We can’t always plan our lives, an accident near the start of his career put Evan Evans in a wheelchair. But that didn’t slow him down; Evan went on to win 57 times and six Championships! Congratulations to Evan Evans, a 2023 inductee into ORMHOF; Evan is why we say; legends live at ORMHOF.org. Be sure to tune in on your favorite podcast app.
5:40 – when we stayed in Ensenada as a kid, I would use stickers like money
7:50 – it was John Nelson who gave me my shot at racing
12:31 – “you driving this pre-runner Datsun, which isn’t even a real race truck, is like you winning overall”
20:15 – I went through rehab in four months…two days later, I was in the race truck at the Baja 1000 starting line
26:34 – I needed a hell of a brake system to get enough power to stop the vehicle with my arms
30:35 – I only had $8K to go back and race a full season
37:33 – at this point, only myself and Dale Earnhardt, Sr had two contracts with Chevrolet as spokespersons and race car drivers
47:07 – all my heroes are in ORMHOF; to be included is a huge honor
Special thanks to ORMHOF.org for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
We can’t always plan our lives, an accident near the start of his career put Evan Evans in a wheelchair. But that didn’t slow him down; Evan went on to win 57 times and six Championships! Congratulations to Evan Evans, a 2023 inductee into ORMHOF; Evan is why we say; legends live at ORMHOF.org. Be sure to tune in on your favorite podcast app.
5:40 – when we stayed in Ensenada as a kid, I would use stickers like money
7:50 – it was John Nelson who gave me my shot at racing
12:31 – “you driving this pre-runner Datsun, which isn’t even a real race truck, is like you winning overall”
20:15 – I went through rehab in four months…two days later, I was in the race truck at the Baja 1000 starting line
26:34 – I needed a hell of a brake system to get enough power to stop the vehicle with my arms
30:35 – I only had $8K to go back and race a full season
37:33 – at this point, only myself and Dale Earnhardt, Sr had two contracts with Chevrolet as spokespersons and race car drivers
47:07 – all my heroes are in ORMHOF; to be included is a huge honor
Special thanks to ORMHOF.org for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
[00:00:01.100]
Welcome To Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview style podcast. Those interviewed are all involved in the offroad industry. Being involved, like all of my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present, and future Legends, as well as business owners, employees, media, and land-use warriors, men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle we call Offroad. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active in Offroad. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call Offroad.
[00:00:46.120]
This episode of Conversations with Big Rich is brought to you by the Offroad Motorports Hall of Fame. The mission of the Hall of Fame is to educate and inspire present and future generations of the Offroad community by celebrating the achievements of those who came before. We invite you to help fulfill the mission of the Offroad Motorports Hall of Fame. Join, partner, or donate today. Legends live at Ormhof.Org.
[00:01:13.550] - Big Rich Klein
On today's episode of Conversations with Big Rich, I have the pleasure of interviewing Evan Evans, an off-road racer, short course racer, innovator, fabricator, spokesperson, motivational speaker, and an inspiration to all, and also the son of Walker Evans.
[00:01:33.960] - Big Rich Klein
Evan, it's great to talk to you this morning, and thank you for giving me the time.
[00:01:39.400] - Evan Evans
Rich, it's my pleasure. It's great to get to come on your show. I know you do good work, and I just can't wait to get to talk to all your fans.
[00:01:47.630] - Big Rich Klein
Well, let's get started with the easiest question. Where were you born and raised?
[00:01:52.970] - Evan Evans
Well, currently I'm having a nice cup of coffee this morning in Riverside, California, where I live. I'm overlooking Riverside on the outskirts of the Hills.
[00:02:03.940] - Big Rich Klein
Nice. Have you always resided in Southern California?
[00:02:08.630] - Evan Evans
I have. I was born and raised here.
[00:02:11.030] - Big Rich Klein
Okay, great. In Riverside or what... What city did you primarily grow up in?
[00:02:18.820] - Evan Evans
In Riverside, yes. I actually am living in a house that my parents built. I ended up buying it 18 years later from other folks that had bought it from my parents. It's funny that I moved back into a house that my parents built.
[00:02:35.930] - Big Rich Klein
That's pretty awesome.
[00:02:37.600] - Evan Evans
Well, it was very convenient because my dad's very first race shop was on this property, and that still today is my race shop. It is the property directly behind where my house.
[00:02:50.660] - Big Rich Klein
Property is. Excellent. In your early years there in Riverside, going to school, Riverside was pretty open at the time?
[00:02:59.790] - Evan Evans
It was very open. Lots of Orange Groves on the outskirts of Riverside, up in the Woodcrest area. That's where I was raised and born, is overlooking Riverside in Woodcrest.
[00:03:16.110] - Big Rich Klein
Those school years, would you consider yourself a good student or indifferent and wanted to get outside?
[00:03:24.530] - Evan Evans
Well, in my head, I was a good student. The teachers didn't really think so because in my head, I was daydreaming about the race shop and racing, and I got to admit, I didn't do well in school. I was too busy thinking about racing.
