Ed Pearlman was ahead of his time, creating the first Mexican 1000 which later translated into NORRA; he founded the Off Road Motorsports Hall of Fame, as well. Today we remember him with a conversation with his son, Mike Pearlman. Ed is why we say; legends live at ORMHOF.org. Be sure to tune in on your favorite podcast app.
3:10 – we never saw a Land Cruiser before, it was a real Tarzan vehicle back then.
8:18 – if we can only get 60 entries, at $100 an entry, that’d be enough to pay for the event
11:37 – you misunderstood, this is the Off Road Rally Association, it’s not a race, it’s a rally
22:11 – why don’t we just put on a vintage race?
34:43 – it all started because Dad wanted to take his kid hunting
Special thanks to ORMHOF.org for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
Ed Pearlman was ahead of his time, creating the first Mexican 1000 which later translated into NORRA; he founded the Off Road Motorsports Hall of Fame, as well. Today we remember him with a conversation with his son, Mike Pearlman. Ed is why we say; legends live at ORMHOF.org. Be sure to tune in on your favorite podcast app.
3:10 – we never saw a Land Cruiser before, it was a real Tarzan vehicle back then.
8:18 – if we can only get 60 entries, at $100 an entry, that’d be enough to pay for the event
11:37 – you misunderstood, this is the Off Road Rally Association, it’s not a race, it’s a rally
22:11 – why don’t we just put on a vintage race?
34:43 – it all started because Dad wanted to take his kid hunting
Special thanks to ORMHOF.org for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
[00:00:02.280] -
Welcome To Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview style podcast. These interviewed are all involved in the offroad industry. Being involved, like all of my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present, and future Legends, as well as business owners, employees, media, and land-use warriors, men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle we call Offroad. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active in Offroad. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call Offroad.
[00:00:46.120] -
This episode of Conversations with Big Rich is brought to you by the Offroad Motorsports Hall of Fame. The mission of the Hall of Fame is to educate and inspire present and future generations of the Offroad community by celebrating the achievements of those who came before. We invite you to help fulfill the mission of the Offroad Motorports Hall of Fame. Join, partner, or donate today. Legends live at ORMHOF.org.
[00:01:15.250] - Big Rich Klein
On today's episode of Conversations with Big Rich, I'll be talking with Mike Pearlman about his dad, Ed.
[00:01:21.480] - Big Rich Klein
Mike and Ed had lived the life of Offroad. Ed was the first to organize the Mexican 1000, co-founded NORRA, founded the Offroad Motorports Hall of Fame, was a 1978 inductee into ORMHOF, the Offroad Motorsports Hall of Fame. And we're going to talk all about the history of Ed and into Mike, and we'll probably do Mike in a separate show. But Mike, it's really good to have you on the air here and talking with me.
[00:01:55.090] - Mike Pearlman
Thank you, Rich. Thank you. Yeah, I have a lot of information. I go way back, starting back when I was like 14 years old, got into the offroading. Here we are today. I'm 75 and still doing it.
[00:02:13.900] - Big Rich Klein
You've been at it quite a while then. Absolutely. You got started a lot earlier than me. I was in my 20s, and I'm only 65, but a few years behind you and not the storied history that you have, that's for sure. Let's talk about your dad. Okay. He's the founder of a lot of things. We'll get into all of those things. But first, where was he born and raised?
[00:02:42.520] - Mike Pearlman
Philadelphia.
[00:02:43.900] - Big Rich Klein
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania. All right. I have to ask, how was his... I know that you weren't there with him yet, but I know that I heard that he fought in World War II. I believe he was a Marine.
[00:03:04.520] - Mike Pearlman
Yes.
[00:03:05.700] - Big Rich Klein
And can you give me some background on his early life?
[00:03:10.720] - Mike Pearlman
Well, he went into the Marines, and he was some a mechanic that worked on Jeeps. He worked on the old military Jeeps, I imagine, and had a little niche for the off-road stuff. Then after, he went down to Baja one time, and after he got out of the service and had a good time, and that was it until later in life, I was born and I became 14 years old and dad wanted to take his little kid hunting. He said, Well, if we want to go hunting, we need to have an off-road car. Let's look for a Jeep. We lived in Tarzana, California. One day we were driving down Ventura Boulevard and there was a FY40 Toyota Land Cruiser parked on the side of the road. This was like 1964-ish, okay? Okay. And we said, Louis, what's that? We never saw a Land Cruiser before. That was like nobody had them back then. And it was in front of the Edgar Rice Burrows estate who made the movie Tarzan. And so I imagine that was a real Tarzan vehicle back then. And it was for sale. We looked at it and dad said, Okay, we'll buy it.
