Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Speedway Stories: Phillip Hall Jr
23 Plays9 days ago
Wally and Jhonny are joined by Phillip Hall Jr. he will be on talking about his racing career !!!! plus what it is like to run at Dennis Anderson spring sling!!!!
FOLLOW US EVERYWHERE bio.link/nonsensicalnetwork
SUPPORT THE SHOWS CASHAPP $glickglick13
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:03
Speaker
Bye.
Introduction and Speedway Stories
00:01:27
Speaker
Welcome everybody to another edition of Speedway Stories. I'm your host Wally with my co-host Mr. Johnny Balms. um Tonight guys we have a special guest.
00:01:38
Speaker
they Tried to get up last week on the show after his big win and everything else over Dennis Anderson Spring Fling. But the gentleman of course like the rest of us has work and he was able to join us tonight. Let's bring up Mr. Philip Hall Jr.
Phillip Hall Jr.'s Racing Background
00:01:54
Speaker
Hey guys how you doing?
00:01:56
Speaker
How's it going, buddy? Thank you for joining us tonight, man. yeah I'm pretty excited to hear about your nice adventure and big win that you had a couple weekends ago ah there at Dennis Anderson's. If you would like to, the floor is yours. Introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about yourself, and then we'll get into the whole racing and everything over there at the Springs Fling and Show.
00:02:21
Speaker
Sounds good. Well, my name's Phillip Hall, junior I'm out of Virginia Beach, Virginia. I'm 25 years old and I've been around tough truck racing and mud racing probably since about 2012, I'd say.
00:02:34
Speaker
ah We just travel up and down the East Coast mainly and hit some mud bogs and wherever I can kind of fit in and get my Jeep to. you just go and race and have fun, man.
00:02:47
Speaker
Nothing too quick. uh margan we will get to the story behind the picture in the backdrop of philip we'll get into that here in a little bit ah so how many years have you actually been racing tough truck at dennis anderson's show man i'm excited some may know i started out with my buddies brad robbie chris my dad, ah and a few other people that we hang out with.
00:03:19
Speaker
And i earned the name because I used to always ask a bunch of people if I could race their trucks. My dad always said that I had to earn my way. So I always worked on his and everything. And I always tried to squeeze my way into any other driver's seat that I could.
00:03:32
Speaker
So back in the day, i met up with Robbie and Brad and they had helped my dad build his cage and his tough truck. And on they had came up with the nickname for me, Tough Truck Tommy.
00:03:45
Speaker
Cause Robbie and Brad always said I looked like Tommy boy back in the day. So I started out racing Robbie's truck. That's where that
Motorsports Beginnings and Memories
00:03:53
Speaker
came from. I i want to say it was 2017 was the first time I gotten a actual tough truck, but I've been driving and wheeling junkyard trucks cars my personal daily driver vehicles and all that stuff since i don't know 11 or 12 years old then before that it was racing lawn mowers and go-karts and dirt bikes and anything i could get my hands on with the motor pretty much heck yeah man you're like sound like me coming around my actual first taste of everything for motorsports was uh dirt track racing and stuff and truck and tractor pulling for me and then it
00:04:33
Speaker
progress to where where everything's at.
The Jeep Cherokee Saga
00:04:36
Speaker
oh got Got a little little thing here for you up here if you can read the comments. Your dad said, proud of my boy. wouldn't be well with That's awesome.
00:04:49
Speaker
But yeah, um oh, look at this. Speak of the devil from Japan, my man. Good old Brad. Heck yeah, dude. This is awesome.
00:05:01
Speaker
So, This year, with racing and everything else, you pretty much got, other than suspension and stuff, under your Jeep, four liter straight the inline six.
00:05:14
Speaker
I'll give you the full rundown. So we started out the truck as a 92 Jeep Cherokee. i Actually, funny story. You want to hear a little back story? I got a funny one. Oh, definitely. This one's real good. Share it with everybody, man.
00:05:26
Speaker
So let's say two years ago, i had my buddy named Josh working for me. Well, Josh never liked waking up on time for work and showing up to work on time.
00:05:38
Speaker
So and normally I'd have to go wake Josh up. So let's backtrack a few hours that morning. I wake up, you know, handle all my stuff, check my emails, scroll through Facebook marketplace like everybody does about six o'clock in the morning.
00:05:51
Speaker
And tough for Tommy. What's up, Josh? ah Basically, the first thing that popped up on my suggested in my Facebook was this truck behind me right here.
00:06:02
Speaker
When it popped up, the ad stated for parts only will run, but the ignition is ripped out of it. So first off, I was like, oh, this thing's stolen.
00:06:14
Speaker
But no big deal. You know what I mean? We're going tough truck race it. Well, let's check it out. Guy had it posted for $1,200. I messaged him. I said, well, the motor turned over with a pipe.
00:06:26
Speaker
He said, yes. I said, why are you selling it? And you know, what's the deal? Can I jumpstart it and drive it on a trailer? He's like, you yeah, it runs. You just need to put a screwdriver in the slide lock for the ignition and fire it up.
00:06:39
Speaker
I said, Perfect. I'm on my way. um nice um And we wheeled and dealed at first. I hit him at like 850. He ate it.
00:06:50
Speaker
And then he's like, well, here's the thing. He's like, I got to get rid of this thing today. So you got to come now because I was going to plan for the weekend. I said, I can come now for six hundred and fifty dollars. I said, I will hook the trailer. This is six twenty five in the morning.
00:07:05
Speaker
i'm telling you, this deal was made within three minutes. I found it at 618. I texted my buddy Josh at 620, and I had the deal locked in and the trailer hooked up by 630. Damn.
00:07:17
Speaker
that That's fishing and hooking real quick, man. That is my everyday routine is scroll on Facebook Marketplace as soon as I wake up, see if I can find something like can wheel and deal real quick. Well, yeah let's move forward.
00:07:29
Speaker
Josh, my buddy Josh, I get the deal made, I hop in the truck, I'm blowing up his phone. I'm talking, I got to say, there's probably ever been 40 phone calls that morning. And Josh only lived about five minutes from where I was living at that time.
00:07:48
Speaker
Okay. So that's a lot of phone calls. So I get to Josh's house and knock on his front door. Nobody answers. His dogs are going crazy. And his dogs are the type that you don't walk into their house or else you're going to get what's coming to you. You're going to Exactly. So I'm sitting there. I'm like, man, how do I get this boy up? How do get this boy up?
00:08:03
Speaker
Well, come to find out, his brother had just texted me back. Josh was just out high school. His brother was in high school in his last year. He texted me and said, hey, Josh moved his bedroom. It's downstairs. Just walk around the corner of the house and beat on the window.
00:08:19
Speaker
I said, things could not have lined up better. I get over to Josh's bench and I start beating on the window. Well, here comes the dogs. Here comes Josh. Josh rolls over and this man gives me the most like eat crap look you would ever imagine. It is 635, 640 in the morning and he is looking at me, picks up his phone, looks back at me and says, quit.
00:08:45
Speaker
i was like, okay, that's fine. You could quit, but you could quit at the end of the day. I said, I need you. Look at your phone. I said, I need your, uh, your base pass. I need you to come with me.
00:08:57
Speaker
This is where the story gets even better. I got Josh He saw the deal. i've explained everything to him. He said, okay, I don't quit anymore. This is a good deal. This was worth it. Let's go racing. I'm like, all right, cool. Oh yeah.
00:09:10
Speaker
We're going up to Fort Eustis from, uh, Virginia beach. So that's about an hour and a half drive. So I get up to Fort Eustis. We get to the gate and asked me what I'm doing there.
00:09:22
Speaker
I said I had to come up with a quick idea because there was something fishy about the truck. So I didn't want to, you know, throw anything out there. I said, oh, my buddy's car broke down and he's about to move.
Jeep Modifications and Racing Debut
00:09:34
Speaker
So we're going to take it back home for him.
00:09:36
Speaker
And Josh went along with the story, too, because he has a base pass. So we get through the base gates and we get up with our guy who's got the Jeep. And I'm sitting there talking to him.
00:09:47
Speaker
And when I bought it, it had like big 35s on it with 12 inch wide, 14 inch wide wheels. And, you know, it looked all right when I bought it other than the rattle can paint job.
00:09:59
Speaker
Of course. That's usually how it is. I had a country short arm kit. had one-ton steering. It was pretty much how you see it now, short of any reinforcements in the dual shocks and stuff like that.
00:10:11
Speaker
So I get her over there. we make a deal. We load it up on the trailer. i ended up getting this started. I drove it on the trailer. I drove it around the parking lot. May or may not have done a little burnout with it.
00:10:24
Speaker
uh and i'm like all right boss you all drug brad in here party's over now very careful when you go play okay ah so we get the truck on the trailer and i'm like all right cool i appreciate it man he's like all right you really want to know why i'm selling it now i'm like don't tell you've done something illegal do i need to go get a tarp and tarp this thing to try it take it i'm like because we'll do what we got to do 650 runner oh yeah lifted jeep we're running oh yeah you can't even touch that up here in ohio they they want 600 where you can flint stone in it and they don't even have wheels and tires on them up here right so
00:11:07
Speaker
He whips out his phone and shows me this video. Mind you, the Facebook marketplace ad for this thing was him doing asphalt donuts in the Jeep.
00:11:18
Speaker
So mind you, he whips out his phone. He's going in a mud hole, climbing up these trees. And then next thing you know, the phone just pans over to this like brick building.
00:11:34
Speaker
And I don't remember exactly what the sign said, but it was like their, what do you call it when you're in the Navy and you're a superior way high up? Like they get their own house on there. Yeah, the admirals. The admirals get them on the on there. Yeah. Yeah, whatever they were.
00:11:53
Speaker
He turns and and zooms into the sign and it's like Admiral's quarters or whatever they are. it was all shut as he pans over all the lights flip on in the building.
00:12:08
Speaker
kills the jeep and this is like maybe a minute and a half long video they were doing donuts they were doing everything so they kill the jeep keep the video running but they're not filming anymore it's just like down by their legs and they're running like you're running through the woods screaming like oh my god yeah hi or Whatever you do in the Navy, discharge or whatever it's called. yeah yeah He puts the phone down and he's like, don't tell a soul.
00:12:37
Speaker
I was like, you just told the wrong person for that. I said, this thing's got a story now. All the hell he had does. and And mind you, this thing, I'm telling you, for $650, let's go front to back.
00:12:51
Speaker
Aluminum radiator, MSD ignition coil, um steering box brace, one-ton steering, the lift kit, aftermarket shocks, um slip yoke eliminator, different rear drive shaft.
00:13:06
Speaker
Got the 231 swapping it already. oh shit. interior was ripped out front and rear winch bumpers the i'm telling you it had the works i could have put a roll cage in this thing drove it down the road and it could have been my daily crawler like it was great the only bad part about is the ac didn't work but welcome to an xj Yeah, exactly. that's yeah So we
Racing Challenges and Dynamics
00:13:30
Speaker
get it back.
00:13:31
Speaker
We get it all caged Thanks to my dad and my buddy, Brad. They helped me out, got me the tubing. You know, Brad's got the bender and he's got all the skills and he taught my dad how to bend tubing and everything like that. And we've just been rolling on that for years. But we got it back, got it built. I got my dad to trust the axle for me because at the time I didn't even have a welder.
