Vital MX
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Vital MX
Bevo Forti | The Inside Line, Presented by Thor
We've heard Bevo referred to as the Czar of Motocross. With a career that's spanned 45 years of everything from wrenching for privateers and factory riders, and then making the jump to Scott Goggles and now 100%, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone else who's seen and done it all like Bevo. The good part for all of us is that he also loves telling stories, and he's got plenty of good ones here.
Hey, it's GuyB from Vital MX. welcome to the fifth episode of the inside line presented by for this week's guest is below 40, we've heard below, referred to as the Zara motocross and with a career that spanned 45 years of everything from wrenching for private tiers in factory riders and then making the jump to the Goggle side with Scott and 100 percent, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who's seen and done it all like Vivo. The good part for all of us is that he also loves telling stories and he's got plenty of good ones to share here. If you're checking this out on vital annex, there are a few photos into the podcast player so you can see some of the things that we've referenced. If not, you may want to head there to check it out. As I mentioned before, the inside line is presented by thor celebrating 50 years of racing heritage, the first, the forever for motocross. Also, chaparral motorsports has been helping riders outfit their dirt bikes for more than 30 years. Today, shap moto offers professional advice online and in store, helping you find the best riding gear, parts, accessories and tires. For All your power sports vehicles, visit[inaudible] dot com today that see hap modot.com. All right, with the sponsor stuff out of the way, let's dive in. We're back with another episode of the inside line podcasts from vital imax presented by thor.
Speaker 3:This week's guest is Bevo Forti. What's the right way to pronounce your name? Below 40. Most people try to make me French Canadian, call me bevel forte, but that's not it. Okay. How you doing today? I'm 100 percent obviously. I had little doubt of that. So no, I'm good. I mean I've been coming here to union dealer for 45 years, so, uh, I really enjoy coming up here and basically I enjoyed it. I enjoy going to every race after you've been doing it for 45 years, obviously you're doing it because you love it and I love it. And I, I'm very fortunate. At one point in my life, shit, I said to myself, I'm never going to be rich, so I might as well be happy and Motocross, Shin and motorcycle racing has kept me happy that that's a lot of seasons, a lot of years. How many races total in there? Do you have any idea? I probably have a couple more than Roger. I'd say were first and second because you know, when he was doing the gps, I was doing the nationals, the supercross, the inner ems, the Trans Ams, and about one year I think we did like 46 races. That's wild. Yeah, I've seen a lot. I mean, you know, I came here when, when this first started and it was like however, however eraser says, Geez, I'd like to race on a golf course. Well this is the closest thing to a golf course. When they first started, he'd come here, the grass would be at least 12 inches high and by the end of the day it was the roughest thing you ever saw and probably didn't get graded in between races. Did it? Uh, there was no such thing as grading in between races and in fact there was a lot of places where there was obviously no water trucks. Yeah. So you, you're not only have 12 inches of grass, but all the bumps hiding under there. Oh yeah. So, matter of fact, at that time I was a mechanic for John's Dubitsky who was one of the top private tears at that time. And uh, I was in the single area out here walking backwards and ended up in a hole and rolling on the race course in somebody's missing me my hand by about six inches. So how, how'd you get started in this? I got started. I bought myself in 1970. I got me a, a Suzuki savage. It was a, uh, I guess your version of a street and trail bike today. I went out in the woods by my house. I live in a cold region in Pennsylvania, so we had unbelievable writing. I was new at it and here comes this little kid through the woods just going crazy. And it was Syvitski and I ended up riding with them that day and ended up breaking my headlight and my fender and a couple of bruises on my knees. So that's how I got started in. And then we got hooked up. And uh, basically his parents had nothing to do with his, his career. They, they, they, they loved him in a, they gave, they helped him, but he used to, uh, used to get all these guys bikes prepared at that time, you know, a bunch of guys get together and go to a motocross race. Unfortunately they're a little older and he was really enthusiastic. He was like 14 years old, 15 years old at the time. And what happened is they would, they'd go out on a Friday night or Saturday night and then deciding about halfway through Saturday night, we're not going to be able to intervene to Sunday and here's this kid already to go. So I went out and bought myself a 1950 Ford pickup truck and took him to the racist and first race we went to, we opened up the door and put a blanket over it. And that was our canopy and what we had for tools was the little Suzuki toolbag that came, went to the kill and we parked next to this kid and his family, they had a big trailer riding on test as the kid must have four bikes came out all decked out. Well Savitsky one. And he got lapsed. So we figured that was a bit to get something going for him. Well, you and Jon hung out for years and, and made it up to the national level that way. Well, I see. I stuck with him through his, his, his private tear days for six years as a matter of fact. Uh, I didn't, I didn't want to. I had a couple offers of at that time from the European factories. But, uh, I wanted to stick with him because the first time we went to a national was at Pocono raceway. And that was, I guess in[inaudible] 72 or 73. And being so naive, we showed up and tried to sign up for two classes because we raised two classes everywhere else. They told her she can only raise one class. And the amazing part about it was, is that that time they were 45 minutes plus to motos he out there and worked his way up to like fourth beaten, passion, all the factory guys. And then obviously being a young kid, he ended up like six or seven now today if they would have saw some kid just come out and get a six and seven, a