Conversations with Big Rich
Hear conversations with the legacy stars of rockcrawling and off-road. Big Rich interviews the leaders in rock sports.
Conversations with Big Rich
Chris Ridgway hopping on Episode 239
“I just wanna go fast,” Chris Ridgway. Chris joins us from the road as he’s hauling multi-million-dollar cars all over the US. If it’s got wheels, Chris has raced it, from motorcycles to Porches. Some great stories in here. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
6:35 – I wasn’t the most popular guy, I wasn’t the least liked guy, I was just one of the guys.
10:38 – I was still getting lapped in the ADCC beginner class. I wasn’t good. I just wanted it.
19:51 – It was a way of me feeling important and feeling like people like me, and the thing is, as you know about racing, that’s all that matters.
25:31 – I turned pro in ’91, and I got hurt. The big injury came in, I think, ‘95
40:34 – He said, “someone needs to put you in a car.” And I said, “who’s going to put me in a car?” And he said, I will.
48:13 – I had my leg all bandaged up, and I remember smacking it on the dash and someone’s wife duct taped it back up!
52:47 – He had so much more to lose, I felt like I didn’t have much to lose, and so I would take chances like that
1:06:50 – I was like, dude, we can do these doubles, he’s like, well, what happens if we come up short?
1:14:55 – and when you go to SEMA with Jesse Combs on your arm as your co-driver, you get sponsorship
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
All Automotive with Matt ClawsonAutomotive related topics. Anything from owning an repair facility to racing. Anything...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
[00:00:01.020] -
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.
[00:00:46.470] -
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.
[00:01:13.020] -
Have you seen 4Low magazine yet? 4Low magazine is a high-quality, well-written, four-wheel drive-focused magazine for the enthusiast market. If you still love the idea of a printed magazine, something to save and read at any time, 4LOW is the magazine for you. 4LOW cannot be found in stores, but you can have it delivered to your home or place of business. Visit 4LOWmagazine.com to order your subscription today.
[00:01:40.100] - Big Rich Klein
Today's guest on Conversations with Big Rich has always wanted to go fast, which led him to many opportunities to race, from motocross to the Rolex Series 24 Hours of Dayton to X-games to Baja 1000 and to KOH. My guest is Chris Ridgway. Hello, Chris Ridgway. How are you doing today?
[00:02:03.140] - Chris Ridgway
Good. How about you?
[00:02:04.450] - Big Rich Klein
Doing excellent. So good to have you on the podcast. Really looking forward to finding out more about you. We've known each other for a lot of years, but I can't say that we ever really had a chance to sit down and talk. So this will be good.
[00:02:18.120] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah.
[00:02:19.330] - Big Rich Klein
So let's jump right in. First of all, I'd like to say thank you for taking the time today as you travel, delivering cars and heading home now. And you've been on the road for quite a while, and you pulling over and taking the time for this interview is awesome. So I just want to say thank you for that.
[00:02:39.250] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah, no problem.
[00:02:40.860] - Big Rich Klein
So let's go to the first question. Where were you born and raised?
[00:02:45.100] - Chris Ridgway
I was born and raised in Van Nuys. Well, I was born in Van Nuys, California, and then raised on the East Coast, like Virginia, and then back to California again by the time I was I think 12 or 13.
[00:03:03.930] - Big Rich Klein
And born on the West Coast, raised on the East Coast, was that parents working or something?
[00:03:14.420] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah. I mean, that was my dad raising me. He took me from my mom, and we went as far away as possible because there were some things that went down, and it ended up being all everything's good. But it was, I guess for a while, I was too young to really know about it. But for a while, I guess we were on the lam.
[00:03:39.430] - Big Rich Klein
Well, okay. There's always interesting twists to everybody's story. So growing up like that, did you have a constant school or were you constantly moving around?
[00:03:54.590] - Chris Ridgway
No, it was... So this was back in the '70s, and it wasn't as easy to find somebody. So I was in school and I talked to my mom all the time. I just wasn't allowed to tell her exactly where I was at and stuff like that. And my dad also made sure that no one ever talked bad about my mom to me. My dad used to say that that was up to me to decide when I was going to have a relationship with her. He wasn't demonizing her or anything. It was just that he thought that that was the best for me as to be brought up by him.
[00:04:44.860] - Big Rich Klein
I can understand that. And kudos to him for, no matter how it worked out, for trying that and also for not throwing your mom under the bus or demonizing her, as you said, I see that way too often. It never works out well.
[00:05:09.320] - Chris Ridgway
Right. And it wasn't even for that long. I think it was maybe a year and a half at the most. I don't really know that. It's not something that my dad is super proud of. My mom was back in my life by the time I was four, and I would go visit her stuff. It wasn't like it was that long, but it's just the way it was.
[00:05:37.530] - Big Rich Klein
What was school like for you?
[00:05:42.260] - Chris Ridgway
I struggled. I'm sure there's all kinds of excuses now, like ADHD or whatever, but I just struggled at it. I just couldn't figure it out. I couldn't pay attention enough. I didn't comprehend what I was being taught very easily. I'm more about actually doing something or seeing pictures or that thing. I think the only good year I ever had in school is when we moved back to California, the school system in Virginia was a lot farther ahead. When I got to California, it was like repeating a grade almost. So finally, I was caught up. You know what I mean? It didn't last long.
