From Baja Beginnings to the ORMHOF Board, Steve Kelley on Episode 305

Off-road legend and 2021 Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee Steve Kelley joins Big Rich to trace a lifetime in the dirt—racing, rules-making, giving back, and globe-trotting.

From his first Baja 1000 in 1969 that hooked him on racing to helping build a Class 11-style VW and taking it 200+ miles before limping it back home. Steve ironmanned a Class 1 from Ensenada to La Paz—no driver change, no flats, 20+ hours; 2nd in class, 3rd overall in 1979. 

There is much more to a lifetime of racing.  Listen in for dusty silt-bed memories, class-building history, and the camaraderie that makes off-road special.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

[00:00:05.100] 

Welcome to Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview-style podcast. Those interviewed are all involved in the off-road 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 off-road. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active and off-road. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call off-road.

[00:00:46.460] 

Whether you're crawling the Red Rocks of Moab or hauling your toys to the trail, Maxxis has the tires you can trust for performance and durability. Four wheels or two, Maxxis tires are the choice of champions because they know that whether for work or play, for fun or competition, Maxxis tires deliver. Choose Maxxis. Tread victoriously.

[00:01:12.820] - Big Rich Klein

My next guest attended his first Baja 1,000 in 1969, and he was hooked from then on. Sal Fish even credits him with helping establish class rules in the early days of SCORE. He was a co-founder of a nonprofit charity to support children. He is a 2021 ORMHOF Inductee, and now sits on the Board of Directors as well. My guest this week is Steve Kelley. Hello, Steve Kelley. It's so good to have you on the podcast. You've joined the Board of Directors with ORMHOF, and I don't come from the off-road racing background, so I don't know you very well, except for what I've read and the few conversations that we've had at the gala and at some of the meetings. And I'm looking forward to this podcast, and I'm sure even some of your racing buddies will hear things today that they probably never heard.

[00:02:12.420] - Steve Kelley

Well, thanks, Rich. It's great to be on and look forward to talking to you.

[00:02:17.680] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. So let's get started with the easiest question for me to answer, and hopefully the easiest one for you to answer, or for me to ask and you to answer. And that's, where were you born and raised?

[00:02:30.000] - Steve Kelley

I'm born in Hawthorne, California. Grew up in a little town called El Segundo, where the Chevron Refinery is. That's what it was called. It's the second refinery built in the state, and then next to LA Airport.

[00:02:45.240] - Big Rich Klein

All right. Okay. I'm assuming that it was a lot different back then than it is now, that area?

[00:02:57.700] - Steve Kelley

Yes. It's actually a small small town, and you got the airport on one side, the refinery on one side, the ocean on the other side, the Pacific Ocean, obviously, and aerospace companies on the other side. It's a square town, really limited. I think there was 10,000 people there when I grew up, and I bet there's not more than 15 now.

[00:03:25.060] - Big Rich Klein

When you're boxed in like that.

[00:03:28.160] - Steve Kelley

Yeah. It's like Yeah. Growing up, it was like an old Midwest town, very small. Everybody knew anybody. Like I said, the people, the dads either worked for Chevron or Chevron Standard Oil back then, or the aerospace companies, North Air Pews, North America, that thing.

[00:03:48.580] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. I would imagine with the third or the fourth side being the Pacific Ocean, water played a big part in your growing up?

[00:04:00.000] - Steve Kelley

Yes, it did. Went to the beach a lot, surfed a lot. Yeah, it did. That was our summertime.

[00:04:08.340] - Big Rich Klein

Was at the beach. Going to school there, I would imagine being a small or community like that, you stayed with the same kids all through all the grades?

[00:04:21.260] - Steve Kelley

Yeah, there was two grammar schools, one junior high, one high school. High school was built back in the mid-20s, 1920s. It looks a lot like an old East Coast College. The movie companies used to use it a lot in their sets and in filming programs and movies and stuff. It was really a cool place. There was really less than a thousand kids in high school. So you did know everybody.

[00:04:52.780] - Big Rich Klein

When you were going there, did they use it as a film set then? Did you get to watch something? Yes. Yes. You remember that production happening?

[00:05:01.700] - Steve Kelley

Yes. Kids walking through the halls and that.

[00:05:07.420] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, cool.

[00:05:08.260] - Steve Kelley

It was fun.

[00:05:09.940] - Big Rich Klein

What student were you? Were you a good student or were you like a lot of us? You were looking out the window waiting for the bell to ring.

[00:05:20.280] - Steve Kelley

Yeah. I had great grades. I didn't study much. I was lucky. I tested well. I Probably a B plus student, so did a lot of things. I met my wife in high school, and we're still married. Congratulations on that. Going on 59 years this summer. Wow. You can believe that.

[00:05:47.080] - Big Rich Klein

Congratulations.

[00:05:48.640] - Steve Kelley

Yeah, we're pretty happy. We had three kids. Got six grandkids. One of our kids lives in Newport Beach, where we had lived for years. Then one lives in Texas, outside of Dallas. My son and three grandkids live in the Middle East.

[00:06:10.220] - Big Rich Klein

In the Middle East, you mean like?

[00:06:12.960] - Steve Kelley

Bahrain.

[00:06:13.940] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, wow.

[00:06:15.220] - Steve Kelley

Yeah.

[00:06:16.260] - Big Rich Klein

Is that because of the job? Yes. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. All right.

[00:06:21.420] - Steve Kelley

Yeah. He works for the government. He's been all over the... He knows five languages. Wow. I can't speak English very well.

[00:06:29.620] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I I was going to say I have a problem with just one. Exactly. I can order a beer and find a bathroom in three other languages.

[00:06:39.460] - Steve Kelley

Same here. I spent a lot of time in China working for about 15 years, so I could do all that, ask for ice, and things like that.

[00:06:48.240] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. You got to have the necessities.

[00:06:51.680] - Steve Kelley

Absolutely.