rider man here to just went off into the sunset with a factory. Right? But at that time, uh, there are basically picking, if you want Saddleback, you are going to be our national champ in California, right out of the backyard. Weren't looking out for us because the real funny part about our whole career was that, uh, when we were writing. But tacos, we'll talk. Those were usually basically mom and pop shops. So our taco dealer was also a undertaker, so he had the same phone. So we will be back in a bowl, taco shop and the phone would ring me, go Bob's, we'll talk. And people go, I'm looking for Miller's funeral home. Oh, excuse me. Miller's funeral home. I mean, so for us to get a factory right at that time, writing out, back out of the little shop behind a behind a funeral parlor, it wasn't like quite winning at saddleback. In fact, storms town Pennsylvania, which was a great track. And Pennsylvania. Gary Bailey did a school there and he was humble tacos at the time. We were humbled. Tacos in. It was funny because he's given us school in and John was on the fence just looking at it and he goes, hey, you guys can't be here. Well, unfortunately the next day, John Beetle at the track, but you know, every kid has their home track meet. It's pretty tough for, for some sort of somebody to come in at one time and beat him. So that's basically where it all started being a mechanic with him on Bultacos on May. Goes on Ken Ham's on Suzuki's. And then finally, uh, Bob, Hannah and him got hooked up together and it was pretty, pretty good because Bob wanted somebody to train, but it's not like today he didn't train and ride with somebody that he knew could beat them. Right. Okay. He went a training friend and that's how we got hooked up and I got at that time, he'd sleep in, in, uh, in Hannah's room and I would sleep with Keith Mccarthy and his room in different beds. But, uh, it was, uh, that's how it all started. And then
Speaker 4:finally he got, he got a ride with a PDQ at the time would Arnie Beeman and it looked like that was going to be a good ride for him. And then I got an opportunity to go at Yamaha is a mechanic for three years. Who, who did you end up renting for their. Well, I've, I wrenched predominant. Can a loopy. Okay. And then, uh, on my third year they really cut the team back because the industry went a little south in 80 and I ended up being a driving around their parts truck. Like they put all the works bikes, all the words, parts in a truck at that time, you know, uh, you know, there were a lot of titanium new stuff. Well, at that time, titanium, carbon fiber, in fact, uh, I was fortunate. I worked on the first Yamaha water coolers in America with Canada rupee. That was pretty interesting. Cool. You know, back then it was, it was when they gave like work spikes were a$50,000 package. And uh, it was pretty incredible. I went to work at Yamaha and they go, uh, uh, go, where's my exhaust pipes? And they go, you're not box, you know, and I'm thinking to myself, wait a second, I'm a bubble gum welder. I'm not, I'm not one of these guys with the bead, you know. And uh, and it was pretty interesting, you know, we had a, we did everything we had to do to suspension ourselves. We had to lace the wheels. We have the true to cranks. We did it all in, uh, it was pretty, pretty neat when, in that first Yamaha was incredible because it had the, the radio, you're on the front, right between the, in the whole steering stem, there was like 13 old rings and the only time you got to see if they were leaking or if they're in right? So when they were leaking and uh, you know, I had a guy that was would land and sort of slam his front wheel so he, I always had some drips on my fender right. Well, back then it was only a water cooled heads, so it wasn't nothing vacations or cylinder, it was, it was, uh, it was the pioneer days of water cooling, you know, and it was pretty interesting. And then it came out with the power of the power valve. And that was interesting because they told us that if you're working on that, on the power of Ralph, it has to be facing the truck. We don't want anybody taking pictures of it. It, I mean, at that really at that time it was like so secretive between the factories have your front wheel turn it a little bit. We don't want them to take a full end picture so they could measure it for geometry. I mean, it was, it was incredible. I mean, and then I remember one time in being, um, 10 at, at Broome, Tioga. We're sitting there and Max Max's Zucchini, the liaison for the factory comes up to us and goes, oh, had a problem with second gear. You must change. Okay, well this is like 8:00 at night, Saturday night. I mean, you're not, you know, your, your bikes already to go in and telling you that, to take the bike apart and put in second gear and it was, it was a whole different time back then. Right? Well, box boxing days were completely different. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. The traveling circus. Plus you're building the bikes plus doing all the travel. Well, I'm going to tell you before that. Okay. Before when we were private tiers, when we first came out, this whole motocross scene was more of a bunch of young kids traveling the country basically having more funding than getting paid and everyone thought we were way behind the Europeans. We weren't behind Europeans in writing. They were ahead of us in training, you know, and if you ever. I mean Roger, the last 15 minutes of civil
Speaker 3:race could be in 17th and he'd pass everybody. That's it. That was his trademark. Watch. Roger the last 15 minutes of this race and uh, it was, uh, it was a whole different time and it really didn't take cards. Maker came over here and road and when he wrote, he was just beating everybody, beating everybody, beating everybody. And then Hannah decided, well, the first race that Hanna road was the battle of New Orleans and it was so hot there that day. Okay. I used to Kinda like chew tobacco, what I don't do anymore obviously, and don't do with kids. But uh, we had, uh, I had it in a gatorade bottle and it blew up in the front of the truck. That's how hot it was that day. And Hannah ended up with heat exhaustion his first time out in New Orleans. So after that he got into training and then if he went to a, uh, like when we went back east, he never went back to California. He stayed in the humidity, never ran air conditioning, you know. And you could see, I mean if you watch that video of the battle of New Orleans and you watch Jimmy Weiner come in and