[00:06:29.600] - Big Rich Klein
How about socially? How did things go in school, socially?
[00:06:35.110] - Chris Ridgway
I don't know. I guess it was all right. I wasn't the most popular guy, I wasn't the least like guy I just was one of the guys, and I did my own thing. I did play sports and stuff. But after school, my interests were all about motorcycles, and I went to North Hollywood High School for a while, and then we moved down to Orange County. But in North Hollywood, there was only one other guy that rode a motorcycle, a dirt bike. That's all I thought about. I just couldn't think about anything else. I didn't want to go to parties. I didn't want to do anything but ride a motorcycle. I wasn't super popular.
[00:07:24.040] - Big Rich Klein
Right. So how did the motorcycle riding start?
[00:07:29.090] - Chris Ridgway
My dad Your dad? Yeah, my dad really liked to go riding. And in fact, he used to ride with Steve McQueen back in the day. My dad was actually a baseball player. And pretty much if he didn't knock my mom up, then he would have probably gone on to the major league. He was heading that way. And a lot of people have told that, that that's where he was going. So it was a big commitment by my dad to give up his dream and make sure that he raised me properly. And so I got raised by pretty much a professional athlete and a guy that was, or he still is, mentally tough. And I learned a lot about mental games and a lot of stuff about... Because my dad was a pitcher, and that's a very mental position And he loved the motorcycles, and I got a taste of it when I was super young. I used to ride on the gas tank of his bike, and he would do some desert races. And I was just We didn't have a little mini bike, and I don't even know how old it was. I don't even know if I was old enough to even have a mini bike.
[00:08:52.380] - Chris Ridgway
But yeah, I rode on the gas tank a lot, and I loved it. That's all I thought about.
[00:09:05.650] - Big Rich Klein
When you were growing up, did you work at all, or was it just school and writing?
[00:09:13.250] - Chris Ridgway
It was just school and writing. I did have a couple of little jobs here and there, but they weren't... Nothing serious. I would drop those things in a second if I needed to go to a race or something. But My dad supported me throughout until I was a young adult. And we didn't have... I wasn't driving nice cars or anything. We had new bikes, and We had a place to live, and he supported me in my practicing. And it's very expensive, as you know. And so he gave everything he had, and It was enough that I didn't have to have a very serious job. I mean, for a while, I thought that that racing was going to be my career. So it was like an education for the career I was going to have, and I took it pretty seriously. Looking back, I wish I would have taken it more seriously in some aspects, but I was pretty serious about it. That's all I wanted to do.
[00:10:29.300] - Big Rich Klein
And what What aspects are those that you would have taken more serious?
[00:10:32.960] - Chris Ridgway
I would have trained better, and I would have eaten better.
[00:10:37.040] - Big Rich Klein
Conditioning? Yeah.
[00:10:38.210] - Chris Ridgway
They go hand in hand. I think I would have taken a little bit more time. I always felt like I was behind the eight ball. I was at 13 years old, I think, maybe even 14. I was still getting lapped in the ADCC beginner class. I wasn't good. I just wanted it. I wanted it more than a lot of people, and I took some really big chances. And when they pay off, you're rewarded, and when they don't pay off, you learn a lesson.
[00:11:19.350] - Big Rich Klein
When you say you took big chances in the race itself?
[00:11:23.660] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah. I would see... I would just try to ride with whoever was going faster than me. And even if I didn't know how to do it, in my dumb brain, I would just say, I'll figure it out as it comes to me. And I would just twist the throttle more. And I had that mentality that if so-and-so can do something, there is no reason in the world why I can't do it on a motorcycle. The only thing I've ever been confident about is riding a motorcycle and maybe driving a vehicle That's interesting. But nothing else really... I don't have comfort, like a confidence in much else.
[00:12:12.360] - Big Rich Klein
Well, you're well-spoken, so there's that. I mean, that's good.
[00:12:15.990] - Chris Ridgway
I have my dad to thank for that because I struggled so bad at school. He said, well, at least focus on English and try to at least sound smart. And he's right. I mean, he said, he wasn't calling me dumb. He just said, you need to focus on English and be well-spoken so that you can represent yourself better. And you're to just sound, you're going to sound smart. And that's what I did. And it wasn't like I consciously worked harder at English. It's just for some reason it came easier to me than math. I suck at math, and I wish I didn't because I love to fabricate and I love to... My whole job about driving around the country is all about budgeting and trying to save money every mile thing. And so, yeah, I wish I would have been better at math.
[00:13:23.340] - Big Rich Klein
And so you did get through high school. Did you do any college?
