Mint 400 Recap with Gabby Downing, Eric Hardin, Jim York, Rusty Butcher & More Artwork

The Dirt Life

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The Dirt Life

Mint 400 Recap with Gabby Downing, Eric Hardin, Jim York, Rusty Butcher & More

March 16, 2023 • Offroad, UTV’s, Racing, Dunes, BTS, Sponsorship - Podcast & Live Show • Episode 154

This years Mint 400 was on for the book! Thank you to all of our guests. @nobigdealhill @rustybutcher @joe.terrana @jason_montes @_gbabz_ @jim_york @cmsourapas22 @eric_hardin79 & @mattmartelli.

Stories for days! Huge shout out to @hamlinki for everything he does! See you guys at next years @themint400

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Welcome to the dirt life show with your host, George Hamil. Yeah, welcome everybody to Episode 154 of the dirt life show. We have a man 400 recap for you guys today can be good man. There was so much going on this guy right here. James Hill next to me actually raised his hooligan bike. V Twin Harley Sportster. You can kind of see it back there. But yeah, it was a really, really cool race. Man. There was so much action going on tonight. Well, I'm Jordi Hamill. First of all, we're at img motorsports. Please share the show. Share it with everybody. There's little airplane down at the bottom right corner of your screen. Share with all your homies help us grow the show. Really appreciate it. Man, you guys sent about 6900 direct messages today with questions and comments and stuff. Super cool. I'm sorry, I can't get back to everybody. But please comment in and hang out with us. We got tons and tons of cool guests today. I'll mention in just a second. But I will get through all of our sponsors and our intro stuff. You can join us every Monday, or sometimes Thursdays like today on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Even though Instagram sucks and get interactive with us, man like I said thank you very much for dang people already Mao sweet man you guys are gonna have a good time get interacted with us and follow the dirt life show on social media. The show is brought to you by KMC wheels really appreciate all those guys you can I don't know if you can in the Instagram shop. You can see the KMC wheels up behind us here. Appreciate all those guys help Max's tires. You wrote some Max's tires this weekend? Yeah, how they do pretty good. They were great. Were you just gripping and ripping? I mean, you guys can check my gram. You saw the pic hooked up? Yeah. 100 CC's just sheer so yeah, check out James's Instagram because it is kind of funny taking a nap doing a wheelie doing a wheelie with his eyes closed. So check out that picture on ATT no big deal Hill on Instagram. Thanks to the guys over at mo tool you had some moto lubricants and those bad boy powering through the race Student Yeah Yep. So thanks for those guys as well if you need to change your oil you know trail riding seasons coming up. You guys got to get through all your nick what's up? Did you guys gotta get through all your services and stuff after the dune season. Throw on some moto well you can pick it up at Cycle Gear or img motorsports any of those places that are close to you. Thanks to the guys over at shock therapy Justin Smith was gonna join us tonight but unfortunately he can't he's on a flight so thanks to the guys over there you can use the code dirt life at shock therapists.com Get yourself some limit straps during rack they got all kinds of stuff for the pro ours to those fork forks for the bottom of the pro our shocks they got auto links for the back of your pro our be at bumpsteer to leave kids for the Pro are now thanks guys at JL Audio. Dude, I cannot wait to show them the pro our bill that we have dude. We're putting a whole system in there. It's gonna be like spring break every day. I hope I hope it rattles just like the one at the display. You know, dude just shaking the whole shaking all the earth paws due to a poor connection. Alright, dude, I'm gonna freak I'm gonna throw something of Instagram keeps jacking those Instagram it's fine. I don't like you anyway, so thank you to the guys over at evolution, power sports really appreciate everything that they do. You can pick yourself up a code shooter program your own ECU, grab yourself an exhaust over there. Thanks guys. zondi Racing products. You can use the code dirt life, grab yourself some tie rods radius rods match up with all the shock therapy stuff you bought. Vision canopies. Those guys are going to be crucial to your race program coming up in the summertime, given you guys shade, and thanks to guys over a crowd here. All right. So the best part about today is all the RAD guests that we have our first guest are going to be James Hill obviously, sitting next to me and then Mark Atkins, aka rusty butcher, right he's going to join us in just a little bit here. So that's gonna be rad to talk with him he actually brought home the victory at the Mint 400 again close on a mission did he smokey guys like he was way out ahead or what? Yeah. Or could you even keep an insight keep him inside or no? Yeah, I mean, we took off the line together we were basically on the last well there was maybe one row behind us of some other adventure bikes or something. But yeah, I mean, me and Mark were actually I was having fun like Dyson around with him. It was it was just like two buddies just having a trail ride Yeah, but on 450 pounds in the desert but he's still like you were just having fun and then yeah, man, he he dipped out. He's you know after Harley experience took put you in the dust. Alright, so we're gonna get mark on in just a second here. But let me get through all of our guests here. Joe Tirana and Jason Montez took home the victory actually the overall and UTV class in the pro turbo car. Are beat all the other cars, man they were dude Fullwood the whole time just charging. So it'd be interesting to talk with them. Gabby Downing and Jim York. I don't know if you know who they are. Do I know who Jim York is? Yeah. But they drove the Dixon flannel limo. Yeah. And we're going to talk to them about a couple of interesting things. Actually, the afro community is usually pretty cool, but they let us down a little bit this weekend, steal it some stuff off their car, but we're gonna talk about that. But we're also going to talk about a lot of fun stuff that they have going on, and how all the good people in the off road industry came to support them. We're going to talk with Christian Tropos, a little bit after six o'clock, Christian drove his 2009 geyser truck to second place in the trophy truck class that was really impressive and awesome showing by Christian. Let's see here, Eric Harden, the winner, overall winner of the man 400 And Trophy Truck. He's got a really cool story. I'm not going to give it away right now. We're going to talk to him a little bit later on 640. And we're also going to talk with Brian Moore and talk about some of the media stuff that happened at the Mint 400. And then we're going to end the show with Matt Martelli, obviously the proprietor of the mint 400 and race director, so it'd be pretty cool to talk with him and see how he thinks thinks everything went. Just to find facts real quick, where we get mark on. There was 491 entrance at the Mint 400 this year. 491 Super cool, man. There was so many. And the raddest part about that is, is that I think it was the second biggest turnout at the Met 400 Pretty cool, man. Okay, cool. Yeah, I think it's pretty rad. So hopefully you guys can hear us. Mark Atkins, aka rusty butcher What's up homie? We're doing pretty good. It's gonna be a little hard for us to hear you see my had to talk up a little bit. Instagram decided to Jack us today. You know? You can you know all about Instagram did Wow. Yeah, just gripping. Who's that? You I don't know. I can't see you in the background taken all that? Do that's hilarious, man. Yeah, that's all right. I know. I know. I understand why the recluse is better. What do you mean? Oh, cuz you stole both the start or what? No, I didn't stall. But yeah, Mark was just, it was literally like, the flag dropped. And obviously he's better at the bikes, right? But just burrow and I'm like, Oh, he's gone, man. Just took off. That's the way it works sometimes. Hey, I got an idea. James. Go ahead and go ahead and talk with Mark a little bit about your race. I'm gonna put some speakers on top of that phone real quick. So that we can hear it. Okay. I'll go ahead and talk to Mark about the race real quick. So Mark, tell us about your past experiences at the men on your bike on the hooligan bike since it's your hooligan bikes. And what what was different this year? What was what was special? How do you like it? You know, last year was the hardest one I've ever done. The hard courses are hard for other reasons. Like they literally ruin the motorcycles. Yeah, Harley's. They get way too hot to stand and stuff like that. So the fact that it was easier this year was good, but it was also a lot higher speeds. Okay. Yeah, but I had a good time. This is my last year was the first time I ever finished this year a second time I ever finished first time I ever want. And you did I mean? You know you you checked out like mid probably. What was it right about the middle pit the first lap? That's probably when you started really putting it on? Yeah, I just once you got out I stopped focusing on everyone around me you know like the first lap I raised with you for a little bit. Tyler Valentine because one last year He's so mean and him ended up finding each other on the first lap. And I caught up to them and then all of a sudden he turned it on. And me and him almost killed each other in the San section. Riding over our heads. I literally rode my Harley straight into like a three stump Joshua Tree, just like complete and then he looked at me and try to check out and then he ran into a cactus. No way. Yeah, like full dead stop into a fucking cactus. And then he gets off the cactus and I look at him I'm like, yo, let's white flag it. So there's not a single track in the sand, you know? And then we ended up going on a pit and I didn't have to pay it so I just kept going. But yeah, Tyler was fast as hell you're fast. So I definitely think I lucked out by winning a shoe. And plus like you guys aren't even talking about like you guys are talking about it like it was a normal race. But it's we had a little conversation about it the other day when we did an Instagram Live like how gnarly it is to ride these bikes. So let's give a little bit of a of a baseline understanding James because this was your first time. Yeah, how gnarly is that bike, the hooligan Sportster V Twin modified to go off road compared to like, let's just say a 450 RX or something. Like enduro 450 I mean, we touched on this premiere right when we're at Mark shop and finishing up the bikes and listen that but like, I really thought like, this is going to be an easy conversion, right? Like we'll jump on this and just ride it like a dirt bike and marks like now you're an idiot. Well, once you get going, the bike is super fast. So like on the lake bed on the flat stretches down like the fire rows and stuff. It's it'll go as fast as you want to push it, but then it it's very heavy. And like I said before, do you swap your dead? Oh, it's totally I don't know what riding a snowmobile like competitively. He's like, but I would imagine it feels similar. Like, it just started you. I came into a set of whoops going too fast. And you're like, Oh, I'm good. And then like three in that thing starts doing this. And it's dice like full tank slapper? And like, Yeah, so like riding dirt my dirt bike with Mark on like, dualsport rides, he treats the Harley like a dirt bike. So I'm like, Dude, if he's got it, I got it. But it's it's a rude awakening. I mean, it's it's a heavy does you have any close calls mark, like James said, like tank slappers are getting head shake or anything. Um, you don't really get tank slappers you get a whole bike swappers a whole bike to start smoking. I had a couple of close calls, but luckily nothing too crazy. I ride really cautious. I tell people like racing a Harley in the desert. To be the one of the top guys you just have to have the most seat time. And I probably have the most see time out of anyone. Maybe worldwide in the dirt on a Harley? You know, I've done more dirt riding than anyone I would think. So it's definitely just mainly about seat time. And spotting ahead. Spotting ahead is like the biggest thing in the world. It doesn't really help me that I'm like half blind. But as soon as I see oops, I like full, like come to a slow down position and clock in. Do all kinds of stuff. That probably helps you quite a bit James when you're following them, because then you can get the page and understand what you're supposed to do. Like just use him as a gauge for sure. And I know that he's great at it. Yeah. So like yeah, for the first you know, before I dropped the bike and you know, caused myself a problem. Yeah, I was watching marks every no did you guys both? Like did you ever fall down? Mark I tipped over once actually this year we're at just the easy tip over in the sand then you got it up. No problem. Yeah, I I don't want to pick them up. So I got I'm used to this shit. I've been living in the dumpster for years. Did you see you bail? You had an incident too? Or no? Yeah, I dropped the bike twice, like hard or just like fell over? No, like, came like. So the first time I dropped it was when I broke. I actually broke the clutch lever. And that's what really slowed me down on the first lap. But yeah, you should tell everybody about that because you put vise grips on the clutch lever to get it going. I got some vise grips on there. And that helped out to get back to Maine. But yeah, I mean, I just, it was just like a bobble, but like Mark was telling me beforehand. He's like, they're like a shovel, you know? So I pass like two bikes from different classes. And then I'm like, going at speed and then all of a sudden, there's a left turn and there's a tree on the inside. And I'm like, I'm like I'm squeezing the rug. It looks dug in. It looks nice. And I fly into it and all of a sudden the bike just literally falls over. And that was that. Yeah, I mean, but you just like step off right? You know? Yeah, I mean, it was easy drop and fall over but I didn't that was was it pick off the floor too hard. Yeah, it was an easy shoot. I can only imagine. So now I'm assuming mark that since you want a man 400 You just had like Home Depot all these sponsors just calling you just trying to give you all kinds of millions of dollars yeah, pretty much Amazon's gonna sponsor me we got a couple million dollar deal going on. Yeah, that's the way it goes. When the man 400 It just I wish because I'm still a it's because you help all your friends have fun did I need to have less friends. Less frenzy equals more money. I like it. Hey, but I do want to say that it was cool to see you guys doing all this stuff like all you guys did on Fremont just kind of the vibe and everything like I talked about a little bit before when he would have in the pre show or whatever it was. I really think that off road needs stuff like this. It needs to have characters in it nice to have these cool things that are happening so that people don't just think that it's just side by sides or just trophy trucks, right. There's a lot of other stuff that that happens in off road and personalities that need to bring be brought to life. And I appreciate you guys doing all that stuff. Yeah, I think that's where the whole hooligan movement came from is like, we're all kind of characters in that hooligan movement. And I was I raced for Harley Davidson for years. And like I was one of the fan favorites at the show, because I'd always either win or crash trying and I'd always do wheelies no matter what and put on a good show. I think that the off road world, I think Harley should be way more deep into the off road scene then they are especially they have a new pan America out. That's an off road bike. Hopefully they dive deeper into off road world with me. And maybe we can have some more characters come out. Yeah, I think it's cool. Because I mean, like you've seen it already. And obviously James is a newbie for this stuff. But like it's growing right? Like James is into it. Now you have how many dudes were out there on hooligan bikes this year compared to last year or the year before. This year, we're actually down in attendance for the hooligan stuff. Last year, I believe it was 19. I kind of have anywhere from like 10 to 20 bikes at a time. Honestly, it's very expensive thing to go to Vegas and to travel and like, especially times are a bit tougher these days. I think that had a lot to do with it this year. But I'm open next year that had classes double