The Dirt Life
The Dirt Life
Bella's Corner - Episode 2 - Hailey Hein, Gray Leadbetter, Aaron Cuevas, & Becker Chase
What if the hidden secret to achieving success in the off-road racing industry was all about balancing personal life, studies, and a burning passion for racing? We've assembled a group of extraordinary guests to explore this notion, bringing their unique stories, triumphs and insights from their personal lives in the off-road industry. First up is the phenomenal Gray Leadbetter, an 18-year-old young woman whose name is already etched in the Off-Road Motorsport Hall of Fame for the Short Course Impact Award.
Continuing the journey, we delve into the intriguing world of family legacy with Travis and Becker. The duo sheds light on the delicate art of transferring the love for racing from one generation to the next, a testament to the significant role our families play in shaping our career paths. Our conversation takes us further into the life of the remarkable Hailey Hine. At just 19, she's not only juggling a racing career but also pursuing her mechanical engineering studies at NAU. Hailey's story is a perfect example of how determination and organization can fuel success.
Our last stop brings us to the inspiring world of Aaron Kuevos. This passionate 16-year-old Texan racer shares his journey from racing quads and dirt series to cars, painting a vivid picture of his deep connection with his race car. Aaron's experience of learning to work on his racing car highlights how gaining hands-on technical skills can offer a competitive edge in the industry. All these stories create a captivating blend of personal experiences, industry insights, and the tenacious spirit needed to excel in the high-octane world of off-road racing. So buckle up and tune in to this thrilling Dirt Life Show episode, where we uncover the grit, passion, and commitment that drive our guests to the top of their game.
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Welcome to the Dirt Life Show with your host, George Hamill.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Dirt Life Show. I am Bella Breschard. This is my co-host, george Hamill, hi, and we are recording episode two of Bella's Corner.
Speaker 3:Dude, tonight's going to be an awesome show for you guys. Bella has lined up a bunch of cool guests. Who do we got Bella.
Speaker 2:We have Hailey Hine, gray Ledbetter, aaron Kuevas and Becker Chase.
Speaker 3:What's a pretty stacked lineup dude. How hard was it getting all those people on the show?
Speaker 2:Pretty easy. They're super cool. Outgoing people. They're ready to talk.
Speaker 3:Well, give yourself a little bit of credit though, too.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because you reached out to them and they accepted man, so it must be that you're pretty cool too, All right. Maybe, I think today's episode is going to be pretty cool. We already got some comments coming in, so, man, episode two. Did you know that there's a kind of like a secret in podcasting?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 3:If you make it past your seventh episode, then you're destined for success.
Speaker 2:Well, we got five more to go, so yeah, there you go.
Speaker 3:All right, so give us a little bit of a rundown on what we're going to talk about tonight. Do you have kind of like a theme that we're going to talk about? Because I know that some of these people are young, some have a little bit more success, but you have something in common with most of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so two of them are girls, two of them are guys. So we're going to kind of talk about, like, the women in the industry, but we're also kind of going to like venture out of racing a little bit into like what they do in their regular lives that have something to do with racing.
Speaker 3:So it'll be a little more personal. But I know you and I both love racing, but I'm a huge fan of life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, so I agree.
Speaker 3:All right, do you mind if we talk or thank a couple of our sponsors real quick? Then yeah, actually, you know what? Before we do that, tell everybody that they can share the show on Instagram, facebook and listen to it on iTunes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you can share this live on Instagram right now, so that all of your friends and family can watch us.
Speaker 3:Yep, yeah, and then anytime you guys want to go back in the archives, you can always go and check it out, like, if you're driving across country to the next race, like Bella's going to do this weekend, you can hit it up on iTunes, spotify, all those networks. You can even hit it up on YouTube. We don't give very many people on YouTube, but you can hit it up on Facebook as well. All right, so let's thank a few of our sponsors. We share a couple sponsors like KMC, so you want to thank them.
Speaker 2:I want to thank KMC for your guys' wheels. You guys are very reliable. Motul and Evil Powersports. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Yeah, all those good companies Evolution Powersports actually been helping us quite a bit with our new satellite streaming project. We're going to have a live feed or live stream with those guys this weekend at the Best in the Desert, what's it called the Laughlin Desert Classic.
Speaker 2:Laughlin Desert. You're going to be there too, right, Bella? Yes, I am.
Speaker 3:Thanks to the guys over at Maxis Tires, Really appreciate all their support. I think you already said Motul. Thanks to the guys over at Shock Therapy, you can use the code DirtLife to get yourself some limit straps during RackBSD kits. You can even use that code to help get your shocks revamped and get them all pimped out for desert season. Thank you to the guys over at JL Audio. We really appreciate all their support. They killed it on our ProR build that we just got done doing for the DirtLife. So if you guys want, go check out our social media and check out that build. It was really, really fun working with all those guys. Thanks to the guys over at Zoological Racing Products, you can use the code DirtLife get yourself some tie rods. Radius rods match up with your Shock Therapy Steering Rack. And thank you very much to the guys over at Vision. Canopies Actually just talked with Kyle today. Him and Doug Matag and Keegan Kincaid are teaming up. All three of them are teaming up for the Baja 1000.
Speaker 2:That's so rad.
Speaker 3:Dude, it's going to be pretty cool, right? All right. So who's going to be our first guest tonight? Bella?
Speaker 2:Our first guest is going to be Gray Leadbetter.
Speaker 3:All right, let's see if Gray, if you want to join, we can also invite you as well. Let's see if she's on here already. We're going to get Gray on in just a second. You want to do a little intro for Gray? Yeah?
Speaker 2:Gray is 18 years old, from North Carolina. She's made many different vehicles, even motorcycles. She was nominated for the Off-Road Motorsport Hall of Fame for the. Short Course Impact Award yes, so let's get her talking.
Speaker 3:That's actually pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, really cool.
Speaker 3:That's a feat in itself to be nominated for the Off-Road Motorsport Hall of Fame. And she's so young too, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 18.
Speaker 3:That's wild. No, it's pretty crazy. There she is, Hi.
Speaker 2:Gray.
Speaker 3:Hi Hi Gray, how are you?
Speaker 5:Good, you guys.
Speaker 3:We're doing pretty good, man, so where are you at right now?
Speaker 5:I am home, believe it or not.
Speaker 3:Where do you call home?
Speaker 5:Morgan to North Carolina.
Speaker 3:Whoa. That sounds like NASCAR country to me, though, oh yeah.
Speaker 5:I'm an hour and a half outside of Charlotte, so I try not to consider myself NASCAR country, but it definitely is.
Speaker 3:Oh, you're one of those. You're just Off-Road Girl, huge Off-Road Girl.
Speaker 5:Preferably.
Speaker 2:Well, should we get started with some questions.
Speaker 5:Go right ahead.
Speaker 2:So you finished third in the truck championship. Getting there is a challenge, and how did you make that happen?
Speaker 5:Yeah, this year, what definitely has ups and downs every time that I was able to finish a race without something happening or going wrong or making a mistake on my half, we finished on the podium, so that went very good Overall. It was obviously a lot tougher of a season than it was last year, but it was still just incredible. I mean, the class at one itself is amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, congratulations, by the way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, massive congratulations are in order. But I noticed one thing that she just said. Like she said, there was a big difference between this year and last year. Maybe we should dig into that a little bit more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tell us about that.
Speaker 5:So last year there wasn't many trucks just because it was only truly the first year that the class had been started and raced.
Speaker 3:What class was that?
Speaker 5:It's called Prospect, so V6 sports speed age pattern, but the class had just gotten started last year, so there wasn't many of us, but with there not being many of us you could finish last and still get a lot of points, so it actually made the points very close. I think we went to the last round last year with a two point difference If that it might have been one or it might have been tied, I don't remember. And then this year it was all about consistency and everything was going really good and went good throughout the year. We just had some bad luck on our half towards the end of the year.
Speaker 2:And then talking about this year too, you raced side by side in Nitro Cross right.
