Antron Brown and JR Todd join Rico and Ken in the studio for an hour of pure energy.

Two NHRA superstars join Rico and Ken in the studio for an hour of pure energy. Antron Brown is a 3-time NHRA Top Fuel Dragster Champion and the first African-American to win a major auto racing title. With 68 career event titles in Top Fuel and Pro Stock Motorcycles, Antron is a dynamic trailblazer with non-stop enthusiasm and an engaging personality. J.R. Todd made history when he became the first African-American driver to win an NHRA Funny Car Championship. Always a top contender and fan favorite, he has 8 career NHRA Nitro victories and is one of just 17 drivers to earn both Funny Car and Top Fuel wins. Together, these 2 champions team up for a winning episode!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Skinny with Riego and Kenna is a production of
I Heart Radio. I'm JR. Todd, I'mantron Brown and this
is the Skinny from the fat Heads I Wear Studios
in Speedway, Indiana. This is the Skinny brought to you
by Toyota, Rhino, Classified, General Tire and Dream Giveaway. This

(00:24):
segment of the Skinny is brought to you by Toyota.
It's time for the Skinny once again to flamboyant characters
from the nhr A. Two of the brightest stars with
the nhr A. We welcome back j R. Todd. Of
course we talked about before a champion and Funny Car,
the first African American to win a Funny Car event

(00:45):
and a championship with nhr A. And then how about
the guy that's sitting alongside a three time champ. Welcome
my friend Mr Antron Brown in the house. And boy,
have you really done an amazing job as well. You
two have won the U S Nationals like that guy
sitting along beside you, two thousand twelve, two thousand fifteen,

(01:06):
two thousand fifteen, an amazing year. Seven wins, seven number
one qualifiers. You set the world on fire. Two thousand, twelve.
I think the first African American to win a major
motor sports championship across all divisions. I mean, you really
paved away for a lot of people. I know a
lot of people look up at you your twenty second year.

(01:29):
I believe in the industry here at a very very
high level. Boy, have you've been successful. Welcome to the show.
It's always great to be here. And you know, I
can't believe I'm finally on the skinny. I gotta work
out it's coming to the show. I'm gonna leave here,
skinny right. Well, it hasn't worked for us. We've been
we've been on here a line, it hasn't done anything

(01:50):
for us. So Autoweek ranked you number one for the decade.
How cool is that? Wow? I mean that's just that's
just that's just an incredible deal. And I'm just honored
just to be a part of it, just to be
in the sport, to do what we do. And uh
in h a, I tell you what it's it's been. Uh,
it's been a true blessing to be amongst people like

(02:10):
my man sitting next to me right here, j R.
And again, you know, being out there with like the Langdon's,
the Shoemakers, the Bernstein's, the Dixons, the Forces you mean,
and and the Lucas Is. I mean, You've got so
many great families out there. To have done great things
and just to be mentioned among and be part of
something that you know that you dreamed as a kid,

(02:32):
and to be recognized of doing something that you always
loved as a kid is is truly honor is awesome. Yeah,
you came flying up through the ranks and and skilled
a skilled driver. You proved that very early on coming
out of bikes. You're in Pro stock bike sixteen wins
there total of fifty wins inside of the top fuel category.
But every you did exactly what everybody was afraid of.

(02:55):
I think coming out of the pro stock motorcycle ranks,
we always saw those guys there that eaves so good,
and you were the one of the best, if not
the best leaver inside of the category. You go to
fuel and certainly nothing changed there. You immediately put everybody
all notice these things will leave, you know, oh, they
can't leave, and you just gotta put the work in.
You gotta put the work in. And I've always been

(03:17):
one of I guess it was beating from my grandpop man.
My grandpop man, let me tell you something, and my
dad and uncle is like, they gave no false hope.
So we had a practicee at the house growing up
and that's all we worked on. And for me, I'm
not one of those type of people that want to
come out here to be out here. I'm out here
because I want to compete at a high level and

(03:37):
I want to win, and I expect to win, and
I want to surround myself with the same people with
the same mindset. And if you're with a great group
of people that's going that same direction and you and
they all put the work that you put in, that's
when you get those great results. I've been very fortunate
with like Brian Karate, Mark Oz while Brad all of
our Maco Globe Tronic Technology, Toyota Gang to really make

(03:59):
that happened. Man, Like you get all those type of
people together and man, everybody puts their head down. Brother,
that's when you're able to start making some unbelievable things happen.
And that's what it takes you. You came off the bike,
went to went to work for Mike Ashley right as
David Power's David Power. Yeah. Yeah, that that there was
was one of those deals where it didn't feel real.

