Episode 156 - Austin Jones - From Arizona to DAKAR - The Dirt Life

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:07):
Welcome to the dirt life show with your host, George
Hamil. Welcome welcome. Welcometo Episode 156 of the dirt life
show. stoked to have you guysjoin us tonight. We got an
awesome show for you guys. Wehad Supercross this weekend. And
man. It's just awesome to beback in Arizona. The weather's

(00:28):
good here. So let me introduceyou to our first guest, I'm
Jordi Hamel, the host of dirtlife show we are in Phoenix,
Arizona, like I just said, atAustin Jones shop Austin Jones
is grew up watching his fatherrace off road and is now an
American off road racing driverand champion. He won the Dakar

(00:49):
Rally in 2022 and the SSV T fourcategory and now T three
champion 2023. He also won the2021 FIFA World Cup for cross
country rallies and is a twotime Baja 1000 winner for score
international as well in theTrophy Truck spec class.
Welcome, Austin.
Thank you, sir. It sounds nicewhen you say like that.
Good. Good intro though. You'veonly been racing for a short

(01:13):
time. And to your left we haveco co host extraordinaire and CO
driver extraordinaire Joewhining What's up, Joe?
same ol guys. Thanks for havingme.
Yeah, it's Joe's. I think he'sbeen one of the most frequent
guests on the show, dude, he'sjust stepping it up in his media
game. Big media guy. But it'scool to be here, man, like, be

(01:33):
back in our Arizona roots.
That's one of the things that Iwanted to kind of base the show
on is like, I titled it insocial media from Arizona to
Dakar, which is in my mind isjust freakin extraordinary.
Like, from being a kid growingup in Arizona, and now having
championships in the DakarRally, which is considered one
of the top racing organizationsor events in the world. That's

(01:54):
got to feel good for you.
Yeah, definitely. I mean, it'sso it's so crazy, you know, like
how little it is over here. Andthen you go out to Saudi Arabia,
and you see a race like thatcar. You know, coming home,
everybody's all stubbed andstuff like that. So it's
definitely nice.
It's it's really cool though.
Like, Joe when you when youthink of being like an Arizona
kid, like, let's just call itall of us playing in the

(02:16):
sandbox, right? Like as littlekids and the motivation level to
be just getting an off road caris cool. And then like all of a
sudden you work your way up tobeing a youngster and then going
to dat car and like seeing allthis stuff. Like how does it
feel to you to see the Austin issuccessful in this
it's, it's, it's incredible. Andlike you say, the, the passes

(02:37):
that he's gone through to getthere. And now he's on this on
this worldwide level unit overand dat car, Saudi Arabia,
Argentina, you know, Spain,Morocco, all these places all
over the world racing. It's justlike stepbrothers
say prestige, worldwide,worldwide. But that is true,
though. Like, like, we're alljoking about it. But like, it's

(02:59):
a phenomenal achievement for youto be able to achieve that. So
and you're really humble, you'vealways been a humble winner and
a kid, but it's got to feelgood. And like, just to be able
to know that you've done it.
For sure. I mean, it takes a lotof work. You know, it's hard,
obviously racing a debt car, yougot to think it's hard, but it
really is, you know, it's a lotof work. It's a lot of effort
beforehand, during and after.
So, you know, to be able to puteverything together for two

(03:22):
years in a row now and get thewin. And you know, it feels
great.
Yeah, totally. Alright, I'mgonna fix some technical stuff,
when they say we got no sound onthe iPad here. But I'll fix that
real quick. Joe, can you askAustin a couple questions like
about growing up in Arizona andstuff like that? Because you did
as well?
Yeah, no, we both want you toall three of us growing up here

(03:42):
in Arizona, but often whenyou're over there, and Saudi
Arabia or Spain or whereveryou're at reason you take time
to reflect and just kind of sitthere and think about Panama and
Saudi Arabia right now. Racingracing an off road car. That's
you take time to do that.
Definitely try to I mean, whenwe're out there, it's so you

(04:04):
know, we're full blast the wholetime. When I land off the plane,
you know, it's we got to goadmin checks, then go shake down
the car. And then usually, youknow, day one right after that
media stuff here and there. Sousually, it's pretty full blast
as soon as I get there. But, youknow, every once in a while, you
got to sit back. And you know, Idid this is pretty cool that,
you know, I'm this far away fromhome out. And you know, I've
never gone anywhere other thanMexico and the United States up

(04:27):
until 2018 when I raised myfirst rally. So like, now we've
been to all these places raceand all these places. It's so
crazy. So yeah, definitely gotto look back and kind of enjoy
it every once in a while.
For sure. For sure. And that'skind of feel good. Oh, for
sure. Yeah. And I you know,traveling is super cool minute
and being able to see the youknow, the whole world and all
these different countries andall these different cultures and

(04:50):
just how different everythingis. I think it's been a really
good experience.
Yeah. So, so growing up here inArizona, you were born here in
Phoenix.
Yep. I was born over here inLitchfield Park.
Right right here in aneighborhood. Yep. Nice. You
went to high school air andyeah, my whole life. So I Yeah,
grew up over here went to Iliterally live about five
minutes. We're sitting fiveminutes away from the place

(05:10):
where I went to Litchfield toelementary school, middle school
and high school. Yeah. So I wentoff to college for a little bit
over in San Diego. But thenafter that, I moved straight
back.
Any kind of school sports, highschool sports or anything like
that. Yeah. It's funny, becauseI wasn't even really like I was
into racing. I always liked itand stuff, but I never did it.
So I got played, you know, a lotof sports, baseball, football,

(05:32):
lacrosse, soccer, the wholenine. So yeah, I was super into
all that growing up. And to, youknow, to be a racer. Now, it's
definitely didn't see thatcoming. Yeah.
Well, you were you were talkinga little bit before. Hopefully
you guys. Okay, good sound now.
All right. Thanks, guys, forletting us know. You were
talking to me a little bit aboutit before the show? Like, you'd

(05:52):
pretty much didn't even startlike doing off road stuff to
what was it? 2015 2018?
Doesn't he grace? Yeah.
Do they? Don't you think that'swild? Joe?
Yeah. No, that's, that's prettynuts.
It is kind of crazy to me tothink that because five years is
not that much time. Does it feellike you were on a fast track?

(06:13):
Like just straight into itall? For sure. Yeah. I mean, I
think that I think thateverything how everything has
worked out so far. You know,it's obviously it's worked out.
But it's definitely been hard.
Just the pace of everything. Youknow, like jumping into a car
for the very first time, likethe first time I ever wore a
helmet and wardriving suit was,you know, in Parker in 2018,
when I was driving a spec truck.
So like, yeah, the way thateverything's kind of worked out.

(06:35):
It's been pretty crazy. And youknow, there's been a lot of ups
and downs, obviously, a lot ofdowns in the beginning. But,
yeah, and you know, it's workedout.
Yeah. And that's because you arelike on a fast track, right. But
you have good people around you.
Do you just like when you wantto be a champion? Do you just
sponge it all in and like,listen to what everybody's
saying, especially like, youknow, when an expert like Joe
tells you something, for sure.

(06:57):
I mean, I you know, I've spentsome time with Joe in the right
seat and me driving and, youknow, I always take the approach
of you guys all know better thanme. You know, I'm down to listen
to everything that you guys sayI'm down to, you know, absorb it
all, and just try to apply it aswell as I can. And because, you
know, when it comes down to it,let's just be honest, you guys
have a lot more experienced thanme. So I'm down to listen,

(07:18):
someone says I'm doingsomething, right. Someone says
I'm doing something wrong.
Someone says I'm doing to dosomething differently than you
know, I'm down. So I think thatthat's helped a lot is having
you know, a lot of people aresure.
Yeah. And I also think that thathas a lot to do, like shows a
lot of your character though,too. So you don't like Oh, I
already know what I'm doing.
You'd like actually listen, nowI
have no idea what I'm doing. I'mstill don't know what I'm doing.

(07:38):
Half the time, man. We're justcruising. But yeah, I mean, we
have a little bit of a betterunderstanding now. But at the
same time, yeah, I stillconsider myself pretty new to
all of this. Which is weird,because I've got so many miles
now with all the rallies andstuff, but
I'll tell you that likeconsidering that like that you
think like that means that youhave a lot longer of a career

(08:00):
because it means two things, itmeans you're not burnt out, and
it means that you're stillwilling to learn more.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean,I still want to go out with
people that you know, have a lotof experience and I want to
learn stuff and I want to learndifferent things and you know,
just pick up you know, and be asyou know, as fast as I can. So
yeah, totally. So we got a fewpeople joining in Dakota
Bedwell, says my boy AJ did soyeah, if you guys want to share

(08:24):
the show, please do there'slittle airplane icon down at the
right hand of your screen. Ifyou're on Instagram, and you can
obviously share it on Facebookand YouTube. You can catch us on
Monday nights, sometimes onThursday nights, hang out with
us talk with us talk to yourfavorite drivers. The point of
dirt life show is pretty much togive you guys a better
understanding of the people thatyou see at the racetrack right

(08:44):
like do we really know Ajay whenwe see him at the racetrack when
you shake his hand? No, but weget the opportunity to talk to
him now and have an in depthconversation and you guys can
always join in as well too. Soand thank you to all of our
sponsors. We got KMC wheels oneof your sponsors too. Yeah, big
shout out KMC making some sweetproducts. We have some really
cool projects that we're workingon with those guys as well. So

(09:07):
come check us out for that stuffon the dirt life show channel
thanks to the guys over at Max'stires guys and Moe tool I think
most will help you out with yourguys programs yeah
Mel tool is a big sponsor foryou know the rally program so
yeah, shout out to moto as well.
Shock Therapy you can use thecode dirt life at SHOT
therapist.com You can get any ofthe products they offer like

(09:27):
limit strap steering racks, BSDkits, all that good stuff.
Thanks the guys over at JL Audiothey're putting a system in our
pro our that's gonna it'sprobably gonna blow my head off
honestly. It's good though. Sowe'll see how that goes. Thanks
guys over evolution powersports, Todd and all the team
over there. You can actuallytune your cannamd your Polaris
whatever, you can just go buyone of their coach shooters and

(09:48):
tune your car from your phonepaired up to your exhaust.
Thanks, guys. Oh, red zones areracing products using the code
the dirt life by some tie rodsradius rods all that stuff.
Thanks guys ever envisioncanopies? They're doing some
really cool stuff. With thefactory Polaris team as well. So
go check out some of the newcanopies and things like that
you can help rebrand or marketyour off road team get your

(10:08):
sponsors a little bit more love.
And thanks to the guys over atcryo heat as well. So, Joe, you
talked a little bit about Austingrowing up in Arizona, one of
the things that I wanted to talkabout was growing up in Arizona
is a lot of heat. There's a lotof temperature changes in the
wintertime, there's a lot ofdirt, there's a lot of dust, but
there's a lot of freedom, right?

(10:30):
Because you can go right to sideby side, you can get out in the
desert, you can do all of thesecrazy things. And honestly, Joe,
I feel like that's kind of whatprepared Austin to be the
champion that he is these days.
Oh, forsure. extreme, extreme heat. And
just here over the last couplemonths, man has been raining one
day and freezing one night andthe next day, it's 95 degrees
out. Yeah.

(10:51):
But you can take advantage ofall that stuff, right and go
drive a side by side and dothese things. Yeah,
I mean, we have so much, youknow, we have so many trails out
here and so much desert out herethat like there's tons of places
to go out and train. I do a lotof training out here in Arizona,
in between races and stuff. Soyou know, it's super dialed for
that. And yeah, the weather,it's hot sometimes. But I don't

(11:11):
know if you can just deal withit for a little bit while you're
out there. It's not so bad.
Yeah, totally do it. And do youdo anything like what we were
saying before? I think we'vebefore the show, we're talking
about like, physically andphysically fit, right? So
actually, let's talk about twothings. When you get out there
to like a place like Dakar, orsome of these rallies, has
living in Arizona given you anadvantage compared to some of

(11:34):
those racers, because you'reused to different terrains like
that.
I think so like, that's what Iwas telling you earlier is like,
the first time I landed in Saudiand like, we went out for stage
number one, we're cruisingaround the desert, you know, on
stage, and I'm like, so prettysimilar to home, you know, like
the desert, you know, it seemspretty similar. So I feel like
just being out here so much I'mliving out here is kind of

(11:56):
prepared me to go race out therebecause the conditions are
pretty much the same.
Yeah, that's kind of crazy whenyou think about it. Right, Joe?
Yeah.
And it's, it's pretty neat. Butlike he said, he's more
accustomed to the heat areaccustomed to the desert
conditions and the dust in thesand. And it all just kind of
like, like you said, almost athome. Yeah, exactly.
Well, and the reason that Iwanted to bring it up was

(12:16):
because like in California, Idon't get the opportunity to do
that as much as you guysanymore. Like being from
Arizona. Like I feel like I wasspoiled until I realized that
wasn't didn't have it anymore.
So I feel like it'd be in anArizona gives you a pretty good
advantage for that. But you'rein pretty good shape. But do you
want to do more? Like how do youplan to progress in your off
road career? Like, as far asphysical goes, diet, all these

(12:38):
different things? Yeah. Soyeah, a lot goes into that, you
know, you want to kind of baseyour training physically and
mentally, and that kind of stuffaround your races. So you want
to basically train for a coupleof weeks, you know, a couple of
months beforehand, and then youwant to basically be at your
peak when you get to the rally.