[00:03:41.120] - Big Rich Klein
Understood. I guess that comes naturally with your dad, Walker, having been a racer. Was he racing when you were born?
[00:03:55.220] - Evan Evans
No, he started racing when I was probably about three or four, I think, was his his first off-road race. He raced motorcycles before that and always had been around fast stuff. He had a boat that he used to play with that was pretty darn fast. So he was always interested in speed. But no, he was not racing when I was born.
[00:04:19.790] - Big Rich Klein
Okay. And you guys growing up, you did a lot of outdoor stuff than I would imagine?
[00:04:28.440] - Evan Evans
Well, of course, we used to go to Mexico and go pre-running. We did that quite a bit, which was my fondest memories of my dad loading us all into the... He had, I'm going to say, early '72, somewhere right in there, Ford pickup. And he used to throw a piece of plywood on there and a camper shell on there, and he'd put us kids on the plywood on the back and put a camper shell on and he put the ice chest underneath, and we'd go pre-run through Mexico and it was the best childhood. It was so fun.
[00:05:05.630] - Big Rich Klein
And Mexico then, as it is now, is extremely friendly?
[00:05:11.480] - Evan Evans
Yes, it was actually more friendly, only because there wasn't a lot of people back then pre-running as much as there is now. So when some of those villages would get to see us come through, they were just thrilled and excited. So it was a lot of fun. I can remember playing with kids I couldn't speak and understand, but we could still play together and still have fun.
[00:05:35.400] - Big Rich Klein
Right. Were stickers a big thing back then, do you remember?
[00:05:40.480] - Evan Evans
Oh, huge. I can remember going to a couple of the hotels in Ensenada, and I would use stickers like money. If I need a Coke or something, I'd go in there and I'd give them a stack of stickers and they were good to go.
[00:05:56.850] - Big Rich Klein
Great currency. Great currency as a kid.
[00:05:58.570] - Evan Evans
yes, yes.
[00:06:00.140] - Big Rich Klein
So then when you guys were down there pre-running and stuff, did you go out on the course with Dad, or were you more relegated to base camp?
[00:06:11.430] - Evan Evans
Oh, no. We were literally pre-running down through Baja with him. He would drag all of us with him. It was a family affair back then, and sometimes we'd even just pull over and pop a tent and camp overnight. We didn't always make it into the next village or town, and that's why we were out there, is just to have a great time and enjoy Baja, and we did.
[00:06:37.430] - Big Rich Klein
Excellent. When did you first get a knack for driving?
[00:06:45.270] - Evan Evans
I had to be a mechanic for a long time before I had gotten an opportunity. My dad had always told me that nobody had ever given him anything. He'd always had to work for everything he'd gotten and that nothing was going to be handed down to me that I was going to have to earn what I'd gotten. So I went and worked for a lot of different shops for a little while trying to get the experience of being a good fabricator. I wanted to learn from the ground up. I wanted to learn how to take care of a shop. I wanted to learn how to take care of a shop. I wanted to learn how to build and fabricate and weld so I could take care of my vehicle. And I did not get an opportunity to drive until I started with John Nelson, Nelson and Nelson racing. I helped him build a couple of vehicles, and he had quite a big schedule. And at that point, I figured I'd learned enough being a mechanic, and it was time for me to start trying to find a place that I could put a helmet and put a steering wheel in my hand.
[00:07:50.850] - Evan Evans
So I was threatening him a little bit. He wanted me to put in some overtime because his schedule was thick. And I told him, What? I'll work 8:00 to 5:00, but at 5:00 o'clock, I'm going to go around to these other shops to see if there's anything that's open or available to me. And he didn't like the sound of that. He didn't want to lose me because I was a good little fabricator and was a great little welder. And Jim Venerable actually owed him $750. And I was threatening to go other places to look for a drive. And so John said, hey, you give me that rolled over pre runner that you have, which was a Datson. His crew chief had rolled it over and smashed the roof in. Jim Venerable gave John Nelson that rolled over Datson pre runner, and John offered it to me, said, I'll let you have this truck, cut the roof off and put a new roof on it, and you can start racing this thing. Oh, boy, I thought this is it. This is the beginning of Evan Evans, and it was John Nelson gave me my shot at racing, which I'm so proud that he did that and took the chance with me.
[00:09:08.780] - Big Rich Klein
That's pretty awesome. What were some of the other shops that you spent some time in before landing at Nelson and getting a chance to drive there?
[00:09:19.270] - Evan Evans
Well, when I got out of high school, I went to work for Kim Cleppard, which he worked for Charlotte, Cocoa Corral. At that time, Ivan Stewart was driving a full-size Ford pickup for them. And I was prepping it and working on it and learning how to be a decent mechanic. And then after that, I went to work for Larry Minor for a little bit and helped and worked underneath John Nelson. Back then, John was my boss for Larry Minor, and I took my commands from him and did what he asked of me. And we worked on the Miller, Chevrolet, Miller truck back then for Larry Minor. And in the process, we were building an Oldsmobile Calais for Larry Minor, too. And since I was the one doing most of the work on it and John Nelson was riding in the Chevrolet Miller truck, I was the one that got to ride in the Oldsmobile. So I worked there for a little bit. And then after that, I went and worked for Dick Landfield. John Swift was doing a little bit of desert driving for him, and I was building some short course trucks for him for Al Unser senior and Al Unser Junior.
