June 4, 2020 • 30 mins
All 3 Vance and Hines superstars together in part 2 of this episode! Host Ken Stout welcomes 6-time NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Champ Andrew Hines, along with 4-time Champion Eddie Krawiec in the studio, while 3-time Champion Angelle Sampey joins us from her home in Louisiana. Don’t miss it!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Eddie Crawley and Sampei and this is the skinny
from Fathead Studios and Speedway Indiana. This is the skinny.
We have an exciting show coming your way today with
one of the most iconic teams and all the motor sports.
(00:20):
When you think about n h R A and some
of the big names, well, certainly Forced, Kaletta and Schumacher
would come to mind, but one would be remiss if
they didn't also include the team Vanson Hines. The team
and the company have been winning for forty years, and
we have all three very talented and extremely successful writers
on the show. We both tune our own motorcycles, so
(00:42):
Andrews andrewstry Chief on gels and and his and kind
of he oversees mine and I kind of do my
own thing with mine and we it's because we all
have we think the same on a lot of stuff,
but we still have a little bit of a different view.
And by doing that, it allows us to kind of
try two or three different set up ups every race.
And what I mean by that is we take what
(01:04):
I'm doing over here, we take what he's doing over here,
and we take what hers is usually somewhere in the
middle of Art two and now when we make one
run down the track, we now have three runs of data.
And what that allows us to do is usually going
into Saturday going in right direction. We've been struggling. I
would say as a team. Maybe the results last year
(01:25):
didn't show it as much, but I would say we struggled.
We didn't we didn't run where we think we should
have with any of our motorcycles. Her bike, the greatest
thing about it is, and we've never had this luxury
is it's got so much ballanced on it. And wait,
where it needs to be, Like her tuning window is
is the garage door Andrews and mine is like, yeah,
(01:47):
I was gonna say, run into one little section of
that window, and that's where ours is. And that's a
huge benefit because like when the track gets greasy on us, uh,
a really tight track, we might be able to go
one oh five consistently. Her bike goes on three one
oh four track, it's really bad greasy. And nhr's kind
of change your prep procedures and everything that they've done
in the last year to kind of harness the top
(02:08):
fuel guys, And what I'd like to say is kind
of slow the sport down. Um, but our stuff will
go one oh eight, one oh nine and tend to
knock the tire off, and her stuff goes one oh five,
and we're like, man, what the hell do we gotta do.
It's like, we gotta cut our legs off and and
you know, put an extra forty pounds on the front
of the bike. And that's what we love about it.
(02:28):
And if you if you race at at a level
to win a championship, all those little minute things that
becomes so important. I mean, to get in, to get
into the hunt is one thing, but to then be
good enough to actually go ahead and win, there's a
whole another thing. And and like you said, I mean
just that two or three pounds over the front tire,
that that can make a difference, you know, and a
(02:49):
couple of hundreds to three hundreds and your first sixty
ft and then the rest of the deal is done.
You know, it's it's over right there. So it's just
incredible how how important those little details are. We've tried race,
and I'd say the success in my career was always
ride in race to be there and be good all
the time, don't do stupid mistakes and try not to
(03:12):
push it too hard. And if you have a really
good motorcycle under you and you are really good that day,
chances are you're gonna win. Yeah, there's not a lot
of times where we come back to the trailer and
the are we'll probably really never that. Our crew guys
are just disappointed in what we did. You know, we
they understand that we've done enough to get where we
are now that if we go out there and you know,
we might have a bad light and cut a fifty
(03:33):
or sixty and get beat on a whole shot. And
that's probably the great thing about our team is they're
they're not ever, They're they're they kind of go with
the floor. Nobody's dejected. Man, you screwed up to the
trailer and then tear down and move on to the
next race. That's kind of our our mentality. We don't.
The preparation we do at our shop here in Brownsburg
is uh it is really, I mean, that's all our
(03:54):
work is done here. We get to the track and
we people may not see us working that much with
the racetrack because we've done so much prep parration to
get to each and every event. You see some other
teams out there and there's chaos going on sometimes and
it's just they're rolling in the track. No motors in
the bikes, no nothing. Bikes are all apart. You gotta
put them to get, you know. And it's like we
say we go to the track to race, we don't
go to the track to work, and races are one
(04:16):
and lost at the shop. If I go out there
and I failed to perform, I really feel bad for
the guys on the team because they're the ones that
are putting on the line. They're leaving their families there.
There were at the shop endless hours when we asked
them to be and uh, if if there's some reason
we don't turn on a win light because it's a
rider's fault, that's uh. That's when it comes home to
hit me that, hey, I just letting my team down.
And but we come back to the trailer and they
(04:36):
just they fight through it and they say like, hey,
we'll move on to the next one. We'll get them.
I mean we even told gel that when she came aboard.
That was the number one thing was we're not gonna
sit here yell at you and beat you up, because
like Terry Terry's probably only ever called me twice after
like a loss, and not to yell at me, to
ask me, hey, what are you thinking? But um, it's
it's like you go through these funks as drivers or
(04:56):
racers or whatever it may be, and um, you gotta
battle out of that. And that's the key. And that's
what I told on jail is there's no extra pressure.
You're not trying to prove anything to us. You're here
because we know you can do it. If you make
a mistake, you make a mistake, just learn off your mistake.
As long as you don't make that same mistake twice
or three times, we're all good. And I think that's
(05:17):
the key to to really the fine balance of being
a racer to a championship caliber racer. Yeah, nobody carries
that nasty attitude and there's a nasty attitude on the team.
That person's gotta go. Is it only takes one to
ruin all of that atmosphere, that chemistry that's so critical
to win in a championship. And I agree with you.
Everybody knows they're good. Everybody's really good at their job.
(05:38):
And you have a ton of confidence and all of
your colleagues on that team, and when somebody makes a
mistakes like hey man, I've made a mistake. It happens.
You know, everybody buckled down. We've got the best in
the business. Let's just we'll go get them next night.
And I think it makes it even better when you
go back and you say I screwed that up. You know,
you don't go back like, yeah, yeah, it's the clutch
ever fell off. You know it's no, you let the
(06:01):
clutch lever out, you know, no. I mean, it's just
the way it is. I've got to ask you, Eddie,
because I have to get an impartial answer. I can't
ask him and All hasn't been on the team long enough.
The same level of engineering intelligence that Byron has has
that is that acorn fallen close to the tree. With
both Matt and Andrew, do you see that with those
(06:22):
two it's kind of the same thing right now, because Andrew,
for sure thinks about the technical side of it. I think,
you know, Matt does it the old school way where
you know, you're just kind of the trial and error
or you're thinking and you're doing stuff. He's thinking about
it on the engineering side of it and trying to
put a theory or a reason behind it, and that's
(06:44):
the way that you can kind of print out your roadmap.
And what I mean by that is when you have
proof and you say this is why it works, not well,
I'm it works, but I'm not sure why it works.
