 if possible!!

Andrew

www.BajaBronco.com

Fabulous Fords Forever is one of the largest Ford car events in the country with nearly 2000 Fords of all years and models on public display for five hours on a beautiful Sunday every April.  Until four of us showed up with our Early Broncos in 1992, there were NO Broncos at all and no Bronco category.  Today Broncos have their own official class (Class 20) and we are consistantly second largest vehicle class at FFF, only following the 2005-2008 Mustang.

Here are some attendance numbers for prior Fab Fords years:

1991 - The 25th Anniversary and there were zero (0) Broncos. They didn't know what we where.
1992 - 4. The first time Early Broncos were at FFF.
1993 - 43.
1994 - ?
1995 - 52
1996 - 73.  The 30th Anniversary. 
1997 - 66
1998 - ?
1999 - 84. We became the 2nd largest class
2000 - 80
2001 - 153. The 35th Anniversary. 20 were sent back because there was no room
2002 - ?
2003 - 179
2004 - 133
2005 - ?
2006 - 200. The 40th Anniversary. Our record year!
2007 - 116
2008 - 98
2009 - 99
2010 - Will you be there?

We are sometimes asked when the Early Bronco Registry began holding their Five-year ANNIVERSARY events.  Here is a quick summary of the facts:

20th ANNIVERSARY - 1986. 14 Broncos. Bonsall CA. The first event with Ford PR sponsorship. No one knew then that it would be repeated.  We did get a group photo with a large banner that is still used at each five year event.

25th ANNIVERSARY - 1991. 51 Broncos. Truckhaven Hills, CA. A huge wind storm didn't stop the fun and the magic.  The first event for Jim Creel of Wild Horses and the last event for John Karp and Hal Sealand of K-Bar-S.

30th ANNIVERSARY - 1996. 167 Broncos. Lone Wolf Colony, Victorville CA. Wow, what a turn out - a world record at the time. Harry Robinson (Link-Arc Welders) helped us get over $30,000 in raffle donations - another record in 1996.

35th ANNIVERSARY - 2001.  304 Broncos.  Lone Wolf Colony, Victorville CA.  Like the 30th only HUGE, still the world record Bronco turnout!  Broncos came from everywhere:  the east to west coast and from Mexico to Canada.

40th ANNIVERSARY - 2006.  264 Broncos.   Mojave Narrows Regional Park, Victorville CA . A once-in-a-lifetime "Evening with the Legends"; two hours of back-slapping stories by the guys that put the Bronco on the racing map.

Everyone is invited to explore all of this web site which is dedicated to supporting Early Bronco owners, clubs and businesses everywhere.  Public areas include the calendar, classified ads, polls, most library areas, links, on-line tools and more.  If you are logged in as an EBR member (free, just log in and create your record) you will find additional areas of this site open to your visit including locating other EBR members, accessing the library of technical articles, free classified photos and more.  Please enjoy the site! 

let us know if you have any problems.  You can contact the EBR several ways.  Some are:

For general EBR membership and administrative questions:  secretary@earlybronco.com

For Horsing Around or Web Site content questions:  editor@earlybronco.com

For Event or Calendar questions:  calendar@earlybronco.com