Speaker 5:Yes, the Nitro Cross stuff is really fun.
Speaker 2:Out there in mid America.
Speaker 5:Yeah, the truck there is racing in. The truck was insane.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I bet.
Speaker 3:That did look actually really cool. Did you try to? Well, you did that on UTV and a Prospect.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so I raced the Nitro Cross race back in June there in the side by side, and then I raced the truck race. I think it was like three weeks ago.
Speaker 3:They did a different, like a hybrid track, though right, it wasn't the exact same track.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so we go back. So for the like normal short course races that they run there, and for the champ races that we did, we run back into the wood section, the track that they'll race. And then for the Nitro Cross stuff, we only ran half of it, so we only ran the front half of it.
Speaker 3:What should you like better? Because I feel like that would be totally different, because you're going to be like way more packed on the track right, like all the drivers are packed in together.
Speaker 5:Not necessarily. It wasn't as bad as you think. There weren't many cars for Nitro. There's aren't. So because it's a one, you show up in a race and you drive for Scottie Lawrence. So there weren't many cars, so it wasn't too bad. I preferred going into the back, just because it adds something different.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it probably gives you more opportunity to pass in a battle, I guess because it was. Is it tight back there or no?
Speaker 5:Oh, it's not too bad. Actually, most of the passes would happen in the back half, just because it's not so much of a one lane section of the track.
Speaker 3:Yeah, more technical, not as wide open.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Did you get to ride that part too, Bella.
Speaker 2:No, I did not.
Speaker 3:Oh, you didn't.
Speaker 2:I don't think so.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you did. You went into the back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, yes, you caught on the big tail and you go to the right. Yeah, yes, I did.
Speaker 3:How was that part, was it?
Speaker 2:fun. It was tight, it like towards the back, like near the trees and stuff.
Speaker 3:But it was pretty fast paced, yeah. What Gray said like good for passing.
Speaker 2:Yes, I would say, you just have to run a smooth line, like if you're not paying attention, then this stuff can go wrong pretty quick.
Speaker 3:Oh, like you could hit stuff or somebody could shove it in on you.
Speaker 2:It's just like it's a fast paced track, Like you constantly have to be on top of it.
Speaker 6:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:Dude, I'm a huge fan of that, though. Like I feel like I would like that because that like gives you way more, like way less time to think but way more time to have action.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree Speaking of racing and stuff like that, but being a girl in the industry that is male dominated, you have made a pretty big platform for yourself. Obviously, who is your first role model when you first started racing?
Speaker 5:Not sure. I think, if we go back to like when I very, very started at the beginning, being a female was always actually phylic for my projects.
Speaker 5:That's how I started, yeah. And then I don't know necessarily on the female aspect, sarah Price is one of the people that I've looked up to just because she's done so many things in the off road world. I'm pretty sure she's going to race Dakar this year, yeah, but away from her it would be Travis with Trana, who I'm thankful that I get to be a part of and meet and work with now in a way. But I still look up to him just because everything that he's ever done has been incredible and he's been somewhat successful at it, right, but he's just obviously been successful in everything that he's done, yeah that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:Do you guys know, like, how hard he works to get that success? Do you guys realize that?
Speaker 2:Pretty hard.
Speaker 3:But those are good lessons to learn, though, right, gray, because that means that you probably work just your butt off just as much as he does, because to achieve your goals too right.
Speaker 5:Yeah, for sure, it definitely is an inspiration.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not really something that we do alone, though. Following up to another question, who's your main support system? Obviously, we have, like sponsors and stuff that are a huge help, but outside of that, like your family or your friends, you know, what do they kind of do to get you out there?
Speaker 5:Yeah for sure. My family, my dad, supported me from day one. There was a point in time when I was growing up that he tried to get me to stop. Not in the way of he doesn't support me, but he was like we can go Disney World, we can go anywhere you want in the world, we can go on conferences, we can do this. I was like no, I want to race.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 5:I would rather give up everything else than race. Once you start, you can't get away from it Exactly, and he's by far been my biggest supporter. I mean, there's obviously other people here and there. My friends have been a huge support. They've supported me since day one of our friendship. Whatever timeline that is, yeah, and they try to come to as many things as they can, yeah.
Speaker 3:That's really cool. Yeah, that's especially like. That's important too, because a lot of people don't realize how much actual outside support it takes to get racing done, right, to get a race done or accomplished. And that's cool that you have a support mechanism like that. Did you always have that or did you like kind of work your way up into it?
Speaker 5:My family has definitely always been there for me. Friendships have gone and come over the past, however many years now. I became homeschooled in fifth grade, so then after that time I kind of all my friends came from race tracks and grew from that. So there was just that, and then there's been many people along the way, plus the teams I've worked with, the families of teams that I've worked with that still support me from to this day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's good that you have that loyalty in your program too. One of the things that I thought would be a kind of a cool question to ask you, gray, is because we have a lot of kids that will comment in or message in the dirt life show how to like get racing going and stuff. And you just mentioned like people have come and gone in your program, right, like that can affect younger kids a lot, right, because they think that they're doing something wrong or one of the guys is super nice at one point and then super bad at another point. How did you manage all that stuff and the emotions that come along with racing?
Speaker 5:Yeah, for sure. I mean I've kind of just you just have to stick to it and know that in the end, it's just you like. You're going to have your team behind you, you're going to have your family behind you, you're going to have whoever that you're working with at the time. But in the end, racing is one of the only sports where it is just you like, you're not with a physical team, like you would be with football, soccer, whatever. So you have to make the decisions by yourself and obviously you have support systems around you that you slowly can build. That'll help. But overall, I mean it's your decision because you're the one that matters. Your team matters in the end because they are the people who get you the wins. They're the people who get you there and are backing you all the way. But going from team to team or place to place, I mean it's all your decision.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I totally agree. Banks. One six nine said how do I beat Gray Ledbetter in a race?
Speaker 5:Race me November 9th. That's all I say. The next night we'll see, yeah, you'll see if they can beat you.
Speaker 3:though right Gray is going to fight you till the checkered flag, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Banks can't.
Speaker 3:Who's banks? One six, nine, do you know them?
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Just a little bit, just a little bit. He's cool, I guess.
Speaker 5:Just maybe.
Speaker 2:You race pretty much all over the country, huh.
Speaker 5:Yeah, for the most part.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of tracks to choose from. If you had to pick a favorite track, ERX.
Speaker 5:Okay, up in Minnesota, I think that's by far my favorite. I've raced some pretty cool places, but it's just the elevation change they have there and the fact that the dirt there is always perfect. It can downpour the day before and the dirt is perfect the next day. I don't know how they do it, yeah, but there's just something special about that place, yeah.
Speaker 3:Motorcross. We call that chocolate cake Chocolate cake. That racetrack looks so sick. I've always wanted to go there, always. You know what? The video that I loved the most, that I wanted to go there. I don't know if it was Johnny or CJ, but I think it might have been Rodney. He uses pro turbo YXE, I don't know and he backed it in in one of the corners there like a pro four and was all the way backwards going into the corner and then shot out like a freaking rocket and the dirt looks so good.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's always perfect there. I don't know what, necessarily, what kind of dirt it is or what mixture of whatever they have in it, but it is perfect everywhere and every class too.
Speaker 3:It's like the secret, secret dirt.
Speaker 5:Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 3:Oh, let me see Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah and then. Oh, I did want to know a highlight of your racing career, because you have so much highlights.
Speaker 5:I don't know. I think coming out with the win last year in the truck and then ending up winning the championship, going into last weekend pretty much tied, that definitely says heavy on it. Because I was the, I literally had no idea, like I know that many female there hadn't been many females in the pro classes. But when I came off the track and I walked up to the podium and they're like they announced it was like the first female to win a pro champ race or whatever it was I was like wait, what, wait, what? Like? I don't think, like yes, I'm a female, but I've also grown up doing this my whole life and growing up for dirt bikes especially.