Yeah, it was pretty cool to watch. Yeah, and it was cool to watch and like the support and I don't know what you want to call it. But like people understanding like who you are and what you guys are doing like Max's tires, and all of these different companies and like people starting to integrate in means that you guys are actually growing it whether the count was up or not doesn't really matter. But it's gonna start building it's like to me, that's the way that it does, man, you just ride the wave as much as you can. Yeah, um, I sent out a email blast to all of our subscribers yesterday, kind of like, I'm going to do like a volume series. And this was the first volume explaining like hooligan racing from the, like the very beginning of when it started for us. We no one really wanted us at the track. This was flat track to Elon wanted us at the track. We were just a bunch of tattooed idiots who spilled oil everywhere and crashed, you know, and then that trend, I wrote it and I was an X Games athlete and our live streams are getting millions of views on on Harley and X Games. So like, I've written the trend of what hooligan can be in a different dynamic with flat track. I want to be the one who helps build it in the off road world. That's why I partnered up with Matt mortalities to kind of gauge and like change or make sure the rules stay good to what happened in flat track doesn't happen in the Hogan offer. Yeah, totally. And dude, I just think it's cool. I mean, you gotta agree with that, Jim. Yeah, it's super cool. It's gnarly. It too does fucking really gnarly. Did you get to see any of the other racing marker? No. Not really. I was pretty smoked. Yeah. How smoked. Were you guys? I was toasted. Like go home and pass out. I couldn't walk. I can barely walk down. Is that gnarly? That's rough. Dude. That's just insane. Like I can only imagine like what a I'm using this as a general term. I'm not calling people punk asses. But like a punk ass 16 year old kid, right? Like he gets on a hooligan bike. He's like, Dude, I think I could fucking wax you and Mark and like all this stuff like and then he gets a rude awakening because it's so gnarly. Like it's what happened to me like literally everyone even from the hooligan flat track standpoint used to come out swinging like that and they just are really quick. Like a lot of we started a lot of crossover like pros from Moto from like sport bikes and used to come race a flat track shit, and they would come flying into the first corners and just fucking Yardsale so Harley is definitely an easy way for someone to get their their ego check. I can only imagine like I like I don't even want to think that I would sign up for it. But I look at you guys when when you guys are doing it like what you said James like, it looks like I could do it. And I'm like, Dude, I don't know. It's like, because when you said like Yeah, I saw Mark do this. I wanted to do it. Yeah, cuz you look at somebody and this is what I've always taken like class 11 cars to like, dude, if you could finish the 500 and the class 11 Like that's bad assets, man shit. Yeah. Like you're bad. x is not gonna think that but Ray same, because you're like Harley doesn't even belong in the dirt. Are you going to do more hooligan racing? I'm signed up for the biltwell 100. Oh, yeah, that's the one. You guys are both going to do that right, Mark? Yeah, where is that? Ridge crest? That's gonna be pretty gnarly. Yeah, yep. This is the third year of development. So give people a little bit of I don't know, the understanding what you guys are gonna be doing out there so they can go out there. So it's built well 100 at Ridgecrest and when is it what days? I don't know. Two weeks is two weeks. Is that the same weekend as San Felipe? It is okay. So if anybody's not going down to Mexico that watches the show, you should cruise over to Ridgecrest and check out those guys and they'll have some other racing I'm sure. Yeah, it's just a vent put on by some friends. It's really fun. A lot less stress than the men 400 Min 400 is a very big, nice production. Big Event. The below 100 is a bunch of idiots camping in the desert. So definitely different vibe but super fun race. It's 100 miles. It's pretty pretty decent high pace. Not so much sand like the mid 400 has and stuff like that, but it's definitely pretty gruesome race. I this is third year. I one the first year second year I had some electrical troubles ended up finishing for third or fourth I forget. But yeah, so hopefully this year I got no more issues. And then I beat James again. So I can tell I might have to get those. Are you just like a snake in the grass was like waiting to smoke mark. Oh, we just sitting there waiting for the small little guy. Red racer, our red razor. All right. Hey, we gotta get Joe Tirana and Jason monta is on a Thanks, Mark. And congratulations on your win too. And for just getting last one this guy into doing this crazy shit. Yeah, look at models. Did you already spray it? What does that say James? Class Yeah, hell yeah. All right. Thanks, Mark. Hey, we'll do a good podcast with you one of these days. And we have some time, Dan, appreciate everything you guys are doing for off road. It's always fun to have him on the show. Right? But the like, I don't know how to explain it to the audience or whatever. But like, he's, he's humble. But he's like, you know, he, he talks like a normal kid. Right? But like, he's not ever telling you how gnarly it actually is. Because it's like, fucking gnarly. Yeah, it's pretty rough. Well, I think so. It's like, you know, heat maybe marks. You know, obviously he's used to it like he knows like, it's gonna be gnarly. So he's not gonna be like, yes. And I listen, you ever do. Well, I don't know you. Yeah, that's a good point. Like, because he wants to make sure that you still want to, like, get out there and raise. He's like, Yeah, James, you got it. All right. So Joe Tirana and Jason mon Tez. Took on the overall when the UTV class. They were driving a pro turbo car. Jason mon Tez. Joe Tirana. What's up, guys? Good. We're doing good. Hey, did you guys see any of this hooligan stuff that went on? They were racing these Harley Davidsons in the dirt? Yeah, actually one of the guys from our shop he his girlfriend races in her name's Jodie. I guess Yeah, pretty good. She's you met her? Yes. Really? She got third? Ahead of you? Yeah. Dude, she's that fast. gnarly. Yes. She races motorcross she does like Hartley's done wheelies. Yeah, that's so sick. Well, hey, congratulations to both of you guys. Man. You guys basically, I don't want to say put on a clinic because you guys had a lot of competition there and there was a lot of times that you guys were pretty much on the loud pedal though. Just because you were a little bit scared that somebody else was around you are in corrected time. So give us a little bit of a rundown on how the race went Joe. We like it. It was gone really, really good. It was flawless. no issues at all. You run really fast. And we got our first flat and then it goes the third lap and that one kind of slowed us down a little bit but we we both hopped out and got that changed. And then we both had to get out. Just get out a little bit fast. herds, like thinking back, it's usually faster if only one person gets buckled out, like in the trophy truck, I'm the only one that gets out, in and out a little bit different. But we just decided to do a get together. And you know, he gets more of the action when he gets out. Yeah. You know, the first clap was pretty. It was, it was eventful, because there was so many other cars that we were trying to get through, we knew we started in the dead last row of Pro Turbo, and we were like four classes back. So we knew that we had to break through a lot of the cars to get into like a nice gap of air to where we could figure out where we were. And you know, see how much we had to run or hold. You guys started, what 28th or something like that. That's wild, going through all that. And I had heard from other racers that there was just a lot of traffic on the track period, like when you come around a lap different vehicles and other cars and stuff. So pretty much the whole time that you guys were out there, you guys were behind or in front of somebody. Yeah, that first lap. Like I was telling Jase, I couldn't believe we made it all the way around. Because it was it was while there's two or three cars at a time, and you're just driving by everybody helping you don't tag a rock in the dust, you know, and then you get a little bit of clean air, and then there's some room to breathe. And then it's like, Okay, let's go get the next group of guys. Yeah, so there's two things that I hear I hear from that, like, well, what's the move James is you got to be careful around those people. So you're not pushing it? 100% Yeah. And I think that well, it's up to every driver, right is gonna make that decision. But that's a that's a tough spot. Because like, yeah, you want to go chase down, like you said, the next group of guys, but like, how much does the equipment handle? Are those guys gonna break out? Because they're just leaving you? And you? Were on fire? They were hauling the mail? You can't really go full tilt though. Can you Joe? No, not really. You want to hold that? Because your phone? Oh, we don't want to fly? With no mistakes happen. And so we're just kind of like laying low but also pushing. Yeah, I guess it's kind of a, I don't know, What are y'all a happy medium, right? And then does that make it easier on the car? Or because like, I feel like, there's more. I don't know, you can't predict as much of the stuff that's going on. So you can't put the car exactly where you need to go all the time. Like, you got to be really careful with where you're moving around. Yeah, you gotta, you know, it helps to know the course so you know, where you can go off and where you can't. But that's the thing. You're probably running slower when you're in all that traffic, because you're trying to get through all the cars. And it's probably harder on the car when you have clean air and you're running full kill, you know, to try to be up front, actually that Yeah. And so that brings up a good point when you say no the tracks that first lap, you probably guys probably I mean you move through the vehicles, right? Some of the slower vehicles and stuff, but you probably got screwed on your lap time. And then after that first lap, you're like, oh, shit, now we just passed all these dudes. Now we have an opportunity on the second lap because we know where to go. Yeah, I think the second second and third lap was probably the best for us. Because the slower the lap vehicles are easier to get around because you can run up on them faster, and they'll usually move. But it's the guys racing in your own classes harder to get around because they're running more your speed. And they don't want to move for you just as just as much as you want them to. Yeah, that's totally true. You know how it is like when you get up towards those fast guys like it's like it's full tilt, like all kill. So Joe make a pass around them. Yeah, they're not watching their mirrors, unless they make a mistake. So Joe, when you got like, I guess like a third lap area, like you were starting to get you were at the front or towards the front. Like, what's the move then? Are you just like, Dude, we gotta go full kill mode, or are you trying to like manage at that point? Yeah, well, we weren't getting all information like from our guys, because they don't want to tell us that stuff. Because they can mess with our hands a little bit. Push harder. Not so your dad gets nervous. Yeah. So we really just we just ran our own race and just drove fast and made sure the car would I guess I'd like like you said, James to each driver or team their own like, yeah, that's totally different than the way because like, I would want as much information as possible. I don't know how you do it. I'm on information because you run it like they do. Like you're good. Just managing your own race. Yeah, I think that's pretty cool. We also, we also did like, at the end of the laps like we were getting some physicals and basically when you start in the back, any car you get is a win. You know what I mean? So we were getting physicals on some of the faster guys that we know with run hard that have won this race before. And so that would help us gauge where we were Yeah, so that that's a little bit easier, right? Because you do need to be in the CO driver, you do need that information, right, Jason so you can manage things. Yeah, you just manage the pace. And then knowing that track is just super key, because a lot of times come out here and the min 400, of course, will beat you. But, you know, Joe races last year, he, he lives out there. So he drives out there, you know, a couple of times a week, and I've raced this race since 2012. And just knowing the course and having all the notes dialed and knowing where all the cautions are, and where you need to put the car is super key. How much did the track change? Like, during that time? Just after like the first lap, it was totally different. Like it, it beat us up pretty good. Yeah, you really started to feel the braking bumps and the accelerating bumps. And you know, just mostly that stuff. It was getting burned in. By the fourth lap. It was like unrecognized. Yeah, I can imagine it. Well, James, you know how it is like, so on a side by side after you've been in the seat for that long? Are you still able to keep a rhythm? Or like, is the is the car going away? Or can you like get through the stuff the same way? Or do you just have to just like, see how the race bring comes to you? Yeah, you just run it for what it is, you know, and then you try to pick out like your best lines, right? Especially since it was lap racing, right? So like, obviously, the course is changing, but like maybe you saw a left brake off or like a fork or whatever, you know, oh, remember those things? Like secret lines? Or you're talking about just reading and they're just out there? Yeah, you know, or, like, there's two what's it called? chokers? Oh, yeah. Where there's like, you can literally pass someone right and speed and like, there's just those different things. So like, you know, dude, we saw some cars like through chokers and all that stuff, where they were just balls to the wall, but they were getting wild. Dude, did you guys have any scary moments where you were doing like back and forth and like swapping all hard on the course. Yeah, we never had any big moments as swaps. I know like in the beginning. Quintero started right in front of us in our in right in front of us in line and we kind of we kind of just hooked on to him and we made our way through pit one and just after pit one to the fox proving grounds on his bumper till I think he he picked a line like through the spectator area, and we stayed on our line and we drove right by him and that kind of helped us because it was a little bit of a buffer for him to take some of the risks driving around the guys and we were so close to him we would just we would just trailer on his bumper and then go around the guys you know there's three or four or five guys that we got Yeah, that's the way it works in dirt bike racing to like a Supercross the first day to get in the Lappers is always the worst man because they get held back did you have any moments Joe that you were thinking out there like Dude, we gotta go faster or I'm going too fast and I'm pushing too hard are you were you pretty stable with a consistent pace that you guys are running you know, I thought I thought pretty stable the whole time. I never really had any issues just like after we got the flat I kind of ran a little bit slower just because we didn't have anything wrapped in the in the back so I was like trying to be a little bit conservative and that is save it till another time Yeah, that's what makes a lot of sense. How long did you guys not have a tire only we got to just after Pitt too so from like I want to say 70 to the finish 6570 Just after Pitt to when you're heading up that washed going up the hill we got the first flat there yet to move over we were we we knew that we did have like a okay lead there so we just had to cruise it and you know as long as we didn't get caught and passed with time put on us we were good so we cruised it to back to main pit and we got another team Yeah, I kept saying crews at two on the live feed and I was like like mad at myself because the pace for the UTV guys is so fast man like did you guys know that the pace was gonna be that fast because you guys finished in like I don't want to say record time cuz I don't know if that's a true statement or not but so quick compared to what we thought you guys were gonna finish like did you guys feel