[00:13:29.260] - Chris Ridgway
I I was taking tests on graduation day to get out of high school. I barely, I squigged by, and I just struggled. And it didn't help that my mind was elsewhere all the time. And I still struggled on stuff that I'm not interested, and I really struggle. And I can't fake it. It's just either I'm into it or I'm not. And I went I mean, I missed all the parties and stuff. When I went to Orange County to go to school, I was a little bit more popular because there were more racers there. And I instantly went to the top of the school for being a motorcycle racer because they had a motorcycle racer there that was pretty good. And he was a class higher than me. But I was racing the highest in for the toughest organization thing. And I was a junior, and this guy was an intermediate. And everyone kept saying how fast he was. And I kept saying, I don't think he can be that fast because I've never heard of him. So they kept saying, oh, we got to go out. And there was a lot of kids that were behind this guy.
[00:14:52.140] - Chris Ridgway
And they said, we got to go out to this place called Colton and go ride and see who's faster and this and that. And I was like, I've never heard of that place either. I'm getting a little nervous. And we end up going out there. And it's a place that I called Richie Canyon, but they called Colton. And I mean, I'm rolling up to the place and I'm like, I knew I was in a good spot because I rode there a lot. And I was faster than him. And so I And then at that time, I was also in cycle news quite a bit. I moved up pretty quick. I went from getting lapped in the ADCC beginner class to being pro and probably five or six years.
[00:15:46.740] - Big Rich Klein
And what do you attribute that to? Was it just all of a sudden it clicked with you?
[00:15:52.400] - Chris Ridgway
No, it never really seemed to just all of a sudden anything. It was just I'd practice my ass off and I take chances and figure stuff out. And then I just worked. I wrote a lot. I didn't think I needed to train. I thought I needed to ride more than anybody. And so I just wrote a lot. And on graduation, I didn't even go to my... I went to my graduation dance for just a little bit. And then I had the van and the bikes out in the parking lot, and I I had to leave at 8:00 or 9:00 at night and drive 300 miles up to Mammoth and race the next day. But that was me. And that was the last time I saw almost all those people. There's a few that stayed around in my life for a while. And until later on, when I had a little bit of success, I started getting phone calls from people I hadn't seen since high school. But But yeah, I don't know. Just like I said, I was all just about the racing, and I just worked really hard. And I rode as much as I could, raced as much as I could.
[00:17:12.310] - Chris Ridgway
I would race the 125, 250, and 500 cc classes every chance I got. And in motocross, we have two motos per race, per class, right? So I would race Friday night at Ascot, Saturday, up in Sacramento. So we'd get out of Ascot at 10:00 at night. And my friends or my dad, we would jump in a van and someone would drive me all night long up to the next... That didn't sound good. Someone would drive all night long up to the next race in Sacramento. And we'd race there on Saturday and then drive all the way back down to Southern California and race on Sunday. So every weekend, I was racing 18 times a weekend. And that's no exaggeration. That's how many gate drops I got. So I had a lot of experience that I was gaining really quickly. Right.
[00:18:14.120] - Big Rich Klein
And That's what got you to where you were at. Just the constant riding, becoming one with it, basically.
[00:18:23.480] - Chris Ridgway
And racing, not just riding, but gate drops and going into the first turn and having to Basically, you get in front of everybody or get hurt, or you got to bulldog your way through people to get to the front.
[00:18:38.930] - Big Rich Klein
Did you ever have any coaches? Did anybody ever step up and try to mentor you or anything?
[00:18:44.200] - Chris Ridgway
I did. I did have a friend named Dan Berg, and he was a really fast local pro, but we didn't work too much together. It wasn't like an organized thing. I would just try to ride with the guy as much as I could, and he give me tips and stuff. And this is before I turned pro. And he would try to get me to calm down and be smoother. And I was all over the place, and I didn't have the greatest form. I just didn't care. I just wanted to go fast and win races. And winning to me was everything. That's all that mattered to me.
[00:19:27.010] - Big Rich Klein
Right. I can understand that. That's There's a certain... I don't know what you'd call it. I guess it's a satisfaction, but it's based on a chemical release, almost when you obtain those goals, it becomes addictive. It really does.
[00:19:51.760] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah. It was a way of me feeling important and feeling like people liked me. And the thing is, as you know about racing, that's all that matters to you. You're setting yourself up for a really hard life because There's only one winner at each race, and there's always someone faster than you. You might have a run for a while, but it's not going to last that long. You're going to lose way more than you're going to win. So So it gets hard, and I really enjoyed my amateur racing. I really enjoyed traveling around the country and being one of the fastest guys in the amateur class. I mean, I could go to Florida and win. I could go all over the country and win. And then when I turned pro, I didn't stay around and race local, even though Southern California has a lot of fast guys. So I went and raced the nationals against Jeff Immegg and McGrath and those guys. And I went from being one of the fastest guys in the amateur class to being a nobody in the pro class. And that was a tough pill to swallow, and it took a long time.
[00:21:22.280] - Chris Ridgway
And I also got hurt the first year on the circuit, and I blew my wrist up. Actually, I was with Dan Fresh. Oh, okay. Yeah, Dan Fresh took me to my... Let's see. He took me to my first stadium race, and it had to be '91 or '92. And we went up to Seattle. And I think I... And I was a spaz. I'm trying to win it first thing. But it was a Mickey Thompson race. It wasn't Supercross. And I had some speed, so I had a taste of that I could do it. That was my problem is I had speed, and there were times when I could run with some really fast people for a little bit. And so that kept me going. It was like the carrot. So I went up to Seattle. I think I I broke a small bone on my ankle and went to the hospital. And I don't remember. There's a reason why I don't remember all this very well. But I think I went to the hospital, and then Dan was driving me. Dan and someone else was driving me back down to Southern California, and we got into Central California, and there's this really cool riding area with all these jumps.