what, he has to come into a towel on the ground in the mechanic laying around, rolling around in the mechanic saying, hey, here's some water, you know, it's, it was such a different era back then. But then the American start training and Bob was one of the first ones in. Then he had ward, then you had Omar and Bailey and then all those guys got in the training and that's where it is now. The fitness is real important. But before that, I mean it was just like sometimes the team managers would pay the barbells, you know, all those areas that you've seen over the years. Is there a favorite era or you know, a favorite time of the kind of. I kind of liked when people were paying my expenses and it was making a salary. That was a good era because at one time we'd go to the Florida series and I was collecting unemployment. Okay. In Pennsylvania. So you only had a sign up every eight weeks? I'd fly home and sign up and go back down and be a mechanic. Of course I wasn't making any money. In fact, I was living on my unemployment so because I was uh, I was basically going to be a blast on construction. Dynamite kind of stuff. Yep. And then one day he said, you want to go to Florida? And I went see at the blasting and here I am, you know, I've been a mechanic, I've been a goggle guy and now I'm an ambassador for 100 percent. Well, talk about the goggles stuff. How'd you get into that? Well, Yamaha had a, uh, in the eighties, we went at one time we had a seven man team and then we went down to a four man team. From there we had that parts truck and then they decided they didn't need the parts trump. And I think it had something to do with Hannah. And when he left Yamaha, you know, we were pretty good buddies and you guys were tight and we were tight. And so what happened was I, there was three of us, three mechanics to go lift, go who got laid off. In fact, the funny story about me getting laid off is Keith Mccarty was sick. So I was supposed to work on machines bike that weekend. And these guys are going in. One guy. Oh Man, I just got laid off another guy. Oh Man, I just got laid off. I'm mean, I'm in the parts cleaner going, not me baby. I'm working on this week and go, hey, they want to see any office. I'm going there with a solvent dripping off my hands going what's this all about? And so. But I did some funny things. I guess maybe I was a mechanic, a serious mechanic, but you know as well as I do, I don't mind joking around like the one time, you know, we had my 40th birthday, they gave me a blow up doll right now just so I used to have her and sally and the seat next to me, you know, let me go drive driving cross country. At that time people actually watched your windows to watch the guy when he's washing the windows and that stuff. And in one time we used to not always have enough ambulances. We had ambulances delays and it was about a two hour ambulance delay and everyone's just sitting around. So I put sally on my works bike. Well, uh, yeah, I went into when I was, when I went into the to get laid off or whatever you want to call it, this picture came up and it costs me to keep this out of the magazine. So I guess, you know, I deserved a little bit of reprimand for that, but I mean at that time there is a lot of fun involved, you know? Right. You know, and, and, and no social media, no cameras and month later. Yeah. Like no social media, no. Uh, everyone video and you know, it was, it was. You could actually do a lot of things that were fun and not harmful, but get away with it. We, Hannah used to have a lot of pyro stuff. He loved pyro and he'd bring these quarter sticks of dynamite. They recalled whistleblower comes and it goes and then blow up. Well, one night we were at a hotel and he puts one out side by a tree, puts a cigarette there. So the cigarette, oh, burned down the right. Unfortunately this poor old man came there and was walking his dog and uh, he hears so lucky that because the dogs are pulling them away and here it goes. You know, I think one of the things I did at one time when I was with, so this is pretty funny story, I think it may be somewhere in the archives at a. we're on the team. It was mike run your Syvitski and Ellis that tells you how old lamb. Okay. All right. So we're at Phoenix and we got a whopping 17th, 18th and 19th day for team can still go back to the room. And George Ellis, Jeremy's Dad, who was this mechanic, always liked to have a little scotch. Not, not just enough, you know, not like he's slurring or anything like that, just that little scotch. So I go into the room and he looks at me and he goes, bad. What a great day we had today, right? I said, you know what George, you give me five bucks. I put that Canon right in that swim because we used to have a, a enduro bike in the canon because they were basically the first guys that had like a big truck or a semi. So I said, you know, George, for five bucks, I'd put that Ken m and a swimming pool. And he goes, here's your five bucks. Took my wallet out, opened up the door, papa pope, click that a little bit going in, next thing you know, pull it out. And uh, Jimmy Ellis didn't took out the little drain plug on the bottom and all the water came out and it was fine. But that's the kind of stuff that went on. I mean, it was, it was, it was fun. And uh, it still is, but it's a different kind of fun right now. Yeah. So hands dripping from a sort of a gap. So now I come out and Hannah says to me, look, I'll take a seat out of the airplane because at that time it was, he still flies obviously, but he had a 2:10 says, and then he goes, I'll take the backseat out of the airplane and I'll fly around and I'll give you$10,000 to be with me. So I was a freshman, I could've been the official number one man friend in this industry. And I said to Bob, I go, Bob, at that time, I'm like 30 years old. I said, Bob, I'll handle it. That's okay. I mean, something happens. And because they actually had a job lined up for me to be the rep for wrangler when wrangler got into it, but unfortunately, because of all kinds of policies they had to hire a woman and this and that. And so I ended up not getting that job. So I go up for Bob the healers in Sun Valley, Idaho. And that's where Scott was at the time. And uh, uh, Bill Larson called me over and says, hey, how'd you like to work for Scott? Because obviously all of my antics, I wasn't serious, I was serious, but I wasn't. The guides say, Hey, get outta here, you know, I talked to people and all that stuff. And, and, uh, he said, how'd you like to be worked for Scott? And I said, okay, which was a pretty drastic pay cut, but, you know, I got to do that and did that for 30 years. And then, uh, I don't, maybe I was looking a little too old to be with them or something, but, uh, it was really amazing because I was, I was going to retire. And uh, Ludo from a 100 percent called me up and says, hey, how would you like to come with a gun? Even the global company, I thought, I know, you know, Luna, I'm like 62 years old. I'm not Colonel Sanders, you know, I don't, I don't want to start a new career. But uh, he, uh, I met with them and him and mark launcher the other owner and they, they asked me to go with them and sit with them and asked me if I'd do this and that and talked to my wife and she said good. And,
