April 29, 2020 • 32 mins
Part 2 of our interview with 3-Time NHRA Top Fuel Dragster Champion Antron Brown and NHRA Funny Car Champ JR Todd. Join hosts Rico Elmore and Ken Stout for this lively conversation with 2 powerhouse guests!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm JR. Todd, I'm man Tron Brown and this is
the skinny from fat Head Studios and Speedway, Indiana. This
is the skinny. So Aby the boys went out, Jr.
Colletta went out and got in the midgets out at
(00:21):
I had out at the Speedway. Where were you, brother?
I was off doing a sponsor event, but I'm gonna
make sure I am free. That was a sponsor events. Yeah,
I know, I think you got their shirt on. Actually
know what I mean exactly? I know, Well, I got
told about this year. This year is like you know,
and they told me about j R and DOUGGI out
(00:41):
there and I can't believe they put you in a
real race car. That's what I keep saying. I'm like,
dad to race them jokers? Man? I said, did they
did they know they had a chance of not getting
them back? Yeah? So the best part of someone finally
sent me a video. It's like a couple of months
later there in the infield, and that Christopher Bell is
like someone in the video and you could just like
every time I go in the corner, like he's just nervous.
(01:02):
He's like pacing back and forth and he's like, yeah,
you're you were worried. He was scared to death. Yeah, exactly.
I might have been a little closer. He's on the
show and he said, as soon as I get back,
he said, keep looks at me and said, don't do
that anymore. But that that stuff is like just like anything,
(01:26):
the more you do it, like the more you get
more comfortable, Like all right, I'm getting a little more
balls now, and let's try this. But it was fun, Doug,
he probably loved it. Oh yeah, it's like for them
like that kind of stuff's like riding a bike. That's
where he came from. Yeah, we used to roll in.
We used to roll in when I was, you know,
many years younger. We would roll into Anderson, you know,
and uh and at the time nobody had any any haulers,
(01:51):
any stackers and stuff. There's a black semi there with
gold leaf flattering in the back corner, it says Kalletta.
And that's all I had to say. And it was he.
He would he would go out and ruined. He crushed
people on paved, Yeah, big time. He could have had
a payment career. I like him an IndyCar, Nascar. I mean,
(02:11):
he was that good. He was that smooth, but Conrad said,
we're going on the other direction here straight. Dougs the
one that I'm really blown away. It's not one over
here and has not won that championship man, because he
every time he rolls up, you know, man, like that
dude could win every race he shows up. Absolutely. Let
(02:31):
me tell you something. I looked at Doug and almost
had the same feeling because Tony Schumacher almost did to
me and we had him hands down, no problem, Like
we haven't lost the first round the whole year. And
Doug Ee went where Tony had to go to last
run and set a world record and win the race
world record by like a minimal amount. Yeah, I can't
(02:52):
do it by too much because you have to back
run to back it up, so it can't be like
like like really get it out right and does it
inside like the most impossible thing, not like impossible thing
to do and does it. And you see Douggie's face
on TV like people thought he said, you gotta be
kidding me, But he had a couple of f bombs
in there between that you got and I'm looking at
(03:14):
like how because that man was on fire that year,
you know what I mean? And Douggie. I have battles
with him too, when some of the championships we want
where we battled out against each other. And I mean,
the man could drive a car sideways. He leaves on
time he drives the car. Is just like like winning
the championship. You gotta be good all the time, but
(03:36):
you gotta have things fall in place at the time.
You gotta be at the like like you just can't
hit it good in the beginning of the year. You
just can't hit it good at the middle year. You've
got to be good throughout. And that's just I think
it's been Achilles Hills where they've been good throughout the
whole year, but they always have a stride where they
have a little misfortune and not like they're not running bad,
(03:57):
not like Douggie did a bad job, but some fluke
been like a parts failure or something breaking, you know,
like one thing like the shoots came out. I think
it was last year. Year before the last the shoots
come out on the burnout, like on race day, Like
come on, man, I can't have like dumb stuff that
doesn't happen happens to him at the wrong time. It does,
(04:18):
and we all been victim up because I remember two
races left with the Tony Schumacher deal right two thousand twelve,
haven't lost the race first round all year, have qualified
the top four all year, and we were never leave
off the first round first race out we qualified too.
In Vegas, we go out, there are management boxing works
(04:39):
with ain'ting to clutch, so we so it literally new
to clutch out. The car dropped the whole and I
was putting across the line and Blushi crawls past me,
blipping the throw on and off and beat me if
I won that championship done first race Promona race, Spencer
Massey shook and smoke guitars off the line. I'm way
down the racetrack and know what happened. My fuel line
busts off, bus off, black fires, the supercharger burns my
(05:01):
hands up and everything, and I go crossing across to
the parachutes out. Spencer limps around me and wins. Like
both of them. I hadn't one. I just win one
round two races. But like I said, and that spends
Doug's whole career basically, yep, the whole career. Like dominate
like dominated people all year long, yeah, what I thought
(05:21):
was cool though the year that Tony did that the
next night at the awards Bank. But you know, like
we all get announce like two year through tang up
on stage. You get like when Doug got announced number two,
like the entire room stood up and gave him a
standing of age, like basically like recognizing that he should
have won the championship, Like I thought that was a way. Yeah.
And he's got quite the business himself with the flying services. Yeah,
(05:45):
I mean the old man like is at the top,
you know, doing what he's done so far with this
coronavirus and what have you. But Dougie is like low key,
like right there beside him, like no one really understands
like Doug he's flying business, but it's uh, he doesn't
have the big seven forties set. He's got a lot
of planes and and now he's starting to do a
lot more with d h L and he flies for
(06:07):
like a lot of the auto manufacturers. Just uh, he's
got a lot of planes and does really well. And
is he is he flying international as well or is
it mainly state side? I think it's mainly state side
in the Connies and one of like his planes I
mean he has over twenty I think almost thirty seven
forty seven's and they're all moving all around the world.
Just the business is where you guys are shopping. The
(06:30):
race shop used to be where the businesses at the
airport willow Ruh. And we're probably five five ten minutes
from there now. And then the where they keep the
seven four is like that's probably three hours north in
northern Michigan. It's like an old army base that he
has up there. It's pretty uh, pretty wild. You go
up there. We went to or three years ago, and
he's got other airlines sitting there. Seven forty seven's up
(06:53):
there for maintenance. Like you'll see some commercial airlines are
like what are these things here for? Like, oh, like
the old man has one of the very few dinos
in the world or whatever to test these things. They
send their stuff here for the get engine rebuilds. Like
he's got it pretty cornered on what he's doing. When
Toyota really started stepping into drag racing, they had asked me.
They had asked, you know Ed, because I had known
(07:15):
Ed for a long time and Ed was starting to
take that side of it over as well. With the
motorsports side and everything back in the day. And he said,
he said, you gotta give me a heads up. Who
are these teams? He goes, I don't know any of
these people, I said, And I remember the specifically telling him, Kaletta,
he doesn't need your money. That's your best bet. You know,
(07:38):
he doesn't need your money, Lucas, he doesn't need your money.
That's another one of your best bets. And and uh,
you know, but it was you know Ed was walking
in blind, you know, here he had, you know, and
now gie's where they are with you know, with you
guys and everything they do, and and I mean, it's
it's it's really really cool to see where that is
(07:59):
has grown to. But it was, it was kind of
crazy in the beginning. It's it's been amazing to see
how Toyota and TRD has come over and what they
have facilitated, and motorsports in general is like people don't
realize the backbone that we have, Like when they see
Toyoto on our cars because I ain't toilet engine as ain't.