(04:23):
You get what I mean because as a kid, I
grew up watching fuel cars and my family we were
always the sportsman rank racers, you know what I mean.
Like you we went there, I see Big Daddy, Kenny Market,
Oswall in Jersey and all that. You know, you should
see all of them, you know what I mean, that
you should be like they were like the untouchables. You
get what I mean, Like you went there and like

(04:44):
you're like like, oh like and then I always say,
if I could just get a chance to drive one,
you get what I mean. And then Lee Beard at
the time when he was working at Schumacher, so you
always saw me the work that I put it on
the bike program, like being there helping him die on
the engine, put the bikes together, build them, designing the
Chassiss and doing all the stuff I did. I was

(05:04):
there early in the morning, never left until late at night.
And he goes, kid, that's what I want in the
car because I just my mindset. But I was like,
I have to get the opportunity. And then when he
went to Powers, he had came like the GM there
and he had the opportunity to talk to David about
it when like Baysmore was out the seat and they
had an intern driver in the car named David Bacca

(05:25):
David Baka, and they were going, they're looking for drivers
to drive the car. And that's how that all came about. Man,
it was just like one of those deals where I
talked to Lee Maco is already a little associate deal
on my on my U S Army pro Styck loworcycle
at DSR. And I remember telling Don, said, Dine, they're
gonna get me oportune tests of car. He goes, well,
go do it, ay By. Just don't get your hopes up,
because there's gonna be hundreds of people that's gonna be

(05:47):
aligned for that job, you know what I mean. And
I said, well, man, I'm gonna give it all I got.
And uh boy little and behold man. I went to
Frank Hollway School, got to got my alcohol license, I
went and test a car in Vegas and Lee looked
at He goes, I couldn't tell it. You never even
drive one before. Because burnt out did all the normal
routine stuff. Ain't taking out track is doing all the
other stuff right to get it to the start line

(06:09):
to take off, and a lot of people don't realize that.
And yeah, you know what I'm talking about, trimming the
fuel pump, doing all stuff, putting reverse, not tearing reverse,
her up being smooth. Well, I drove big trucks and
stuff like that, semis and all that stuff, so it
all goes hand in hand. And then once I got
that deal happening, man, Now that's where he just really
took off for me because I was like, is this real?

(06:29):
Is this really what I'm doing? And then besides that,
like the team was we had a remarkable team, like
with Mike, Donmagal, Brad Mason, all those guys. These season
guys came the one team. Brad still Yeah, Brad still
with us, and uh, he's been like that rock there man.
And uh. And then the year after that, that's when
we got Karate and Oswald and we became that bond.

(06:51):
That's that's been awesome that we got rekindled back together.
So it's just one of those deals where you get
together with the right people makes it fun and going forward,
I'm just living that dream. What was that Like you
had already been on Pro stock bike very successful there
and and knowing how hard those things leave to getting
into that fuel car. Do you remember the first time
you had to throttle? What it felt like? Oh? Absolutely,

(07:12):
when I had to gas. But I'll tell you what,
it got my attention really really quick, because the thing
about is I never felt something that hit like that.
But it wasn't a starting mine that really got me.
What got me is once I got out there past
a hundred feet and the car took off again, and
then I got to the three hundred, like you know
to it took off harder again while it was already rolling.

(07:36):
And then when you got to like five hundred feet
and the clutch goes one to one, you feel and
you're like, oh snap, Jake, tell me goes It's like snap,
snaps you up, whips you back, and you're like, oh lord,
do you feel just floating? He's like, this ain't right.
It's like this car feel like it's it's off the ground,
but it's still moving forward and it's just sashan left right?

(07:56):
Does this car coming unglued? Is this the way it's
supposed to field? I did the same day my first time,
my first race, and the top fuel car we used
to run this is now we're run six disc clutches,
so like they don't really lock up, they just come
together real smooth with the engine, you know, and five
discs like they're pretty violent. My first Bride was a
four disk so it was even more violent than a

(08:18):
five discs. You know when those things lock up, like like,
what the hell just happened? The usually yanked the front
tire off, Yeah, like you think something broke almost like
this isn't right, Like, oh, I know, like that the
clutch locked up, Like why did you live? Like, well,
I've never experienced that before in my life. I didn't
know what happened, Like, oh yeah, like that's that's what
happens at half track. It used to it like it's
a it's a pretty wild feeling for sure. It's almost

(08:38):
like taken off again. It is. And and that's the
hardest part to explain to people is that at like
two hundred and ninety miles an hour is where our
clutch goes one to one, and at that time the
car takes off harder at two nine miles an hour
than it did from zero to Yeah, like the gs

(08:59):
A card level off after we take off and then
you know, once happens, I get spikes back up even higher. Yeah,
it takes off about three point eight, goes into jiggle,
comes down like a hair and then it starts getting
power and clutch come to it. So the gemie he
will keep on rising. When it goes one to one,
it will snap. And when it snaps together, you're like
five and a half gees. And you do that at two,

(09:22):
you know what I mean. And that's and that's when
your butt cheeks gets and your draws and your draws
get a couple of different colors in the talk about
speaking of other colors, does anybody and I can't remember,
I can't remember who was where then, And I think
you were with Powers at the time when Corey Max

(09:43):
car split in half at Bristol. Oh, yes, yes, And
I remember distinctly that they went to the bigger wall
tubing and uh and it's a bigger just a bigger
diameter tubing and uh it made the chassis a lot
more rigid. I remember I first started racing the year
because that was a transition year, and I drove that
car and we literally put that car up because people

(10:03):
started going fast with the new car and testing that Phoenix.
We brought the new car out and it literally went
We went from a forty two, same tune up, same management,
putting the new chassis, and went out and went a
four or forty eight shutting off because their car just
applied so much more power to graphs and so much
stepper in the back. And they were like, well, why
did we do this years ago? Because everybody thought flexible