[00:10:44.910] - Evan Evans
And so I worked there for a little while. We completed those trucks. And then John Nelson asked me if I would come back to work for him because he'd just gotten his new program with Chevrolet on his own. So he got out from under Larry Minor and got his own program started. He asked if I'd come work for him, and I jumped all over that. And that's when he offered after a little while, we built a few vehicles after a little while, that's when he offered me the Datson.
[00:11:14.990] - Big Rich Klein
And what was it like getting that Datson? I would imagine it was a hell of a thrill.
[00:11:23.430] - Evan Evans
It was. It was a lot of work. I had a lot of work to do to turn a pre runner into a race truck and make it legal to where it satisfied tech. We went to the first race. I think I got taken out. I got hit from behind in a corner and got shoved out into some rocks and got my front ball joint broke. We did finish that race, but really laid into it. John Nelson, on the Chevy trucks that he was working on, he took the stock torsion bars off of that and gave them to me and they worked really well putting them underneath that Datsun. We did that and made that Datsun work a lot better.
[00:12:10.830] - Big Rich Klein
Nice. A lot longer setup.
[00:12:13.510] - Evan Evans
Yes. Yeah, it's a lot nicer ride.
[00:12:15.870] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah, longer setup, nicer ride, more travel, all that. And from that moment with the Nissan, did you end up winning in that thing? Never did.
[00:12:31.390] - Evan Evans
The best I finished was the third place. And one of my biggest compliments came from Dave and the Simon Brothers. They ran second place in that class. And back then, there was 50-something trucks in class seven S. It was a huge class. They ran second, and I was running third to them. And coming across the finish line, I literally, I used up every bit of that little Datsun, and it was tired and ready to cross that finish line. I was dragging the right side rear fender on the ground, the front of my roof up by the windshield, the roof was literally peeling back six inches back. So I looked like a beer can that somebody was ripping the roof off of. And then I had a stick sticking out of the front wheel. So when the Simon Brothers came back to congratulate me, as they walked by the stick, he pulled it out and the tire went flat right there on the finish line. He complimented me and said, Evan, you driving this pre-runner, Datsun, which isn't even a real race truck, to third places like you winning overall. And that meant so much to me when he told me that.
[00:13:55.230] - Evan Evans
It really was a big compliment.
[00:13:58.580] - Big Rich Klein
So how many years did you race that?
[00:14:03.330] - Evan Evans
Just one. Just one, okay. Not even the full season, actually, because I did so well in it, and I was proud of this. Rob McCachran was racing for my dad at the time in the Jeep Comanche, and I was racing the Datsun out of my own pocket with my own budget, which wasn't much. And I finished in front of him every race, so I was very proud of that. I got offered about three races at the end of the season. Everybody had noticed how well I was doing it. I could nurse this Datsun around and get it to the finish line and doing pretty decent. I got offered a deal from BF and Ford for a brand new Ford Ranger with BF factory backing with John Nelson prepping it. To me, I'd made it big if I take this deal. The only problem is they wanted me to share the ride with another driver that was doing well too, and they wanted to team both of us up together. That was fine. I'd have been in a lot better equipment and I'd have had a team to work with and all that sounded great.
[00:15:20.850] - Evan Evans
The only thing I had to give up my full-time ride, getting to drive 100 % of the race and getting all the recognition and learning, get knowledge behind the wheel. I didn't really know what to do. I called my dad and asked my dad, Dad, this is what's being offered to me. This is on the plate. I can share a brand new factory, Nelson Prep, Ford, BF, ride, or I can keep driving this worn-out, Datsun, and get all the driving experience. He said, Son, come down to my place after work tomorrow and we'll talk about it. After I got done working for John, I went down there and he invites me into his office and tells me, I lay it out again and I tell him what's going on. And he says, Son, that all sounds great. I think you should be a 100 % driver and get all the recognition for it. And so in my mind, I'm thinking, Oh, my goodness, this means that I have to keep financing my own program and struggling on my own. And then the next words of my father's mouth was, But I think you should come drive for me because I have a Jeep Cherokee that I'm going to be building and I need a driver.
[00:16:40.570] - Evan Evans
And so I was just so thrilled that my dad that I'd even gotten my dad's attention. And so I took that deal, of course. And so what happened was I didn't finish driving my truck at the end of that season because Rob McCachran, I think, on a motorcycle, broke his wrist right before the Baja 1000. And so my dad asked, since I was going to come drive for him the next season, my dad asked if I would come drive that truck. And I said, Hell, yeah, I would, because I wasn't doing real great in points. I didn't have any sponsors that I really had to answer to because I was financing my own Datsun and deal racing out there. So I didn't really have sponsors that I had to answer to. I took that and went and drove for Rob McCachran at the Baja 1000, and I believe it was 1988, 1988.