[00:06:53.560] - Big Rich Klein

So was there a particular class or subject that you liked while you were in school?

[00:07:02.880] - Steve Kelley

History. I was lucky enough. My dad worked for Standard Oil, like a lot of kids' dads. He got sent over to Iran. I was 9 and 10 years old, so I lived there for two years. That was a great experience. I went to what they call an English school. A lot of times you get overseas and They have an American school, an English school, that thing. We went to the English school. They didn't have an American school. I was still young, basically fourth and fifth grade. When I came back, I don't think I learned much for three years. That's how tough it was. You really learned a lot. It's a different thing than education in the US. It's very interesting. Luckily, I got three of my grandkids over there in the Middle East, and they've been overseas since they were born, all of them. One was born in Jordan, one was born in the Netherlands, and one was born in Austria. They've had a heck of upbringing also. That's probably one of the best things you can ever do if you get a chance to travel.

[00:08:26.080] - Big Rich Klein

I agree. Did you have continuing education after high school?

[00:08:33.800] - Steve Kelley

Yeah, I went to junior college and then finished up at Long Beach State in Southern California.

[00:08:40.520] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And your subject to study?

[00:08:44.060] - Steve Kelley

The easiest one to get through was psychology. That's why I ended up taking.

[00:08:52.720] - Big Rich Klein

Because it's all theories.

[00:08:55.300] - Steve Kelley

Yeah, exactly. It's pretty easy. I remember in junior college, I signed up for a... You had to take a science, so I had five units of Botany. I went to the class maybe three times, didn't like it, didn't drop it. I got five units of F. I had to figure out. I had to get five units of A, and I took a I got a chemistry class, and my wife was there, and she got me through it, and I got five units of A. Perfect. It turned out to be a C.

[00:09:26.180] - Big Rich Klein

I have a liberal arts degree in Commercial Photography and product advertising.

[00:09:32.780] - Steve Kelley

Okay.

[00:09:33.320] - Big Rich Klein

And I stayed in the business for a while, and then when everything went digital, I bailed and eventually became an event promoter. But the going to school, getting ready to go to... Going to junior college, getting ready to go to the school that I ended up graduating from, I had to take an art appreciation course. Okay. I've done art all through school, different art classes and studies and that stuff. I've got an F in art appreciation.

[00:10:12.920] - Steve Kelley

Okay.

[00:10:14.640] - Big Rich Klein

When I got to the school that I eventually graduated from, they said, What's all this about? How did you fail art appreciation? You're an art major. Yeah, as an art major. I said, Well, my instructor didn't believe that photography was a form of art. He said it was a form of business. And I argued with him all the time. So hence the F. So they let that slide. And then I took a masseuse class or something like that to get the- Exactly.

[00:10:47.160] - Steve Kelley

Yeah. Perfect.

[00:10:49.300] - Big Rich Klein

So let's talk about when you were growing up, your dad worked for Standard Oil, Chevron, which then they were separate back then, I would imagine, weren't they? Well, no.

[00:11:04.400] - Steve Kelley

Actually, it was Standard Oil, Chevron. Yeah, I think, I guess they were. And then they basically bought out all of Standard Oil and became Chevron. Right. Back in the '70s, I think.

[00:11:17.080] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So then you said that you went over east and it did that. But what did the family do for vacations or family activities?

[00:11:35.920] - Steve Kelley

Well, Dad probably had four weeks vacation in the summertime. In two weeks, he'd rent a trailer and we'd drive somewhere: Yosemite, Oregon, Washington. So for two weeks, we just vacation out of a travel trailer. Small with my brother.

[00:11:59.400] - Big Rich Klein

And did you enjoy those trips?

[00:12:02.020] - Steve Kelley

Yeah, we did. I wasn't ever a camper, per se. But obviously, racing in the desert, we had to spend many nights out there in our sleeping bags. Right. Yeah.

[00:12:15.940] - Big Rich Klein

And days, possibly without showers, right?

[00:12:19.060] - Steve Kelley

Many days, yes.

[00:12:21.640] - Big Rich Klein

So let's talk about your first trip that got you involved with off-road How did that come about?

[00:12:32.160] - Steve Kelley

This is good. A friend of mine, he had been to... I'm trying to remember, the first Baja race was '67, down in Mexico, I think. I worked for his dad, went to school and worked for his dad, so we were good. We were friends. He was a couple of years older. He goes, We need to go race in Mexico, blah, blah, blah. He got his grandmother's Volkswagen and built it. It was basically a Class XI. I helped him at night, and we went down to the 69 Baja 1,000 and entered, actually entered, went up to Nora in the valley and went through the drawing and did all that cool stuff that was way back when. I was just early '21, I think, maybe '22. Then we drove it to Mexico. Started the race. We made it all the way... We probably made it 200 miles, 225 miles, and broke some front suspension and turned around and drove it back. So that was my first off-road experience with '69 Baja 1,000.

[00:13:55.180] - Big Rich Klein

You said you drove it back home?

[00:13:57.280] - Steve Kelley

Yeah, drove it down, fixed it, and drove it back. Wow.

[00:14:01.020] - Big Rich Klein

That's pretty crazy.

[00:14:02.200] - Steve Kelley

Well, Valtuers are tough.

[00:14:04.680] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. And back then, you could find the parts just about anywhere.

[00:14:08.760] - Steve Kelley

Oh, everywhere. Yeah. Especially in Mexico, you could find anything in junk yards.

[00:14:13.310] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, because even... I When they quit making them here or bringing them in, making them here in the States, and even in Germany, they continued making them in Mexico and Brazil. Yes.

[00:14:24.980] - Steve Kelley

Correct. Yeah. It's cool, actually.

[00:14:30.760] - Big Rich Klein

It was just one of those comments, We need to go race.