So when you know when you go back to it
the second time, it's going to work, it's not a
question of if it is or isn't. UM. I mean
we've kind of done that with our motorcycles, with programs
(07:05):
and clutch programs and everything we've done over the last
probably two years has a has a UH, a road
to why we did it and a path to how
we got there. Matt's been an instrumental part of the
whole program from when he came on back in two
thousand three basically all the way on to UH to
the last two years, and he still is back at
the shop. Matt's been back to shop working doing things
(07:27):
like that. He's the one that designed the chassis that
we're riding on now. UM we've kind of went to
the next evolution with on Gael's because being that her
bike is a little bit heavier than ours, it needs
different tubes in certain places. Or thicker stuff because you're
hanging so much weight. I mean, there was a couple
of races last year we broke frame rails on her bike.
We didn't even know it too, you know. We didn't
(07:48):
like telling her, you know, because she was like, oh
my god, these guys are gonna touch my motorcycle. And
you go walking in the shop and things all apart,
and she's like, guys, we gotta go racing tomorrow. And
it's like, oh, we're only forty five minutes from having
it together, you know, and it's like, there's no way.
But it's about making sure I think, first and foremost
everybody gets on that motorcycle is comfortable. But to answer
(08:10):
your question in the short one, I think it takes
the engineering side of it nowadays because what you're racing
against is in all of racing is brain trusts in
each camp and you have to match that brain trust.
So Andrew or you do you build stuff on the computer?
Do you run simulations versus say, like you said, Matt
Old School, like I know if we do this, this
(08:31):
it should work. We'll try this. But you're running simulations right, Yeah.
We have CFD and f A analysis on our solid
work stations and uh, you know the whole chassis design
and CAD is designed to be stiff in certain areas
flexible than others. Um all the bodywork and all the
air box pieces and all that was designing CAD, cutting
our shop at vants and huns for the carbon molds
and things, and it's just kind of you know, it's
(08:52):
one of those things that you can't turn it off.
You go home at night and I close my eyes
and think about family, but what my eyes are seeing
is what's on the computer for the next day. That's uh,
it's an unfortunate thing, but it's part of the well,
it's not a job for you, with your life and
you know, whole different things. I'd like to add a
little bit if you don't mind. Yeah, I can't. I
can't bring back the feedback to the trailer like Andrew
(09:15):
and Eddie do with the motorcycle. Like he said, there's
a lot of rider input and you have to know
whether to believe the motorcycle data or the rider. I'm
not there yet, and I don't know if I ever
will be able to give them the information that they
can bring back. So Andrew is exceptional at watching my runs,
whether he's standing on the starting line or or viewing
the video, or even sometimes he's come back with changes
(09:39):
after watching the television show. Um, he has so much
to do with the success of my motorcycle. And I
know that I didn't show it last year, but I
hope to show it this year. How awesome he is
that not only you know, designing the things that I need,
When he designed the break lever and the seat for me,
There's so many things he's done to make me comfortable
(10:00):
on that motorcycle, but he's also helping me drive it
just from watching me with the little feedback that I
can give him. So what he's able to do on
the engineering side of it, to me is amazing. Just
like you, I had no idea what he was capable of.
I've learned so much over the last year, and I
brag on him all the time. I don't know if
I make him uncomfortable or not, but he is truly
(10:21):
amazing and I couldn't have ridden the bike as well
as I can today without him. And even Eddie, I mean,
they've both just been amazing at helping me learn how
to do it. But Andrews really made me comfortable and
done everything that he can do to make that bike
fit me to a t. I mean, if you're got
to schmooz, somebody might as well be the owner's son,
(10:42):
right Well, just laying up there, I had to at
least hit it. You know that one day you said
something bad. Well, it was like early on, you know,
we're both giving her information. And then we talked and
we both game. In any agreement, it's better if one
person just kind of picks and says, you know, this
(11:02):
is what you should do, because otherwise you start getting
direction from too many areas. I mean, that was that
was part of Matt's deal when I came on the team.
It was, Hey, if Eddie fails, you fail. That was
what Matt kind of got told, and that's what he
got told, and uh, you know, so it's that's the
important part. And that was kind of the whole deal.
With Angel coming aboard. It was like, hey, this, you know,
(11:24):
we're bringing the girl on underneath you two guys. This
is on you, two guys to make sure she goes
down the track. I want to see your succeed. He
wants to see your succeed. None of us, none of
our team guys, want to see her fail. I mean,
we want to make sure she could win, and uh,
you know that goes for me, it goes for him
Unfortunately at the end of the day, and there's only
gonna be one winner. Uh, whether it's him, me or her,
(11:46):
I don't really care because I think it's a team win.
At that point. I'm kind of at that point in
my career where I'm past having to win. It doesn't mean,
you know, it doesn't mean that I don't want to win.
I want to win, but it also means to me
that if I'm part of the crew or I'm part
of this success to get to that trophy, you accomplish
(12:06):
something you didn't accomplish it if nobody got it. And
I would rather see somebody get it than in my
camp than somebody else get it. Yeah, I mean a
goal of finishing first, second, third, and the points would
be uh, you know, an incredible effort, you know, out
of the team, and everybody's a winner. You know, at
that point everybody comes back and gets to play again
the next year or two, So super important. Hey on, Jel,
(12:29):
I want to ask you something. You say you don't
know that you could come back with the information that
these guys are coming back with. But I want you
to go back into your championship years when you won
three of them in a row, and what was it
like with George at the time. I mean when you,
I'm guessing George played Andrew's part where he was watching
and had a had a bunch of information to give you.
(12:49):
But what were you coming back to feed George at
the time. Did you feel like you had the information
that these guys give back now? Yeah, I think so.
Back then, because I was so used to the Suzuki,
I knew every single thing it was supposed to feel like,
if something changed, I knew it changed. And there's still
a bit of information overload on the Harley Davidson that
I'm just not where they are yet. I'm still I'm
(13:11):
consciously working on so many things where they can do
so many things subconsciously that I can't do. It's just
a lot of information to take in. You know. I'm
getting better at it. I know if it lays off
the top of a gear a little bit more than
I used to. But not like them. I mean, they
can come back and they can tell you from the
bottom of the gear to the top of the gear
of any little bitty thing went wrong, and I just
(13:32):
can't feel that yet. Um, I'm getting there. I hope
to get there, But like I said, if I if
I don't, Andrew pays attention so well, Um, he just
he knows what to do. There's its been times we've
been We've met downstairs at the hotel for breakfast and
he walks in and he says, hey, I haven't I
thought about it last night, and I know what we're
gonna do, and then he'll change something. He's changed my
(13:53):
writing style, you know. One morning he said, we're gonna
try this, and then he's you know, he's changed things
on the bike. We're gonna try this, and every time
he says that it gets better and better and better.
He hasn't made a wrong decision yet. So I wish
I could give more data. And I'm gonna really try
to do that this year. You know, I'm gonna try
to learn and pay attention to what the bike's doing.
But I know that if I can't, I'm still in
(14:13):
good hands. I know I'll get one of those yellow
hats this year. I'm pretty confident about it. Hey, I
got another another question for you, Um, reading some of
what Matt did back in the day. I think he
had been to in these first five races or something
like that, but had yet to reach a final and
the bike was fast, and he said he had a
secret conversation with Terry, and then the next the next
(14:36):
race he went to the final round, and then he
won the two following races back to back. So I'm
curious if you had a secret conversation with Terry or
has Matt ever told you about that secret conversation And
the same to you Eddie. I'm not sure if Matt
ever shared that with it' that's a new one for me.