(10:24):
it was. It was better because it gave you more attraction.
It is to a certain degree, but you have to
have it study so you can plant and put it
to the ground too. So our car has gotten better, quicker, faster,
and safer all in the one deal. Because because because
of that incident right there, I remember it for sure. Progress. Yes,
I mean it is and it is. It's a live

(10:45):
testing the tuning session. Every time you guys go out
there knock on what. I haven't had the experience anything
like that, But someone else in the room has, like
he's another human highlight reel, like this guy right here
knows about that stuff. Yeah, it's just it's just one
of those deals where you don't nobody prepares for it,
nobody knews can and you don't think about it, you

(11:08):
don't know about it. It's like you go down and
track so many times while nothing ever going wrong, where
your mind's focused on being a gladiator like gladiator mode.
You're focused on hitting the tree, keeping in the groove,
doing your job, doing everything right, and then it's one
of those deals where I get shell shocked. You get
what I mean, because it took me. It literally took

(11:30):
me a few races after that incident in two thousand
thirteen when my car blew up like Cory's did, Like
if mine blew up, if anybody's ever been in the
car accident, right, that is trauma to your mind. It
happens very very fast, but when you're going through it,

(11:52):
it takes a long time. Like you go like to
like it hits you and you go and you're like, oh,
it's like, oh lord, there's a car hitting me from
the side to Oh, my head's about to hit the window.
Oh the airbags coming out, Oh lord, jeus, I've seen
some white dust and I in heaven. Oh no, no,
it smells like chemical. That's just the dustrial air backs

(12:15):
like stuff like that that you see and you know
what I mean, And you're like, all right, all right,
I'm like, I'm here, my knee stung up a little bit.
I'm here the dust to settle. Well, when you step
on the gas of a fuel car, it takes you
through that controlled trauma every time, and it feels like
a car accident because it hits you so hard. You
go like, oh, I just took off, Like Oh, there's

(12:36):
a sixty ft co clone. Oh it's getting through the jiggle. Oh,
Lord is coming up on the tire. Oh, darn bump.
They can't fix this track, Like what the hell man
and the didn't get the hair track and you get
the transl like all it's hooked up, Like god, dog
is starting to spin it tire. Think dad put this

(12:56):
fresh paid bass walk down down. They couldn't let it
season in like like like when you start driving now,
your brain slips down so much where you start thinking
about all these things going down. You can hear the
motor winding the blower if it's if it's right, you
can hear the motor if it's lean. You can hear
if it's dog or if his limp and his lazy,

(13:18):
So you could tell all these things. You get back
and say it was okay, run you know what I
mean we we missed it by about six or seven.
Hon you come back and look at tip slip shure enough,
it's like just what you thought, you know what I mean,
and straight smooth and you feel the car go up
and never stopped pulling, and it pulled all the way through.
It's usually like one of those world record runs because
it is not like the cars all over the place,
the faster runs that are straightest clean. I can step

(13:40):
on the tire right away and it's moving. Time for
a quick break, don't go away. This segment of the
skinny is brought to you by General Tire. For over
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to find your local dealer, head over to General tire
dot com. When you talk about politics and stuff, that's

(14:21):
the hardest deal because that's what divides all of our
people as politics, you know what I mean. But we
need to start doing anything about the people and us
coming together, you know what I mean, Like like think
about this, like the Brainer deal. We're talking about Brainer, right,
All those people get out in that zoo, nobody knows
who what, who, don't even care. All they care about

(14:42):
is the time that they're sharing with each other and
how they're going to get through that seven days and
have an enjoyable time if they But I'm just saying it,
and that's why I look out each and every day.
And that's one thing about our spool in n tray
drag racing that brings all the people together because we

(15:04):
don't have something divide people. Every tickets a pit pass,
everybody gets to come up and see j R. Comes
John Force, whoever, myself and get to come up and
we get to relate. That's how it gave us our
hopes of a dream to be a reality because we
are able to put ourselves in that position because everybody's
normal people. Yeah, we don't need to be separated from

(15:25):
other people. You know. You know how Forest as you know,
he's never cloating or who he is or you know,
so low key. I'll never forget. We went into the
zoo and literally they were trying to throw him out.
I had my hard card. He didn't, of course, didn't
have a hard card. You know, he never has a
hard card, right, and we're rolling in on a golf card.

(15:48):
The guys like, well, you can go in. This guy
he's out. I said, see that banner right there. I said,
that's his name on the on this race. So he's
not out, by the way. Well thinking, but it's exactly
what you said. It didn't matter. It was just it's
just another person. And uh but but yeah, you wouldn't.
I don't think a by sober enough to know who

(16:10):
each other is out there to begin was so well
and that and that's and that's that dream we talked
about all the time, that America teme like Forest Lucas, right,
where do you come from? He was a truck driver,
a truck driver. Who's John Force? Yeah? Yeah, he was
a trash druck driver driver, freco truck driver driver. Hey,

(16:30):
I have to my family. You know, my grandpa starts
septic business. I grew up driving dump trucks, track hose,
back hose, pumping out on man's craft. We were number
one in the number two business. All right, that's not
tell people and look and look. People goes like this,
hey baby man, how you sign like that like you're

(16:52):
happy when you saw ortographs? I say, because every time
I sign an autograph, that means I'm out here to
sign an autograph. And I ain't put I ain't pumping
up honeydew tank. I'll sign all day. Hand comes off,
trust me, shoot, I said, because you people don't smell bad,
but they they got different stitch to him, boy, should