00:13:50
Speaker
So my welding career core started not but like three or four years ago. Got you. Learned a lot along the way. And obviously, as you can tell, the cage, I did most of the welds in that cage and it's held up over a couple of rollovers at this point. So done pretty good so far. Yeah. how we get the guys air coming yeah So we we get the truck together. I raced it a couple of times, got a couple of trophies, nothing crazy, no first place or nothing like that. And fast forward a little bit.
00:14:24
Speaker
My buddy John comes to me. And John Su from Back Bay Auto, he is the man when it comes to making cheap horsepower. I tell you, he's got all the secrets.
00:14:36
Speaker
I ain't going tell you them all, but I can tell you what. This thing is completely class compliant where we're at right now. Everything. right Everything is per the rules 110%. And no, I'm not just saying that because we're on a podcast. This thing, the only thing that may differ in the rules a little bit is the fact that I have a long arm kit versus a short arm kit and I have dual shocks in the front.
00:15:04
Speaker
Yeah, that's only that's the only thing here in Ohio that would slap you in our modified classes, the the axles. That's said only the only thing that would put you in our modified classes. Can y'all run nitrous in the modified class?
00:15:16
Speaker
No, that's the only shitty part. I was going to say, if you could, I would trap a bottle in and we're down. I've actually i got to a couple of buddies, I'll be honest with you.
00:15:27
Speaker
they make They make some of these modified guys with their XJs and they don't have no power adders, nothing. and they the They're consistently top 10, top 15 every race they go to with these with the XJs and their WJs that they got.
00:15:41
Speaker
These guys are insane. Heck yeah, ne ki man. Yeah, that's kind of how we are here. It's crazy because some of us guys build these things out like nuts. Like I've probably got, I mean, I've had really good help with deals, sponsors, all that kind of stuff. I'm ah i'm a wheeling and dealing guy. I don't like spending a lot of money, but I like wasting money. You know what i mean? we can't take We can't take it to our grave, so we might as well, you know. Exactly. Right, man. So use it use it for fun.
00:16:11
Speaker
Me, it's more fun than family. Like everybody said when I did that freestyle in this picture, well, what are you going to do when you break it? You didn't make enough to pay for it. I said, but look at me now. I got a sweet profile picture for Facebook and I'm getting my name yeah Yes, sir.
00:16:27
Speaker
Growing up, ah me and my dad used to always watch Monster Jam. And all I ever really wanted to do, I don't care about getting famous. I don't care about having a lot of money. I just want to have fun in life and be comfortable.
00:16:39
Speaker
Kind of hard to be comfortable with a back like this though. So I grew watching Monster Jam and all I really cared about was being able to build me a truck that I could do me in basically, be me in.
00:16:52
Speaker
And I built my tough truck in first season out. I wasn't going to freestyle it. I was thinking about doing all kinds of crazy stunts and stuff like that. But I was like, you know what? Let me get my hands in racing a little bit. Let me figure this out. And then once I realized I was actually somewhat competitive with it, I got up with my boy, John.
00:17:10
Speaker
and I'll tell you a few of our secrets, but not all of them. This is a 92 Cherokee. It's got a 2001 wiring harness, a 2001 computer, 2001 transmission, but a 231J transfer case.
00:17:22
Speaker
um It's got a 2001 intake. It's got the 2001 coal pack and all that stuff. um It's still running a three. So I got staggered gears right now. I just found this out okay the other day.
00:17:39
Speaker
The wrong way, though, I figured out. So here lately I've been having a problem with where I drive into the field. The rear end wants to drive around me before I can ever get slowed down or anything like that. So I got a 373 in the front and a 355 in the rear.
00:17:53
Speaker
Well, in the beginning, before we got this thing wake up, you know what I mean? And, you know, to scream pretty good.
Physical Challenges and Future Events
00:18:00
Speaker
It would work really good going into the turn because it would drive the rear end around me. I'd lock up the brakes and it'd come right around the tire. Oh, yeah. Well, now it's fighting me now that we got her tuned up a little bit. I'm going into the turn so fast and trying to decel so fast. The truck just wants to.
00:18:14
Speaker
you know, kind of do its thing, but it helps. It wants to go. well It's got a mind of its own. exactly That is one thing I love about racing. And that's what I tell people. Everybody's like, why do you want to go mud racing? It costs so much money. It beats up your truck. It beats up all these parts that you're spending a bunch of money on. I said, because you will never, even in monster truck racing, you don't exactly get this because no matter what, everybody like gets paid to show up in monster trucks. Not everybody gets paid to show up to race tough trucks and mud trucks. Nope.
00:18:41
Speaker
you go out there you're hitting jumps you're getting ragdolled inside the truck anybody can say what they want you can have i got a butler race seat uh in mine and a simpson hybrid and the five point and the whole nine and i still get jarred in that thing every time i drive it but that is what i love about racing tough trucks and mud trucks so much as you go out there you get jarred up coming off a hill and it's either collect it or ball it up and make the uh highlight reel for the next race you know what i mean exactly yeah yeah And that's that's just what I love about it so much. And then like a dentist, you can see your opponent pretty much the whole time because we're all pretty equal with our power. The rules are set up fairly well to where we're all you know, it's a it's a good race. It's a good show to put on for the fans and everything like that. So a dentist is, you know, you come out the corner and you're looking at your competitor unless they're broken pretty much unless they're broken, slow or just don't know what they're doing. you're looking at them and you're lining up for that finish line jump and what nobody understands at Dennis's is when you come out of that cornfield and you line up for that tabletop the grade I'll get a little little bit into my grading experience for you the grade like basically the track where all the spectators sit you're at ground level the grade coming up to the tabletop is about four to five feet below that so you're coming up to the tabletop and the spectators see like a
00:20:06
Speaker
eight or 10 foot jump, you're looking at 14 to 16 feet of face of a jump in front of you. And you can't see the finish line. You can't see, well, you see the flags, but you can't see nothing past that jump. So you're coming out the cornfield balls to the wall and every jump's cut different at that track. The right side sometimes is sharper, the left side sometimes sharper. And you come out of that cornfield and you're watching you and your opponent go off that hill and right at the top, you're like, man, I maybe should have checked up, but there is no time to do so. and you fly that thing, and you're watching both of you fly, and then you land, and you've got to avoid the mud pit. This is actually something that went into speculation. you want to hear about a little racetrack drama at the last one where I won at Dennis' two weeks ago.
00:20:50
Speaker
Right in the final four, so we did a – let me not say this wrong. We did a top four shootout at Dennis'. We did two timed passes, and then the top four, I believe it was, came back.
00:21:05
Speaker
past one, I went out, I ran like a 25-20. It was terrible. like To the point where I almost put my truck back on the trailer terrible. I was so upset at it. I had finished last season with, I think I ran a 19 or a 20 second pass at the end of last year. and i went out, ran that pass.
00:21:24
Speaker
I told my fiance, I said, if this thing does not work the next round like it should, I said, I'm putting it on the trailer and we're finishing the mega truck. I ain't touching it again. So, I kind of got my wits about me again and I went out there and I figured it out that with the way that we're getting these things faster and everything, the transmissions are not learning like they should. They're great transmissions. There's best transmission Jeep ever made. AW4 is the strongest thing. And I'll you another funny story about why I know it's the strongest transmission. Only a few people in this group know the story I'm gonna tell after this one.
00:21:57
Speaker
ah really good So when you take off from the line, These things will, if you put them in drive, they'll lock up about most of the way through second gear, and then they'll lock up the third gear.
00:22:11
Speaker
Lock up to what that is. So what I've figured out with mine is I got a, like I said, I got a 2001 transmission. So the shift pattern, I believe, is a one, two, three overdrive is drive, basically, if you're manually shifting it.
00:22:30
Speaker
um So I found out that at Dennis's, you got to keep shifting. You got to start in low gear. You got to bang drive. I have first gear locked out in every Jeep that I own because there's no reason to do it. I don't want to go 15 feet and shift.
00:22:45
Speaker
I'd rather like carry out the gear. You know what I mean? These things are better up top, not down low. So carry out the gear. And at Dennis's, I go two, three. And then right before it locks up in three, I bang drive.
00:22:59
Speaker
So then it unlocks the converter, flares. And by about that time, I'm getting into the corner. And if I drop it back down in the corner, it'll flare again when I get back on the gas and it'll bring me up to the RPM range. I want probably, you know, somewhere around 2000 is where they start making rod today something like that. Or at least that's what it feels like. here man So what I've also figured out is if I don't shift it in the turn, by the time I get down into the turn and I have, uh,
00:23:28
Speaker
locked up the brakes and I'm trying to get around the turn. For some reason, it locks the torque converter. So when it downshifts back down in the second, it's just, it's terrible. Yeah, bobs it boggles itself out. So terrible, it slowed me down over two seconds between my first and second pass at Dennis's. I ran a 25-20 at Dennis's first round.
00:23:49
Speaker
Second round, I came out and smoked at 23.02.
00:23:55
Speaker
we talk about this all the time. ah bra but yeah man now i got Now I got an idea now cause i've got a ninety ninety nine x j that i'm i got for my tough truck this year may and let sonnna Me and my son are getting a – we're going to be taking turns driving and everything. And now with the with the whole shifting point and stuff, it's like, yep, I got that tranny. So now I know what – I'm going give it a shot at a couple of races see how it helps out depending on how the they set our tracks up at our local fairs and shit. so
00:24:32
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, man, I'll be honest with you. You can't beat Jeep. I ain't no Jeep guy like I – I'll be honest. I like like a Wrangler TJ. They're okay. I wouldn't mind having one of those for a beach ride or like a little daily.
00:24:46
Speaker
And I like the Cherokee, all the other Jeeps. The Grand Cherokees are okay, but they're- You can't beat an XJ. You can't beat an XJ. For all of their usability, let's put it this way.
00:24:57
Speaker
Hired a guy last year. He was down bad just a little bit. And I was like, look, man, I got a buddy with an XJ. You know, we can put you in that or we can find you a beater Honda Civic.
00:25:08
Speaker
I'll help you out with it. And then I'll just take it back and use it for racing when you're done. Well, we bought it for $650. This thing had 120,000 miles on it, but it was ragged out. No rust, though, but a tree. Your dad's yourre dad, your dad, your dad busting you out.
00:25:27
Speaker
There's a reason there's nothing but XJs in my yard. ah So we bought that one about $650, put like $100 in it, and he drove it for nine months.
00:25:40
Speaker
Well, sorry. We as a collective drove it for good joe for nine months. and Four months before I took it off the road, I used it as my hunting vehicle back at Brad and James Kovacs properties.
00:25:53
Speaker
I got a little duck hole back there where I shoot ducks and deer and all kinds of stuff. Well, that is that spot is like no more than 150 yards from where we mudballed.
00:26:04
Speaker
I don't know if you've ever seen any of our like field parties or field muddolls over at Brad's. Yep, been i yeah i' seen them on Brad's page and stuff. but I'm like, dude, this is sick. The snowball for the mega truck, all kinds of different stuff.
00:26:17
Speaker
I brought Jeeps out there, Toyota Camrys, Honda Civics, all kinds of stuff. you different yeah my dad raced a grand cherokee originally he actually got a similar killer deal on his except his was street worthy you could have put his on the lot for five or six grand when he got it but he got it think he got it for less than like two thousand dollars or something with a long arm kit front and rear the whole nine couldn't turn it down but um you just you can't be oh yeah the mud ball field
00:26:49
Speaker
the the xj that i bought for my employee we started taking it over to go hunting well hunting season was coming to a close there was like a week left in it yep josh phillips bought it right when i sold it about a month or two ago hunting season was coming to a close i had my brother-in-law on the truck and i was like you want to know why i like these xj so much he's like why because you can just beat the shit out of them and just they'll survive i was like yeah you want to see why we Put this thing in second gear and nobody's been out in the mud bog field for months other than me going hunting.