[00:04:45.700] - Mike Pearlman
He bought it. And we went off roading. We learned how to climb hills, and we learned how to ride in the sand, and in the dirt and whatever. It was fun. We went hunting. Actually, before we went hunting, he had a friend of mine drove it who didn't know how to shift it. And he got on the freeway in second gear or first gear, I don't know, and wound it out and blew up the engine. This was like three weeks before hunting season.
[00:05:22.560] - Big Rich Klein
Oh, no.
[00:05:23.990] - Mike Pearlman
And you couldn't find a Land Cruiser engine in the States at that time, or he couldn't. And so we went down to the junkyard with the bell housing, and he held it next to a Chevy small block engine and said, That looks like it could fit close. And so he bought the engine and he put a V8 in that Land Cruiser. So now we graduated after the V8 was in from off road, just driving around, to now he wanted to go hill climbing because he had some power.
[00:06:03.840] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[00:06:05.020] - Mike Pearlman
And drag racing a little bit because he had some power. And he belonged to the Stump Jumpers Jeep Club, and they were all astonished. And now a few of them bought Land Cruisers and put V8s in them, and pretty soon the V8 Land Cruiser stuff was becoming popular. Okay, well, now it wasn't just running around in the dirt, it was, Let's see how fast we can go, more horsepower, and let's get some injection and some CAMs, and this is fun.
[00:06:40.880] - Big Rich Klein
The addiction.
[00:06:42.750] - Mike Pearlman
Anyway, life went on and we had fun playing in the dirt. So he read a little article in the Tarzana newspaper about how Bud Ekins, Dave Ekins, Cliff Coleman, and the famous Eddie Molder, did a record attempt on triumph motorcycles. And they started in Tijuana and they went to La Paz. They had a great time. They got in fights, they beat each other up, and they're crazy guys. But they set a record. And so dad said, I could break that record in my Land Cruiser. And he bought a brand new Land Cruiser, brand spanking new, 66. And the day he bought it, he towed it over to Confer, who was putting V8s in Land Cruisers and said, Put a big V8 in here. Which he did. So we had a brand new Land Cruiser with a V8 in it. And he goes, I'm going to try and break that record. And so he went to get wide tires and nobody really made nice offroad, offroad wasn't a word back then. Nobody made nice tires for the dirt for vehicles like that. So we found a little ad in the newspaper, the Los Angeles newspaper, about somebody selling farm implement tires out of the newspaper.
[00:08:18.390] - Mike Pearlman
He went to his garage at his house. He had a bunch of tires in there, and he said, I'll give you the tires if I could be co-driver on this event. Okay, and they were Armstrong Farm Implement Tires for the front of tractors. So they put them on and this guy and my dad went down and they had a great time. They broke down, they broke a shackle, and they did not break the record, but they had a good time. So when they got back, my dad said, I'm going to put on an off... Some an event, not an off-road event. Some an event, some an event because this was a lot of fun. And if we can only get like 60 entries, we could have at a $100 an entry, that'd be enough money to pay for the event. Okay. That was like six grand, I was thinking. Okay, so they got back and the co-driver that gave them the tires said, I'm going to sell off-road equipment. His name was Dick Cepek. So Dick Cepek did his thing and my dad did his thing and they both were successful. Dad put on the first Mexican 1000, Dick Cepek sold equipment.