(17:12):
we called the black goal? And I want to stay
here with the right goal and black you know, speaking
of dad, Your grandfather and your father both raced, right yea,
and my uncle, my uncle still raced to this day.
He just want He actually just won the Dutch Classic
last year and a top trackster, so he's my uncle.
Just a matter of fact, he just literally a day ago,

(17:32):
he just turned sixty seven, so he's still out there
doing this thing, lightening it up. Man racing looks like
he's only just got three years to catch force. He
got plenty of race with but he got that like
force about another to catch. Yeah, that's that's the biggest.
That's the best kept secret drag racing, isn't it. You

(17:54):
keep racing. He keeps you young. You know what I mean.
People think I'm People think I'm like twenty eight all time.
Um said, my daughter's twenty. That's what I say about snakes.
Like he's always you know, off road racing, eyes into
those U TVs and all that, Like that's good for you.
Man keeps you young, like he's active and that he's
always sending me picture Hey man, check this out. That's
like he's not sitting at home just thinking about the
older days, you know, Like nope, he can't wait to

(18:15):
go to Baja and race that thing. Like that's that's
what I want to do. What I get to that age,
not race a fuel car. I'd like to stay active
and race. You had an experience doing that, did you not?
It was an experience? Al right? Come on, yeah, so
Morgan Lucas and I think it was two thousand seven,
like get to go to Baja. I like, yes, Like
I love off road race and grew up watching. You know,

(18:36):
I'm in the Iron Man Steward that was my hero
and man every year toy to day he walks in
the room and holy cow, there's Iron Man like played
that video right video game, So like somehow this opportunity
comes up, like, hey man, you guys want to drop
a Class one bug you I'm like absolutely, get to
go to uh Barstow or Baker or something like that
and test it. Like that was fun. So then when

(18:59):
you get to Mexican and then you realize, like all
these other teams that you're with are competing against you
basically have enough stuff that build another car they need
to crashes breaks out. We had like a spare tire.
We were not prepared for this at all. So Morgan
is gonna drive like the first lag, I think there

(19:19):
was like four or five us they were gonna switch
off drive him. I was a co pilot, which I
do not like because no, like you're not a control
like you're just over taking a beat. Yeah, he's running
over stuff like I wouldn't have done enough I were driving.
But anyways, we get I think a hundred twenty miles
in and Morgan runs over rock and just like rolls

(19:41):
it over like no big crash, just rolls over that side. Well,
the problem was like get it flipped back over. So
eventually I think someone stopped another competitor. We hook up
a tow strap to it and he pulls us back
over well like all the oil and everything like right
up to the plugs, so you had to pull up,
pull the plugs out, clear it all out and all
that whatever. So then we get on maybe another seventy

(20:01):
miles or whatever, and the thing backfires, Like what the
hell was that? Crank it up? Boom, big old fireballs.
It's stark. By this time, I was like literally like
it blew the manifold off with him right, Like Morgan
just keeps cranking it and cranking it because we like
the engine is behind us, we can't see what's going on.
Like yeah, like he's just feeding it fuel and the

(20:24):
fires getting big. You're like, oh boy, it's time to
get out. Get the fire extinguishers album. But alright, like
like put this thing out. And then like we're out
in the middle of nowhere and all we have is
a a sat phone talk to the guys that we're with.
It's like other people will come up every now and
they're like, oh, you don't have to stuff to fix this,
Like are you kidding me? Like, like I said, we

(20:45):
have a spare tire. We don't have another manifold or
injector or whatever to put on this crap. So that
was my short experience of the Baja one thousand, which
I was so pumped about because it was the four anniversary.
They were going to a cabo, I think straight shot.
It wasn't a loop or anything. Dude, I cannot wait
to get the cobo and party. Nah and Sonata was

(21:06):
basically my trip though, but I mean it was it
was a learning yeah, exactly. That is the start. So
that was me. Yeah, pretty much. We dominated that a
hunterd Miles. Yeah. The one cool thing though, they so
down there. Everybody has horns on their cars and trucks
and they're like basic. It's like Curtsey, you get a
couple of beeps, get the hell all the way. If not,

(21:28):
like then they're gonna start hitting right well some of
the trails and there like there's not room to get over.
I'm like, Morgan, get the hell out of the way.
I can't. All of a sudden, bam bam bamn. Finally
falls it finds a place to pull over. Robbie Gordon
like that was cool. I thought, like, is like death cool?

(21:55):
Like this you're oh, man, we had him. Man, we shouldn't.
I never saw him broke now whenn we pass him
trophy trucks right, but he was gone. I thought that
was cool, like we just got punted by Robbie Gordon.
For years I've covered Shortcurse off road. And we were

(22:16):
at a track and Carl Winners that I was there
with his at the time. He had a trophy truck
and uh he had had it on display. And after
the event was over he said, come on, man, you
ever road in one? I said, no, I've never been
in one. So I don't remember what truck we were at,
to be honest with you, but um, I want to
sit down down in Chula Vista maybe. But he fires
a sing up and you'll climb inside and and everybody

(22:37):
you know, we're strapping and and we take off and
it's pretty smooth road and we're just cruising like fifty
or sixty miles an hour, just right at the edge
before we get to the desert. So we're getting closer
and closer, and there's these big washes that you're talking about.
It's like a whoops section for Supercross, except it's in
the desert and it's a wash section and and the
whoops are twice as big and three times farther apart,