[00:17:41.520] - Big Rich Klein
Nice. How did you do in that race?
[00:17:45.280] - Evan Evans
I led the whole way and had the same problem that Rob had the whole year. Otherwise, Rob would have been kicking my ass, of course, in the Datsun. And of course, he was out in front, but he had electrical problems all year long and it bit me too. After I think we were coming back into Ensenada, we were about at San Felipe and started having electrical problems.
[00:18:11.200] - Big Rich Klein
Oh, shame.
[00:18:12.790] - Evan Evans
Yeah.
[00:18:13.370] - Big Rich Klein
Well, that's racing. Yeah, it is. That's what they call racing, not winning.
[00:18:18.840] - Evan Evans
Yeah. You just have to act like a duck and let the water roll off your back when things like that happen. You can't get too upset or you won't make it too far in this business.
[00:18:29.170] - Big Rich Klein
True. Okay. So then you go from the Datsun and into your dad's racing stable. You take over from McCachran in '88 for that thousand, and now you're going to jump into.
[00:18:48.080] - Evan Evans
A Cherokee. Yeah, my Jeep Cherokee, yes. And so we do that. I jump in the Jeep Cherokee. We actually had electrical problems the very first race at Parker. And the flywheel, it's an electronic motor, fuel-injected, so the flywheel had a sensor on it, and it was acting up so the car wasn't running correct. We got that turned around and we won the next four races. And then I had my accident and got end up in a hospital for four months. And the rule stated with Score at that time to where you could have a relief driver, but at the end of the year, you had to get back in your vehicle at the beginning or the end of the race to be able to keep all the points that you accumulated at the beginning of the season. So that's what my goal was, is after I'd gotten hurt, is to get through rehab as quick as I could, because, of course, first time driving for my dad, I'd already let him down enough by hurting myself, and I didn't want to let him totally down and not get back in that truck and finish the job that I'd started and let all his sponsors down and let him down and let myself down.
[00:20:15.420] - Evan Evans
I went through rehab within four months. I was released out of rehab. My doctor at the rehab would not sign a release form for me saying I could go back to work, so I went to my surgeon in UCLA. He said, Give me that paper. I'm happy to sign it. He signed it. Two days later, I was sitting in my race truck at the Baja 1000 starting line. I was only supposed to drive the first 42 miles and go off the pavement, and I think there was maybe 20 miles in the dirt and to the first road crossing, which was mile markers somewhere around 42. I did that. I started fifth in my class. By the time I had gotten to the dirt, I had already passed everybody and I was in the lead. So then I had 20 miles and I went in the dirt. I got to the next road crossing and Bryan Stewart was sitting there waiting for me, my relief driver. And it was the first time in four months that I felt like Evan Evans again. I was in my race truck. I was feeling good.
[00:21:31.140] - Evan Evans
I was smiling. I was passing cars. I was in the lead. I radioed ahead and told them, You guys go to the next road crossing, which was somewhere like Mile marker 72, I think it was. They all jumped back in their cars on the pavement. They went up to the next road crossing. I got it to Mile Marker 72, and I said, Okay, this was enough for me. I'm freshly out of the hospital two days and 72 miles in my old race truck felt like that was enough. It felt like I proved my point. I satisfied myself. And Brian Stewart climbed in. We took the hand controls out and I told Brian I'd sit there until the next vehicle came and give him a car count, a time on what lead he had. He took off. The next vehicle came through 10 minutes later. I called him and told him, got a 10 minute lead, get it to the finish line. And that's exactly what he did, and we won the championship.
[00:22:37.350] - Big Rich Klein
That is awesome. Thank you. And was the Cherokee then, was that a class seven as well?
[00:22:44.520] - Evan Evans
No, it was a class six.
[00:22:46.100] - Big Rich Klein
Class 6. Class 6, okay.
[00:22:47.230] - Evan Evans
Yes.
[00:22:50.000] - Big Rich Klein
So let's talk about your accident, if you will, and how that transpired.
[00:22:56.850] - Evan Evans
Sure. My dad had been taking me down this three car wide, not paved, I'm sorry, dirt road that was graded nice and smooth, and it leads you out into the hills. Well, I'd been going down this road since I was a little boy. One evening about dusk, I go riding out in the hills. Me and my buddy, he lives on the other end of town, so I told him that I would ride him halfway home so he wasn't by himself. We did that, and he took off his way. I came back home, and on the way back home, I hid a ditch that, and this is on a Friday, I hid a ditch that they started putting manhole, digging a ditch for manholes because they were going to start building houses at the end of the street. And five o'clock, everybody went home. Nobody put a thick piece of metal over the ditch or a temporary fence or flashing delineators or anything. They didn't mark the ditch at all. They left it open and went home. I was the person that found the ditch and ended up breaking my back, bike flipped on me, broke my back and then woke up in the hospital with my dad leaning over me, telling me, Son, it doesn't look good.