[00:09:44.140] - Mike Pearlman
Anyway, that was the story, how dad got into off-road racing. And the N-R-R-A. I said, Look, we need to make a rulebook. I need someone to help me make a rulebook and maybe use your rules and alter them a little bit for our event. And so the N-R-R-A sent down Jack braided and John Christy to help Dad. And they met behind Dad's business. He had a flower shop at that time. I drove up and I was the young kid there. I was 19 and these were all adults. And Jack, braided and John Christy pretty much said, Well, we need a name for this new racing or this new rally, excuse me. It wasn't really a race. We called it a rally. I'll explain that in a minute why we did that. But they said, We need a new name for this event. We all looked at each other and we said, Well, it's called dirt road racing. Well, maybe we can call it fire road racing because we used to go drive on the fire roads. I kept going, No, dad, you can't use the word road. It's not on the road. We're off of the road.
[00:11:37.110] - Mike Pearlman
And he went, Yeah, you're right, son. It's off the road. Let's call it national instead of N-R-R-A. Let's put an O in there, and it's National Off Road racing Association. They just put the word off in there, and that's how they got the word off road. But at one point, They had to take the word racing out of it because when dad went to buy insurance, they said, We don't insure racing. And if this is the National Off Road racing Association, we can't insure you. And dad said, No. You misunderstood me. This is the Off Road Rally Association. And they said, Oh, it's a rally? And dad said, Yes, it's not a race, it's a rally. And they said, Okay, we can insure you. And he bought the insurance. So Off Road racing or off-road rally, call it what you want, but they got the insurance and they put on the event. And so they promoted the first Mexican 1,000. They got 68 entries and it was a hit. It was a lot of fun.
[00:12:47.080] - Big Rich Klein
At $100 an entry?
[00:12:51.230] - Mike Pearlman
I believe that's what it was. Yeah, it was right around that. Maybe 120, okay?
[00:12:55.600] - Big Rich Klein
Can you imagine putting on a race like that now for that for $6,000?
[00:13:03.880] - Mike Pearlman
Not really. Maybe. Okay, so they put on the event. Pete Condos said, I don't know, this is too much work for me. I'm so busy with my company. And dad got a hold of Don Francisco somehow. I think Vick Hickey, who worked with Chevrolet, introduced him to Don Francisco, and he goes, This guy could really help. And Don Francisco was the editor of Hot Rod magazine. And back in the day, if you remember, you could write a letter to Hot Rod magazine going, Dear Don, I've got a 48 Ford, and I want to put a 38 Oldmobile rear-end in it. Is it going to line up? How am I going to do this? And Don would write you back, dear Don would write you back, Yes, you can do this. You've got to do this. You got to do this, but you can do it. ' And that was Don Francisco. So Don became my dad's partner. And Don got a hold of the Well, Vicky, he got a hold of Don. They got a hold of Bill Stropp, and they knew everybody in the industry because they were with Hot Rod Magazine. And the first race was a real hit.
[00:14:27.610] - Mike Pearlman
And it went on from there.
[00:14:29.220] - Big Rich Klein
Did you get to go on that? Did you get to go along on that first race?
[00:14:34.460] - Mike Pearlman
Yeah, I was 19 years old.
[00:14:36.090] - Big Rich Klein
Okay, 19 at that time. I got.
[00:14:37.420] - Mike Pearlman
To tell you just a quick little story.
[00:14:39.910] - Big Rich Klein
Absolutely.
[00:14:41.210] - Mike Pearlman
We started in Tijuana, and we were going to start at a hotel in Tijuana. And all of a sudden, everybody got the hotel and the parking lot got to be real small. Dad said, They don't have room for all these cars. And so dad said, What do we do? I don't know. So they got up in Don Francisco's airplane and they flew, did circles around Tijuana looking for a big parking lot. They said, Well, what about the bull ring over there? I'm on the Pacific Ocean? And they said, Oh, yeah, the bull ring. Well, let's go check it out. And so the gate was unlocked. They said, Let's use it. They didn't ask permission, they just said, Let's use it. They put word out to all the entries, Go to the bull ring. They drew a map of how to get to the bull ring. So they're all in the bull ring, and then that's where the first race started. The owner of the bull ring came by and said, What are you guys doing? Well, the gate was open, so we just came in. We used the parking lot here. He goes, Well, okay.
[00:15:56.150] - Mike Pearlman
And they made a deal and they used the bull ring.
[00:15:59.280] - Big Rich Klein
Nice.