Speaker 5:You just get used to it. You don't really, you don't single yourself out. So it's just like I was like oh, really, yeah, and then the same thing with winning the championship. That just didn't feel real.
Speaker 2:But I think it is.
Speaker 5:And then I think, even away from the off road four wheel sports, it was racing the K team junior supercross challenge in like 2013 and being on a 50 DC dirt bike and going on the supercross track. That has still not felt real, and it's been 10 years, that's crazy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's super cool. And plus they treat you like rock stars at that race too, like for the little kids. So one thing that I noticed that she was saying Bella was like she doesn't necessarily think that she's an advantage or disadvantage, she's just a racer, just like everybody else.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, I was. We're going to talk a little bit about that with Hayley Hine too, because she's coming on soon. But yeah, I do want to like bring up, kind of like. Not necessarily bring up the girls in, like the racing industry, but just like you know, make them a little more.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, you know, what I think has the most effect on it is like everybody will always say that a girl's at a disadvantage. I don't think that at all.
Speaker 3:No I don't either, but I think that the girl's mindset puts them above that right, because they can think past all of that stuff. So it gives them a stronger sense of ego when the helmet is on and it gives them a stronger sense of personality so that they can compete with these guys, cause they basically have to have an extra superpower superpower to be able to compete, like it's so cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I try to. I think the motor sports is one of the few sports that you, that a female and male are at the same level.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Because it's not like it is physically demanding, but it's not like it would be if it was football or basketball or soccer or something like that. I think those are reasonable for having, you know, women's or you know what I'm trying to say. But I think racing is the one thing, like even dirt bikes they're the separation because it's so physically demanding. But motor sports and cars within itself, like I think males and females can be on the same level all day long, right.
Speaker 3:So she mentioned Ashley Filik, or Filik, how you ever you pronounce it?
Speaker 5:Filik.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Filik. So I got to actually ride with her once at Palo Raceway. This was like way back like 2008-ish or 2010 or something, I don't remember.
Speaker 2:I was two.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was a long time ago, but I got to ride with her at that time. And for anybody that doesn't know, is she deaf and mute or just deaf, like I don't know?
Speaker 5:what it is, but either way she's deaf.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so when I was riding with her like I use my ears a lot to ride right, because I would control the dirt bike and stuff from that but she was so flipping fast Like I could not believe how she could go so fast. And then I researched her afterwards and she said that she uses like all these other senses, like being able to hold on and being able to know the vibrations, to feel all the gear she's in and stuff Like that is the mindset that I'm talking about, and not that everybody, like you guys, have the same mindset. But you guys use extra senses to be that much better than what other people are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, girls are better, just saying.
Speaker 6:There you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:There you go, like the Pro Eagle guys. Look at what they were just saying.
Speaker 2:If you're a racer and competitive, then it doesn't matter what sex or race you are.
Speaker 3:I agree 100%.
Speaker 2:So, Gray, what does your race schedule look like next season?
Speaker 5:Not sure yet. I wish I could give you the answer to that. I know that coming up this season we still have Nitro Cross. We're very well horse pass November 9th and then Glen Hell on December 9th, I believe it is that's your birthday weekend.
Speaker 2:Right, it is my birthday is. December 8th. Well, I'll be there.
Speaker 5:I don't have excited, but yeah, I think that's what we have set for this year and then working on plans for next year. Yeah, not sure yet, pretty much out in the open, but up for anything.
Speaker 3:Which race are you looking forward to more Glen Hell or Wild Horse?
Speaker 5:I've spent time at where Wild Horse Pass is. I've never seen the track per se. I think I'm excited for Glen Hell, and though just because of what the atmosphere I think of it will be.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the Cali vibe is super cool, but Glen Hell and it tears up cars.
Speaker 5:Yeah, well, good thing it's on Scotty Warts.
Speaker 4:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Shiflice34 said easier question Fave discipline four wheels, two wheels, tricks or racing?
Speaker 5:Four wheels, is that anything? Four wheels?
Speaker 3:What's the reason?
Speaker 5:Dirt. Honestly, I love dirt just because I grew up on dirt bikes but definitely anything. Four wheels what's the?
Speaker 3:reason that four wheels you like better than two wheels, because I've always been a big two wheel guy.
Speaker 5:I love two wheels. I still get on a pit bike, but that's about the most that I'll do. I just try not to hurt myself. Yeah, I know that if I ever get back on a big bike I will probably end up hurting myself, so I try to stick to either just messing around on a pit bike and having fun or four wheels.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3:You know how pit bikes are Bella.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's not my route, yeah.
Speaker 3:You got anything else for her?
Speaker 2:No, I think that was it. I think that wrapped it up for me.
Speaker 3:Well, I got one more question for her. So, gray, what kind of advice would you give? Well, let's just focus on young women. What kind of advice would you give young women to get to a similar point in their racing career, like what you have, because I'm going to just preface it by saying it was a lot of hard work and you're still young there was a lot of trials and tribulations that you've gone through, and every young kid wants to be closer to where you are. So what advice would you give them?
Speaker 5:I think for the most part it would just be like like I said earlier, just like sticking your head into it and knowing that in the end it's just you. And it's not like in a negative way, because you obviously will always have people who support you. But you just have to like. You can't take what other people will say about you being a girl or about you being young, because some of the old guys just don't want the new uping plumbers. I don't know why, because that's the people who build your sport and that's the people who get it out on social media or get it out on whatever it might be. But you just have to really just stick to your head mentally and just know that you are your own person and to get yourself out there and as much as I hate it you have to be on top of social media.
Speaker 2:Yeah literally it like puts your name out there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, totally, you have to do it.
Speaker 5:And it's even if you don't want to, it's the one thing that will. It's the one thing that's the world has gotten to, and you have to do it no matter what, and it's in a way, it sucks because it's like you have to show talent to, but at the same time, social media has become more important.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Well, but one thing that she said there is you block out all the noise, right, like so you have noise from haters, you have noise from people on social media and all that stuff, and I think that's fantastic advice. Especially well, you kind of just proved our point. Like Bella is younger than me of course, I'm the old guy, but like she wants to help other young racers and she wants to educate people and do interviews, like that's the exact thing you're talking about, gray, just on two different steps of the platform.
Speaker 6:Yeah, for sure yeah that's pretty cool, man.
Speaker 3:You guys are forging your way through this off-road industry, I know, so keep it up.
Speaker 2:We're the next. We're the next legends. I love it All right.
Speaker 3:You got anything else you want to talk about Gray, or should we just have Bella? Should we have her? Thank all her partners and sponsors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, who do you want to?
Speaker 5:thank. Um, yeah, I don't think I have anything else to say. Of course, thanks to my family I wouldn't be anywhere without them Ryan Beat, who helped me be so successful in the trucks this past season it's been incredible. Everybody else who's helped me along the way. I could say you would thank people for hours if you wanted to, to be honest, because I can't remember half the stuff or half the people that have come along the way and however many years it's been, but I couldn't be more thankful. And, of course, thank you to Bella for having me on here.
Speaker 3:Doing a great job, Bella. Thank you, Gray.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. All right, so who's next? Next is Becker Chase.
Speaker 3:All right, so we're going to get Becker Chase on. Let's see here that he already requests Nope. All right, do you have a little intro for Becker, because Becker is pretty young.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Becker is pretty young. Becker is Becker the Wrecker 195. He's 12 years old and he competes in a pro and a desert car, which I think is crazy.
Speaker 3:That is pretty crazy. How can you reach the pedals?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I was very short when I was 12. So I have no idea.
Speaker 3:That's cool that he does, because I remember calling a couple races that Becker raced and he was just pinned everywhere, yeah.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, I think he's won a couple of championships in Texas Outlaw Series, so he's got a couple of championships under his belt.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's right. That's where I think I did end up calling the race, and I don't know if I've even met him.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:He's a pretty little guy, isn't?
Speaker 2:he, yeah, he's got the coolest personality ever. But yeah, racing desert races at the age of 12, like that's crazy.