Probably it was probably part of a bonus incentive program,
like hey have you in this race? You get of
(14:59):
the bike earning you know, uh, you know your dad one,
I one. You're the only one stinking it up here.
Maybe pick up the pace, you know. I kind of
went through that early on in my career with the team,
and you know, it was like it was like instant success.
I jump on a motorcycle, I go to Gainesville, Oh seven,
and you know, I tested. I think I rode the bike.
(15:20):
I think I made eight passes before I went to
Gainesville and we go to Gainesville and I go to
Semis to are all sort of up broke, you know,
broke to motors. Just not my fault, but I mean
stuff just broke. And it was like, man, I went
right to the Semis. I was like this, this is
gonna be good. And then you know, second race was
(15:40):
like okay, I think second round, the second round. Then
I had a d m Q in Atlanta and I'm like, oh,
this sucks. And partially it was because of me. I
was having a hard time riding the track and I
never really rode a barbike in Atlanta, and the right
lane pulls your hard right and I was on a
run that would have put me clearly into the middle
of the field, and the the thing just hooked hard
(16:01):
right in the right lane and I had to shut
it off. And I'm like, man, d n Q. I
couldn't believe that. And so I kind of went through
that whole path. And then next thing, you know, I
started doing pretty good towards the middle party year. Went
to some finals with Andrew and the other lane and
Brainerd and stuff, and next thing, I went to a
final and uh semifinal lost in Denver. My throttle cable
(16:23):
broke and then went to the final in Sonoma and
the bike bog against Matt Smith. I mean, I can
tell you, we can tell you all the races that
were bad. Yeah, and you know, so it's like, okay,
so I'm going all these final rounds and then oh eight,
I go out there and I'm like a gang buster
going to finals and I still can't win a damn race.
Went the hell and then finally oh nine rolls in
(16:43):
and I win a race. I win Atlanta, my first
place that I had a d n Q on the Harley,
So it was like a bitter sweet deal. But it's
it's so crazy on I really do believe once you
get there and you learn your path to winning, you
learn how to not overthink it, and that's the key.
Like a man, as soon as I started winning in
Atlanta in in oh nine, it was like win, win,
(17:06):
and then you know, finals, finals, finals, and it's just
like what did we get here? It just it's just
it all clicked and it worked. And I really think
it's about understanding how to get there, but even more so,
it's about calming your nerves, knowing that you have the ability,
and once you know you have the ability. In a
champions mind you become unstoppable. What was that mindset? Like,
(17:28):
I mean, you're coming to the end of the year,
You've got to shut out this championship. You know, you're, hey, man,
I can win this championship. I haven't won a freaking
race all year long. You know which one do you
want to win the most? Of course the championship is
is there. It's like, that's gonna solidify my ride for
next year. I gotta hang on the right freaking win man.
I to this day, I still am confused about that championship.
(17:50):
Like it I won the championship, I mean clearly, but
I still don't feel like I won the championship like
years I didn't. Yeah, but I was. It's like I
tell everybody, I'm like the year that I feel like
I won the championship was actually oh nine when I
(18:12):
lost it by two points to Irana. Because I went
out there. I went to eleven final rounds one I
think eight races, nine races. That year. Um, I've I
crushed it. I killed it, And it was like at
the end of the year, I had nothing to show
for it. You know, I was like, Okay, I didn't
win the championship one of those years where any other
time what you did would have certainly won the championship,
(18:34):
but it was only good enough for second place. I mean,
Formula one guy's Formula one guys were commenting on on
my championship deal. Everybody like that was a huge thing
across the motorsports industry. Was, Man, that guy just won
a championship. People are saying, well, you shouldn't have won
a championship if you didn't win a race and this,
and I'm like, well, I won from being consistent. That's
the way I viewed it. I was the most consistent
writer all year long through that segment. And uh, you know,
(18:57):
it's great. I love it. It's to me now, it's
it's like the icing on my cake. That's a story
that you could just suck a person, only second person
in h R history to do that. And and he
had a couple of wins. Yeah, you know, you had
zero wins and did it, so you do hold that on, right,
I'll give you them. And that was Gary Beck in
nineteen eighty or something like that. That wasn't Gary Beck.
It was Rob Bruins, Okay, but it was eight eight
(19:21):
races of years something like that. Here we are racing
in the sixteen seventeen events a year, and you would
think you'd at some point you find something. You know,
it wasn't a points race. He did win the money
at the Battle. I won the Battle that year. He
did have some hardware. It wasn't something, but I got
the big paper check. It's seventy five grand and a
crystal crystal trophy. So that was cool. But man, it's
(19:41):
it is. It's an interesting ordeal, but I don't know.
It's still one of those weird things. I still say
it to this day. The championship year for me was
oh nine when I didn't win it. So what typically
goes on behind the scenes at the race track, you
guys nudging each other all the time, is they're always
something going on. I mean you see we all see
the nskey games going on with New Garden and Pageane.
(20:03):
Oh and you know all those guys are always doing
something silly, you guys. Is there is there ongoing stuff
behind the behind the doors of the trailer. Oh, there's
constant ribbon going on. It's just you find if anybody
shows one little weakness, then our team has has a way. Yeah,
you find that little rift and you just you know,
slam it open with a knife. But yeah, we have
(20:25):
we have a couple of guys on it, you know,
like Scott, our guy, our engine guy. Scott. He's like
he's quirky, yeah he but man, he just he leads
himself right into that road and it's like you watch,
I'm gonna rip the hell out of him right here,
and it's just you blast them and it makes it fun.
I mean those guys, well, I was gonna say, I
kind of got the nickname Haskell Eddie Haskell. You know
that's because it's just the way it fell. And that's
(20:48):
what our truck driver, Ray calls us. Ray works on
my bike. Mike Mike mulaney is on is on Andrew's bike,
and then my brother, actually we brought a board last year,
works on on Jael's bike. So we have an interesting dynamic.
Everybody works along. I think on Gel could probably give
you the most insight on that because she was the
one that would always be in the trailers outside of ours,
(21:09):
so everybody always said, well you could bleep here, So
it's like there's you know, it's like when they don't
have any fun in that trailer. You know, personality, we
are there to race. When you see us, we're they're racing.
We're thinking about And the reason why we don't have
any fun at that particular point is because we're thinking.
We're constantly walking around thinking. But when the time comes
(21:31):
to have fun, you gotta have fun. If you're not
makes a total stress. Environ mean, one of the things
red cups and when Eddie's driving the rental car, it's
you better to just wear your helmet. So that's what
I'm gonna start doing this. She's sitting all the way
in the back. She's like you hear like she started
(21:54):
she started bringing uh motion sicknest pills with the races
back in the minivan. I know it drives from I've
watched him the bottom of the barrel a couple of
a couple of nights, all the bottom of the barrel
drag races. I've told Andrew about that on like Memorial Davis. Yeah.