I said, No, they help us develop everything that's on
(08:21):
this race car, and they have engineers that take you
to a whole step Beyond and Colletta. They always been very,
very competitive. Okay, but I can tell you one thing
for sure is when tr D got involved, and JR.
Knows what I'm talking about, because he went from being
a competitive funny car team to a championship winning funny
(08:41):
car team absolutely, And that was I saw my own
eyes because I saw their cards like they were good.
They can win a race and then win another race
and go here, go there, but they could never put
a string of things together, like I mean back to
back to back to back to back. What it takes
to win a championship. Well, there's a difference. One things
line up and you have a good day versus the
(09:03):
team that's actually leading the way. That's church and and
that's what t r D broad and we we chatted
about that on a previous show, Shaggy bringing Shaggy and slugging.
These guys they just think out of the box. So
they're they're not tied into where all the drag racing
guys have been tied in for twenty years. They come
in with a fresh mind and they're they're looking at
(09:23):
everything from from ten thousand feet if you will, down there,
and it's like we can make this better? And what's good?
Why is this like this? Why you know, why don't
we take a look at this. It's just their their
brain is unbelievable because they're used to winning championships, whether
it's circle track, dirt tracks, even you know, straight line.
(09:44):
When they get into it, they get in at full
bore and and and for me, I'm like, like, I'm
a fan of the sports, so I'll watch everything. I
look at every I look at even other drivers, demeanors
on how they handle certain situations, crew chiefs, crew guys,
how they're going to get through this or how they're
gonna get through that. And I remember distinctly because I
remember seeing Jr's mindset change he became a champion. And
(10:07):
I'm talking about it because he's here, because you can
see the difference because now the difference of it was
before he was happy if they just did well or
if they won this race or won that race. Well,
now it is a different expectation, you see, and when
you become a champion, you get that, you get that
built into your mind. That's where a lot of people
(10:27):
don't know from the outside is when you see him
got that swagger that stands when things don't go right,
is like this ain't how it supposed to work. Like
I'm not like we should be out here winning, going round,
taking care of business. And when it doesn't happen, you
see JR. Now like hold up, hold up the same
(10:49):
way that I get. You get what I mean. And
you can tell and you can see that in different
drivers and teams. Once they once they get that chip,
you get what I mean. They don't have that ship
until they get there and get that chip. And I
mean once you win that championship, that's when they start
getting that chip because they feel like this is where
they belong and this is where they need to be
(11:10):
and we need to be there. Ain't no more like
oh man, we had a good weekend. No no, no, yeah,
that's that's acceptable, right. You know we were talking about
with the fan base. You know, hockey is great to
watch on TV. It's exciting. In hr A is great
to watch on TV. It's exciting, but man, there's nothing
like being there, and we got to get more people
(11:31):
in the stands and uh and because it is a
great sport and it is it is uh it is
uh it is. It's it's like it's like a daredevil sport.
I mean, I really don't know how else to put it,
but that's you know, really it's crazy. From the time
when I wasn't driving full time, you know, you know,
I spent a lot of time at the sprint car
(11:51):
races and made a lot of friends and buddies over there,
and you know, like they, I guess kind of respected
me as a driver, but just always kind of laughed
it off, like oh, you're just going to straight line
like it ain't a big deal, like whatever. And then
and then like once I started racing full time and
some of our races overlaid, but then like got them
to come out like it totally changed their mind, like
(12:13):
like this is awesome, Like you guys are nuts like
that like almost makes me feel good, Like when they
say something like that, like I didn't want to tell
you like you guys are wrong or dumb for like
kind of half ass making fun of me for being
a dragon answer, But it's just it's just different, Like
I respect what you guys do and vice versa. It's
there's nothing like sitting in announced tower and calling a
(12:33):
fuel race and seeing just how straight they don't go correct,
But you have to have that angle and you have
to you watch those things black track down through there
and it is unbelievable how much they are moving around.
It's like, I don't think they're not driving their ass
off because it is not going straight and it doesn't
(12:54):
want to go straight. It wants to kill itself. It's
piste off at the world. That that's something I wish
that our TV show would bring into play. Is like
I I like bowling, like time off, like a bunch
of us get together, go drink beer and bowling. So
I got notes and pro bowler. So I'll watch it
when it's on TV. And they've come up with a technology.
It's like a ball tracer. They'll show you know, the
(13:15):
curve of the ball going down the lane. Like that's
what they should do for us. Yeah, overlay, overlay the
lines on a run and see, you know who is
doing a good job keeping that things straight and like
who's not basically because they're not going straight. If you,
like I said, if you see a run that is
going straight nine times, I'll end that drivers driving his
ass off inside the car making it look boring. And
(13:37):
they ought to go split screen. They have to go
split screen to where they are showing it. If we
could do something behind the cars, you know, would be
super cool and let them, let them chase them down
with the zoom lens. You know, I don't know if
you're gonna chase them down, but you're not gonna change
I think, you know, like what you see at UH
football games and out those cable cams are over across
the field, Like just run a cable along, you know,
(13:59):
the t act and have the camera already going so
far downtack before we go. And when we go, blown
by that camera like that'll put you know, give you
a good perspective how fast we're going. Like those things
move around so much more than you guys get credit
for him, especially the funny cars. And they knock a
cylinder out, you know, and and you see the car
move over and okay, it'll clip a cone, but just
(14:21):
the way it's shot, it doesn't do it justice. You
don't understand how quickly that happened, how violent that move was.
The guy's trying to not get in the other lane
and crash whoever he's racing with. I mean, there's a
lot of stuff that just happened in a fraction of
a second. There Yeah, it's basically it's almost just somebody
punted the side of your car trying to jerk the
whee out of your hands. Like I said, there's times
you're crossing the finish line with the wheel like this
(14:43):
because it's got a cylinder out and you're too dumb
to lift off the throttle, you know. So at the
same time, I gets arounds like that and when you win,
like like oh man, like that, that was awesome, or
a pedal fash, you know, pedal fat that you can
win that, that's where you're like, that gets your on
one pegg to the max. I feel like, so you
guys are talking about how your brain slows down and
(15:04):
you're processing all the stuff you put yourself on a
pedal fest every time you whacked that throttle, are you
thinking is the motor about to blow apart? How many
more times can I get away with this? So two
thousand what was it, two thousand and seventeen, I believe
it was Sonoma, uh, semifinals racing jack back and blow
him off on the stary line. Nine times out of ten.
(15:24):
If you smoke at tires on the start line, you're
not catching the guy next to you, especially if he's
trouble free, well, like I just happen to crack a
throttle and get back at it just because like you
don't give up until you see the guy across the
finish line next to you. Well, Jack had a problem
like half track, like dead in the water, Like oh dude,
like you seem kind of like I'm gonna run out
of room before I can chase him down. I think
(15:46):
it's probably ten feet that I've had to get by
and like got to win. Like that to me, like
blew my mind that it even happened, Like right, oh,
come out like you're talking to yourself, dude, like, oh,
he's dead. He's dead. The pedal fests, I mean, because
you say they're like mom, you know, and they're already unhooked,
(16:07):
you know. Yeah, And to me, I'm not worried like
if it's gonna blow up, like you're punishing that thing.
It better not blow up, and you're trying to crack
it because you know. The bad part is is the
way these butterflies work when you crack them. They're so violent.
You're not like our cars when I first start racing,
like oh, eight oh nine, you can't used you used
to be able to get back on the car just
(16:28):
have not It didn't have the power to have supercharger. Right,
Our cars can drop a hole and they might lose
two or three hundreds off their et sometimes, like you
know what I mean. It depends on how bad or
where it drops that of course, right, but I had
times we dropped it the step of throttle and the
car just goes attempt slower. Okay, So say you go
on to three seventy flight goes with three eight flights.