Speaker 4:and years later, here I am as an ambassador. Well, you've also got second generation going on with, with John, uh, working on John. Well, let me put it this way. John Knowles. John Cuzzo. Yeah. They graduated from school. The goggles. Okay. When goggles were like, you know, a godless were difficult at one time because, you know, it was a, everything was new in technology. Like when you look at the film system. Okay. In America, none of this headed. I go to Europe and Eric Gabor's, may he rest in peace. He has this duck, he has duct tape folded over on the edge and then taped to the, to the Lens. And that's how the visors over the film system came about. I came back to America, I said, hey, look at this and we ought to make advisor. So that's how that happened. Like the silicone on the straps. I was, I was signing Terry Cunningham, you know, the eight time enduro guiding champion. And uh, he says to me, you know, hey, I really like golf, I like to use your goggles and, and I, but I want to have a company that listens to what I say. I said, well, what, that's weird that, you know. Sure. So that's how the silicone came on the strap. He said to me, hey, can you. So when I'm going through to Theresa's comes flipping off, I said, well, they'll grow homework, you know, and they used to have that strap in that little buckle on the back, the catcher goggle and it fell off. So I said, okay, and this, this is hard to believe, but I went and got a pair of j dot t gloves with the dots on the cotton gloves and cut them up. And my sister in law soda monster straps. I gave him the Terry Cunningham and he goes, wow, this is works really good. So now we get a bra company to put it on there. Okay. Is brought company, gets a great idea. And called the battery, got will come in and says, hey, this got companies putting this, uh, this, uh, this, uh, silicone on the back of their strap and that's how silicone on the strap became something. And then, you know, even with the, with the three, four layer foams, it was bradshaw who helped me with that. He had a very big a sweat problem. And uh, we got together. Once again, I pulled my sister in law in it, knew how to sew, got me, uh, a pad made up sodas. And then what we did is we got just a hard, not a hard piece but a real close cell foam on the top of the goggle. And then we would put the, the feminine Pat on there. And then from there it went from double to triple foam. What forms should be where. I mean, so I mean, I was fortunate I had guys that would try it. And then the Rocco, I ain't putting that on my head. And then stanton would say, well, if I don't see sweat on my goggles, I don't think I'm working. I said, okay, you know, and Morocco, I'd put six tear offs on his goggle. He'd come back with five. He had pulled it off in the pits. I go, how does this look? You, I didn't have time, you know, but it's amazing. And then you'd have brock glover, right? Hey beaver, there's lint on my lens. I go, brock, you're going to be doing 50 miles an hour in five seconds. It's going to blow off. Oh, okay. You know, but it's, and it's just amazing. You know, I've worked with some really good guys. I've worked with Doug Henry, I've worked with, I've worked with a grant Langston, I've worked with Cooper, Georgie, Holland, you name it. I worked with all of those guys. And uh, I, I really enjoyed that because basically that's where the service came from
Speaker 3:and I taught whoever worked with me after that services were counts. Make sure everything's right, you know. And uh, it's been good for John both johns. They both, they both have jobs, you know, in fact, a John Cuzzo, my son just went and came back from Loma, he was at Loma last week. He gets to do some ground priest who you'll learn what, I'll tell you what, over in Europe, at least in the past, the guys, the racist would come up ideas because they were building their own goggle, you know, so they were doing what they needed to do back with the Scott Buss and, and now it's 100 percent. I look at these as kind of like social hubs in the pits now though, probably the Ben tracing that happens here, the people that stopped by to visit, all that kind of stuff. Well, when it is, is I call it Switzerland. Okay. Because obviously we have a couple distributors, so distributors, reps comes in here. I said, listen, we're in Switzerland. Everybody we're in here and just enjoy the atmosphere. You know, I let you know there was rob bite us. He comes in, he's looking for an apple. It's over there. What I would, I tried to do, and I'll tell you what really helped them, my future was my wife Helen, because when she would come and rob can testified, it is, she made some real food, real food and uh, it'd be nothing. And I, I'd make breakfast sandwiches in the morning and anybody comes to my door once, one, you know, in fact, I think I own most of the stomachs in this industry. Yeah, I think you've had a few, few people over the years. You know, it's good because at one guy, uh, Mike, uh, Dara from Yamaha used to call me. What's the guy in Star Wars Cabo or somebody, the guy that everyone just sits somewhere and every coast sees him. I don't know his name, hobbit or something. That's what he used to call me. I go, well, why should I go out there? Everyone comes to see me, you know, they come to see the pope. So, you know, I take care of them. I mean, they know they can come in here and use the facilities. I have food for him and it's worked out well. I mean, uh, it's, it's, it's something I'm proud of that, that, you know, I hate to pat myself on the back a few times in this deal, but I did start the first hospitality's out here. No, I mean I believe you've had a breakfast sandwich your time may have had one or two in there for sure. So you talked about John Getting over to