[00:22:57.620] - Chris Ridgway
So I think I cut my cast off and went riding. And apparently I was at least doing or trying to do this gigantic jump because that was the idiot I was. And I came up short and I just knocked myself in the next week and broke my wrist really bad. And I mean, the concussion, I don't remember really a whole lot of it. But we didn't go to the doctor. I got in the box fan and we We went back home. And then I went to the hospital and they had to operate and put some metal into my wrist. And it was my throttle hand, so it limited my throttle. And I didn't realize it at the time, but in a way, it affected a lot of stuff for me because I had to change my riding style because I couldn't bend my wrist as good as it used to bend when it was stuck. And so it just It was a sign that I probably should have figured something else out, but I didn't. I went back racing.
[00:24:08.520] - Big Rich Klein
How did you and Dan Fresh become friends back then?
[00:24:13.400] - Chris Ridgway
Dan used to race dirt bikes also. Right. And so we would see each other at the track. I was there when Dan broke his back really bad and he had to get life flided out. But we We would just ride a lot together. It's funny because I actually didn't talk to him for a long time. When he broke his back, he was out of the sport. We didn't have the Internet. We didn't have cell phones. You just lost touch. It's just the way it was. We weren't the best of friends. We were very friendly at the track, and we went places together, but we weren't constantly hanging out together and getting in trouble together and that stuff. It was more just a motorcycle thing. Then when he was out of it, that was the end of our relationship for a while.
[00:25:20.070] - Big Rich Klein
Then you break your wrist, you're trying to recover from that. You kept riding, though. How many years did you run pro?
[00:25:31.090] - Chris Ridgway
I turned pro in '91, and I got hurt. The big injury came in, I think, '95.
[00:25:42.830] - Big Rich Klein
And you're talking your leg?
[00:25:45.240] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah, both legs. Both legs. Yeah. But I didn't set the world on fire. I mean, I had some good races here and there, and mostly in Mickey Thompson stuff. I think I think I finished out the year in Mickey Thompson. I was in the top 10. I think I was number eight or something like that. And it was good. It wasn't as competitive as Supercross, obviously. But it was like one notch down. And it was my racing. It was wide open. It wasn't as technical. It was like take big chances. And when we had to take big chances is I usually did better. The guys that were super technical, they just didn't want to send it as far, maybe. So the Mickey Thompson stuff was not as technical as Supercross, so it really helped me out. But yeah, I was racing. I mean, I was racing every time I could until I got hurt bad enough where I couldn't race anymore.
[00:26:58.780] - Big Rich Klein
Right. Where were you at when the big wreck happened?
[00:27:05.950] - Chris Ridgway
I was at Glen Helen.
[00:27:08.190] - Big Rich Klein
That's a big track.
[00:27:11.520] - Chris Ridgway
Oh, it was my favorite track. Glen Helen used to sponsor me. I used to be able to ride there during the week when nobody else was there. And my friend, who his dad owned a CMC Motorcycle Club, they leased, I think they leased the track from Bud Feldman for a while. They had a trailer there, and I would just stay in the trailer. And he was a pro also. The my friend. We would ride, and we would prep the track a little bit, water it, do that thing. I used to spend a lot of time at Glen Helen, probably three or four days a week at Glen Helen. So I got hurt there a ton. But when you're riding that much at one place, you're always going to get hurt. I mean, you can't avoid it. I know the place like the back of my hand, but I also went to the hospital out of that place many times.
[00:28:22.100] - Big Rich Klein
What was the attraction of going back to the motorcycle after getting injured?
[00:28:30.810] - Chris Ridgway
I didn't have any other options. I thought that that was my way to be somebody. I thought it was the only way that I could be somebody. We didn't have enough money for four-wheel racing. By the time I was 15 or 16, I'd already blown out both my knees and had them reconstructed, so I couldn't run very good anymore. And I just wasn't skilled at much. The only reason I was good at driving is because of the motorcycles, and I didn't realize that it would have that effect. As a motorcycle racer, you think you're the baddest dude. I mean, because you're taking the biggest risks. You're jumping, you're railing the corners, you're going into the first turn with 40 other guys, elbow to elbow at like 50 miles an hour. It It's gnarly. And so you have to have this confidence. And it's such a hard line between being cocky and confident. It's really difficult. And the thing is, if you don't have the confidence in motorcycle racing, you're going to get hurt. You're not just going to lose, but you're just going to get hurt. And in car racing, it's just different. You just don't get hurt as much.
[00:29:57.080] - Chris Ridgway
And I think the only thing that What really scared me in car racing was fire.
[00:30:02.900] - Big Rich Klein
Fire is a motivator.
[00:30:05.820] - Chris Ridgway
It is. It's a big motivator.
[00:30:07.640] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah. How did you transition from the motor cycles to cars? How did that come about?