[00:14:35.700] - Steve Kelley

Yeah. It didn't matter back then. I mean, 300 cars or something, and bikes took off. We were one of the last cars off, and we just put it down the road. I think we got to Mike Sky Ranch just past that, and that's when we broke a front A arm. Not an A arm. What do you want to call it for a Volkswagen? The…

[00:15:01.340] - Big Rich Klein

The B.

[00:15:03.160] - Steve Kelley

Anyway, so we broke one of those. But that's when you could basically… If your rear wheels were driving, you could drive on one front wheel, if you remember that. If you ever got into a Volkswagen. Anyway, so we got it back to a junkyard, got apart, put it together and drove home.

[00:15:21.100] - Big Rich Klein

Was it still grandma's car at that point?

[00:15:27.100] - Steve Kelley

Well, she gave it to him. Oh, okay.

[00:15:28.680] - Big Rich Klein

We didn't have to give I'll give it back. Okay, so you didn't just borrow it, build it into a race car, and then turn it back over to her?

[00:15:37.000] - Steve Kelley

Yeah, she knew what we were doing with it.

[00:15:38.970] - Big Rich Klein

We worked for God. I could just see grandma getting in there with cage and harnesses and everything. That'd be cool.

[00:15:45.910] - Steve Kelley

Exactly. Yeah. No, didn't have to do that.

[00:15:48.680] - Big Rich Klein

And so after that race, what was- God.

[00:15:54.540] - Steve Kelley

Probably I went to some off-road races with friends, and I got to know a few people. A buddy of mine and I bought a Funco in 1972, a two-seater, and raced the mid-400 that year. It was real interesting. But we finished the race. I don't know how long it took, but it was a long time. We just split up driving. I'd drive for a while and I'd move over and he'd drive and stop. Anyway, we were over with. I just remember digging silt out of my eyes for a week. I'm sure you've been through those silt beds sometimes.

[00:16:39.700] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, yes.

[00:16:40.700] - Steve Kelley

Oh, boy. That's what it was nice being when they had parker pumpers, and we got that, and then windschilds in the trucks, and it wasn't so bad.

[00:16:50.520] - Big Rich Klein

Right, but in the early days- You have some goggles, some shitty goggles. Goggles and maybe a necker chip or something. A bandana?

[00:17:00.660] - Steve Kelley

A bandana around your mouth and nose. It may be stayed on. Yeah, that was it.

[00:17:06.660] - Big Rich Klein

It's amazing that more of the old racers don't have COPD or lung diseases.

[00:17:14.920] - Steve Kelley

True, true, true. I sucked in a lot of dust over the years.

[00:17:20.100] - Big Rich Klein

So then you raced the Funco, and that's what a Class IX would be or something like that? Class IX?

[00:17:30.000] - Steve Kelley

It was Class II.

[00:17:31.260] - Big Rich Klein

Class II, okay.

[00:17:32.400] - Steve Kelley

I had a Gil George that owned Funco. He passed away a while ago. He built it. Got to be good friends with him. We bought a trailer, the car, a couple of spare tires and wheels and hooked it onto a station wagon and drove to Vegas. That was our first thing. That was back when it was fun. I mean, everything was still fun. Don't get me wrong. I wish I was still racing. I miss it. But you definitely could do a lot. I think we spent $5,000 for the trailer and the car.

[00:18:09.480] - Big Rich Klein

You can barely buy a set of tires for that nowadays.

[00:18:14.920] - Steve Kelley

Exactly, yeah. If you can even find them.

[00:18:20.080] - Big Rich Klein

What was that like driving that fun go with a bunch of friends? Is there Anything that was really memorable from that race in the mint?

[00:18:34.540] - Steve Kelley

Well, that was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it so much. The guy that I bought the car with a bottom out, he didn't really like it and went on to race it a couple, two or three times a year for a couple of years. Then I built a new two-seater and drove that up until probably 1976. Then I wanted to get in Class I, so hired a guy and got a shop. My business was doing well then. I was always in custom wheels.

[00:19:14.240] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:19:15.300] - Steve Kelley

Luckily, I did pretty well and was able to afford to have the car built and actually go to the races and bring some guys to help as my pit crew and afford to afford a room to stay in Vegas or wherever we went. You weren't just camping out in the desert.

[00:19:36.840] - Big Rich Klein

So your business was wheels? Yes. How did you get into that?

[00:19:44.520] - Steve Kelley

Just finding somebody and got a job out of college, and it was a wheel company. You stay in what you know. Went from one place to another and got a job and make a little more money. Then I started my own business in the late '70s and pretty much had sold a couple of different businesses and went on from there to work for a company called American Racing, which was a big wheel company back then.

[00:20:17.090] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, I sold a lot of them.

[00:20:19.020] - Steve Kelley

Did you? Yeah.

[00:20:20.020] - Big Rich Klein

Sears.

[00:20:22.020] - Steve Kelley

Yeah. I was a vice president of sales and marketing. We had, at one time, about 2,600 employees and six different plants, one in Mexico, one in Tennessee, and then three in California.

[00:20:42.560] - Big Rich Klein

Interesting. That was good. When you started off in the wheel business, was it primarily steel wheels? Yes, correct. Making custom widths and things like that, and bolt patterns. Yeah.

[00:20:55.820] - Steve Kelley

I don't know if you remember the Jackman wheels. They were the first. Oh, yes. Yeah.

[00:21:00.420] - Big Rich Klein

Harry Jackman. Yeah, I just met him last year.

[00:21:03.580] - Steve Kelley

Oh, good. Okay. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. So I mean, that's the start of that. That's when custom wheels were... Everybody wanted something. The white spoke, white eight spokes and all that stuff. And then we got into chrome, and then we got to do this, and we got into aluminum, which is where everybody's at now.

[00:21:25.420] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I can remember when we first, at Sears, when I first started working with, and this was when I was in high school in the '70s, the Craiger wheels were really popular.

[00:21:39.660] - Steve Kelley

Yeah, Craiger.