do some gps and I'm sure you've spent a little time over in Europe to. Yeah, I used to do it. I used to do six days and uh, I had a lot of fun with doing that. Uh, the Italians, I had a great time with them, but I used to, I used to go to the six days and I used to do a little service over there and a boy, the Italians loved me over there. They gave me a shirt. It was basically a get out of jail shirt in Italy, one of their team shirts. And uh, we had some, I had a lot of fun over there. I had a lot of fun with the, uh, the off road guys, you know, I used to go over there with Kevin hines and Cunningham and, you know, I can go on and on who I went over there with. And uh, probably one of the best stories over there was when we had pink goggles and pink August, Kinda got a little, uh, not popular. I used to take them over. I would give them to the Polish guys and they just thought I gave them gold because no one gave anything to them. Them and the checklist and Walkington guys I'd give him. Here comes these guys that are basically in gray, pink goggles on and they'd try to come over and they go, hey, you want some bev? What the hell? Excuse me, I can't remember. They used to bring me this Czech beer. And in fact, the checklist of liking guys wanted to give me crystal, which is very expensive. And I'd say, no, I'm not over here for crystal. I'm here. We're here to help you. And uh, which I probably should have taken out and be retired. But anyway, we had a. Then the one year was in Italy and the next year was Poland. So they always had like an introduction the year before the federation from Poland would come in and have an introduction. So I go to this introduction. I'm sitting there and here comes this guy over to me and goes, introduces himself, and we get taught and he goes, do you have ski goggles? I'm at a motocross race. I'll go, yeah, I got them. I just put a thermal lens and uh, come to find out this guy is the head of Polish sports. I mean, the big guy in the, in the country, he gives me this past summer, I get to Poland that we got up there, we got off the airplane, right? So we get adventurous. Me and Kip Palmer and a couple of guys that, you know, a mark, Korea, Korea, you know, we get together. We're not going to the hotel, we're going to find the restaurant. We go find a restaurant and now we're going to go find our hotel. Well, it's like 9:00. We go into the little town, go around a corner and there's two soldiers with machine guns in the middle of the road. Okay. So next thing you know, they say to me, why are you out solely? It's 9:00 at night. You're right. So the streets rolled up and gone. Oh yeah. There's not that many. No, seven, 11 is over in Poland because at this time the Berlin Wall was still up, so I pull out this pass and they go, okay, you can go, wow, just like that. So next thing you know, we're going up this hill and he's Polanski cars. I mean going up this big hill, get to the top of it all these bright lights. I thought I was in Hollywood. It said, welcome the checklist. Milwaukee. Oops. No Visa Protective Slovakia. So we. That's one of the story, you know, I had so much fun at the six days. It was incredible. Those guys or those guys and they bring their helpers and our families and we'd hang out. We had a blast and Mark Korea in Poland wearing a bright orange vest. You could not believe how many heads he turned to reside, but it was crazy. I mean, so like I said, I have, I have a theory about wherever you go make a memory because Larry Myers told me one time when you're laying in bed and you got all those wires on you and all those veins and you're just laying there, you better have good memories because that's all you got left. So I try to have good memories. That's awesome. A little while back you told me about a driving around in Europe with Eric Gabor's. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. He was a, I don't know if he went faster in his corner and his motorcycle. I mean he was one time when, like I said, he lived about a, probably our away from Antwerp and he was, he was, he was sponsored by Innsbrook in, which was an ice cream and I'm seeing eric, Eric. It's like 5:30 in the race starts at seven. It goes, as you know, the famous words of in Europe, the European. No problem. No problem. I. Okay. So now we getting is 500 Mercedes and we're doing like whatever, 120 miles an hour on a two lane road with big giant trees on each side like regard rails. And next thing you know we pull into the ice cream plant. I go, Eric, it's like 6:30. He goes, no problem. Next thing you know, he comes out with all this ice cream that is going to give to the kids in the pits. We get there, puts his leathers on, boom, he's done, he's gone. And then another time is when I was over there and it was me and brock was racing there. Okay. And we had this Volkswagen bus and a Volkswagen bus. We'd only do like 85, 85. We would go. And uh, the next thing you know, okay, all of a sudden we're getting up to speed. We're going faster and faster. I said, what's up? He goes, I don't know. He looks in the rear view mirror and Eric is pushing us with his Mercedes pushiness with a firearm Mercedes in his Volkswagen bus. And finally had a back out because his car was overheating because it wasn't getting any air, you know, that's the first time I went to Europe. I was with Keith McCarty and motocross the nations when it was motocross, the nations and trophy to nations. It was$500 to$50 one week after another. So we go there and we're in Germany, so we get the bright idea, let's go downtown. So we walk across this state of this park and we walked back again. We get in there and Keith says to me, hey, I smell dog poop. I'll be politically correct. And I go, I don't know. I'd go turn on the light and I'll check and we're at a red light. Okay, I don't know where the light is. I go open the door. He opens up the door and here comes a moat. Pit Bull Indoor, the guy. Oh yeah. I mean it was really amazing. I traveled with Keith a lot and every time something went wrong, it was my fault. Always my fault. His truck was broke so he put all his stuff and Syvitski struck. So we're going cross country now. They filled it so high that we had a, a latch on the back of our truck that went side to side. So the load shifted and we couldn't get in the back. But that's not the problem. The problem is he puts the gap. I put the gas nozzle in the truck and I go to get something out of the front. He comes walking around the other side, gas comes out and he gets squirted with gas.