[00:15:59.620] - Mike Pearlman
They went down the toll road and they had to pay for each car at each toll booth because the toll road was working back then. So dad put somebody with cash at each toll booth. And as one car came by, he'd pay cash and they'd go through. They got to Ensenada. They spent the night and had a restart in Ensenada and went down the Peninsula. There were checkpoints that they had to stop at different towns, and made it all the way down to La Paz. And when they got to La Paz, the finish was there. And what happened to me is I landed in La Paz early because Dad had hired a couple of DC threes, or at least one at that time, to fly all the crews down to La Paz. And so I got to La Paz. And I remember going into one of the hotels where we were staying, and all the motorcycle riders were on the course and their wives were all in the hotel. They said, Mike, have a margarita with us. I said, Okay, well, I was only 19 years old. I hardly knew what a margarita was. And so this was good.
[00:17:24.500] - Mike Pearlman
This is like lemonade. Let me have another one. I drank like three margaritas. I went to my room, I fell asleep. I missed the whole race. Anyway. So that was my first race. I slept through it. Anyway, that was my first race.
[00:17:42.610] - Big Rich Klein
You were in Margaritaville. I was in Margaritaville.
[00:17:46.970] - Big Rich Klein
There you go.
[00:17:47.690] - Mike Pearlman
The race was a real success, and everybody loved it. They had a great time. And it was a new deal, a new era. And Bill Stropp got behind it. He built a Bronco, Vick Hicky built the Baha Boot. There were other fellows that had buggies. Back then, you could just take a Volkswagen, cut the body off or use the body and cut the fenders off, and you had an off-road car. It was simple back then. And the course was unique. The truck drivers used the course to go down Baja. There was no pavement. Actually, the pavement ended in Camaloo, I believe. So it was all dirt roads. And that's how the first Mexican 1000 got started.
[00:18:47.290] - Big Rich Klein
So the race was on the main road, even though it was a dirt road.
[00:18:54.300] - Mike Pearlman
Oh, yeah. There were trucks going down the road, semi-trucks, semis. Right. And they just took their time and got the supplies down to La Paz or Cabo, or down to the little villages all the way down.
[00:19:10.510] - Big Rich Klein
Nice. So do you know what it was like for you, dad, to organize the race then with Don Francisco?
[00:19:19.420] - Mike Pearlman
It was almost a full-time deal. Dad was up in the office every day. Every day. And they hired a few more people to do media and write stories. It was a full-time deal for dad. Dad ran the race until 1973, I believe. They also did the Parker Dam 500. They did the Baja 500. And then he had a problem with one of the officials down in Baja, I think it was the mayor of Ensenada or the mayor of Baja, I'm not sure. And he said, Well, you can't come down to Baja anymore. And then Score came down and did their event, and NORRA was pushed out. And so that was the story with NORRA.
[00:20:26.130] - Big Rich Klein
Wow. And it was just a difference of opinion or the guy-.
[00:20:32.590] - Mike Pearlman
The guy wanted money.
[00:20:33.890] - Big Rich Klein
Money, yeah.
[00:20:35.460] - Mike Pearlman
And I think somebody that was close to Dad said, If you give them, start paying off money, it's never going to end. So be careful. And so they didn't pay it. And I guess the guy got upset and his son put on the event and it was a disaster. And then Mickey Thompson came in and said, I'll take this and figure it out and did it. Do you.
[00:21:03.400] - Big Rich Klein
Know who that was between NORRA and Mickey? Between your dad and Mickey? Do you remember.
[00:21:13.420] - Mike Pearlman
Who- Who? No, I do not.
[00:21:14.750] - Big Rich Klein
Okay.
[00:21:15.630] - Mike Pearlman
Oh, I forget the name.
[00:21:18.260] - Big Rich Klein
All right.
[00:21:18.760] - Mike Pearlman
No worries. It was the mayor or the governor's son.
[00:21:22.810] - Big Rich Klein
Oh, okay, of Mexico. The Mexicans tried to put it on themselves. Okay.
[00:21:28.210] - Mike Pearlman
Right, yeah. But they were friends with Mickey Thompson, and Mickey stepped in and said, Well, I can help you. And so he did.
[00:21:41.070] - Big Rich Klein
Was your dad bitter about that?
[00:21:43.590] - Mike Pearlman
Very much, yeah.