[00:21:40.410] - Big Rich Klein

Those things were such a pain in the butt to mount tires on because those center sections just wanted to break so easy.

[00:21:49.900] - Steve Kelley

Yeah. They had a steel outer and an aluminum center that was cast.

[00:21:55.140] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. It would just... Boy, if you just didn't have the seat right down in the center of the wheel, you would just get to break them. Yeah, you could break them. Yeah, you could break them. Yeah, it was really easy. Yeah. So then you're running the wheel business. You get involved with off-road racing, and you sold a lot of off-road wheels?

[00:22:21.900] - Steve Kelley

We sold a lot of off-road wheels, and passenger, and truck wheels, too. But yeah. So I got to know a lot of the guys off-road racing. Obviously, I think it was back. I started racing Class I in '78, I think. '79 was my first Baja 1,000, and I drove it all the way from and Sonata to La Paz. I think we were second in class one and third overall. Wow, that's what you did. That was the year Walker won in class eight.

[00:22:55.800] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:22:56.780] - Steve Kelley

Goes way back. I got I got to be friends with him. We lived close to Parnelly Jones. Our kids knew each other, so I got to be good friends with him. We ended up doing a lot of stuff together, met a lot of good people. Then over the years, I got into NASCAR and IndyCar and that thing. But I still did off-road racing up until early 2000s.

[00:23:25.060] - Big Rich Klein

It says in some of the notes that I have here that Larry Minor, who I interviewed as well. Oh, good. Yeah. Yeah, I got that one done. He was looking for a driver to take over for him in Parnelly. You got their attention?

[00:23:44.560] - Steve Kelley

Yeah. Well, you know what? I had gone from buggies. I drove a Class 8 for a guy for a couple of years, off and on, a couple of different guys. Then Walker hired me to drive. He got a Mazda contract, Class 7, and built two Mazdas, and I drove one of them for a year. Then that's when I got to be friends with John Nelson, who built the cars, and he also built Larry's truck for he and Parnelly out of Walker's shop. What happened is I got friends with John, and he brought my name up to Larry and said, Well, you got to give him a chance. We ran a Vegas race at the The end of the year, November, December, whatever it was. First race out, I'd never driven a really a good Class 8 and won the race. Wow. Yeah. He hired me for next year. I mean, back then, it was just word of mouth. You weren't right to get a contract. Backtracking a little bit, when I was running Class I and Class II, I met some The guys from BF Goodrich, which were my sponsor for 25 years. I had a personal services contract with BF Goodrich probably from '82 on until I ran for Walker and Mike Luslin because they were on good here.

[00:25:22.520] - Steve Kelley

But Frank D'Angelo and I have been great friends since day one. A few of the other guys that We were with them. We did a lot of tire testing and that thing. Larry hired me. We ended up winning, I think, five out of the six or eight, five or seven out of the races in '85. Wone a bunch in '86 and '87. We built a new truck, I think, in '88, '89. Then he basically said, I've had enough of this because you get a sponsorship, but not enough. Larry had plenty of money, but he's tired of doing it. So he had his kids race the other truck. Then I got a ride through Joe McPherson, Chevrolet, and drove Class 4. We won quite a few races there. I did that for about three or four years, probably four years. Got hired by Mike Leslie. We drove, which is Class II, Class I. We had two guys in the car in a Jeep. Then ran from there to Trophy Truck, and we ran short course races. I was the first winner of the Crandon Race, Borg-Werner Cup, which was a huge… $35,000 was a big money back then in the '90s, the win.

[00:26:58.580] - Steve Kelley

We got that, and they still got this frigging trophy that was worth about $7,500 back then. It's just got gold and silver and everything else. It was really good. The original trophy looked just like the one they made for Indy.

[00:27:15.480] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, wow. Okay.

[00:27:16.640] - Steve Kelley

It's pretty cool. They still have it at Crandon. They put the guy's names on them when they win the race.

[00:27:21.260] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I've seen it there. It's pretty awesome.

[00:27:24.000] - Steve Kelley

It is pretty awesome, yeah. I was lucky enough to be the first one to win that. And that was like 30 trucks, class four and class two, basically, or class eight and class four. So anyway, four-wheeled ride.

[00:27:39.440] - Big Rich Klein

So you raced with Walker. You raced against him and with him.

[00:27:45.280] - Steve Kelley

Absolutely. I got him a ride in a Class 8. He had the name. He got the truck built. Bill Schraff built it. I rode with him for half season in that truck, which was really cool. Learned a lot. Watching him drive. He and Carnelli were probably the best in off-road that I got to be with and rode with them. They're the only two that I would ever pre-run with and sit in the right seat and not the left seat. You could trust them.

[00:28:22.800] - Big Rich Klein

There's a level of trust in that.

[00:28:25.700] - Steve Kelley

It's got to be 100% trust.

[00:28:28.920] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, There's a couple of my friends that I will ride with, and there's a couple of friends that I would not ride with.

[00:28:35.940] - Steve Kelley

Exactly. Most of the time you want to drive. But in that case, they had the pre-runners. I rode with them, but I trusted them. If that wasn't, I wouldn't go. I'd somehow or another, get a different ride where I could drive it.

[00:28:52.380] - Big Rich Klein

At Walker's Memorial, Sarah Palin got up and talked about how Walker just showed up on her doorstep saying, Hey, I want to come hunting with you or fishing with you.

[00:29:09.100] - Steve Kelley

Yeah, fishing, yes.

[00:29:10.490] - Big Rich Klein

That's the Walker that I remember. When he got into rock crawling, he came out to Cedar City where I lived, and they wanted to come out and see what the rocks were like, where the event was going to be held and everything. And we took him on trails and stuff. But he was just so He was really engaging. And it was such an honor to be with him. I mean, but here he was in my backyard, and it was cool. And he was just so down to earth?