(16:50):
It's already and you're shocked because back in the day
when I dropped the whole, it never ran like that.
Like like if you dropped the whole back in the
day and you're running three eighty, will running four oh five. Yeah,
you get what I mean. Like now it'll drop a
hole and you gotta say did it drop a hole
because you don't know because the car only lost two
hundred to three thirty, you know, wasn't lose until it
really goes one to one at a half, like not
(17:12):
even after track like three cords away down at five
fifty or six d feet be four thousand foot, right,
So you're like, damn, Lily, and I know I got
back a couple of times a creature goes. Probably go
you ain't feel that whole out, I said, Brian, it
was a hundred and a half slower. You can tell
me you can feel that. He just said it because
he didn't see it to hit the remote that shut
(17:32):
you off, blow it up. But it was like during
a qualifying running because you don't want to tear yourself
up doing qualifying and you'll hit it all the time.
But I was like no, because before we had dropped
the whole, you can feel your face go to like
your your face will go hit the it'll hit the
actually your your dashboard, it'll go whom and you're like,
all you know it dropped the whole. Well now it
(17:52):
just goes and like you're pulling back, but your head
doesn't come for it no more because the door thing,
it's got so much steak in the tank is trying
told up right and like he was saying, back to
pedaling it. The superchargers are so powerful now and like
they're creating so much vacuum that when you go to
the even crack the throw, like it sucks the blades open,
(18:14):
damn hear, so it takes like an art to roll
into that thing. They've been around enough now that I
that I understand. And certainly it's designed to go wide
open because you wanted to react and get after it.
It's it's a race Guard's what it's for. But I've
often I remember early on, like why can't they just
squeeze on a little bit. Well I have since learned
a lot more, but that's just not an option for
(18:35):
you guys. You gotta break it. Like first, you gotta
break the seal, like when you lay off the gas,
when it when it when you got done, when you
smoke the tires, you lay off the pedal, the blades
close and you got vacuum of it's sucking the blades in. Okay,
So what you gotta do is you gotta break the suction.
So you gotta break the seal where it goes pop.
But it goes popping and you open the blaze, they
go like all the way open almost again. And what
(18:56):
you gotta do. You gotta break the seal, and then
you gotta bring your toe back, your foot act and
control it so it doesn't close all the way. And
then you gotta try to like feather it down or
you might do the old Dixon deal. I'll call Dixon
used to do a deal where he uses a wild throb.
He's go on and off, on and off to the car,
got momentum and then go wide open. I so watch
the slow moment go. How's Dix and pedals so good?
(19:17):
Tony was different. Tony used to keep his foot pedals,
so he spelled its smoke. He'll just let off and
now let the blaze close all the way and then
he will roll it. He'll he had a control where
he didn't let it come back to where all the
way close. It was like to like a burnout stop.
I was like, check that joker out, you know what
I mean. He like he let it come back, but
(19:40):
he didn't let it shut all the way, so he
didn't have to matt it open. And so he was
really quick to respond. But he was really quick to
catch it. You have to be quick to catch it
to do it, because if you wait too long, was
already juiced up, spending a lot tire relaxed. Well, he
caught it so quick that the tired relaxed. When he's
letting off the gas and hook back up and then
he'll just feather from there and come back down smooth,
(20:02):
and Dixon was like a on and off guy like
and then went all the way down. Which it's easy
to break that seal, I say, easy, But when we
hit the throttle initially, like you're not just using your
foot the crack the pell like you're basically kicking it.
So like it's easy to get that part. But like
you said, pedal and that that's when it's like, all right,
now you've gotta be gentle like it's you gotta tell
(20:24):
yourself to calm down. That's the hard part, especially if
you smoke them early in the run, like you usually
got a lot of wheels, be like, all right, settle down,
which it's hard to tell yourself. And the guys driving
away from the other lane, you're like, come on, baby,
that has to be an eternity. It seems like, yeah, exactly. Yes.
So we asked Jr. And we pretty well knew knew
(20:45):
a lot of his story coming up. What did you
start racing first? I started racing UM motorcycles when I
was four years old. I literally got my first peddling,
Like I just learned how to ride my pelling bike
without training wheels, and I had a little Z fifty
Honda that I went out into the field and start racing.
That's why I raced motocross for so long because when
(21:06):
I was a kid, they didn't have junior dractors. Junior
dractors didn't come from me until I was like, like
they had them out, Like when I was eighteen, I
was past. That was David Napping his son at English Town,
you know what I mean, Vinny Vinny Nap with with
David and I was just like, man, why didn't they
have that like ten years ago, you get what I mean,
(21:26):
And like it came out like right when I like
I was just turning like eighteen, I'm like, I'll be
darned because wast And I was like, but they were
the coolest things when they came out and half scaled
dracs was built, the first one just right out of
North Jersey, you know what I mean. And uh, I'll
never forget. I was like, man, but I just grew
(21:47):
up doing the dirt bike thing. And then I just
raced dirt bikes for so long. But I was at
the drag strip during the week. I tested to my
dad at Acho English Town all the time. We go
to Maple Grove Cecil County Island Dragway New Media. Yep, am,
I we go to uh Butch Creek, Maryland at m
I R. We've We've been all over the place and
(22:08):
just on the East coast you have, we have like
five tracks within less than two hours away. So you
went from the dirt bikes, how did it go into
pro stock or where did you go next to the
drag race? Well, the cool parts. How I got my
into the drag race and never got drive none of
my uncle or dad's race cars. You know, I was
seventeen years old, and what I did was I went
to the drag strip and I started doing street bike
(22:29):
stuff because that's what I could afford, you know what
I mean. I built a street bike and my dad
used to race motorcycles, drag race them little H two
Kalisaki two strokes seven fifties. Bob Carpenter from New Jersey
over there down South Jersey, pro stock bike guy, and
uh he did my dad's engine work and stuff like that.
And then my dad looked at me, and then we
met Troy Vincent who played for Philip Eagles. Get married,
(22:52):
married married. My cousin Tommy Right from Trenton, New Jersey,
and it was crazy because he used to come there
with his up all buddies, and some of his buddies
that he knew from Philly, some of his boys he
knew from up New York, some people that played for
the Giants Jets. They all had bike riders, and what
they did was I was his jockey because I was.
I was this little kid and nobody knew who I was.
(23:14):
And I came right from motocross, was all clutch control,
driving the street bike to a dirt b I could
drive it backwards, you get what I mean. It was
like it was nothing and uh and I had a
lot of fun. And they're like, who's this kid? You
got Troy, And I was small. I was like hundred
forty pounds, hundred thirty eight pounds, soaking wet. Get on
this bike. And I've read all his big bikes that
Bob built for him and Houston. Bet yous to Bet,
(23:37):
I remember, he said bet. And then when we won money,
he gave me a little piece of it whatever it is.
But we never lost, and he said, Bet. These guys
are like, who is this kid? Because I was like
a little kid when I was like eighteen, like I
was thirteen years old, like and and then all the
other guys like you let that kid whoop y'all. And
that's and that's how it started. And then Troy got
(23:58):
into it, met Dave Schultz, Dave Schultz through his son
Brian Schultz, and because Troy's to go to m A
Pro Star race, Love Motorcycles New Fast by Ferac out
of Pennsylvania, who did the Big m A Superbikes. He
had a street bike that had a two hundur horsepower
that was a Dakati done a Porsche black with his
football number on it, all Magnie's I mean, he had
some nice stuff. And then Troy goes and I'm in college.