(12:58):
So you can perform the bestobviously, and be in the best
shape you possibly can. So Ithink that, you know, just kind
of keep doing that and trainingas much as I possibly can.
Nutrition is a huge thing. Yougot to learn how to, you know,
like take care of your body andstuff like that, because you
feel so much better in the carwhen you're in shape makes a big
difference.
Is it just little things likewhat have you been learning over
the past years to try to makeyourself better? I want to give

(13:21):
I want these to be like kind ofadvice to the audience
for sure. Well, I mean, you haveto like First off, I drink
probably more water than anybodyon the human on the planet. So
like, you know, drinking waterlike crazy that helps. Like
little snacks throughout the daywhen you're sitting in in the

(13:41):
race car, you have to like stayeating basically the entire
time. And that helps a ton toobecause then your brain starts
getting off foggy if you don'teat for too long and stuff. So
like you got to pick the rightsnacks like me and Gustavo my
navigator. We're like constantlyeating like, either protein
bars, or honestly, I've beensuper into like peanuts lately,
like in the car willyou know it's like a nice clean
form of protein. Yeah, sowe'll cash like a couple packs

(14:03):
of peanuts in the car and somebeef jerky or something like
that. But you know, just likeknowing when when to eat it what
to eat. And, you know, workingaround that kind of
so what I was doing somephysical stuff like I did an
Iron Man and some long distancebicycle races and stuff. And the
one thing that they told us andJoe, you know, this, you drink
before you're thirsty and youeat before you're hungry.

(14:24):
Because if you're hungry, it'salready too late. If you're
thirsty, it's already too late.
So that's probably what you'redoing is keeping that on a
certain level.
Yeah, for sure. And then like,that's the same thing. Like, you
know, hydrating wise, we we getout of the race car we do,
however long of a day, 500 mileday or something like that. And
then immediately you want tostart drinking as much water as

(14:45):
possible for the next day. Yep.
You know, because you're alreadysmoked that day. So like you try
to load up for the next day. Youpee a lot, but I mean, at the
same time and you feel a lotbetter.
Yeah, totally. But you'reflushing your system. Like
that's the proper way to do it.
Right. Exactly.
Yeah. So that's a huge part thatgoes into a special flew with
like stage racing over 14 daysin rally. That's a huge, you
know, yeah, that'spretty massive. Like and you've

(15:05):
seen it a lot with drivers thatyou've been with Joe, you've
done all kinds of different codedriving for Ethan Ebert. Now
you've done co driving with Tobyprice you've obviously worked
with guys are brothers, and youactually sat in the passenger
seat with Austin's father aswell. So you understand? Well,
not just to how to to keepyourself going well, but to also
keep the driver alive too.

(15:27):
Yeah, correct. You did. Beingbeing a navigator, when you can
tell when a driver starts to getfatigued, because he started
making mistakes and startgetting sloppy in their turns
and sloppy and break zones. Andit's pretty, it's pretty crazy.
So it's super important. And atthe same time, you got to stay
on a two because you gotta bewith them. Working as a team,

(15:50):
you know, yeah, and wetalked about this a lot like how
much logistically the CO driveris important, but the CO driver
is responsible for a lot moreeven, right? Because you have to
think about that and beintuitive. And well, basically,
in that in with the person'smind the whole time,
ya know, it's, the more I do it,the more important it seems to
get is keeping a driver focusedon the end result, not just the

(16:14):
next 10 miles, but the endresult, you know what I mean,
and keeping themyeah, not to like too far.
sidetrack, because I still wantto talk a lot about the stuff
that you're doing now. Awesome.
But like, we did a show withfluid logic, I think you've seen
their systems, right? Yeah,yeah. And those things are
really cool. Because they giveyou exactly the stuff that your
body needs, you know, you canget a breakdown of what your

(16:35):
body needs as far as enduranceand all of these different
things. But I really feel likethat's important. Because that
could make it be a winning racerlike that could make it be
between like legs, let you say,the last 100 miles of a race, or
the last 50 miles of a stage.
You could be fresher than theperson next to you, or the
person that's battling with youand you could win because you're

(16:57):
actually keeping your fatiguelevel. Or the your, you're not
fatigued.
Yeah, exactly. You know, you'restill in and your mind is still
in and because that's whathappens first is like when you
get super weeded like that, thenyou start knocking off tires,
you start running off the sideof the road. I mean, it just
gets worse, the worse you are,the worse, obviously, you're

(17:18):
going to drive. So it's a hugepart of it that I think a lot of
people kind of take for granted.
But you know, in the rallystuff, we got to stay on top of
that.
It's really uh, yeah, and let'stalk about that, too. Like,
before we get into like, some ofthe real hardcore racing stuff
is that when you're doing a howmany days is a dat Carl 14 or
something? 1414. Okay, so whenyou're doing 14, you're not

(17:39):
necessarily always thinkingabout the task immediately in
front of you. You're thinkingabout, like, milestones, and
then the end goal as well, likethat's a pretty hefty weight.
Oh, for sure. I mean, yeah, wehave 14 days of racing. And like
the amount of strategy and theamount of thought process and
stuff like that, that goes intoit, other than actually racing
is huge. I mean, some days youwant to finish in this position,

(18:01):
you don't want to win. And thensome days, we look at the
starting list, and we see who'sin front of us, and we want, you
know, maybe this person go 123.
And then we want to get fourth.
So then we start behind thesepeople, and then try to pass
these two people and get secondthis day. So like the amount of
stuff that goes into a rallylike that, I mean, it's you're
playing games the entire time.
Dude, that's crazy to think,Joe, like how much goes into

(18:24):
that? Because it really ends upbeing like a chess game. Right.
And so that brain fade, youcan't have that?
No, no, honestly, his co driverGustavo, he's got to be a
machine in order because it'sthey're off a rally notes. And
they're off of, you know, Capheadings and all kinds of
different things. You're notreading just a GPS, like we are

(18:45):
over here in Baja, you know whatI mean? But
he's completed numbers at thesame time to see where it what
positions and lead it's like acalculator at the same
time constant constant, there'sa lot going on over there. Yeah.
How doesthat work in the car, then?
Like, is there a lot in yourhead going on? Or are you a
little bit more focused on thetask at hand,
I mean, it's, you know, it's5050. Like, I, I need that

(19:07):
information, I want him to tellme that information as we're
going and I keep it in the backof my head. But at the same
time, if I started thinkingabout anything too much, then
you know, I'm gonna drive offthe side of the road or
something like that. So it'slike, I need to know the
information like we need tostick to the plan, stick to the
plan and not get too excited andlike, go try to rip the doors
off and when the stage becausehalf the time you don't want to
win the stage. You know, thatwas like our plan. This year, a

(19:29):
dat car was doing probably as astage, which we did. And then
for the rest of the time, just,you know, like do stick to our
plan and stick to our strategy.
And it worked out pretty well. Imean, I guess but yeah, it's,
it's tough.
Does that okay? So the strategyreally plays a big part in it.
Does that mean that you alsohave to take into consideration

(19:50):
what the next stage is like ifit's a dune stage or I don't
know what you want, like if it'sa rock stage or whatever, or
like an open stage right?
Yeah, that that, obviously, youknow, it takes a huge
consideration and what we'redoing the day of because like,
we know that if we're going intothe dunes the next day, we
don't, it's so much easier tofollow people in the dunes,

(20:12):
that's just the way it is. Ifyou're opening in the dunes,
you're going to be slower thanthe people behind you following
you because you don't have tocheck in if you see a car going
over and you can't see itanymore, then obviously, there's
a huge drop there. So like youalready know that coming up. So
like on a day where I know thatthe dunes are coming up next,
you want to get like fourthbecause then you can gradually

(20:33):
start the past people you can'tlose too much time because then
you know you're losing time onthe lead and stuff like that. Do
you?
That's wild for me to think Joelike could you be sitting in the
passenger seat going like,alright, we can budget for
minutes, but not six minutes.
Yeah,that's always gonna ask him how,
how mentally difficult is that?
Knowing that you don't want towin that station? Well
isn't Gustavo encourage likehe's the one that's budgeting

(20:55):
those minutes. Like,yeah, so like, he's, he's
budgeting minutes. And he'stelling me but at the end of the
day, I mean, it's on whether Iput my right foot down harder.
Yeah. So like, it's it'sdefinitely I get excited
sometimes. And I'm like, Dude,we gotta go. We gotta go. He's
like, dude, stick to the plan,stick to the plan. And I'm like,
big picture thinking like, youknow, we don't go to rallies to
win stages. We go to rallies wintrophies,

(21:16):
he's sitting over there. He'slike, calm down, kid. Yeah,
exactly.
So you know, you got to stickwith stick with your plan and
like, stick with what you know,and it's gonna work out. So
you that's why is it differentthan when you did have the
success down in Baja is like,massive difference.
Oh, for sure. Because I mean,ba, that's one day, you know,
you got to throw everything atit that you possibly can. Sure.

(21:38):
And ba like you want to, youknow, take it easy. Some places
where you know that you couldcompletely destroy the car and
stuff like that. But at the sametime, it's sprint, you know, you
gotta go. So like that thatmindsets, what I started out
with. And then when I firststarted racing route, blow
myself up on the first or secondday, basically every single
time. So it's different, it's acompletely different mindset.

(22:00):
Now, it's weird. If I go backdown to Baja, or race or race in
the United States, it's, it's atrip trying to go back to that
mindset of like, alright, we'reregarding now, you know,
that is kind of crazy to thinkabout, like, I don't even know
like being a co driver, Joe,would you be able to, like shift
gears like that, because I feellike budgeting time would be the
hardest thing on the frickinplanet.

(22:21):
It's tough, it's really tough.
And I don't know if I'd be ableto hold like you'd like he said,
He's, you've got to hold backinto spots that you know, you
need to hold back on, you knowwhat I mean? And, and
fortunately, with the raiseshere in the States, and in down
in Baja, we can pre run, so weknow what we're coming up
against. Because not going out.

(22:41):
And also they have no idea justlooking at the roadmap, you know
what I mean? And, and that'swhat they got to go off of,
actually, that's a really goodpoint to bring up too. Because,
like meat coming up, like dirtbike racing, right? Like we had
all the time in the world to runpractice to run our first motors
and our second motors, right,and you're just doing laps, and
you kind of it turns into musclememory. At that point, there's a

(23:02):
completely different skill setthat a driver like Austin has
than somebody like myself behindthe wheel, because I would be a
little bit more timid the firsttime I approach something, so
there's a lot of credit thatAustin is due, because he can
just navigate and see that rightoff the bat without even hitting
it once.
Yeah, that's that was one of thebig differences to come in from
racing Baja. And stuff is like,he's gonna tell me when

(23:25):
something's coming up, I mean,for the most part, and stuff
like that, you know,like, unless that's only from a
book that's not from experiencehitting, you know, I'm
saying like, in like, with theGPS, like he knows, you know, we
already know, in this howevermany miles and I know, from pre
running this mile, there's thishuge hole. So like, check out
for it, you know, like a danger.
Yeah, yeah. And then, like inthe rally stuff, unless it says

(23:45):
it on that page of notes thathe's reading, you know, if if I
just like drive blindly, andwait for him to say something,
and there's something maybe notin the roadbook? Or if it's
further away, or something likethat, then like, you know, we're
gonna hit it. Yeah. Like, itreally taught me to look out the
window, you know, and reallylook ahead, as far away
basically, as you possibly can,and then drive to that, and then
take his notes and try to applyit to what I'm already seeing.

(24:09):
Correct.
Like, do you that's why Yeah.
And like UTV, El Paso, WestTexas is saying the same thing.
Like, that's crazy. Butadjusting quick is what makes a
difference between a good driverand a great driver. And that's
what I'm saying. Like, to behonest, I don't know if I have
the skill set to be able toadjust that quickly. Like, do
you think you could havedrivers? Because that's not
that's, that's a massive skillset.

(24:32):
Yeah, like, when you're tryingto adjust that quickly, just
fatigued your mind. You know, Imean, so at the end of the day,
you're just and then the weatherchanges. The road book is made
two, three weeks prior to theevent. And then you get a big
storm that comes through twodays before the race, and then
you have big rain ruts and shitand change.

(24:55):
The notes are all the same, butthe course is completely
different. Soyeah, and that's I just got got
a text message saying theability to read the train and
how important that is like,honestly, I didn't even realize
it. So you must be looking. Soas he's telling you stuff
because Todd was doing a greatjob, right? But like, I always
talk about this, like, how doyou drive in dust? Or like, how
far do you look ahead becausemost people are used to looking

(25:16):
like right in front of theirfender, right? Like, like,
you're probably looking muchfurther ahead than most drivers
would.
Oh, for sure. And that's, that'swhat I was saying is like, I'm
looking way down basically, asfar as I can see, and then
coming back looking at what's infront of me, and then you know,
trying to adjust and going backlike that. So like, yeah, we as
much as many notes as he hasn'tstuff like that. Sometimes

(25:38):
there's mistakes in roadworks orlike you said, sometimes the
road books change, you know,when or rain or something crazy
comes through, and like thiscould be completely different
than like how it was when theymade that book. So if I'm not
looking, you know, all the wayout, and I'm just waiting on him
to say something and waiting,waiting, waiting, we're gonna
hit, it's going to be too late.
So like, I'm adjusting, drivingas far out as I can see, and
then kind of skating backdealing with this, and then

(26:01):
going back again,so yeah, that's crazy. So yeah,
I was just gonna say that, likethe way I'm seeing it in your
head, while like while you'redriving is it let's just say
you're going through a sectionof dunes. And there's 10 Dunes,
you go to like, the seventh oneis where you can see. And then
you see the the five, six, andall the ones back all the way to
two, and then you're like, Okay,I gotta like crash this one. And

(26:22):
then you just mentally noted thesixth one. And you're gonna
figure out how to get there asfast as you get dude, that is so
much to process. That's insane.
Yeah. Andthe whole time, if you think
about a guest, I was reading hisnotes. He's listening. He's not
looking out the window also. Soit's just he he looking out the
window? Pretty much, you knowwhat I mean?
Yeah. And that's the other thingis like, he's got his, you know,