[00:29:46.910] - Steve Kelley

Well, I'll tell you what. That first race I won in 84 was a 250 in Vegas. He and I went back and forth for three and a half laps of a 250-mile race out in Vegas Desert. He had a flat… I was right behind him the whole time, pretty much in his dust. I couldn't pass him. This was my first race in Larry's car, and I wasn't going to break it. Well, he had a flat tire, and I had had a flat tire and lost some time. He could not fix his car for some reason. I stopped. Hey, we were so far ahead of the last guy. The third-place guy, it didn't matter. He knew I didn't have a spare, and we only carried one spare back then. He gave me a spare tire.

[00:30:43.900] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, wow.

[00:30:45.200] - Steve Kelley

Okay, so it was really nice. Now, I only had maybe 20 miles to finish, but if I'd have got another flat, that would have been it. Anyway, he and I became really good friends after that. Obviously, I I'd known him from driving with Mazda. The family is your friends. After we quit, we both we traveled. We did cruises two or three times a year. When we go out there, I stay at the house still with Phyllis. We still do a lot of stuff together. But he taught me really how to race a truck. Yeah. But I'll tell you what, it was a lot of fun beating him. That was the biggest deal. You always wanted to beat Walker Evans, didn't you? That was it.

[00:31:40.540] - Big Rich Klein

Well, I saved him one time. Did you? In his rock crawling, because I knew him from the rock crawling. And we were at Donner Ski Ranch up in the Sierras in California. And he had an issue with his car, and he was heading down the mountain to the pits. And there's an access road where It's where they get the equipment up in the summertime and that stuff. And the owner of the ski ranch lived right there off that road. And he was a grumpy guy. And Walker, I had a speed limit on the road, and Walker was probably going a little over the speed limit. And the owner chased him down into the parking lot and was going to throw him off the hill and not allow him back up there.

[00:32:27.540] - Steve Kelley

Oh, shit. Okay.

[00:32:28.760] - Big Rich Klein

Well, that would have ruined his weekend, right? So one of his pit crew come up, and it might have been Anderson, but he comes up and he goes, Hey, you got to come down and talk to Walker. There's a problem. So I went down the hill, and Walker's pleading with me, and to talk to the owner, and he wants to apologize and wants to save his event. So I talked to the owner, got the owner to agree that if Walker apologized, that it would be good. So I got the owner down there and Walker was just like, Oh, my God, thank you. I'm so sorry that I was speeding. And I explained the situation. There was nobody around at the time, but right by the guy's house on the hill. So Walker was able to continue. But one of the things that Walker always told me is he goes, Rich, don't let anybody forget that I was a rock Crawler. Because I want people to know that I went rock crawling. That's true. He loved it. Yeah. And he said that I promised him I wouldn't let people forget it. And every time I get a chance to mention it, I remind them that Walker won my first Series Championship back in 2002.

[00:33:50.080] - Steve Kelley

Well, you know what? He still has the last Rock Crawler he built still in his hangar. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's a beautiful car.

[00:33:59.720] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. They always did great.

[00:34:04.320] - Steve Kelley

They knew how to build race cars. Randy knew how to build them.

[00:34:07.530] - Big Rich Klein

Yes, absolutely.

[00:34:10.000] - Steve Kelley

Yeah. It's just... He was He was a gentleman, and he was a racer. You look at what he did with Nass truck and doing all that and getting involved and driving himself. I was racing for him in a trophy trucks back then. He built a Class IV short course truck, and he was racing trucks in Nascar. They raced a lot. Then all the races that he couldn't make to drive the Class 4, then I got to drive it, which was fun. Brenda Dawn was another driver for him back there in the short course. We had just Anyway, you just had a ball with everybody. You couldn't have asked for a better sport to make money in, number one, a little bit, not a lot, but to be around all these people and to travel with them. All the stories, the pre-run stories you got are just phenomenal. That's something you miss.

[00:35:26.620] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So SCOR, Sal Fish. He credits you as being one of the drivers that helped within the early days of establishing the rules for classes. Is that- Yeah.

[00:35:42.060] - Steve Kelley

What was all that like?

[00:35:44.960] - Big Rich Klein

Just a big meeting with a bunch of heads in, trying to figure out what to do. Yeah.

[00:35:48.600] - Steve Kelley

Mickey Thompson owned it at that point, and Sal worked for him. And so obviously, I was racing every one of their races. They get to know the racers and the people that want to be involved. Mickey asked me to be involved, and Sal was the one that was running it, so we got to be good friends. We still talk all the time. It's a history that I'm very proud of.

[00:36:20.900] - Big Rich Klein

Because there's names that just stand out in the history of Off-Road, and you can put your name with each one of those guys.

[00:36:34.520] - Steve Kelley

Well, I hope so. I wasn't the most vocal or outspoken or anything else, but I was friends. We loan people. I remember loaning a scoop vessel, a motor. He blew a motor down 500. We loan him a race motor. But he won the race.

[00:36:55.740] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:36:56.280] - Steve Kelley

Beat us. You do things like that. That's what off-roading is all about, is giving back.

[00:37:04.260] - Big Rich Klein

True.

[00:37:05.320] - Steve Kelley

Helping people.

[00:37:07.460] - Big Rich Klein

You and Jim Smith of Ultrawheel started a A nonprofit?

[00:37:17.380] - Steve Kelley

It was us and probably six or eight other guys that were in the wheel business. My wife and I have been involved in Childhelp USA, which is They raise money, and they have homes for abused kids. We got to talk in one day, and I took Jim and his partner, Don Zimmer, who's passed away since, out to one of the events, and they really got involved, and we all got together and said, Hey, let's do something. We were all doing very well financially then. We started a nonprofit called Who Real Friends of Child Health. Over, I don't know, 12, 13, 14 years, we raised three and a half million dollars to give them. It was a lot of money. It was a lot of work, obviously. We got our business to run. A lot of us, some of us were racing, and at the same time, having to put this on once a year. It worked out great.