(24:22):
He calls me up one day and goes, I wanna
go pro style bike racing. You wanna be my jockey.
I'm like, man, I got a full scholarship. I got
turned down, like I just got done by two years,
about to go to my last two years and a
four year school and I can pretty much go to
any school I want to for track and field. I
never forget. I was like, I'm like, let me think
about it. I'm in That's where my whole career started.
(24:43):
That's how I literally went from a kid from a
rural little town called Chesterfield Country out New Jersey, South
Jersey to becoming a professional racer. But a lot of
people realize a sacrifice where I gave up my track
and field scholarship. I didn't get paid a dime for
my first year racing pro at all. It was a
sacrifice for him to build the team, for me to
(25:04):
get going and to see if we can actually win
a race and make it happen. And we got and
we didn't win a race the first year Suzuki, there
was no v Twins or Harley's out there. It was
all Suki's or Kalisaki's. One race, everything was even, and
Matt Hines and on Jail were like the cream and
a krem and John Myers is out there, but on
Jail was really when she was taking off and Matt
and her were going tip for tap for championships. And
(25:26):
I remember we joined Vance and Hines after the first
year and then we have power. Well, I used to
leave on everybody and the only way we used to
went and we went on whole shots. I used to
always qualify like between six to like the sixth attempt spot.
So we're in between there all the time, we're number five.
Then the next year we started qualifying like number three,
number two, and we won our first race in Dallas,
(25:47):
and everybody red light against me because they couldn't out
run us no more. Oh one of No. Six finished
second to points. Yeah, just it killed me and I'm
(26:08):
one year I finished third and I only lost by
forty points too. It's like it's like those deals where
you like, all right, like we raised professional and that
was the biggest thing to buy to buy careers. Is
that I love it. Where I'm at now is because
we could push hard and we're not payings lives. We
can hit the tree as hard as we can. We
got a little bit too much cushion and fuel, but
it's a lot better than going red because you saw yellow, right, yeah,
(26:32):
go on there obviously, you know a wrinkle up to
tire and get everything, get everything moving. Those bikes, man, boy,
they react so quickly. You often wonder if there's something
you can do to them mechanically to saw him down.
It It bites Krai wicken Hines and these guys that
are good on all tree, it bites them all time.
Old man Rana in a tray could fix it because
this could change the lay where you can slay him
(26:53):
have an incandescent bubb again. They don't want them to,
but they just need to change the number. Just change
the number. They could do it by computer. It will
be so much better for the bike class because you
want people have to work on their craft to be better,
not work on slowing yourself down. You're not human delay
bors And when you're talking about a pro class, you
should be able to see yellow hit it go and
(27:14):
then the one and then winners decided to finish line
by thousand a second, not because somebody saw yell and
let it go. Oh they got rid, so this other
person got to win. And that and that's the thing.
I mean, that's what we were just talking about earlier.
It's about the camera behind the tracer, the light. I mean,
it's like, come on, guys, listen, simple things. Listen. I
mean what and I mean I know they've got a
(27:36):
newer regime there now, and listen, I like all the guys. Well,
but the thing about it is, we gotta do something
to make it better. We gotta do something to make
it work better. It's it's it's it's happening, But you
gotta make it more more changes to make things happen,
you know. So But anyhow, and I'll finish with this.
Ever ride a nitro bike? No, absolutely not, absolutely not.
(27:58):
Dimp't jokers are crazy. You were talking about the tracer
and that's exactly what I was thinking about. No, no, no, no,
because I think about this. When have you not seen
the nitro engine blow up? Can anybody tell me? And
what happens after they blow up? Fire car fire parts
are everywhere. Who is gonna lay their chest and their stomach?
And theyin't to speed? I'll go to speed. Ain't no problem,
(28:20):
you know what I mean. It's you gonna wear a
kevlar vast ride it the top of your Harley guys.
I mean they they still scare me to death. Now
you were talking about John Myers and Shultz. Those guys
are my heroes back in the day elm or treat On,
you know, and of course that was a horrible day
and blame both at the same tath. But those guys,
(28:42):
what about one of those fuel bikes, you know, like
Man sixty. I think I like to try it at
one time, because think about it is he got his
stuff under wraps in his inline force. It's not a
lot of stuff that flies out because the valve train
valve train is a lot smaller. But he's got that
thing done up right, you know what I mean, Like
I've seen this stuff tear up. He runs it mild
(29:04):
and he's got plenty of power and he just goes
faster and fast. And you see, Larry, he don't age.
Bride does not age. Man. He looks better and better
every time I see it. I'm pump because I think
they're supposed to run two of our events this year.
Like when I was a kid growing up, like they're
a lot of the van It's like, I can't wait
to see those things again. Yeah. I remember when I
was growing up as a kid, there was Kylasaki shop.
(29:27):
I was born and raised Clearwater, Florida, and there was
a Kywasaki shop down there, and the Terminal van Lines
bike was down there. Bo Brockta ran that it was
just the coolest looking bike of all time and and
the you know, the fuel bikes were super super cool
back then. Yes they are. I love him. I love
watching him. I just watch him, Yeah, exactly, I just
(29:49):
watch him. You know, I can't believe he roade with
with Sholtz. I can't believe he was. He was your teammate,
and man, he was just Terry. He thought he stopped Vance.
Terry Vance was the king, and and he stopped him.
And Terry Vance said he was the best pro stock
writer of all time. And those those are words out
of Terry's mouth. And uh talk about Terry was sharp. Though, Terry, Terry, Terry, Terry.
(30:14):
You gotta remember he's a disting I call him a
distinguished gentleman, very humble, very kind. But Terry Vance was
a bad man. That's always called him the smooth operator.
He was another one had a really good looking fuel
by smooth on the clutch, I mean, but he was
the pro stock man, pro stock man, pro stock man,
you know what I mean. Like Byron Hines can make
(30:36):
the power. And Byron Hines was a decent writer too.
But Terry Vance, brother, that joker knew how to get
it done. Then Schultz comes along him and Myers just
wicked battles for years and Schultz won six championships. There's
a there's a story where Schultz fell off a ladder.
I think he was doing some work to the top
(30:56):
of his trailer fell off ladder, both arms and a
cast and road for five races and won a championship
that year. Yes he was. He was a bad man.
He was a batman, old Dave and always right there
with him and Cope. That was a great Cope back
in those days engine building, really really sharp guy, sharp
sharp star racing. You know George Brice and and those cats.
(31:20):
And that's when on Joe and you're talking about. I
mean they there were some vicious battles. There was just
out battles. There was there was words, there was fights,
there was some blood shed over there. But that's what
made the sport what it was because they did not
like each other. It wasn't no make believe. It was
like Dave looked down like I want he wanted to
get them and and George looked at him. He wanted
(31:41):
to trip him and stomp on him. So they had
no it was no love lost between them. To addressing
me once again, an excellent telling. Man. Can't thank these
guys enough for coming by. Jr. Todd, Thanks, brother man.
We really appreciate you coming by. And of course, uh
both of you guys are nice and close man, straight
out of Pittsburgh. You know baby rocked on over here
as well. Man. Thanks a lot, dude, and wish you
guys the best of luckier this season. We'll get you
(32:02):
back on here for sure, and thanks for everything you've
done for the sport as well, all along the White Off.