Speaker 3:All right, becker. So we invited you on buddy. Hopefully you got the invite. Make sure your Instagram app is totally updated so that you can get on and talk with us a little bit. If you don't get on in a couple of minutes here, we're going to go to our next guest, who I think is Hailey, hein or Erin, is it?
Speaker 2:It's Hailey.
Speaker 3:OK, so yeah, so we're going to have to do that if you don't get on pretty quick here, buddy. So jump on as quickly as you can and hopefully we can talk to Becker. When was the first time you actually met Becker?
Speaker 2:The first time I actually met him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, was it in Texas.
Speaker 2:No, I've known Becker, probably since I've started racing.
Speaker 3:Oh really.
Speaker 2:He was little yeah.
Speaker 3:That's kind of cool actually.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've kind of. Yeah, our families are pretty close. He's a pretty cool kid. His whole family races too. Oh, really, yes, yeah, I just think it's crazy that the kids are so young and they're racing big desert races.
Speaker 3:We saw yeah, at the California 300, we saw some really little kids in RS1.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's crazy to me.
Speaker 3:There we go. View the requests. Let's see if we can get them on here now.
Speaker 6:Hi Becker, hi, how are you Good, how are you? I'm good, this is George.
Speaker 3:Hi Becker, Hi George, I've seen you a few times, buddy.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we wanted to talk about what'd you say Hold on.
Speaker 6:Oh.
Speaker 2:Sorry guys.
Speaker 3:Hi, no problem.
Speaker 6:No, that's foot.
Speaker 4:They can see.
Speaker 2:What's up.
Speaker 6:What's up?
Speaker 2:I kind of wanted to talk a little about you desert racing at Bing. I mean, 12 is pretty old kind of, but I think it's crazy that there's so much fully grown men out there probably up to 60 years old.
Speaker 3:So let's reformat that question a little bit, because I think that's a good way to put it. So, desert racing has ages all the way from little kids in 170s, who are maybe five years old all the way up to guys that are like Larry Rossler, who are upwards of I think, 60 or 70 years old now. Right, it's pretty crazy. And if you look at it as a ratio of numbers, Becker is all the way on the bottom of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's crazy. I can follow up with a question. You are a pretty young desert racer. What skills has desert racing taught you so far?
Speaker 6:It's been teaching me how to more how to save the car than just beating on it like splits in short course, and then, like my skills, has been changing a lot more because it's a lot different from short course.
Speaker 2:Right, so you have short course experience too, obviously, but what's the big difference between them two? Like racing in a tight short course track compared to being in the middle of the desert with not as much boundaries.
Speaker 6:Yeah, you have to like. The skills are a lot more different than like. The car is a lot bigger, it goes a lot faster. You have to get your stamina up, so you have to train a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so for that long mileage, Is there stuff that you do outside of racing that helps with training?
Speaker 6:Yeah, I love mountain biking and they're biking like sometimes and football. I do football a little bit and then that's really it.
Speaker 3:That's a lot. Where do you live, Becker?
Speaker 6:I live in Blocker Center, California.
Speaker 3:Oh, right on. And then I kind of want to know what kind of mountain bike he has, Bella.
Speaker 6:I just picked up a new commensal.
Speaker 3:What the heck is that?
Speaker 6:So it's a type of bike like a mountain bike? Yeah, so what it is? It has the force you all the way up to like the handlebars and then just a bigger suspension in the back, oh dang.
Speaker 3:So it's more like a dirt bike. Does it have any like an E-assist or anything, or no?
Speaker 6:No, no, it's just for going downhill and like park basically.
Speaker 3:Homeboy likes to mash downhill. I can guarantee you that yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have a family of racers, I do know that. So how cool is it that you share like a passion with your siblings too, because I know that they race some a little, don't they? Oh?
Speaker 6:no, not really. It's just my dad and my grandpa and me, right?
Speaker 2:So does your dad co-drive with you in the desert races.
Speaker 6:No, he doesn't.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you got to kick dad out. Man, I know he's right behind the phone. We can talk as much trash because we can't see him. Yeah, how come you don't want your dad as a co-driver?
Speaker 6:Because he's racing. He'll be racing like the same. He'll be racing the same race as me, but just in his truck, oh, ok.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's cool. So you guys are on the track at the same time. Yeah, hey, you know there is strategy behind that too, right, because you know, like if he comes into the pits or you come into the pits afterwards, you guys can bring each other parts.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Just in case, buddy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what is the most challenging experience you've ever had to face in racing?
Speaker 6:It's a hard one, but probably trees. I've been racing in a row. I hit a little bit of a tree.
Speaker 2:Hey, we're twins, it's OK.
Speaker 3:You guys just like taking trees out or what.
Speaker 2:They're just in our way.
Speaker 3:Oh god really.
Speaker 2:They just jump out of nowhere. Huh, I know right.
Speaker 3:Did you like totally wipe out a tree, or like what was the deal?
Speaker 6:So the first race. There's three trees and I went straight into the middle of them and I give my turn my wheel a slight bit. I got hung up, so it took me a couple times to do it. So then I got back out and the guy that was right behind me got into first place. So then I had to go in and take my time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:He learned it so quickly yeah.
Speaker 2:No, there's a lot of stuff that with desert racing, if something happens, you just get right back up and figure it out from there.
Speaker 3:So yeah, For some of the people that don't know the difference between desert racing and short course racing, if they're listening to the show, short course racing is usually on some sort of closed circuit environment. If you know motor cross, you would know super cross and motor cross like that. It's very similar to that, but desert racing is a lot more drawn out. It's more of an endurance sport or endurance motor sport, because you have to be hydrated, you have to take on food and all of this different stuff. So it's a completely different form of racing. It's pretty cool that you guys, as kids, are already starting that stuff Like. It's got to be pretty cool, don't you think, becker?
Speaker 6:Yeah, it's actually really cool to get into the desert instead of short course.
Speaker 3:What's the coolest part about it?
Speaker 6:Probably the coolest part of it is just getting to see the terrain and stuff like that, like it's a lot more mileage than short course, because it's like five laps sprint in short course and then you have like 400 miles you have to split up.
Speaker 3:Completely different form of racing. I think it's pretty cool and if you're a young kid like what you're talking about, becker, and even you, bella it really trains your mind to be focused for a long duration of time. That's completely different than short course, because in short course you just go out there, knock it out and you're done.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:So what did car one fabrication have to say about?
Speaker 2:car fabrication said let's see becker's victory dance.
Speaker 3:Have your dad hold the phone real quick, and then we can have this be our.
Speaker 6:You know it. What was it all right?
Speaker 3:Let's see the moves that come on. Let's see it.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:That was pretty good dude. I Like it. So when you get on the victory or in the podium, you always have something special to do, or what?
Speaker 6:Oh, it's work, Of course. Yeah, that's my little thing, but now I'm dead, I just stay in the car.
Speaker 4:You got to keep it going, buddy.
Speaker 3:Go ahead and read the comments Bell.
Speaker 2:Chuck said Bella likes razor barbed wire to oh did you smash into a bar wire, oh yeah, you do. You experience a lot when you're desert racing. Yeah, some stuff just is worth staying in the car. You don't need to know about there, yeah, yeah, well, george, do you have any questions?
Speaker 3:No one thing that I like of that you were asking. Like when you ask Gray, I Think, personally, when I was a little kid and I was racing dirt bikes, like I had to come up through the ranks pretty quickly, right, and I had a big support mechanism around me and I really like that. So if becker's cool with it and if this is this is your interview, bella but I'd like to ask dad a question too and see how the family vibe is with both of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd be sick.
Speaker 3:Would your dad be okay with that becker?
Speaker 6:Yeah, he should be fine all right.
Speaker 3:So, Dad, how's it going guys? Yeah, very well. How are you?
Speaker 4:Doing alright, doing alright.
Speaker 3:All right, give yourself a quick introduction and then we'll go into a question about the family.