[00:38:28.720] - Big Rich Klein

The fundraisers, you did golf tournaments?

[00:38:32.480] - Steve Kelley

We did golf tournaments. We do our event on a Friday night. It was a black-time. Black-time events. I remember the one year that I was chairman. They weren't the Eagles in them, but Glenn Frey, who was one of the original Eagles, sang for us and played for us. I spent all day with him, setting up and doing this. What a neat guy. It was sad when he passed. My wife and I, along with Phyllis Evans and Judy Jones, Marielle's wife, we went to the last Ormhoff. We went to see the eagles in Vegas. That's here. I don't know if you've been there, but if you haven't been there, you got to go there.

[00:39:22.560] - Big Rich Klein

That's what I've heard. I haven't been there, but I plan on it.

[00:39:25.720] - Steve Kelley

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, you got to find a good concert. It was It was unbelievable. We just had a ball there. That was Friday night, and we went to the Ormhoff event on Sunday. We were happy people.

[00:39:43.100] - Big Rich Klein

How did you get involved with golf? Was it something you started early in life, or was it because of business?

[00:39:52.440] - Steve Kelley

Typical, when you're in business, you get invited to these charity golf events. I went to and got into it. Got to be pretty good. I got down to a six handicap. That was my lowest. Normally, it was a 10 to 12. But yes, I love golf. I'd probably play 30, 40 times a year. That's a lot. I joined probably three different golf clubs, which my wife still yelled at me for, for all the money I spent. But yeah, I enjoyed it and we liked it. Hopefully, we can get a good tournament for Arnulf off and start making a little money that way, too.

[00:40:45.240] - Big Rich Klein

Right. We're looking forward to it. Yeah. We've decided to do another fundraiser besides the gala for those that are listening. And we're going to do a golf tournament this summer in June. We'll be announcing that here shortly through the Ormhoff website and our social media and stuff. And we're working on the committee together. That's going to be fun. I'm looking forward to this.

[00:41:10.680] - Steve Kelley

It will be. I mean, you'll enjoy it. Are you golfer?

[00:41:13.900] - Big Rich Klein

I am not a golfer. Okay. Golf is one of those sports that I knew that I would never... I wouldn't be able to perfect it It's one of those things you can never perfect.

[00:41:34.380] - Steve Kelley

Never. Never.

[00:41:35.840] - Big Rich Klein

And that would drive me absolutely crazy. I have to do things. If I'm going to do things like that, especially if there's any competition involved because I'm overly competitive, it's got to be something that I can master or can control. I had a friend that said, Hey, come out. Let's go golfing. I was like, I don't know. And he said, Let's go hit it. Spend a couple of weeks hitting a couple of buckets of balls after work every day. And after two weeks, if you don't like it, then quit. At the end of two weeks, I realized that I shouldn't do it. I enjoyed it, but I shouldn't do it because it just made me upset. The ball never went where I wanted it to.

[00:42:26.120] - Steve Kelley

Yeah, never. A lot of people bitch about golf because you can't really control the ball all the time. They bitch about you're out there for five hours or four hours. But I tell you what, the camaraderie involved in golf is phenomenal. The friends you make in golf. I used to be really big into smoking cigars and doing stuff. There's not a guy I've ever met that smoked a cigar that I didn't like. If It's funny how that... And same with golf. 99% of the golfers I played with, you like them. Whether you have a beer with them afterwards or whatever, they're fun to be around. That's why I think I liked it more that way. I did get competitive and played in a lot of different tournaments. But anyway, it's fun. Fun sport.

[00:43:23.020] - Big Rich Klein

That's just why I never did it, because I just didn't feel that I could control my temper enough.

[00:43:30.000] - Steve Kelley

You'll never master it. You'll never get the pros. They make mistakes, too.

[00:43:36.580] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, they sure do. So your charity CEMA ended up taking that over, and you still helped along the way?

[00:43:50.600] - Steve Kelley

No, I don't anymore. I retired about seven years ago. When we shut down Reels Friends of Child Health, we had gotten Cema involved in it, along with Patty's Motorcycle Ride.

[00:44:11.680] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:44:13.280] - Steve Kelley

Sema got involved in both. We did maybe two or three years with the golf tournaments with SEMA, and still with child help and helping them. It just petered out. We couldn't get enough help. We couldn't get enough people involved. It's too bad, but it did.

[00:44:35.260] - Big Rich Klein

What's your most memorable race in Mexico? Is there one that stands out that just That something crazy happened or something like that or a win or something that just made it extra special?

[00:44:55.280] - Steve Kelley

Boy, love Mexico, obviously, which is San Felipe, Baja 500, Baja 1000. 1000 is probably the best. I think my best memory is my first one in 1979 in Class I. Long race, obviously. I think it was 21 or 22 hours. I never got out of the car. Never had a flat tire. Bf Goodrich helped, pit and gas and all that stuff. I had a friend of mine chasing with another guy, a mechanic type thing. I was very lucky. But it was funny. You started out in Encinada, and I had not free run because I didn't have a free runner back then. There was a guy who was a good racer from Mexico, Perry McNeill. He owned a bunch of Kentucky fried chicken places down in Mexico. All of a sudden, He took off in front of me, I'd pass him. Down the road, all of a sudden, he's there again. I'd pass him. Well, he knew Mexico. He knew short because that was when it was really Point to point. You went from checkpoint to checkpoint. That's why we pre-ran so much. When I drove for Walker, he had a helicopter. We could find places all over the place.

[00:46:26.660] - Steve Kelley

But it's a lot different now, that's for sure.

[00:46:30.000] - Big Rich Klein

Right. At some point, did you say, Okay, I'm going to follow him for a while and find it something- No, you just want to pass and go.