00:27:21
Speaker
Well, there's a lake across the whole field like 150 feet across. Oh, shit. I backed this thing up to the wood line and I'm mad at it and We go across this freaking mud pit at 45 and then wash the windshield out, get out of the mud hole. I flip the windshield wipers on. We're still hauling, trying to get the windshield clean.
00:27:42
Speaker
Crash into this mud hole. right after Brad's jump out there and just eat the dash. of thought No blood, no concussions or nothing like that, but enough to where we're hysterically laughing and cannot catch our breaths.
00:27:58
Speaker
And he's like, well, what are you going to do now? We're freaking stuck. I said, no. talk We just crashed. That doesn't mean we're stuck yet. but So we tried to go forward. That didn't work.
00:28:09
Speaker
Tried to go backwards. That didn't work. So, you know, you got that that back and forth motion going. Oh, yeah. Jeep transmissions are so strong. We were banging that thing so hard from reverse to dry that you could hear the gears popping and the spider gears stripping. And I got it out of the hole and we started cranking donuts and drifted around the field. i Sorry, Josh, I didn't tell you about that part.
00:28:36
Speaker
yeah He just talked about himself, Josh. Well, the funniest thing is i sold it to Josh for $100 more than I paid for it, and he was more than happy to pay for it.
00:28:50
Speaker
And I would not take that thing down the road anymore. I literally, I sold it because I couldn't drive it for like running to get parts and stuff for work. Right. And I was like, you know, I'll just list it for sale. A thousand bucks. One of my racer buddies can have it for, you know, seven, 800 bucks. Josh brings me $750. I said, where's your trailer?
00:29:08
Speaker
He said, what trailer? I'm driving it home. I said, good luck with that. That thing going down the road, freaking like steer wheel beating back and forth and everything. And the Mudbuster was driving it. Yes, he was. Actually, i am very proud of Hunter from last week, and he made it all the way into the finals. And I think the only reason he got juped er fell behind a little bit in the race was because he lost it coming out of the one turn.
00:29:33
Speaker
he He was hauling the mail last weekend. I don't know if you all know, but we had a little race up in Del Mar last weekend at the 302 Mud Hop. Yeah, I've seen the post. I haven't got a chance to fully check everything out. I'm still trying to catch up on a lot of stuff between work and the kids and everything else in school right now. My two younger daughters with their schooling and everything. Oh, Dan, you got two girls?
00:30:01
Speaker
Well, I've got three kids. i've got My oldest is my son, and then, i yeah, I've got two girls. Good luck with that. That's all. about to trust and Trust me. Trust My second oldest will be 18 in September, and my youngest will be 16 in September. So um no set the bad part is, here you go.
00:30:19
Speaker
My second oldest is a ginger, so it's even more attitude than sass. I grew up with three sisters and they were all older than me. i'm the youngest and i'm the only boy other than my dad.
00:30:33
Speaker
So it was, it was definitely a, uh, it was definitely a crazy upbringing on that. Yeah. I would like to be around a bunch of women all the time. I'm in the oldest. I'm the oldest out of me and my sister. Um,
00:30:46
Speaker
When my parents divorced, it was me, my mom, and my sister, and then my grandma. it wasn't for my uncle living with my grandma when I was growing up, I was outnumbered by women until I was 21. It's like, I get it. Isn't it so much fun? All the time, women want to go mud racing. They definitely want to do that. They definitely want to shoot guns. They definitely work on trucks. You know mean?
00:31:09
Speaker
It's everything they really want to do. my i'm very fortunate. My wife and Basically, all my kids, my youngest, every now and then gets to gets into it, but she's more diehard in softball and stuff, which I get.
00:31:24
Speaker
But my older two and my wife and and me, we're diehard gearheads. My wife will help when she can. if she's not She works in the medical field. She's an STNA, so working 12-hour shifts and stuff.
00:31:38
Speaker
Every now and then, takes her a couple days to recuperate from working four days straight, so When she's not tired, she does come and help. so Yeah, I see my ah ah see my dad chiming in here little bit. He did make plenty of time to get us out of the way to where we could have fun. We actually, yeah i think from the age of like, I want to say seven or eight years old, I started going to work with my dad any day that I wasn't in school, I was at work with him.
00:32:08
Speaker
it was it was 5 30 to 6 30 in the morning dad walked in the room kicked me in bed we got about five ten minutes let's go we'd always go do landscaping weld and basically whatever okay but oh i got a i got a funny one for y'all if you want to hear a funny one after dennis's yeah go right ahead I get back from Dennis's.
00:32:33
Speaker
Still all bobble-headed for my win. you know I was super excited. And I left the truck. and Andy, by the way, Morgan, this is a after he finally caught his breath. After his run and stuff. So we'll leave it at that. yeah I'll tell that story here in a second, too. So...
00:32:52
Speaker
Yes, sir. I agree. to there Exactly. oh yeah So I leave the truck on the trailer for two days and I threw a sprinkler under. I was like, all right, I'll wash it at some point, but let's get all the big mud off.
00:33:05
Speaker
Well, I got to go back to work and I use my trailer for work every day. So I pulled it off and I was like, oh, I'll make a little pass around the yard. Just make sure everything's good because I didn't think nothing broke at Dennis's. And because we had Delmar last weekend, so I didn't have much time to work on it. So early in the week, tried to make sure she was all right.
00:33:23
Speaker
Well, I went to Dennis's with some really weak rear brakes. I'm not going to lie to you. Like, very questionable rear brakes. Uh-oh.
00:33:34
Speaker
oh They worked good when they needed to. Well, good I get it off the trailer. ah Monday or Tuesday, and I make a little pass around the yard. I never touched the brakes pulling off the trailer for some reason because I got enough room. You know what I mean? And I make a little lick around the yard, and I did one little pass, and then I seen the city workers were across the street cleaning out ditches. They were digging them all so everything would drain.
00:33:59
Speaker
And they're out there, they're like throwing their hands up, like, turn that thing up and everything. I'm like, okay, we'll make a quick little lick through the yard. Well, my yard's only about 300 feet long.
00:34:12
Speaker
I'd say 150 by 300 or so. and Maybe longer than that. Whatever. It's an acre and a quarter. I got enough room to hit second gear, almost lock up, and then let off and hit the brakes, and I'm slowed down by the ditch.
00:34:27
Speaker
Well, back up to the fence. I forget the rear brakes aren't working. And I kicked all of the rear brakes fluid out of this truck. I banged gears. She's riding out. I said, woo-hoo, we're ready for Delmar. Well, about the time I pass my house is usually when I get on the brakes.
00:34:46
Speaker
Well, there's nothing. i Well, I got video on my phone, but I can't pull it up here. But ah I got on the brakes. The front tire locked up. The truck to never slowed down one bit. Just got on top and slowed.
00:34:59
Speaker
So about 25 feet of that, I was like, okay, I am not slowing down for the road. I got figure something out. So you see me let off the brakes for five feet. There's one clean patch of grass.
00:35:12
Speaker
And then you see me engage in reverse and map this thing. I didn't know if it was going to hold, blow, bring the drive shafts out of it.
00:35:23
Speaker
We won't talk about that.
00:35:30
Speaker
That's for another day. i think he meant to say it nine years old because I used to like playing with fire a lot. Fire bug. Yeah. I feel that one Horsepower bug now. Much better.
00:35:46
Speaker
Long story short, I thought I could light some leaves on fire and put it out. And then when I got them lit on fire, i couldn't stomp it out. Oh, wait. Hold on. Hold on. Which time are you talking? Oh, no, no, no, no. no He's talking about a different story. All right. So the first piece of small engine equipment that my dad ever gave me to work on was a little three horsepower edger tiller, not tiller, edger trimmer thing that, you know, you you edge up the car. yep It has a brazen strut and motor on it. Well, I was always messing with that thing, trying to figure out how to make it raw and,
00:36:24
Speaker
uh do all kinds of craziness see if i could stack pennies in the valves and stuff like that and do all that kind of nonsense well one day i had my uncle tommy over here rest in peace uncle tommy he passed away a few years ago um i had him over here and i was like will you help me work on this thing i need some gasoline so he went and got me some gasoline well i'm over here i hadn't cleaned the carburetor out properly we're over here yanking on this thing for like an hour it won't start and i'm like i don't know nine ten years old at the time eight years old something like that and uh was like man i should put some gasoline in a squirt bottle and just make it run i bet you'd work all the good of the card well wait how do you know my dad's house my dad's house is cedar siding
00:37:15
Speaker
Oh, shit. The porch is we hadn't torn it down yet. So it was probably every bit of 25 year old lumber. It was dry. It had stain on it. So it was great and flammable.
00:37:30
Speaker
Well, none other. Where am I yanking on this thing and spraying gas at on the back porch? Well, it backfires and everywhere that the gas has misted, luckily not on the porch, but on the deck, everywhere the gas has misted is on fire at this point.
00:37:46
Speaker
My Uncle Tommy is over here freaking out like, what do we do? What do we do? I grab the handles of this tiller and do one big spin and fling it off into the yard, not thinking that this thing is from the 70s or the 80s and the gas cap is going to come flying off.
00:38:02
Speaker
Oh,
00:38:05
Speaker
So this is where I start freaking out. And I'm like, shit shit, shit, shit, shit. What do I do? The whole house is going to burn down. Because there's like a 25 foot strip, five foot wide in the background. Oh, shit. Run into the house, grab the fire extinguisher, put it out.
00:38:24
Speaker
And then i think I was slick. I'm like, Tommy, don't tell my dad, thinking he won't notice the burnt spot in the backyard. I went and took the lawnmower and put grass clippings on all the burnt spot.
00:38:37
Speaker
So I can't tell. So by the time that the grass clippings decay, it's just going to be dead grass. It's going to look normal. I put the pin back in the fire extinguisher and I put it back on the shelf, but I face it in just a way.
00:38:53
Speaker
that you don't see the gauge walking into the kitchen. And my dad never really walked to the back of the house in that direction. If you get what I'm saying, it was just like a storage room and then my bedroom upstairs.
00:39:04
Speaker
Well, so I figured if I just turned it in the shadows, nobody would ever notice. Well, you were wrong, weren't you? Well, hold on.
00:39:15
Speaker
Bless my Uncle Tommy's heart, but... What do you know? He's like, what are you going to do? need to let your dad know. I said, no, you hush your mouth right now. I said, we are not going to say anything. I said, I am not supposed to be messed with gasoline, starting fluid, or any kind of flammable when dad's not home. That was a big rule. Don't burn the house down. Yes, that was one of the number one rules is don't die and don't burn the house down.
00:39:42
Speaker
well you see my uncle tommy's really worried at the time because my dad had just gotten in the gas fireplace back up and operational so that's why the fire extinguishers are in the house because he's a little bit of a uh he's kind of like me he's got a little bit of anxiety on everything but he's cool with doing anything you know what i mean right yep i get it yep better to be prepared than not prepared for this any situation Exactly. So I'm like, no, we don't need to tell him nothing. I'll get it refilled or replaced. I'm like eight or nine years old. I don't have $30 for a fire extinguisher at the time. You know what I mean? Yeah.