(26:44):
he's got his head down. He'sreading you know, so like, I'm
the only one that's lookingright in front of us. Like, if,
if I don't see something that's,you know, and also at the same
time, we're driving, I'mgenerally driving as fast as the
car will possibly go, you know,for the most part, what are
those, like, things happenquick.
That's what let's, let's breakthat down not to be in the
dunes, then let's just say thatbecause I saw some are actually

(27:05):
really good pictures that yourteam Redbull factory can and
racing took of you guys thisyear, I got to look through one
of your guys drop boxes, and allthat stuff. And there was some
really, really cool areas whereit almost looked like you guys
were going through canyons withCliff rocks on the side. Like,
how do you guys do there?
Because well, I guess you're notgoing at speed, you're probably
a little slower pace. But do youget to take a breath at that

(27:28):
time and like start like calmingyour brain down
a little bit. I get theirs totrack and you can basically see
around the corner and you seewhat it's going to be like then
you can kind of chill and likedeal with what's in front of you
and try to you know, go throughit as fast as possible. Yeah, at
the same time, like I'mconstantly scanning everything
and reading the terrain like asmuch as possible, just like, you

(27:49):
know, every single little thingif we're up against a mountain
over here, and we're goingcrossgrain like that, I know
that there was rain at onepoint. So there's going to be
crossgrain and there's going tobe a G out or something like
that. So you have to look atyour all your surroundings and
everything. And kind of youknow, play it off that and
adjust your driving style. Yeah,it's
kind of crazy. I'm just thinkinglike, in my head. I'm thinking
like when the heck does yourbrain get to breathe, because

(28:11):
like when we were doingSupercross racing, the only time
you get to breathe is whenyou're on a triple. Like, that's
it like you just let off on thefinish line where you lose like
half a second and a half to takea breath. Right. So like when do
you get to mentally read? Idon't know. Give your brain a
rest.
I mean, whenever when you're onthe liaison when we're on the
way is on back and then notreally even when we're on the

(28:32):
liaison back because I'm drivingon the highway and it can him
and there's local traffic andwe're getting smoked by
everybody and I'm trying tododge cars and stuff dodging
camels. Exactly. And then acamel farmer will walk out with
15 camels on the way and yeah,so good early until we get back.
David Van Loon I don't know howto pronounce his last name says
Good day from Pigeon Forge. He'snot in Australia at the moment

(28:54):
though. Man that's crazy. Likejust to think of the racing
prowess that's in your brain insuch a short period of time
since 2018 is pretty phenomenalwhen I think about it because
Joe this is conversations thatlike you would have with like a
Robin Cochran or somebody that'sbeen that can actually process
that stuff because they've beendoing it their whole life.

(29:15):
Right. And Austin hasn't. It'spretty cool to see that he has
those skill sets already.
Yeah, within a short amount oftime that he's been doing and
it's it's insane. You know whatI mean? And fortunately, his
father has been father's alegend and off road, you know,
yeah, exactly. He's got a lot ofinsight and a lot of knowledge
and, and of course, he sharedthat with Austin. And what's

(29:36):
cool is Austin's be able to soakit in and that's what's
escalated awesome so wellso that's kind of one of the one
of the questions I was going totalk about, is it like your love
for off road now? So like, Didyou always love it? I mean, I
knew your dad did it when he wasgrowing up, but
like I liked it, and I thoughtit was cool. And I really
thought it was cool that my daddid and I used to like to look
at the videos and the picturesand stuff like that, but like I

(29:57):
never I was never too into itlike I I was into it. I liked it
a lot. I was never against it. Iwas just so busy doing other
things playing other sports andyou know, just doing the things
that like a kid would do. That Inever, you know, I never even
tried to do well, what were youinto as a kid? Well, I played a
lot of sports. I was telling himearlier, but you know, like
baseball, football, lacrosse,all that kind of stuff. So I was

(30:18):
super into that. Basically, likeall, you know, growing up and
stuff like that in high schooland stuff. So I was super into
that. And then when I finishedcollege, I moved back to
Arizona, and I started workingon my dad's pre runners, you
know, as a job. And that's whereI really figured it out. I'm
like, Oh, this is really sick.
This is really sick. Then I wentdown to Mexico a few times and

(30:39):
got to just go ride around inthe prerunner with him and
stuff. And I'm like, this isreally rad. So that's also
kind of just started growing onYeah. Wow, that's cool. What was
your favorite? Like, justrandom, like you'd like sticking
ball sports? Your skateboardguy? Like, what was your
favorite?
I tried to be a skateboard guyfor a while, but I was never
good at all. Yeah, so and then,you know, I was into BMX bikes

(31:02):
for a long time. I was not greatat that either. But I was super
good at will cross like, Iplayed lacrosse in college and
stuff like that. So I was intothat,
that right there as hand eyecoordination to the fullest. So
that would be where you get someof that visual perspective,
we've actually talked about iton the show a few times, like
the difference between an Elitomac or a regular weekend, dirt

(31:25):
bike rider is the way that theycan visually they have these
visual receptors and how theycan process information at
millisecond level compared toanother person, right. And like,
there's a really, really goodqualification in what you're
talking about, and how youperceive the data that's coming
in when you're looking throughthe windshield, compared to
somebody else, like that's whatsets people apart. And a lot of

(31:46):
people don't even know that theyhave that skill set.
That's interesting to thinkabout, for sure. Yeah, it's
wild and like to go even beyondthat, and we're talking about
the physical stuff. Do you getthe opportunity with any of your
current partners to be able toexpand those physical things and
do that kind of stuff?
Um, some stuff. I mean, I don'tknow like, we do things for here
and there and stuff like thatkind of like other than racing,

(32:07):
some one off events and stuff,but I'm not really so much. And
well, Imean, more like to the effect of
like, let's just say you're aprofessional dirt bike racer,
like Jeremy Martin is known forhaving these crazy vo two
levels, and he can do all ofthis, like you, they put you on
a bicycle, or they put you on arunning machine, and you do all
these tests, right? Does RedBull offer that to you guys? Or
how can you expand your physicalcapabilities through some of

(32:28):
those partners?
Oh, for sure. I mean, over inSanta Monica, Red Bull has the
athlete perform center forathletes. So they want me to
come down I have been to thisyear has been so crazy, I
haven't had the chance to headdown there yet. But soon, I've
actually got an appointmentcoming up. Soon, I'm going to
head down there. And yeah,they've got this crazy gym of
full nutritionist kitchens andall that stuff. And they have

(32:50):
all these trainers thatbasically take whatever sport
that you do that, you know,you're signed to Red Bull for,
and they make you like a planand like how to best you know,
be your best athlete,essentially.
So they can reverse engineer thetasks that you're doing and like
optimize you for those tasks,essentially. And like they even
do they take it as far as evendoing like mental training and
stuff likeJoe, that's scary. That's like
building robots, man. We're justa bunch of racing robots?

(33:15):
Well, like you said, the mentalcapacity is, is there's a lot
going on, going on reading allthat terrain, and reacting to
the car's capabilities. That'sthere's a lot going on,
you know what I would love tosee like, you're a perfect
example of it, right? Becauseyou're already good at what you
do. And you're already Adak, ourchampion like to see like you,

(33:37):
let's just say you go throughthe process, and you start
getting your body in different,you know, physical shape, or
whatever it is. And you takethat and you use that to elevate
you to the next level. And whoknows where you'll be, I don't
know if you'll be driving inthat car or f1. For who knows,
but like, I'm just saying, like,it's cool to see, the level of
progress that you get when it'sthat like, ingrained in your

(33:57):
body would be insanely cool.
Yeah, I mean, that's, and that'sone of the huge like, that's one
of the big pluses about beingsponsored by a company by like
Red Bull is you know, they takethat, that mold and they take
you the extra mile and they dobasically everything that you
wouldn't even think considerdoing and make you like you said
like a robot dude. Dude, I'vebeen noticing a lot. I don't
know if you're like this Joe islike we get older in our years,

(34:18):
we start being addicted todifferent things, right? Like,
maybe when you graduate college,you're addicted to success and
you want a better job and allthis stuff. Well, I've noticed
now that I'm addicted toprogress and to hear this stuff
that he's doing. That soundslike the best progress possible,
especially for a racer guy.
Yeah. 100% physical mental.
That'sthat's so cool. When when Yeah,

(34:40):
but well, you're gonna have tocut down on the tacos and pizza.
No more doughnuts for Austin. Doyou know it big this weekend? I
was feeling bad about it.
What did you do this weekend?
You go to watch the motocross.
Yeah, I cruised over for alittle bit. I didn't stay very
long. I just screws over watch acouple of the race. CES
unveiled. Yeah, but yeah, it wasit was sick, busy guy

(35:03):
over here. So well, that's coolman. Like, I appreciate that you
can utilize all the stuff thatyou grew up doing right. And I'm
sure there was so many thingsthat you did as a child with
your parents or with your dadand you know, like, even you
know, Joe and like learning allthese different things because
you're out there having a goodtime playing in the desert. And

(35:24):
honestly, man, that's what ouraudience does. Like we love
being able to go out on theweekend. I don't know if you
guys can see it very good onInstagram, you can keep your
phone sideways. But, you know,these two vehicles that you have
behind us, they're not even racecars, and you have a good time
on thesethings. Yeah, that's what I was
telling you earlier is like,it's crazy that like as much as
many miles as I drive a year,and like every, you know,
basically every month in racesand how it's my job, this is

(35:46):
still what I want to go do onthe weekends as I want to go
drive my Kandam and I want to goout with my friends and stuff
like that out to the desert andJoe Ken hams. So I got Yeah, I
mean, I'm I'm into it now. Likethat's cool again to it,
then that I know everybodythat's watching this and Joe,
you do it too. Like we're bigenthusiast guys, for
sure. For sure. And that'swhat's helped him accelerate so

(36:08):
much is the love for the sportnice because he cares. Yeah, he
cares. He loves doing it. Andthat just progresses into what
he does foractually, this is a good
question just for my personalbenefit. So I'm building a new
Pro are right now. And it'sactually here in Phoenix. So
it's going to stop where shouldI take it if I'm going to start
driving it around here?
Man, it kind of depends on whatkind of terrain you want to

(36:30):
cruise. I mean, if you're goingif you're going for the dunes,
then I would say go out to Yuma.
You know, humans got all thosedunes.
I kind of want to just go likeif I'm going on a trail ride,
I'm just gonna go on a leisureride with my stop and have lunch
somewhere like, are you can youset me up somewhere around here
that's close to Phoenix areaaround here. Like just just the
other day I went out and I did abunch of miles with Ken em and
some people over in Cave Creek.

(36:52):
So like right outside ofScottsdale in Cave Creek,
Arizona did. There was some ofthe sickest trails and these
canyons and you go right, oh,they have the red rock and stuff
up there too. Right? Yeah. Andthere's a river that flows
through it. And there's allthese roads and all these trails
that go up to it. It was so raddude, I'd be big into that. That
would actually be super cool.
All right, Joe, you're gonnahave to bring your side by side
up here and we're all gonna haveto hit it. Yeah. That does sound

(37:14):
like fun. Maybe that's what weshould do is see one weekend and
Austin's off. Maybe he's off onthe Saturday and we'll do a dirt
life ride out there. That'd besick. All right, so how much
effort does it actually take toyou to reach that professional
level? Because you've done ityou're a dat Car champion. Now
you've obviously had success inBaja and stuff but do you

(37:37):
consider yourself at theprofessional level? Are you
trying to get higher like what'sthe what's the end goal?
Well, I mean I'm always tryingto get higher for sure trying to
always push it as far as I canbasically take it and be the
best that I possibly can be butI mean, at this point Yeah, I do
consider myself a professionalyou know, this is what I
dedicate all my time. Basicallyall my effort into is you know

(37:59):
racing these cars so Idefinitely consider myself a
professional but it's not notanywhere where I want to be you
know, like you know, to Dakarwins is cool, but I would rather
have 10 You don't i mean i thatkind of deal so like it's it's
cool where we're at but thenstill like I was telling you
earlier I still consider myselfpretty new to this like once I

(38:20):
get as experienced as some ofyou guys then maybe you know
things will change a little bitbut for right now I'm still
hungry. So I'm down to just doeverything possible to be the
best racer that I possibly canand get as many wins and you
know do as good as possible.
That's Spoken like a truechampion right Joe? For
sure. For sure. Do you set neargoals or goals way far out? Or

(38:43):
what what do you kind ofon both honestly so I mean, like
the goal this year, every deckare you want to win DAC are
obviously that's that's kind ofshort term, but then every like
long term, want to win the WorldChampionships. So that's, you
know, a combination of all theWorld Championship stops all the
rallies that we do is to winthis world championships. So
that's the goal right now. Andthen as far as like, you know,

(39:04):
the following years go and stufflike that. I don't really know
I've got goals and stuff likethat. But for right now, and
just trying to try to stayfocused on what I'm doing. Do
the best. Yeah, that'sa good mindset to have. Just
throw a shout out real quick toMichelle Hughes, man, Bryce
Menzies, Brittany, like, we gotsome cool people watching to
kind of share in the stories,right, so shout out to all those

(39:24):
guys. But it is cool tounderstand that man, because
everybody has a different way oflooking at things right. And I
think a lot of the benefit of ushaving the dirt life show is to
help the younger generations,right? Like we have a lot of
kids that watch the show orlisten to the show, and get
advice from drivers like you andathletes or ambassadors,
whatever you because you'redoing all of it right? Like you

(39:45):
have to be a well roundedperson. And whenever I hear
those things like what Joe'ssaying is asking you if you have
milestones and stuff. I feellike those are some of the
things that benefit people themost is because the kids may or
may not understand they justwant to go out and win but they
Don't know how to do it? Isthere a certain procedure that
you go through that can helpother people like, during the
week I have to focus on thistask, then on the weekend I have

(40:07):
to focus on this task or like,how does it work out for for
you, for sure.
I mean, you got to be you haveto be, honestly, at first pretty
regimented. And you have to doall the things that you need to
do that mix. Just have a goodracer off road. And you know, as
far as that goes, I would saymentally is number one, like off
road racing. In racing, I feellike in general is for me, like