Speaker 4:Travis Chase. Chase Motorsports have been racing since 2005. Rookie the year in a class one Best in the desert race. A bunch down in Baja raised. A bunch up in here in the States was Legacy's spec truck champion got a. Got quite a bit of history in the desert. My dad's been racing since 83, so he's obviously the one that got me into this and got me hooked on this, which is way better than any drug out there.
Speaker 3:Believe that man Well so a lot of a lot of ecolades, right? Or a lot of accolades, right, bella? So one of the things that I like to always ask the family's dad is obviously it was passed down from your father to you and you guys are kind of keeping it passing down through those generations. Does it take a lot of patience and support when you do those? I don't know what you want to call it. You want to call it like the passing of the guard or the handshake off to the next generation.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so it's. It's pretty funny because like when my dad kind of handed it down to me, he didn't let go. We, we tag team for quite a while actually we shared driving duty in 1600 and then eventually up to class one when we kind of got into the truck stuff the spec truck and trophy truck he didn't really, he didn't really want to want to get into that, he was always buggy guy. So it's kind of nice. He still are crew chief. He kind of runs everything. He runs all the spits for Becker and I, which is kind of nice because it takes all the pressure off me. And then so then I started racing spec truck and the short course was kind of nice because then I could keep Becker I'm going and occupied and I can handle that stuff because we weren't racing at the same time.
Speaker 4:But now the Becker's gotten into Desert racing makes a little bit easier because we have crews already spread out throughout the desert. But it's it's a little bit more. It messes with me a little bit. I'm always kind of wondering what's going on with him, you know. So generally I tend to finish ahead of him. I have had one DNF this year which was not not awesome, but but it was nice because I'd be able to finish circle back and then see where he's at or catch him at the last couple pits. Yeah, that was pretty cool.
Speaker 3:It is kind of cool though and like. So you have a little bit of similarities with all that stuff below. You know, like with your dad, and he said Andy said what's up to Travis, yeah, but I was a bandy.
Speaker 3:I Like this because it really gives like a sense of Teamwork. Right, because it's not just that helping at that point, like it's a whole team and then dad steps in when he needs. So I love that man. Like that's one of my favorite things about the in quotes, dirt life or the racing industry right, because you always have that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, 100%, and it's and it's not just immediate family. I mean you have all these people and these volunteers that come out to help you at every single race and they become family. You know, and there's guys. I mean we do race shop every Tuesday night. We have a good group of volunteer guys and there's about 10 guys that come to the shop all the time. Um Becker, now that he's older, he comes down and helps us as well when it's not a school night or something. But I mean they become family and we're celebrating birthdays down there. Guys said, oh, I'd rather there's no place, I'd rather be, and we get cakes and a whole bunch of, a whole bunch of stuff. So it's these guys become your relatives Pretty fast because they're putting their lives on hold to come help you in the desert on random weekends. You know right, that is so cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not just a team, it's it's family, it's family yeah yeah, 100%.
Speaker 3:All right. So I don't know if you can hold the phone a little further away, but I'd like to ask Becker a question why he's with you. Go over your butt. So the main thing that I wanted to ask, becker, if you can hear me, is what is one of the biggest things that you look up to your dad for and to follow it up? How are you gonna beat him at that thing?
Speaker 6:So my biggest things for my dad he's like so, like Smooth in the desert, like he makes like all the like nice lines out there and like just quick and smooth.
Speaker 3:That's one, yep.
Speaker 4:Come on right now as a father, that's that's one thing that I'm actually really, really looking forward to Kind of slowing down my man Maybe not slowing down my program, but kind of backing it down a little bit and then eventually getting him and sharing Driving duty in the truck at some point and then and then working our way to Relinquishing my seat and then having him go in full-time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can only imagine like how, how much gratitude and how much love and Happiness you'll get from that, because that's such a cool like we just talked about passing of the torch. You know what I mean and I think it's cool. But I still, I know there's a few years left in Travis and I know there's gonna be some competition on the track at some point.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, there will be for sure, 100% I mean. So we still have our five unlimited car that we won the thousand with a couple years ago. That's gonna be Becker's next step. I'm gonna keep them in pro na for a couple years, unless it gets picked up or something you know by somebody. But that five car being a short wheelbase car, semi-hoor, high horsepower, it's gonna teach them how to control a car, and so then once we go to that and then we'll, then we'll kind of get them up into the truck ranks and and hopefully by time he's 16, 17, 18, then he'll be kind of ripping along pretty good. And you know, I don't know about you guys, but Bella, obviously she's gotten these opportunities. I never got these opportunities, I mean, until I was 30, you know. So it's pretty cool to kind of see it trickle down and get these kids in there and in a little bit sooner than later what you TVs have brought a whole another level to the sport and opportunities for the kids too.
Speaker 4:So, man, yeah, cuz I grew up riding dirt bikes and racing dirt bikes, I mean. And then once my wife and I got married, it was kind of one of those I don't want you on a bike anymore, as soon as she Came and watched me race down in Baja and it was like, okay, well then let's start thinking about what we're gonna do. And my dad had an old 1600 in the garage and that's kind of how our whole program got started.
Speaker 3:Yeah, see, that's perfect. I love it. Bella, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask Becker one more question. Go ahead, what's your favorite snack that mom makes for the weekends of the races?
Speaker 6:probably uncrustables.
Speaker 4:She doesn't make them, but she was super quick and easy.
Speaker 3:So, travis, I've heard it's got to be 99.8% of all off road racers love uncrustables, right, and they love that I'm going right now.
Speaker 4:Man, that's what my crew lives on.
Speaker 3:We just pack a whole cooler full of uncrustables every kind you can wish for, and they just eat them throughout the day and so, like the amount of money that off road has given back to the uncrustables company, why can't we get a non endemic sponsor like freaking uncrustables to come on the side of the truck 100%?
Speaker 4:I mean, that's a full factory deal right there. We need it Nationwide brand. Exactly. I like Brian Carr's comment too. Thanks, Brian, I'm sure you're in the same boat with Chase buddy.
Speaker 2:Careful what you wish for Travis.
Speaker 3:It's okay, the passing of the guard is the next step, so we love it. All right, let's wind down the interview, bella.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you so much. Is there anybody that you'd like to thank for your racing program?
Speaker 6:I would love to thank my mom, my dad and my grandma and grandpa. They have like super big support my whole Chase crew, chase Motorsports, kmc BOT designs, ebc brakes and it's like a BFG.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we got a few people that help our program out and we can't do it without them, especially being a family deal. So I just want to thank everybody. And hey guys, without you guys doing this type of stuff and bringing on back and stuff like that man, that's huge for him because he's never done anything like this and it's pretty cool. He worked his way through it pretty good. He did a great job. So thank you guys so much. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 6:Thank you guys so much for having me on. Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Thank you, guys. I do have to say, though, I've had Becker on my list of her over a year now, really, and then so, yeah, having you be the catalyst and making it happen, bella has been really important too. So, travis, I do appreciate it too. I like the way that this stuff is going and the kids having a little bit more control in the industry, because it's our next step. Man, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:I'm glad.
Speaker 4:Not a problem, guys. Thank you for everything.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 4:See you, guys All right.
Speaker 3:So who's next? Take it easy, Bye guys.
Speaker 2:Next is Hailey Hine, which I'm really excited about. I am too, man Hailey is such a cool girl Like.
Speaker 3:I've got to meet or hang out with her probably five times now or so, Really. Yeah, and I think one interview that I did with her was last year at the Laughlin Desert Classic. So it was like pretty much almost exactly a year ago, so all right, so I invited Hailey on right now. So, hailey, if you are watching, please accept the request and we'll get you on and have a good conversation.
Speaker 2:Hailey Hine is 19 years old, from Arizona. She's attending NAU for mechanical engineering, which is pretty rad. She has a history of racing side by side in works, but also desert co-driving for Kayden McCackeren.
Speaker 3:Dude, that's a pretty big task.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Driving for Kayden and then also running your own program man. Right.