[00:21:44.920] - Big Rich Klein
I would imagine.
[00:21:45.680] - Mike Pearlman
He was very bitter. He went into a bit of a depression. He went into his tackle shop and he started making rods and reels and just forgot about offroading.
[00:21:56.580] - Big Rich Klein
Got back into fishing.
[00:21:58.750] - Mike Pearlman
Got back into fishing. And he ended up having one of the biggest rod and reel, antique rod and reel collections in the world. It was like a little museum.
[00:22:10.830] - Big Rich Klein
He.
[00:22:11.780] - Mike Pearlman
Made fly rods. Anyway, dad went on and passed away, and then I brought back NORRA. I said, Okay. A few years after dad passed away, I said, I'm going to bring back NORRA. A friend of mine wanted to do a movie, and the movie, it was Michael Noval. The movie was called Just Finishing because his uncle, Don Francisco, said, Look at Mike. If you're going to race, which he did, you just got to finish and you might win. You don't have to try and win because you'll probably break if you do that. But if you just finish, you might win. And so he was going to write a story on a movie called Just Finishing. He said, Mike, I want to do this movie. We'll build these offroad, vintage looking offroad cars, and we'll put on a race, and we'll make a movie about it. Okay. I said, Well, why are we going to build vintage-looking-off-road cars that's going to cost a fortune? I said, Why don't we just put on a vintage race? And we did. We put on the first vintage race in Baja.
[00:23:31.330] - Big Rich Klein
And you brought that back in… 2001.
[00:23:40.390] - Mike Pearlman
I believe it was.
[00:23:42.090] - Big Rich Klein
Okay.
[00:23:43.430] - Mike Pearlman
Okay. And we put on a vintage race. Mike never made the movie, ducked out. We brought on Eliceo Garcia and a few other people to help us put on the event, and it went on. So I did it for 14 years. And that's another whole story about how we brought back NORRA. But it all started with that old land cruiser that we just wanted to go deer hunting in. Then we put the V8 in, got some horsepower, and it felt good just with the horsepower sliding around in the dirt. And that's really what offroading is all about now. It's a lot of fun.
[00:24:30.880] - Big Rich Klein
Right. So your dad was pretty driven once he got an idea, it sounds like.
[00:24:37.430] - Mike Pearlman
Oh, yeah, he focused on that. It was fun. I mean, come on, we lived in the States to go to Mexico. It was like a whole new world. I was 19. I could drink.
[00:24:53.760] - Big Rich Klein
Margaritas.
[00:24:54.560] - Mike Pearlman
I went into the bars and there was everything you could do in the bars that you dreamed about. It was fun. It was wild. We could ride motorcycles on the streets without licenses and get away with it. It was like the Wild West. Mexico was different than the States, and still is somewhat, and it was fun. It was a lot of fun. We followed the fun, and that's where it ended up going into a good event.
[00:25:29.180] - Big Rich Klein
So let's talk about him starting the Offroad Motor Sports Hall of Fame.
[00:25:38.240] - Mike Pearlman
Well, after dad was getting close to retirement between dad and Don Francisco, they said there should be an Off Road Hall of Fame. And so they started one, and I think they made Bill Strop and Bill Kickee, and they picked a few names and it went on that they started the Off Road Hall of Fame. And after dad got a little older, Rod Hall came in and said, I'd like to help you with this and keep it going. And so he stepped up, Rod Hall stepped up and the Hall of Fame went on.
[00:26:24.770] - Big Rich Klein
And you attend the Hall of Fame, Inductions, don't you? Once in a while. Once in a while? Yeah. I know I've seen you there a couple of times.
[00:26:33.060] - Mike Pearlman
Yes.
[00:26:35.360] - Big Rich Klein
And do you want to talk about your dad when he did the Mexican 1,000 and then NORRA, those were just point-to-point races, getting... I would imagine the 500 was a loop, but those thousands were point-to-point and done every year, and they were just all at once. They weren't like a broken up daily like NORRA is now. No. More of a stage rally.
[00:27:09.160] - Mike Pearlman
Start, in Ensenada. Here's your checkpoints that you have to hit. Cameroon, I believe San Ignacio, so forth, and so on. I don't care how you get there. Just make those checkpoints and go all the way down.