(40:29):
75%, mental, and then twodriving aspects.
Well, can you talk about thatmental one real quick? Like, do
you mean you have to be mentallystrong? Do you have to be
resilient? Like, it's likehappy, sad, good legs, emotional
roller coaster, you have to fix?
Like,yeah, so like, you have to be
able to, you know, control youremotions and stay calm. I mean,
that's the most important thingthat I've learned so far is
like, back when I first started,you know, I'd get a flat, and

(40:51):
then it would be just downhillfrom there, like sitting there
screaming in my helmet, like,it's over, it's over, it's over,
it's over. And then there wouldbe, you know, 300 miles left of
that day, like, so I give youand then everything just goes
downhill after that. So you gotto be able to control your
emotions have a very shortmemory, like, okay, that
happened, we're good to go. Youknow what I mean? Yep. So like,

(41:12):
that's a big thing. And justYeah, resiliency, like not
everything is going to beperfect every day. And there's,
you're gonna have problems in ain a race like that car, 14 days
through the terrain that we'regoing through, you're gonna have
a bad day, something's gonnahappen. That's not perfect, for
sure.
And even on the other end of it,like what you're talking about,
like in the shop, too, because alot of these teams are just

(41:35):
operating out of their mom anddad's garage, right? Like, just
to be resilient in that aspect,too. Like, if you break the car
on the weekend, and you have tofix it next week. Don't get mad
about having to fix it, getpumped on fixing it better,
I was just gonna say that's sogood for you. I mean, like,
especially in the sport that wedo off road racing, and like
rally racing, where you are theonly person like, you know, your

(41:55):
co dog, too. But you know, yougot to get out and you got to
work on the car. Like, if youknock off a radius arm or
something like that you guys,the quicker you can change it,
the quicker that you're going tobe back on the track. So that's
a huge opportunity. And a hugepart of racing that, like, you
know, it separates a lot ofpeople from being really good
drivers. And really, you know,really successful race was

(42:16):
little results, as opposed tonot is they you know, they can't
work on the car. Yeah. So like,that's a huge part of it. So
like, yeah, I would say, like,don't get pissed that you rip a
corner off or something likethat, you know, it's a bummer.
But at the same time, it givesyou an opportunity to learn how
to do that and fix it asefficiently and as quickly as
possible. And then once you havethat procedure down, then you

(42:36):
and your co dog can be out thereand you can swap an arm out that
quick and be back on.
And it sounds like you're beingaccountable to because you're
like, Okay, mental note. I'm notgoing to make that same mistake
again.
Yeah. And then you learnobviously, you know, we've
learned from our mistakes. Solike, once you do that, and you
know, you have to fix it andthen get back on it. You get
back you lost 1520 minutes onthe stage. You're like, alright,
well, I'm not gonna do thatagain.

(42:56):
Yeah, exactly. Joe, you knowthis because you sat with so
many good racers. Like that's amassive talent to have due to, I
can't say how rare that is,honestly.
Yeah. No, it's, it's it's major.
And like you say, it's, it's notreally a negative, because
you're learning from it right?
And learn, like you said, you'relearning from your mistakes. So

(43:19):
there's no real reason. Yeah, ofcourse, you're in the heat of
the moment you get upset and getpissed off. But like you said,
it happened. You can't changethat. Yeah, it just happened.
It's just gonna look forward anddo the best you can with what's
in front of you.
Yeah, you know, it's funny too,is like we used to always talk
about this in dirt. bike racingis like the best thing about a
dirt bike racers do, they havethe attention span and the
memory of a gnat? Because youcan't, you can't remember the

(43:41):
last corner otherwise, you'renot gonna go through the next
corner. Good. You know, like, sothat's kind of cool that this is
the same thing for you guys. Andlike, I can see it being that
much more valuable, especiallyin those rally races because you
really don't have any. I don'tknow what you want to call it
muscle memory or understandingof what's in front of you.
Yeah, because I mean, you don'tknow it gets a lot better or it
could get a lot worse. So Imean, what are you going to do

(44:03):
about it? You're gonna freak outabout it, or are you just gonna
go Yeah, exactly. There's reallynot much choice. Well, so
2018 has been only five yearsaway but we were talking with
your dad earlier and he wastelling us you've got you've
raced our car four times I thinkdone for your dad cars and your
champion and two of them how didthe other ones go was how did

(44:25):
your first one go? And thesecond one
so my first car I ended upgetting eighth so yeah, I got
eighth my first car and that wasthe first year that it was out
in Saudi Arabia. So that was in2020. Okay, I got eighth we had
some problems with the car andstuff like that. But I mean, for
the most part, it was a cleanrun and just got out ran you
know, those guys they're soexperienced and they knew what

(44:47):
they were doing so then I didtons of training like went
absolutely insane was out in Ihad a different navigator than I
do at the time. dude named KevinWalsh. You might know him. Yeah.
And you And I went out to Nevadaand basically every time that
Kellen could that he was offwork, we would go and do road
books. There's, you know,there's a pretty small community

(45:08):
of people that have road bookshere in the United States, but a
lot of them are in Nevada. Soand obviously, if you ever been
in Nevada, there's a lot ofdesert there. Yeah. So we would
just go run road books for youknow, I'd take my truck out
there with a trailer on my car,and we would stay for as many
days as I possibly could untilhe had to go back to work. And
we just run 1000s of miles andjust put in the time, put in the

(45:30):
time, try to get better try toget better. And then, yeah, and
then my second car that was in2021. And I got second. So that,
you know, that's that wasprobably
like, what, like, so let'sactually talk about two things.
When you get a, Does thatmotivate you? Does that depress
you? Like, where do you go withthat?

(45:50):
Oh, and that, that goes back tothe mental thing, you know, is
like it, it, it should bummed meout, like, it's a bummer. You
know, and especially if youthink that you could do better,
like in yourself, you think thatyou could have done better than
Yeah, you know, it should bummedme out. And it should motivate
you. It's like, you don't wantthat to happen again. So yeah,
because a good racer wants towin, for sure. So like, you
know, and you want to do as goodas you possibly can. So like, I

(46:12):
felt that that wasn't the bestset up I could have possibly
done and right there. I waslike, Dude, there's never going
to be another time that I'mbehind, you know, or in a rally
where we finish and I'm like,shit, like, I could have done
more like, I could have triedharder, I could have done this,
or I could have, you know,trained would have been more
done something different to geta different result. Because I
feel like I could do better.
I feel like that's massive forpeople to understand is just use

(46:34):
that as motivation. For sure. Sothen you go and you do use it as
motivation, you get up to asecond place spot. And that's
almost winning, right? But like,does that like, actually, you
know, what, what did you dobetter to get to that second
spot.
Just, you know, I managed a lotbetter, I learned a lot about
racing car, I learned a lotabout racing a race that was,

(46:55):
you know, 14 stages, and, andkind of went about it a
different way, you know, triedto, you know, the strategy
really came into play that year,and just kind of came in with it
with a different mindset. Andthat really helped a lot. And
obviously, you know, all themiles and stuff like that
training that helped my drivingthat you know, I was quicker for
sure. So it'shonestly, Joe, this. There's a

(47:15):
lot that's going on in thisconversation that I think that
we should understand. And you'reprobably getting the same,
you're hearing the same stuffthat I am is the physical and
the preparation portion of it.
To me it sounds like it's almosteasier than training your brain
into train your visualperspective and all these
different things that happen inyour head.
Yeah, no, I say that. He wasjust mentioning that the year he

(47:37):
finished second, totally changedhis mindset. As far as
preparation, you know, I mean,and going into the race, knowing
how to how to manage the rallybetter. You know, and of course,
it's physical stamina. And themore seat time required doing
all the training helped with themental is more my opinion

(48:02):
when you have the opportunity.
So Joe, you've sat like I saidin the right seat? Well, I mean,
you've learned a lot to fromBryce Menzies and Oren Anderson,
and like all these guys, sinceyou're able to put yourself in a
position with some of these guysto how do you leverage that to
make it the better for you? Areyou able to ask them certain
questions and kind of get agauge on understanding how they
do things and put that as partof your process?

(48:25):
Oh, for sure. Yeah. Like, firstoff. I like to ride with
everybody. Like I like to, Ilike to ride. I like to see how
people do different things. Oh,you're talking about being a
passenger? Oh, yeah. Yeah, likea lot of drivers. They don't
like to ridemental note. All these kids are
saying no, all they want to dois drive. There's a very
valuable lesson to be learnedhere being a co driver,
for sure. And you know, I liketo when we're out training or

(48:48):
Shakedown and stuff like that,like I let my navigator Gustavo,
like, you know, I've read withhim or I've rode with him
before. So like, he canunderstand what I'm feeling and
stuff like that. So when hetells me things, he has a better
idea of what I've got in myhands. You know what I mean?
To that's actually a prettyamazing tip right there for all
of our listeners, and the kidsknow what what's really cool is
he's able to take that ride withsomebody and and absorb it and

(49:10):
change his driving style tocompensate, you know, take a
little bit from here and alittle bit from there and just
put it all together.
Yeah. Yeah, that probably doestoo. So it probably puts you I
don't want to say this, like alot of kids think they can
drive. I thought I could drivelike those things and it puts
you it gives you a differentperspective. Like maybe you

(49:32):
think you're good and then allof a sudden you drive or
somebody's badass, you're like,Fuck, I suck. Yeah, you know
what I mean? Because I was so Iwas a professional short course
driver, right? And take that asthe literal term. It was a
professional series and we weredoing professional racing. I got
to drive with Rob McCracken in asway bar disconnected Turbo S

(49:53):
right around a short coursetrack, and I considered myself a
complete beginner just afterseeing how he saw Have the wheel
and use his feet. He was barelymoving the process that he had
going on in his head and the waythat he could think and further
ahead than I could ever think inmy brain just totally taught me
and put me in my place. AndGeorge, if you were ever going
to get to that level, you neededmany, many more years of

(50:16):
experience. Yeah, so that couldbe like What the what people
learn from what you're saying,too, is just be a sponge and be
willing to accept that you haveplenty of growth.
100% Yeah, don't think thatyou're, you know, super badass
because you're probably not andthere's people that are a lot
better than you.
That guy had the camera, theeverybody's around the garden of
their campsite at the dance,for sure. It's crazy. I've had

(50:36):
the opportunity to ride withlots of people, you know, Bryce
Menzies, Larry Raglin, JesseJones, you know, John herder, a
bunch of guys that are fast.
They're all fast. But they'refast in different ways. Yeah.
You know what I mean? And likeyou say, you know, riding with

(50:56):
with Bryce, we were tested onenight for the Baja 1000. And
just calm and collected. Justnice and chill. She looked out
the window, and you're like, Oh,yeah. Like, we are cruising. We
are gettingit. And you ride with somebody
else. And you're still getting,but he's over there song at the
wheel. And he's, you know what Imean? So it's like,

(51:18):
yeah, it looks like they got anMMA dude, like fight going on in
the driver's seat. Exactly.
It's,it's two different styles. And
if you can take that in andinterpret it in your own driving
style, and make something outthere, that's awesome.
Yeah, it's cool. So I love that,that you're able to just put
yourself in a position whereyou're just willing to learn. So

(51:38):
whether it's sitting in thedriver's seat, or the passenger
seat, you just want to keep,like excelling and moving
forward. So it kind of soundslike you are addicted to
progress.
Oh, for sure. I mean, it couldonly help you don't I mean, it
can't hurt you at all. What areyou going to do? You know, so I
can get help. And if you want tobe better than that's what you
want, you know, you want help?
There's nothing wrong with that.
And you'reprobably even looking at some of
the negative things like, notthat anybody that you ride with

(52:01):
has negative things, but let'sjust use the Bryce Menzies for
an example. If he makes amistake, and you guys will see
it, and then you learn fromthat, too. Like, that's actually
really positive as well, forsure. Yeah.
I mean, yeah, everything thatyou learn, like, literally like,
well, you keep on saying just bea sponge, you know, good, bad.
Otherwise, just learn everythingyou possibly can from as many
people as you possibly can. Andthen kind of make your own style

(52:24):
and form your own, like craft atit. And didn't, your set,
that's cool, man. Well, let'skind of change the subject a
little bit here. So we'resitting in your shop, I'll
change the camera angle around alittle bit. So you guys can kind
of see some of the stuff that'sgoing on, we got a welding
table, some welders back here,obviously, you got the cams and
stuff, we got some machines backthere, you've been doing some

(52:44):
pretty cool stuff. This is agood angle, it's frozen. But
that's a good angle of some ofthe stuff in the back of the
shop. You guys have some somepretty cool stuff that you do
during the day as well, likeyou're starting to build parts.
And it's pretty neat to see thatyou're that invested in off
road.
Yeah, there's a lot going onover here every day. So like if
we're not working on the carsright now like prepping them for

(53:05):
you know, the next ride or thenext media shoot or something
like that, then yeah, we weredoing some CNC work. So coming
up soon here, and not yetbecause we're still in testing,
making prototypes and stuff likethat. But coming up soon, we're
gonna start coming out withparts here, my own branded
parts. So I think for Kennyhams, and I think that they're
going to be really good,because, you know, I've got a

(53:26):
lot of experience a lot of milesand these cars, and I kind of
know the things that I wouldlike different and the things
that, you know, I would dodifferently if I was making
parts. So we've got the CNCmachine in here. And, you know,
we've got really good guysworking for us. And I kind of
taking the things that I'msaying and drawing them out
making parts. So I think they'regoing to be around

(53:47):
well and like say, and theyshould be because you have the
experience of being out there inSaudi Arabia changing this part
that failed. And knowing why itfailed, and now you're
interpreting into a new drawinginto a new part. Yeah, it's not
just not always just putting abigger Homejoy it's sometimes
locating the highest joy andtwit clocking it like a couple
millimeters different orwhatever.