We appreciate. Thank you, guys, Thank you, thank you, thanks
for listening to this episode of The Skinny. To watch
the video versions of all of our shows, please visit
our YouTube channel, fatheads TV. Be sure to check out
(32:24):
all the latest son An optical I wear at fat
heads dot com. Special thanks to our sponsorship partners at
Elliott's Custom Trailers and Cards. This has been a production
of Fathead Studios. Please remember to subscribe
I'm JR. Todd, I'm man Tron Brown and this is
the skinny from fat Head Studios and Speedway, Indiana. This
is the skinny. So Aby the boys went out, Jr.
Colletta went out and got in the midgets out at
(00:21):
I had out at the Speedway. Where were you, brother?
I was off doing a sponsor event, but I'm gonna
make sure I am free. That was a sponsor events. Yeah,
I know, I think you got their shirt on. Actually
know what I mean exactly? I know, Well, I got
told about this year. This year is like you know,
and they told me about j R and DOUGGI out
(00:41):
there and I can't believe they put you in a
real race car. That's what I keep saying. I'm like,
dad to race them jokers? Man? I said, did they
did they know they had a chance of not getting
them back? Yeah? So the best part of someone finally
sent me a video. It's like a couple of months
later there in the infield, and that Christopher Bell is
like someone in the video and you could just like
every time I go in the corner, like he's just nervous.
(01:02):
He's like pacing back and forth and he's like, yeah,
you're you were worried. He was scared to death. Yeah, exactly.
I might have been a little closer. He's on the
show and he said, as soon as I get back,
he said, keep looks at me and said, don't do
that anymore. But that that stuff is like just like anything,
(01:26):
the more you do it, like the more you get
more comfortable, Like all right, I'm getting a little more
balls now, and let's try this. But it was fun, Doug,
he probably loved it. Oh yeah, it's like for them
like that kind of stuff's like riding a bike. That's
where he came from. Yeah, we used to roll in.
We used to roll in when I was, you know,
many years younger. We would roll into Anderson, you know,
and uh and at the time nobody had any any haulers,
(01:51):
any stackers and stuff. There's a black semi there with
gold leaf flattering in the back corner, it says Kalletta.
And that's all I had to say. And it was he.
He would he would go out and ruined. He crushed
people on paved, Yeah, big time. He could have had
a payment career. I like him an IndyCar, Nascar. I mean,
(02:11):
he was that good. He was that smooth, but Conrad said,
we're going on the other direction here straight. Dougs the
one that I'm really blown away. It's not one over
here and has not won that championship man, because he
every time he rolls up, you know, man, like that
dude could win every race he shows up. Absolutely. Let
(02:31):
me tell you something. I looked at Doug and almost
had the same feeling because Tony Schumacher almost did to
me and we had him hands down, no problem, Like
we haven't lost the first round the whole year. And
Doug Ee went where Tony had to go to last
run and set a world record and win the race
world record by like a minimal amount. Yeah, I can't
(02:52):
do it by too much because you have to back
run to back it up, so it can't be like
like like really get it out right and does it
inside like the most impossible thing, not like impossible thing
to do and does it. And you see Douggie's face
on TV like people thought he said, you gotta be
kidding me, But he had a couple of f bombs
in there between that you got and I'm looking at
(03:14):
like how because that man was on fire that year,
you know what I mean? And Douggie. I have battles
with him too, when some of the championships we want
where we battled out against each other. And I mean,
the man could drive a car sideways. He leaves on
time he drives the car. Is just like like winning
the championship. You gotta be good all the time, but
(03:36):
you gotta have things fall in place at the time.
You gotta be at the like like you just can't
hit it good in the beginning of the year. You
just can't hit it good at the middle year. You've
got to be good throughout. And that's just I think
it's been Achilles Hills where they've been good throughout the
whole year, but they always have a stride where they
have a little misfortune and not like they're not running bad,
(03:57):
not like Douggie did a bad job, but some fluke
been like a parts failure or something breaking, you know,
like one thing like the shoots came out. I think
it was last year. Year before the last the shoots
come out on the burnout, like on race day, Like
come on, man, I can't have like dumb stuff that
doesn't happen happens to him at the wrong time. It does,
(04:18):
and we all been victim up because I remember two
races left with the Tony Schumacher deal right two thousand twelve,
haven't lost the race first round all year, have qualified
the top four all year, and we were never leave
off the first round first race out we qualified too.
In Vegas, we go out, there are management boxing works
(04:39):
with ain'ting to clutch, so we so it literally new
to clutch out. The car dropped the whole and I
was putting across the line and Blushi crawls past me,
blipping the throw on and off and beat me if
I won that championship done first race Promona race, Spencer
Massey shook and smoke guitars off the line. I'm way
down the racetrack and know what happened. My fuel line
busts off, bus off, black fires, the supercharger burns my
(05:01):
hands up and everything, and I go crossing across to
the parachutes out. Spencer limps around me and wins. Like
both of them. I hadn't one. I just win one
round two races. But like I said, and that spends
Doug's whole career basically, yep, the whole career. Like dominate
like dominated people all year long, yeah, what I thought
(05:21):
was cool though the year that Tony did that the
next night at the awards Bank. But you know, like
we all get announce like two year through tang up
on stage. You get like when Doug got announced number two,
like the entire room stood up and gave him a
standing of age, like basically like recognizing that he should
have won the championship, Like I thought that was a way. Yeah.
And he's got quite the business himself with the flying services. Yeah,
(05:45):
I mean the old man like is at the top,
you know, doing what he's done so far with this
coronavirus and what have you. But Dougie is like low key,
like right there beside him, like no one really understands
like Doug he's flying business, but it's uh, he doesn't
have the big seven forties set. He's got a lot
of planes and and now he's starting to do a
lot more with d h L and he flies for
(06:07):
like a lot of the auto manufacturers. Just uh, he's
got a lot of planes and does really well. And
is he is he flying international as well or is
it mainly state side? I think it's mainly state side
in the Connies and one of like his planes I
mean he has over twenty I think almost thirty seven
forty seven's and they're all moving all around the world.
Just the business is where you guys are shopping. The
(06:30):
race shop used to be where the businesses at the
airport willow Ruh. And we're probably five five ten minutes
from there now. And then the where they keep the
seven four is like that's probably three hours north in
northern Michigan. It's like an old army base that he
has up there. It's pretty uh, pretty wild. You go
up there. We went to or three years ago, and
he's got other airlines sitting there. Seven forty seven's up
(06:53):
there for maintenance. Like you'll see some commercial airlines are
like what are these things here for? Like, oh, like
the old man has one of the very few dinos
in the world or whatever to test these things. They
send their stuff here for the get engine rebuilds. Like
he's got it pretty cornered on what he's doing. When
Toyota really started stepping into drag racing, they had asked me.
They had asked, you know Ed, because I had known
(07:15):
Ed for a long time and Ed was starting to
take that side of it over as well. With the
motorsports side and everything back in the day. And he said,
he said, you gotta give me a heads up. Who
are these teams? He goes, I don't know any of
these people, I said, And I remember the specifically telling him, Kaletta,
he doesn't need your money. That's your best bet. You know,
(07:38):
he doesn't need your money, Lucas, he doesn't need your money.
That's another one of your best bets. And and uh,
you know, but it was you know Ed was walking
in blind, you know, here he had, you know, and
now gie's where they are with you know, with you
guys and everything they do, and and I mean, it's
it's it's really really cool to see where that is
(07:59):
has grown to. But it was, it was kind of
crazy in the beginning. It's it's been amazing to see
how Toyota and TRD has come over and what they
have facilitated, and motorsports in general is like people don't
realize the backbone that we have, Like when they see
Toyoto on our cars because I ain't toilet engine as ain't.