00:40:20
Speaker
So about two days later, I get home from school and my dad sits me down in the living room. and He's like, hey, come here. He's on the phone when I walk in door and he's he just gives me one of those.
00:40:32
Speaker
but Yeah. I was like, oh, shit. Yeah. Well, what do you know is sitting at the foot of his chair other than this empty fire extinguisher?
00:40:43
Speaker
Oh, shit. but difficult Yeah, I think I was grounded for about two months on that one. oh Yeah, that was i was rough. ah But yeah, that was my first experience with scary fire. And i'd never learned my lesson.
00:41:00
Speaker
ah Oh, I've helped do those before. That fucking... it can be sketchy as hell what do you mean that's the only way i blow the tires on if my cheetah cannon won't do it and man we're getting the starting fluid out and we got we wased that's what some of my that's what some of my buddies do and the first time i ever seen them do it it shot a fireball and sends my hairs off my legs i was wearing shorts when i helped the first time ever doing it and i've been leery ever since when they say well we're getting the starting photo I said, I'm standing over in the corner. You guys are on your damn mode. I'm not getting my leg hairs burned off again.
00:41:36
Speaker
No, man. You got to get your stick. You got to get a stick. That's the key to it. You got to get stick. It was a experience. yeah big Yeah. Well, let's get back to talking about racing. What do we want to talk about racing? Y'all got any questions? i want to know about how we do it down here? one of the one of the things real quick, we'll go ahead and get the story since Morgan brought it up again. Yeah.
00:42:03
Speaker
about that pitcher speaking it was a bad night at the office he thinks it was you know him in on this okay so chatting a little bit ago first year racing i was trying to figure out how competitive i was going to be didn't want to destroy my truck brad and my dad did a very good job of convincing me not to do dumb stuff well Well, I decided I think it was last year's north versus south, I want to say.
00:42:32
Speaker
i thought I was done for the season. So I was like, cool. If I don't take first place today, I'm freestyling the truck. I'm going to have out my own win and my own book, if you get what I'm saying.
00:42:45
Speaker
Well, I think I got second or third place. So I was like, cool, we're freestyling the truck. And in my mind, I've always had two pictures that I really want of my Jeep and I in midair.
00:42:58
Speaker
One of them is... jumping off into a mud pit all crazy like you know like you always see those gnarly unlimited and super street trucks oh yeah one of those and then the other one was some monster truck style side hits like that right there i go and nobody else in a tough truck as far as i know nobody else said i had seen personally had done it yet at dennis's so i told my buddy brad i said hey man i'm gonna go out and i'm gonna do a freestyle and this is what i'm gonna do i'm gonna go spin a lap if the truck holds together for the lap after i hit a couple jumps so i don't just want and done it
00:43:40
Speaker
I'm going to hit that side jump good enough to where I'm going make it count. And the truck's probably not going to come away from that. But if it does, there will not be a truck left when I'm done. So one of Brad's big sponsors, I'm getting to it. I'm getting to it.
00:43:56
Speaker
One of Brad's big sponsors, Chris at Performance Plumbing and Pipelining. My boy, he was eavesdropping on our conversation from on the little ah pedestal that you watch the races from. He's like, nice you ain't got a hair on your ass if you don't put that bitch on the roof.
00:44:14
Speaker
I got all serious for a second. I looked at him and I said, you paying for it? He said, what's it cost me? I said, 500 bucks. And I said, that bitch won't drive on the train.
00:44:26
Speaker
I said, I'll put her on the roof. I said, he'll have a good time. He said, And I said, hold on, let me see that for a second. I handed it to Brad and i said, Brad, you're my escrow account. Make sure I read this at the end of the race. And that lit the fire under my tail like none other.
00:44:44
Speaker
I went out there. i blew all four tires off the truck. And then I was driving, no, blew three tires off the truck. And then as I'm driving around, I'm wondering, i'm like, now how am I going to roll this thing over?
00:44:57
Speaker
I've done hit every jump, done smoke the sides hills, went up on two wheels and done everything I could. Tried bicycling it, freaking everything except for hit that center tire jump because my name ain't Josh Phillips and I pried my neck.
00:45:12
Speaker
You know what I mean? it's a big ticket I freaking, oh yeah, as my dad said, let's let's put this in there before OSHA gets involved. I got a Butler race seat. I got a Timpson hybrid, big five point.
00:45:24
Speaker
I got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight point roll cage, all 120 wall DOM, nothing, no bullshit. So everything was safe and I knew I was comfortable, thankfully, or thanks to Brad and my dad for helping me get the cage in the truck and the axles and everything else. Yeah.
00:45:43
Speaker
So the only thing I told everybody, I said, look, I said, if this thing, the only fear I ever have racing is catching on fire. If I'm on fire, you will see me running out that thing like a little baby.
00:45:55
Speaker
I said, I will roll it over three, four times, and I will be happy doing it with a smile on my face when it's done. So we went out there, we hit all those jumps, we did everything, and I got three tires popped on the truck.
00:46:06
Speaker
And if you watch the video of the freestyle, it gets lame for about 30 seconds. i'm putting around the track trying to do something. So I finally get up towards Dennis. You can see the truck would not turn. And Dennis is up here.
00:46:19
Speaker
Stop, stop. It's broken. Be done. Be done. He thought I was going to run his ass over. it So I said, i literally stopped the truck. I said, uh-uh, right in front of him. And he he raised an eyebrow at me. I got the truck turned around. I got it going as fast as I could. And that jump that I was telling you that I really like to hit, I freaking hit the side of that thing and turned right as hard as I could and rolled her over twice.
00:46:51
Speaker
and i ended up landing like on my side kind of on my roof and our buddy jp mccain or jp marshall one of them we got two jps that are trying both okay guys the first ones you're gonna see in your window when you wreck and they're who you want there so he runs over though you good you good that was badass man you're awesome I'm great, but don't get me out of here. Put this thing on all four wheels so I don't catch on fire. I'm watching oil, gas, every freaking thing that is in that motor or out the hood. And I'm sitting there i'm shaking like a leaf because all I see are fluids puddling up in front of me.
00:47:28
Speaker
JB's like, you good? I said, flip this motherfucker back. No.
00:47:34
Speaker
and I got out. I felt like king of the world, man. I got on the roof, took my helmet off. did to hold out I felt like I was living out my Monster Jam dream. and that and my whole struggle pen together is that That's fucking awesome.
00:47:47
Speaker
Yeah, that was like the completion. I was like, tough truck career, done. I'm happy. Let's finish the Megatruck. Well... yeah yeah Well, the ah my dad, Suffolk Mud Jam 2018, believe, 2017?
00:48:03
Speaker
eighteen i believe twenty seventeen 2018, I believe. He freaking went out there and he lead footed that Grand Cherokee, landed, it hopped, rolled over twice.
00:48:15
Speaker
And by the time it got done rolling over, i was me and Brad were inside the window trying to get him unhooked, making sure he was okay. That's where that story came from before the county crew ever got there. That was back when Suffolk Mud Jam was open.
00:48:28
Speaker
But we'll fall back a little bit. i got out of the truck and I was like, cool. I've completed my tough truck thing. I'm good. Let's finish the mega truck. I'm happy. Well, then i started looking over the truck that night and I was like, man, this thing ain't that bad. We got some body damage, a radiator, pump tires. I was like,
00:48:50
Speaker
we could go again. We could for sure go again. So instead of camping at the track that night, obviously we can't, we don't race on Sundays usually ever really. I don't think, oh I ran home that night and I came back to get truck next morning. I bolted four tires on it, checked the oil, fired it up, drove it on the trailer. okay I was like, man, I can't kill this thing.
00:49:12
Speaker
And my buddy Brad's, he's like, well, what are you going to do now? That thing needs a lot of work. All right, well, I'm going to go back to the shop and we're going strap it to the mega truck and we're gonna pull the body back out.
00:49:24
Speaker
And if you go check out our Facebook page, shout out Zerker Motorsports on Facebook, go check us out. We've got all kinds of crazy nonsense up there. ah There's a video. I didn't even know Brad was taking a video of me.
00:49:37
Speaker
He's got the Megatruck parked out front. I got my Jeep parked out front. Megatruck's in the shop. I'm just sitting there chain-bindering a chain-binder. And you can see, you can almost see the thoughts coming out of my head. Like, why did I do this? And now I got to fix all this before we go to Borg for Boobies in October.
00:49:54
Speaker
So I got her button back up. I got a fender and hoods put on it. And then what do I decide to do at Borg for Boobies in October? Go bigger. This picture right here.
00:50:06
Speaker
Yeah, that is it that is that is the air I have seen under a fucking XJ ever in my life. do You know the wildest part about this one?
00:50:18
Speaker
That was the first jump i hit in that freestyle, and I was like, oh, the jeep's got it. I'm going to do it first so I can freaking lay a heater when I'm done. No. I hit that jump, cleared it. I counted to five in the sky and thought I saw Jesus.
00:50:34
Speaker
Came back down, laid back into the throttle, kind of turned around to get straightened back up. And I'm just sitting there. Trucks. Wum, bum, bum. Wum, bum, bum. I'm like, this ain't going into gear, throwing the shifter around. And I look over and I see my dad, the crowd, just like, she's done good. Broke. I get out the truck. This hero is awesome.
00:50:56
Speaker
She's in the in the comments that took the picture. Fuck yeah, that is sweet. She takes the best photos at the races, always catches the best action that we can get.
00:51:07
Speaker
Rest in peace, my buddy Rick Ulrich, because I swear she was godsend after he passed away. Nice. Best in the biz. She gets everything for us. yeah yeah Definitely go check them out, Johnny.
00:51:19
Speaker
yeah Check them out, dude. They are sick. She knows what she's doing for her. oh i think yeah this is hers right here edited in yeah you look there the middle it says nice photography and then well lot like like when i did the flyer for you i made sure when that picture which is cool yes i'll be in the first submit chat gtp i said keep the sponsor logos in there because i want to give them the credit for being on here for taking that stuff and it it's fucking and it worked out perfect yeah Well, after I had landed from that one, I seen my dad giving me the X. And when he gives me the X, usually it's done. Because he'll give me a yeah little, eh, and I'll be like, all right, we're still going.
00:52:03
Speaker
oh So he gave me the X. so I was like, man, that sucks. I get out the truck and both rear tires and axle shafts are sitting on the ground pointing at this guy. And the truck is sitting on the rear end. Both front U-joints are blown out. Puked fluid out the front end doing the whole night. It was perfect, dude. It was like something out of a cartoon.
00:52:24
Speaker
my goodness. was like At that point, I realized, I was like, okay, XJs are not for freestyling. i was like if i want to have something to drive before uh before i get to finish my mega truck which i'm glad i put this thing back together uh i need to take it a little bit easier on her so we got focused on making it a little bit faster after that getting it buttoned back up i got a long arm kit on it now so it lands a little bit better and all that whole nine i plan on putting a 8.8 forward rear end in it. Thanks to my in-laws that gifted Matt to me. And I plan on doing matching gear sets now.
00:53:03
Speaker
And I'm really trying to dial in the suspension with the leaf springs. um I got a three-inch leaf pack in the rear. So with Fox shocks right now, but... Back to what we were talking about right before the pod started semifinals at Dennis's. I went over the finish line jump and I was racing my buddy turbo and me and turbo are super competitive when we race like.
