Broncos have been in Brad Lovell’s family since he was born.
Born and raised in Colorado Springs, Colo., Lovell and his brother Roger Lovell grew up camping and off-roading in the mountains with their 1983 and 1988 family Ford Broncos. Begging their dad to take the “rough roads,” the Lovells always had a taste for adventure.
It’s no wonder Lovell would go on to win multiple rock-crawling championships, King of the Hammers Every Man Challenge (three times) and be named the 2012 Dirt Sports Driver of the Year. In 2022, he was inducted into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame.
Check out more on our July featured enthusiast below.
Video transcript: Company of Enthusiasts: We’re Into Off-Road Adventure
I’m Brad Lovell. I’m into off-road adventure. We’re here at my house and shop in Colorado Springs. My brother and I built this shop about 16 years ago, and it’s where we house our racing.
I was born and raised here in Colorado Springs. My family in the summer went up into the mountains camping and off-roading, and my brother and I always wanted my dad to go further. He had a Bronco*, and we had a pop-up trailer. He never wanted to go up the rough roads, and it really drove my brother and I to want to go explore more.
So he turned 16. He got a Bronco II. I turned 16; I got a Ranger. And then it was on.
You know, we’re going all these different places and challenging ourselves. And we turned my daily driver, my Ranger, into a competition rock crawler and went out, went to the first rock crawl and we won it. So we went to the next one and we won it. So then it’s like then I knew.
This is what I was cut out to be. And, you know, honestly, there’s not a whole lot of looking back. This guy is what kind of started it all. This is our 2006 Ford* Ranger.
And about the only thing that’s stock left on it is the gas pedal. We debuted it at the first King of the Hammers. We’ve won rock crawls, hill climbs, desert races, King of the Hammers, all kinds of stuff with this truck. I’ve done lots of different types of off-road racing.
We got our start in rock crawling. In maybe 2008 is when King of the Hammers started. And those opportunities, in turn, gave us a chance to go to Baja, and Baja has just a magical place in my heart. I think there’s nothing better.
I want to finish my career racing our classic Bronco down there in Baja. This is our 1968 Ford Bronco. The idea of this is to have something classic, stylish, fun, see what it was like racing 20, 30, maybe even 40 years ago. All the suspension geometry is still original.
It can definitely be a handful to drive this thing. Short wheelbase, high center of gravity, and it has a Roush 427. It’s about 550 horsepower. We’ve topped it out at 117 which is faster than a lot of more capable desert vehicles out there.
The only thing is you’ve got to look pretty far ahead because you’ve got to get it shut down before you hit any type of little bump. Baja has silt holes, rocks, beaches, forests, mountains. It’s really amazing, and it’s kind of been the focus of where I want to go for the last six or so years. So my goal this year is to go win in SPEC Trophy Truck 6100.
Racing a Bronco, we’re a limited class car. It’s a lot different than what a SPEC trophy truck can do out there. This is a Geyser SPEC trophy truck. This thing is the real deal.
You can go unbelievably fast in these things across the desert. You can hit bumps so hard I cannot explain to you how much fun it is. I’m definitely an introvert. I’ve always been that way, and it makes me very driven to be competitive.
But I’m not one that’s necessarily going to brag about the things I’ve done. So from a day-to-day standpoint being an introvert in racing makes it difficult because it’s hard to call and brag about myself and embellish stories. To me, a story is a story, and the facts have to fit. But I do think that that helps from being authentic in nature also, which is what Lovell Racing is about.
And I think being authentic fits with AMSOIL too. AMSOIL makes absolute quality products. And the reason I want to identify with AMSOIL is because they’re authentic and quality and dedicated to people. It wouldn’t be possible for me to race at all without a support network, and my wife Natalie has always come out to the races and cooked and helped.
And my boys Adam and Byam have, back since they were, you know, just learning to walk, come out to short course races. And they’re out there learning and being part of a community. What I want for them to find in life is the same passion that I’ve found out of racing. I hope that’s racing, and I hope I can give them a hand along the way to get there.
But I think ultimately what’s going to drive them day over day to be happy in life is picking their own passion. Racing is something that takes all of you. I spend all my work time thinking about racing and all my free time thinking about racing. We’ve found a way to make it work, and it’s right there in our face all the time.
But it’s kind of really what we’re about, and it’s a family mission.
A family tradition
In high school, Lovell’s dad bought a ’76 Ford Bronco that his sons helped rebuild. Their labor of love resulted in an engine fire, punctured tire and a forbidden joy ride that quickly ended when the brakes failed.
After the project was completed, the Lovell brothers used the Bronco a handful of times before their dad passed away in 2000. In 2019, Lovell revived the Bronco so he and his sons could explore the backcountry, like he once did with his dad, during the Expedition Colorado off-road adventure.
Keeping it in the Ford family, Lovell also got a Ford Ranger at the age of 16. Modifying what was intended to be his daily driver, Lovell and his brother built a competition rock-crawler and started attending events, winning all along the way. That same Ford Ranger led the duo most recently to an Every Man Challenge win at King of the Hammers.
Another Bronco build
In 2014, Lovell raced in his first NORRA 1000 with Boyd Jaynes in his Ford Bronco. Fellow racer Chris Sullivan ended up in a bind after cresting a blind rise and having to roll his 1968 Bronco to avoid a massive boulder. After locals helped get it back upright, he realized the Bronco was totaled.
A few months later, Lovell came across that same Bronco in the classified ads. After discussing it over a few beers with his brother Roger, they decided to add another Bronco build to their resume – this time a race Bronco.
Yet another labor of love required new sheet metal and the reworking of a twisted frame, but they finished just in time for the 2015 NORRA 1000.
Unfortunately, about halfway down the peninsula, the Lovells lost the engine. After a complete engine overhaul, the trusty Ford Bronco has gone on to win its class three straight years down on the Baja Peninsula.
A labor of love and a lifetime of building Broncos has led Ford to feature Lovell in its upcoming release of the 2020 Ford Bronco.
Racing resumed last month with the Silver State 300. Lovell looks to take on a fourth straight win in his Bronco during a rescheduled NORRA 1000 Oct. 3-10.
Be sure to check out the rest of our featured enthusiasts here.
Until then, we’ll see you at the races!
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Lindsay Tousignant is an AMSOIL Marketing Specialist focused on powersports. She works with product-development, product-marketing and Communications teams to turn engineering information, field experience and product testing into articles, campaigns and sales materials. Tousignant’s work covers motorcycles, ATVs, UTVs, snowmobiles, racing and other demanding powersports applications, including technical content about viscosity and lubricant shear stability.
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