Speaker 4:Now obviously you know it, gas does to your crotch. Not Great. He's on fire. He goes open up the back door, can open up the back door. He's screaming at me, my fault, my fault. So I said, wait Keith. I got an idea. Got in the truck, went about 35 miles an hour, slammed the brakes on everything, move up. He gets in there, right? Gets it. Same trip, right? I used to chew tobacco, so I had a Kentucky Fried Chicken Cup. So every five hours or gary going to sleep in and hey, it's your turn to drive, you know. So I've been spending this Cup after agreeing to soda. Right. Okay. Keith, it's your turn. He gets up, sits in the driver's seat, re picks it up, puts it up to his mountain. He goes, I can't believe he didn't drink any soda. Right. Opens it up. And it was just all tobacco juice in there. That was, you know, we're in Anaheim stadium right before the. Before they put the bleachers in, they had the big aaa in the middle and the track used to go along that. Right. So that was the mechanics area. I'm standing next to Keith, I see this rock coming at me right. And I duck. And I turned to go to say to Keith, did you see that rock? He's laying on the ground, his glasses are almost broke off. And he's like, I got a little cut over, resigned. He hands me. The boring goes, hey, it's your turn to give back. I go my fault because I, I didn't, I didn't take the rock, didn't take the hit. But I mean I've got so many things like that. There was so much fun and I had an. I had a chalkboard at the time, you know, we all had those jt boogie boards, you know, that you wrote on and then after awhile they wouldn't erase. So I got the bright idea. I'm going to have a slate chalkboard. So our undertaker friend that own Barboursville Taco, hey to ripping down a school, I'll go get some sleep. So He makes me, this board, must've been 30 pounds, 30 pounds, but, and I used to have the chalk and you know, and, and I was the only one that could have erased it and it'd be out there, but it takes almost two hands to hold it out there. So I always used to, when I wasn't wiping it off, I put the chalk in my mouth and mccardy would come up and hit me in the back of the head to get the shock out of it. And mechanics areas used to be pretty much fun to. Well the thing was I don't, I don't know what goes on in there because I'm, I swapped for television now so I don't really know. Well, you, you have worn a few hats over the years and TV and yeah, I've been fortunate. I've, uh, I've spotted for TV and which gets me to the get out of jail, pass and go wherever you want to go past like all access, you know. And uh, but uh, yeah, it's, it's been good to me. Very good. Well you mentioned ice cream a few minutes ago and somebody told me I had to ask you about Hannah's ice cream. Well, I've obviously, I'm, I'm, I'm a, I'm a little bit bigger than usual guy, you know. And uh, so that means uh, like every three weeks you go on a diet and you're going to start Monday and then you're going to do and start Tuesday, you know. So I'm up at Hannah's, it was thanksgiving and he loved Haagen dazs ice cream. So he's got like four Haagen, dazs ice cream in his freezer and every night he'd go to bed before me, I'd sit up, I tv. Well, I would eat the ice cream. Okay. And four days later
Speaker 3:Bob says to me, I think I'm going to get some ice cream. I said, well, I think I'm going to go downtown. When I was doing was I was eating the ice cream, filling them up the water, putting them in there, and he'd come down every morning and touch them and go. In fact, he said, Hey Buddha. We used to call me Buddha. He goes, Hey Buddha, I'm proud of you. You know, there's ice cream in there and you are needing it. So when he said he was going to eat some ice cream aisle, he was going there was getting four containers full of frozen ice water. So that's awesome. But he, he and he was him. Stanton, clean freaks, clean freaks. I eat it. I ate at Bob's house, I'd take a bite of toast, she'd wash, wipe the crumbs. So I went over to the closet a, took a bite of toast and I had a shop of one of those hand vacuum is underneath my jaw. So when the crumbs would come in, they go right into the vacuum cleaner and soon as you took a bite, he'd wipe your table off crazy. And he was a pirate. He was a pirate. He loved fireworks. Stand in. One time we went, we went before Redbud, I think actually burned his hand. When you're doing it a, hey, I know where to lie. He's probably spend five to 10,000 bucks on fireworks and he had a lake on his farm. It'd be like 50 people there, town people shooting them off. He had a string of fireworks that they used to have. It says for for downtime it was like 3000, 10,000 string of 10,000 firecrackers. I mean, he's crazy, but I've enjoyed every minute with him. I've had every writer that I, I liked, I enjoyed. I worked with and I till this day I still do both. Awesome.
Speaker 5:Well, you know, earlier I was talking about this being sort of the social center. A few years ago I was at a race and happened to be in here and Brad lackey came in and some of the bench racing there was. There were no microphones around, no recording going on, but some of the stories that were going back and forth and here we're awesome.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah. Bad. Brad used to have a great, a great end of the year party after the transient in his house. I mean, it was great.
Speaker 5:Well, it was lit. Was livermore near the end of that season?
Speaker 3:Uh, I believe it was serious point. No. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Livermore story is. That's where Roger had been broke for the same day. Some idiot decided if you've ever been to livermore at all it is, is, it's in between like a canyon and some idiot decided to roll a jeep tire. Non The thing down from the top. You can't believe how fast that thing was going, how big that look. The velocity, right? Yeah. And then then the same day after the pits, you know, it's a lot of fun. I mean after the race, everyone had firecrackers because you go through the states that was legal and you'd have them and somebody threw a firecracker in this one. Spectator went up and grabbed one of the mechanics, like he was gonna do something to him and was sort of like the carnival, you know, in a carnival when you'd yell, Hey Rouge that everybody would come over and help you. Everybody got around and settled it down because, you know, in fact we said, hey, if you really don't like what goes on in the pits afterwards, don't come in, you know. And then also livermore, uh, the, the Richmond ramblers used to have a real nice minibike race. Okay. And I mean this was huge. I mean, there was probably three slash 4,000 speaking people at these. So dg would come with their race bike. Miller had their race bike. Uh, who else? There's some r and d. They all brought up, they're tricked out mini bikes. But I remember trying to bring a lot of people don't even know about this bike. It was called a tyrone. It was a talk on mini bike in deal. Was that the, it had the same bottom in cases and same cylinder as you could actually board that cylinder out to probably a three 60. That's how thick the cylinder wall was. So we got this idea at the funeral parlor, Bultaco shop. We put a to 50 matador engine in