Speaker 6:Hi Hailey, hi George, hi Hailey.
Speaker 3:How are you?
Speaker 1:I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 3:Doing pretty well. You sounds like you've been busy. Man Bella gave you a fantastic intro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you for that, bella, it was very nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I do want to start off, because we ended your intro with co-driving for Kayden McCackeren, so I do want to ask you co-drove for him in the Baja 400 for about 100 miles, right?
Speaker 5:Yeah, it was 120. It was a rough day for me. Yeah, how was that?
Speaker 1:So not great. I ended up picking up a stomach bug the morning of race day, so I went as far as I could and then handed it over to Tyler, which was a bummer, but I still got to be part of it, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool though.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but that stuff happens though, dude you just got to do what you can and that's actually really a good testament to your I don't know what. Do you want to call it dedication to the team and to the racing, because most people don't even show up and they have a stomach bug like that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I was talking to a few other crews. It seemed like it was going around, which was a bummer, so I'll save the details. But if you saw me on the start line hanging out the window, no, you didn't. Oh.
Speaker 2:Well, I did also want to talk a little bit about what you're going to school for. So you're going to college at NAU and you're majoring in mechanical engineering, correct? Yes, so you're going to ask did desert racing, or just racing in general, have like a play or that, or like inspire you to? You know, get a degree in mechanical engineering.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so ever since I was young, my dad would just be working in the shop on his race cars and on work and stuff. But I always would enjoy building things. I would just pick up a piece of metal and build something, and so it's the whole act of, you know, drawing things out and designing things and then bringing them to life. So that really got me going. And it's funny because even before I got into race cars I saw the Polaris around and I go wow, I really want to be a Polaris engineer, like I want to build the next race car. So that's what set it off. And now here I am, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. And even like going to the Baja races and seeing, like, kind of, how Polaris really puts their pit teams together and like yeah, it's just a whole learning experience. That's really cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, being able to pick the engineer's brains is pretty cool.
Speaker 3:When you think about those types of I don't know what you want to call it personality traits, and also decisions that go on along with those personality traits, you consider yourself like you know how they say, like life, left brain, right brain, where you're creative or you're logistical or whatever like. Where do you put yourself? Because I think that has a lot to do with how you excel in the path that you take.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like I'm a good dabble of both. Obviously, this degree is it's very demanding in the work and the time. So I'm balancing getting all of my work done in the weekdays and in the time that I have off so that I can go watch other races and be a part of other races on the weekends.
Speaker 3:Dude, how hard is that, though, dang?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, it takes a lot of organizing, but I get it done yeah.
Speaker 3:Is this your personal assistant, like me?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, oh yeah. And then, on top of that, you were an intern for an IndyCar racing team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this summer I was one of three interns for the women in motorsports program at Chip Ganassi Racing and so they brought us in for different thank you, thank you. So they brought us in for different parts of the shop. So they had one girl. She's now a senior in engineering at her school, so she spent a lot of time in the engineering department. We had another girl in the IT department and then I got to spend time in the shop so I was physically working on, you know, the gearboxes, the shocks, the body of the cars, all of that, yeah, that's pretty cool, Dude what?
Speaker 3:was your favorite part. That sounds like so much fun.
Speaker 1:Probably being at the racetrack, because I got to be a part of the pits so I would do signboard and fire bottle, which was pretty cool.
Speaker 3:I guarantee there was Very, very high, intense Dude. Her Instagram probably had so many FOMO DMs. Oh yeah, like people just like.
Speaker 2:No, I was foment over there. I wish I was there, yeah.
Speaker 3:We had a comment. Come in Bill.
Speaker 2:Really is an incredible person. She always has a smile, says Chuckers 22. Yeah, actually.
Speaker 3:So just that comment by itself. Sometimes, when you have such a busy schedule, it's very difficult to always have a smile on your face, right? That's another way we can tie in that same kind of question, Bella, like how women in motor sports and how she overcomes things because there's a lot that she has going on in her brain. There's a lot that she has going on with her time. How is it like being able to keep a smile on your face and to be able to really put all this positive vibes forward?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I'm just looking forward to my next steps, always because you know there's something new around every corner and the fact that I get to be a part of so many, so many different things, such as the players team, and then you know, I go to school and it's just I feel like I'm doing really good and I'm getting through it and I'm making it happen for myself is really keeping going. Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's crazy that she says that because she's so young, right Like I'm realizing it a lot later in life, but I used to think that I was addicted to dirt bikes and I used to think that I was addicted to racing and all this stuff, and I've done a lot of cool things in my life, but you know what I realized in the past five years? I'm mostly addicted to progress. Yeah exactly. And that's what drives me is always being better, and it seems like you're the same way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I always try to be, and you know, it's just so different, obviously, having to let go of racing for the time being. But again, like I said, I'm looking forward to the next step and when I'm done, hopefully I can get back into it and build something up for myself. So that's keeping me going too Good for you.
Speaker 3:Do you still get to ride and drive and stuff like on the weekend?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when Glamis comes back around we'll be there, but other than that, just the co-driving, and then we chase a lot of races for our friends Brent Fox and them. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she's a busy girl.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I think, even like the works races that we were doing, you know, and stuff, kind of just taught us all of that like having dedication and just motivation to keep going, yeah, but and there were just small races too, compared to these big, like Vegas, torino races, you know, but that's that's kind of where we learned like all of our life skills.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, that was my thought too when you were asking Gray questions about how busy she was. But just the fact that you know, I did works racing when I was in high school and, as you know, we would have a race a month sometimes too. So once I was done with school, I'd go to work with my parents straight after school and then, you know, once I left work, it was back home to work on the race cars and prepping for the races, but then also get my homework done. So I think my mind is just so tricked to being busy all the time that I'm just, you know, always looking for something to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a race life is a busy life, dude that's a perfect way to put it Exactly, yeah. And then what I was talking about with Gray. I brought it up with her but being a woman in the industry, industry, industry you got it. Okay, scratch. What advantages and disadvantages do you think you have?
Speaker 1:I honestly wouldn't say that there's many disadvantages. I mean, we're all on the track at the same time, we're all racing the same car, so at the end of the day it comes down to how well you can drive that car and how you can be competitive. So obviously, you know I had a lot of time doing that and racing against other people. So it kind of just puts you in a place where it's not your sex or who you are, it's just how you're doing. So I would say that that's super important for being a woman in you know the industry. And then the advantages, honestly, are that you know we just were women.
Speaker 2:I don't know it's cool, we're just a girl.
Speaker 3:Did you know, like I forgot what the there was a female race, oh, it's Danica Patrick. And when she was doing IndyCar stuff they did some sort of study like how she reacted and like her reaction times and how she was calm and like her heartbeat and all of these different like medical science things, and it was actually showed that she could perform better than most males, just by the science and her body and all the things that they were tracking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we're just programmed a little bit better, just kidding, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3:I love it. Keep that confidence girl.
Speaker 2:I think that was all of my questions, but do you have any questions?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I do so. Since you're, like, involved in racing so much, does that mean that you want to stay in racing as an occupation, or stay in motor sports as an occupation? Or if somebody came along and was like, hey, we got this super boring corporate job like building missiles, would you want to do that? Or do you just like racing that much?
Speaker 1:I'd have to say I really like racing, Like I say. You know, seeing the Polaris cars was really my like go to get into engineering. So I think that's where I want to go. If not, maybe I'll make my next, my own brand of UTVs. I'm not too sure where it's going to go. I still have a few years to figure it out, even though I'm always thinking about it. But it'll come when it comes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, and you never know. Like, timing is always a thing that I've learned has been a key instance to your six, key ingredient to your success, and so, like, who knows what will be like after you graduate. You know how? When do you graduate? A couple years from now.
Speaker 1:No, so I've already knocked off a semester, so I'll get out in the fall of 2025. So two more years.