like you were going way faster than what the UTV should go or did you guys feel comfortable going that pace because there was a bunch of guys that couldn't go that fast? Yeah no this this is a brand new car way to go. Like it was very comfortable I never felt like I was fast like he's never you know we never like take slapped it or just eat the bottom of the car up like just kind of hunting and pecking or lines and staying on the high side and the car dude it really until like the third end of the fourth lap. It was super solid. And that was that was a brand new car with literally what 2030 test miles from LA Star and they put together a super good car I was, I was very impressed. And it's, like I said, like I called Dan Fisher. And I told Joe, I said, it takes a lot to impress me and that thing really. So, James, if you don't know, Jason Rogen, herbs Trophy Truck. So he knows what a car is supposed to feel like and like so when you hear something like that, it makes me think personally, like and you deal with it every day, you see how far you TVs have come, but the fact that they can go that fast in and I'm not saying like they just bombed through hoops and stuff, but that they can actually go that pace for 400 Miles like a trophy truck, like a spec truck does, is freaking wild. Like It still blows my mind. It's really neat. And I was gonna I wanted to ask, did you guys, did they have an average for what you guys raced at mile per hour average? I think we did. It was like around 53 to 55 ish, somewhere in there. That's so fast. Yeah, for an average, especially at the mainboard. And honestly, from last year, I think running it this way. Like our said it was faster. And and I think the rain kind of helped and hurt a little bit like the rain knocked down a lot of the real deep parts of the woods. But it also gave you a little bit better traction, but know that it was the dust was bad. And then it got better. And then the rain made it worse. And then that's how we got our second flag. Where was the second flat out. The second flight was about five miles from the Speed Zone default for the solar panels. Yeah. And we just, we didn't think we hit a rock. But we we heard it like hit the we thought was just a trailing arm. But then we started making a few more turns and start going coneflower like well, we'll just get out both out again, and we change the real fast and Alan and drill threads. This feeds onto the speed zone and then right to the finish. I think we had about like four minutes and change on corrected just over four minutes. And then like around the backside of the mountain like it was such a dark cloud and it was raining and there's snow on the ground. We're trading rags back and forth trying to wipe our visors and like you close it and it fog so then you have to crack it and then you're getting rained on we still can't see so we're just trying to imagine it to manage it. And we're just like we're almost there. Let's bring it out real quick. And, you know, the House have a bunch of more microfibers on the next pit. Oh, we had a ton of awesome. Yeah. And like the weather like that's pretty wild. You know, like being able to race through all that cool stuff. Yeah, I feel like that is kind of a cool thing. I mean, like obviously it's hard when you're trying to fight for a win, but like I feel like that is a cool thing. When you when you guys are doing all that stuff do you guys understand? Like when I get out of the storm that all the other people that are behind us are gonna have to go through that. So now it's time to push and like crush it as hard as we can we can see. Yeah, honestly, we were talking about that before it's the course securities. You're like, Man, this sucks and it's all square edge and it hurts your body you know, and you're really pounding through it. But then I'm like Joe, everybody else has to go through just like we do. So it's like we're not the only ones dealing with it. Like we manage it as best as we can and they manage as best we can. And you know you just try to go crazy like we were talking before when we were we did the interview with the Smash time these cars it goes so well but there's still a side by side and there's still fragile so you really have to take care of them especially at a place like 400 because that plays well in it seems like they meant 400 was eaten tires to was there a lot of stuff sticking out of the side of the the routes and stuff is that where they were all the flats were coming from? Yeah, it was really exposed rock to like, it wasn't like I didn't hit no boulder or rock like it was just like some sticking out of the out of the rug. And it got us like I think the two are both sidewall like they're always so sneaky ones. Yeah. buried in the sand. We saw a lot of people getting flats out there. What was your guys favorite part of the race and my favorite part was probably the just the first lap though. Go on pass all those cars. And it was super fun. It gets excited sketchy. We were there any close moments? Now, I didn't really have any like, oh shit moments, I guess. I think towards the end of the first lab, we almost felt like two, two left. Flat on both sides. I was Yeah, we had a we had a we had a couple of fingers in the wheels. But that was early on. So we figured like if it didn't go flat it was gonna be Yeah, that's crazy. I love when you have races like that. James. I remember one race that I had. In fact, we're going to nitro rally class at Glen Helen where I had this race but we're at the Glen Helen short course track and I broke in qualifying and I was just in a razor like a razor 1000 started 28th exactly the position they started in. And by the finish line, I was almost getting ready to pass for second place, I think so I got on the podium, but it was exactly what Joe was talking about. Because it's like you're playing a video game and all of a sudden, like you're in like you have tunnel vision. But you're like going through all these cars and like, it feels like everybody's holding their line. Like it couldn't go any better. But like, I don't know how I made it through that alive. And I feel like you guys basically did the same thing. Yeah, like I said, we follow success for the first 2030 miles and then it just it just on to the next customer on to the next customer. And then I think I think I was more relieved after the first lap when we we kind of made it through the most of the group because we came in on the speed zone. And we were heading down the bridge is like all the powers were coming up to bridge. So I knew we got through a good majority. That's wild, right? Is it? Have you ever had like, one of those races? James, where you like when you get like that in the zone? I'm only in like rally but you're not you know, you're more just catching people like you can't you don't really pass right? Well, like what he's talking about, like it's a typical racer mindset, right? Like Joe and Jason both had it. Like, you just focus on what's right in front of you, and then you put it behind you and then you don't think about it anymore. And then you do it and you're like leapfrog right? But it's like leapfrogging your brain. Most people can't do that. Like I don't. I don't know if you if you ever understand it, Joe, I know you play hockey and stuff, but you only think about what's ahead of you. And then you have like the quickest mindset to forget about what's behind you. Yeah, no, it's also like that. But then also this loop race, you got to kind of remember it for the next slot as well. That's actually a good point. So you have to have all of that stuff going on in your brain. Yeah, know for sure. Just Jason help you a lot with that to be able to make sure that you're maintaining the same I don't know visual standard as you drive. Oh, yeah, he doesn't use it. Stop talking the whole time. And I I mean, I appreciate a lot so it helps me dry faster. And way better. So I'm always aware of what's coming up and two brands are better than one right. And then so like you were saying, obviously when you get back to the to the podium and stuff you guys don't know whether you're winning on corrected and stuff like that, but that had to be a pretty good feeling knowing that you had passed all those guys. Yeah, I was. I was honestly just shocked a lot what what just happened? And I really couldn't even I guess what were you guys expectations when you took off then were you just like, Dude, we're just gonna see how good we can go. I don't know this one. I I had a feeling like I got a feeling. We're gonna pull this cool. We're eating up here change the night before and I got one of those fortune cookies. And it's victory is in your way. It's bound to be and that's what happened. So we joked about it, because I'm like, Oh, I'm not superstitious, but I'm a little suspicious. But so when last year when we won the Laughlin desert challenge. We went to like tech or qualified, whatever it was, and him and I went to in and out. And we we order we get a receipt. And it's the number one way. And I was like, whatever. So then we go, we win. And we're like, holy crap. That was something. It was just like, whatever is the facade or a placebo? Keep eating now, dude. Yeah, hit up PF Changs before everyone did that sick. The new routine. That's it though. It's just just gives you the Mojo and the momentum. And it's just, you know, it just feels good to win, you know? And it's just like, super stoked. Yeah, that's super cool, man. And like, we've talked about it a little bit before Joe hasn't been racing that long. So it's pretty cool for you to be a part of that. And to see his skill level increase, right, Jason? Oh, 100%. You know, like, I think he got those coils right off the bat. Because we we did a ballot print, which is his first race. And was it 2020, late 2020. And we ended up winning and he's like, Oh, wow, this is great. And I'm like, This is not how it always goes. And this is not what you were going to experience. You started on a high. Wait till you hit rock bottom and you're winning and you break something and you know, we've been there we've I think we've condensed 15 years of racing into his two and a half three years worth of of racing career and you know, he's he's learned a lot. Yeah, well, Joe has been a sponge do that's the way you got to do it. Awesome. You've seen a lot of guys just come through the ranks and do this stuff. But like it's pretty impressive to be able to win them in 400 Yeah, no doubt, that's awesome. Especially because overall like, I mean, when you said you started 27 or 28 That's the whole field of UTVs or per Pro Turbo class. 53rd or 53rd. Yeah, so we're the 53rd car off the line from the start. Can you imagine having to pass 52 Dudes to get to the front? Pretty awesome, boys. Dude, it's wild. Right? That's great. That's a 400 Miles allows you to do though you just got to hold that thing pan hate so I don't know if I heard any rumblings What are you? What do you see the next stuff that you guys got on your plate? I believe the desert race in the Silver State. So no Mexico stuff for you guys. I'll be going to Mexico in two weeks to do San Felipe you're gonna be in the truck, right? Yeah, and then we're gonna come come back and do Silverstein. And then golden day. We might there was Hopson, his old car the other car battle prem and see a big deal can wheel that thing dad can be you. He's more of a like creature with a beard to the bar. Will do that that one race that I just talked about the Battle of grim. We were out there with Coleman because that was the truck that our shop bill. And and Jason goes, Hey, why don't you tell Big Joe to come to us? Oh my God, no, he wants to that. So he ended up doing it. And we put them in the lap in the spectrum. Valid prem and he never been in anything. And he went for he went for a lapse in the spectrum with COVID. And he said he lived that's pretty wild, right? Yeah. All right. jumped in there and really, really was dehydrated or was he just chillin? It was like first thing in the morning. Yeah, he did it. I was like now you gotta get an IndyCar to go race dude. Heck Yeah. That'd be pretty badass, though. Like the lineup next year pops. That'd be sick. Yeah, well, Saturday race, so hopefully we could let him do the first thing. Oh, I see what you're saying. Like do both of them. Yeah, that would be pretty cool. So not race against him? Yeah, no. First, before you out there and start battling. Yeah, that'd be pretty cool. Yeah, man, I think it's cool that you guys are already on the top of the box, man, it it takes a lot to be able to win a man 400 So you guys should definitely be proud of yourselves. Thank you. Anything else that you guys would like, if you were debriefing, like after the after the event, that you guys would have constructive criticism that you guys could do better? Because I feel like that's the you know, racers are egotistical, but I feel like they're also very reality based so that they know what they can do better. Do you guys do that same kind of thing? And if so, what did you guys talk about after? Yeah, we were we reflect you know, talk about how it went. Because it's always even if you win, you know, it's good. But it could always be better starts, you know, with us and the car and, you know, you know, just being more prepared and just all kinds of stuff. Let's take constructive criticism that you give yourself Joe I'm just really I just Just drive honestly, and I just hope for the best. Everything from all the information I needed from Jason and I just listened to him and that's really all and he really did. He really did great. I think I think the tires like the one of them, I would I would give to the circumstances you know, because of the rain and stuff the other one there's we hit it but it's like, I don't know like I feel like we can be more cautious because like we did turn it down a lot on the third lap. Like we ended up we ended up on the on the flat tire. We ended up getting passed by Bruce and we toned it down because we're like, we have five minutes of time like we can cruise we don't have to kill it like save the car for the fourth clap and just try to get it around and we ended up was actually fun with with Bruce we ended up going back and forth with him. And he passed us we got the second flat but we went back and forth a couple times and it was those guys those guys had a pretty interesting race too. So being questioned his co driver they were like, dude, they're on a mission and that's why I was saying like to have somebody like him behind you guys is pretty wild, right? Because you know he's never gonna let off he's just gonna go as fast as he possibly can to catch you guys. To pass you guys. But I don't let us I don't let us feel the pressure. I don't that doesn't change anything like that, that stuff doesn't bother me, it's not gonna, it's not going to change the way we drive, we're not going to panic, we're still going to run our own race, because we can control that, you know, we can't control him and how he runs because he runs hard all the time. But, you know, it's like, to each to each their own, and we knew we have time, we decided to cruise it, he's gonna pass this great, you know, it's like, I'd like to see you even in a trophy truck, make up five minutes, you know, and a few miles and we got a flat which was on us. But, you know, as it goes, we needed that cushion and to be safe in order to make it while UTV racing has gone right. Like, I mean, like just listening to just listening to Jason and Joe talk right now. I mean, like, first of all, it's a massive professional statement that he just made, but like just to understand that UTV racing is that fast. It makes me so happy. It's wild. It is pretty cool. All right, we're gonna get Gabby Downing and Jim York on in just a couple minutes here. Throw a shout out to all the people that helped you guys. I think my my team, my dad, Jason for CO driving all the sponsors that help us get us out there. Can't do it without anyone. Everyone makes us possible fueled by BP raise fuels. Factory can an Kwi clutching podium suspension made it nice on our backs mid doing four laps. The car was really good. You know the tires are on us but the BFG tires, they just killed it the whole way. Tons of traction. You know who else Good thing they kept you guys nice and cushiony out there because Tim wanted to break your back when he freakin sent it off that first jump in the trophy. Did you see that jump? We're trying to jump over the time. He said it's so hard and then he just did like this little steering wheel nudge and barely came close to the taken out the whole him 400 canovee Dude, it was so sick though. Like it was one of the best shots that we got on the live feed did it was bad and I think it's on Instagram now to yellow so we didn't pull a deal. I can't the