But Harrington and I mean, we we'd all you know. Heck,
I've raised the ten. I was going ten eighties in
(22:14):
uh in my cousin Chevelle at the time against Harrington
with nine people on the golf cart going like thirteen thirty. Yeah,
you know, to to like the sixty ft but he's
he was running out. I think he dialed in like
thirty one seconds and I dialed ten eighty, and uh,
it was the weirdest thing coming up on a golf
cart going like thirty miles an hour and I'm going
(22:35):
to buck ten. You know, it's pretty cool. But so Jell,
talk to me about that situation where your husband had
left and there was a motorcycle sitting there, and he said, hey, man,
ride that thing a little bit and make sure the
cobwebs don't grow on it. You know, you know the
stories way back, don't you, So the days I try
to forget about. But yeah, that was true. We um.
(22:57):
I was married to a guy named Kevin. He went
off to the Gulf War, and he had a motorcycle
that he didn't want to go bad sitting there and
so he didn't mean for me to take it to
the racetrack and drag race it though. He just meant
like taking around the block every once in a while.
And when he came home it was stripped, I mean
stripped to the bone. We had taken the headlight, the blinkers,
(23:19):
you know, cut the seat, did everything we could do
to it. Um, put Willie Bars on it. I think
I had an airshifter. I can't remember. Um, but I
was drag racing. It was no it was not going
to be on the street ever again. So he wasn't
too happy at first, but you know, went to the
track with me and fell in love with the sport
himself and we started together. So that's where my career began.
(23:39):
So thanks to that motorcycle that he left behind her,
I probably wouldn't be here today. Yeah. I read that
story and I'm like, that's pretty cool. A guy comes
back and she did what I asked, if do you?
I guess you know, I didn't know she was gonna.
I didn't know you had stripped and cut the seat
and all that stuff, so I thought you just gonna
slicking really to the street after that, But um, I
(24:01):
got off of that bike. I ended up buying a friends.
The motorcycle was a super comp uh Suzuki SuperComp bike.
Did that for a little while and then found out
about Frank Colli's drag racing school and wanted to go there.
Never had never been on a big tire bike. That
was my biggest fear, but that was completely eliminated after
the first burnout. Um and you know the rest of
the story was got hired from Frank Collies Drive recent
(24:23):
school by George and started racing with Star Racing. And
my career started when I was six years old on
dirt bikes. That's where I began racing motocross with my
brother and my dad and it just evolved over my
whole life. So I'm completely obsessed and addicted to motorcycles
and started racing against the Vansenhein's team like we talked
about before, and wanted to beat them more than anything
(24:45):
in the world. And then I thought my career was over.
Actually a couple of years ago when you know, lost
my deal again and figured it's time for me to
stay home again. I had already retired once and I'm
if I retire again, I'm not coming back this time.
And then Andrew and Eddie called and asked if I
was going to be at the p r I show,
and uh offered to have breakfast with me, which was
(25:06):
really strange. You know what one of these guys even
are even these guys must be bringing me to make
fun of me about losing my gigs pancakes. And the
really weird part was, so they take me to what
was it, guys that breast So it's like that's where
everybody goes see breakfast, right, all the racers are in there,
(25:29):
and they're telling me nobody can know about this this
meeting we're having. Then what the hell are you taking
me to? Flap that far? We're in there, and the
whole time we're sitting at a table, they're constantly looking
looking at the door, looking at who's walking in, who's
looking at like this is so weird. I don't know
if they're planning to kill you're just looking a sticker
with the bill. We're like, you could tell if somebody's
coming to go like this, get the bill and leave.
(25:51):
I really had no idea why I was there. I
had thought that maybe they would ask me to ride
on the team, and then I laughed at myself because
I was just utterly ridiculous. That's never going to happen.
I didn't know why they wanted me there. And then
we started talking about the possibility of putting a third
bike and would I'd be interested in riding on it?
Take yes, Yes, that's how fast I answered it. And
(26:13):
we're thinking about putting a third bike, would you be yes? Yes?
And they said, well, don't you want to hear, you know,
hear what's going on before you said yes. I'm like, nope, yes,
I want you to have me at breakfast, made her
eat donuts. Donuts is like her week, her week, you know,
it's her kryptonite. Let's just say so. I don't know
either want to get me to get fat, but they're
(26:34):
constantly trying to make me eat, and even Andrew. You know,
I have so much respect for Andrew. I'll say to
tell you how awesome he is. He had a New
Year's resolution that he was gonna not have any sauces
for the whole year so he could lose a little weight. Right,
So we get to the very first dinner this year
in Orlando and he ordered some sauce dip or something
and I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute,
(26:54):
I thought you said no sauces. This was in March,
right three months into the new Year's resolution. He goes, oh,
that didn't last the first week, Like, how am I
going to stay on this diet that I want to
be on? When Eddie sticking donuts in my face constantly
Andrews ordering every fattening appetizer on the menu. They should
(27:16):
be two hundred and forty pounds. I don't understand how
they eat what they eat and they're not big, they're
little that you can't even tell. I mean a deal,
like they have the same deal my wife has with me.
She here's the thing she eats, and I gained the weight.
It's a partnership. So they've got somebody with him that
you know they eat and then gains weight. Yeah, I
(27:38):
read that. Um that at the age thirteen, your parents
were finally trying to get you off a motorcycle and
said we have a son, we want a daughter. But
but it was a battle. You didn't want to do it.
And then you've maintained that. So you're also heavily involved
in m m A. Is that correct? Yeah, that's time
I met my husband. We I was training in m
m A. I'm a jiu jitsu girl and he did
(27:59):
full own page fighting. But um, they that's the true
story to My dad forbid me to ride anymore because
he was sick of the tomboy I had turned into.
So my mom attempted to put me in beauty pageants,
thinking that they would fix me, and uh, the only
thing it did was made me even more competitive, you know.
It was another way to compete. And we found that
(28:19):
I was in all these pageants. I mean we're doing ten, twelve,
fifteen a year, and I was getting third runner up,
second runner up, first runner up at just about everyone,
but never queen. And so my mom decided she was
going to go in and ask the judges what could
we do to get her over the hill to where
she would, you know, get that title. And um, they
told her that one thing we could work on is
(28:40):
to get me to talk about something other than motorcycles,
because in my interview, every question they'd asked it would
I'd somehow lead into talking about motorcycles. But I mean,
it's just something that I've held true to my whole life.
I'm I can hear a motorcycle coming from five miles
away and nobody else hears it, and then you know,
five minutes later, they're like, oh, there it is. I
just love it. But yeah, I did. I did the
(29:02):
pageant thing. We did everything to try to keep me
off the bikes, but it never worked. And I'm now
my mom and down of my biggest fans. You know,
they fought me for the longest time, but they're the
most proud of me now I can hear it. Now,
let's make the world better place and everybody should ride motorcycles.
So thanks to all three of you. Best of luck.
Hopefully we get through this quarantine deal that that we're
(29:24):
all battling and we can get back to race and
I know the fans want it, we want it. I'm
not sure what this schedule is gonna look like, but
we'll battle through two thousand twenty here and hopefully put
it behind us and move on to two thousand one.
But best of luck going forward. Absolutely a pleasure to
have people of your status in here and and see
who you are. Just good hard working people you know
(29:45):
that that loved to race, and I think that's what's
great about this racing industry. So thanks a lot. We
really appreciate it. Thank for having Thank you. That's it.
We'll wrap it up another show here. Now you know
the Skinny behind Vanson Hines. 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.