[00:30:14.630] - Chris Ridgway
Well, back to Glen Helen. My bike sucked the reed pedal, which is like a valve off the face of a really big jump. I rode Glen Helen so much that if there was gate of 40 pros, maybe the top six would do this jump. It was that big. And it changed. Sometimes it wasn't as big, but on that day it was difficult and my bike broke on the face and I was I was going, realistically, probably 35 or 40 miles an hour, and I was probably 15 feet up in the air, which doesn't sound like a lot until you're 15 feet in the air and you look down, and you're thinking about jumping. The bike was going over the front. I was endoing, and I jumped through the handlebars to try to land on the downside of the second jump. If I would have done that, I would have basically slid like a baseball player in the base or something. But I landed on the upside of the second jump right near the top, and I landed feet first, and both my legs just destroyed both heels and my ankles and then broke my legs, too.
[00:31:35.570] - Chris Ridgway
It was bad. It was really, really bad. I spent the next three years in and out of a wheelchair, getting surgeries, trying to get it fixed. At first, I would beg the doctor not to amputate my leg. In hindsight, I wish that he would have given me a year and then amputated it. But it's a problem I have with doctors now. But basically, they were using me as like, let's see what we can do. How good are we? And the whole time, I'm just getting my legs rebroken, and most of my left one, and just an extraordinary amount of pain, tons of operations, and just nothing but failure. And I wish that The reason I said I wish I would have had a year is because mentally, I would have been over it. I would have been like, Yeah, let's cut it off and let's move on. So after three years in a wheelchair, one of the surgeries, both my ankles are fused up. The left one was fused right from the get-go with hardware. The right one has hardware. It still has hardware in it, and it's fused like the subtailer So I can't roll my ankle anymore.
[00:33:02.650] - Chris Ridgway
It goes slightly up and it goes down. And my left one was locked, just like having a prosthetic ankle. It wasn't moving at all. And so they did this surgery, and I don't remember exactly how it went, but I was able to start riding again. I was still on crutches most of the time. I couldn't walk across a parking lot. I'd have to use crutsches, but I could stuff my foot into a boot, and I could ride a motorcycle. And because I was so good before, I could go to these local races, and I could still win. Like the local pro class and stuff like that. And I wasn't racing against super fast guys at that point, but I was still making some money. And I was also taking a shit ton of pain pills. I took 20 plus Norco, which is Vicodin. I took 20 plus a day for years. I was on it all together for nine years, and I was a wreck. I mean, mentally, I was all screwed up, and physically, I was all screwed up. And I was still racing now. And I think my dad supported me because I was still like, I was like benefiting from all the work I'd done earlier.
[00:34:35.870] - Chris Ridgway
I was able to go to these races, and I didn't have to train anymore. And I was having success, and I was still one of the baddest dudes on the track wherever we went, as long as it wasn't a national. And so that was it was enjoyable. Say your command. You know what I mean? Right. And So that was just the benefits of all the hard work thing. And so my dad supported me, and I'd break my leg every once in a while. My Doctors would break it whenever they felt like it. And so fast forward to 1999, or actually '98, but they brought back the Mickey Thompson series. And so in '99, I made an effort to go out and do that, and that was nationwide. And I liked it because the races were short, so I didn't have to train. I was a great starter, so I'd always qualify good, and I'd always be up at the front. And because of my two really fast friends, we were all on the same team. It was a white brothers Yamaha team, and we were all racing the new Yamaha Four Stroke. I had good bikes, and I was able to run up front.
[00:36:06.470] - Chris Ridgway
So I had the Championship points lead for, I don't know, a long time for most of the series because my two buddies got hurt. And they came back and they were catching me. And I finished a ton of thirds, a lot of seconds, but I was always on the podium. And it didn't take long before we realized that there weren't guys that were faster than us. So our seriousness dropped. And we were hanging out in bars all the time. It was honestly the best time that I ever had racing dirt bikes because all the work was already done, and I was just relying on the speed that I had learned. And I was fast enough to be on the podium every week. And I was getting paid, and I I was on ESPN all the time. And it was fun. It was a lot of fun. And I almost won that championship, but at the last round, I put my leg out and broke my leg and bent all the hardware in my leg. And so I didn't make any points, and I dropped from first to third in points. And then I thought for sure that I was going to get my leg amputated just because it was a bad break.
[00:37:36.840] - Chris Ridgway
I went to the hospital, and the surgeon there was like, You need to go back to whoever started this mess, and you need to have that guy deal with his own problem because my leg was hammered. It was disgusting to look at all the scar tissue, and my heel wasn't lining up straight with my leg, and it looked like it was shattered. Even though I was racing. And so anyway, the guy didn't amputate. And by now I wanted my leg amputated. So this is '99, and I wanted it gone. And He ended up fixing it again. So then back to this transition, back to the car thing, I went into racing Baja because I got a job as a tour guide in Baha because that's how I made my money was on a motorcycle. So I got a job back on my motorcycle making money as a tour guide. And then that guy that owned the company was like, Man, you are really fast. I think I need to get you on a team and race the Baja 1,000. And I was like, All right, I'll do that. I'm a racer. And so the funny thing was, I had never raced a single off-road race in my life.