(22:58):
you know, and it's just he's huge things. And I'm like,
oh man, he's got to check up here. So we
get close to it and he puts it on the floorboard.
I'm like, oh, I'm like, this isn't gonna go good here, man,
like I don't, I don't know about all this, And
it did like a dirt black man. He hit the
first one and it just went the top. And I'm like,

(23:20):
oh my god, I mean, I mean, I Goose Bump
is talking about it. It was unbelievable. How good that
suspension work. Unbelievable. And when you said you bear, you
are you bear? Pony up throttled down, he throttle offs,
throttled down. When you see stuff like that, that's like,
that's like Cruise been talking about when he was in
the trophy truck and h when he was going up

(23:40):
one of the great big hills. He said he got
up to that. He was in a short course put
a short course truck, and he's been you know, you know,
Corey Kruseman, he's been coaching these guys in short course
for a number of years. So so they finally say,
you know, what, have you ever been in one? And
he's like, no, no, nor Now why don't you hop
in one? Because I think he was giving Tony Stewart

(24:01):
a hard time him, him and Newman or no Stinhouse,
him and Stinhouse. So they put him in a truck
and uh, you know when you go off with those jumps,
you're it's completely fine. Yeah, yeah, you don't know what's
on the other side. You're just you're just going up
in the in the blue sky. And he said, man,
I'm in this thing, he said, and I think I'm
throttling down, he said, I think I got about two

(24:21):
inches of air and landing on the flat. You know,
I didn't even make it to the bottom side, he said.
He went over one of them and ripped the back
bumper off of them because he didn't he didn't clear
it enough. You ripped it off. Yeah, it's a it's
a different animal, the shortcore stuff I'm I'm really familiar with.
That's that's a different deal and and so much fun.
I mean, if you guys get a chance to get
in one of those, it looks like fun because like

(24:42):
you don't get in trouble for beating, banging like they're
ripping the body panels off those things. Every time they're
out on the track, they roll them and they roll
them back over or if they roll enough to get
back on all four hammer and to keep rolling. That's
what I'm talking about. Fans love me. We asked Rico Abrow.
We asked him, We said, we said, would you do

(25:04):
he goes odd hammering. There's not much he wouldn't hammer anything.
He gets in. He's he's ripping it for sure. He's
fun to watch. Talented, talented. Let's pause for a moment
here to take a quick break. This segment of the
Skinny is brought to you by Rhino Classified. Tired of
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(25:27):
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(25:51):
So Aby, the boys went out. JR. Colletta went out
and got in the midgets out at at 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 event. Yeah, I know, I think
you got their shirt on. Actually know what I mean exactly?

(26:12):
I know, Well, I got told about this year. This
year is like you know, and they told me about
j R. And Douggie out there, and I can't believe
they put you in a real race car. That's what
I keep saying. I'm like they had 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

(26:34):
like Christopher Bell is like someone in the video and
you could just see like every time I go in
the corner, like he's just nervous. He's like pacing back
and forth, like he's like I feel that. Yeah, you
were worried he was scared to death. Yeah, exactly. I
roab have been a little closer on the show. And
he said, as soon as I get back, he said,

(26:55):
keep looking at me and said, don't do that anymore.
But no, that stuff is like just like anything, 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 it is but it was fun, Doug,
he probably loved it. Oh yeah, it's like for him
like that kind of stuffs, like riding a bike us
that that's where he came from. Yeah, we used to

(27:16):
roll in. We used to roll in when I was
you know, uh many years younger. We would roll into Anderson,
you know, and uh and at the time, nobody had
any any hollers, 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.

(27:37):
And he would he would go out and ruin. He
crushed people on paved Yeah, big time. He could have
had a payment career. I mean like an IndyCar Nascar.
I mean, he was that good, He was that smooth.
But Conrad said, we're going in the other direction here,
we're going straight. Dougs the one that I'm really blown

(27:57):
away as not one over here and has not won
that championship because he every time he rolls up, you know,
man like that dude could win every race he shows up. Absolutely.
Let 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 their first round the whole year,

(28:18):
and Dougie went where Tony had to go to last
run and set a world record and win the race,
set a world record by like a minimal amount. Can't
do it by too much because they have the 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

(28:40):
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 the kid and I'm
looking at like how because that man was on fire
that year, you know what I mean? And Dougie, I
have battles with him too, when some of the championships
we won where we battled out against each other. And

(29:01):
I mean, the man could drive the 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 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 of year.

(29:22):
You've got to be good throughout. And that's just I
think it's been Achilles heels 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, not like Doug, you did a bad job,
but some fluke happened, like a parts failure or something breaking,
you know, like one thing like the shoots came out.