[00:24:26.350] - Evan Evans
They're telling me that you're paralyzed. So that's when I decided, well, I got everything my dad had taught me when I was younger. Never give up if you want something bad enough. You got to work for it and you can accomplish anything if you want it bad enough. So I put that attitude to work and went through rehab as quick as I could. And as you know, I just told you the story of climbing back in the truck two days after I got released out and got the job done.
[00:24:55.910] - Big Rich Klein
Right. That's amazing. It really is. Thank you. That's a very inspirational story on Fortitude.
[00:25:06.340] - Evan Evans
Thank you so much.
[00:25:07.660] - Big Rich Klein
So then the next year, because that's '89, you win the championship, going into '90, what happened then?
[00:25:16.230] - Evan Evans
Well, going into '90, actually, after I'd won the championship, we went testing, and I had another accident when we were testing, but it wasn't in my car, it was in my driving suit. And so I made a mess in my driving suit, and immediately, red flags went up with my parents. It scared them. Nobody in my condition had ever been out there bouncing and putting their body through that stuff. And my parents just thought maybe it was too much for my organs and that without holding myself together, I might have a problem. So they didn't want me to race anymore and told me that they didn't want to take the chance of me getting hurt any worse. And so I put my attitude back to work, Well, I want it bad enough. I'm going to do whatever it takes. Whether they wanted me out there taking a chance at it or not, they couldn't be involved because they wouldn't be able to look at themselves if something did happen. So I went and put my own race team together and started building a Chevy Blazer that took me a year to build, of course, because I'm freshly hurt and I'm in a wheelchair.
[00:26:34.120] - Evan Evans
And I had my brother-in-law, Sean Ingoles, helping me come in after he get off work. And so we'd work on it in the evening. So it took about a year to build. And then we did some testing, and I had to figure out how the vehicle was really well. It worked well, but I didn't have good brakes. And in my mind at that time, I thought, Well, Well, we've got these great big back then, 37-tall tires were pretty darn big. We got these big 37-tall tires with this truck that weighs 4,000 pounds that I got to get stopped with just my hands, my arms. I thought I had to have one hell of a brake system, brake booster or something to get me to have enough power to stop the vehicle with my arms. I spent a lot of money, a lot of research, a lot of time developing stuff, and did that for about three years. And finally, I just was not happy with anything I was coming up with. I was just way over designing my brake system. And I thought to myself, Well, if a duly and a big fifth wheel behind it can get stopped with what it has, let me take a look at that.
[00:27:57.240] - Evan Evans
So I opened up the hood on my truck during the Air Max truck and seen their power booster, and I went down to the local dealership, bought that, put it in my race truck, and oh, my goodness, it worked so well after spending thousands of dollars trying to research and develop it. I stumbled onto this. I should have just did that from the beginning, let Chevy do all the research. I bolted that in my race truck, and I finally had feeling I could feel the brakes. They weren't either all on or all off. That was the problem, is I didn't have any feeling with my system. So I would dive into ditches with the brakes on, and it was just tough on the front end and tough on the car. So I got the new system in. And as soon as I did, I went to the first race and I told my crew, Okay, my next week link on this truck is the steering is going to give up, because now I'm going to be able to drive the hell out of this thing with the brakes that I have. And that's exactly what happened.
[00:28:57.900] - Evan Evans
The steering broke and I said, Okay, I got good breaks. I know what I'm doing now. And I actually went short course racing as soon as I found that because I felt like I'm going to be competitive now. And sure enough, I went back east and immediately started winning races. So that system worked and it set me up for success for out in the short course. It was awfully tough for me to find when I was running in the desert, sponsorship. It made everybody nervous that I was out there if I were to get crashed or catch fire way out in the middle of nowhere. Everybody was concerned, all my sponsors. I couldn't find any help. So as soon as I went short course racing and started winning races, Chevrolet picked me up. And once Chevrolet picked me up, everybody was not afraid to jump on board and be involved with me. I think at first everybody was a little bit gun shy. They didn't know if they wanted to be involved with somebody in a wheelchair in case something did go wrong. But once Chevrolet came on board, everybody jumped on and my career blew up from there.
[00:30:15.480] - Big Rich Klein
That was pre-'96?
[00:30:18.520] - Evan Evans
Yes, correct.
[00:30:20.180] - Big Rich Klein
Because in '96, everybody says that was your banner year.
[00:30:26.620] - Evan Evans
Yeah.
[00:30:29.630] - Big Rich Klein
Let's talk about '96.
[00:30:35.310] - Evan Evans
Well, '96, I bought a race truck from my dad that Brendan Gaugin and his father, Michael Gaugin, owned, and they raced it the year before back East. Brendan almost won the championship. He missed winning the championship by one point with that truck. Wow. And yeah. And so Brendan the following year was going to step up into pro two. So that left that truck available. And I ran down, as soon as I heard that truck was available, I ran down to my dad and asked if I could buy that from Michael, and I did. It was a Dodge back then. I brought it here up to my shop in Woodcrest, took the Dodge body off, took the Dodge parts off, and put my Chevrolet stuff on that I owned because I had a Chevy Blazer, and all the parts I have was Chevy. I took that stuff off, put the Chevy parts on, and went back east. Lo and behold, I only had $8,000 to go back and race on. I did after buying the truck and everything. I was broke after buying the truck, but I thought I had 4,000 from American Racing Wheels and 4,000 from Good Year.