rigs did it. See that one? All right, we're gonna get Gabby and Jim on. Thanks, boys. Really appreciate it. We will see you guys. We'll see you guys down in San Felipe. Later. All right. So we'll get Jimmy York on and then Gabby is going to join us as well too. So pretty cool to see that he's learning so quick. Jim York. What's up, buddy? How are you? Hey, you're doing well. We're gonna wait for Gabby to join but I like your hat, dude. Very special. Multiple sponsor. Yeah. Yep, always appreciate them. And sorry, I'm not in a more formal setting. We're off to the net. We're off to the races in the next race. And so I'm out here in California rounded up some mini vans to go race the van Prix at nitrile rallycross. Very nice. A van. What's the van pre? The fan? What is it? What is it 10 to 12 minivans racing on the same track as the big boys. So we get a rally around. Gabby's coming down tomorrow. And yeah, we've got 10 people, kids dumb enough to come and join us on the rallycross track because that's gonna be so cool. All right. So now we have Gabby on let me do a full introduction. So Gabby Downing and Jim York. Drivers of the Dixon flannel limo truck, our truck I don't know what you want to call it four by four car. Man we had so much fun talking with you guys at the man 400 We're going to talk about a few different things today we're going to talk about some bad stuff that happened in off road and but we're also going to talk about some good stuff that came full circle and off road to well before we even get into that Gabby tell me how much fun you guys had at the man 400 We had a ton of fun like I love offered racing and fun styles of racing and you know the little bit this year being wrapped in flannel and we had our whole team checked out and a lot more fun and a lot more team environment than it was last year and it just it is a good it's a good time and it brings a smile to everybody's faces whether they're in the offered community or they just cruising down the Vegas strip and they just see this dry off Route. So funny any dude if you'd like if anything happens on the middle of desert, you can just go like get in the back. Hang out. Just chill a little bit. Yeah, so Jim, being at the man 400 is pretty cool because you get to experience a lot of stuff. What was the vibe down on Fremont Street? Oh, man, I mean, that's again, the best place to have a limo and then when you get to go and race it the next day. It's a win. When. So that was one of those them showed us or being able to like kind of go through that staging line right through or go into tech through pretty much Street. The vibe was just so good. That was so much fun having the whole team on board again all kind of matched up and the freedom flannel. It was it was definitely just one of those like, I won't forget that moment as much as much as all the other ones. And all the crazy. Yeah, it's the people that make everything happen right to James, you would have been so stoked because they had vans that had well they were like American flag vans pretty much right Gabby? They were they were they were pretty much the hot ticket because it matched like everything was cohesive. And their whole program did yeah, like they got them dialed Yeah, and it did. So freedom flannel, red, white and blue. And it was pretty cool. One thing that I had a couple people direct message in was like, How is it driving that sucker on a race course. Both of us just like no real words there. I watched like the class live and guys, and I feel bad for them. And then I think they turn around and be like, well look at us make this turn with ease. And you've got to now try and get around this little hairpin. So it's got its perks and it's got it straight off. So why it is terrible. The end of the day, this whole thing started GAVI to ask, Hey, which, you know, would you ever get wanting to get into off road racing or resubmit? I kind of said, I do it, but I do it my way. And I'm just a limo guy. So that's how that whole thing started. And it's kind of the same thing like so James actually raised a hooligan bike. I don't know if you can see it behind us. It's a Harley V Twin with like motocross suspension and stuff on it. So he's a fucking nut job. And then you come with the limo. You guys are not jobs. It's like, dude, like everything is coming and off road has got such cool stuff going on behind it. I mean, a trophy truck is insane, right? Like a UTV winning races insane but like all this fun stuff happening in the background, Gabby, you gotta be stoked to be a part of it. Oh, 100% like, not only am I doing like racing the race I've ever dreamed of racing and racing off road racing. I am doing it with the most of our style and pushing the boundaries and paving I wouldn't say pavement like us paving a new path. The fact that they let us run it last year and then they created the hoopty cross Gabler. 500 class like it's you know, where what is it called? The class of him came up with it was a hoopty cross slash family. Cross. I love that name. That's sick. I was stoked to see all the different stuff going on. Like the other cars too, as well as you guys were you scared of the most for competition that's an accurate answer. That's hilarious. But you guys did actually make a lot of improvements on the vehicle for this year, right? Yeah, I mean, we had we we rebuilt the transmission with a bunch of like a much beefier parts in it. Had our whole axle truss actually changed out put shots that were completely blown on it. I didn't wrap the whole thing in red, white blue flannel, so yeah, that was awesome. That is a pretty good upgrade right? Before power per like scratch your plan. Alright, so you guys had a lot of fun. And I want to end this on a good note. But I want to talk about maybe for two minutes we can talk about the bad stuff that happens so you guys did break down in the middle of desert unfortunately and then you had to call the race. You guys went back you guys were safe. Everything went okay. But then some guys that were jerks and off road decided to scavenge the car. They Miscavige they gutted it a bit everything one morning and they came back for seconds later that evening and if they click the limit was from the inside outside like everything from you know major components like the transaxle to the radios and whatever easy wiring. They took every nut and bolt on wheels and tires. Fire extinguishers, they even took Jim's boot his seats and everything I saw that did and that but that bums me out that bums me out James on the off road community so bad you know it's like what do they say like one bad egg makes it bad for everybody kind of thing like it's just so shitty that people do that man you know it's been a it was a really big bummer. Just sharing the news the first day and then kind of having to think through okay, well this sucks. And then showing up and actually seeing the car it was one of those it just kind of like everything stood still and we had put so much work into that car. Two weeks ago when we got the green light to go ahead and make this race thing it was you know 18 hour days for two weeks straight trying to get that car ready to actually go race again from transmission and excellent all that like we put that all together in two weeks. So all that hard effort and hard work just gone because some jerk decided he deserved a more than we did and that was that was a heartbreaking Yeah, man that that's totally shitty that people do that stuff but so I'm sure everybody that's listening to the show or was gonna listen later is like felt the same as as I did because I'm outside you guys felt worse but I'm outside of your guys's circle and I looked I looked at it and it made my heart drop like I kind of wanted to like find somebody and punch him right like I was so upset because and I only imagine what you guys felt. But the cool part about all of those feelings is that it turns into something where everybody wants to help you and you guys ended up getting a lot of good feedback and good help from the off road community. I mean right now right now it's sorry this is just this is how awesome off road community is. I met these guys three days ago guys from devious customs literally took us in kind of sight unseen not knowing me not knowing really knowing the car. And we're down here, Bobby dinner Yeah, like that's how cool this community is. He goes What's wrong with it? I want to get it rolling again. What do we need to do? You know, don't just just bring it down to my shop so literally we got home and had an answer to that solution pretty quick. And then like all like me kind of fill in everything else was like I was just like, This is too good. These guys are awesome. Three days ago and like good friends now. Yeah, that's the way you want to see off road. Yeah, well not even just that like the amount of just support and sharing and people are actively looking for us that we don't even know on Facebook marketplace for like sending links like hey, we think this is your stuff. Like is it yours like trying to verify like people are looking actively for stuff and I area, which is absolutely amazing. And then tarp PCI. If good, rich have all like reached out, like how can we help get this limo back on the road? Like, what do you need? So it's been absolutely amazing. Like, honestly, the support alone is almost overwhelming. You know, like, we have so many options. And like, honestly, when I saw the limo and saw it being picked up by the excavator, I was just like, bro, put it down and leave it I just, I was just so done, like after seeing it and all of our hard work taken from it, but the amount of support from the community, and from our partners and brands and the rescue team. All of that just really helped motivate me literally like 30 minutes for maybe like an hour or so I can do it just like we have, like, this community's too good to quit on us. We can't quit on them. And like it's it's been really really awesome. James, like Gabby was saying that they gutted the car, right, but like they've literally gutted the people to like, it just totally takes it out of you. Yeah, I saw the pictures of it. It's pretty unfortunate. You know, it's like, the whole point is to be out there and have a good time. And then, you know, there's gonna be cars or trucks that don't finish or bikes or whatever. But like to go you know, pillage it. That's pretty jacked. Yeah, totally. And yeah, I mean, like, when you when you think about that, like we had a conversation before this, like with with Gabby and Jim and like, and now you think like all the off road community is kind of on high alert now because there's a rat in the nest, right, like so Now everybody's gonna be looking around and being like, Hey, what's going on with that guy? You know, like, so it sucks, but I guess it's good to because everybody's on high alert. Yeah. And then I think, like, to be honest, apparently the common thing that they're scavengers at Desert races, like, it's just like, I have not, I guess, um, unwritten law. And unfortunately, like, Tim and I weren't aware of that. And even talking to you, when we saw you was, I guess it was on the phone, but like, it wasn't common knowledge to everybody. So at the end of the day, like I hope Yeah, it's unfortunate, but we can, you know, send them that hey, this is a thing. It's not a joke. Hopefully, it doesn't happen to you and make a better decision. I mean, there wasn't much we could do about the duration but man Oh, like we didn't know. Now people can move forward knowing that Yeah, well, what are Jim and Gabby gonna do? Are they gonna push a limo all the way back to the pits? Like, I mean, like for you, so what it took to even get it out of there. I mean, there was two Duramax diesels attached to it the night before toggling with all they could and it still wouldn't move. And I mean, it's that's the one thing when you try something new with a vehicle that probably shouldn't be out there, when when things go wrong, they really go wrong and it takes a lot to fix that problem. And so safety team I mean, kudos to like no no, no hesitation and it was nothing against them it was just it took a lot to get that car out of there. And we you know, there was there was nothing we could do you hear the one thing I've heard a lot is you got to sleep with your car I mean we were out there for three days. That's that's kind of the other thing that but live and learn. And you just kind of hope that yeah, either this this changes this changes for the better in one in one way or another. And the outpouring again of shares to hopefully to scare the living piss out or whoever has that crap right now it'd be like if they they post any of that there. Yeah, totally. Hey, not to change the subject but what direction are you guys turning right now Jim left or right. Oh hey, so James, would you actually drive the limo like, would you get out there and try it because dude, that thing's a beast. Yeah, unless there's still room in the back. Um, I would cruise in the back two bars. Yeah, bar still back there and hindsight like looking at they made us take the rear seat out. So no one can sit back there. And like as a rear seat was already taken out. I'm like, Man, this just looks like a good spot and cherishing seats. So that was the one thing we had to go on. This is back there and take the kids for a ride. They can feel what it feels like to just get thrown around in a limo. Well, like in way more so you guys do get to have a lot of fun. Gabby, you get to do your streetcar stuff. Jim, you guys have all kinds of different fun like what you're gonna have a nitro rallycross What's some of the funnest stuff that you guys have been able to do like at the man 400 this year that we can tell the people that are watching them at 400 recap show. honestly think the most fun part for me was going down the tech line or I think it was tech but like we went down Fremont Street with the limo on all of our whole team matching. Like it was just it was definitely just something different. Like being there with a car and just showing up. Like in a spot that no one ever really should have a limo. Yeah, like the whole team vibe. Right? Like that was super cool to see that whole things. So do you guys got that's usually closed if it's pedestrian traffic only. So to just again, we're taking a limo where it shouldn't go and then doing it again down Fremont Street. It was just really really good guys go all the way through tech with that thing. Wasn't there some sharp turns in there? I'm like I thought there was like a zig and zag in there, you know? Oh, that's good. I was gonna say we made it up or we made it down ball in that canyon. Last year. We did not quite get there this year. But fear about getting Excuse me, but I mean, it's surprisingly agile for how big of a beast it is. Until it isn't. It gets stuck it gets. I can only imagine like I can just see like the Austin Powers like to to toot back and forth the whole time. It's so funny. But that's cool. I mean, like, and that's why I want to ended on a positive note, because there's so many cool things that happen at events like this, right? And I'm sure that you guys got to talk to so many cool people like when it was Fremont Street, right people coming up and saying hi to Gabby saying hi to Jim and bringing the kids over and taking pictures next to the car. It was probably so meaningful. It is awesome. Yeah, like, make somebody's day just by having a car somewhere. And then, you know, that makes our day in turn. So it's so it's just like, I was gonna say like, what makes the like the favorite thing for the big 400 And it's truly the people like yeah, we have to go party and have fun with all these awesome people and then go driver traveling the desert for a while and then we get to go see all these people again. Yeah, it is pretty cool. That means that you guys are gonna definitely want to come out to them and 400 next year, right. 