00:53:26
Speaker
Because it it is anybody's game at that point. Oh, yeah. He drives a ragged piece of junk that he works on the night before the race and only the night before the race. Like, let me tell you this.
00:53:39
Speaker
I provided the axles under that truck at Thursday at 7 p.m.
00:53:46
Speaker
I delivered them to Pongo Offroad Shop, unloaded them off the trailer, and he said, all right, I'll be back tomorrow. I said, you ain't going put these in tonight? He said, no, I get off at five tomorrow. Four hours, I'll have them in.
00:53:57
Speaker
I said, good Lord. So I sold him the axles. We're out there racing. And...
00:54:09
Speaker
Shane, did I trash the rum circuit? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He did a freestyle, too. We'll do it in just a second. Um... What were we talking about? I'm sorry. ADHD. You're good. We're getting back to the whole going out of breath. in this okay funny hot lapping Me and Turbo are racing. We're super competitive. We meet in the turn, and we're freaking coming out turn the same way, and his keep's white, so I can see it glistening of the corner of my eye. like, I am not letting him win this time. I rung that thing out, and I come over to finish line jumping. I was so nervous about losing. I held my breath hitting the jump, and I know better than to do that.
00:54:45
Speaker
I did that the first time I ever raced and I never did it again until that race right there. And I landed and all I felt was a little pop and then a oh all my breath was gone.
00:54:56
Speaker
I'm over here busting my straps off trying to reinflate my lung and I'm pulling back up to the line. And in the finals, I lined up against my good buddy Vance Price Jr. And Vance Price Sr. is sitting there helping us all get lined up and turned around. And while they're like, come on, you got to hot lap this thing. You got hot lap this thing. We're going. I'm like, y'all got to give me 35 seconds to reinflict my because I cannot breathe right now. So I'm over here. I pull it up to the line, strap it back in, get everything tight. I'm over here still like beet red in the face trying to breathe. And I take off and it was like nothing had ever happened. It was locked back in 100% again.
00:55:32
Speaker
and Me and my buddy Vance, we're both the type that we don't care what's broke on our truck. If we're lined up in the lanes together, we're either checkers or records, baby. We're balling up. One of us are winning. well I knew he was in two-wheel drive, so I was like, oh, this should be okay. This shouldn't be too bad. Well, again, misjudged, I'm in the turn, and this mofo and me are nose-to-nose coming around the corner. I'm like, where did you come from?
00:56:02
Speaker
So drop back down in gear again and let her ride. Well, this time grabbed third gear, hit lock up in third gear and she was rolling. Let's put it that way. Like to the point where I came off the lip of the jump. and I said, oh no, we're about to go for a ride.
00:56:19
Speaker
Well, shit if you shoot over to this photography page on Facebook, give her a follow. She does all the views on the East Coast the most part. So or the Upper East Coast, at least.
00:56:31
Speaker
Well, if you look at the video, she's got a really good play by play of that thing landing and then it coming off the ground about another three feet. Well, oh yeah. and literally Yeah. When it bounced, I'm turning midair trying to avoid the mud pit and I land, i smoke the wall of the mud pit, go up on two wheels and I park on my side in the mud hole.
00:56:53
Speaker
Well, here's the good news. cause Sorry, here's bad news. We get DQ'd if we crash into the mud hole or if we try to go through the mud hole and we get stuck. We can go through it after the race is over, like after we pass the finish line, but if we get stuck, automatic disqualification.
00:57:09
Speaker
Here's where the race drama came in. I was mentioning earlier. Right. Well, as we pull up to the starting line and I'm over here fighting for my last breath, ah One of the promoters stick their head through the window and they're like, Premier Megatruck racing lights, Premier Megatruck racing rules.
00:57:27
Speaker
I said, what does that mean? They said, just run off the lights and go. First to the finish line wins. Cool. Well, because they did the little Final Four shootout that was sponsored by Premier, I guess, may have been sponsored by Premier.
00:57:41
Speaker
Right. The disqualification for crashing into the mud hole was not there anymore. I've been like trust freaking out, like punching the steering wheel, getting upset. I'm blowing her from reverse the job, trying to get out the mud hole just so I don't get DQ'd. And then my boy JP got a love him comes up in the window, gives me the X. That means stop doing what you're doing, put truck in neutral.
00:58:04
Speaker
I'm like, okay. And I was upset. So I get back to the staging lanes or the pits, wherever I went, and I'm pissed. I'm yanking off all my stuff. I'm going to be by myself kind of deal because I don't want to damper anybody else's parade. was going to find me an Uncrustable and a Gatorade.
00:58:21
Speaker
don't know if y'all knew, but Uncrustables are my kryptonite. Um, yeah so I was going to find that and try to not be so upset anymore. And my buddy calls me and he's like, Hey, you won. I'm like, no, I didn't. I got disqualified.
00:58:37
Speaker
Yeah, that was the one time my breaks were all working right. You can watch it in the video or a lock that hot into the mud hole. Well, my buddy said, you won, you won, you won. Josh was one of them who was there right when I got truck. I'm like, y'all just need to leave me alone for a second.
00:58:50
Speaker
I'm upset. I screwed up. Let them make the call. I'm not making the call. I don't want to be the one to argue the rules. Man, they're all good. Strawberry, chocolate, honey. oh yeah. Oh, yeah, they are.
00:59:01
Speaker
I agree. put page So I'm sitting there all upset and not like upset, upset. but I'm like, man, I just gave up my second ever first place win and my only first place win ever at Dennis's for a freaking crash in the mud hole.
00:59:16
Speaker
I said, this baloney. Well, like I said, my buddy calls me. He's like, yo, man. Like my dad said, not over till it's... Yeah, not over till it's over.
00:59:29
Speaker
So I waited it out. I got the word that, hey, I should be taking the W. you know It was Premier Rules, Premier Racing, which I got a little hint. I got a little bug to put out there.
00:59:42
Speaker
think we might be trying to start a East Coast Tough Truck Racing Series with points to follow them next year, possibly. That'd be cool. That'd be cool. But I think there's a little rumor about it, so let's try to try to push for that. Yeah.
00:59:58
Speaker
But, yeah. And ended up going to the ah thing. They gave it to me and I was happier than a pig and poop, man. I tell you what, I had never won $1,000 in my life doing nothing.
01:00:11
Speaker
The most I've ever won racing was maybe five or 600 bucks. ah And all i wanted to do, and you can ask Brad this, last year i told him all my goal is for this year is to just travel around, run the truck, and see if I can get a first place at home.
01:00:26
Speaker
That's all I wanted to do. I ended off last season with the first place in Del Mar. I think we had like five or seven of us, but that wasn't a big field. You know what i mean? Yeah, that's good. We got first place. It was a long track. You did need stamina and all that kind of stuff in your truck. But, you know, seven people.
01:00:42
Speaker
I want – I want a competition. You know what I mean? I want to run brackets. I want to knock down classes. I want to do that whole thing when I'm racing. And that's what we did at Dennis's. We did best time, top shootout, or two best times, final four shootout. We got to make two passes at the end if you won in your round. That's four rounds of racing. I'm cool with that. That is a good time. That shows that your truck's strong. Shows that you can hold it together as a driver, especially when I will tell you the one thing that I dislike about this is they burn you down in your truck in the pits. You are sitting in your truck 30 to 45 minutes if you are not. Really?
01:01:22
Speaker
Yes, it sucks. I got a Milwaukee fan that I mounted into the floor of my Jeep, put a little 6-0 battery in there and leave that for you. You know especially they Gotcha. <unk> be in black But, man, I got to say just my biggest thing with racing is is I want to keep evolving.
01:01:38
Speaker
I want to try to get paid to do some racing. don't have to get paid, but you know what i mean I just want to get on the road. i want to get behind the wheel of everything that I can. I'll call Brad out right here. Word is might be getting behind the wheel old berserker this year at a race. so we'll well By the way too, Brad, I've seen on the post and everything else, you are away. They have threatened to get it out. so i mean I've seen him personally. he He's lucky. i'm ah I'm a very respectful friend. Only do a couple parking lot burnouts with his truck. You know what I mean?
01:02:14
Speaker
And that was the thing too, right before the race, I told Brad, I was like, man, I really want to win today. I really want to win today. I was like, that's all I care. I didn't care about winning, but I wanted to have fun and i wanted to let the truck hang out.
01:02:27
Speaker
But yeah, hopefully this year I'll be getting behind the wheel berserker for a race. I don't want to freestyle it because that's Brad's department. We'll leave that to him. I'll stick the freestyle in my Jeep and my truck when it's done.
01:02:37
Speaker
Um, me and Brad have been putting in some hours on mine last year. I got a little tied up this winter with work and him being in Japan. So they got kind of put on the back burner, but I got a one ton that we're putting together. That is, it's going to be something to look at.
01:02:54
Speaker
It ain't going to be nothing crazy. It ain't going no lie back build, but it'll definitely have some character. Dude, that is that guy right there. Lie back is fucking his shit is insane. same Dude, he is.
01:03:09
Speaker
Oh, God, his shit, though.
01:03:16
Speaker
ah Yeah, no, actually, Lieback, I got a funny story about him. He helped me get into my race and stuff, too. I mean, not crazy, but we were at Dennis' one year for North versus South, and, you know, what does 16-, 17-year-old do walking around when we're camping at Dennis'? You stay up all night, and you watch everybody roll in with their mud trucks, and you go ask people to drive their trucks.
01:03:37
Speaker
Well, Lieback rolls in about 3.30 in the morning at Dennis' Anderson's for North versus South, like, I want to say 12 years ago, 13 years ago.
01:03:49
Speaker
And me and him had met before, you know, we know who each other are. and Not by first name basis, but by face and all that. I go up, I say, what's up, man? You are a little late to the show. He's like, race ain't started yet. Like, all right, cool. Fun drive.
01:04:02
Speaker
Yada, yada, yada. um
01:04:07
Speaker
And i was like, hey, man, so you're letting race your truck tomorrow, right? And he laughed at me. He's like, no, but I'll let you drive it tonight. I'm like, what do you mean by that? He's like, get in it. Let's go for a ride.
01:04:18
Speaker
I'm like, okay. I start busting straps off the trailer. I don't remember what this is. I could probably tell you. I think it's one of the old hitmans, if I'm not mistaken. I could be wrong. It's an old hitman.
01:04:29
Speaker
oh oh So I get in it. We back it off the trailer. And he's like, um I'm being nice to him. I try to be as respectful as I can, which is another reason why I think Brad trusts me to handle his equipment is – i'm When it's not mine, I'm so extra cautious, or at least I try. Oh, yeah. That's way it is, man. and next Well, not only that with the respect thing, not to interrupt but when you got good friends that are giving you six-figure toys to go. Opportunities. Opportunities.
01:05:04
Speaker
Yes, you're going to be that way, but at the same time, It's like you can't thank him enough for even just giving you, you know, most people wouldn't even get the chance to get what you guys get to do, especially with somebody like Brad that I've met personally in the last year on Facebook and talking through Messenger and stuff, man.
01:05:23
Speaker
He seems like ad be an awesome dude to come hang out with when he comes home. He definitely is. But don't get me wrong. You're working. You're working. If that truck ain't going to a show past Del Mar last year, if that truck ain't going to a show with a nice body or a clean paint job or a clean body, there have been times we leave the shop at 1230 at night and this about us, we're going to the car wash before we drop it off at the track. I'm like, dude, it is one o'clock in the morning. Let's go home. It comes with a lot of work, but that's the nature of the beast. Oh, man. It's great time.