[00:27:34.130] - Big Rich Klein
So no prescribed route?
[00:27:37.150] - Mike Pearlman
Not really, but the way the checkpoints were laid out, there was a basic route that you had to go down. Right. Yeah. And I believe they had brought all the fuel down at the beginning because fuel was difficult to get down there. They didn't know where they were going to get it. So we had big fuel trucks go down and we supplied the fuel.
[00:28:03.680] - Big Rich Klein
Probably right along those checkpoints.
[00:28:06.310] - Mike Pearlman
Yes.
[00:28:08.270] - Big Rich Klein
And did he just have friends man those checkpoints, or do you know how that worked out for him?
[00:28:16.980] - Mike Pearlman
Anybody could get friends, volunteers, whoever he could grab did the checkpoints, and they did it. I'm not sure where he got them or how, but I was a little young back then, but I was still going to school. But he put it on and got all the checkpoints squared away.
[00:28:41.520] - Big Rich Klein
Nice.
[00:28:42.750] - Mike Pearlman
Yeah. But the checkpoints were not really timing checkpoints. They were just, Yeah, you went through here. Okay, we'll put a mark on your tag. You were here. We'll take pictures, and so forth. And because the time went from Ensenada all the way down to La Paz, that was in and out, there was no in-between timing.
[00:29:12.940] - Big Rich Klein
Right. And no radio communications? There was no GPS?
[00:29:21.200] - Mike Pearlman
We got a hold of some guys with the big radios. They had to set up big antennas. It was... I'm not sure what the name of the radios were there. Short-wave radios, maybe?
[00:29:40.200] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[00:29:41.830] - Mike Pearlman
Back then, it was all there was. They set up these big radios, big, huge antennas, and they could talk from radio checkpoint to radio checkpoint. Yeah. But no satellite community. Communications. It just didn't happen.
[00:30:04.380] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[00:30:04.920] - Mike Pearlman
Maybe everybody had a CB radio, okay? Right. And back then the CB radios were big, every car was had them, and they didn't go very far, but they had them. Communications were very sketchy. But they learned to work with it. That's all they had, so they had to.
[00:30:28.150] - Big Rich Klein
And what about all the other things that we take for granted now, like the medical staffing along the way and pit supports and all that stuff, was that all just left up to the teams?
[00:30:43.430] - Mike Pearlman
Yes, pretty much. Pretty much, yes.
[00:30:47.620] - Big Rich Klein
Wow.
[00:30:48.620] - Mike Pearlman
I mean, we didn't... Pretty much, yes, yes, yes. I remember there were some accidents where Bruce Myers rolled over one year, and I think we got an ambulance to him pretty quick, but I'm not sure. It might have been, I mean, quick back then was within a couple of hours maybe. Okay. So we didn't have a helicopter to fly down. We just had the big DC-3 airplanes to take the crews down. And dad said, Okay, through the Green Flag in El Sonata, and Encinada, okay, we'll see you down in La Paz. Bye-bye. You're on your own. I don't know how it worked.
[00:31:39.270] - Big Rich Klein
Sign this release, please.
[00:31:42.170] - Mike Pearlman
Yeah.
[00:31:43.190] - Big Rich Klein
Things are a lot different back then.
[00:31:46.480] - Mike Pearlman
Oh, yeah. Now we can't just do that because we have the ability with radio communications. We have satellite radios now. Right. And I don't care where they are on the course, we can talk. I mean, Nora, when I took it, we had 35 satellite radios. We put a radio in all the checkpoints, all the timing checkpoints, put one in every ambulance crew that we had. We have like six or eight ambulance crews that followed the whole event down each day. The airplane, we have an overhead airplane. We didn't have that back in dad's day. Matter of fact, they had little tickets that went in each car. And if you had to send a message, you wrote a note on the ticket. It was called a stuck stub. Okay, a stuck stub. Okay. And you handed it to the next car that went by, and they were supposed to turn it in at the next checkpoint. And the checkpoint captain was supposed to, if there was a stuck stub that came in, he was supposed to try and figure out how to get that guy out of there.
[00:33:07.730] - Big Rich Klein
Wow.