100% I feel like we have to redeem ourselves. Yeah, totally. And then what is it like like when you're out on course, like when you guys do have like, I don't know what you're saying. Like when when Jim brought up that you can't turn that much but like, and you're going through the whoops and stuff do you guys because I feel like the oops are close enough that you can have like three or four inside your wheelbase. It's funny, so either we have it perfectly time for the whole car just like in sync, or it's just teeter tottering. really badly like, there's no yeah, and there's no timing whatsoever, right? It's just going. It's just a hair too long. Could you imagine doing that? Oh, God, all right. Like the smoothest thing you can get, or it goes insanely bad and that's kind of what got our axle. I mean, we were carrying speed through some woods through a corner. We had to carry speed because our transmission was basically we were stuck in a high gear. And yeah, it was one guy down, so you can catch air in the limo. We had all four tires off the ground a few times. Could you imagine that? Just flying a big old limo like that? Did you guys go over the anthill? Which one is that? Right in the infield? Like where you started talking? Like in the in the infield, that one that was like, could you would you get high centered on that? Nice. Scrub that Thanks. Get all mono and get all whipped on it. Dude, having these conversations just puts a huge smile on my face, like the things that you guys are doing. And like we talked with these hooligan guys about how they're introducing new things to Off Road, right. And you guys are doing that as well. And you're doing it with a smile and you're attracting more people, you're really doing a good job. Like everything that's that's about the program just makes people happy. So no matter what happens, I want to see the program continuing. I appreciate all the stuff that you guys are doing. I'll be back. You know, it's we're down here. I guess today we're down here with these fine people. It's gonna be harder, but we're gonna get there and just the support the sponsors and just the whole community. It would be to our demise and just our own fault really, to not bring this thing back. So you know, come hell or high water and whatever we can do. Like I will never promise anything but we are going to do we can I agree 100% Hey, give them a massive handshake for all the stuff that they're doing. And Gaby, thank you very much for joining us too. What's the next on your plate? Ah, well, I think what's next on my plate is actually almost the same event of what is on Jim's plate like we have naturally crossed this weekend. And then we have LS Fest West in Vegas. I will be drifting and then he will be doing the world record limo joke, dude. That's, that's gonna be sweet man. Are you guys gonna be out there on Saturday or Sunday this weekend? I'm flying out tomorrow and he was already there. Good. All right. Well, we will see you guys hopefully on Saturday. Thank you guys very much for joining us. We're gonna get Christians wrap this we'll see you guys later. See you guys, guys. Alright, let's get Chris Roberts on dude. Jim. That's so cool. Like, that just makes me happy here and all that stuff. Yeah, it's awesome. Are we alright, we're gonna get Christmas Roberts. He's going to join us here in just a second. All right, so we'll give a proper introduction we have a guy that I don't want say came from behind but he was fighting all day and the trophy truck class ended up coming across the finish line. In second place in a 2009 guys are truck man he drove like a fantastic like a dude a true champion. Welcome. Christian's raucous What's up, buddy? What's going on? Can you guys hear me? My sir? Yeah, I think you're good, man. I like your San Diego hat. So racing perfect. Yeah. Hey, who did you have in the passenger seat? Was it Evan? No, it wasn't. Evan had a prior engagement with the girbau skis. And that went really well for him. He's two for two in that seat. So I might have lost my co driver. I don't know. But I had a, I had John Kandra. In the C key rode with me. When I first started driving with the terrible herps team, and he's somebody with a lot of experience has written with BJ. He's written with just a lot of passguide. Ryan, our Sierra, we go way back. So it was cool to have him back in the seat. And it was like he wrote with me yesterday, even though it's been like four years. So it was super cool. Yeah, it's like one of those things where it just matches up again, right, everything comes back into play. So let's give it a little bit of a rundown on on the race. James didn't get to watch a lot of the race. So let's tell him how it started. Because I know you didn't start with intentions to be that far up and you had to work your way up. Well, actually, I didn't even start with intentions to drive. Honestly. It was gonna be my dad's weekend. It was the whole plan was for my dad to really tie a bow around his career. Raising his first ever raised I believe was the 1985 meant 400 Believe it or not, so he thought okay, exponent 400 getting older, I'm no spring chicken anymore might as well be time to tie a bow around my driving career and do my last race ever at the man. So I was really just going to support him and wasn't even planning on bringing my gear but he had hurt his back. So I didn't really know if he's going to be able to try and get Leary job as a backup lined up to drive with him. But as the week progressed, he was already in Vegas for beer convention, and he started getting crap. So yeah, so it progressively gotten worse and he wasn't able to drive and so luckily, when I was on my way on Thursday, I have my gear bag and my dad called my mom's that hey to Crystal by chance bring his gear pack and I definitely had my gear bag with me. The plan was for Larry to qualify. And then I was gonna do last two But Larry had a foot operation a couple of months ago I mean he's so then I decided like as I was pulling into Prem, that you know what, I'm just gonna qualify the thing literally had no seat time and that truck just showed up first time I really showed up driving was when I got to the practice lab so I was getting used to it on the fly I had to I had no other choice so don't have that great of a qualifying round. I was like okay, I'm just here to honor my dad I want to go out and do the best I can I'm not gonna walk the truck off while the truck up and be that guy so we've done a decent lab nothing crazy. Probably got got beat by a few guys that normally wouldn't made a really big mistake not to make any excuses but probably made like a six or seven second mistake on my behalf that really killed Oh, was that going over that little rut or that little turn? No, it was like turn for me. It was the same turnout. Yeah, we're homeless. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I almost got high centered and up to a dead stop. And that really sucks. So that really killed our run. And I it kind of slept on a qualifying run knowing that like, Okay, your time is chunk, like already. Like, I don't know, three turns into it, but kept my head on straight and knew that okay, like 400 is an attrition rate. So it sounds cliche, but every single year, it seems like when people put the put the helmets on, it's like, like even Rob said it when he DNF like, gosh, we're going really fast the first couple laps, and I was disciplined. I mean, I even got nerved and passed by Robert Johnston and the Chattanooga track and I was like, Dang, this guy is just flying. This guy's not gonna be I'm gonna see this guy pulled over on the side of the road at some point, which is exactly what happened. I mean, Roberts a great driver, but still, I mean, it's the it's the mint 401 You need to be driving fast. You can't be taking, like just extreme. So like when I hear that like so like I'm the dirt bike racer short course guy, right? Like, I don't have patience like what you James and what Kristian does? Like, you've tried to tell me a few times that you gotta be patient. Like, you got to wait, you got to, like manage the race. Right? But it doesn't seem like that's how a lot of people do it. It honestly seems like to me it's it keeps getting more and more like, it's just pin it to win and see what happens. checkers or record that's what I mean. I've always said to like in and I've never raced a truck, right. But in the side by side, like the race is here. Your head got it. You gotta you racing yourself, like when to go slower and faster. Like you can, like, you know, like he just said, like, you get nerved and pass like that happens to us in the side by side, right? And you just, you know, I do the same thing like, oh, well, we'll see it pulled over in five minutes. So Christian, when you when you're talking to like, let's just call me a beginner race, or anybody that's listening to the show that's just getting into desert racing are very neutral as far as what they do, like, how do you tell them to manage that? Because it's very difficult. Experience. I mean, there's really no replacement for experience. I mean, I've been my brother, and I've been racing since you, you're 10 years old. And I'm 26 now, that hurts to say. But yeah, I mean, it's just experience and it's really just messing up and doing the wrong thing. And being the one on the side of the road early in the race that really just can't substitute experience. So like my advice to those guys going out there as don't make the same mistake twice. Like, know that you're gonna go out there and you're gonna do dumb stuff as a as a newer racer, but learn from it and figure it like just like in any endeavor in life, just know that you're gonna make the mistake. Don't necessarily be afraid. But, you know, if you make the same mistake twice, then didn't really gotta take a hard look at the mirror. Like, okay, like, is this? Is this an honest mistake or is an unavoidable mistake, honest mistakes can happen. Those are acceptable, but avoidable mistakes that Yeah, I think one thing that I heard you say there basically is like accountability. Like if you're not accountable for your actions, and you don't learn from them, then you're screwed. Exactly, yeah. And auto racing and my opinion, you know, call me biased. I think it's the most challenging motorists For the entire world because the elements are constantly changing, even stateside, stateside, it's tough, but I mean, just referencing Mexico, Mexico is even tougher than stateside. And it's really really difficult in these lap races because rocks move, in particular, I mean, the last lap me and Adam householder guaranteed hit the same exact rock luncheon in flats right next to each Oh really? So? Yeah, and we actually lost our jack Campbell. So luckily, we were pulled over next to a motorhome and we use the motorhome scissor jacks, no way, but it was like a seven, eight. Talk about you that is a full champion move talking about MacGyver man. Oh, yeah. I mean, I was sitting there householders about three minutes behind us physically. And he pulled behind us after we were messing with the flat. And we both finished changing our tires at the exact same time, and we pulled out like going door to door next to each other. But neither one of our CO drivers were buckled in. It just was not a safe situation. So I was like, okay, it was like, who's gonna let first kind of deal and I'll let them win that battle. Because we're just doing this for fun. Nobody's here. He was, like, we watch for a little while. And he was just crushing it. Like, it was like, it was so awesome to watch. But you knew that like, it wasn't like you couldn't hold that pace. But just to see him smashing some of those corners and like hitting some of the whoops and stuff. It was insane. Yeah, it was a great driver. I think he deserves a lot of credit. I mean, he just won King the hammers. And, you know, towards the end of the race, I mean, he was on the ground and like pretty much hyperventilating. And he was he gave it his all. And it's a bummer that I was just a little bit better than them. Because he definitely exerted a lot more accurate than I did. It's cool to see though. It's just crazy how it's a four minute mile race. And it just comes down to well, I'll get I'll give Christian a little like, I'll toot his own heart. He is nicknamed white lightning because he has a track and field champion. So you know, there is that? Yeah. How did you How do you feel inside like? So you said you guys were switching spares same time. Were you out of the truck? Okay, it's not out of the truck. I probably should have been in hindsight. But we have two other guys from the motorhome that were helping. I don't know, it's, you know, we can make the argument all day long, like, is it necessarily are doing to be helpful? Like, could they be getting more on the way but I don't know. We're definitely gonna get first because I don't even know like, we have no really communication all day. So I don't know, if we were leaving. I didn't know party was still out there. Like I didn't know Harden was the winner until we got to the finish line. I kind of had a feeling so I didn't want to set myself up for failure in my head thinking, like, oh, we just want to make 100 And then he's there. I kind of like assumed that like, okay, because I was we were passing guys, I was picking them off and was like, Okay, I was talking to JT was like, Who could possibly still be out there because we passed just about everybody. I was like, Well, I haven't seen harden yet. I think harden still out in front of us. And he ended up having just a slightly better day than us. And I gotta tip my hat to him because they've been, you know, putting in the work with that particular truck. And they have a big block. They have manual transmission. It's, you know, he was pretty good. And it's cool to see a team like that. Yeah, we're gonna get him on in just a second here and talk with him a little bit. He's, he's got a really cool story. But I want to keep talking about you. So when, when you're out there, you haven't been behind the wheel and how long? Oh, man. Last time I drove in a race was the ball 500. And that was a spectrum. Quite a bit different than a trophy truck. I would say the last time I drove a trophy truck 2020 Vegas arena. And it was quite a bit of a power difference between the two. And I mean, the 1600 class is competitive. But I think the trophy truck class is probably the premier class of all news drivers. I couldn't agree more. I mean, it was wild to see how fast everybody was going. And you know, we did get to see you driving around quite a bit on the live feed and we got to see your skill set really is what I want to kind of talk about is, you know, you showed a lot of patience but you were still hauling the mail right so how was it to get back in the truck to be able to manage a race like this when you first of all I didn't know you had no communications but to be able to it's a 2009 geyser truck like that's, that says a ton for geyser, right? But it also says a lot for you. It shows how much experience you have. It shows how much patience you have. It shows how much skill level you have. So when I'm sitting there like thinking about it, like what are you thinking and how are you feeling in the driver's seat is anything like that come through your mind as a racer or you just like focus on the goal and that's getting across the finish line? Yeah, I think I've always like tried to pride myself in being the most well rounded driver ever possible whether anything I get into I want to be fast whether it's a UTV stadium, Supertruck 6100, trophy truck, you name it, but they all have such unique driving styles like a six 100 You got to drive the thing like you hate the thing and you want it to burn to the ground and you think it's the biggest piece of crap ever. Trophy Truck, you got to drive cars similar, but you'll have to like really be a lot more disciplined in your throttle control and your line selection and getting on and off the gas finding your breaking points where 6100 You're just hammering at the whole time, UTV you have to save that equipment. It doesn't matter like our foreign car. It's not bulletproof, and we have one of the best parts. So I think the ETV is really helped me like kind of get momentum back. As far as learning how to really carry speed, because you have such limited horsepower on those things and limited travel. It's just you can't really can't really translate them. It's it's really difficult. So just because you're fast and Trophy Truck doesn't mean you're gonna be faster UTV just because you're fast, he beat us we need to be fast and the trophy truck. So I had to learn pretty quickly. Like, literally like at the start line, like okay, like I'm in a trophy truck. This is how I'm gonna drive and this is me hit home, like in the Start lane and the CG and actually going through my head on like exactly what I'm going to do. Like you can even ask my co driver GT like I'm not really talking before the race because I'm really like, in my head. I'm like, Okay, this is exactly what I want to do. I'm not on autopilot. Yeah, you're, you're watching the race, but that happened in your in your head. I think that's kind of cool, though. James. Watson. Poor guy. I mean, I don't know. Like, that's caused a huge controversy. But I mean, we drove over it in the practice lab. I watched the livestream before like, I mean, if people don't take it as seriously as I do, and that's Yeah, exactly. Agree. I watched it, because obviously, we raced the bikes, right? And I'm like, so what's going on out here? So then I watched some of the razors, do it. And then I'm just like, Dude, it's like, 12 feet tall. Yeah. Like, either rocket ship this thing, or just slow down? Yeah. I agree. 