(30:10):
Be sure to check out all the latest son in
optical I wear at fatheads dot com. Special thanks to
our sponsorship partners at Elliott's Custom Trailers and Carts. This
has been a production of Fathead Studios. Please remember to subscribe.
I'm Eddie Crawley and Sampei and this is the skinny
from Fathead Studios and Speedway Indiana. This is the skinny.
We have an exciting show coming your way today with
one of the most iconic teams and all the motor sports.
(00:20):
When you think about n h R A and some
of the big names, well, certainly Forced, Kaletta and Schumacher
would come to mind, but one would be remiss if
they didn't also include the team Vanson Hines. The team
and the company have been winning for forty years, and
we have all three very talented and extremely successful writers
on the show. We both tune our own motorcycles, so
(00:42):
Andrews andrewstry Chief on gels and and his and kind
of he oversees mine and I kind of do my
own thing with mine and we it's because we all
have we think the same on a lot of stuff,
but we still have a little bit of a different view.
And by doing that, it allows us to kind of
try two or three different set up ups every race.
And what I mean by that is we take what
(01:04):
I'm doing over here, we take what he's doing over here,
and we take what hers is usually somewhere in the
middle of Art two and now when we make one
run down the track, we now have three runs of data.
And what that allows us to do is usually going
into Saturday going in right direction. We've been struggling. I
would say as a team. Maybe the results last year
(01:25):
didn't show it as much, but I would say we struggled.
We didn't we didn't run where we think we should
have with any of our motorcycles. Her bike, the greatest
thing about it is, and we've never had this luxury
is it's got so much ballanced on it. And wait,
where it needs to be, Like her tuning window is
is the garage door Andrews and mine is like, yeah,
(01:47):
I was gonna say, run into one little section of
that window, and that's where ours is. And that's a
huge benefit because like when the track gets greasy on us, uh,
a really tight track, we might be able to go
one oh five consistently. Her bike goes on three one
oh four track, it's really bad greasy. And nhr's kind
of change your prep procedures and everything that they've done
in the last year to kind of harness the top
(02:08):
fuel guys, And what I'd like to say is kind
of slow the sport down. Um, but our stuff will
go one oh eight, one oh nine and tend to
knock the tire off, and her stuff goes one oh five,
and we're like, man, what the hell do we gotta do.
It's like, we gotta cut our legs off and and
you know, put an extra forty pounds on the front
of the bike. And that's what we love about it.
(02:28):
And if you if you race at at a level
to win a championship, all those little minute things that
becomes so important. I mean, to get in, to get
into the hunt is one thing, but to then be
good enough to actually go ahead and win, there's a
whole another thing. And and like you said, I mean
just that two or three pounds over the front tire,
that that can make a difference, you know, and a
(02:49):
couple of hundreds to three hundreds and your first sixty
ft and then the rest of the deal is done.
You know, it's it's over right there. So it's just
incredible how how important those little details are. We've tried race,
and I'd say the success in my career was always
ride in race to be there and be good all
the time, don't do stupid mistakes and try not to
(03:12):
push it too hard. And if you have a really
good motorcycle under you and you are really good that day,
chances are you're gonna win. Yeah, there's not a lot
of times where we come back to the trailer and
the are we'll probably really never that. Our crew guys
are just disappointed in what we did. You know, we
they understand that we've done enough to get where we
are now that if we go out there and you know,
we might have a bad light and cut a fifty
(03:33):
or sixty and get beat on a whole shot. And
that's probably the great thing about our team is they're
they're not ever, They're they're they kind of go with
the floor. Nobody's dejected. Man, you screwed up to the
trailer and then tear down and move on to the
next race. That's kind of our our mentality. We don't.
The preparation we do at our shop here in Brownsburg
is uh it is really, I mean, that's all our
(03:54):
work is done here. We get to the track and
we people may not see us working that much with
the racetrack because we've done so much prep parration to
get to each and every event. You see some other
teams out there and there's chaos going on sometimes and
it's just they're rolling in the track. No motors in
the bikes, no nothing. Bikes are all apart. You gotta
put them to get, you know. And it's like we
say we go to the track to race, we don't
go to the track to work, and races are one
(04:16):
and lost at the shop. If I go out there
and I failed to perform, I really feel bad for
the guys on the team because they're the ones that
are putting on the line. They're leaving their families there.
There were at the shop endless hours when we asked
them to be and uh, if if there's some reason
we don't turn on a win light because it's a
rider's fault, that's uh. That's when it comes home to
hit me that, hey, I just letting my team down.
And but we come back to the trailer and they
(04:36):
just they fight through it and they say like, hey,
we'll move on to the next one. We'll get them.
I mean we even told gel that when she came aboard.
That was the number one thing was we're not gonna
sit here yell at you and beat you up, because
like Terry Terry's probably only ever called me twice after
like a loss, and not to yell at me, to
ask me, hey, what are you thinking? But um, it's
it's like you go through these funks as drivers or
(04:56):
racers or whatever it may be, and um, you gotta
battle out of that. And that's the key. And that's
what I told on jail is there's no extra pressure.
You're not trying to prove anything to us. You're here
because we know you can do it. If you make
a mistake, you make a mistake, just learn off your mistake.
As long as you don't make that same mistake twice
or three times, we're all good. And I think that's
(05:17):
the key to to really the fine balance of being
a racer to a championship caliber racer. Yeah, nobody carries
that nasty attitude and there's a nasty attitude on the team.
That person's gotta go. Is it only takes one to
ruin all of that atmosphere, that chemistry that's so critical
to win in a championship. And I agree with you.
Everybody knows they're good. Everybody's really good at their job.
(05:38):
And you have a ton of confidence and all of
your colleagues on that team, and when somebody makes a
mistakes like hey man, I've made a mistake. It happens.
You know, everybody buckled down. We've got the best in
the business. Let's just we'll go get them next night.
And I think it makes it even better when you
go back and you say I screwed that up. You know,
you don't go back like, yeah, yeah, it's the clutch
ever fell off. You know it's no, you let the
(06:01):
clutch lever out, you know, no. I mean, it's just
the way it is. I've got to ask you, Eddie,
because I have to get an impartial answer. I can't
ask him and All hasn't been on the team long enough.
The same level of engineering intelligence that Byron has has
that is that acorn fallen close to the tree. With
both Matt and Andrew, do you see that with those
(06:22):
two it's kind of the same thing right now, because Andrew,
for sure thinks about the technical side of it. I think,
you know, Matt does it the old school way where
you know, you're just kind of the trial and error
or you're thinking and you're doing stuff. He's thinking about
it on the engineering side of it and trying to
put a theory or a reason behind it, and that's
(06:44):
the way that you can kind of print out your roadmap.
And what I mean by that is when you have
proof and you say this is why it works, not well,
I'm it works, but I'm not sure why it works.
So when you know when you go back to it
the second time, it's going to work, it's not a
question of if it is or isn't. UM. I mean
we've kind of done that with our motorcycles, with programs
(07:05):
and clutch programs and everything we've done over the last
probably two years has a has a UH, a road
to why we did it and a path to how
we got there. Matt's been an instrumental part of the
whole program from when he came on back in two
thousand three basically all the way on to UH to
the last two years, and he still is back at
the shop. Matt's been back to shop working doing things
(07:27):
like that. He's the one that designed the chassis that
we're riding on now. UM we've kind of went to
the next evolution with on Gael's because being that her
bike is a little bit heavier than ours, it needs
different tubes in certain places. Or thicker stuff because you're
hanging so much weight. I mean, there was a couple
of races last year we broke frame rails on her bike.