01:06:00
Speaker
it's a great talk And I mean, i and like here, I've got a local to meet. I don't know if you've ever heard the name Tim Warner, long-term megatruck.
01:06:11
Speaker
Yep, he actually came to Dennis's before, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, he's a good buddy. We just met and actually got to hang out. it He did a freestyle and stuff there in i one of JMM's motorsports shows, monster truck shows up here in Ohio.
01:06:28
Speaker
I got to meet him, got to pick his brand a little bit. He's been actually a guest on the show.
01:06:34
Speaker
And he sent me, ah think it was like a month ago, his brand new motor. He goes, you're the first to see this. Sent me in text message.
01:06:45
Speaker
He goes, are you sitting down? I'm like, boop what did I? And I sit back, what did I do wrong? That was my first word. He goes, you're the first person to get to hear this fire up. And I'm like, what are you talking about? He goes, this is the new new motor, new setup, and everything we we did for the truck this year.
01:07:02
Speaker
And i it made me feel honored because he sure was, a other than in his circle, they helped work on it. He sent me that as the first public person to see it.
01:07:13
Speaker
And he's an awesome guy. He's 30, not even 30 minutes away from me. He's like, if I'm home and you're out running around in the Licking County area where he lives up here in Ohio, he goes, hit me up, come over to the shop.
01:07:28
Speaker
Man, you know, me and Brad went to Ohio couple months back, actually, right before he left for Japan. My buddy asked me to go pick up a couple cars for him out of state. So he loaded up the gooseneck in the truck. We rode out there. We went out to PEI, checked everything out. I wish we would have before then because we could have came over, done a podcast, and, you know, bummed you out for him. Oh, yeah. and Well, next time you ever get a chance, and you come to Ohio and you're close by.
01:07:51
Speaker
Door's always open for you guys if you ever get a chance to. That's good, man. But, yeah, it was. man but yeah ahead It was ah it was awesome. Yeah, I grew up i like you um' I'll be 44 always watching monster truck race and I've always been diehard into it But yeah, like I told you backstage my first true passion that got me the bug was dirt track racing and truck and tractor pulling I mean but ever since then I'm more into the toughs I've done demolition derby, but I love tough trucks.
01:08:24
Speaker
I love monster trucks, but running tough trucks is one of the best choices, I think, in my racing career of doing any motorsports. I fucking love it. Exactly, man. I'll tell you, I got started with racing lawnmowers.
01:08:38
Speaker
Not like the kind you're thinking. I'm talking like my dad gave me an Aarons hydrostatic lawnmower, and I'm over here mud-bogging the backyard trying to figure out how to make fast. And then I ended up coming across a couple of ones a few years later, and I was one of like the first kids in my school or whatever. to like Everybody called me mower boy, me and my buddy Wyatt, Wyatt Castle. They all called us mower boys or whatever because we liked horsepower and messing with stuff, and the only thing we could afford at the time was freaking lawn mowers. you can do a lot with those things.
01:09:11
Speaker
If you can find your stuff, you can do a lot. Yeah. I tried to run it back on the lawnmowers at Dennis Anderson's a few years back and it didn't end up too well. I ended up, uh, Not having any breaks, again, seems to be a common occurrence for me. I was going to say, it sounds was like it. Dude cut me off going into the turn, and I just monster trucked him and flipped over, and then I got ran over by like three people. It was great. It was so awesome.
01:09:34
Speaker
And then ah and I got back up, and I felt so defeated because, you know, crashing in front of a crowd where you get ran over is like, that's they And then to make theynna make it even worse, it's in front of of a freaking legend and his on his property when it happens to. Exactly. I said, no, no, no.
01:09:54
Speaker
I said, no, we ain't going to do this. I flipped the mower back over. I sat there, crank, crank, cra cra crank, until the battery almost died. And then it lit back off. Big old puff of smoke.
01:10:04
Speaker
Front wheels are pointed in two different directions. Could not get the thing to steer. So I rode out into the cornfield with it. Come back over the tabletop and wheelied the whole freaking tabletop at Dennis's. It had the crowd go wild while they're still doing roundy rounds. with I was like, i'm putting on my own show. Screw this.
01:10:26
Speaker
I'll let you do that comment up there. But my dad, yeah he always told me growing up, don't do anything stupid when nobody's not home. But the problem was, is if I told anybody what I was going to do, I would never be allowed to do it.
01:10:40
Speaker
You know what I mean? No, that's not smart. We got to be safe. So my dad always found out by sitting. He'd come home from work. me and my buddy why it would be in the backyard wrenching on a go-kart a mower whatever it may be a dirt bike and he'd usually find out about five minutes after something happens when we post it on facebook whether it's a go-kart rollover the mower flying off the tabletop in the backyard any of that stuff well one day we're out there and this is kind of where i think i got my freestyle love here and my buddy why i got a go-kart put together
01:11:18
Speaker
And all I had was a lawnmower gas tank, so I strapped it to the roof above the roll cage so it would feed the gas tank.
01:11:26
Speaker
There's a video on my Facebook if you go way back. It's like the first video I ever posted on my
Memorable Stunts and Community Support
01:11:31
Speaker
Facebook. You'll find it. Well, my buddy Wyatt takes a video. We had cut out a little jump in the side of the hill.
01:11:39
Speaker
I jumped the hill. I pogo stick the rear end on the golf cart or the go-kart. It goes bounce on the top. So we're cross threading the jump just like we did at Dennis's.
01:11:52
Speaker
It pogo sticks on the rear end. It hops over and this jump's only like five, six feet tall, but you know, Five, six feet tall when you're four feet tall is kind of decent. Yeah, it's a pretty decent jump. Comes back over, endos on the ground, and rolls over a couple times. But it pogo sticks off the jump, over to the nose on the flat ground, and then rolls over a few times.
01:12:15
Speaker
But if you're watching in the video, all you get to see is the pogo stick, and it come over, and then you see the phone just drop. ah yeah In the same situation as Denison. I put the kill switch off in this thing. And he's like, you good? You good? I'm like, dude, just flip me back over. I hope you got that on video.
01:12:33
Speaker
That's all we can. We're good. Let's ride. Let's ride. but man i do want to throw few things out there for the rest of our season plan. um Yeah, go right ahead. I'll link up and do a podcast, but we are going to try to run it back and go to West Lab again this year. I don't know if I'm going to race tough trucks at West Lab. I might see if Brad will let me do my couple race hits there, and then maybe he'd do a freestyle. Last year, he gave me the honor of being able to ride with him. I got fire suited up in all my gear, and I went out and did freestyle, and every race pass would brad that day and that was the time of my life i tell you there's nothing like getting the cab with your best friend and going out there and every time he takes off the start line you're freaking wailing him from the pastor see let's go let's go oh yeah man that'd be fucking a blast oh yeah yeah run
01:13:28
Speaker
I know I'm going run the Carnival in May at Dennis Anderson's. I'm to try to run Del Mar towards the end of the year. I don't remember their date for that. i have a little possible surprise in June that might happen. I'm running the Monsters of Metal show up there in Maryland. I don't know where they're having it just yet, but that 15th-ish, something like that.
01:13:50
Speaker
thirteenth to fifteen And I am trying to talk to the promoter, Rick Disherum with the metal shop. Shout out to the metal shop. We dropped Chuck off there last weekend. They're going through it and getting it ready for us for that show specifically. I'm trying to talk to the promoter and to let me do a little stunt with G. I'm kind of going to leave it there. But, you know, let's try to try to pump that up a little bit.
01:14:13
Speaker
Heck yeah, man. And then after that, we're going to do North versus South. We may possibly hit Pennsylvania again like we did last year, Monsters versus Megas.
01:14:24
Speaker
think Okay. and Yeah, that was the Monsters, yep. And then we're definitely hitting West Lev again. Got to hit West Lev again. That place is a legendary track. It's awesome. The promoters are cool, man. ah Kevin Forrester, Wilkie, that dude is always willing to help. Hans Horthog, or sorry if I said that wrong, but man, bri last year, first race out, Brad brings the front driveshaft off.
01:14:48
Speaker
Comes back in, and we had just got done fighting this truck for the last three races. I'm talking spark issues, electrical issues, all the things, because we're always trying to just hit every race we can. You know what i mean? We're putting on the show for the fans. Living out our monster truck dreams, as I always like to call it. That's what I tell it you. Even though it's in a megatruck. But still, same thing. um So we go out there. Brad rings the front drive shaft. First pass. I wasn't riding with him, so...
01:15:17
Speaker
Wait, no, was this Pennsylvania? I can't remember. I think it was West Lab. Brings the drive shaft first pass. um Brings the trucks back into the pits. And I can see the look on his face.
01:15:29
Speaker
I mean, don't get me wrong. I was feeling the same way. We were about ready to shed tears, the both of us. And I was like, man, what are we going to do? Brad's like, I think we're done for the year. I think we just need to put it away. Restart for next season. and I'm sitting down i'm like, eh, you're not wrong. But we did just drive 13 hours.
01:15:47
Speaker
So I said, you know what? We're going to find another track track. Shout out to our boy.
01:15:55
Speaker
I'll find it real quick. Yep. because na It's not Joey Adams. It is, uh,
01:16:08
Speaker
um,
01:16:16
Speaker
I'll be straight and honest with you. if i If I had a choice between a monster truck and a mega truck, something like, oh yeah, I was gonna say, I'll take a mega truck all day long over a monster truck.
01:16:26
Speaker
All right. So shout out to our boys, Matt Fenwick and Joe Bishop. Matt Fenwick runs the Lebanon Valley Mud Bogs and he, I guess he helps sometimes with the monsters versus megas at West Leb. I could be totally wrong about that. Other than I know he owns the mud bog up there. Okay. Great.
01:16:42
Speaker
people great freaking people give us their only spare drive shaft and say cut it up if you need to i told brad i think brad ended up with the drive shaft i told brad i said man i'm gonna get here early in the morning i'm gonna run the harbor freight i'll buy a grinder i'll buy some cutoff wheels and i'll buy a couple skateboard wheels and we are going to roll us a new drive shaft on the back of this trailer
01:17:06
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We were up for 24 hours fixing the truck and then drove 13 hours straight through the night to get there. Holy shit. Forgot about that part. Get up there. Hans comes up to us the next morning. He's like, yo, man, I got a welder in the whole rig with me. I drove it six hours here in case anybody needs it.
01:17:23
Speaker
This man pulls up in an international, like, 16-foot service box, international semi-service truck. No shit.
01:17:35
Speaker
Miller Bobcat in the back. MIG welder in the back. Torches, grinders, sticks, vice, the whole nine and says, the world is yours. Opens up all of his doors and said, let me know what you need. If you need help, let me know. You're more than welcome to use it yourself or to ask me to do it.
01:17:51
Speaker
He said, take it. It's all yours. That's fucking awesome. That's have people like that in your corner. Get this. We build the drive shaft on the trailer.
01:18:03
Speaker
And it rotates smoother than the dry shaft we paid to get built two weeks prior. You can watch the old dry shaft do kind of like this. Do the little up in belt. That one that we built, smooth as a button and has still yet to break to this day.
01:18:18
Speaker
Oh, yeah, man. My fat ass got up in the truck with Brad and me. Four race passes that evening and did a full freestyle bus jump, box truck jump, donuts, freaking tried to do a nose wheelie.