(29:43):
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, you can't have like dumb stuff
that doesn't happen. It happens to him at the wrong time.
It does. And we all been victim because I remember
two races left with the Tony Schumacher deal, right two
thousand twelve, haven't lost the race first round all year,

(30:06):
have qualified in the top four all year, and we
we never knew leave lost the first round, first race out.
We qualified too in Vegas. We go out, there are
management boxing works, so 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 Blue
Shot crawls past me, blipping the thrall on and off
and beats me if I won that championship done first

(30:28):
race from on the race, Spencer Massey shook and smoke
guitars off the line. I'm way down the racetrack. You
know what happened. My fuel line busts off, bus off,
black fires, the supercharger burns, my hands up and everything,
and I go crossing across the parachutes out. Spencer limps
around me and wins, like both of them. I hadn't one. Oh,
I just went one round. Two races. But like I said,

(30:50):
and that spends Dougs whole career, whole career like dominating
like dominated people all day long. What I thought was
cool though the year that Tony did that the next
night at the awards Bank. But you know, like we
all get annown. It's 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

(31:12):
have won the championship. Like I thought that was a
way cool, good enough. Yeah, and he's got quite the
business himself with the flying services. Yeah, 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 a low key like
right there beside him, Like no one really understands like

(31:33):
doug he's flying business, but it's uh, he doesn't have
the big seven forty seven a lot of planes and
and now he's starting to do a lot more with
d h L and he flies for like a lot
of the auto manufacturers. Just uh, he's got a lot
of planes and does it really well, Yes he does.
And is he is he flying international as well? Or
is it mainly state side? I think it's mainly state

(31:55):
side and the Connies one like his planes, I mean
he has over twenty. I think I'm as pretty seven
forty seven's and they're all moving all around the world.
Just the business is where you guys are shopping, the
race shop used to be where the businesses at the
airport Willow ru and we're probably five five ten minutes
from there now. And then the where they keep the

(32:17):
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
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

(32:38):
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
Ed for a long time and Ed was starting to
take that side of it over as well, with the

(32:58):
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 specifically telling him, Kaletta,
he doesn't need your money. That's your best bet. He
doesn't need your money, Lucas, he doesn't need your money.

(33:19):
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 got a you know,
a nowgies 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
has grown to. But it was it was kind of
crazy in the beginning. Has been amazing to see how

(33:41):
Toyota and TRD has come over and what they have facilitated,
and motorsports in general is like people realize the backbone
that we have, like when they see Toyot in our
cars because I had to engine I sat said, no,
they help us develop everything that's on this race car,
and they have engineers that take you to a whole

(34:02):
step beyond and Colletta they always been very, very competitive. Okay,
but I can tell you one thing for sure is
when TRD gutt involved and JR. Knows what I'm talking
about because he went from being a competitive funny car
team to a championship winning funny car team. Absolutely, and
that was I saw my own eyes because I saw

(34:23):
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. When it takes to win a championship, right, Well,
there's a difference when things line up and you have
a good day versus the team that's actually leading the way.
That's church and and that's what tr D broad and

(34:46):
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 everything from from ten thousand feet
afe well down there, and it's like, we can make
this better, and what's why is this like this? Why

(35:07):
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 when they get into it, they
get in at full board and and and for me,
I'm like, like, I'm a fan of the sports, so

(35:27):
I 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 I'm talking about it because he's here.
You can see the difference because now the difference of

(35:50):
it was before he was happy if they just did
well or if they won this race or won that race. Well.
Now is a different expectation, you see. And when you
become a champ and you get that, you get that
built into your mind. That's where a lot of people
don't know from the outside is when you see him
got that swagger that stands when things don't go right,

(36:10):
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 j R. Now like hold up, hold up, the
same way that I get You get what I mean,
and you can tell and you can see that in

(36:31):
different drivers and teams. Once they once they get that chip,
you get what I mean. They don't have that chip
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
and we need to be there. Ain't no more like,
oh man, we had a good weekend. No no, no,

(36:52):
that's right. You know we were talking about with the
fan base. You know, hockey is great to watch on
t V. It's exciting. An 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 in
the stands and uh and because it is a great

(37:12):
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. Like from the
time when I wasn't driving full time, you know, you know,
I spent a lot of time at the sprint car
races and made a lot of friends and buddies over there,
and you know, like they, I guess kind of respect

(37:35):
me as a driver, but just always kind of laughed
it off like oh, you're just going to straight line,
like getting'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 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

(37:57):
like you guys were wrong or dumb for like kind
of half as can fund of me for being a
drag racer. 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 fuel
race and seeing just how straight they don't go correct.
But you have to have that angle and you have

(38:18):
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
want to go straight. It wants to kill itself. It's
piste off at the world that's suffing. I wish that
our TV show would bring into play. Is like I

(38:41):
I like bowling, like time off, like a bunch of
us get together, go drink beer and bowling. So I
got notices 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
curve of the ball going down the lane, like that's
what they should do for us as well. Right over
overlay the lines on the run and see, you know,
who is doing a good job keeping that things straight

(39:03):
and like who's not basically cause 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 they ought to go split screen. They had 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

(39:26):
if you're gonna chase him down, but you you're not
gonna change, I think, you know, like what you see
at UH football games out those cable cams are over
across the field. Like just run a cable along you know,
the track and have the camera already going so far
downtrack 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

(39:47):
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 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

(40:09):
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 way
out of your hands. Like I said, there's times you're
crossing the finish line with the wheel like this because
it's got a sonar out and you're too dumb to
lift off the throttle, you know, So at the same
time I gets rounds like that and when you win
like like oh man, like that that was awesome. Or

(40:31):
a pedal fast, you know, a pedal fest that you
can win that that's where you're like that gets your
a drilling peg to the max. I feel like, so
you guys are talking about how your brain slows down
and you're processing all the stuff you put yourself in
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