Speaker 3:Okay, perfect, yeah, so by then there's going to be a massive or increase in the way that side by sides perform and the how far they've come up in the ranks, and there's going to be all kinds of new products that come out to support those things. And since you're in the middle of it right now, who knows what your brain's going to come up with in the next couple?
Speaker 1:of years Exactly. Yeah, yeah, that'd be cool.
Speaker 3:So all right, Bella, I think we should ask her to thank her sponsors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, please thank your sponsors and everyone who supports your whole program.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I got to thank my family for keeping up with me, obviously, and then I got to thank. Caden for you know, letting me be a co driver and learning all the ranks in Baja and getting to have that experience on my end and then with that, the whole Polaris team and everybody that supports them for building those cars and having that seat for me to be in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's pretty rad.
Speaker 3:I think it's cool. You know, what I just thought would be a fun joke from now on is like every like. If I ever get on the podium again, I'm just going to say I'd like to thank my mom and dad for giving birth to me.
Speaker 2:See you. Yeah, my mom and dad, and that's about it Just drop the mic and bail, you're good. Thank you so much for answering all my questions. Yeah, thank you, I love your bellows corner.
Speaker 6:It's super cool.
Speaker 3:I love it too, you did a great job, Haley.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:All right, we'll see you at the races, girl.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely Bye.
Speaker 3:All right, so now we got to get on Erin huh Later.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:All right, let's try to see if we can get him on here. All right, aaron Kuevos, we got an invite sent out to you, so let's have you join real quick, and then he'll be our last interview and then we're gonna hit the road, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Aaron.
Speaker 2:Kuevos is 16 years old, from Texas. He started racing quads and dirt series to racing pro in the classes in mid America. But what I think is pretty cool is that he does mostly, if not all, the work on his cars.
Speaker 3:Like you.
Speaker 2:Yes, he does all the work and he preps it and works on them and you just don't see very many kids doing. You know, like you do see him but like not all the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, that's a lot of work.
Speaker 2:Right, but he teaches himself Wait how old did you say?
Speaker 3:Aaron is 16. Is 16 and he's doing all this.
Speaker 2:Yes, imagine he's sitting in my neighbor.
Speaker 3:Really, yes. Imagine 15 years from now. Oh yeah, how much he's gonna know because of how much he's learned doing all this stuff so far.
Speaker 2:I think it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:I do as well, and he must have a family that supports him pretty good too. Hi Aaron.
Speaker 7:How you been.
Speaker 2:Good, how are you?
Speaker 7:Okay, sorry, I couldn't hear you.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's way better.
Speaker 7:You got some sweet while you're gone, so All right, first things first.
Speaker 3:Let me see that hat dude, that hat's sick. There you go, got a.
Speaker 7:Max's hat Big shout out to the guys at Max's entire.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, that's one of my favorite KMC shirts this is fully repping right now. Dude, he's got the orange and black just matching the whole kit, dude, perfect. What's your first question for him?
Speaker 2:My first question is so you have a pretty long history of racing for how old you are, but where did you kind of start, like what series, what car?
Speaker 7:you know, I started at works on my quad, mini quad.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 7:When I was about like six or seven around there it was a while ago and we raced on the 50 for a year and then did quads for another two years and then moved up to the 170. What made you want?
Speaker 2:to do that change from quads to cars.
Speaker 7:I liked the cars more and my parents thought it was safer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3:That's the first thing that I was going to say too, but, like dude, it must have been so much fun though, like being a kid and just like having the opportunity to go out and put yourself in the dirt like that. Like how many times did you come away from the track with? Just like the biggest smile on your face, no matter what position you got.
Speaker 7:A lot Like at the beginning. It was always fun. It's always been fun, Like it's just. It's a nice feeling to go out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, especially if you could be with all your friends too, right, yeah, actually, this is a really good question. So from a young age, aaron knew how it was to be a friend and like play off the track and be a full competitor when you put your helmet on.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 7:You can be friends off the track, all you want, but once you're on the track, your goal is to beat him, no matter what.
Speaker 2:I 100% agree.
Speaker 3:And their goal is to beat you too.
Speaker 2:Don't, let, don't get it twisted.
Speaker 3:Don't sleep on your friends, because they might come out swinging one moto.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, what I think is pretty cool, which is one of the reasons why I kind of did want to do an interview with you too. I feel like every time, like after the Texas races and stuff, if you had to work on your car or something, it was always mainly you. I know you have a great support system, but you're so willing to like work on your own cars and to teach yourself what tools to use and like where it goes what, and stuff like that, which I think is pretty cool.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I just want to make sure, when I go back out there, I'm prepared as well as I can be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Did your dad teach you kind of how to like do everything, or did you just sit there and kind of do it?
Speaker 7:yourself. Yeah, yeah, he taught me a lot, especially like when I used to race the 800, I had to learn because he had some health issues and I needed to step up if I wanted to keep racing, which it was worth it to me because, well, I love racing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:One of the things that's really valuable about that is and I realized this a lot in my program because I was responsible for most of the maintenance on all the vehicles that we had in our professional program but when you touch every bolt on the car, you have a lot more confidence in your race car. The second portion of that is that you can almost feel everything in your hands and in your butt and your feet when you're driving, because you're like, oh, I knew what happened when this came loose and I tightened it and I loosened it or it was broken or whatever it was. So you have that like extra connection with your car that a lot of people don't right.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's definitely given me more confidence, knowing like what does what and say the front's loose, I can. Either I'll know if it's like a wheel or the steering rack itself, or if it's just like a rock in the tire.
Speaker 2:Being able to point something out like because you know you work on the car, you can feel what exactly is wrong?
Speaker 7:I can feel what's wrong or what's happening with it.
Speaker 2:It makes everything so much faster and just.
Speaker 3:Well, has that ever benefited you? Like after you came off a race and you were like, dude, I did so crappy that moto man, like I need to step it up for the next moto. And you get back in, you have a debrief with your team and you're like you know what? I got an idea and then you work together and you solve it.
Speaker 7:Yeah, we've worked on like moving the sway bar, like tightening or stiffening it or like tire pressure, knowing like if we need more grip or more traction or less of it. And yeah, just small minor tweaks that will make a big difference sometimes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, totally Well, like in Havasu, the track gets really rough. Ruddy, there was a lot of undulation in the car. So if you loosen up your sway bar you can get a lot more. You know flex in the vehicle and stuff Like. If you know how to do that and other people don't, that gives you a massive competitive advantage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:It is cool and he's learning at a young age.
Speaker 2:Right, it's something that you'll carry with you, probably for the rest of your life, you know.
Speaker 7:Yeah, definitely grateful, because it's taught me like how to be more, more respectable, have more respect for people, that like go out there by themselves and work on the car and do well, and like it's nice to see that my hard work will pay off too Well, yeah, and even more respectful to the car itself, so that you can actually make the car last longer, too right?
Speaker 7:Yeah, like once we get back here we wash it. We check basically all the corners, every nut and bolt, make sure nothing's loose or broken, and so that we don't have to worry about it. And it makes us not have to worry about stuff breaking in the middle of a race or in practice.
Speaker 3:Oh, another level of confidence. Do you ever feel like, because my crew chief he was like he loved racing but he liked being in the passenger seat, you know, like he wasn't, like he was totally fine being the crew chief, right, and he would ride with me if he needed to, but he didn't really have any ambition to race Like you are. You're a racer, right, but like, let's just say, the opportunity, like in I don't know a couple of years, like you turn 18 or something and the top trophy truck team was like, hey, you wanna come work with us at a race, would you do it?
Speaker 7:I think so. I definitely consider it, but I also love racing at the same time, so it's also a hard choice to choose.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 7:Because it's one thing to just be out there and watch and it's another to be on the track and like race.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 7:I agree with that, but I just enjoy the sport. Like watching races is fun, but I think driving out there is funner.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, once a racer, always a racer, right. And? Your answer was spoken like a true racer, but there is benefit to learning the backend of the operation though, too.