[00:32:01.280] - Evan Evans
I had a wheel and tire sponsor, and I said, I'm going to go back there and race as long as I can, and hopefully, I can get through the season, which was wishful thinking for $8,000 then get you through a season. But I did it anyways and went back. I had a two-ton car hauler. So on the ride back there, back east to Michigan, we broke down. The clutch blew out of the car hauler, and that cost me almost $1,800. So now, by the time we finally got out there, I only have like six, seven thousand dollars to race on for the whole year. We actually entered the first race and we won it. And I thought, Oh, my goodness, it won me a little bit of money so we could stay there long enough to try to race the second race. We didn't have to immediately turn around and come home because we're dead broke. So going into the second race, I'm pulling up to the starting line. You got to know I drive one handed because my other, my right-hand is on the throttle and the brake and the radio button and everything's in my right-hand.
[00:33:21.270] - Evan Evans
I steer with my left hand and shift with my left hand. So on the way to the starting line, I noticed my power steering is acting up a little bit. It doesn't seem right, and I tell my crew chief, but we don't have time to deal with it because they're staging us right then. And the race starts and I'm on the throttle, power steering is feeling fine, but every time I back off the throttle, I have no power steering. When I'm on the throttle, my power steering is working. So I thought, Whoa, okay, I'm going to have to stay on the throttle, I guess. I did the best I could. I came in second place, but I was right on the tail of the first place guy, even with my brake problem. So I finished second place that race, which made it a little bit tight to get to the third race of the season. But we did. We scraped together. We went without eating a little bit, my wife and I. And we went to the third race and we won that one and we won every race after that. So I had won seven out of eight races that year.
[00:34:29.290] - Evan Evans
That made me the winningest truck driver in a single-season in the Soda, out there in the Soda Series. And mid-season, about four or five races in, Chevrolet started talking to me and taking me out to dinner and wanting to know my plans. And so we got familiar with each other and they offered me a little bit of money to finish out the season because they knew I was really struggling just to get to the next race. So they helped me with a little bit of money, which I felt like, Man, I made it. I'm a professional racer. Chevrolet is helping me. But then the next season, they offered me a contract and signed me up and which was amazing to get to fly in, be flown in from Chevrolet to corporate, and have a nice car sitting there waiting for you and get taken out to dinner and be offered what was offered to me. I knew I'd made it then.
[00:35:32.780] - Big Rich Klein
You found out what being a professional was really about.
[00:35:35.700] - Evan Evans
Yes. I had seen how other people take care of my dad, but to get a little bit of that love towards me after everything I'd been through and worked hard to try to get to this point and it finally happening, it was amazing. Yes.
[00:35:54.160] - Big Rich Klein
Right. That's awesome. Thank you. And deserved.
[00:35:58.140] - Evan Evans
Oh, thank you.
[00:35:59.870] - Big Rich Klein
Then that Chevrolet deal has lasted quite a while.
[00:36:08.960] - Evan Evans
Well, yeah, and I was awful proud because Chevrolet went to GM Mobility, which GM Mobility is a program they were just putting together. And there were three of us, and we were called the Barrier Breakers. There was Sarah Wells, which was a downhill. She's paralyzed in a wheelchair, and she's a downhill Olympic skier, gold medalist. And then Mark Wellman, which he climbs mountains with just his arms because he's in a wheelchair also. And then myself as a race truck driver. So we were the three barrier breakers and Chevrolet GM Mobility used us to go and do speeches on the behalf of the GM Mobility program, informing people that if you were to go out and buy a brand new vehicle, Chevrolet vehicle, and went to your doctor and got evaluated for your disability, and then you turn that into Chevrolet, they would reimburse you up to $1,500 to put the adaptive equipment, whatever your disability might be, in the vehicle and help you get started. So the program was really nice. It helped people with disability get back out there in the world and be able to be independent and do things on their own.
[00:37:33.450] - Evan Evans
So I was very proud to be involved with that. That was my second contract with GM. And at that point, myself and Dale Earnhardt, senior, were the only two racers that had two contracts with Chevrolet as spokespeople and race car drivers. So I was proud of that as well.
[00:37:53.230] - Big Rich Klein
Absolutely. There with the legend. There you go.
[00:37:56.720] - Evan Evans
Yeah.
[00:37:57.980] - Big Rich Klein
So then let's talk about the controls, the hand controls. When you first got into the car after the accident, did you guys develop the hand controls yourself or were there products already on the market that would work?