(54:07):
Exactly. So that's being an hehas experience on on the parks
that he's building isphenomenal. Yeah.
And I've broken basicallyeverything. More than one time
in Austin approved. Yeah,exactly. So I get you know, I've
taught some stuff up before solike, I've got a pretty good
idea of where things need to bechanged and how they could be

(54:29):
better and, and I think they'regonna look sick. Yeah, on top of
everything. Sowho doesn't love like billet is
just like, it's guys jewelry.
Right? UTV, El Paso, West Texasasked if there's a website or
something I think you guys saidmaybe started Instagram in the
next like after you had a littlebit more ready or whatever?
Yeah, yeah. So it's coming soon.
So yeah, thank you, and I'll letyou know.

(54:49):
Yeah, just make sure you'refollowing Austin's page and
he'll probably post somethingabout it. That kind of brings me
up to like a totally differentthing. On the way here. I was
passing Ace Hardware and I waslike, dude, Southern California
has no Ace Hardware is I missedGood Ace Hardware. I missed me a
good air Arizona Ace Hardware.
There's that one right there andlike all when we're working on
something like it's usually likea joke like how many times we're

(55:10):
gonna hit a stud? Yeah. Becauselike, I'll go up there I'll buy
a bunch of stuff come back andthen you know, 15 minutes later
be like, Oh, I forgot that orwrong thing. And then crews back
I need more Loctiteor 16 little tiny screws. Yeah,
exactly.
Get the wrong ones. Yeah,something great like that. So
it's funnybecause I guarantee every single
one of us has the same problem.

(55:30):
Man. Oh, you know, we weretalking about before not to
change the subject again. Butsome of the people that are
watching might remember a placecalled Thrasher land Motocross
Park. That was right down thestreet like Arizona bringing
back so many memories. This tripfor me. Yeah. You guys remember
that track?
I do. There's some good racingout there real Sandy? Yeah,
fast. It was. It was good time.

(55:50):
I remembered I remember. Likedriving pass it on. glendo right
there.
Did you ever do any two wheelstuff like did you get out and
ride orlike I've done some show riding
and stuff like that. I've neverraced any type of dirt bikes or
motocross or anything like that.
But you know, some trail ridinghere and there just like as
normal people do, you know,going on cruise.
Are you still a big likeSupercross motocross fan or,

(56:12):
yeah, like I'm super intoSupercross. And like, I like
watching it on TV. You're askingme if I went the other day, like
I went for a little bit, butthen I'm like, Dude, I could
watch this at home. The TVcoverage is pretty good.
Coverage is really good. So I'mlike sitting there and I'm like,
Alright, so like, I watched itat home and stuff like that. You
know, I'm super into it. Butyeah, I just I never did a grown
up.
Yeah. So it doesn't have thesame connection like Joe and I

(56:33):
are big supergrass.
And that's that's another thingriding riding dirt bikes, our
whole lives. The going back tothe mental, you know what I
mean? You're looking way out,you're not looking right here in
front of the fender, you'relooking further out. Because,
you know, by the time you seeit, you got to be able to react
to,especially in the desert stuff,

(56:53):
like I didn't have too muchexperience in the desert. But
like, I can totally see whatyou're saying. Like I've talked
to guys like, Max, Eddie, andyou know, Baja champions on on
motorcycles. And, you know, wegot to hang out with Bray back a
little bit on Saturday, like,the way that those guys perceive
the terrain is completelydifferent. And their physical
ability to be able to move thatquick as things approach is
freaking wild.

(57:15):
Yeah, the bike guys are adifferent breed. Like, my dad
carted those guys are animals.
You have you, like, have youseen how fast they go if you're
been near them or anything likethat when they're out there.
So I got been the guys I passthe people that I passed when
I'm out because they start hoursahead of us, okay, so like the
way that the bikes work at thatcar is like first son, so like,

(57:36):
they could really time it off ofthe sunrise. So like, first sun
as soon as it's, you know,bright out, and they go, Oh,
really, they'll do the liaisonin the dark. And then boom, they
go right after that. So like theguys that I'm passing are the
people that I'm passing, youknow, starting a couple hours
later, are people that aren'tgoing too fast? Yeah, where they
had an issue or something or hadan issue. Yeah, so

(57:57):
those big dudes have some cutholidays do to be able to go
that fast.
It's so gnarly. I mean, you seesome of the videos of them like
going through sections and someof their get off that they have
dude are so gnarly and pop up,and then they keep going and
then they proceed for 10 moredays felt like Gumby. I'm like
yeah, we talked to Skyler houseand we talked to him the other

(58:19):
day. And he was like, Oh my God,dude. Like that guy is so
gnarly. And he's just mellow.
Like,yeah, he's a chiller. Yeah. And
he acts like such a chiller andthen you go out and you see what
he's doing every day and stufflike that. And some of the time
just throwing down there I didsomething wrong with you guys
are insanebecause he goes that fast. So I
kind of have two questions herebut like I want to end with a

(58:40):
question like do you plan to dolike the T ones like the cars
and stuff but did you ever thinkthat side by side racing was
going to be this crazy?
No, I definitely I had no ideabecause I mean I started out I
you know I don't I didn't havevery much experience in the side
by side you know, even with thelittle experience I've had in

(59:01):
general like I started out intrucks. So I got started off
with Trophy Truck specs. So Inever really had any idea about
how big this was you know andhow competitive it was going to
be and how the progression of itall I mean I can't em back then
was what it is and now I can'teven now is what it is now and
it's the the progression thatthey've had is absolutely insane

(59:23):
and the way that they work andeverything that I do to those
cars dude and they still keepgoing I like top performance do
all those days it's insane to meit's pretty crazy and Joe you'll
get along with this is like soToyota Hilux is a T one class is
that usually who does the bestright and they got the different
other cars like what SebastianLoeb drives, I don't know what
it is b rx. Like they're on adifferent level still, but to

(59:45):
see the gaps kind of close upand to see that sometimes the
side by sides can like cutthrough like little areas and
stuff like Joe That's prettyamazing.
It is it is and that's, youknow, they're all wheel drive.
They're light. They'remaneuverable. Oh, and, ya know,
like you said, the, theprogression of the whole
suspension and the steering andthe brakes and, and they're

(01:00:08):
fast. I mean they run good 200horsepower, you know what I
mean? And it's, it's pretty neatand it just keeps going. Yeah,
totally. I figured it would, uh,there was a craze for a while
and it would have kind ofsettled down. Just settling
down. Yeah, it just keepsprogressing. And I just just
came back from Baja for the SanFelipe 250. Yep. And the amount

(01:00:29):
of UTVs that were there wasinsane. Mind blowing, and super
high quality parts just ascrazy. Go down there. Awesome.
No, I didn't make it down therethis year. I wasn't racing, so.
And all you know what I was inTexas for that. For the ranch
scramble. I was thinking whydidn't I go down? Yeah, I was in
Texas for that short horse racein the cam that was wild.

(01:00:52):
How did you like that? BecauseI've been there. And I've helped
out with that track and stuff.
Like I actually liked thefacility a lot. That whole
that whole area was super sick.
Yeah, like everything that theydid there was sick. I've never
tried short course before. I'venever driven a car like that. I
had never been that close toother people at the same time
that many other people at thesame time. You know, like
completely different thananything I've ever done. And all

(01:01:13):
I can say is I definitely wantto try again. I want a little
bit more practice before I tryto go races, you know, the big
boys out there. But it was a lotof fun. And I think you know, we
did decent for my first time.
So Joe knows a lot about shortcourse. But like the adrenaline
rush that you get going intolike let's just say the first
turn with the Miller brothersand like all those other cannamd

(01:01:34):
factory guys did is pretty wild.
Because Dude, you're like inchesare hitting each other, like
just never shut down.
Yeah. Now there was one therewas a heat race where I was with
this one dude and a Honda andthen Mitch and the Polaris. And
I won the whole shot and theysqueezed it on me and we all
three boom, bounced off down themain straightaway. And I was

(01:01:55):
like, I remember like the I hada spotter in the radio, you
know? And he's like, just holdyour line. Just hold your eye
and just hold her on. And I waslike, dude, boom, and we all
just bounce the news. So gnarly.
Yeah, that's crazy. It's like,way more way different of racing
style, right? Because I thinkwhat would we used to call like,
it was like MMA on four wheelswhile you were like that Lucas

(01:02:17):
Oil stuff. And I missed thosedays though. That's cool that
you got to experience it. Youlike it?
Dude, I liked it a lot. Idefinitely I want to try it
again. Like if we had anotherone of those especially out
there if I got that track inTexas who was sick.
That track is pretty sweet.
Yeah. Cool. The way that theyhave it What about like, because
it's a little bit more centerbecause you gotta go up to jump
super fast. And then like,sometimes you got to scrub or
break. Like sometimes you got tohit the gas. Like how do you

(01:02:39):
like all that stuff?
Yeah, so like, it was definitelyagain, it was different. Yeah,
my mind I might do just send itoff these jumps like as hard as
you can every time. And then westarted doing like more practice
laps more practice laps. And I'mlike, oh, you know, if I scrub
this one. Yeah, don't just landon the flat every single time
that I might be able to get somemore speed into this corner.

(01:02:59):
Yep. So yeah, I was picking itup.
Quick learner over here, Joe.
Yeah. Dude, have you seen any ofthe new side by side racing
they're doing it's almost likemotocross like short course.
I've seen some of that. Yeah,it's it's a lot of airtime. It's
cool, though. It's supercool. What about like when you
were going in and some of thosecorners and they give you? I
don't know if they call itmobiles or oops, and side by
side. But then you're goingthrough the whoops, and it

(01:03:21):
starts to upset the car. Like,how did you like feel about that
off for me? I mean, that's finefor me. Like, I'm good with the
whoops. Like that's a problemfor me. Like that was the part
where I actually knew what to dothere is like, you know, we go
because you got to kind of timeit with your feet. Yeah, you got
to like kind of try to skipacross the top. Yeah. And yeah,
so I mean, that was that wascool with me. But it's crazy.

(01:03:42):
Because those cars are you know,they're this far off the ground.
Yeah. So it was, it was prettywild ride for a lot of them. But
it was cool. And Lucas,I think our ride Heights had to
be nine and a half inches iswhat it was. Yeah, we would do
like, yeah, and we would do like9.75 or something. And then
because at the mud at the end ofthe race, they attack you again.
And you were like barelysqueezing that 9.5 or whatever
it was. It was crazy, man. Butit's way different on your body

(01:04:05):
inside the car, because you'relike, I don't know, it's was it
more adrenaline for you? Or no,for
sure. I mean, it's just it's,you know, it's, I don't know if
scary is the right word, butit's it's nerve racking, you
know, going into a corner with,like, 20 other cars around you
and nobody's giving an inchlike, nobody's gonna bail out of

(01:04:25):
it, you know. So like, we're allgoing into this first corner.
And as it was a little bitgnarly,
did you get to go talk to any ofyour camp teammates like Hunter
Miller or Cody Miller and getsome pointers?
Oh, yeah, I was with those guysthe whole time. And like I
tried, you know, I tried to getpointers, and they were super
cool. And they wanted to helpand stuff like that, because
they knew that they were gonnasmoke me so I didn't care. You

(01:04:45):
know, give me some secrets andstuff like that. So yeah, I
mean, I learned a lot from themtoo. Like, it was cool. It was
cool. So yeah, I appreciatewere you able to pick up on any
of like, like corner entry andcorner exit, and all that
for sure. And you know what?
really helped is my friendAndrew short was out there moto
guy. He lives out in Texas andhe actually came out because his
son was racing one of the, likethe kid classes the following

(01:05:08):
week. And he took a lot ofvideos of like the millers, and
like the dudes that were upfront, and then he took videos
of me coming around, and he'slike, see duty, like, you're
here, and you need to be here.
These guys are out here on thiscorner, and you're here and
stuff like that. So that reallyhelped a lot. And I feel like,
you know, shorty, obviously theSupercross guy. But I feel like

(01:05:30):
he just do corner shape andthings like that he had such a
better understanding of that andshowing me those videos and
trying to kind of coach methrough that, that helped. Dan,
you canlearn as the track progresses,
right, like so if it's rougheror smoother, or wet or dry, or
whatever it is. It's kind ofcrazy. Like, it brings me back
to like my old short course daysto like understanding where the
apex is, are and where you cangain speed and stuff. I think

(01:05:51):
that's cool that you learn thatstuff, because I feel like
that'll help you in that carstuff, too.
Oh, for sure. I mean, there'ssome sections like again, like
these rallies, they have alittle bit of everything. So I
mean, there's definitely somelike, you know, road sections,
where we're, you know, flippingit around some corners pretty
good. And then I think thatcan't help or
hurt. So it kind of reminds me,you and I and our buddies going

(01:06:13):
to indoor kart tracks. Yep. Andwe try to chase you down and
learn in lines and just focusingon you know, I mean, you get
your lap times. Yeah. Okay.
Well, I can do this different.
Yeah, that's fun.
We should do that, too. SoMichael, we will schedule a side
by side ride one of these days,but maybe we should schedule a k
one speed day too. Good. Are yougood?
i That's another thing that Ihaven't done like I've done it

(01:06:33):
when I was a kid. But I'd neverever since I started actually
racing as a job I've never beenDude, we gotta get you out there
that drive? Yeah, that might bea little bit more fun. So let's
bring everybody out. We mightnot be able to bring like some
of our old friends because ourfriends and he got aggressive
did try to blow you out. Go intok one speed, man. Man, I miss

(01:06:56):
some of these Arizona times.
Yeah. So like talking about theside by side racing and blowing
up? Like to get back to what Iwas asking you? Do you have
ambitions to race in any othertypes of racing or any other
classes?
Um, yeah, I mean, for sure. Ithink that, you know, the
natural progression of thingswould be eventually being a T
one car. But honestly, right nowI'm super happy with Ken Ham,