We didn't even know it too, you know. We didn't
(07:48):
like telling her, you know, because she was like, oh
my god, these guys are gonna touch my motorcycle. And
you go walking in the shop and things all apart,
and she's like, guys, we gotta go racing tomorrow. And
it's like, oh, we're only forty five minutes from having
it together, you know, and it's like, there's no way.
But it's about making sure I think, first and foremost
everybody gets on that motorcycle is comfortable. But to answer
(08:10):
your question in the short one, I think it takes
the engineering side of it nowadays because what you're racing
against is in all of racing is brain trusts in
each camp and you have to match that brain trust.
So Andrew or you do you build stuff on the computer?
Do you run simulations versus say, like you said, Matt
Old School, like I know if we do this, this
(08:31):
it should work. We'll try this. But you're running simulations right, Yeah.
We have CFD and f A analysis on our solid
work stations and uh, you know the whole chassis design
and CAD is designed to be stiff in certain areas
flexible than others. Um all the bodywork and all the
air box pieces and all that was designing CAD, cutting
our shop at vants and huns for the carbon molds
and things, and it's just kind of you know, it's
(08:52):
one of those things that you can't turn it off.
You go home at night and I close my eyes
and think about family, but what my eyes are seeing
is what's on the computer for the next day. That's uh,
it's an unfortunate thing, but it's part of the well,
it's not a job for you, with your life and
you know, whole different things. I'd like to add a
little bit if you don't mind. Yeah, I can't. I
can't bring back the feedback to the trailer like Andrew
(09:15):
and Eddie do with the motorcycle. Like he said, there's
a lot of rider input and you have to know
whether to believe the motorcycle data or the rider. I'm
not there yet, and I don't know if I ever
will be able to give them the information that they
can bring back. So Andrew is exceptional at watching my runs,
whether he's standing on the starting line or or viewing
the video, or even sometimes he's come back with changes
(09:39):
after watching the television show. Um, he has so much
to do with the success of my motorcycle. And I
know that I didn't show it last year, but I
hope to show it this year. How awesome he is
that not only you know, designing the things that I need,
When he designed the break lever and the seat for me,
There's so many things he's done to make me comfortable
(10:00):
on that motorcycle, but he's also helping me drive it
just from watching me with the little feedback that I
can give him. So what he's able to do on
the engineering side of it, to me is amazing. Just
like you, I had no idea what he was capable of.
I've learned so much over the last year, and I
brag on him all the time. I don't know if
I make him uncomfortable or not, but he is truly
(10:21):
amazing and I couldn't have ridden the bike as well
as I can today without him. And even Eddie, I mean,
they've both just been amazing at helping me learn how
to do it. But Andrews really made me comfortable and
done everything that he can do to make that bike
fit me to a t. I mean, if you're got
to schmooz, somebody might as well be the owner's son,
(10:42):
right Well, just laying up there, I had to at
least hit it. You know that one day you said
something bad. Well, it was like early on, you know,
we're both giving her information. And then we talked and
we both game. In any agreement, it's better if one
person just kind of picks and says, you know, this
(11:02):
is what you should do, because otherwise you start getting
direction from too many areas. I mean, that was that
was part of Matt's deal when I came on the team.
It was, Hey, if Eddie fails, you fail. That was
what Matt kind of got told, and that's what he
got told, and uh, you know, so it's that's the
important part. And that was kind of the whole deal.
With Angel coming aboard. It was like, hey, this, you know,
(11:24):
we're bringing the girl on underneath you two guys. This
is on you, two guys to make sure she goes
down the track. I want to see your succeed. He
wants to see your succeed. None of us, none of
our team guys, want to see her fail. I mean,
we want to make sure she could win, and uh,
you know that goes for me, it goes for him
Unfortunately at the end of the day, and there's only
gonna be one winner. Uh, whether it's him, me or her,
(11:46):
I don't really care because I think it's a team win.
At that point. I'm kind of at that point in
my career where I'm past having to win. It doesn't mean,
you know, it doesn't mean that I don't want to win.
I want to win, but it also means to me
that if I'm part of the crew or I'm part
of this success to get to that trophy, you accomplish
(12:06):
something you didn't accomplish it if nobody got it. And
I would rather see somebody get it than in my
camp than somebody else get it. Yeah, I mean a
goal of finishing first, second, third, and the points would
be uh, you know, an incredible effort, you know, out
of the team, and everybody's a winner. You know, at
that point everybody comes back and gets to play again
the next year or two, So super important. Hey on, Jel,
(12:29):
I want to ask you something. You say you don't
know that you could come back with the information that
these guys are coming back with. But I want you
to go back into your championship years when you won
three of them in a row, and what was it
like with George at the time. I mean when you,
I'm guessing George played Andrew's part where he was watching
and had a had a bunch of information to give you.
(12:49):
But what were you coming back to feed George at
the time. Did you feel like you had the information
that these guys give back now? Yeah, I think so.
Back then, because I was so used to the Suzuki,
I knew every single thing it was supposed to feel like,
if something changed, I knew it changed. And there's still
a bit of information overload on the Harley Davidson that
I'm just not where they are yet. I'm still I'm
(13:11):
consciously working on so many things where they can do
so many things subconsciously that I can't do. It's just
a lot of information to take in. You know. I'm
getting better at it. I know if it lays off
the top of a gear a little bit more than
I used to. But not like them. I mean, they
can come back and they can tell you from the
bottom of the gear to the top of the gear
of any little bitty thing went wrong, and I just
(13:32):
can't feel that yet. Um, I'm getting there. I hope
to get there, But like I said, if I if
I don't, Andrew pays attention so well, Um, he just
he knows what to do. There's its been times we've
been We've met downstairs at the hotel for breakfast and
he walks in and he says, hey, I haven't I
thought about it last night, and I know what we're
gonna do, and then he'll change something. He's changed my
(13:53):
writing style, you know. One morning he said, we're gonna
try this, and then he's you know, he's changed things
on the bike. We're gonna try this, and every time
he says that it gets better and better and better.
He hasn't made a wrong decision yet. So I wish
I could give more data. And I'm gonna really try
to do that this year. You know, I'm gonna try
to learn and pay attention to what the bike's doing.
But I know that if I can't, I'm still in
(14:13):
good hands. I know I'll get one of those yellow
hats this year. I'm pretty confident about it. Hey, I
got another another question for you, Um, reading some of
what Matt did back in the day. I think he
had been to in these first five races or something
like that, but had yet to reach a final and
the bike was fast, and he said he had a
secret conversation with Terry, and then the next the next
(14:36):
race he went to the final round, and then he
won the two following races back to back. So I'm
curious if you had a secret conversation with Terry or
has Matt ever told you about that secret conversation And
the same to you Eddie. I'm not sure if Matt
ever shared that with it' that's a new one for me.
Probably it was probably part of a bonus incentive program,
like hey have you in this race? You get of
(14:59):
the bike earning you know, uh, you know your dad one,
I one. You're the only one stinking it up here.