[00:38:59.680] - Big Rich Klein
Everything was track.
[00:39:01.760] - Chris Ridgway
Everything was track. And so my very first off-road race was the Baja 2000.
[00:39:06.930] - Big Rich Klein
Oh, Jesus.
[00:39:08.150] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah. And we finished third in that. I had teammates And a lot of guys crashed. And for once, I was the only guy that didn't crash. But I kept it together for us. I was riding super fast and I didn't crash. Question. And so we got third. And then, oh, and then, so now we're talking about '01, and now I'm having to figure out another way to make money because I'm not making enough. And I'm still living with my dad, which was fine. It's always been me and my dad. It wasn't like, you know what I mean? It was just he was like my buddy. Right. And so I ended up I was buying a Dually pickup truck and a big trailer. And this guy, Rod Emory, who has a Porsche restoration business, and he supported like vintage racing. He had a bunch of cars that he vintage raced. They bought a Porsche junkyard down in Southern California, but he lived up in Oregon. And I knew this guy from way back in the day from riding dirt bikes. And he's like, hey, I heard that you got a trailer. I got to move like 40 cars up to Oregon.
[00:40:34.080] - Chris Ridgway
And that's also the... Then I went and bought a trailer. That's what it was. I bought the trailer. I didn't even go home. I went straight to load up a load of cars and started making deliveries up to Oregon. And the first time he saw me, he hadn't seen me in a long time. My leg had been broken so many times that I had a two by four screwed to the bottom of my shoe. And he looked at me and he's like, what in the hell are you doing yourself And he saw it. I never hid my pain pill usage. I carried them around with me everywhere I went. It was like my security blanket. And so he knew I was taking a whole bunch of pain pills. And he said, someone needs to put you in a car. And I said, who's going to put me in a car? And he said, I will. He said, but you got to get your leg removed and you got to get off the pain pills. Because I told him the only way I was ever getting off pain pills was if I got my leg removed.
[00:41:37.060] - Chris Ridgway
And so he said he would do it. I went down and found a doctor to amputate my leg, and Then because I was- Was that a hard thing to do, is find somebody that wanted to amputate it at that point? Yeah, it was extremely hard. He was probably the sixth or seventh doctor. I seen. Wow. Kind of a crazy story that it almost sounds unbelievable, but it's the God's Honest truth. I told him I needed my leg amputated. I told them how I was getting all my Vicodin illegally. I told them everything. And I even said, I said, After this visit, if I wanted to, I could get Vicodin from you. I could call your head nurse and get Vicodin from her on the same day, and you guys don't talk to each other. So you have three or four doctors that you see. You can get a lot of pain pills, especially back then with the computers, the pharmacies weren't linking up. So I was getting... I had one doctor in one pharmacy and another doctor in another pharmacy. And that's how I got on my pills. And I just paid cash for them.
[00:42:49.800] - Chris Ridgway
And I told him everything. And he was hemming and hawing. And I said, if you don't do this, you're the last guy I'm going to see because I've seen a lot of guys and nobody wants to amputate because I have good blood flow. And basically the doctor's idea of success was if I could sit on the couch and not be in pain and watch football and get up and grab a beer, that's success to them, to a lot of doctors, that was success. And that wasn't successful to me. I had to be doing something. And I wasn't taking all the pain pills so I could sit on the couch. I took pain pills so I could I mean, I restored a van. I worked on my bikes. I rode all the time. I was active, but I had to have pain pills to do it. And I said, you're the last guy I'm going to see. And he said, what do you mean? And I said, well, I've come up with a plan to go to the hospital parking lot in my van, and I'm going to blow my foot off with a shotgun in the parking lot, and then my friends are going to rush me into the hospital.
[00:43:59.490] - Chris Ridgway
And then it's going to be your problem. And I said, I am not a dramatic guy. I'm not trying to be a drama queen on this. What scares me is I don't see that being that bad of an option. I think I can handle that pain right now, no problem. Because I said, other people get shot and they handle it. So there's no reason why I couldn't handle it. I just don't want to have to do that. That's crazy.
[00:44:30.250] - Big Rich Klein
Why take that dramatic of a step?
[00:44:32.740] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah. And he just shook his head and he's like, Wow. He's like, That's the craziest thing I've heard. And I said, It's just the truth. And he said, all right, I'll do it. And then I got some butterflies, to be honest with you. And then I said, well, there's a couple of races coming up I want to do because I walked into his office and I said, there's a couple of races I want to do. So let me... Let's just wait till I break it again because it's going to break. It breaks all the time. And we'll just cut it off wherever it breaks. And by now my leg is breaking because they've got so much metal in my ankle that's solid. So now it's just breaking above the ankle.
[00:45:18.390] - Big Rich Klein
The next week is place, right?