[00:33:08.220] - Mike Pearlman
That was how it was. It was paperwork that went from car to car, stuck stubs. Yeah. Yeah. That's that.
[00:33:19.800] - Big Rich Klein
It's so different from what's happening now with score or with even the event that you put on, Nora. I mean, it's pretty insane.
[00:33:34.230] - Mike Pearlman
Yeah, we've got good communications. We've got tractors on the cars. We can look on our computer and go, That car has been sitting there for an hour.
[00:33:45.500] - Big Rich Klein
There's something wrong.
[00:33:47.160] - Mike Pearlman
Okay, and we can get on the radio and see who's close to them. And you figured out we have a sweep team. You know Valerie, she heads up the sweep team, and they're going to follow the event down every day, and if there's a car in trouble, they're going to know about it because we all have radios and they're going to pull them out or get them out of there, make sure that they're okay.
[00:34:13.690] - Big Rich Klein
A lot different. I mean, that's even different than anything else. It's any of the other races that happen now.
[00:34:20.560] - Mike Pearlman
Yeah, maybe so. Maybe so.
[00:34:24.300] - Big Rich Klein
So do you want to talk about your part of Nora now? Do we want to extend this now? Are you feeling good?
[00:34:35.100] - Mike Pearlman
I think we should do this on a different day.
[00:34:37.100] - Big Rich Klein
Okay. I think.
[00:34:39.030] - Mike Pearlman
From when I took over Nora, that should be a whole other session.
[00:34:42.960] - Big Rich Klein
All right.
[00:34:43.860] - Mike Pearlman
And go from there. But I think I've given you the basics on how Nora got started. It was all because dad wanted to take his kid hunting, and we had to have an off-road car. Got some horsepower. The off-road car became a race car.
[00:35:05.170] - Big Rich Klein
And the race car became a race.
[00:35:07.620] - Mike Pearlman
There you go.
[00:35:10.070] - Big Rich Klein
And then history.
[00:35:13.970] - Mike Pearlman
Yeah, there's a lot of water under the bridge, a lot of stories. And it was a big time in my life for sure. I've put it behind me a little bit now, and we'll see where that goes.
[00:35:32.070] - Big Rich Klein
Well, perfect. Anything else you want to say about your dad?
[00:35:37.670] - Mike Pearlman
Well, I miss him very much, and I think he had a good vision, and I'm glad he handed it to me and I was able to take it and do something with it.
[00:35:49.210] - Big Rich Klein
Absolutely. I'd like to come down and do the Nora at some point. I haven't had a chance to follow it along or be part of a team or anything yet, but it's on my life list.
[00:36:04.150] - Mike Pearlman
Well, maybe you should find a vehicle and I'll drive. You can tell me where to drive and be my co-driver and we'll finish the story here.
[00:36:15.060] - Big Rich Klein
That sounds like a great idea. It does sound like a good idea. So anybody that listens to this, if they'd like to see Mike and Big Rich in their vehicle-.
[00:36:28.380] - Mike Pearlman
Wait a minute, Rich. Ritch, wait.
[00:36:30.780] - Big Rich Klein
A minute. Yes.
[00:36:32.030] - Mike Pearlman
I can't just take any vehicle. I want to pick one that's going.
[00:36:36.080] - Big Rich Klein
To finish. Oh, absolutely.
[00:36:38.150] - Mike Pearlman
And that we might win if we just finish.
[00:36:40.480] - Big Rich Klein
There you go. Okay. That sounds great. So if anybody's got that vehicle sitting there, get hold of Mike or myself.
[00:36:49.250] - Mike Pearlman
Yeah, we'll do a good story for you.
[00:36:51.070] - Big Rich Klein
There you go. Excellent. Well, Mike, I want to say thank you so much for spending the time today talking with me about your dad's history and your young life in off-road racing and coining the term off-road. And we'll get back to you and the new Nora here at a later date.
[00:37:14.620] - Mike Pearlman
And the race card that we're going.
[00:37:16.710] - Big Rich Klein
To get. There we go. Maybe by then we'll have something lined out.
[00:37:22.960] - Mike Pearlman
Okay.
[00:37:23.970] - Big Rich Klein
Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mike. Thank you so much. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have, or if there's anybody that you have that you would think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the gust of you can. Thank you.