News: New Chevy Colorado ZR2 Race Truck Suffers Frame Damage, But Wins the Class at the MINT 400!

The Chad Hall racing team completed 38 off-road races in a row.

The new 2023 Chevy Colorado ZR2 off-road race truck suffers a bent frame at the 2023 MINT 400 off-road race but wins the race in its class in the process. Here is what happened.

Chevrolet Performance and Chad Hall Racing have been fielding the latest Chevy Colorado ZR2 and Silverado ZR2 race trucks for several years. This is a factory-backed effort to develop and validate the latest off-road components and prove out the trucks in the toughest off-road racing conditions.

I spoke with Emme Hall – a 2023 MINT 400 off-road class winner – and she says the following: “It was tough out there. Plenty of surprises if you were on it. There were some g-outs that could surprise you at speed.“

This is typical of off-road desert racing. You can accelerate and gain a lot of speed in a straight only to face a washout or a dry creek bed that will hit hard and fully compress the suspension.

Here is a statement from a Chevrolet spokesperson:

“The Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 ran a flawless race and took first place at The Mint 400 for 2023. Despite having some rear-end damage on the pre-production frame, the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 also finished and took first place in its class. The Mint 400 is notoriously one of the most grueling off-road races in the world. Chevy competes in racing to help develop, test, and prove the durability of its products in conditions far beyond what most customers would experience.

7330 – Chad Hall (driver) Waqas Shafi (Co-driver) – Stock Production Truck Mini/Mid

The racing version of the Chevy Colorado ZR2 and Silverado ZR2 have many unique racing components and equipment that are not there on the production versions of the trucks. This includes a welded roll cage that ties into the frame, additional jounce bump stops, a fuel cell, racing harnesses, communication equipment, and much more.

Take a look at my first look at a pre-production 2023 Chevy Colorado ZR2 Desert Boss.