Maybe pick up the pace, you know. I kind of
went through that early on in my career with the team,
and you know, it was like it was like instant success.
I jump on a motorcycle, I go to Gainesville, Oh seven,
and you know, I tested. I think I rode the bike.
(15:20):
I think I made eight passes before I went to
Gainesville and we go to Gainesville and I go to
Semis to are all sort of up broke, you know,
broke to motors. Just not my fault, but I mean
stuff just broke. And it was like, man, I went
right to the Semis. I was like this, this is
gonna be good. And then you know, second race was
(15:40):
like okay, I think second round, the second round. Then
I had a d m Q in Atlanta and I'm like, oh,
this sucks. And partially it was because of me. I
was having a hard time riding the track and I
never really rode a barbike in Atlanta, and the right
lane pulls your hard right and I was on a
run that would have put me clearly into the middle
of the field, and the the thing just hooked hard
(16:01):
right in the right lane and I had to shut
it off. And I'm like, man, d n Q. I
couldn't believe that. And so I kind of went through
that whole path. And then next thing, you know, I
started doing pretty good towards the middle party year. Went
to some finals with Andrew and the other lane and
Brainerd and stuff, and next thing, I went to a
final and uh semifinal lost in Denver. My throttle cable
(16:23):
broke and then went to the final in Sonoma and
the bike bog against Matt Smith. I mean, I can
tell you, we can tell you all the races that
were bad. Yeah, and you know, so it's like, okay,
so I'm going all these final rounds and then oh eight,
I go out there and I'm like a gang buster
going to finals and I still can't win a damn race.
Went the hell and then finally oh nine rolls in
(16:43):
and I win a race. I win Atlanta, my first
place that I had a d n Q on the Harley,
So it was like a bitter sweet deal. But it's
it's so crazy on I really do believe once you
get there and you learn your path to winning, you
learn how to not overthink it, and that's the key.
Like a man, as soon as I started winning in
Atlanta in in oh nine, it was like win, win,
(17:06):
and then you know, finals, finals, finals, and it's just
like what did we get here? It just it's just
it all clicked and it worked. And I really think
it's about understanding how to get there, but even more so,
it's about calming your nerves, knowing that you have the ability,
and once you know you have the ability. In a
champions mind you become unstoppable. What was that mindset? Like,
(17:28):
I mean, you're coming to the end of the year,
You've got to shut out this championship. You know, you're, hey, man,
I can win this championship. I haven't won a freaking
race all year long. You know which one do you
want to win the most? Of course the championship is
is there. It's like, that's gonna solidify my ride for
next year. I gotta hang on the right freaking win man.
I to this day, I still am confused about that championship.
(17:50):
Like it I won the championship, I mean clearly, but
I still don't feel like I won the championship like
years I didn't. Yeah, but I was. It's like I
tell everybody, I'm like the year that I feel like
I won the championship was actually oh nine when I
(18:12):
lost it by two points to Irana. Because I went
out there. I went to eleven final rounds one I
think eight races, nine races. That year. Um, I've I
crushed it. I killed it, And it was like at
the end of the year, I had nothing to show
for it. You know, I was like, Okay, I didn't
win the championship one of those years where any other
time what you did would have certainly won the championship,
(18:34):
but it was only good enough for second place. I mean,
Formula one guy's Formula one guys were commenting on on
my championship deal. Everybody like that was a huge thing
across the motorsports industry. Was, Man, that guy just won
a championship. People are saying, well, you shouldn't have won
a championship if you didn't win a race and this,
and I'm like, well, I won from being consistent. That's
the way I viewed it. I was the most consistent
writer all year long through that segment. And uh, you know,
(18:57):
it's great. I love it. It's to me now, it's
it's like the icing on my cake. That's a story
that you could just suck a person, only second person
in h R history to do that. And and he
had a couple of wins. Yeah, you know, you had
zero wins and did it, so you do hold that on, right,
I'll give you them. And that was Gary Beck in
nineteen eighty or something like that. That wasn't Gary Beck.
It was Rob Bruins, Okay, but it was eight eight
(19:21):
races of years something like that. Here we are racing
in the sixteen seventeen events a year, and you would
think you'd at some point you find something. You know,
it wasn't a points race. He did win the money
at the Battle. I won the Battle that year. He
did have some hardware. It wasn't something, but I got
the big paper check. It's seventy five grand and a
crystal crystal trophy. So that was cool. But man, it's
(19:41):
it is. It's an interesting ordeal, but I don't know.
It's still one of those weird things. I still say
it to this day. The championship year for me was
oh nine when I didn't win it. So what typically
goes on behind the scenes at the race track, you
guys nudging each other all the time, is they're always
something going on. I mean you see we all see
the nskey games going on with New Garden and Pageane.
(20:03):
Oh and you know all those guys are always doing
something silly, you guys. Is there is there ongoing stuff
behind the behind the doors of the trailer. Oh, there's
constant ribbon going on. It's just you find if anybody
shows one little weakness, then our team has has a way. Yeah,
you find that little rift and you just you know,
slam it open with a knife. But yeah, we have
(20:25):
we have a couple of guys on it, you know,
like Scott, our guy, our engine guy. Scott. He's like
he's quirky, yeah he but man, he just he leads
himself right into that road and it's like you watch,
I'm gonna rip the hell out of him right here,
and it's just you blast them and it makes it fun.
I mean those guys, well, I was gonna say, I
kind of got the nickname Haskell Eddie Haskell. You know
that's because it's just the way it fell. And that's
(20:48):
what our truck driver, Ray calls us. Ray works on
my bike. Mike Mike mulaney is on is on Andrew's bike,
and then my brother, actually we brought a board last year,
works on on Jael's bike. So we have an interesting dynamic.
Everybody works along. I think on Gel could probably give
you the most insight on that because she was the
one that would always be in the trailers outside of ours,
(21:09):
so everybody always said, well you could bleep here, So
it's like there's you know, it's like when they don't
have any fun in that trailer. You know, personality, we
are there to race. When you see us, we're they're racing.
We're thinking about And the reason why we don't have
any fun at that particular point is because we're thinking.
We're constantly walking around thinking. But when the time comes
(21:31):
to have fun, you gotta have fun. If you're not
makes a total stress. Environ mean, one of the things
red cups and when Eddie's driving the rental car, it's
you better to just wear your helmet. So that's what
I'm gonna start doing this. She's sitting all the way
in the back. She's like you hear like she started
(21:54):
she started bringing uh motion sicknest pills with the races
back in the minivan. I know it drives from I've
watched him the bottom of the barrel a couple of
a couple of nights, all the bottom of the barrel
drag races. I've told Andrew about that on like Memorial Davis. Yeah.
But Harrington and I mean, we we'd all you know. Heck,
I've raised the ten. I was going ten eighties in
(22:14):
uh in my cousin Chevelle at the time against Harrington
with nine people on the golf cart going like thirteen thirty. Yeah,
you know, to to like the sixty ft but he's
he was running out. I think he dialed in like
thirty one seconds and I dialed ten eighty, and uh,
it was the weirdest thing coming up on a golf
cart going like thirty miles an hour and I'm going
(22:35):
to buck ten. You know, it's pretty cool. But so Jell,
talk to me about that situation where your husband had
left and there was a motorcycle sitting there, and he said, hey, man,
ride that thing a little bit and make sure the
cobwebs don't grow on it. You know, you know the
stories way back, don't you, So the days I try
to forget about. But yeah, that was true. We um.