(01:07:17):
I've got a really goodrelationship with the factory
and everybody over at Ken Ham.
So right now they're takingreally good care of me. So I'm
pretty happy where I'm at withthem driving those cars. But you
know, maybe one day, you know, acouple years down the road or
something like that we can seeif anything comes up
some other guys, Toby musicaland like his son, or his dad,

(01:07:38):
like they want to come out andgo to K one speed but they live
in Australia. So they need aweek's notice to get a fly. That
would be fun. Um, well, as wetalked about the same thing like
a T one cars Michonne rightthere so fast, like in the trash
trucks are super cool, like allthese things. But when you look
at the progression of side bysides, they're closing the gap,
right? So and now you havecannamd coming out with a new

(01:08:02):
car, they have the Pro RS propro R with a four cylinder. Who
knows, man, maybe just keep therelationship going. And that gap
will get close enough that youdon't even need a T one car,
right? Like you're already up atthose speeds?
Well, yeah. And that's, that'sone thing. And then the other
thing is, is like with the cams,and the T three and the T four
class, I mean, if you look atthe times from the last couple

(01:08:23):
of cars were this is the mostcompetitive classes or the UTV
classes, you know. So like, Idon't know, I feel like it's a
little bit more in that way,like a driver's class, instead
of just like who's got the mostbadass car, and you know, who
can hold it together. And thetime to be also crazy and stuff
like that. I mean, like, we'reall you know, we're all pretty
consistently out there at theend of the day. So I feel like

(01:08:45):
it kind of boils down to thedriver and their ability a
little bit more as well as theNavigator. You know, like in
rallying, the navigator is ahuge part of it. So I think that
that's pretty cool about it.
Like I'm super into that ideathat like it's not just the car
and you're not just blowingeverybody's doors off because
you've got a better car. Likewe're all essentially in, you
know, very similar cars, and itcomes down to the driver and the

(01:09:05):
Navigator.
I feel like that's cool, though.
Like, we never really had thisopportunity and offer that we do
in the last five years. Joe,like everything is coming
together and blowing up to besomething Well, good for
everyone.
For sure. For sure. Just likeyou didn't you mentioned
earlier, the progression of theUTV industry. And in two years

(01:09:26):
who knows what they're gonna be.
Yeah, exactly. They've beenprogressing in the last five
years is insane. So it's justyou know what I mean?
I always like I always liked thesequential gearbox of the
Yamaha. I just hope that some ofthe other manufacturers throw in
one of those bad boys dunebecause that definitely start
cutting some of those gaps downlike against like some of the

(01:09:46):
bigger cars and stuff. We kindof talked about this a little
bit, but I'd like to understandhow you keeps you have such a
busy schedule and you're gettingpulled in a million different
directions and it's not justlike, you write everything down
on on a calendar and you havethis set day, they could tell
you, you have to do somethingtomorrow and you have to adhere
to it, right? Like how do youkeep such a mindset that you're

(01:10:07):
focused on the task at hand tobe able to achieve these things,
because we have a lot of kids ora lot of different racers that
listen to this, that have to goto school, they have to their
job, they have to work out,right, and all these different
things to be able to achievetheir goals. And I think having
a mindset like yours would bevery beneficial to them.
For sure, I mean, you just gottayou gotta compartmentalize, you

(01:10:29):
know, your, your priorities yougot to do, you got to get done,
what you got to get done. Firstoff, you know, first and
foremost, and then you got tostay focused. I mean, it's super
important to stay focused, andmake sure that you're doing the
things that you need to do everyday to be, you know, as as
successful as you can possiblybe. Right? And if that means
that, you know, tomorrow, youhave to fly to Tennessee to do a

(01:10:50):
scramble event for Red Bull andgo drive around the rocks, then
I mean, youdo or even if you just have your
homework that's due tomorrow,it's more important thing. Yeah.
I mean, you got to do what yougot to do. And like, I think
that everything that you do,like, whether it be your
homework, or whether it be youknow, for the kids out there
taking out the trash and stufflike that, like, I don't know, I

(01:11:11):
don't know how to say this, butlike nothing is for no reason,
right? Like everything that youdo makes you either, you know,
better or stronger, or somewhatmore mentally switched on stuff
like that. So I mean, you got totake everything for what it is,
and just, you know, do the damnthing.
Yeah, exactly. Well, that makesa lot of sense, too. And then
you can't look, well, I guessyou can look at far ahead, his

(01:11:31):
planning goals and stuff likethat. But you can't look like
you're getting disappointed,right? Like, just because you
had to do your homework doesn'tmean that you can't do the other
things to make it like you havea winning program. Joe, you
said, you've seen it a bunchwith the people that you work
with, I mean, there's ups anddowns all the time,
all the time, all the time. Andlike I say, you got to be able
to keep keep focused on the taskat hand and get your

(01:11:52):
responsibilities down. And thenjust like he like he often
stated, it just progresses. Andthere's really no negative to
it, right? Because you'relearning taking out the trash,
you're learning and each timeyou do it, you know, I mean,
it's, you're doing it easier,it's better for you or or, you
know, it's you're finding adifferent way to do it. That's,

(01:12:12):
you know, it's just,if you have that mindset, and
you're the kid like I know, likewhen you were a kid, and like
Tyler and your guys's kids, likeyou figured out a way to take
the trash out faster, for suremore efficiently so that you can
get back to what you wanted todo.
Yeah,exactly. And that's slightly
like you said, it's just, it'sjust progression, you know what
I mean?
And so talking about all thefamily stuff, and like how you

(01:12:34):
do learn and how we have allthese people that are watching
the show that and listening tothe show in the future. You have
a lot of support mechanismsaround you. You have your fiance
now, you have your family, youhave your dad, you have all
these people that support youwith the team, all of that stuff
is pretty important. How is itthat? How do you deal with it?
How do you negotiate all thatstuff? Because there's a lot of

(01:12:56):
people around you.
Yeah, now that's superimportant. And that's been one
of the biggest, I would sayhelps to my schedule, and my
program and just my mindset ingeneral is, I know that Yeah.
Like my fiance, obviously islike my number one supporter,
everything that I do, she's gotmy back. And if I tell her, you
know, it sucks, it sucks havingto leave for a month to go to
Saudi Arabia every year and notspend New Year's at home for the

(01:13:17):
last four years and stuff likethat. So like, you know, she's
been super cool and superhelpful with everything. And
like my number one fan, so thathelps. And you know, I would say
right up there. If not, youknow, I think they fight for one
and two, my mom, you know, like,she's, she's a big fan. Yeah,
she's super into it. So I feellike, you know, it helps a lot

(01:13:39):
when you're out there and yourauto is on back and you just
done a 500 Kilometer stage. Andyou've been in the car for nine
hours or something like that.
And you're on your way back andit's raining and it's dark and
you're in Saudi Arabia andGustavo is taking a nap. And I'm
sitting here driving. And I'mlike, you know, no matter what,
like no matter how tough thisis, right now, just you got to

(01:14:00):
stick through and you got to getthrough it. Because when you get
home you'll have all that youknow all your support your
family your love, compassion.
Exactly, you know, like, it'llall be worth it. So like, Yeah,
it sucks right now. Like thisisn't earned on site. But this
isn't ideal situation right now.
Like, you know, I'd rather bedoing something else at the
moment. But if you can getthrough it, and you can try as

(01:14:21):
hard as you can, then it'll feelso much better when you get
home. And you don't have to dothis every day. You know what I
mean? Thatgoes for full circle Joe,
because you've traveled a lot aswell. So you understand this
like, when it comes back? Thatmeans that when you do spend the
time with your loved ones orwhoever it is that support you,
your team your friends, that youdedicated to them and you're
like giving back to all to allthem.

(01:14:44):
It's so much more valuable. It'samazing. You come home from a
trip man and it's the level ofsupport that they have. You
don't I mean, show you it's justyeah,
that's a huge part of Yeah, likeI'm glad you brought that up
because that's a huge part of myyou know, my mindset and like It
helps me be motivated. And Ithink it helps my performance is

(01:15:04):
that like, I just think like,you know, like, never really get
down. Because if you get down,then whatever, but like you, all
you got to do is get throughthese 1415, you know, days, and
you're gonna try as hard as youpossibly can, because then
you're done. And then you get togo home. And then you get to,
you know, be around the peoplethat you love. And you know what
I mean, and be stoked thatyou're home and stuff like that.
So stick it out, try your best.
And then when you get home,you'll feel really good. And

(01:15:26):
you'll be able to enjoy beinghome and feel like you didn't
leave anything on the table whenyou're out there.
Absolutely. I agree with that.
100%. And then you're alsogiving back to them too, because
as much as you're focused on thetask at hand, or you're focused
on preparing for the next event,or whatever it is, you have to
also understand that you'retaking away from your loved ones

(01:15:46):
as well. So they're stillsupporting you during that time.
So when you get back, if yougive them you know, all of that
energy that you didn't before,it means a lot to them to offer.
Sure. Yeah.
And it's and it provides for,you know, the love and support
that they show to you. Makes iteasier for you to go to the next
event. Yeah, exactly. I mean, itjust keeps on recycling itself.

(01:16:08):
You know what I mean? So it's,it's pretty slick.
Yeah, it is pretty cool. Allright. So we're gonna kind of
start like winding the interviewdown a little bit here. But
like, what kind of advice orlike, what is the main things
that you think are part of yoursuccess that you can express to
some of the younger kids ormaybe somebody that hasn't even
raised that wants to go raisekind of stuff that we've been

(01:16:29):
talking about, like, I mean, youknow, your mental your, your
mindset is like, the number onething, like, You got to have a
good mindset, too, you got to bededicated enough to go out there
and you got to train and you gotto practice and you got to learn
the things that make you a goodracer, whether it be you know,
out there driving and whether itbe mechanics, you need to learn
that kind of stuff. Yep. Three,just be focused, you know, like,

(01:16:51):
if once you lose focus as fastas we're going and as hard as it
is to read terrain, and youknow, the things that we're
doing, if you lose focus, thenyou're done. Yeah, like, you're
gonna start knocking off tires,you're gonna, you're gonna get
lost, you're gonna crash,probably most of the time,
you're gonna crash, and it'sgonna suck. So you got to stay
focused. You got to be able to,you know, like, keep focus, and

(01:17:12):
then just have good peoplearound you and try your hardest
and, you know, don't be a deck.
Yeah, exactly. Don't be a deck.
Exactly. And I agree with that.
100% I think the mental thingis, is always be happy man.
Because like you're out theredoing something that you love
you whether it's racing on 170,or racing, a trophy truck, or

(01:17:34):
IndyCar like all of this startedbecause of your, in all of our
love for off road. So you'restill getting to go out and play
in the dirt. So make sure thatyou understand that and all the
people that support you. They'reout there helping you not, not
anything else. So alright, we'regonna do some rapid fire q&a
stuff. But before we do that,let's give a shout out to some
of the people that do help youlike you're talking about.

(01:17:57):
Yeah, big shout out to Red Bull.
Obviously, you know, these guyshave been amazing, my hope
throughout the last couple ofmonths that we've been working
together and really lookingforward for a long and nice
relationship with them. Ken Ham,obviously you know, I've been
getting really good caretakingme by Ken and for the last
couple of years. And that's byfar the best side by side you

(01:18:17):
can possibly get in when thatnew car comes out and it's gonna
be sick. I can't wait to seewhat they do. Yeah, it's gonna
be sick. So yeah, shout out toeveryone over at Ken Ham shout
everyone over at Red Bull. Motool. Those guys, they've been
sponsoring the team for a whilebest oils in the game. KMC
wheels just went over and pickedup some fresh leads the other
day, everyone over there. I wassuper chill.

(01:18:39):
You get to play with any of theRC cars in the office. I didn't
play with any of them. But likeI walked through all the office,
and I saw everything that theygot going on there, dude, it's
wild. Some of the stuff thatthey're doing over there. It's
cool, right? And you see all theposters, one of these days, we
got to get your poster on thewall.
I know, I know when to send themon over BFG tires. We switched
to them this year. And it's beencrazy. I mean, 14 days to the

(01:19:01):
gnarliest rocks ever, you know,basically in the world. And I
got two flats, and I pretty muchdeserved both of them. So it's a
big shout out to them. And yeah,I mean, everybody that sponsors
me and the team. It's big shoutout to South racing, all the
mechanics. I mean, I always sayI and I'll say it again, I'm
just the guy that holds thewheel and pushes the pedals. You

(01:19:22):
know, without the whole team ofmechanics and everybody that
goes into it. We wouldn't evenbe here. Yeah, I wouldn't be
able to do anything. So I Bigshout out to all the mechanics,
the team owner, Scott Abraham.
Gustavo, obviously, Gustavo hasprobably changed my driving more
than really anybody ever likemindset wise how chill he is. I

(01:19:43):
really learned a lot from himand then just driving in general
and mindset. Because Gustavohas, you know, been huge for us
and you know, getting eighth inthat car to getting first at
that car. So, big shout out toGustavo, for everything that he
does and really just everybodythat helps out. I appreciate it
a lot. And don't think that Idon't because I really do.

(01:20:04):
Yeah. And like you said beforeto like, your family and
everybody Yeah, yeah. Well,they already got some time.
Yeah, they got some that was. Soyeah, obviously family.
What's up Rossi? How are you?
Yeah, she's proud of you too,for all your achievements and
being so humble. That's one ofthe things that I think is, is
so cool. Actually. Do you haveany more questions for AJ,

(01:20:24):
I was gonna, he mentionedsomething earlier, when you're
like shouting these vast landslike that car and some of that
stuff. You're out in the middleof nowhere in the middle of
nowhere. And you're obviouslyyou're not wheel to wheel with
somebody know, you're out thereby yourself. You don't see
anybody for hours? How do you?
How do you just I will keepfocused in.