[00:38:15.670] - Evan Evans
Nope, there was standard hand controls that are in everybody's vehicle out there, but they're not sufficient enough for going off-road racing because the throttle, I mean, you could do it, but it wasn't competitive enough for me. I wanted to be upfront winning, and so I developed my own. The throttle on conventional hand controls, you push forward towards the dash for the break, and then you pulled down towards your knee for the throttle. And flying off jumps and stuff like that, I didn't want to be on and off the throttle with the weight of my hand throttling it. So to me, that just wasn't sufficient enough, and I needed to come up with something to where I was more in control of the throttle and the brake.
[00:39:09.390] - Big Rich Klein
Was it a twist throttle then?
[00:39:12.160] - Evan Evans
Yes, that's what I came up with. I ridden motorcycles my whole life, of course, and that's how I got hurt. But twist throttle came very, very natural for me. In my mind, when I was hurt laying in the hospital, I knew I was going to keep racing. I was developing hand controls already in the hospital. And in my mind, I thought, What is your natural instinct? If you were to trip or fall, your natural instinct is to put your hands out to catch yourself. You push forward. If something scares you, you try to push it away. So that is your natural instinct in my mind. So that's where I wanted my brake. If I see a ditch or something scary coming up, well, your natural instinct is to push it away from you. So that's how I made my brakes, is pushing towards the dash. And then I just slid a motorcycle twist throttle on that because that came very natural, the throttle. And then, of course, short course racing, our radiators are in the back and we don't run a windshield, so the air can get back there to the radiators. So on our helmets, we have.
[00:40:24.040] - Big Rich Klein
Clear.
[00:40:25.710] - Evan Evans
Tear-offs or something like that. But my hands are busy. I don't have time to let go of the throttle or somebody's going to go by me, and I'm certainly not going to let that happen. So I put a little button and a system called Clear Ray on my helmet. So when I hit this button, a roll ofnew lens comes in my vision to where I can see again and it swipes the mud off of my helmet and gives me new vision. So there was a button there, and then, of course, the radio button, so I could talk to my crew, my wife was my spotter for me. So I was in contact with them. And then in my left hand was the steering wheel. And inside the steering wheel on the inside is like an old horn ring. You push down with your thumb to downshift and you pull back with your four fingers to upshift. So it came very natural to me. Once I figured out good breaks, that's the system I had stayed with throughout my career, and it has kept me competitive and very natural for me. A lot of people ask, Well, was it hard to learn how to do it without your legs?
[00:41:39.740] - Evan Evans
No, not really, because when you're going through rehab, you're learning how to deal with all that without using your legs. And so once I got my breaks, I knew I could be competitive and go out there and win some races.
[00:41:53.890] - Big Rich Klein
Excellent. That's phenomenal. So then over your career, you have 57 wins and six championships in the US. How many more years?
[00:42:07.840] - Evan Evans
How many more years? What?
[00:42:09.360] - Big Rich Klein
Racing?
[00:42:10.680] - Evan Evans
Oh, no, I'm retired. You're retired now. I might do a couple of Norra races, but I'm not doing seasons or anything like that. I struggle too much to find help financially to do it, and I've already proven everything I needed to prove. If I'm out there and you see me out there racing, it's because I'm out there having fun and wanting to live life a little bit.
[00:42:40.370] - Big Rich Klein
Your ceremony, induction ceremony, your time on stage was great. I think you stole the show. Thank you. Whoever came up with the, Let's do a pit stop on your chair, that was brilliant. Thank you. You didn't break your speech or anything. You just kept right on going as your pit crew was working on you.
[00:43:06.410] - Evan Evans
Well, ain't that what you do when you come into the pits? You got your own agenda to keep with, and they deal with the car, and you deal with your agenda. Whether it's getting something to drink, taking medicine, getting something to eat, checking over your own vehicle inside the cab, you have your own agenda and you got to keep on it.
[00:43:28.800] - Big Rich Klein
Exactly. and you created the the podium, which will now stay with Ormhof, I understand?
[00:43:38.200] - Evan Evans
I did, yes. I got together with Troy Johnson at Fab school and asked if he could help me do something and design something. I gave him my thoughts, and he ran with it and built that, and it turned out very nice. I was very happy with it.
[00:43:57.380] - Big Rich Klein
Right. Now you had some fabricated tables that you put into the auction to help raise funds for Ormhof, the Off Road Motor Sports Hall of Fame. Are you producing those for sale? Is that something that you have available for sale?
[00:44:18.640] - Evan Evans
No. Randy Anderson, my dad's partner, and also an inductee of the Hall of Fame, his 60th birthday was not too long ago. I built one of those for him, and I liked it so well it turned out so cool that I thought when they asked me to come up with something for the auction, I thought that's what I'm going to do because it turned out so well. They were beautiful. Thank you. I've only built three of those, but yeah, they are very cool tables.
[00:44:56.000] - Big Rich Klein
What are you doing nowadays? You said you retired from racing. Are you still fabricating? What are you up to?