Speaker 7:Yeah, yeah, and sometimes I'll come out here and I sometimes just enjoy working on the car. Yeah, learning it, because it's just nice to learn your car more.
Speaker 2:Right, when you learn it, you learn how to become a better driver and it, yeah, yeah, excelling like working on the car, will excel on the track.
Speaker 3:One of the questions I wanna ask is like what I asked Becker to how many times have you eaten a sandwich with just grease all over your hands in the garage?
Speaker 7:More times than I'd like to admit, that's like the norm for any mechanic or any like wrench guy, always eating a dirty sandwich. Yeah, Like even at the track, like if we need to quickly get ready for the next moto if something broke. Like just having a sandwich midday.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, nice dirty hands. I think I've seen it.
Speaker 3:A little grease never hurt anybody. What's that comment right there, Belle?
Speaker 2:Si, Rino, Si, I think, said any advice for someone who wants to be a pre-runner a daily driver for the first time.
Speaker 3:Build maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Wait, let me see that comment it was just any advice for somebody that wants to build a pre-runner or a daily driver for the first time. I think just get in to get in it, dude, like just start building, man. There's no other way to do it.
Speaker 2:If you have a passion for it, it'll come naturally.
Speaker 3:Oh, Looks like his internet might be bogging out a little bit Belle. Oh, okay, sorry, what was that your internet was bogging out a little bit. But yeah, I mean like just get into it, like there's no other way to do it. Are you gonna build something? Just like start building?
Speaker 7:Yeah, start building. Definitely learn from other people when you can, because that's always a good thing. Don't be afraid to ask other people about any tips or anything about that.
Speaker 3:That's actually one really good point that you're bringing up. Erin is like I see personally and Bella, you can answer this a little bit too. Do you see younger kids being a little bit scared to ask questions?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do. I feel like racing kind of impacts that, because people are watching you race so you have to like. You kind of have like pressure so you don't want people to like you don't wanna ask questions because yeah, it changes the way that people view you, or your confidence level or something, Right? People might think, oh, they don't know this, they should or something. But really it's like that's how you learn Ask questions and observe people, like if you really wanna be successful.
Speaker 3:That's the only way to do it and never be good or not too good, right. So in a business world, or in any type of racing or operations or whatever it is, usually the smartest person in the room is the one that sits there and listens and then asks questions at the end, because they take the information as much as they're given and then they fill in whatever gaps that they had in their head and they take all that information and make themselves better, right afterwards.
Speaker 2:You always have to be willing to learn and willing to expand your mind.
Speaker 7:Yeah, like I know, I used to be scared to go ask other people about the track when I was younger, but I've learned a lot from just being able to go ask simple things like I don't know, clutching stuff that'll make a difference, and just learning from some of the better people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dude, don't ever call clutching simple dude. Clutching is like the most gnarliest science I've ever seen in my life, like if you know clutching, please. I'm gonna ask you a billion questions, dude, because I still don't get it.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's a sensitive like clutching sometimes can be really like sensitive, Like you'd need to change like five grams of weight. Yeah, Take it like, take your ad. It's insane sometimes.
Speaker 3:Dude, that's exactly what I was talking about, about being able to feel it like with your butt and your arms and your legs and stuff, cause, like I still to this day, I'm just like I'd rather shift the car, but like, if you know clutching, you know clutching. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:Dude, I'm gonna have Aaron work on the pro.
Speaker 2:I know I trust him with any part.
Speaker 3:Thank you. What else you got Belle?
Speaker 2:I think that's it for me. Oh, and biggest highlight of your racing career.
Speaker 7:Ooh man, that's hard because, like for like winning, or like something I just really enjoyed Anything.
Speaker 3:Well, I'll help you answer this question a little bit, cause I'll answer it for myself too. One of the biggest highlights of my racing career was not when I was professional and off-road, it wasn't when I was professional in dirt bikes, it was when I was an AD expert and I crashed in the first turn and I ended up getting second by like three feet at the finish line and this was a matter of 15 minutes. Like it was crazy because the level of competition was so intense. But you know what the best part about it was and why I'll never forget it is because I was like in this zone that nobody could ever like pull me out of. Like I had tunnel vision and I was just doing like perfect laps and just ripping corners. Like I'm kind of getting goosebumps right now thinking about it. Have you ever had any moments like that?
Speaker 7:Yeah, I think probably the highlight of like personally for me was last year at the first round at, or the first round I raced at MAO where, like it was battle between me and the friend and like it was fun, like it was a good race and that I thought I think I earned, like through trying not cause anyone else broke, but through, like I won it and it was happy, like yeah, yeah, you earned it.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's just a feeling that, like, you always want to remember, cause it's one of the best times of your life when you're out there.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 7:Especially when you come home with Wynn Dude exactly All right.
Speaker 3:so JP Perez said clutch his propeller head, stuff, dude, it really is like. And then Jason Hess says what up, what up, jason, he's all the way in Texas watching you, bella.
Speaker 2:Oh, look at that. Thank you.
Speaker 3:I think Aaron did a fantastic job on this interview. Should we have him thank his homies and all his family?
Speaker 2:and friends. Thank everybody that supports you and your program and go ahead.
Speaker 7:I'd like to thank my parents for stuff, cause they've been here since step one, and my sister, cause she's always telling me like the I kit can do if I just try hard enough, and she's always there to support me, and my sponsors they help make all this happen as well. Right, like it'd be a lot harder to be out there if I didn't have them. And, yeah, my friends, cause they're always cheering me on and racing against them One of the best things about being out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then the last but most important question Always what is your favorite taco?
Speaker 3:Ooh, I mean, we need details here, buddy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like everything.
Speaker 7:Street tacos at Best Stored Just straight. That maybe a little bit of line. Okay, salancho, you run guac or not?
Speaker 3:Salancho maybe, huh, do you run guac or not?
Speaker 7:No.
Speaker 3:Dude, he just runs it straight up yeah. Dude.
Speaker 2:That's a real way to go.
Speaker 3:I know El Pastor does sound really good right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Now you got us thinking about food. Should we just say eff it and just like start going to get tacos and having podcasts from the taco shop?
Speaker 2:I guess we should.
Speaker 7:Yeah, dude.
Speaker 3:He's like yeah, perfect yeah.
Speaker 2:Aaron's a foodie like me.
Speaker 3:Where you headed next, Aaron.
Speaker 7:Next round's at MAO for the last race of the year, and then they're running a new series next year all across the US, so we're hoping to be out there, yeah, but Well, good luck to you Next round. Thank you for everything.
Speaker 2:Thank you for answering all my questions.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me. Yeah, you did a great job, dude. Yes, we'll see you at the races. Bye Bella, bye George, bye Later, later, all right, so he did a great job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he did.
Speaker 3:I think Aaron is destined for media. Yeah, to be honest with you. Okay, so we got to thank our sponsors. Why don't you do those three, and then I'll do the rest, and then we'll hit the road.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd like to thank KMC Wheels for great product.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just like Aaron did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, repping them MoTool and Evolution Power Sports.
Speaker 3:All right. So what does Evolution Power Sports do, though? They just create horsepower.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all day, basically, if you want to be fast go to Evo.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we saw those guys yesterday or the day before. Oh, right on, they got some cool stuff going on over there at Shopping Phoenix. So thank you everybody for watching as well. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Thanks to the guys at Maxis Tires Aaron has podium hat on Really appreciate them. The guys that are at Shock Therapy use code DirtLife. Get yourself some savings at ShockTherapycom. Jail audio guys. Man, I can't wait for you guys to hear the system at Camp Razor. It's going to be pretty sick to be able to play tunes at the hill. As long as you're racing products and Vision Canopies, we really appreciate it. But, bella, we can't do it without everybody that watched.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you to every single person that joined this live and listened to all of our questions and just talking to the youth and everybody.
Speaker 3:Chewdown yeah, number three is next. Yeah, all right, thank you guys. Thank you, see you guys later.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the DirtLife Show. See you next week, love you.