[00:46:42.400] - Steve Kelley

I finally got down the I was, hell, I don't know what position I was in, but it was pretty far up. I went third, fourth, whatever, and then I passed somebody else, and then I passed Butt Fell Camp and Malcolm Smith, and Bobby Farrell was in front, and I never passed him. He was first, I was second. But then way down in Mexico, maybe 50 miles from the finish, I hear a truck, and it was Walker. He blew by me on a fast section because he could do 130. I think our cars could maybe do 90. They were 2180s. They They weren't the quickest things. He passed me and, gosh, basically followed his dust in and finished La Pauze. Like I said, maybe 20 some hours. I was tired, never got out of the car. That was an experience. I said, Well, you know what? All the truck drivers, they stay in the car. Rod Hall, Walker Evans, a lot of the guys switched drivers. The same with Class I and Class II. They switched drivers. I always wanted to be like them and be able to drive the whole race myself.

[00:48:06.720] - Big Rich Klein

That whole ironman.

[00:48:08.520] - Steve Kelley

Yeah, like Ivan, which we became good friends, too. I think that really one of the funnest stories was the mint, probably in '86, I think. Walker Evans' son, Evan Evans, wrote with me. He worked at Larry Minors on the truck, so we always let the mechanics ride a race. One guy be one race and next guy be another race. Well, he wrote at the Mint 400, and we chased Walker and chased Walker. And listening to Phyllis on the radio, Evan's telling me this, and he's going... She kept yelling, Walker, they're catching you. Go faster, go faster. And so he loved it because this was his dad. Then we ended up passing him. We won the race. So that was a fun instance with Walker.

[00:49:13.180] - Big Rich Klein

I have one of my good stories One of the stories with Walker is when he came out to rock crawl in Cedar City, Utah, with us. We were on this road. Well, it's actually where the water spillway, overflow, whatever you want to call it from a dam. We used to call it the Dam Road Trail. It's a big wash area that's just been cracked, boulders are put into it. And it's got a road on either side on top of the dirt burned on either side. And we're walking down, me and Phyllis are walking down a couple of others, and the guys are in there rock crawling and stuff. And Walker kept putting his arm out. Every time it rolled to lean real hard to the driver's side, he'd put his arm out. And I finally said, Hey, Walker, how strong are you? And he goes, I'm pretty strong for my age and my size. And I said, Well, I guarantee you that I'm probably physically stronger, and I bet I cannot one-arm press your Blazer like you're trying to do. Yeah. I said, Keep your damn arm in the car.

[00:50:33.360] - Steve Kelley

Right.

[00:50:34.500] - Big Rich Klein

Well, Phyllis picked up on that, and the rest of the day was just on him. Every time his arm would come off the steering wheel and go to the window, she'd start yelling at him. And of course, it's for his own safety. And we get- Of course. Yeah, we get done with that. We go do another trail. We get to dinner that night at a Mexican restaurant there that we really liked. And he leans over to me and he goes, You You telling me about keeping my arm in the window, that really made things rough on me the rest of the day. I'm like, Why was that? He goes, Because Phyllis wouldn't let up.

[00:51:10.980] - Steve Kelley

Well, that's typical Phyllis. She was that He was such a good mentor to me and became just an awesome friend forever until he passed in August. It was It was. Yeah. But you talked about Sarah Palin. Well, quick story, if we have time.

[00:51:41.290] - Big Rich Klein

Yes.

[00:51:42.160] - Steve Kelley

Okay. Anyway, Walker He was in the hospital for cancer down in Newport Beach at Hogue. We live right there in Newport Beach, so we were there a lot. I'm sure you heard the story where he was watching Sarah Palin does Alaska, that thing on TV. He told us all. He said, When I'm out of here, I'm going to go and meet her. Bottom line, he flew up there. He met Todd. We've gotten to be good friends with her, and we were with Todd until they divorced. Anyway, and then Todd brought him back to the house, and Sarah made him dinner. That's how the friendship started.

[00:52:28.920] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:52:29.360] - Steve Kelley

Isn't It was a true story. He says, I'm going to meet her. Sure as shit, you figure out whatever Walker wants to do, Walker is going to do it. Good, bad, or indifferent.

[00:52:41.080] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Yeah. Let's talk Can you talk about the Ormhoff Gala in '21? That was the class that you were inducted in. What was that like?

[00:52:56.540] - Steve Kelley

It was great. Walker was Like I said, my mentor, and he put me up for it. I didn't make it the first year that I was put up. I made it the second year. It's one of the greatest achievements that I have attained in my life. I'm so proud of it. I've done a lot of things. I've got seven million miles in an airplane flying for business and pleasure. I've been all over the world. I think I counted 69 different countries in the world. Wow. Yeah, that's a lot. But off-road racing in general, I BF Goodrich sent me to Australia three times to race, which was really cool. 1,000-kilometer race is not 1,000 miles, but 1,000 kilometers. But yeah, the off-road racing has just It's been such a part of my history and friendships and things like that. Certainly, there's people that have watched some of this stuff on TV and have known me and say things, and it's very, very kind. But being in the Off-Road Hall of Fame is just beyond spectacular, beyond special. Then when I was asked to be on the board of directors last year, boy, immediately took it on.

[00:54:33.820] - Steve Kelley

As long as I'm alive, I'll be there, that thing. It's just one of those things that you know how we want to help everybody. You're part of it. It's just so special.

[00:54:44.820] - Big Rich Klein

It is. And it's a great organization, not just to capture that history and retain it so that future generations can experience it and learn about it, but also some of the other things that we're expanding into to complete our mission, which is the education and helping with land use, those things. And it's some of the programs that we have coming up are really important, I think. There's not an organization out there like us doing that in off-road.

[00:55:24.890] - Steve Kelley

I would agree. What's so neat is on the board of directions, You got yourself and others that aren't, say, off-road racing. You've got everybody. You get the mechanics and you get to this in there. It's really a great organization. It's so special to a lot of different people that I talk to.