448 I love those things. Because it sounds like it separates people with common sense. Sometimes you're just saying amped up, though. It was spectacular for the spectators though, right? But James, so like, when you hear Chris and talking about this, like, from a racer standpoint, he's he's taking everything that he's learned in all these different classes and vehicles and driving techniques and all this stuff, and merging them all together to be a better driver. That's pretty sick. Yeah, it's awesome, especially when you can get in there and separate those classes. Like he just said, you know, the 6100 or spec truck to the trophy truck, right? And then like, obviously, you guys have the background with the, the side by side. And it's it's super true. Because yeah, you can't just get in something and run it into the ground. Yeah, none of them. And the will like, let's just say you, let's say somebody gave you a rat in a trophy truck, you would ask them questions. How do I do this? Right? Well, he's doing it the exact opposite way. He's actually getting to do it. And he's learning from all these other things and putting it all together, right, like, Christian, it takes a lot to do that, man. It's it's a lot of brainpower. It's a lot of muscle memory. And I just want to bring that point up, because a lot of the people that are watching the show have never even raced a UTV before, and they really want to understand all of these different things. So they have questions like that. So I appreciate you talking about it openly. Yeah, I mean, you TV Racing's badass. I mean, my brother and I still have a one and a UTV and I feel like we definitely have this before. If it's not just little Gremlins haven't gone our way. It's cool to see like Joe, which ran out, like really kicking, killing it. Just because he's put in the time, but at the same time, I'm like, God, dang it. Like, I feel like, you're like I have something for him. It's cool. I don't know what's gonna be next for our schedule. I definitely, I don't know this race. I almost feel like I won credit to Eric Cardin. But, I mean, granted what happened to us and the Baja 1000 and all like, personal things that happened behind the scenes. It was a long road to get to the mat and to be able to, you know, have just a solid resolve and be able to honor my dad with a second place. I mean, if you would have told me that I would have taken that hall. It's, it's truly special that that happened. Granted, I would have loved to have planned. I'd love to have one, but I definitely think it's good momentum. And who knows, maybe we'll maybe we'll throw a manual transmission and a big block in that number. Yeah, that would be pretty cool. That truck is still bitching, though. Dude. I love that thing. Oh, I was so I was called out on Instagram. I don't remember who it was by but they said you need to learn how to shotgun a beer. Yeah, like, I think I saw the video like you put it the wrong way or something. Yeah, so the funny context behind that is my drinker was on my left side. And I've been leaning that way the whole day. And essentially that's what I just naturally did when he went to go drink it and we talked about muscle memory, dude. Yeah, that's so I look like immediate on social media, but at least people are talking about that helps out a lot. Right? I thought you're gonna say my drinker was on my Did you say left side or right side? Yeah. I drink on my left side. So I was leaning over. I thought I thought you're gonna say my drinker was on my left side. And it was full of like, truly. Yeah, I forgot. So Oh, good. Yeah, that's perfect for them. Hey, so maybe the move is to like, get this marketing so stuff built up and then actually like to just smash a Corona. Like when you're done racing, the next race and the corona truck that's on brand, the whole deal. Ya know, what I think I should do next is I'll take a Corona bottle, smash it across my head and get full while. Man like, I want to tell you this, because we're gonna get Eric Hardin on here. But from the bottom of my heart, I'm really glad that you were actually able to get out there and race and know your dad wanted to get out there and race and I hope he feels better soon. But you did a fantastic job. Did you impress a lot of people, you made a lot of people happy and to see the raw emotion and that you were open with the things that were going on in life to be able to get you to the point where you were second place on the podium. Dude, that is it. There's no better story than a person that's being real. So thank you for doing all that stuff. And congratulations on the really good finish. Now I appreciate it. It's an honor to be on the show. Couldn't do it without my parents. I haven't while erasing prep degrade trout Szentendre on the right seat. I'd love to come back and race that truck again. Maybe with some more horse. Get those guys are boys and put a bigger motor in it. Bigger ring gear on order. So you got anything else James or no? All right. Thanks, Christian. I appreciate it. Dude, we'll talk to you soon. All right, tell ya we will. Alright, so we're gonna get Eric Cardin on here in just a little bit. Eric's not big Instagram guy. How are you doing on time, James? We got a few more minutes. Okay. And then I got Brian Moore and Matt Martelli. So if you want to bail after Eric, that's cool. Cool. So we'll get Eric Hardin on here and talk with the winner man. It's pretty cool to see everybody's different stories, right? Everybody's that's awesome. Everybody's got such a different, like, way of doing things. Yeah. All right. So, man, we'll give them a proper introduction. That man 400 was a gnarly race this year. To be able to overall in any class is a feat of its own, but to be able to overall in the top level class and the trophy truck class is just mind blowing to most people. Right, James? So we would like to welcome your overall Trophy Truck winner Eric harden. What's up, dude? How are you? Hey, thanks, guys for hanging on. Yeah, we're stoked, man. Hey, and good job on your internet skills today on Instagram. I'm new to this stuff. But yeah, so one thing that I was gonna tell you, James, when you win a trophy truck race like the man 400 Your phone just blows up. I can barely get a hold this dude. That's awesome. So man, first of all, congratulations. Super cool to see you up there. I want to talk about a couple things I want to talk about, you know, your race and all these different things that happen. But we're gonna have a show with Eric on Monday, actually, we're gonna get some of his backstory. And I kind of like to give a little teaser of that. So, James, I'm not sure if you know, but Eric drives with his left foot. Okay, because he's his right leg was amputated right at the knee. years ago, right, Eric? Yeah, it was two years old and 14 years. 20 years. Yeah. So no small feat to drive with your left foot and to drive like that. But one thing that I wanted to talk about was the racecourse was insane, gnarly at the end of the day for these guys. And on the last lap, the fourth lap, we got to watch him do a good amount of the race course and some of the roughest terrain in Nevada. And the timing that he had on in his truck look like a dirt bike dude like he was getting he was wheeling bumps like so he would downside one, like a double bump and then he would wheelie the next one. And then he would get the back wheels off the ground and tap the wheel on the next bump like the timing look like it was like Eli tomac going through hoops at Daytona or some it was insane. It was almost like poetry in a trophy truck. So I wanted to tell you Eric like it's insane that anybody can do that and you with your situation is just blows my mind dude. So the however you're doing it, kudos to you. No, thanks. Thank you guys. They weren't all perfect though that's for sure they weren't all time it was perfect on TV so that's all the matters are a little while not as wild as Ryan's I saw his his clip that was pretty insane. Oh, what do ya what do you smash that that sand hill? Yeah, he's crazy. Yeah, it was, it was pretty wild to see all that stuff. Um, give us a little bit of a breakdown of your race. Oh, you know, same same. Same thing as always. And I'm late to catch on your to get on your show tonight. Sorry, I couldn't watch the whole thing. The Martelli has put together a crazy rays course like they always do. It was really cool how it went through beer bottle pass again. You know, it hits, it hits, the fast stuff, the technical stuff, the slow stuff, the Stanwix which are unpredictable, you know, some lake beds. It was it makes it you know, you gotta be diverse mule to drive all these different, you know, types of terrain. So that makes it interesting. You know, it's not just one type of course. And I mean, I've noticed this year like a king of the hammers and doing some of the more races, you know, with all the rain we've been having, it seems like it's flattened out a lot of these a lot of the washes and just kind of settled things down, which has been nice, because it was getting so rough. With all these big trucks, you know, big trophy trucks and 6100 and hundreds and all of them. They're just ripping the desert up in reserves and side by sides. But we had we took I had a hard lesson at the king of the hammers, we were having a good run, I felt like we could have done something in that race we we raise the more series out in Lucerne, and I know that desert I know a lot of the guys out here know but I know it really well. I feel like so of course, they're trying to pass somebody I got a flat tire and got steamrolled by all the trucks, the beginning of the race, got another flat. And then at the very end with five miles ago, got another flat and got a drive shaft. So it was just like, oh my gosh, we finished for somehow but I think that was just pure luck. But, you know, Andrew Myers is my best buddy. And he's, I've been going to his school of driving. He's been, you know, a few years back, he jumped in class, one car that we had, and he's like, Eric, let me let me see what's going on. What Why aren't you going fast? And he jumped in and he's like, okay, let's work on this thing. And we just started we just started adjusting shocks are evolving and you know, just the whole thing. And I was like, well if this thing is that bad, we should jump in the race truck. So we went out and we reroute the shock six times kept stiffening it up getting it to where it would work and getting that confidence of trust in the in the truck. And so having him in the on the right seat with me. In the in the hammers. I mean, he's just calming me down the whole time after that. After that jagged pill, you know, the hammers, I was so bummed about it. And having a bad qualifying run a 14th at the at the man, I was like, Dude, I was just bummed, you know, I thought there's no way it's gonna be way too dusty. We're gonna be stuck behind all these guys like we always are. And, you know, it's just, there's, there's two things that I want to talk about, about what you're saying. Like, first of all, kudos to you for pushing past all that stuff. Right? So the two things I want to talk about are, you don't know what you don't know. And then how to come back from a mentally depressing state that you are in any anything in life or off road, right, like, so what what Eric's talking about is, he didn't know that he had a bad truck, I mean, or a bad car, right? Like, he's kind of trying to figure it out. And Joe just came on with Jason. And they said, dude, our car was flawless. It was so good, we just ripped, right. But when you have to go through these things, you have to make sure that you keep your mindset in the right spot to be able to push past it. And that takes a lot like what Eric did, right? And he didn't really know until somebody told him like, that's difficult to understand, then all of a sudden, you're like, What the eff dude? Like how how would I have known that and then it's like, oh shit, well, that was I doing something wrong, but then you have to get over it and be like, Alright, now is the time to focus on moving forward and be better yeah, 100% 100% You know, and you just have that trust in the truck and it's a lot easier to drive. So we started the race 14 And I mean, it was the perfect situation the weather was perfect, it was cold it was over cool. It was overcast, you know and ran the night before the winds were all picked up. It was great. I mean, we didn't have a whole heck of a lot of dust at the beginning not too much a little bit and we were able to make to be able to make quick work on a couple trucks and then I felt bad because we passed one of them and on the run and then you know we're good into all those rock beds and Anders going to you got to slow down you got to slow down you got to slow down I'm thinking faster we gotta go faster like these guys are. They're going where they're out running as we know how faster the paces and so we you know, we we kind of slow down I feel Like I was parked, and in some of these rock sections, but we were going around them, you know, I mean, you go back, you will blazing in these corners like a bat out of hell, and there's a boulder there that wasn't there before you go in too fast, you can't go around and I just did it three times in a row like an idiot three weeks ago or four weeks ago. So like, okay, okay. And then, you know, at the end of the first lap, there were some guys glued to me, glued to my bumper very behind me. And then, and then we're all like, say, Okay, let's go, let's go in that first section of the course is, you know, it's not that rocky at the beginning. And, you know, I'm confident we know that course pretty well. That first section especially and so we were able to lay it down, and put some distance on and then just kind of started running our own race, the second lap, and just being able to take our time and it was crazy. You know, normally you get stuck behind somebody for 100 miles and these races or you can, and, you know, everybody just kept stopping. I mean, people were pulled over all over the place with flat tires. I was like, that was me. That was me three weeks ago. Oh my gosh, it's this is so much easier. I know we're going slower, but we're not stopping. So it was a it was a big lesson for me. You know, I don't want to slow the pace of the race down doing that. But it was nice to not have to get off to James That's like one of those things like slower is faster. For sure. It's so hard, though. I only know it from the side by side. Right. So I tell people like on a lake bed below the belt. How fast are you changing the bill? Yeah, faster to just not do 90 Maybe do 80? Yeah. Or 70 Or 6969? Whatever. So it's hard. Because once again, you're in here, right? Like, do you does your co driver? Does he help you with that? Or do you are you able to do it in your own head? The slowing Yeah, like managing it? No, he's calm down, slow, slow down. And I'm glad I'm glad I finally listened to him for once because, you know, it was the right thing to do for us. It was the right advice. And it was wild, you know, in a big vehicle rich tires obviously held a great I mean, I couldn't even believe it, the front's are still perfect on the thing. We're gonna put them on back and go use them again, and race for something, but it was really cool. But I mean, I felt a little better going across those lake beds, knowing like, hey, you know, at least we didn't kill the tires like we always do when you go, you know, and you're going 150 miles an hour. It's like, oh, man, I hope this thing doesn't blow out. I hope there's not a slowly growing. You know, we have CMS on the trip, but the last weekend, so I was like, Alright, I gotta take care of that left front. So I know it's not Aaron downer, we're gonna die if this thing blows out, you know? So it was it was a trip though. And then you know, we were able to go fast and the fast sections and then you know, that whole section from shoot what mile just before and after the Gonzo pit? That's a ton of fun like the section Yeah, you're talking about where it's got the big ol bank with a lot of timing huge holes. You got to slow down for some speed up over. I mean, it's cool on your truck handles, right? You know, and Jason and taught at STG have been working with us to really refine things and can't thank them enough for everything they did to help us. You know, we're not perfect at all. But I mean, we got we're, we're good enough. Yeah. The best part about it is now you open your mind set up to be unable to get it even better. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, what do you what do you do in the cab? Do you just have your your right foot sitting in a cradle or something? Yeah, so I just, I have my prosthetic just kind of bungee cord back up against the seat. And then I just wrote with my left foot only so it's good and bad. You know, it's, it's bad for fuel economy because it's either on or off. It's kind of like a switch. Hard on the brakes aren't on the gas. It's just, it's just a kind of a jerky ride. You know, we struggle a little bit more in some of the technical stuff and I kind of adds to some of our challenges in qualifying getting around these type technical qualifying courses. So it makes it hard to do well I'm in races you know, I mean, we seem to do well in the small races, the medium sized races to the larger races, we only do a couple we only do the hammers and pretty much every year and you know we just can't finish them no matter what the men we've been trying this for. We limped across the line seven years ago, my brother and I have a broken transmission that really worked to make the second year and then last year, we broke an axle and third place on the last lap and 60. year before that, year before that was gathered a motor completely. Every time it's a no man's land, we always break in no man's land. So we get to spend a good eight or 12 hours up there, you know, it gets cold at night and the whole thing's it's never fun. Doing that year before that we let the lug nut news loose, broken, broken stuff the year before that we blew another motor. I mean, we just can't sit cannot on this big race. And so whenever it was having all these problems and knocking drive lines out Getting flat tires, you know it, the third and fourth lap. You know, unlike that broken highway road where it parallels the freeway normally, you know, I'm on top of fourth gear on the ragged edge on the chip. And I don't know how fast we're going as far as I can go. It's, it's a little sketchy. And this time, you know, when we're going by on like, alright, let's click it into fifth. Let's try and load this thing. And keep the powertrain alive and breathe a little bit in between these bombs and go in the same exact speed to with Wailoa PMS with way less out of control and other thing all over the place of like, wow, this is a good lesson right here. You know, it's like, I went to school and this dude, it's kind of crazy though to think like, man, like having all that adversity for many years, like and but he's still got so much drive to be able to win this thing. Like, it's almost like it was deserving. Right? Like, and I had no idea until you just said shared that story. But now it makes me feel a little bit more connected, because I can understand why people were so insanely happy. Because with the good times, there's always bad times, right? And with bad times, there's always good times and to see them come through and and just be so pumped for you. Dude, that's got to be such a great feeling. Yeah, it's a trip. It's unreal. I mean, we were hoping for after qualifying 14, I was hoping for a top five or maybe look into a top three and to be able to come out of this thing with a win. I mean, I wouldn't be able to do obviously without my team, their hard work. I mean, they've been busting our asses. I mean, we did any of the hammers early in February than we did last weekend before last minute. My little nephews racing in class 1600 He raised last Saturday or last last Saturday. I raced our prerunner in the more race. Then we just go. My nephew did the men on Friday. We did the men on Saturday. So it's like bam. One month for race. Shop is everywhere. You just hustling, right? Well, yeah. And like I said, Congratulations. I think there's somebody else who wants to say congratulations to you, too. We got the cohort of the man 400 Matt Martelli on what's up, dude, how are you? I'm excellent. I'm finally got some sleep so solid did the guy that you're talking to right now Eric harden just pulled off a man 400 victory, which is? So many people want that. Man, you know what this is? I told Eric at the finish line. I mean, this really what I love about doing this is look, we're putting on a fistfight. It's up to everybody else to figure it out their equipment, their team, you know, the desert, all that kind of stuff. And we really don't know who's gonna win. Every year we go into this and I love you know, seeing guys come up, like, like, Eric, I mean, he's a killer. He's one of these guys who everybody knows is there. You know, just like Jergens did last year. It's like everybody knows jurgenson is a badass. It's just a matter of time. And, you know, he drove a really, really disciplined race. You know, I liken it to you know, Rob Mac style, that, you know, Rob hangs, he saves his equipment. And he goes, Yeah, I'm going to Chennai, all you guys. So you guys think you're winning it by 20 minutes and all this cool stuff. But here's what's gonna happen, you're gonna blow up your equipment. And I'm gonna slide right in and take it and that's, that's what Eric did. And I will say, though, the gap between him and the next person was 15 minutes. So this wasn't a win. This was asked. Not props. Yeah, Eric, you did. Thank you. So you did do a really good job. When you cross the finish line. What were you guys thinking? I mean, I was I was exhausted. I caught the the tail of Christians of Christians interview and, you know, he was talking about householder and how gassed he was when he crossed the finish line, and I was probably right there with him. I mean, I was like, dude, just give me one second, I just need to take this and I needed to calm down on like on 10 Right now, mentally and my adrenaline and everything. And I was training pretty hard like going to the gym just thought I was getting in shape for this and steel. I found muscles. I didn't know I had. I could hardly walk. I mean, like you might sore. Like it was just sitting there. I couldn't even do that. It took every ounce. That's crazy. Well, it's cool to see because like James here, he just did the hooligan race. I don't know if you've seen these Eric but they're the Harley Davidsons with the dirt bike stuff on him. And he was saying like you barely walk after. It sounds like the the truck race was like the same thing. Dude. It's like the man 400 is just like Matt said it's just a straight kick ass. Yeah, like, like Matt says, you know, Respect is earned one mile at a time. I mean, you do one mile at a time. I mean, it changes I know you got to ask this a couple times, like in the interview process and stuff. But I'd like to share it with our audience to like, what do you think at the end of the race, because it's not easy to keep your mental capacity, your focus your strength to be able to finish a race like that? Because, like, you're pretty much ready to tap out with 100 miles left, right. So what do you do to make it so that you can never give up? I mean, I was chasing Harley and Kevin down at the last lap, you know, I was like, Alright, if we lose these guys, no, I think we got them on time. But, you know, 30 seconds or a minute, I don't know what it is. But if we lose this thing, because of that, because we're not pushing hard enough, I'm devastated. So I was driving as fast as I could. The third lap and the fourth lap up until, you know, we saw them off to the side, I think we had a drive shaft problem or transmission, something happen. And then once we knew that, I knew I knew. I knew we had people behind us. I didn't know who I didn't care. I was just like, hey, how much time do we have? I thought it was 10 minutes or so. So we're like, alright, well, we can just quit, we need to go. And I couldn't turn it off. Anyways, you know, it's like you either slow down and probably run into a rock being an idiot. So you know, getting out of the seat a little bit. We're just keep focusing, and keeping our keeping our pace, which is Spoken like a true racer, right, James, like, you know what, I don't give a fuck what we're doing. We're going once again, back in here. I think that's the thing that people don't understand about this style of racing. What's so difficult is that it's so mental. The whole time, you're like, am I driving hard enough? Am I not driving hard enough? Because it's not like, you know, formula, ooh, and NASCAR, where you could see the guy in front of me, or like, I have two car lengths or whatever, right? You don't know, like, you're getting split times. And there's some general idea that you really don't know. So it's super mental. You know, it's, it really is Jedi stuff, you know, it's like, you have to control your mind. You know, the, the equipment, your team, you know, feel what the race car is doing. I mean, again, like, I'm biased, obviously. But, I mean, this is the most badass form of motorsport on the planet. And like, you guys saw at this race in particular, it's, it was wild. It was wild in every class, but like, you know, in the in the top field, it was just like, you know, it was bonkers. It was like, trauma from the start of the race. To the end of the race. I'm like, you know, I texted Don Dell, I'm like, Thanks for starting the drama. That was great. You know, he's, he texts me back the middle finger. Fingers. Well, Eric, give us a little bit of a breakdown. Like when you're you're you're the one out on course we saw everybody just like going balls to the wall. Like what do you do in that case? Are you just like, Dude, this is way too fast. I mean, I was going balls to the walls to just not in the boulder that we're all the boulders and areas are and you know, and when we had some clean air for a while, typically when that would happen. You know, we're always so far back though. Usually that you get a pocket of clean air, close the gap. Get on the next guy get a pocket clean air clothes, you know, and I was clean air for ever. And I'm like, Dude, I'm not catching these guys. Where are they? You know, and slowly the same people changing tires. And, you know, we passed Rob Matt Mack and he was Lauren as Jack when we pass them and I'm like, Oh, the goats. Yeah, what's gonna happen at that point, right? Hey, but the cool part about it is like you had said before you're like, Yeah, we made all these changes to the truck. So maybe you didn't even feel like you were going that much faster than what you normally do. But you were because the truck was acting better. Yeah, yeah. And that's what Andrew said. Andrews like, don't worry about he's like, if those guys want to run that hard and try and try and catch up and keep up with us then they can and let's see, let's see if they can do it type of thing. You know, I was like, Alright, whatever. We're just gonna keep driving out the windshield and on on the mirror. And I mean, I don't know what ended up what ended up happening happening to him in particular, but I know it was just tearing trucks that up with all the, with all the tackiness, you know, the, with the rainfall and all that and, I mean, we barely made it to the finish line. I was telling him that I mean, this thing, our truck has an album sequential with it air shifter in it and like 20 miles from the finish line sort of making like the worst noises I thought we lost a rear gear, it's it was horrible, it wouldn't come up and then it wouldn't come up on the third out a second. We can't go very fast in second gear so we would we probably would have lost you know, I think Christian and and householder as hard as they were pushing I think they would have gotten us but I was able to get it up into fours and then we just left it in forth for the last 20 miles and try not to kill the converter you know with the heat and all that and I was like all Thank God we were able to get there because I know the dog rings are probably smoked on that thing. But it just tears every single thing apart. Yeah. And again, like that's what I love about this race and like, look, no, no fancy four wheel drive. million and a half dollar truck has ever won this race. And it's because of the brutality in 400 miles and the pace, right? And we're not opposed to that. Let me let me be straight on this. Like, you know, Neil Mason's my friend. What he's done is remarkable. You know, all the other builders are personal friends of mine. But, you know, when we're putting on a fistfight, it's just like, it's just like the UFC. It's like, you can have your guy but he gets clipped in the chin, and it's like, okay, you know, it is what it is right? And a lot of times, you know, it's funny, Cameron was texting me. And he was like, the rain, the tackiness, the roughness of the course, he's like, those, you know, those trucks, those two wheel drives the geyser trucks, you know, in your truck, in particular, I want to give big shout out, you know, this is a major win for ID designs, right? And talk about a guy who, who deserves it, then I can't give him more props to me. He's building parts for everybody. Right? But this I feel like, you know, we should go have a party at his shop and be like, alright, you know, this is the coming out party. Like, you know, there's, you know, like, he's, he's, he's, we had so many people direct and so just that same thing. They're like, Yes, finally, Eric put i designs on the map like, yes, like, and I don't know, like, I'm not that big of a trophy truck guy. So I don't know as much as what you guys are talking about. But that's got to feel good. It will James, you know, like, you're a builder. You want that recognition? For sure. And especially if you're like the underdog, right. Like, we're always rooting for the underdog. So you see that and you're like, that's it. Eric, way to score one for the boys. Now, thank you guys so much. And yeah, David, Ivan, they do just such a killer job. I mean, everybody knows that everybody's running their parts, some of their parts on their truck. It seems like they support as well and help get us out here. So it's cool to get the old girl you know, she's an older truck a big heavy girl, but I mean, she ran great. Dickens engine ran awesome. big tires held together great transmission goddess back to the finish. I mean, it was crazy. Crazy. I don't I don't even know where to go. I got lost. I'm driving around. We finished because I was like, Oh my gosh, I couldn't pick me up. Dude, that's so awesome, man. And then what about what about when you got to the to the podium or to the back to the pits was everybody just like, Fuck, yeah. Oh, dude, it was wild. It was wild. I mean, pretty much every person I've ever met, was texting me and messaging me. And, you know, I'm new to this social media stuff. And it's going crazy. I'm like, wow, this is wild, you know, in the mortalities do such a great job of promoting that race. I mean, it is the Daytona 500 of our sport, biggest race in the States. It's it's, I mean, it's just an honor to be in that league. You know, with loft and and jurgenson. And McMillan's all these MAC everybody who's won it, it's, it's crazy. But you know, you know, like, let's talk about like, besides your off road history, your racer, right. So it's funny because I was trying to think of it the other day of like, I remember back when Lofton was he was sponsored by General Tire and we're doing a profile and that's the first time we met he's like, Hey, me, my friend Eric. I'm like I don't have time for this. You know what I mean? Because you guys are racing against each other on pavement. Yeah, yeah. We raised a couple of years yeah there for sure he was he was better for sure. I mean, Lofton did such a had an incredible you know, Stock Car career with NASCAR and Arca and everything. He's a good buddy and I'm I'm glad he let somebody else win. I don't know about that. Dude, I think you earn this one. What do they say they earned at one mile at a time. I mean, he he is so funny. I've known him for so long. He does this thing where he's like, Well, you know I'm I'm going to come and I'm mainly going to focus on the all beef stuff but I'm gonna race and I'm like, did you have a four wheel drive Mason? You're savage and you have new shoes. So you don't have the fear of a flat and you saw that you saw that and qualifying any anyone out there and just was like, you know, we're like holy cow. Like if if he if he could have you know if the equipment would have lasted? I mean it would have been you know, a massive gap but you know, that's the thing you know, it's like how many races have has the press release been I was leading when? Right afford out report for dollar part broke. In the part you didn't expect? I mean, BJ had like an oil sump crack. You know, you know, you know, there was people at driveline issues. Like, there's stuff that breaks that we're like, oh, that's totally fine. We got to figure it out. And it breaks, right. That's literally how I go about mechanics is like, through off road racing and breaking stuff and looking at it and going, okay, that's what he that's what he joined answer. That's what a, you know, a