[00:45:20.080] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah. So I don't know, maybe a couple of months, went by a few months, and I'm at Glen Helen again, and I come to my senses and my ankle is up by my ear. I'm like, son of a bitch. I broke my femur. And then I was like, I realized I broke my femur on the wrong leg. I'm like, Oh, my God, I can't believe I just did this. It didn't hurt that bad. It wasn't a bad break. It didn't come through the skin or anything. I pushed it out of the way, and I was able to relieve the pain. Anyway, I went to the hospital and they operated, put a rod in it. And it was, I think, not very long afterwards, I called the doctor, the guy that was going to amputate, and I said, Hey, I just need to get this done. Let's set up an appointment to get this leg amputated. And he's like, All right, I'll let you know. And maybe a couple of weeks went by and he calls me up. And he goes, I got this thing on December It was 23rd. Someone canceled. I can get you in.
[00:46:33.270] - Chris Ridgway
It's like, perfect. Or no, it wasn't. I got out on the 23rd. It was like maybe the 21st or something. And so I pulled my own staples out on my femur. We my leg on the other leg. And I'd been to the hospital and had so many surgeries. I knew how things work. So I went in on crèches and told, When you check in, I said, I'm here to get my leg removed. And they They put me in a room and everything, and I had already shaved my leg because you don't want to have hair and stuff in your incision. I did all that, and I marked on my leg, this leg, blah, blah, blah. But I never told the doctor that I had just broken my femur.
[00:47:15.560] - Big Rich Klein
On the other leg?
[00:47:16.770] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah, because I knew that they were never even going to think of that. They weren't going to ask if I had another broken leg. I go in, they do the operation, and I out, and the doctor's pissed at me. Why didn't you tell me you had a broken femur? I said, Because I didn't think you would do it. He's like, you're damn right. I wouldn't have done it. I went from the hospital I went home. This is a true story. I went home, got my car hearts, and immediately went out to Johnson Valley because Randy had built me a buggy, a Samurai buggy. It was Randy's first buggy build, Randy Slawson. It was coming together right about the time I got my leg amputated.
[00:48:08.520] - Big Rich Klein
That was over New Year's?
[00:48:10.830] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah.
[00:48:11.570] - Big Rich Klein
That's when we met.
[00:48:13.950] - Chris Ridgway
Oh, okay. I had my leg all bandaged up, and I remember smacking it on the dash, and I cut it open. Someone's wife was a nurse, and we ducttaped it back up.
[00:48:27.420] - Big Rich Klein
I thought you were the craziest son of a bitch I had ever met.
[00:48:31.770] - Chris Ridgway
Well, you weren't the first one to think that.
[00:48:34.080] - Big Rich Klein
I was with Bob Rogui, okay?
[00:48:36.630] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah. And Camo was there. I don't remember which trip it was because I drove with a clutch on the clutch for quite a bit. But I was doing backdoor with a clutch on the clutch in my buggy, and I ran over my clutch and bend it all up. And Camo hose-clamped a nine-sixtenths wrench to my clutch to make it work. And I was a crazy dude because I came from motorcycles and all of a sudden I had a cage around me and I'm like, I just can't get hurt. There is no way I can get hurt doing this. And I was aggressive anyway. So I would try new lines. And it was... And so that was just recreational wheeling. But I was good at it because I had a lot of experience off road, and it just came to me naturally. And so then about a year, a year and a half goes by, and now we're setting up to race this car that that guy promised me. And it's not just any car. I mean, I had to go get my license and all that stuff. And this guy paid for all that stuff.
[00:49:53.080] - Chris Ridgway
And when I say it's not just any car, he bought a brand new Porsche GT3 cup car. A full-blown factory race car. It comes from Porsche with the cage, everything. I'd never driven a car. I had just driven vans and trucks and stuff. I'd never driven a race car. I got my amateur license in a Nissan 200 SX or something. Two weeks later, I'm at Dayton racing a Porsche and asking my crew chief if I can hold it wide open around the banking at 170 miles an hour, which I'd never gone that fast. But first lap, because I wasn't scared, I was just like, hey, can I hold this thing wide open? And he just comes back. He's like, yes, Chris. Oh, cool. And so that was my transition into four wheels. And I was getting paid to race. And we were racing the Grand Am Rolex Series. So it was pretty cool because I raced against some pretty heavy hitters, and I wasn't competitive. I think it was so expensive. It was unbelievably expensive. And so I never got to practice. They got me a go-cart, and I drove that thing. I just drove that thing into the ground.
[00:51:21.470] - Chris Ridgway
I would go out and run a tank of fuel out of it every day. And I had to move up to Oregon. Oh, so I got rid of my rock buggy because I had to move up to Oregon and just get super serious about this car racing thing, which I was proud to be serious about it. And we had a go-cart track real close to us, and I just drove every day and just drove this go-cart as much as it could take it. And then we had a Miata that I would race a couple of times, and The Porsche was just a whole another beast. I mean, going from a Miata to a GT3 cup car where you have to countersteer a little bit at 150 miles an hour when you shift to sixth, it's a different beast. And there were a couple of times that I got scared in the car, like four wheel drift at 160, 170 at Fontana. That scared me pretty good, and it happened every lap. But because I got away with it the first time, I knew I could do it again. So I just did it. And crazy thing was I told my partner, Rod, who's a family man.