it. Okay. Now the wheel based on this thing is you touch the throttle and it just flew right up out of your arms. So we go to Richmond ramblers only guy in the world that could ride this bike was marty tripes. He goes out there and smoke some, you know, got us enough money to get home as a matter of fact. And that was a major win for both Taco that year. But then Preston Petit who used it obviously made Preston petty fenders for all your youngsters. The, he got on it and he couldn't write. He couldn't even get it off and we tell them, put it in yet to start off. And you only could use like, we only put three years in it, you know, so third, fourth, and fifth. So you can, that's all you could use. Anything that was manageable. Oh yeah. And uh, he couldn't believe the tribes, whatnot by Marty tribes. He'd come in, he'd come up to a pen and go, I'm beating you today, you know, and he gave him a run for his money and sometimes they'd beat him. Well, it's funny, you know, over the course of this, I think we've talked about for brands that aren't even around anymore between can amble Taco Maaco oh yeah, yeah. Well, and, and more. Yeah. Right. Yeah, quite a, quite a different time. Oh yeah. I mean basically when the Japanese came, all the private tiers that Rodney's, uh, or, or other European writers, private tiers in factory guys just could not wait for rain because there're boxes were terrible and they drowned out and Suzuki's have clutches were terrible. They'd burn up, you know,
Speaker 4:and if you are a private and you were getting like a fifth, oh, you're a top three that day because of the, of that would be the days of Mickey Kessler, Frank Stacy and you know, and Savitsky the, like the top private guys in. But uh, it was, it was at one time in a delta, Ohio. You can see that track. It's off the turnpike in Ohio and you would not believe there was a national there, but there was a national there. They had four different motorcycles for Marty Schmidt to try that day. The Hondas and we read around Bultaco wow. From a funeral home. But it's, I mean, it was, it was crazy. It was, I mean, it was a whole different time than it is today. Yeah. You know, probably picking a rider out of, of that all that time would be impossible. Or are there a handful of guys that, that really stand out to you as far as a racer racing and just, I don't know, racing amazing people, you know, the real characters of, of those, if you're going to go through the ranks, obviously in my time, you know, you started out with, you know, like the lackey, you know, and, and, uh, Billy Rossi was good. And uh, then, you know, Marty tripes, Jimmy Ellis, they were all fast and uh, then you had cars makers. Then the Tony d era came on and uh, he was, he was really good. And after Tony D, it was a, uh, maybe about that time, I don't know, Bob Hannah got in there and he dominated for a long time and then you had, you know, then you go to the Ricky Carmichael's, the domination. He had ricky Johnson's domination, Stanton's domination, you know, and then you had bradshaw and metasearch bids that were really good. And I mean Georgie Holland, Guy Cooper, Georgia Holland was really, it's really hard when you have two guys going after a championship and you're building their goggles. Right? I'd gone line Georgia calling go appeal. What? Georgie, what's Cooper had been there for a lunch today because he was racing against Cooper for pain. I go, don't worry, yours is better than his. But anyway, but it goes back to the diamond. I mean, you know, the story would micky diamond is, he was on a Husky and I was doing cardinal service. So Micky diamond in Orlando does really good at the supercross. He's been really good now you would think that this would mean nothing today. But I went up to him. I said, Mickey, I've been watching you. You've been doing really well. I'm going to make your goal was for you. You would have thought I gave him a million dollars. You know, that's, that's, that was the difference. I mean, I mean there's so many guys. Let's just say there's, there's a ratio that I've helped that I liked and that's why I helped him, you know, and when they would leave because they would be offered more money, I'd say, Hey, I really like it, but I just can't afford, you know, because at one, you know, it got crazy there when we had different goggle companies come in because
Speaker 3:Larry Meyers taught me this because we were, I'd go to an amateur race with him. He couldn't walk two feet without saying hi talking to somebody doing something. And I said, boy Larry, how did you do this? He goes, you just start to come down here and let people see actually a face to a product. So I went down there and listened to them and at one time I had, I actually had racers like Damon and all those guys. When the other companies came in, I hadn't Stang turned down 25 brands. They were me, you know, because they say, hey, you helped me when I was no one and, and I, I'm gonna stick with you. They remember and you get loyalty from them. In fact, I'm probably the one that, again, not to pat myself on the back, but I had such loyalty out of these guys that the other companies start going down to the amateur ranks, you know, and, and that's basically then, you know, the, the offers got crazy in the amateur ranks and I didn't get go along with it because I watched too many kids get yelled at when they weren't performing from their parents. And I said, wait a second, you know, you know, if he falls and guy goes, hey, we just lost$2,000 or 500 bucks. Right. How do you think we're going to get the next race? They pack up and leave. You know how many times I saw people just pack up and leave. It's a lot of pressure on a kid. Yeah. Too much pressure on a kid. Now even, uh, I saw one day this kid cut his dad's, I'm talking to, I'm looking at this is, this is dad and he's over. There was parking lot, taking a branch off the tree, like a little branch. And I go, what's up? He goes, I'll teach that kid not to racist hard as he could. I went over to the team manager that he was writing for. I said, you better go over to his prints and he went over and saw it. So I, I guess I made such a loyalty because I wasn't given anybody anything. I was just there, you know, I wasn't doing contingencies, nothing. My first contract with Bradshaw was$2,500 or$10 a point. If you go over the 25, guaranteed 2,500, I'll give you$10 for every point over that, you know, that was my first contract with them. Doug Henry, I signed dog Henry in three seconds. He was with me all those years. And then he went in with a, what was the name of that company out of Indiana? The the shop. And See why no. DGI doubted Donald Grove. Yamaha. They hired him and he didn't have to use what he had to use their goggles sponsor. Well, he was on there for them. When he signed with Honda. I went in the back of his truck. I go, Doug, you're free now, are you? He goes, yeah. I go, how's this? Okay. Boom. That was it. The handshake, emic had a contract on his desk for eight months. Didn't sign it. He goes, what are you worried about it? I said, I'm not worried about it. They are the county offices. No worries.
Speaker 5:Right? Yeah. What, what's our exposure on here? Right, right. Any favorite races that stand out to you or, or seasons or.