(22:57):
I was married to a guy named Kevin. He went
off to the Gulf War, and he had a motorcycle
that he didn't want to go bad sitting there and
so he didn't mean for me to take it to
the racetrack and drag race it though. He just meant
like taking around the block every once in a while.
And when he came home it was stripped, I mean
stripped to the bone. We had taken the headlight, the blinkers,
(23:19):
you know, cut the seat, did everything we could do
to it. Um, put Willie Bars on it. I think
I had an airshifter. I can't remember. Um, but I
was drag racing. It was no it was not going
to be on the street ever again. So he wasn't
too happy at first, but you know, went to the
track with me and fell in love with the sport
himself and we started together. So that's where my career began.
(23:39):
So thanks to that motorcycle that he left behind her,
I probably wouldn't be here today. Yeah. I read that
story and I'm like, that's pretty cool. A guy comes
back and she did what I asked, if do you?
I guess you know, I didn't know she was gonna.
I didn't know you had stripped and cut the seat
and all that stuff, so I thought you just gonna
slicking really to the street after that, But um, I
(24:01):
got off of that bike. I ended up buying a friends.
The motorcycle was a super comp uh Suzuki SuperComp bike.
Did that for a little while and then found out
about Frank Colli's drag racing school and wanted to go there.
Never had never been on a big tire bike. That
was my biggest fear, but that was completely eliminated after
the first burnout. Um and you know the rest of
the story was got hired from Frank Collies Drive recent
(24:23):
school by George and started racing with Star Racing. And
my career started when I was six years old on
dirt bikes. That's where I began racing motocross with my
brother and my dad and it just evolved over my
whole life. So I'm completely obsessed and addicted to motorcycles
and started racing against the Vansenhein's team like we talked
about before, and wanted to beat them more than anything
(24:45):
in the world. And then I thought my career was over.
Actually a couple of years ago when you know, lost
my deal again and figured it's time for me to
stay home again. I had already retired once and I'm
if I retire again, I'm not coming back this time.
And then Andrew and Eddie called and asked if I
was going to be at the p r I show,
and uh offered to have breakfast with me, which was
(25:06):
really strange. You know what one of these guys even
are even these guys must be bringing me to make
fun of me about losing my gigs pancakes. And the
really weird part was, so they take me to what
was it, guys that breast So it's like that's where
everybody goes see breakfast, right, all the racers are in there,
(25:29):
and they're telling me nobody can know about this this
meeting we're having. Then what the hell are you taking
me to? Flap that far? We're in there, and the
whole time we're sitting at a table, they're constantly looking
looking at the door, looking at who's walking in, who's
looking at like this is so weird. I don't know
if they're planning to kill you're just looking a sticker
with the bill. We're like, you could tell if somebody's
coming to go like this, get the bill and leave.
(25:51):
I really had no idea why I was there. I
had thought that maybe they would ask me to ride
on the team, and then I laughed at myself because
I was just utterly ridiculous. That's never going to happen.
I didn't know why they wanted me there. And then
we started talking about the possibility of putting a third
bike and would I'd be interested in riding on it?
Take yes, Yes, that's how fast I answered it. And
(26:13):
we're thinking about putting a third bike, would you be yes? Yes?
And they said, well, don't you want to hear, you know,
hear what's going on before you said yes. I'm like, nope, yes,
I want you to have me at breakfast, made her
eat donuts. Donuts is like her week, her week, you know,
it's her kryptonite. Let's just say so. I don't know
either want to get me to get fat, but they're
(26:34):
constantly trying to make me eat, and even Andrew. You know,
I have so much respect for Andrew. I'll say to
tell you how awesome he is. He had a New
Year's resolution that he was gonna not have any sauces
for the whole year so he could lose a little weight. Right,
So we get to the very first dinner this year
in Orlando and he ordered some sauce dip or something
and I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute,
(26:54):
I thought you said no sauces. This was in March,
right three months into the new Year's resolution. He goes, oh,
that didn't last the first week, Like, how am I
going to stay on this diet that I want to
be on? When Eddie sticking donuts in my face constantly
Andrews ordering every fattening appetizer on the menu. They should
(27:16):
be two hundred and forty pounds. I don't understand how
they eat what they eat and they're not big, they're
little that you can't even tell. I mean a deal,
like they have the same deal my wife has with me.
She here's the thing she eats, and I gained the weight.
It's a partnership. So they've got somebody with him that
you know they eat and then gains weight. Yeah, I
(27:38):
read that. Um that at the age thirteen, your parents
were finally trying to get you off a motorcycle and
said we have a son, we want a daughter. But
but it was a battle. You didn't want to do it.
And then you've maintained that. So you're also heavily involved
in m m A. Is that correct? Yeah, that's time
I met my husband. We I was training in m
m A. I'm a jiu jitsu girl and he did
(27:59):
full own page fighting. But um, they that's the true
story to My dad forbid me to ride anymore because
he was sick of the tomboy I had turned into.
So my mom attempted to put me in beauty pageants,
thinking that they would fix me, and uh, the only
thing it did was made me even more competitive, you know.
It was another way to compete. And we found that
(28:19):
I was in all these pageants. I mean we're doing ten, twelve,
fifteen a year, and I was getting third runner up,
second runner up, first runner up at just about everyone,
but never queen. And so my mom decided she was
going to go in and ask the judges what could
we do to get her over the hill to where
she would, you know, get that title. And um, they
told her that one thing we could work on is
(28:40):
to get me to talk about something other than motorcycles,
because in my interview, every question they'd asked it would
I'd somehow lead into talking about motorcycles. But I mean,
it's just something that I've held true to my whole life.
I'm I can hear a motorcycle coming from five miles
away and nobody else hears it, and then you know,
five minutes later, they're like, oh, there it is. I
just love it. But yeah, I did. I did the
(29:02):
pageant thing. We did everything to try to keep me
off the bikes, but it never worked. And I'm now
my mom and down of my biggest fans. You know,
they fought me for the longest time, but they're the
most proud of me now I can hear it. Now,
let's make the world better place and everybody should ride motorcycles.
So thanks to all three of you. Best of luck.
Hopefully we get through this quarantine deal that that we're
(29:24):
all battling and we can get back to race and
I know the fans want it, we want it. I'm
not sure what this schedule is gonna look like, but
we'll battle through two thousand twenty here and hopefully put
it behind us and move on to two thousand one.
But best of luck going forward. Absolutely a pleasure to
have people of your status in here and and see
who you are. Just good hard working people you know
(29:45):
that that loved to race, and I think that's what's
great about this racing industry. So thanks a lot. We
really appreciate it. Thank for having Thank you. That's it.
We'll wrap it up another show here. Now you know
the Skinny behind Vanson Hines. 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.
(30:10):
Be sure to check out all the latest son in
optical I wear at fatheads dot com. Special thanks to
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has been a production of Fathead Studios. Please remember to subscribe.
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