(01:20:47):
And that's so hard, because likewhen you're out there, that's
when everybody starts losingtime. It's like when you don't
have anybody to chase after youcan't see that you're getting
closer and anybody and you can'tsee you're
getting further away fromCorrect. Does that does that
start playing mind games withyou?
Yeah, like you, we call itfalling asleep, you start
falling asleep a little bit, andthen you just get slower and
slower and slower, and thenyou'll get back and these guys

(01:21:07):
that were basically together allday, they have so much better
time than everybody that was bythemselves because they were
chasing themselves. Yeah, and Ireally just the best way to
combat that is, you know, beaware of that be aware of what I
just said, like, you're gonna goslower, and you're gonna start
to lose focus and just like goto sleep and kind of like way
off a little bit. So I would saythe best way to you know, fix

(01:21:27):
that is have that in your head,like, I'm not around anybody.
I've been around anybody forthree hours, I'm probably, you
know, taking a lot off rightnow. And then what I could do.
So you got to also think aboutthat at the same time as I got
hired, I should probably step itup, because there's probably a
lot more on the table right now.
So do you try to push? Or do youstart pushing automatically and
not even know trying to look forthat dust?

(01:21:49):
Kinda Yeah, so that's the otherthing is like, we're, if I could
get up to this guy, if I couldget up to this guy. And that
goes into the strategy ofknowing who's in front of you
what time they started, and howfar away approximately they are
ahead of you and stuff likethat. So you're like, dude, if I
can catch this guy in thisnumber, you know, 305, or
something like that? If I catchthat guy, that guy started six
minutes ahead of me, well, thenI know I'm pretty solid, you

(01:22:11):
know? And especially if that guyis good, and like leading, or
you know, in the top three orsomething like that, and you're
like, alright, like, you know,we're doing good today.
That's kind of crazy, though,because you always have a carrot
to chase, right? Like there wasa lot of times on the endurance,
like athletic stuff that we weredoing, like the Ironman or the
long distance bicycle races,where you'd be out for like, 30
miles on your own. Yeah, likehave nothing. And the only thing

(01:22:31):
you could gauge was off yourheart rate, your cadence of how
your faster your pedaling, andthen potentially your speed, but
your speed didn't matter thatmuch. Because you didn't know
how fast everybody else wasgoing. You just knew how much
your motor was pumping to beable to go. So you didn't just
like it's so hard. Yeah,it's, that's it's so hard to do.
Because I got a couple of timesI've been caught out and like
you get back to the bivouac. Youlook at the times, and you're

(01:22:52):
like, oh, wow, I got smokedtoday. You know, I could just
because you were by yourself allday, you had no idea like you
thought that you were going at agood pace. But then you get back
and you're like, Man, I fellasleep like I was by myself
off. That's wild to think right?
What would be the move then Joe?
Like as a as a co driver?
I don't know. I you know, it'sjust try to capitalize on that

(01:23:16):
there is no dust to work with.
You know what I mean? But at thesame time you don't you know,
like you said you end up fallingasleep and, and slowing down.
Without even knowing it.
Yeah, even if you think you'regoing fast. You may not Yeah,
that's the thing about do thatis so crazy. Are there any other
any other things that you wantedto ask AJ before we get into the

(01:23:39):
rapid fire house,kind of really the only thing I
can think of that was a crazyquick Okay,
how about this? What questionwould Tyler ask AJ? If he was
sitting here?
Oh, T bone. He would probablyjust want to know how's it feel
when you get that? That trophytop dog?
I mean, that's that's, I mean,that's the goal. That's that
makes it all worth it. Thatmakes all the Blood Sweat Tears

(01:24:00):
times, you know, dirt in themouth, like everything
emotional. Oh, yeah. Honestly,it is. Like, I don't know
because like the first Dockerwhen my second Docker when
obviously both emotional but Idon't know. Like, I almost felt
like the second year. This wassome of the stuff that kind of
went on before the race. Italmost felt a little bit better

(01:24:21):
like it. It felt crazy. Youknow? So you I'll
tell you what, sitting here inArizona, watching you live on a
computer when you're over there,dude, it's like a wreck. Yeah,
I'm frickin fired up. You'rewatching the laptop. So it's
gotta be emotional. Gotta behuge.
For sure. Yeah, no, it'sdefinitely it's a lot. You know,

(01:24:45):
it's hard not to like whenyou're standing up there and
they hand you you know, thetrophy and you're sitting there
and fireworks going off and thedude ends the trophy and you're
like, holding it. Like we didit. You know, like, This is
crazy.
How long does it take to sit init?
That's a funny thing too. Ittakes a while because like,
everyone is so happy andeveryone's like, yeah, congrats,
congrats, congrats and like, I'mlike, Yeah, thanks. But you

(01:25:06):
know, I had just been fullyfocused switched on insane
person for the last 1514 days,you know? Yeah, like your brain
is not there yet. No, yeah,like, I'm ready to go do another
day tomorrow. Like I'm thinkingabout I need to go to sleep, and
I need to get as much sleep aspossible and try to eat as much
as possible for the next day.
Yeah. And then it hits you likekinda when like, usually, like a
few days after you get home, ifnot on the airplane on the way

(01:25:28):
there and it's like, Ah, okay,like, we're done. Like, I'm off
work, I just punched out like,and then not only that, but you
know, we did it, we achieved thegoal, like the ultimate goal,
obviously, is to win, you know,and so when you get that, it's
like,that's a great question. Joke is
like, awesome. So humble aboutit. Like, I can just see him
like, he gets a text from hisfiancee, or his mom or his dad

(01:25:50):
or whoever, like when he's onhis way back. And he's like, Oh,
wow, this is pretty meaningful.
Now I get to like, when I stepoff the plane, I get to share it
with the people I love.
Yeah. And that's Yeah, and I'mso stoked about that, you know?
Yeah. That's so crazy.
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's thesame thing with like, Istanbul
has been switched on from14 1516 days. Yeah, it takes a

(01:26:11):
while to turn that thing off.
You don't I mean, a couple two,three days later now you're like
wow,yeah, that's so cool. Is there a
first thing that you want to dolike you know, when they say oh,
you won the Superbowl now, areyou going to Disneyland? Like,
is there something that you'relike, Alright, when I get back
home I'm going to Cali tacos onin Glendale or whatever, like,

(01:26:32):
like, what's your move?
Yeah, so like, that's funny yousay that because we eat so like
we eat such different thingsover there and stuff like that.
So the first thing I always wantto do is I want to go over here
to Federico is just because it'sclose and it's got a drive thru
and I want to get the biggestburrito I possibly can. What's
your choice? Okay, so they don'thave like a proper California

(01:26:52):
burrito over here which is kindof a bummer but they have an
Arizona burrito. Oh, it's prettygood. And it's about the same
realistically. There you go. Soyeah, I was I was caught that
burrito and then I honestly Ijust want to hang out at home
for a little bit. I go todinner, run my beach cruiser
around.
About it hanging that's the lifeman I could get along with that
pretty easily. Yeah, it's not sobad Mexican food and beach

(01:27:14):
cruisers. I think we need tohang on awesome.
Sounds like it's too bad. Allright, well, yeah.
So first and foremost thanks foryou know having us at the shop
and taking the time I know yourschedule is stacked I'm going to
do the rapid fire a littledifferent Joe's done it before
but my ask you the questionfirst and then we're going to
give it to Joe right after too.
So all right. Rapid Fire q&awith Austin Jones and Joe

(01:27:35):
whining. tacos or hot dogstacos. Joe tacos or had tacos
for sure.
Oh, this one's really funny. Sothis came from one of Jeremy
with grass mechanics. How do youspell SILC?
Si Okay,what does the cow drink milk?
Joe How do you spell so?

(01:27:57):
Si LKwhat does the cow drink couldn't
tell you I guess Yeah. You canyou can throw it on somebody
else like see if you can throwit on your fiance tonight and
see if she knowshe told me and I was like do you
and I messed it out too. Like Itotally got it wrong too. Well,

(01:28:18):
I had I had a buffer because hescrewed it up on my way to
chicken or a SATA. SATA. JoeAsana Asana doing to the river.
Dunes for me.
Yeah doing that. You see I've Ihaven't ever spent much time in
the rivers. I really don't know.
Not abig river guy. action shots or
still shots. I like actionshots. Yeah.

(01:28:44):
I prefer action.
Let's see. Oh three wheeler orquad three wheelers, too. Big
death machine guy. Threewheelers. Three wheelers are you
going within those old Honda's? Right? I
mean, which onelike the 200 Extra like the
little ATC ones.
Man. I mean, the little ATC onesseem a little bit more my style.

(01:29:05):
Campfire racing.
Exactly.
Pizza Rolls or jalapeno poppers.
That's a tough one did I thinkhelping your hoppers
Did you Did you ever do thesequestions as you are now?
I don't know if I've gottenthese exact ones but I know you
did a couple okay on a sessionor to do before but these are a

(01:29:27):
little bit different.
Okay. I think we updated thembecause somebody gave me some
new ones. So all right, if I doone sorry again, but I have to
say the pizza rolls. Big pizza.
Oh good. Are you dipping in likeranch or what do you
ranch? Jalapeno. Depends onjalapeno. Sure. Yeah. Pretty
spicy.
Coffee or tea?
Big coffee guy.
What do Joe I say Coke or Pepsi?
Definitely coke. Did you knowthat about Joe?

(01:29:51):
Oh yes, I did have witnessescoke and
sunflower seeds all day. Youstill do some flowers. She's
yours much like if I'm gonnalie. On road trip, maybe yeah,
just keeping me keeps me givingme something to do. I'm driving
you know exactly. All right. Idon't
remember what your answer was ifwe already asked you this, but
what's your favorite movie?
Awesome.
I like super bad dude. I'm a bigsuper bad guy, but really just

(01:30:12):
for some reason that one alwaysgets me Are you throwing
lines super bad lines out therewhen you're with your homies a
lot of thetime. Yeah. What about you,
Joe? You know, I I'd have to sayprobably Wedding Crashers
Wedding Crashers a good onereminds me a little friend he
used to have his name was JohnVIERA. Yeah. And I him and I
just used to do some domes. Itwas just part of growing up.

(01:30:33):
It's fun, you know,like Wedding Crashers. I forgot
what they were doing in thehiking sequence like blue 4242
that he just gets cleaned out.
Instagram or Facebook? Instagramfor me, big Instagram guy. How
about you, Joe? We know you havea social media expert. I think
she was watching earlier. Oh,yeah.
I'm sure she was, you know,Instagram.

(01:30:57):
You the kids know aboutInstagram?
Is they have their account?
Yeah. Oh, sweet. Oh, yeah.
If you could have anysuperpower, Austin, what would
it be?
Probably to fly. I think that'dbe so sick.
Yeah, that would be super cool.
What about you, Joe?
To not stress chill out to chillout. Relax.

(01:31:20):
I feel you guys. So everybody'slike a lot of people like road
racers pick flying, but I alwayspick you have you seen that
movie jumper where he like canteleport or whatever he like,
pops up. Like that's my jam.
That would be rad. I'm thinkingabout the jumper thing because
then I could just go eat like, Idon't know, some Italian food
and Italy. Yeah. And I couldjust come back and just chill
and Phoenix bounce back. Yeah.

(01:31:41):
Netflix or YouTube?
Netflix. Joe,I think I'd have to go with
YouTube.
Yeah, I'm kind of a big YouTubeguide lately to actually like
that actually brings up a goodpoint, I'd like to ask your
guy's opinion, because we'regoing to talk about some of the
media stuff. I have to do apodcast with Mad media on
Thursday. And we're going totalk about some of the media
stuff. And I think it's reallycool that we now have

(01:32:03):
opportunities to be able toshare a lot of the off road
stuff that we do now by puttingstarlings on trucks and getting
the in cars and stuff. What doyou guys feel about that stuff?
I mean, I think that any type ofbroadcasting and any type of
footage and stuff that we canget out there to people that
aren't necessarily as into it aswe are, I think, how could it
hurt? You know,very much like the f1 thing. Now
Netflix, I feel like that, likeI'm addicted to it, honestly.

(01:32:25):
Yeah,the more the merrier. You know,
I mean, just, you know, justjust last year here at the
finish of the Baja 1000. ThereWas there an incident and it was
a cruise ship that it came in.
And a husband and wife fromCanada had came up and started
talking to me and he had no cluewhat we were doing with these

(01:32:49):
cars or what.
Yeah, they just came to see thebeach in Mexico.
Exactly. And we talked for likea half hour and they were
stoked. Yeah, really were. Theywere just like, oh my god, we're
gonna go look at this onYouTube. And, and they were
just, the more we can bring itinto the the world population.
That's just better.
That's exactly what like, no,like, I'm not saying I'm the

(01:33:11):
guy. But that's exactly what myheart and my goals have been
like, just with this little showdirt life and like all these
different things that we'retrying to do with media is to be
able to walk into Walmart andlike those, say, three to five
years, and just be like, Hey,did you guys see the Baja for
1000? Did you guys see that car?
And they're like, Oh, I'vemissed it instead of what are
you talking about, bro? Yeah,what is that? Yeah. Yeah. Like,
I would love to be able to justwalk in there and like, have it

(01:33:33):
be like that. I mean, like, thatwould be so cool to see you one
day like doing that same thing,right? Like at Home Depot, just
like supporting your sponsors.
And showcasing what off road isin front of a Home Depot. I
think that'd be so rad. It wouldbe sick. Yeah. All right. So
let's see here. videos orphotos,
videos, videos, big video guy,most memorable race, most

(01:33:59):
memorable race for me. And itdoesn't even have to be
like a winning race. It can beone that you were just like,
zoned in or whatever.
Honestly, like probably one ofmy favorite racing memories
other than like, Dakar wins andstuff like that. Because that
kind of trumps everything, but Iwon the 2019 San Felipe 250 With
my dad riding with me. Oh,that's cool. That was pretty

(01:34:20):
rad. That was a good one.
Was it a stressful one? Or is itlike just have you ever met
the most stressful race ever?
But now it was cool. A littlebit stressful. It was a big
battle honestly. And yeah, wegot it done. Were you
battling with that race?
It was Sarah and Sarah price.
Oh, right. Oh, yeah. Sarah wasdude she was ripping that year.