Speaker 3:Well, the that stand out for me are, and there's, it's not just the guy that I helped is when someone comes from way back in the pack to win and that I, I always. Those are the ones that really stick in my mind. Probably one of the best ones, you know, Han and the costs are your steps. Such battles in the Trans Am. Every one of those were incredible. I mean, they raised her unidilla eventually they bumped into each other and fell down at least three times, you know, and uh,
Speaker 5:people would lose their minds these days watching him. Oh yeah, they were crazy. But I mean now people get close to each other or, or think about touching each other and the fans are losing their minds. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Different areas.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah. I mean, I don't know what happened, but when it was back then I think there was, they wanted to see people bank, you know, and now it's, I don't know, it's, it's, it's different, you know,
Speaker 5:probably a little, maybe a little more dangerous now you know, you could really hurt somebody.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah. I mean, I, I think my personal opinion is in a turn you should never let the door open because you know, you open up your door at your house and a stranger comes in, but it's almost like you invited him. Yeah. Yeah. And so, and the thing is, is everybody's done it. So, you know, that's how I look at it now. Crossroads crossing over on the jump. That's dangerous. That's dangerous, right? But Hey, a little bang and attorney going to hurt nobody. Just pride, you know, other than maybe coop and rocks. And this year. Well that was, that was a freak beat way. His hand when, you know. But uh, there's a guy looking at him when he's gone through. In fact, I just, I just, uh, I went to see Jeremy Martin after Millville because that's a believer, you know, throughout the years I used to go to the hospital after the race to see my guys to write and uh, I went up there and boy
Speaker 4:he was, he was pretty banged up, but I just got a picture from his mother the other day where he's, uh, he's putting weight back on. He's moving around now. He's getting out of the house. He had a little bit of an infection that's gone. So He's, he's getting a lot better quick, you know, he's a young guy, he'll be back. It's good to see, man. If you had to pick a favorite, do you like the racing, the people, the equipment? You know, I'm going to guess you're the people person. I wouldn't be here if I didn't like all of them. Whether that's true. I mean, you know, I went in when I was working on a bike. It was interesting, you know, when I build goggles, it's interesting, you know, and uh, I'm a people person. That's why I'm the ambassador for 100 percent goggles because I don't know how to use a telephone or a email. I'm a guy that just likes to talk to you and I'm the guy that, that likes to read people's voices. Like if you're talking to them, I mean, what are you doing at text somebody and you're texting them and all of a sudden they're like, what the hell is he saying this for? You know, I'm not that guy. I rather just talk to people and, and that's, that's, that's the strength me gift to Gab. How long do you keep doing this? How long? Yep. Well, I got this, I got a, let me put it this way. I just had one son graduate from college, right? I have a daughter that's a sophomore in college. Okay. So I planned planning a a couple more years. Cut, you know, it's besides, I'm 13 years older than my wife, so we never gone down that happy trail on social security, so I'm going to try to find this a, a nice place where after work we can enjoy it. Like uh, we're thinking about moving to north myrtle beach. So, and when my, and I, then I have a son that does pirate technical stuff. He does lasers and that came from this industry, right? Because I met the gentleman at the, did it at a gift to Gab. I met Ronnie Greco and he took a liking to my son, had him do a couple of fireworks show. Now he's traveling with the chainsmokers and he's traveling with this guy named marshmallow and he's going on tour with all these groups and see. So motorcycle racing and motor motorcycles and good to me in more ways than one. Yeah. You know, will you and Roger is still duking it out for, for most races? Well, I don't know. I mean I'm a lot younger than he is, you know, I haven't and I've been watching him fall and crash. I've been standing watching that. So I think all my body parts probably move a little bit better than his, but uh, I like watch, I'll watch, we'll watch races together sometimes. What, you know, he'll be up there where I'm at and a, I have fun with him when we were up there talking, you know, I go roger, you know, between me and he was just like 100 years here, you know, and you know, and then he, then we look at each other and go, yeah. And looks like a to, you know. And uh, no, he's a good guy. Like Roger. Well I love these stories and I know we could spend hours doing this. Maybe we'll have to revisit this again in the future, but hey, we're still in the seventies. Yeah, I'll do 80. I've, I've, I've, I've told the, I'm trying to talk race erection that doing two tribes, but for decades have me go. What was your favorite music?
Speaker 3:You know, at one time it was led Zepplin and it was the Barney music because of my kids, you know, the different arrows. Yeah. Yup. And you know, what, what's your favorite book? At one time it was a road atlas, you know, so hey, I'll be happy to talk to you anytime, you know that. Well, I appreciate the time. And, and uh, I think we'll wrap this one up. Don't you want to asked me the question? Everybody asks me, what's that? Who's going to win tomorrow? Alright. Who? Somebody wearing 100 percent. God and I, you know, I have a trademark. God bless America. Thank you bill. Appreciate it. Oh, you're welcome. Like I said, anytime
Speaker 2:that's it for episode five of the inside line presented by thor celebrating 50 years of racing heritage, the first, the forever for motocross. We also have to thank Chaparral motorsports for more than 30 years. Chaparral motorsports has been sharing its love of dirt bikes with likeminded individuals by offering a massive selection of the latest riding gear, new models, parts and accessories, and great pricing on tires. Visit[inaudible] dot com. That CJP modot.com. We hope you enjoyed the conversation with Vivo. That was some first class men tracing. Look for the next inside line a couple of weeks from now. In the meantime, you can subscribe to itunes or stitcher so you don't miss any future episodes, and you can also go back and check out the previous shows if you're feeling really generous, leaving us a rating and review all this helps. Thanks.