01:18:33
Speaker
Still working on those, but laid it out with that thing, and the drive shaft held up the whole entire time. Wow. you guys got with police you know i'll tell you I'll tell you what, man. You guys definitely have a great so support system.
01:18:49
Speaker
your Your guys' is group, just from getting to know you guys these last few months on Facebook and stuff, that it's I feel like I've known you for like 10 years, just how tight-knit you guys are all together.
01:19:02
Speaker
And just from watching your guys' as one podcast when Brad was on there, because I was in the comments chatting it up with you guys and stuff until so i had something to do and I got out of there. But, I mean, yeah, I feel like here lately it's like,
01:19:17
Speaker
You guys have got the group like I have here in Ohio where I've got my certain guys with our stuff. um But it's cool to have that because a it's no longer friends. it's It's family. That's the way I look at it. You're family now. It's like so, I mean. Oh, trust me. we'd We talk shit like we're family.
01:19:41
Speaker
We don't really fight too too much. But we talk crap, we throw things back and forth. We freaking work together. We lay it all out like just like we'll go to throw back this far, just like me helping Brad. Brad helps me.
01:19:55
Speaker
Back when I built was building my Jeep, my dad originally was supposed to do the roll cage. Well, I don't remember if that was times where he had a pretty rough year with health last year on many different ends of the spectrum.
01:20:10
Speaker
Very bad luck. But I don't think this was involved with that. But he was pretty busy at the time. And he had built my front axle. Well, I was supposed to get my truck into his shop to get the cage done. And we couldn't do that in time.
01:20:23
Speaker
It just was not working out. I had the tube and all the material, everything to it. And at the time, me and Brad weren't doing much yet. We were traveling and having some fun together, but we'd maybe three races in You know what I mean? Four races in. Right.
01:20:37
Speaker
Well, he's like, hey, man, you're helping me. Let me help you. Bring it over to my dad's house. Get everything prepped. We're going to throw a cage in it in three days, and you're going to go race the next weekend.
01:20:48
Speaker
I said, I am down. Let's go. Get over there. We spent three days from like 3 or 4 p.m. to about 11 o'clock at night throwing a cage in it and all that mess.
01:21:01
Speaker
Got it all tied up. I took it home, finished it towards the end of the week, put the axle under it, seat the whole nine, got it fixed up. And I think first race out we took fourth or fifth place, something like that.
01:21:13
Speaker
Really? Yeah, it did really good. I was super happy with it, man. So, yeah,
Racing Aspirations and Goals
01:21:18
Speaker
we got a real tight-knit group. I mean, there's probably not a season that we'll ever have that we're not all going to be at the shop at the same time on a Friday night before a race up until midnight.
01:21:28
Speaker
You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. dick Yeah, that's – and see, and that's one thing here in Ohio. I wish they would bring back – be more some of the mega truck races and stuff around here instead of me having to travel you know to north carolina to virginia stuff like that um the one year i got to actually go watch mega trucks is when they first brought back the jamborees that was they got rid of the tough trucks and brought the megas in and i got to see i got to see that but i haven't seen a mega truck run other than tim last year
01:22:07
Speaker
doing his freestyle thing with his. But I would – it's on the bucket list. I'm going to try – my family even wants to come. We want to go down for a weekend and be at Dennis Anderson's for one of the races for the weekend.
01:22:22
Speaker
That is one of our bucket list deals, the even if it's not until the fall or whatever. But it's one of our goals in the next two years to be down there and hopefully – I can bring a truck and come down bring the Jeep down if it holds up for me. Come down to play with come down and play with you guys.
01:22:39
Speaker
really I'm telling you, if you're going hit one, Spring Sling or North versus South. Is that one? Heavy hitter shows. i mean This Spring Sling, it was a heavy hitter show, but it it wasn't the normal show we have. I will say that. wasn't bad.
01:22:52
Speaker
I mean, it wasn't terrible. wasn't like that. It was a great show, but it was very um mellow, I'd say. It was it was one of our you know more mellow shows. We had some big air and freestyle and stuff like that, but I think North versus South is the one hit. Normally, we we I think we had like 40 truck count at this show, and normally open the season up, we get at least 50 or 60 trucks between the Tough Trucks and the Megas and all that. Okay.
01:23:18
Speaker
It seems a little light this year, but I mean, I'm sure it'll come back. It always does. Oh yeah. Especially, especially for a show like that and everything else that's put on. I mean, he like, to and then it's like one of the guys I've been friends with on Facebook. He's out West, ah Larry McCormick.
01:23:36
Speaker
I'm watching those guys, guys race tough truck out there in California during the monster truck shows that he does and him racing. I've seen some of his live videos from out there, dude. it It's like,
01:23:47
Speaker
We're all – I'm surrounded everywhere around. itd be cool, you know, sometime down the road. I was just on the podcast last Monday with a couple of my local guys talking about the upcoming season. I said it'd be neat if we could find a central focal point to bring West versus East and have an all-shootout.
01:24:10
Speaker
for the the just the tough trucks alone, not just including, bo you know, but to have it to see because you're always here. Ohio, you got everybody on the East Coast, the Pennsylvania boys, the Foytoy guys, that whole crew.
01:24:26
Speaker
um Then you got all the the guys out in Oklahoma. Those guys are still tearing it up out there with that stuff. And then you got McCormick's crew. I would be awesome.
01:24:38
Speaker
to find some way to bring everybody together for a weekend, maybe have it where it's a four day deal or whatever. to have it. Man, we could, I would love it and I'd volunteer to build the track. I've got plenty of good steering experience in a row.
01:24:53
Speaker
That'd be awesome. Oh man, I'd set it up probably similar to Dennis's but with a little bit changes. Because man, I love fast pace, high speed racing. Like I was telling you before we got on here and went live and everything.
01:25:07
Speaker
The best kind of racing, I think, and most competitive racing we can do is tough trucks. I see y'all out there in a lot of the fairgrounds and stuff. i don't know if it's exactly all. But just the speed bumps and just tearing stuff up. I'm like, no, man, we got to get competitive with this. Boys will be boys, and we need to place so bets, and we need to you know be competitive to where if we want to lay it all out on the line,
01:25:31
Speaker
Yes, there's going to risk of danger, but we can do that without ripping the whole front axle out of a truck. And and that's and that's the thing we deal with at our local fairs around here, especially with my modified guys. those These tracks are so so fucking ridiculous.
01:25:49
Speaker
They're not doing what their potential is. For the first time in three years in a row for my local fair, we've actually had under 30 second passes in the last three years because they the fair board finally built a fast track for everybody.
01:26:07
Speaker
and i own and is The crowd wants to see fast paced, high flying, continuous action. Not, oh, he just ripped his front axle out. He's done. Or the drive shafts done over. Yeah, because I just came out of retirement this last year.
01:26:25
Speaker
I haven't ran a tough truck since 2009. I had a guy. Yeah, dude. I had a guy literally needed a driver for his extra vehicle. And I finally can say i finished my hometown race because when I last raced there, I broke a front axle on a Dodge Power Wagon on the back section.
01:26:47
Speaker
so But I ended up finishing. yeah And this year they used to pay the top 40. Well, i they went top 25. I was three spots out of out of the money.
01:26:59
Speaker
for my first time being back after that long of a hiatus. Yeah. Yeah, man. They, we're lucky to get the top all. Well, and Dennis is always top three payout, but everywhere else, man, it's hard to get all three to pay out. Cause nine times out of 10, it's usually a, Hmm. Basically a win it all, all win it all deal. Yeah. It's, it's crazy. Like last year at Del Mar,
01:27:26
Speaker
ah Like I was actually, I was just telling my ah dad and my fiance a few minutes ago before we got on here was my biggest thing about racing and everything is I try to be as humble as I can. Don't get me wrong. I'll admit it all day long. I'm a cocky, arrogant person sometimes, but I try to be a better person.
01:27:42
Speaker
So I try to use racing to help me teach me that in some ways, as in when I'm cocky and arrogant, I don't ever win. I don't ever take a trophy. No. I'm breaking parts and being pissed off.
01:27:54
Speaker
So when I go racing, what I've been trying to do is just get in my head before a few days before the race. Like, look, we're going to have fun. We want to win, but we don't care if we win. Let's just go lay it out there. And I try to make little goals for myself each race. Like, let's try to run a 20-second pass. Let's try put a little bit more air under the tires on the finish line jump like did last weekend. which Oh, yeah. Oh, you definitely did that.
01:28:20
Speaker
had to turn it out and back just a little bit. It hurts. Humbleness and self-improvement, man. Exactly. so Like I was saying with Del Mar at the end of last year, I took first place there. They had really cool trophies. They had plaques, these aluminum plaques. I got one hiding up over here somewhere. Nice.
01:28:38
Speaker
Got these aluminum plaques with big sticker overlays on them. Shout out to Weezy Graphics, Chris Weiss. He made those for them. They're awesome. Check them out if you ever need any t-shirts or stickers made. He's the man. Nice.
01:28:50
Speaker
They came to me and they're like, hey, man, we were thinking about just paying out first place since there wasn't that many people here. And I was like, okay, why are you asking me that? That's not my call. And they're like, well, it is. We want to ask you. You won. i was like, well, what's the payout? There's like, there's 350 bucks here.
01:29:08
Speaker
I'm like, okay, well, what were y'all thinking? And he's like, well, you can take the 350 and be happy or you can break it down if you decide. I'm going to give that to you to decide. I was like,
01:29:20
Speaker
that's not even a decision. Give 150 and then give first, second place, a hundred and you have third place 50. I mean, that's the way we need to do it to break it down. Don't get me wrong. Right. I ain't made of money. I mean, I may be doing better than the next guy. Some days, not in the winter time, summer time I do okay for myself, but gas is still expensive. Toll fees are expensive.
01:29:42
Speaker
Renting or buying trailers and trucks to tell your stuff out of town is expensive. So at the end of the day, I think it's all about, paying back the drivers like don't get me wrong that's what it needs to be and that's where a lot of us has got together because one of the guys they put a point series together and it's been going on now three years for and they pay they pay top 10 for our point series that you can get in And I think that's the way to do it, and nobody wants to entertain. like Sorry to interrupt
Support and Gratitude
01:30:14
Speaker
you, but no you're good we do three to four local races here a year, at least for me, Dennis Anderson. Morgan's Corner is kind of hit or miss here and there. They so do some races some years and don't do it others. They have a crazy track, though. It's pretty cool.
01:30:28
Speaker
um but four races at dennis's two at delmar and then bam you got a six race point series that if you live anywhere from richmond to middle north carolina you max have a five to six hour drive to get to delmar i have three hours from virginia beach here and it is one of my other than dennis anderson's it is my favorite track to run at it is a long track you got two or three different turns, you're hitting four or five different jumps, and it's a little bit technical, but you can stretch the legs out on your trucks. Now, back to what I was trying to say, I get sidetracked real easy. you It's all about paying the drivers back, and if we could just get the idea, all the guys are cool with it down here. Just nobody's came together to reinforce it. It's like, it doesn't even need to be a lot. $150 buy-in to the point series. If we can get 10 people, that's $1,500 payout. All right, cool. We're starting at $1,500. Let's see if we can get somebody to sponsor our series so we can go further up the road. Let's see if we can get somebody to sponsor a lift kit or you know some coil springs, whatever. It ain't all got to be about money, but let's yeah keep track some stuff and let's get competitive. And then say, let's put it this way.