(01:34:42):
Yeah, guys, just like back andforth. She was behind me the
whole time. But like I wasgetting splits and stuff that
she was like on her way. So Iremember I had to keep on like
pushing, pushing, pushing andstuff like that. So that was
that's probably my mostmemorable one with him riding
with me.
It's Kinda crazy how things getlike how they progress because

(01:35:02):
now she's your cameo teammate.
Like, I know while Yeah, it's atrip. It's not. Do you have
about list Joe? Do you have amost memorable race with John's
family?
With his father? Yes, him andhim has a Jesse Jones and
myself. We've worked togetherfor 11 years. Yeah, recently.
There was a bunch of good racesfrom them, you know, but

(01:35:23):
together, I would have to say itwas a it was a Baja 1000 I don't
remember what year I'm gonna say17 I'm you're under spec truck
with a Thunderstruck with riceweighing. Yeah. 1818. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. Andso that was like when you were
really beginning. And he washe was back and forth was a

(01:35:45):
gentleman by the name of IlyasHannah. And her battle and all
night long and finally, and heknows Maha to. Austin got in and
they were still there inprobably 300 miles before the
finish. Austin was able tostretch a bigger lead. And it
was just it was cool.

(01:36:05):
Just like you were just like,dude, I'm dropping the hammer.
I'm going for it. Yeah, yeah. Noidea what was going on. I'm
like, I'm just gonna listen toDuncan. Jason Dugu was riding
with him. Yeah, I'm gonna listento Duggan. That's a good guy to
listen to. Yeah, I would say itwas
cool. Because his dad and in allof his work to finish when when
AJ came around the corner, andit's just it, it's a big feat

(01:36:25):
just to finish the race. Yeah,you know what I mean? And he was
able to do in true fashion.
That's good. That's cool, man.
How did you feel after that?
Were you smoked?
Yeah, I remember. I was supersmoked to that race. And yeah,
it was hard. And like,obviously, you feel good, you
know? I don't know. It's a bigfeeling of accomplishment. But
yeah, it was toasted after that.

(01:36:46):
Is that like one of those youget done with it? And you're
just like, Yeah, dude, I need africkin burrito. Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. Dude, that's crazy. Ilove the memories. Like I'm sure
like we should like one of thesedays is like, maybe if your dad
wants to do one too. And justlike have like, go like a walk
down memory lane. Because thatwould be super cool. Like one
time we did. storytimes with RobSo Rob from warfighter made and

(01:37:07):
Robyn Catherine. Dude, it was sorad like the stories that he
has, like, and I'm sure you guyshave the same stories with your
dad and with with Joe and like,I mean, even just growing up
like and those stories are just,they I love that, ya know, it's
it's a huge part of it.
Let's see here. Oh, this is agood one. Actually. What's your

(01:37:28):
favorite snack but in the racecar? Peanuts all day? All day?
Um, like a specific one like hotpeanuts. Like just regular
like during in the race car andjust regular, you know, salt
boys or something like that. Butlike outside hot
boys. Yeah, there you go. Joe,what are you doing in the race
car?
90%. Now the only time I ever doit is Snickers bars in the race

(01:37:51):
car. Yeah, it's got you know,chocolate and sugar and salt,
Pinot peanuts and kind of got avariety of everything and just
keeps you going.
Alright, so what's the favoritesnack actually, just like after
you, because you're probably nottrying to eat peanuts after
you're done with the race?
No, no, I'm trying to. I'mtrying to get whatever I can get
my hands on after the race.
Like for some reason whenever Iexercise like that, I'm always

(01:38:12):
like chicken or meat like afterthe race like give me some good.
It's funny that you say thatthough to the reason the main
reason I asked these questionsabout this is like so I think
two years ago we were doing allthe pits and video and stuff for
Craig Scanlon and his team andwe went to a pit like it was
down kinda in the south, like byLoretto or something like it was
way down there. And it was likeright at the end, like the last

(01:38:35):
stint that they had to finishthe 1000. And the only thing
that we had left because all thecrew guys ate all the hamburgers
and stuff was a granola bar andI went to go give him a granola
bar. And he slaps on my hand. Hegoes fuck, you give me some
meat. And I was like, Oh, I nowI get it because he's so hungry
because he's lost all of hispotassium and all his protein
and stuff like yeah, and then sosomebody finally found him a

(01:38:57):
hamburger. And that was like,like, did if we gave him
peanuts? No way. Yeah. Like he'salways all about it. That's so
crazy that everybody has such adifferent mindset on it.
Supercross and motocrossSupercross for me. I like the
outdoors. Yeah. Big outdoor guy.
Let's see here. What other formof racing? Would you like to try
it? Yeah.

(01:39:19):
I've never done anything onasphalt before. So I would like
to at least try that. And somecool cars. That would be really
cool. That would be cool. Yeah.
So I would like to try anythingon the asphalt. How precise
Do you think you can get yourdriving skills because asphalt
is completely different type ofracing?
Yeah, it would be way different.
But honestly, I mean, definitelyyou wouldn't need a couple of

(01:39:39):
years you know, a couple yearsof practice. But yeah, I mean, I
think that when it comes down toit to be really fun try at
least Yeah, I think the level ofpatience is different to Yeah,
like with that stuff. Have youever done any like helping
support or done the asphaltracing yourself, Joe because
I've I've done a little bit andIt's It's pretty intense. I

(01:40:01):
mean, the thing I would like tobe more involved in is drifting.
Yeah, those guys are prettyimpressive. That's pretty
gnarly. Of course those guys gowell, yeah. Where they're
putting the cars and at thespeeds, it's their trail, you
know? I mean, it's pretty neat.
Yeah. And they're driving withthe rear of the car. So it's
like, even worse, right? Yeah.
It's like those people that canride their bicycles backwards
standing on the handlebars,like, wow, there it is. Yeah.
Yeah. I wonder like, would yourather do like, I don't know

(01:40:25):
what you want to call like SCCAor like IndyCar or like actual
drift stuff, because there's amassive difference.
I don't I think Indy cars wouldbe like that would be that'd be
pretty sick. I'd be sick. Yeah.
Have you seen that? I forgotwhat they call it. I think it's
called Formula E or somethingthat was like prototype cars
that are battery power. Yeah,the electric cars those are

(01:40:46):
sweet as those things I justdon't know how it would be like
to not hear a motor.
Yeah, they sound weird. Likethey've got that it sounds like
a Tesla.
Yeah, like all of us off roadguys. Like drive with the seat
of our pants in the sound right?
Like so. Like, I wonder how itwould be a bit like do a
different use earplugs or no,no. But in my helmet, I've got
like literally like a pair ofthese.

(01:41:09):
Okay, so it's like nice andquiet. Let's see here. Oh,
speedboat or dragster. dragster.
How about you Joe? Track Sure.
dragster guys, we just did allthat stuff with John forest the
other day or John Forces teamthe other day that was really
cool to see him. And I don'tknow, like I looked at the
inside of the cockpit of one ofthose things. I don't think I
could fit in some of those.
They're so tiny. Like, and theyhave all this like sheet metal

(01:41:32):
protection. Like you just like,have this little window. Yeah,
that's scary. And they go amillion miles an hour and like,
so fast. All right, so the lastquestion of the night chips and
guacamole or french fries andketchup, chips and guac from me.
I'll take I'll take the friesand ketchup.
You're gonna take fries andketchup. Yeah, Cindy is not

(01:41:52):
gonna be happy with you. Yeah,she knows I'm not down for the
guacamole.
What about the kids? When willthey take guacamole? For sure.
How about the fiance what shetaken? Do that's what we should
do. So we'll have Storytime withthe Jones. And then we'll also
do that like, remember do youever see those dating shows
where you see how many how muchthey know about each other?

(01:42:13):
Before you guys get married. Allright, cool, man. And then you
already gave a shout out to allyour sponsor. So I appreciate
it. Man. If you don't gotanything left, Joe.
Nice. No thanks. Thanks forThanks for having us, man. Oh,
of course.
Thank you guys for coming down.
Thanksfor showing us the workshop
here. That's pretty neat. Youguys got some really cool things
in the works. That's neat.

(01:42:35):
Yeah, it is. And I like theprogression man. Like I said,
we're addicted to progress. AndI really like where you're going
with everything that you'redoing. Because you're not just
focusing on you're racing,you're focusing on helping off
road, growing these vehicleshelping other people like
there's a bunch of stuff that'spart of your mindset and the
things that you're living and Ilove to see that man, so it's
cool. All right, so if you guyswant to follow Austin Jones,

(01:42:56):
it's AJ Jones. 79 AJ Jonesperiod 79. Okay, just popups on
Instagram and you can also lookat the dirt life. We posted some
stuff with him as well and justgo following him. You can follow
Joe with the J tech site. Yep,the J take Instagram. Do you
know what it is? Gay techmotorsports J tech motorsports
on Instagram. Check it all out.
He can help you if you need anyservices for your side by side

(01:43:18):
as well to thank you guys verymuch for joining the show. We
really appreciate you guystaking the time out of your
Monday nights. You can always gocheck out the sponsor deals page
on the dirt life show.com Youcan get some sponsorship advice
you can get deals on all of withfrom all of our sponsors, like
the guys over at Motul shocktherapy, Max's tires, KMC

(01:43:39):
wheels, JL Audio evolution powersports Zoolander racing
products, Vision canopies andcryo heat. Man, it was just cool
to hang out. Awesome. We wishyou all the luck in the future
and can't wait to see on thepodium again.
Thank you. Thank you guys forcoming out. And thanks for
having me on. I had a good time.
Yeah.
So what's next on the on theagenda for reason.

(01:44:00):
Sonora? So round three of theWorld Championship, the Rally
Championships coming up?
What do you how do you feelabout that being under normal?
Pretty much in our own backyard.
I feel good about it. Yeah, thisis your hometown right here.
Yeah,that's, I feel like I'm one of
the only people that has everactually you know, been down
there before one of the only carguys I know a lot of bike guys
have are racing that a racerbefore but I feel like I'm one

(01:44:22):
of the only car guys that'sactually you know, spent some
time down there and stuff likethat. And this This is a five
day event or Yeah, this one willbe five and I think there's a
prologue day so six but prologuewill only be you know, a couple
kilometers.
You know, who's racing that withyou or like against you?
Um, I would assume honestly, thesame people that are, you know,

(01:44:43):
in the World Championship, allmy teammates and then yeah, I
mean, you know, the regularplayers. It's, it's a full FIA
championship events. Everyonewill be there.
No, it'd be cool for America tobe able to go down and see two
for sure. And this is the firstyear for the FIA to Do they sit
here and listen or rally?
Yeah, so they they've had thescenario rally for a couple of

(01:45:04):
years. But it was never part ofthe actual the World
Championship calendar and thisyear I think that they wanted to
make it like a proper WorldChampionship. So they added a
race in North America. And yeah,the Sonora was perfect for it.
Yes. Cool as because that'sgonna bring all the all the all
the big guys over in theEuropeans.
Exactly. And it's a trip becauseeveryone, most people are flying

(01:45:25):
here in the Phoenix. Yeah, it'sit's so weird that like all
these people that I see only inSaudi Arabia or Europe, or you
know, Dubai or something likethat. They're all going to be in
Phoenix, Arizona. So like,people are hitting your
backyard. Yeah, people werehitting me up like crazy asking
me stuff. And I'm like, I didn'tI could just come on over. Come
on over.
Awesome. You got a room forrent. That's pretty cool. Maybe

(01:45:48):
you should show him that get thebest burrito shops. Oh, for
sure. Yeah, now we're gonna havesome fun, right? Yeah, the race
will be super cool. Andhopefully we can get a good
result and get some good pointsfor the champion.
I think it would be cool. So I'mgoing to look at that. Do you
know when it is because I wantto look at that and see if the
dirt life can go down theremaybe? Yeah, cool to go check it
out.
The first day is either the 22ndor 23rd. I gotta I gotta look at

(01:46:12):
the proper squat is coming uppretty quick. Yep. Yep. So next
next Sunday, Ithink is the first day How did
the cars get here?
Do they fly? Like okay, so a lotof the time the you you put them
on a boat, and then like theorganization will ship them
over. But if for some reason youdon't make the boat or something
like that, and then they findyou missed the boat. Yeah,

(01:46:32):
exactly. He missed the boat, butthey'll put them on like
underneath like 740 sevens likethat really? In the belly of
them,too. That's why do they ship
them assemble? Or do they haveto assemble?
Yeah, they ship them assembled.
I mean, they can't fly him withbatteries and um, and they can't
find with fuel and um, QUESTIONYeah, it's a hazard and stuff
butare they like rolled in Are they
are they in a box there? Ithink they'll create them. Yeah,

(01:46:54):
that's crazy. Yeah, so that'sgoing to be wild because like
like you were saying like,that's why oh is and stuff like
that, like Nasser's car is goingto be in the belly of a 747
I just think like the trashtrucks are Mazur. Oh, yeah. And
that too.
I mean, those guys might have tohit the boat. Yeah, I was gonna
say that'd be that'd be if theydon't make it. They just don't
make it. That'd be a bigairplane.

(01:47:16):
Yeah. That's kind of crazy. Allright. Well, I appreciate
everything that that you guysare doing for the off road
community and wish you the bestin the future, dude. Thank you,
man. Thanks, Joe. Appreciate it,man. Thank you. All right. Thank
you guys very much for watching.
We will see you guys next time.

All Episodes

Episode 156 - Austin Jones - From Arizona to DAKAR

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 156 - Austin Jones - From Arizona to DAKAR