I said, No, they help us develop everything that's on
(08:21):
this race car, and they have engineers that take you
to a whole step Beyond and Colletta. They always been very,
very competitive. Okay, but I can tell you one thing
for sure is when tr D got involved, and JR.
Knows what I'm talking about, because he went from being
a competitive funny car team to a championship winning funny
(08:41):
car team absolutely, And that was I saw my own
eyes because I saw their cards like they were good.
They can win a race and then win another race
and go here, go there, but they could never put
a string of things together, like I mean back to
back to back to back to back. What it takes
to win a championship. Well, there's a difference. One things
line up and you have a good day versus the
(09:03):
team that's actually leading the way. That's church and and
that's what t r D broad and we we chatted
about that on a previous show, Shaggy bringing Shaggy and slugging.
These guys they just think out of the box. So
they're they're not tied into where all the drag racing
guys have been tied in for twenty years. They come
in with a fresh mind and they're they're looking at
(09:23):
everything from from ten thousand feet if you will, down there,
and it's like we can make this better? And what's good?
Why is this like this? Why you know, why don't
we take a look at this. It's just their their
brain is unbelievable because they're used to winning championships, whether
it's circle track, dirt tracks, even you know, straight line.
(09:44):
When they get into it, they get in at full
bore and and and for me, I'm like, like, I'm
a fan of the sports, so I'll watch everything. I
look at every I look at even other drivers, demeanors
on how they handle certain situations, crew chiefs, crew guys,
how they're going to get through this or how they're
gonna get through that. And I remember distinctly because I
remember seeing Jr's mindset change he became a champion. And
(10:07):
I'm talking about it because he's here, because you can
see the difference because now the difference of it was
before he was happy if they just did well or
if they won this race or won that race. Well,
now it is a different expectation, you see, and when
you become a champion, you get that, you get that
built into your mind. That's where a lot of people
(10:27):
don't know from the outside is when you see him
got that swagger that stands when things don't go right,
is like this ain't how it supposed to work. Like
I'm not like we should be out here winning, going round,
taking care of business. And when it doesn't happen, you
see JR. Now like hold up, hold up the same
(10:49):
way that I get. You get what I mean. And
you can tell and you can see that in different
drivers and teams. Once they once they get that chip,
you get what I mean. They don't have that ship
until they get there and get that chip. And I
mean once you win that championship, that's when they start
getting that chip because they feel like this is where
they belong and this is where they need to be
(11:10):
and we need to be there. Ain't no more like
oh man, we had a good weekend. No no, no, yeah,
that's that's acceptable, right. You know we were talking about
with the fan base. You know, hockey is great to
watch on TV. It's exciting. In hr A is great
to watch on TV. It's exciting, but man, there's nothing
like being there, and we got to get more people
(11:31):
in the stands and uh and because it is a
great sport and it is it is uh it is
uh it is. It's it's like it's like a daredevil sport.
I mean, I really don't know how else to put it,
but that's you know, really it's crazy. From the time
when I wasn't driving full time, you know, you know,
I spent a lot of time at the sprint car
(11:51):
races and made a lot of friends and buddies over there,
and you know, like they, I guess kind of respected
me as a driver, but just always kind of laughed
it off, like oh, you're just going to straight line
like it ain't a big deal, like whatever. And then
and then like once I started racing full time and
some of our races overlaid, but then like got them
to come out like it totally changed their mind, like
(12:13):
like this is awesome, Like you guys are nuts like
that like almost makes me feel good, Like when they
say something like that, like I didn't want to tell
you like you guys are wrong or dumb for like
kind of half ass making fun of me for being
a dragon answer, But it's just it's just different, Like
I respect what you guys do and vice versa. It's
there's nothing like sitting in announced tower and calling a
(12:33):
fuel race and seeing just how straight they don't go correct,
But you have to have that angle and you have
to you watch those things black track down through there
and it is unbelievable how much they are moving around.
It's like, I don't think they're not driving their ass
off because it is not going straight and it doesn't
(12:54):
want to go straight. It wants to kill itself. It's
piste off at the world. That that's something I wish
that our TV show would bring into play. Is like
I I like bowling, like time off, like a bunch
of us get together, go drink beer and bowling. So
I got notes and pro bowler. So I'll watch it
when it's on TV. And they've come up with a technology.
It's like a ball tracer. They'll show you know, the
(13:15):
curve of the ball going down the lane. Like that's
what they should do for us. Yeah, overlay, overlay the
lines on a run and see, you know who is
doing a good job keeping that things straight and like
who's not basically because they're not going straight. If you,
like I said, if you see a run that is
going straight nine times, I'll end that drivers driving his
ass off inside the car making it look boring. And
(13:37):
they ought to go split screen. They have to go
split screen to where they are showing it. If we
could do something behind the cars, you know, would be
super cool and let them, let them chase them down
with the zoom lens. You know, I don't know if
you're gonna chase them down, but you're not gonna change
I think, you know, like what you see at UH
football games and out those cable cams are over across
the field, Like just run a cable along, you know,
(13:59):
the t act and have the camera already going so
far downtack before we go. And when we go, blown
by that camera like that'll put you know, give you
a good perspective how fast we're going. Like those things
move around so much more than you guys get credit
for him, especially the funny cars. And they knock a
cylinder out, you know, and and you see the car
move over and okay, it'll clip a cone, but just
(14:21):
the way it's shot, it doesn't do it justice. You
don't understand how quickly that happened, how violent that move was.
The guy's trying to not get in the other lane
and crash whoever he's racing with. I mean, there's a
lot of stuff that just happened in a fraction of
a second. There Yeah, it's basically it's almost just somebody
punted the side of your car trying to jerk the
whee out of your hands. Like I said, there's times
you're crossing the finish line with the wheel like this
(14:43):
because it's got a cylinder out and you're too dumb
to lift off the throttle, you know. So at the
same time, I gets arounds like that and when you win,
like like oh man, like that, that was awesome, or
a pedal fash, you know, pedal fat that you can
win that, that's where you're like, that gets your on
one pegg to the max. I feel like, so you
guys are talking about how your brain slows down and
(15:04):
you're processing all the stuff you put yourself on a
pedal fest every time you whacked that throttle, are you
thinking is the motor about to blow apart? How many
more times can I get away with this? So two
thousand what was it, two thousand and seventeen, I believe
it was Sonoma, uh, semifinals racing jack back and blow
him off on the stary line. Nine times out of ten.
(15:24):
If you smoke at tires on the start line, you're
not catching the guy next to you, especially if he's
trouble free, well, like I just happen to crack a
throttle and get back at it just because like you
don't give up until you see the guy across the
finish line next to you. Well, Jack had a problem
like half track, like dead in the water, Like oh dude,
like you seem kind of like I'm gonna run out
of room before I can chase him down. I think
(15:46):
it's probably ten feet that I've had to get by
and like got to win. Like that to me, like
blew my mind that it even happened, Like right, oh,
come out like you're talking to yourself, dude, like, oh,
he's dead. He's dead. The pedal fests, I mean, because
you say they're like mom, you know, and they're already unhooked,
(16:07):
you know. Yeah, And to me, I'm not worried like
if it's gonna blow up, like you're punishing that thing.
It better not blow up, and you're trying to crack
it because you know. The bad part is is the
way these butterflies work when you crack them. They're so violent.
You're not like our cars when I first start racing,
like oh, eight oh nine, you can't used you used
to be able to get back on the car just
(16:28):
have not It didn't have the power to have supercharger. Right,
Our cars can drop a hole and they might lose
two or three hundreds off their et sometimes, like you
know what I mean. It depends on how bad or
where it drops that of course, right, but I had
times we dropped it the step of throttle and the
car just goes attempt slower. Okay, So say you go
on to three seventy flight goes with three eight flights.