[00:45:05.030] - Evan Evans
I do. I go out and I tinker a little bit in my shop here and there. My wife and I, she had bought herself a new Polaris slingshot. Not too long ago, I was up there building hand controls for the slingshot. We just went to Sturges. We like to go to Sturges and hang out with my dad and all his friends up there at Sturges, and we all ride together. And, of course, I can't ride a motorcycle, so my wife bought a slingshot, which is a three-wheeled. It's called an auto... What's it called? An auto-something. It's a motorcycle and it's got three wheels. It's two upfront and one in the rear. We put hand controls in it. We like to go up there and ride with all my dad's friends.
[00:45:55.560] - Big Rich Klein
Excellent.
[00:45:56.620] - Evan Evans
I do tinker in the shop a little bit, but I also my yard, I love my yard. I raise a lot of exotic palm trees and a lot of exotic cicads from all over the world. I have fun with that out my yard as well.
[00:46:15.130] - Big Rich Klein
Cicads?
[00:46:16.220] - Evan Evans
Yeah, which is a sago. It's a Say-go.
[00:46:18.870] - Big Rich Klein
Okay.
[00:46:20.690] - Evan Evans
But I raise some from all over the world. They're a little bit exotic.
[00:46:26.360] - Big Rich Klein
Excellent.
[00:46:27.390] - Evan Evans
Yeah.
[00:46:28.280] - Big Rich Klein
So what is the future hold for Evan Evans?
[00:46:34.040] - Evan Evans
Well, who really knows? I'm up for anything. I actually just went to the Texas race and met some people on the plane there that are interested in talking with me and doing something with me. I don't really want to say what type of stuff that is yet, but I'm excited that we had met and that we're going to be getting together. Excellent.
[00:47:01.610] - Big Rich Klein
And what about Ormhof? Did you feel that was a pretty great honor?
[00:47:07.660] - Evan Evans
Well, to have your career displayed up there, it's a huge, huge honor. Not to mention that me growing up, everybody that I was watching is inducted in there. All of my heroes are in there from me growing up. So to be included and even be thought of and considered as one of them is an honor that I can't even tell you what it feels like. It's just a huge honor for me. Everybody I know is in there. My dad, Randy, his partner, Malcolm Smith, Parnellie Jones, Scoop Vessels, everybody that I know and watched when I was a kid is special in there, and so it's special to me, of course.
[00:47:58.400] - Big Rich Klein
Excellent. We hope thatwe hope that we'll see you at all the inductions, and we hope that we can get your help on some projects coming up as well.
[00:48:11.350] - Evan Evans
Yes, I would be honored to, yeah.
[00:48:13.980] - Big Rich Klein
Is there anything else that we haven't touched on that you would like to talk about?
[00:48:21.660] - Evan Evans
I'm just thrilled that you even wanted to talk to me and pick my brain a little bit. I've heard about you for many years and never really gotten a chance to work with you. Like I told you earlier, it's a privilege.
[00:48:37.110] - Big Rich Klein
Well, it's my privilege. You're the personality and the motivational person in all of this. And it's a great honor for me to have the opportunity to finally get to know you.
[00:48:52.480] - Evan Evans
Well, thank you. There is one thing I should touch base on is a little bit, but everybody's honoring me, and that's fine. But I could not have done this without, of course, my crew. My crew was all volunteers. I've only had one employee on my payroll at one given time. My wife, of course, has basically ran my team for me. She doesn't get the credit. And to me, I was the lucky one that used to get to go out there and work on the race cars and used to get to drive the race cars. My poor wife, she didn't get the recognition for all the work that she's done. She basically ran my team. She was my spotter, and she kept me safe out there when I was racing and kept me calm out there and was a lot of big reason of my success.
[00:49:47.390] - Big Rich Klein
And there's a lot of us that can say that, and that's something that we all need to recognize more often is that our partners are more than just domestic partners. They are partners in life and everything that we do.
[00:50:05.400] - Evan Evans
Yeah. And my wife, she has an extra couple of hurdles as me, as a husband. I can remember some nights coming home from races and us just being dead tired after driving, being on the road for a few hours and just needing to pull over and we get to a hotel and they wouldn't have any rooms on the bottom floor. And we're both dead tired and she'd throw me on her back and piggyback me upstairs. My wife has been through it all with me. She's the toughest lady I know. I love her so much and so proud of her.
[00:50:40.390] - Big Rich Klein
That is awesome. That's a great segue. Thank you. Evan, thank you so much for spending the time with me and allowing us to get to know you better and what the motivation factor is that never give up. That is something that I think everybody needs to embrace, never give up.
[00:51:04.670] - Evan Evans
Everybody does. Even able bodies, everybody and some time in their life need to remember that life's not easy sometimes, and you just got to keep plugging away. Things all work out in the end.
[00:51:18.670] - Big Rich Klein
Exactly. Evan, thank you so much.
[00:51:22.550] - Evan Evans
Rich, it's my pleasure. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me.
[00:51:26.890] - Big Rich Klein
And you have a great rest of your day.
[00:51:29.130] - Evan Evans
Thank you.
[00:51:29.810] - Big Rich Klein
Bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message, or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have or if there's anybody that you have that you would think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the gust you can. Thank you.