(40:51):
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 story line nine times all
of ten. 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 in it, just because like
you don't give up until you see the guy across

(41:12):
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
it's probably ten feet that I've had to get by
and like got the win. Like that to me like
blew my mind that it even happened, like right, like, oh,

(41:33):
come out, like you're talking to yourself, dude, like, oh,
he's dead. He's dead. The pedal fest is I mean,
because you say they're like mop you know, and they're
already unhooked, you know. And to me, I'm not worried
like if it's gonna blow up, like you're punishing that
thing you had better not blow up, and you're trying
to crack it because you know. The bad part is

(41:54):
is the way these butterflies work when you crack them.
They're so violent. They're not like our cars when I
first are racing, like oh eight oh nine, you can't
used you used to be able to get back on
the car'll just have not it didn't have the power
to have super like 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

(42:16):
on how bad or where it drops that of course, right,
But I had times we dropped it to step of
throttle and the car just goes attempts slower. Okay, so
say going to three seventy flight goes with three eight flaves,
So it's alrighty, and you're shocked because back in the
day when it dropped the whole, it'll never ran like that.
Like like if you dropped the whole back in the
day and you're running three eighty, will run a four
oh five. You get what I mean. Like now it'll

(42:39):
drop a hole and you gotta say did it drop
a hole because you don't know because the car only
lost two hundreds to three thirty, you know, isn't losing
until it really goes one to one at half, like
not even after track like three cords a way down
at five fifty or six feet four thousand foot, right,
So you're like, damnily, and I know I got back
a couple of times a creature goes probably go do

(43:00):
you know I 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 you off, blow it up. But it was like
doing 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

(43:22):
your your face will go hit the it'll hit actually
your your dashboard. You'll really go whom and you're like, oh,
you know, A dropped the whole. Well now it 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 still trying
to still trying to pass fold up right, and like
he was saying, back to pedaling it. The superchargers are

(43:44):
so powerful now and like they're creating so much vacuum
that when you go to the even crack to throw
like it sucks the blades open damn near. 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 go wide open because you wanted to
react and get after it. It's it's a race guard.

(44:04):
It'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,
have se learned a lot more, but that's just not
an option for you guys. You gotta break it. Like first,
you gotta break the seal, like when you let 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

(44:25):
you gotta break the suction. So you gotta break the
seal where it goes pop, but it goes popping. Then
you open the blaze, they go like all the way
open almost again. And what you gotta do. You gotta
break the seal. And then you gotta bring your toe back,
your foot back 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

(44:45):
uses a wild throbis 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 does Dix
and pedals so good. Tony was different. Tony used to
keep his foot pedals, so he spelled its smoke. He'll
just let off 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

(45:06):
word all the way close. It was like to like
a burnout stop. I was like, check that joker out,
you know what I mean, And he like, he let
it come back, but 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

(45:27):
wait too long, was already juiced up, spending a lot
that's tire relaxed. Well, he caught so quick that the
tired relaxed when he's letting off the gas and hook
back up and then he'll just feather it from there
and come back down smooth. 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

(45:47):
say easy, but when we hit the throttle initially, like
you're not just using your foot, the crack the pen
like you're basically kicking it, so like it's easy to
get that part. But like he said, pedal and that
that's when it's like, all right, now you gotta be
jel like it's you gotta tell 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,

(46:07):
be like, all right, settle down, which it's hard to
sell yourself. And the guys are driving away from the
other You're like, come on, that has to be in
a turn. It seems like, yeah, exactly, yes, we'll be
right back after this. This segment of the Skinny. It's
brought to you by Dream Giveaway. Dream Giveaway has been

(46:28):
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(46:49):
dream giveaway dot com. So ay b, we asked Jr.
And we pretty well knew knew 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 peeling bike without training wheels and

(47:11):
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 I was a kid,
they didn't have junior dractors. Junior dractors didn't come for
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. Vinney Vinney Nap with with David and I

(47:31):
was just like, man, why didn't they have that like
ten years ago, you get what I mean? And like
it came out like right when I like I was
just turning like eighteen. I'm like, I'll be darned because
seventeen was the cut. And I was like, but they
were the coolest things when they came out, and half
scaled dractor was built. The first one just right out

(47:52):
of North Jersey, you know, what I mean, and uh,
I never forget. I was like, man, but I just
grew up doing the dirt bike thing and then I
just raced dirt bikes so long bible 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

(48:13):
I we go to uh Butch Creek, Maryland at m
I are. We We've been all over the place and
just on that 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 vers and never got drive none of
my uncle or dad's race cars. You know. I was

(48:33):
seventeen years old, and what I did was I went
to the drag strip and I started doing street bike
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 stype bike guy, and uh,

(48:54):
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, married,
married my cousin Tommy right from Trenton, New Jersey. And
it was crazy because he used to come there with
his football buddies and some of his buddies that he
knew from Philly, some of his boys he knew from

(49:14):
up New York, some people that played for the Giants.
Yet 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. 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,

(49:35):
And I was small. I was like hundred forty pounds,
hundred thirty eight pounds, soaking wet, get on this bike
and I read all his big bikes that Bob built
for him and used to bet yous to bet. 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. His guys
are like, who is this kid? Because I was like