01:31:43
Speaker
Every time we go to those tracks, we got to do an extra $10 a person buy-in for the point series, and it goes to the championship or the final points breakdown. And just like Premier does it, you get a point for crossing the starting line, you get another point for completing the race, if I'm not mistaken. If you win the race, you may get even another point. I'm not sure. Yeah, I think that's how they had it set up.
01:32:07
Speaker
Yeah, let's break it up like that, and then let's get these tracks to say, yeah If we only get five trucks to show up, you'll all you'll each get $100. And then we'll still do a $200 buyout on top. you know Or payout on top. like yeah some Something bring people to keep bringing the drivers back. At least Ohio's not the only one that's running into that situation.
01:32:33
Speaker
But the ideas are there. But like you said, it's to get everybody on board to make it continuous and help Help grow it is what will what's getting the problem.
01:32:46
Speaker
If I'm paying $25 to $50 for a buy-in, another $10 ain't going to kill me. You know what i mean? And it it'll make it a lot more fun and a lot more competitive at the end of the year. And it gives these guys a lot more of a driving factor to go. Like, shout out to my boy Michael Witek in here.
01:33:03
Speaker
That man is on Facebook. He's... trying to race as much as he can this week. He's been on Facebook the last couple of races, just shouting out like, Hey guys, I'm a fellow racer. I want to try to do some more out of town races this year. He doesn't care if you're grass, grass, or ash, you know what i mean? He's like, ye let's help each other get there. You know, can you help me with some parts or let's, let's sponsor some fuel. And he's really good about, you know, like he went out there this weekend and he's done a good little bit of social media posts and stuff like that. Like,
01:33:34
Speaker
I feel like racing should support racers, not foot the bill, not build their truck. But I feel like if we're driving six hours out of town and then we get there and there's five trucks racing. All right, let's break up a little bit of the payout. Let's pay our guys so that they'll actually put on a show for a crowd and do it that way, because it's not just racers and uh you know cruise and all that it's about the people watching it's about the fans it's it's all of it just like at dennis anderson's
01:34:09
Speaker
I remember when back in the day, he would be out there cutting the bean field for more spectators at some mud bogs. And then at others, you could freaking, you could throw a football into the grandstands and miss anybody. You know what I mean? Because there's no people there. And I feel like a big way in supporting that isn't just focusing on how do we get fans? How do we get racers? It's all in all, how do we support the sport?
01:34:36
Speaker
You know what i mean? like and it good And that goes on, and ah not only in our our sport and everything, it just goes across the board in any of the motorsports. they But for us as tough truck racers, mega truck racers, if we don't have the platform and the support, not only just from ourselves, but from the outside too, we ain't going to have shit to be able to do.
01:35:03
Speaker
Exactly. Morgan, thank you for being in the chat tonight, man, and I will see you Thursday night, buddy. Heck, yeah. Yeah, ain't too far from him, man. I only got about five, ten minutes left in me. Nope, you're good, man. We can go ahead. and You got any sponsors and stuff you want to shout out? We'll go ahead and start wrapping up now, Bubba, because I got to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning. so We'll start out with a little bit of cocky and arrogance. My number one sponsor is myself.
01:35:32
Speaker
My name's Phil. I'm PJ Services. We do equipment repair and land management here in the state of Virginia. We support everybody in Northeastern North Carolina, all the way up to about Norfolk, Virginia, and all the way over to Suffolk.
01:35:45
Speaker
ah My next big sponsor, I gotta say, is Pungle Offred. They've helped me out with a lot of shocks. Springs, everything. Zerker Motorsports. He's helped me do my cage. He helps me get to races all the time that I couldn't tell you how many times he's flown the gas bill for me or the hotel bill. Love you, Brad. Appreciate you. Misty Rose Photography. She's always getting the great shots.
01:36:09
Speaker
um My buddy Donovan with this a kind of a long list. I'm sorry. I'm going to run down it. You're good. a bundny Donovan with all out pressure. My buddy Logan Dixon with Oceanside Construction.
01:36:26
Speaker
Talent fab he cuts out all my tabs on my frame plates everything like that he is great help to the team we could do a lot of the mega shark projects or any of that stuff that we do without him. TNL long care my buddy Trey he's always thrown couple dollars in the mix for the year to get us to him from the races and you know to help us get started when the winter times run slow. Oh yeah.
01:36:45
Speaker
What's the business brings me all of his equipment and my slow times and i can't appreciate him anymore for that. um Obviously, my dad and everybody for helping me out. Oh, Back Bay Auto, John Such for making me fast. He's always helping me get fast.
01:37:01
Speaker
ah I know I'm missing somebody somewhere, and I don't want to be that guy. so Chris Weese, Weezy Graphics, he helps me out. He's got all these stickers on the side of the truck, as you can see.
01:37:14
Speaker
um And I said Pungo Off-Road.
01:37:20
Speaker
Well, I think that's it. I'm pretty sure that's everybody who's hopped on board. And and I'll be i not be honest with you, man, and it's awesome to have those people because they're all local businesses and stuff. That's what that's what that's what makes it even sweeter is because it's small business. so Got to give a big shout out.
01:37:41
Speaker
My buddy, Mark Keske with Trust Mark LLC. I'll get to my head. Uh, he came in at the beginning, uh, when I was building my truck and I told I was getting into racing and he's like kind of a second dad to me. Um, he's like, yo man, let me know anything you need to get you started. I was like, look, man, I've already got the seat. I've already got the roll cage. I was like, I'm having a little bit of trouble because it midwinter time biting off a $500 Simpson hybrid. You know what I mean? Yeah. Oh yeah.
01:38:09
Speaker
My, my buddy Kyle, My fiance's best friend's husband, he had just gotten out of a circle track race and also shout out to Maddie. My fiance, she's the best comes to pretty much every race with me, supports me, takes all the videos for me so I can watch my runs before I go out and run again, tracks my times does all of it and puts up with mine and Brad's bullshit.
01:38:32
Speaker
24-7 of me you know coming home late, doing that whole nonsense. So big shout out to her. death Couldn't do it without her. We're actually getting married next year. 7-11-27. Congratulations, say congratulation man.
01:38:44
Speaker
Thank you. ah june But ah where was I going right before that? Sorry. I don't even remember now. I got sidetracked with you announcing. Oh, my buddy.
01:38:56
Speaker
Shout out to my buddy Kyle. He was getting out of racing, about to get married, so he wanted to take a break for a little bit, and he told me I could buy his hybrid that only had three races on it for $350.
01:39:06
Speaker
I could have bought it, but my buddy Mark, I told him, i was like, hey, man, I'm found this hybrid. He's like, how much is it? I told him price, and he said, he didn't even say anything. He said, okay, that's cool. I got you. I got you. And he said, I got to go.
01:39:18
Speaker
As soon as he hangs up the phone, I get a little picture of an envelope hiding up under its doormat. And he's like, hey, man, we go get your Hansevice. I want you to be as safe as possible. I don't need any shout outs. I don't need any stickers. I need. but Oh, my goodness. I just want you to be happy and safe. And I was like, man, you're the shit for that. And all the time.
01:39:36
Speaker
Just like that. We got a shop up there. We keep mining his mega truck in there. We're building mine. We keep up with his. we actually got a couple of cool projects in there right now. Our buddy Brandon Vincent, old gravedigger driver. We're building him a two and a half ton blazer. Kind of not mocking or matching or anything, but he said he wants something kind of live a killer style. Twitty and Twitty's son.
01:40:01
Speaker
He wants something. No shit. We're going to Throw them together something like that. We got a little lower half the chassis going together We're actually about to put the body on top of it as soon as Brad gets back and get back rolling on that on And then we got an s10. We're ls swapping for the street, but it does super street down at Dennis's as well He drives it to the mud bog or buddy Alan Grissom and drives it home with his kids man. He loves it nice run super street passes in this little v6 s10 on uh 10 and the think it's got half tons in it, if I'm not mistaken. Brad, solid axle swap, did everything to it. Man, we just try to have a good time, help all of our buddies out, and make a little bit of money along the way.
01:40:41
Speaker
Oh, yeah. appreciate all my
Conclusion and Future Plans
01:40:43
Speaker
sponsors and stuff like that. and I'm sorry if I missed anybody, but appreciate all you, and I couldn't do it without any of you guys. Well, I appreciate you, man. You have a great week. Good luck this racing season.
01:40:54
Speaker
Good luck this racing season, and yeah maybe this after season's over and everything else, we'll get back together. I'll definitely keep up with you in messages and stuff, man. I'm going pick your brain.
01:41:06
Speaker
on on these XJs for the set lineups a little better than what it is. But no thank you again. appreciate you so much. Maybe we can shoot for a North versus South recap later on.
01:41:18
Speaker
Definitely. um Appreciate you once again. You have a good evening. I'm going go ahead and drop you down for the night. You have a good night, sir. Later, guys. Later. mind Philip Hall Jr. Thank you all in the chats and everything tonight.
01:41:35
Speaker
Brad, I cannot wait till you get to come home and get some racing in underneath. I'm going definitely try to have it when you do come up. I would love to have you, Philip, and Josh all together.
01:41:46
Speaker
We can have all three of you up here on the show. Everybody in the chatterbox, thank you for the support and stuff. Make sure you smash that like, share, subscribe or here. um This Thursday night,
01:42:00
Speaker
I will have Morgan. He works for Matt Motorsports. He will be on the show. um I'm really looking forward to this. We've been been talking back and forth for the last week and stuff. got some some pretty cool stuff that he wants to talk about and everything. And we may, that night, have a few surprises for you guys.
01:42:21
Speaker
We will see. you'll have You'll have to tune in Thursday night at 8 o'clock. um Tomorrow night on the network is a free night Glick is off for the night and everything else. his daughter It's his daughter's birthday and everything else. So and um we are not going to have those shows on here. And then we're back Wednesday night um for Glick's Comedy Lounge.
01:42:46
Speaker
i can I'm brain dead as usual when it comes to the guests. And then, of course, Thursday night, we will be back here on Speedway Stories with Morgan on here from Matt Motorsports.
01:42:57
Speaker
Uh, Friday night, I'm still kind of in the air. We'll see what's going on. Um, if things fall in place, I may do Wally's motor sports world, do some shop talk, uh, Friday night for a little while, but I'm gonna work on a, possibly work on the rough truck a little more.
01:43:13
Speaker
Got a couple months to get it ready for the first race. Um, and then Saturday is nonsensical nonsense. It's the main stable of this show. We dropped the link in the comments and everything. Come up, hang out, have a good time. Shoot the shit. Um,
01:43:29
Speaker
And then Sunday i should be behind the veil. Maybe they've been working on getting information and stuff for it. It's about the haunted for ah houses, mansions, all this stuff.
01:43:43
Speaker
um Glick and Kayla show. And then Monday on Speedway Stories.
01:43:54
Speaker
Yeah. It's actually for May 4th. I will have josa Josh on the show, which is one of Phillip's buddies and Brad's buddies will be on the show to talk about his racing career and everything else.
01:44:09
Speaker
So you guys stay tuned. Like I said, all our all the shows and stuff are in the links down on the bottom. If you want to support, we got the Cash App there.
01:44:19
Speaker
Thank you all again for tuning in. um I appreciate everybody. Johnny, once again, of course, brother, i appreciate you ah co-hosting as always.
01:44:31
Speaker
ah glad time to go but thank you You guys all have a good evening, and we'll catch you on the next one. Bye. See you.