(16:50):
It's already and you're shocked because back in the day
when I dropped the whole, it never ran like that.
Like like if you dropped the whole back in the
day and you're running three eighty, will running four oh five. Yeah,
you get what I mean. Like now it'll drop a
hole and you gotta say did it drop a hole
because you don't know because the car only lost two
hundred to three thirty, you know, wasn't lose until it
really goes one to one at a half, like not
(17:12):
even after track like three cords away down at five
fifty or six d feet be four thousand foot, right,
So you're like, damn, Lily, and I know I got
back a couple of times a creature goes. Probably go
you ain't feel that whole out, I said, Brian, it
was a hundred and a half slower. You can tell
me you can feel that. He just said it because
he didn't see it to hit the remote that shut
(17:32):
you off, blow it up. But it was like during
a qualifying running because you don't want to tear yourself
up doing qualifying and you'll hit it all the time.
But I was like no, because before we had dropped
the whole, you can feel your face go to like
your your face will go hit the it'll hit the
actually your your dashboard, it'll go whom and you're like,
all you know it dropped the whole. Well now it
(17:52):
just goes and like you're pulling back, but your head
doesn't come for it no more because the door thing,
it's got so much steak in the tank is trying
told up right and like he was saying, back to
pedaling it. The superchargers are so powerful now and like
they're creating so much vacuum that when you go to
the even crack the throw, like it sucks the blades open,
(18:14):
damn hear, so it takes like an art to roll
into that thing. They've been around enough now that I
that I understand. And certainly it's designed to go wide
open because you wanted to react and get after it.
It's it's a race Guard's what it's for. But I've
often I remember early on, like why can't they just
squeeze on a little bit. Well I have since learned
a lot more, but that's just not an option for
(18:35):
you guys. You gotta break it. Like first, you gotta
break the seal, like when you lay off the gas,
when it when it when you got done, when you
smoke the tires, you lay off the pedal, the blades
close and you got vacuum of it's sucking the blades in. Okay,
So what you gotta do is you gotta break the suction.
So you gotta break the seal where it goes pop.
But it goes popping and you open the blaze, they
go like all the way open almost again. And what
(18:56):
you gotta do. You gotta break the seal, and then
you gotta bring your toe back, your foot act and
control it so it doesn't close all the way. And
then you gotta try to like feather it down or
you might do the old Dixon deal. I'll call Dixon
used to do a deal where he uses a wild throb.
He's go on and off, on and off to the car,
got momentum and then go wide open. I so watch
the slow moment go. How's Dix and pedals so good?
(19:17):
Tony was different. Tony used to keep his foot pedals,
so he spelled its smoke. He'll just let off and
now let the blaze close all the way and then
he will roll it. He'll he had a control where
he didn't let it come back to where all the
way close. It was like to like a burnout stop.
I was like, check that joker out, you know what
I mean. He like he let it come back, but
(19:40):
he didn't let it shut all the way, so he
didn't have to matt it open. And so he was
really quick to respond. But he was really quick to
catch it. You have to be quick to catch it
to do it, because if you wait too long, was
already juiced up, spending a lot tire relaxed. Well, he
caught it so quick that the tired relaxed. When he's
letting off the gas and hook back up and then
he'll just feather from there and come back down smooth,
(20:02):
and Dixon was like a on and off guy like
and then went all the way down. Which it's easy
to break that seal, I say, easy, But when we
hit the throttle initially, like you're not just using your
foot the crack the pell like you're basically kicking it.
So like it's easy to get that part. But like
you said, pedal and that that's when it's like, all right,
now you've gotta be gentle like it's you gotta tell
(20:24):
yourself to calm down. That's the hard part, especially if
you smoke them early in the run, like you usually
got a lot of wheels, be like, all right, settle down,
which it's hard to tell yourself. And the guys driving
away from the other lane, you're like, come on, baby,
that has to be an eternity. It seems like, yeah, exactly. Yes.
So we asked Jr. And we pretty well knew knew
(20:45):
a lot of his story coming up. What did you
start racing first? I started racing UM motorcycles when I
was four years old. I literally got my first peddling,
Like I just learned how to ride my pelling bike
without training wheels, and I had a little Z fifty
Honda that I went out into the field and start racing.
That's why I raced motocross for so long because when
(21:06):
I was a kid, they didn't have junior dractors. Junior
dractors didn't come from me until I was like, like
they had them out, Like when I was eighteen, I
was past. That was David Napping his son at English Town,
you know what I mean, Vinny Vinny Nap with with
David and I was just like, man, why didn't they
have that like ten years ago, you get what I mean,
(21:26):
And like it came out like right when I like
I was just turning like eighteen, I'm like, I'll be
darned because wast And I was like, but they were
the coolest things when they came out and half scaled
dracs was built, the first one just right out of
North Jersey, you know what I mean. And uh, I'll
never forget. I was like, man, but I just grew
(21:47):
up doing the dirt bike thing. And then I just
raced dirt bikes for so long. But I was at
the drag strip during the week. I tested to my
dad at Acho English Town all the time. We go
to Maple Grove Cecil County Island Dragway New Media. Yep, am,
I we go to uh Butch Creek, Maryland at m
I R. We've We've been all over the place and
(22:08):
just on the East coast you have, we have like
five tracks within less than two hours away. So you
went from the dirt bikes, how did it go into
pro stock or where did you go next to the
drag race? Well, the cool parts. How I got my
into the drag race and never got drive none of
my uncle or dad's race cars. You know, I was
seventeen years old, and what I did was I went
to the drag strip and I started doing street bike
(22:29):
stuff because that's what I could afford, you know what
I mean. I built a street bike and my dad
used to race motorcycles, drag race them little H two
Kalisaki two strokes seven fifties. Bob Carpenter from New Jersey
over there down South Jersey, pro stock bike guy, and
uh he did my dad's engine work and stuff like that.
And then my dad looked at me, and then we
met Troy Vincent who played for Philip Eagles. Get married,
(22:52):
married married. My cousin Tommy Right from Trenton, New Jersey,
and it was crazy because he used to come there
with his up all buddies, and some of his buddies
that he knew from Philly, some of his boys he
knew from up New York, some people that played for
the Giants Jets. They all had bike riders, and what
they did was I was his jockey because I was.
I was this little kid and nobody knew who I was.
(23:14):
And I came right from motocross, was all clutch control,
driving the street bike to a dirt b I could
drive it backwards, you get what I mean. It was
like it was nothing and uh and I had a
lot of fun. And they're like, who's this kid? You
got Troy, And I was small. I was like hundred
forty pounds, hundred thirty eight pounds, soaking wet. Get on
this bike. And I've read all his big bikes that
Bob built for him and Houston. Bet yous to Bet,
(23:37):
I remember, he said bet. And then when we won money,
he gave me a little piece of it whatever it is.
But we never lost, and he said, Bet. These guys
are like, who is this kid? Because I was like
a little kid when I was like eighteen, like I
was thirteen years old, like and and then all the
other guys like you let that kid whoop y'all. And
that's and that's how it started. And then Troy got
(23:58):
into it, met Dave Schultz, Dave Schultz through his son
Brian Schultz, and because Troy's to go to m A
Pro Star race, Love Motorcycles New Fast by Ferac out
of Pennsylvania, who did the Big m A Superbikes. He
had a street bike that had a two hundur horsepower
that was a Dakati done a Porsche black with his
football number on it, all Magnie's I mean, he had
some nice stuff. And then Troy goes and I'm in college.