(49:56):
a little kid when I was like eighteens, like I
was thirteen years old like and and then all other
guys like you let that kid whoop y'all. And that's
and that's how it started. And then Troy got into it,
met Dave Schultz, Dave Schultz through his son Brian Schultz,
and because troy'st go to m A Pro Star Race
Love Motorcycles Do Fast by Ferac out of Pennsylvania, who

(50:19):
did the Big m A Superbikes. He had a street
bike that had a two hundred horsepower that was a
Decati done a Porsche black with his football number on
it all Magnee's. I mean, he has some nice stuff.
And then Troy goes and I'm in college. 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

(50:40):
I just got done my 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 you for track and field. I never forget out.
Was like, I'm like, let me think about it. I'm in.
That's where my whole career started. That's how I literally
went from a kid from a rural little town called
Chesterfield Country out New Jersey, South j Z. To becoming

(51:01):
a professional racer. But a lot of people don't realize
a sacrifice where I gave up my track and field scholarship.
I didn't get paid a dime for my first year
of racing pro at all. It was a sacrifice for
him to build the team, for me to 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

(51:23):
v Twins or Harley's out There was all Suzuki's or
Kalisaki's race. Everything was even, and Matt Hines and on
Jail were like the cream and the krem and John
Myers is out there, but on Jail was really when
she was taking off and Matt and her are going
tip for tap for championships, and 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 want and we went

(51:44):
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, or number five. Then the
next year we started qualifying like number three, number two,
and we won our first race in Dallas, and everybody
red light against me because they couldn't out run us
no more. No six finished second the points. Yeah, it

(52:18):
killed me. And 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
pinings 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

(52:39):
because you saw yellow. Yeah, go on there obviously, you
know a wrinkle up to tire and get everything, get
everything moving. But those bikes, man, boy, they react so quickly.
You often wonder if there's something you can do to
him mechanically to saw him down it. It bites Crai
wicken Hines and these guys that are good on all tree,
it bites them all time. Old man Eranta red all

(53:00):
the time in a tray could fix it because this
could change the lay or you can just let him
have it incandescent bubblegam They don't want them to, but
they just need to adjuange the number. Just change the number,
and 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 when you're not human
delay box and when you're talking about a pro class,

(53:21):
you should be able to see yellow, hit it go
and 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 red, 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 trace or the light.
I mean, it's like, come on, guys, listen. Simple things listen.

(53:43):
I mean what I mean. I know they've got a
newer regime there now and listening, 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, absolutely not.

(54:08):
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 carnage, fireparts are everywhere.
Who is gonna lay their chest and their stomach and
they hain't too speed? I'll go to speed. Ain't no problem.

(54:31):
You know what I mean. It's you gonna wear a
kevlar vast ride it the top people. 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 Elmer trett On. You know, of
course that was a horrible day and blame both at
the same time. But those guys, what about one of

(54:53):
those fuel bikes, you know, like Spider Man sixty. I
think I like to try it at one time time
because think about is he got his stuff under wraps
in his the inline force, so 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
never seen this stuff tear up. He runs it mild

(55:15):
and he's got plenty of power, and he just goes
faster and fast. And you see, Larry, he don't age.
Pride does not age. Man. He looks better and better
every time I've seen him. 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 event. It's like, I can't wait
to see those things again. Yeah, I remember when I
was growing up as a kid, was Kywasaki shop. I

(55:37):
was born and raised Clearwater, Florida, and there was a
Kywasaki shop down there, and the terminal Van Lines bike
was down there. Bo Brocta ran that it was just
the coolest looking bike of all time. And and the
you know, the fuel bikes were were super super cool
back then. Yes they are. I love him. I love
watching him. I just watch him, Yeah exactly, I just

(55:59):
watch them. You know, I can't believe he rode with
with Schultz. I can't believe he was. He was your teammate,
and uh 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 out of Terry's mouth. And uh talk

(56:21):
about Terry was sharp though Terry, Terry, Terry Terry. 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,

(56:41):
pro stock man, pro stock man, you know what I mean.
Like Byron Hines can make 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

(57:02):
Schultz fell off a ladder. I think he was doing
some work to the top of the trailer, fell off ladder,
both arms and a cast and road for five races
and one 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

(57:23):
a great Cope back in those days engine building, really
really sharp guy, sharp sharp Star racing. You know George
Price and and those cats. And that's when on Joe
and you're talking about. I mean they there was some
vicious battles. There was just out battles. There was there
was words, there was fights, there was some bloodshed 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.

(57:45):
It was like Day looked down like I want he
wanted to get them, and and the George looked at him,
he wanted to trip him, and stop on him, so
they had no it was no loved loss between him
to dress me once again, an excellent telling. Man can't
thank these guys enough coming by j R. Todd. Thanks
brother man, We really appreciate you coming to buy and
of course, uh both you guys are nice and clothes
man straight out of Pittsburgoh, may be rocked on over

(58:09):
here as well. Man. Thanks a lot, dude, and wish
you guys the best of luckier this season. We'll get
you back on here for sure, and thanks for everything
you've done for the sport as well all along the way.
It's awesome. Appreciate Thank you guys, Thank you, thank you,
thanks thanks for being with us here on the Skinny.
This episode has been brought to you by Toyota, Rhino

(58:29):
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(58:51):
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