[00:55:50.420] - Big Rich Klein

I agree. You reminded me about Australia, and I wanted to talk about that. You drove three times in Australia, sponsored by BF Goodrich, Which... Yeah. And once in a buggy and twice... Or once in the Blazer and twice in a buggy?

[00:56:08.160] - Steve Kelley

Yeah, twice in a buggy and once in Parnelly's Blazer, that guy named Jim Hunter had bought it and had it over there. And he took John Nelson over, which was a mechanic for me at Larry Minors, and he rode a lot of races with me. And he went through the Blazer for a week, making sure. We won our class, and I think we were second or third overall. But they hadn't seen a car that could do 130 miles an hour. They all had buggies. It made a lot of noise. They loved it.

[00:56:50.600] - Big Rich Klein

Racing over there with a thousand kilometers, I've been I've been to Sydney, and then over to Wellington, and then up toward Brisbane, and then back down the Coast. Not out into the outback, but what we would call... It's that in between the coastal area and the desert section. It's more wooded and stuff. And when I first got there, I was like, the only kangaroos we saw for the first five five days were dead ones on the road. You would see deer, or squirrel, squirrels, or skunks, and that stuff where I live. And I was like, I don't think there's really any kangaroos. I think that the transportation Department just finds a dead one somewhere and throws it on the road so tourists see it. And then we got to camping in one of the national parks, and I'm unloading the Landrover that we had rented. I turn around, and there's three big Grays standing in my campground about four feet from me. And I thought I was going to get mugged.

[00:58:07.420] - Steve Kelley

Oh, yeah.

[00:58:08.240] - Big Rich Klein

Because they're all ripped, muscled and everything. And they're looking at you like, What do you got for me? You got to pay your dues. Exactly.

[00:58:17.020] - Steve Kelley

Feed me. Yeah.

[00:58:18.240] - Big Rich Klein

Did you have any experience like that? Or you see in the movies where people are going down the road and they're a herd of, or whatever they call a flock of them or whatever, are running along the road. Did you have any experiences like that?

[00:58:34.880] - Steve Kelley

I've seen them. We didn't have any racing experiences like that. Okay. I mean, you see them on the side of the road just like you'd see a cow in Mexico or something, that thing. But I've seen them out on the golf courses. I played golf over there a few times, and they're out there on the golf course eating stuff. It's a crack up.

[00:58:57.560] - Big Rich Klein

They are incredibly For somebody that's never seen one, the first time you see one in person.

[00:59:05.040] - Steve Kelley

Yeah, exactly.

[00:59:06.620] - Big Rich Klein

It's crazy.

[00:59:08.660] - Steve Kelley

Standing there on two feet with that big tail and little hands up there ready to go after you.

[00:59:15.280] - Big Rich Klein

Exactly. Think about those old, Jerry Lewis, trying to box one.

[00:59:20.680] - Steve Kelley

Yeah, exactly. For sure.

[00:59:24.020] - Big Rich Klein

So what is on the horizon for Steve Kelly? What's coming up?

[00:59:31.860] - Steve Kelley

Well, my wife and I and our friends, Phyllis always goes with us. Judy's gone. We do probably three cruises a year. My wife's in travel, and he has been for 40 years, and she's got a big group. We go every couple of years to Africa. She takes groups. We got 26 of us going in June. Yeah, That'll be a fun group. Then we're going to go. Phyllis and Vicky and Margaret and I are going to go to Dubai and Abu Dhabi for a week and go to Abu Dhabi and see the Ferrari world. I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's right there by the F1 track. Luckily, I've gotten to go to the F1 race in Bahrain the last two years because my son was living there working. And that was great. So I'm a big F1 fan. I have been since Jim Clark, way back when. So I think that's pretty much it. I'm involved with Ormhoff, do what that is, and travel, and see my kids and grandkids, and tell them not around anymore.

[01:00:53.620] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect.

[01:00:54.680] - Steve Kelley

Yeah.

[01:00:55.260] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. That's the way it should be.

[01:00:57.260] - Steve Kelley

Yeah.

[01:00:58.200] - Big Rich Klein

And the traveling is always the good part.

[01:01:00.000] - Steve Kelley

Oh, I love it. Like I said, I've got over seven million flight miles on different airlines.

[01:01:07.260] - Big Rich Klein

Have you ever figured out how many nautical miles you've cruised?

[01:01:12.280] - Steve Kelley

No, I haven't. But a lot. Yeah, we did a 35-day cruise from, was it, Bangkok to Athens and went through the Suez Canal and went up Saudi Arabia and India and everything else. That That was quite a few miles, too. When you look at it, you're gone on a cruise for 20 days or 30 days or 10 days. You rack up a lot of sea miles.

[01:01:42.500] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, sure do. Yeah, and a lot of buffets.

[01:01:47.280] - Steve Kelley

I got to figure that out sometime.

[01:01:52.580] - Big Rich Klein

All right. Well, Steve, I want to thank you for your time and coming on the podcast and doing the interview. I got a chance to get to know you. I'm looking forward to our time together on Ormhoff Board and what we do in the future. I think it's going to be important.

[01:02:11.700] - Steve Kelley

Absolutely. Well, Rich, it's really pleasant talking to you. It's fun. Just like we've been friends for many years.

[01:02:19.140] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, that's what I try to do. That's what this whole thing is. It's like sitting around the campfire.

[01:02:24.480] - Steve Kelley

Absolutely. All right, man. All right. Well, thank you for inviting me. This was great.

[01:02:29.530] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. And we'll talk to you. God has you taken to do it again. Yeah. There you go. All right. You enjoy your weekend. Thank you.

[01:02:37.060] - Steve Kelley

Thank you, sir. Have a good one, Rich. All right.

[01:02:39.300] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[01:02:39.700] - Steve Kelley

Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye.

[01:02:41.900] - Big Rich Klein

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 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 gusto you can. Thank you.