(24:22):
He calls me up one day and goes, I wanna
go pro style bike racing. You wanna be my jockey.
I'm like, man, I got a full scholarship. I got
turned down, like I just got done by two years,
about to go to my last two years and a
four year school and I can pretty much go to
any school I want to for track and field. I
never forget. I was like, I'm like, let me think
about it. I'm in That's where my whole career started.
(24:43):
That's how I literally went from a kid from a
rural little town called Chesterfield Country out New Jersey, South
Jersey to becoming a professional racer. But a lot of
people realize a sacrifice where I gave up my track
and field scholarship. I didn't get paid a dime for
my first year racing pro at all. It was a
sacrifice for him to build the team, for me to
(25:04):
get going and to see if we can actually win
a race and make it happen. And we got and
we didn't win a race the first year Suzuki, there
was no v Twins or Harley's out there. It was
all Suki's or Kalisaki's. One race, everything was even, and
Matt Hines and on Jail were like the cream and
a krem and John Myers is out there, but on
Jail was really when she was taking off and Matt
and her were going tip for tap for championships. And
(25:26):
I remember we joined Vance and Hines after the first
year and then we have power. Well, I used to
leave on everybody and the only way we used to
went and we went on whole shots. I used to
always qualify like between six to like the sixth attempt spot.
So we're in between there all the time, we're number five.
Then the next year we started qualifying like number three,
number two, and we won our first race in Dallas,
(25:47):
and everybody red light against me because they couldn't out
run us no more. Oh one of No. Six finished
second to points. Yeah, just it killed me and I'm
(26:08):
one year I finished third and I only lost by
forty points too. It's like it's like those deals where
you like, all right, like we raised professional and that
was the biggest thing to buy to buy careers. Is
that I love it. Where I'm at now is because
we could push hard and we're not payings lives. We
can hit the tree as hard as we can. We
got a little bit too much cushion and fuel, but
it's a lot better than going red because you saw yellow, right, yeah,
(26:32):
go on there obviously, you know a wrinkle up to
tire and get everything, get everything moving. Those bikes, man, boy,
they react so quickly. You often wonder if there's something
you can do to them mechanically to saw him down.
It It bites Krai wicken Hines and these guys that
are good on all tree, it bites them all time.
Old man Rana in a tray could fix it because
this could change the lay where you can slay him
(26:53):
have an incandescent bubb again. They don't want them to,
but they just need to change the number. Just change
the number. They could do it by computer. It will
be so much better for the bike class because you
want people have to work on their craft to be better,
not work on slowing yourself down. You're not human delay
bors And when you're talking about a pro class, you
should be able to see yellow hit it go and
(27:14):
then the one and then winners decided to finish line
by thousand a second, not because somebody saw yell and
let it go. Oh they got rid, so this other
person got to win. And that and that's the thing.
I mean, that's what we were just talking about earlier.
It's about the camera behind the tracer, the light. I mean,
it's like, come on, guys, listen, simple things. Listen. I
mean what and I mean I know they've got a
(27:36):
newer regime there now, and listen, I like all the guys. Well,
but the thing about it is, we gotta do something
to make it better. We gotta do something to make
it work better. It's it's it's it's happening, But you
gotta make it more more changes to make things happen,
you know. So But anyhow, and I'll finish with this.
Ever ride a nitro bike? No, absolutely not, absolutely not.
(27:58):
Dimp't jokers are crazy. You were talking about the tracer
and that's exactly what I was thinking about. No, no, no, no,
because I think about this. When have you not seen
the nitro engine blow up? Can anybody tell me? And
what happens after they blow up? Fire car fire parts
are everywhere. Who is gonna lay their chest and their stomach?
And theyin't to speed? I'll go to speed. Ain't no problem,
(28:20):
you know what I mean. It's you gonna wear a
kevlar vast ride it the top of your Harley guys.
I mean they they still scare me to death. Now
you were talking about John Myers and Shultz. Those guys
are my heroes back in the day elm or treat On,
you know, and of course that was a horrible day
and blame both at the same tath. But those guys,
(28:42):
what about one of those fuel bikes, you know, like
Man sixty. I think I like to try it at
one time, because think about it is he got his
stuff under wraps in his inline force. It's not a
lot of stuff that flies out because the valve train
valve train is a lot smaller. But he's got that
thing done up right, you know what I mean, Like
I've seen this stuff tear up. He runs it mild
(29:04):
and he's got plenty of power and he just goes
faster and fast. And you see, Larry, he don't age.
Bride does not age. Man. He looks better and better
every time I see it. I'm pump because I think
they're supposed to run two of our events this year.
Like when I was a kid growing up, like they're
a lot of the van It's like, I can't wait
to see those things again. Yeah. I remember when I
was growing up as a kid, there was Kylasaki shop.
(29:27):
I was born and raised Clearwater, Florida, and there was
a Kywasaki shop down there, and the Terminal van Lines
bike was down there. Bo Brockta ran that it was
just the coolest looking bike of all time and and
the you know, the fuel bikes were super super cool
back then. Yes they are. I love him. I love
watching him. I just watch him, Yeah, exactly, I just
(29:49):
watch him. You know, I can't believe he roade with
with Sholtz. I can't believe he was. He was your teammate,
and man, he was just Terry. He thought he stopped Vance.
Terry Vance was the king, and and he stopped him.
And Terry Vance said he was the best pro stock
writer of all time. And those those are words out
of Terry's mouth. And uh talk about Terry was sharp. Though, Terry, Terry, Terry, Terry.
(30:14):
You gotta remember he's a disting I call him a
distinguished gentleman, very humble, very kind. But Terry Vance was
a bad man. That's always called him the smooth operator.
He was another one had a really good looking fuel
by smooth on the clutch, I mean, but he was
the pro stock man, pro stock man, pro stock man,
you know what I mean. Like Byron Hines can make
(30:36):
the power. And Byron Hines was a decent writer too.
But Terry Vance, brother, that joker knew how to get
it done. Then Schultz comes along him and Myers just
wicked battles for years and Schultz won six championships. There's
a there's a story where Schultz fell off a ladder.
I think he was doing some work to the top
(30:56):
of his trailer fell off ladder, both arms and a
cast and road for five races and won a championship
that year. Yes he was. He was a bad man.
He was a batman, old Dave and always right there
with him and Cope. That was a great Cope back
in those days engine building, really really sharp guy, sharp
sharp star racing. You know George Brice and and those cats.
(31:20):
And that's when on Joe and you're talking about. I
mean they there were some vicious battles. There was just
out battles. There was there was words, there was fights,
there was some blood shed over there. But that's what
made the sport what it was because they did not
like each other. It wasn't no make believe. It was
like Dave looked down like I want he wanted to
get them and and George looked at him. He wanted
(31:41):
to trip him and stomp on him. So they had
no it was no love lost between them. To addressing
me once again, an excellent telling. Man. Can't thank these
guys enough for coming by. Jr. Todd, Thanks, brother man.
We really appreciate you coming by. And of course, uh
both of you guys are nice and close man, straight
out of Pittsburgh. You know baby rocked on over here
as well. Man. Thanks a lot, dude, and wish you
guys the best of luckier this season. We'll get you
(32:02):
back on here for sure, and thanks for everything you've
done for the sport as well, all along the White Off.
We appreciate. Thank you, guys, Thank you, thank you, thanks
for listening to this episode of The Skinny. To watch
the video versions of all of our shows, please visit
our YouTube channel, fatheads TV. Be sure to check out
(32:24):
all the latest son An optical I wear at fat
heads dot com. Special thanks to our sponsorship partners at
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