trend. Transmission is or whatever, yeah, it's kind of crazy to think like, how many things can go wrong. And then, like, after 400 miles, or just battling I, I still liken this to like, most people don't understand 400 Miles is like, let's just say from San Diego, I don't know, to wherever. It's not Phoenix, but to Tucson. Like that's a long ways in a car, it takes you almost eight hours to do that in a regular car. And you guys are beating the shit out of a truck going through the middle of the desert, at this almost the same rate of speed or higher, and doing it for God just pounding your bodies and it's just unreal to me that like more stuff doesn't break. All breaks, it seems like it seems like everything breaks. And you guys have any issues. Just sort of transmission at the end. And we were able to limit and limp it through. But other than that, I mean, we didn't stop. We didn't get out. It was it was crazy. And I was surprised to see out I saw Adam next our CFO on. I don't know, maybe we'll have three or two. And he was parked right next to him. And he's like, give me cool. Go on. I'm like, I thought he was out. You know, because I know Ryan was out because we saw him a lot before. And I didn't know that they were changing a driveshaft in like eight minutes or however fast. They did. I mean, I mean, he was right behind us. He'd be right there. I think also so it, it's crazy. I mean, hats off to them. They did a great job. And he just came he just came off the hammers when he laid it down. I was looking at the lap times get the fastest lap and the first or the fastest time in the first lab, if I read that, right. I mean, it's pretty impressive. Like they did a great job. And obviously Chris is, you know, he's a pro he's been he's been doing this for a while. And he's he's fascinating things and, and, you know, I've always looked up to this rob his boys, look, you know, they're way younger than me, but they raised a lot that fast. They do a good job. So you know, but we weren't really looking behind us at that point. We're just moving forward trying to get you know, the next guy. Well, I like a lot of the stuff that you're saying Eric is like So James, he's he's talking about how good his competitors are. Right? So he knows that he has to up his game to be able to beat those guys like Matt said, it's like MMA, but in off road, like out in the track, right? Like all of these different things, man just make me so proud to be part of the offer of community to see guys like you Eric to be able to succeed and just do better, man. We're gonna talk to Matt and kind of in the show, Eric, but it should give us a shout out to all your the people that helped you get out there. And, man I can't wait to see on Monday. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I want to thank my brother for all of his, his support my family, the commitment that they've made, and we've all made it to get done. It will without them my wife for standing, standing behind me and being supportive and being at all the races. Well, most of them. Don't go to all of them, but most of them. She's in the background. And all the guys at the shop, Nick Taylor, Robert Caden Justin at the races any I mean, I can't name them all. Any bread. It is much appreciated and spent a long time comb. We're, we're super excited. We're gonna party this weekend and celebrate. And thanks again, Matt for everything. It's an honor. Thank you guys for having me on the show. Yeah, absolutely. Man, you deserved it. One 100%. And I'm glad that you were able to finally get that win. Hey, congratulations, and go have a sweet time this weekend. All right. Thanks. Congrats. All right, Eric. All right, Matt. So we'll give it about five minutes, we're gonna get pretty much the end of the show. There's two things that I want to talk about. I want to talk about your level of Stoke after a successful race. And I also want to talk about the broadcast which you want to do first. Let's talk about stoked, dude, it was pretty cool, man. There was so many cool things that happened in my mind. We got to see James Hill on a hooligan bike. We got to see all those guys racing dirt bikes, man, there was a bunch of kids that were pumped. Austin the air excuse me, Connor Eddie came home second, man. He was really really pushing it. All kinds of fun stuff happened in the UTV class. Cool stuff that happened with what did they call the the limo class again? The hoopty class or something? hoopty slash Yeah. hoopty something that you guys named it? The hoopty Yeah. That was really cool to see. And so like there was fun had by many right And to be able to see and broadcast that stuff the way that you guys did and the new technology that's been coming out. I mean, there's so many wins that happened this year at the man 400. My level of Stoke is high, yours has got to be that much higher. Yeah, it's weird. Like, the whole weekend. I'm, like, stressed and tired. But I'm like, I'm like kind of high. Right? And it's hard to sleep. You know, I was probably sleeping a couple hours a night, and trying to absorb everything. Because, you know, I remember selfish telling me, you know, years ago, he's like, Look, man, like, what we're doing is really special. And you have to be in the moment and you have to, you know, let everybody else be in the moment. And so I try and do that as much as possible, which means that there's not much sleep. Which is, which is totally fine, right? Like, I wish I I wish I couldn't I wish I couldn't sleep at all during the event. Just soak it all in. You know? Yeah, the whole the whole thing is special to me from, you know, you know, from the trash cleanup, you know, in leading by example, and showing people like, this is our environment, this are we offroaders are tree huggers. We just like to tree hug, driving really fast. And, and then, you know, but none of us like to see trash on the desert. So it's like, look, there's nobody in Nevada that has pulled more trash out of the desert than the 400 That's pretty rad. Yeah, I love that did that. So and then, you know, with our partners with, you know, with tread lightly, and you know, the whole program. It's, it's amazing. And then then I have like, this weird law, like, you know, okay, cool. Like we did that Saturday. And then, you know, of course, me being me, you know, what did we do? We started we got helicopters flying around. But we went, we went, me and my cousin. You know, a lot of you don't know. Killian is my cousin. He showed up. I don't even though like seven years ago, or whatever it was to go to a concert with my brother. And just stayed on the couch too long. And I went Look, dude, here, you need to carry shit. We're going to shoot. And I took them to a short course race. And, and then I think the next day, we're shooting some stuff with BJ. And I put them in a trophy truck. And it was like he was like, Well, yeah, I'm staying. Yep. Yeah. I don't know what. I don't know what this is about. But I'm saying so. Yeah, he, you know, he kicks out sorry. Oh, but you're right, because he had a big big plate, a big part in this. He got all this stuff lined up for all the racers and a lot of scheduling. I mean, he was just a massive, massive part of the whole event. And I know that there was some things that were added to it like another day for production to get ready. There was so many cool things that happened that made everything better for the people that came to the event, whether they were fans, whether they were racers, whether they were staff, all of this stuff worked it just insanely good. So like I said, again, your level of Stoke must have been off the charts. And then to end it on a high note with these guys winning the races and being able to understand what you can even do better next year having a great broadcast, dude. It's just got to be so fulfilling. It is but let me go back to now I know where I was that. So? Okay, so cool. We clean up the desert on Saturday. And then, you know, it, that's his birthdays every year. Killian, you know, doesn't really get a proper birthday because it's during the men 400. Right. And so we try and do what we can do for him. So both him and I and my brother a big you know, MMA fan, so we went to the UFC, watch John Jones fight and it was incredible. We went with, we brought CJ fasten who, who raced with us. It was incredible night and that was that was on Saturday night, and then we get up in the morning and we're like, cool, you know, we're really tight with the City of Las Vegas. And they invited us to the NASCAR race we woods. And it was awesome. Because there was you know, it was all of our off road boys. It was, you know, herbs. It was Smith, it was like, you know, it was it was rad because it was like okay, you know, this is the next era of off road guys, you know, going in and climbing up in NASCAR. So that was really cool. And then you know Monday, Monday is like funny, it's like, kind of have almost like a day off except for, you know, I'm on the phone computer all day and use Tuesday it kicks up and then Wednesday we have the parade. And then, you know, the kickoff party dinner champions right into Thursday, you know, checking contingencies off road festival and then, you know, badass racing. I mean, the, the Unlimited, or I'm sorry, the limited racing this year, like the slug fest that we're going down in, like, multiple classes. And especially Yeah, the TVs, like, you know, again, just just like the unlimited class, you know, we had Joe Tirana when this here is like, this guy has been coming up, but he's new, you know? And it just shows you like, sweet you can have the factory ride you can, you can have all the cool stuff and then you know, you know, the all the experience in the world and like, when it starts your day, it's not your day, and it was still Toronto's day, man. I was really stoked. I was really stoked for him. And you know, his co driver obviously has a ton of experience being one of the herbs crew, which was rad. Yeah, totally. And love best part about it is Jason mantises teaching Joe Tron all these things and Joe's just being a sponge. Yeah, well, that's what I mean. It's like mantises gonna go get in, you know, unlimited truck the next day and do more battle like the dudes. He's smart. And he's a savage. You know what I mean? 100%. Man, I just I just love that we came away like it was mad. Smiles. There was so many people that had issues out there. I know Brooke Jensen had a blown motor. Like there was all kinds of people that we don't even know what happened to their cars. But the off road community is just one that I didn't know you can't explain it, man. It's just such a good community be a part of so I'm glad that James was able to finish on his hooligan bike. Real idiot, James like, you're fine, man. It was a good time. He said he was battling with marca like for the first couple laps, or the first couple of quarters or 75 miles to 25. Well, I talked to Mark Mark is like Hey, bro, you need you need to find me a sponsor so I can get in a cage because I worry gnarly, are searching for the right spot. And we want to I want to you know, he took me into the Harley. And I'm like, you know, and then he's like, What do you think? And I'm like, Yeah, dude, roll reverse. Let's get you in a car. Yeah. So you know, that's, that's on the plate right now. And we're trying to figure that out. That'd be perfect. Hey, man, we're gonna let you go. But I want to know, one last question. I want to know what's in the future for you guys at Mad media? And then what's the actually two questions? What's the next thing for the man 400 Oh, man, we're gonna we're gonna add more races. You guys got a little taste of it in the short course with the, with the class elevens. So we're gonna do more, you know, I mean, it's such a good vibe. And you know, I think it comes from the top from my brother. And I like we love this. And, you know, we respect the racers. We respect the spectators. Like, if we weren't doing this, we would be in that position. Right? And there's just, you know, like, I'll be the first one to say, like, I drive everybody crazy, right? Because I, I'm just like a battery that doesn't shut off. And, but I also I also know, the history. You know, it's like, I saw what Mickey Thompson did. And I know what's possible, you know, and now, you know, with you know, we talked about technology that the in car technology that you had a big part in, George, we're gonna do more man, like, here's the deal. We know, we have the best, most badass motorsport in the planet. And our job is to take it to the masses, and show everybody how bad it is. And this year was a big victory, because, you know, we came out of COVID. And then we nailed it, you know, and we came out swinging. And what we did is we showed everybody that, you know, offroad racing is not just here. We're here to lead. We're here to show people what being an American means, right? This This isn't the government or, you know, an economic crisis or COVID. That's gonna define our success. And our lives. We are going to do it as our tribe. So yeah, I can't wait man. I appreciate everything that you do for the off road community and, man, there was just smiles, you know, everywhere at the men 400 So, all right, dude. Well, I appreciate everything. Please tell Killian, you Brother and everybody that was part of the staff, massive thank you to everybody. We can't wait till next year. Hey, one more. One more quick thing because I saw that he's on here. You know, we do this celebrity card thing every year and, and I love it right. And you know a lot of these guys ended up becoming personal friends and one guy I was super impressed with was this guy to Montana. He rocked the show, you know on Thursday night and race on Friday, and they won their class. So big props to Tim Montana. I think we got ourselves in. That's awesome. That's cool, man. And I got I just got a message from Chris Meyer over at Max's tires two that says Axel Hodges actually participated in the class 10 car this year, and says maybe we get to wheel guy want to do some more four wheel stuff. So that could be interesting to Matt. Yeah, he was one of Tim's roommate or roommates, his teammates. So it was it was to Montana started he handed the car to Axel Hodges. And then Jesse Hughes from Eagle to death metal finished the race and they won their class on the 01 class. So pretty damn cool. We got some we got some new lifers they're gonna help spread the gospel of Hell yeah. All right. Well, thank you very much, man. We really appreciate it. Thank you for the event. Thank you to everybody. That was part of it. Man. We can't wait till next year. We'll see later. But I thank you guys. So James, Dan, this thing, dude, like, there was a lot that we talked about today. We talked about how gnarly off road is. We talked about how good and bad the off road community can be. And we talked about the future of off road, what do you take away from the whole thing? So all in all, you know, I think that what we're doing is amazing. Yeah, all the different classes. Everything that happened. Walking down or doing you know, Fremont Street, everybody there. It's awesome, man. Two thumbs up. You know, I agree. 100% Please keep pushing it. So I can't wait two more. I kind of want you to wear a Starlink on your backpack, though, so that you can have the odd car or the on bike? saddlebags Yeah. Can we do that? Sure. We can just put Starlink like wings on the side of your car and put it on my body. Do wings on the side of your car. Right? You just got to spread it sit in the middle of the track all the time. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you very much for hanging out and doing all this stuff. Thanks, Coco. And back for let James stay. We really appreciate it. Thank you guys all for joining us. We really appreciate it. The man 400 was an awesome time now. We're gonna go to San Felipe next. This weekend, though. We will be at nitro rallycross. Hopefully James can join us on Saturday. So please come say hi to us at natural rallycross if you're there, and then we have Eric Hardin, Trophy Truck winner like I just said, gonna be on the show on Monday. We're gonna have an in depth interview with him. So that's gonna be really cool. We appreciate all you guys for tuning in with us. Thank you very much. If anybody has one of those minivans I could race on Sunday. Jim York, San Jim York, please pick up another van. Yeah, that would be pretty sick. Thanks to the guys over at KMC wheels, Max's tires, Mo tool, shock therapy, evolution, power sports, JL Audio, Zoolander racing products vision canopies and Crowle he really appreciate everybody but like I said, like I say every show we really appreciate you guys. You guys are our lifeblood. So we will see you guys next week.

People on this episode

George Hammel

Host