[00:52:47.560] - Chris Ridgway
He has two kids, a wife. He's got a successful business. I'm like, Rod, this is going to be the scariest thing you've probably ever done. But hold it to the floor. And when you enter the banking, the car is going to go sideways on you and it's going to catch itself. You don't have to do anything. It's just going to catch itself. And it's going to be you'll finish the banking on the rev limiter all the way around the bank. And so he did it. And I was like, man, I was so I'll never forget that. I was so impressed with that. He had so much more to lose. I felt like I didn't have much lose. And so I would take chances like that. But for him take that chance because I know how scary it was. And my level of being afraid is on a little bit different level than a lot of people, except if I'm not driving. If someone else is driving, I'm a pussy. But if I'm driving, I never, ever, ever think I'm going to crash. Maybe that's why I was able to come back all the time. I never thought it would happen again.
[00:53:58.400] - Chris Ridgway
And even though I knew the chances were good, I was just like, well, it's just not going to happen. I'm not going to let that happen. And then it would happen.
[00:54:09.340] - Big Rich Klein
And how long were you able to race the Porsche?
[00:54:14.150] - Chris Ridgway
We did it for a season, and then I was able to race for some other guys. It was so expensive. I think it was $170,000 per race in this car. For prepping and all that? And we were going to the races in my pickup truck and trailer. We didn't have a semi. And this is the Rolex series. We raced against Dale Arnhardt. It was crazy. And we would get somewhere outside of whatever track we were going to. And I would unload the car out of my truck and trailer, and we put it into this semi truck for this team, BGB out of Florida. And so I would literally change shirts. I would start looking more like a race car driver instead of a truck driver. And we would go into the races as part of their team. But really, we were going to the races in a pickup truck and trailer. And we had Nike sponsorship. We had a FedEx deal that was for millions of dollars per year, and we lost it at the last second. And we did so many cool things. I'll get into this. So as a motorcycle racer, you're very, very selfish.
[00:55:42.720] - Chris Ridgway
Everything's about you. And I get into the car racing thing. And now I'm the first professional car... I'm not the first. I'm the only professional car racer. I'm sure there was someone before me, but the only professional car racer with a prosthetic leg. And we were driving a stick shift, so we had the... Nike made us the slide for my heel so that I wouldn't miss the clutch pedal because you don't feel it. So you don't know where your leg is, really, when you have a fake one. And Anyway, I get this sponsorship from a prosthetic company, and I think it was going to pay some good money, like 30 grand or something. I was all excited. And I went in and told Rod, and Rod's like, Oh, that's really cool. But what if you talk to them and got free prosthetics for kids around the country where we're going to be racing so that when we stop in Florida, We're going to we're going to gift this kid a $25,000 prosthetic, a kid that doesn't have insurance, that whole thing. So really help someone out, really, really help someone get back on their feet.
[00:56:59.200] - Chris Ridgway
And I'm like, oh, that's cool. But how does that pay me? He's like, well, I'm already paying. I'm already paying you. So I was like, okay. So anyway, it was the first time that I ever started being charitable. And so we lined ourselves with Limbs for Life organization, and they would find the recipients because they could do all the background checks. We wanted to make sure we weren't giving it to someone didn't deserve it, like a bad dude or something. Right. And so they did all the background checks. They would align everything to meet the kids when we got there. And then we would have a presentation. Of course, we did it with media. And so we got a lot of people. I hate to say the word awareness. I can't stand it, but that's what we did. I mean, we got people, you know learning about this stuff and how expensive these prosthetics are and this and that. And it was such a great program. And Rod is pretty much a genius, I would say. He's one of the hardest workers I know. And he made all this happen. And so he also got FedEx on board.
[00:58:23.480] - Chris Ridgway
And they weren't sponsoring us at the moment, but I think he spent $70,000 to $100,000 just on the presentation to go talk to FedEx. Wow. And so FedEx is on board. We got everything going. And I don't know if you ever follow NASCAR, but if you do, there's a guy named JJ J. J. Yeeley that raced for FedEx. And JJ Yele sucked. He was a great dirt track racer, super talented guy, but for whatever reason, he couldn't make it work in NASCAR. And the problem was He was racing under the FedEx banner. And when FedEx went to Joe Gibbs Racing and said, what is going on? We can't be having FedEx in not last place, but we can't be a non-winning team. And he said, what's it going to take? And he said, a lot more money. And that's where our budget went. So we went from... I mean, I honestly thought I was going to get rich racing cars. And it went from that to we stopped racing because we were out of... He had spent money he didn't even have. And so when that FedEx deal fell through, we were done. And it was so close.
[00:59:47.180] - Chris Ridgway
Fedex flew us out to Memphis to meet with us to apologize for going that far and then not pulling through. And I met the President of FedEx. They're very apologetic about everything. And I mean, he really wanted to do this. But they had a commitment already with with Nascar and FedEx or in Joe Gibbs. And so I was without a ride. And plus, we had worked really hard on that. And I still, because of that, I still was getting offers to race other cars, but just on a local level. But still, it was a lot of fun and it helped hone in my skills and stuff. And then Dave, Dave approach me. And at first, when he first talked about King of the Hammers. I was well into my Porsche program, and he asked me my thoughts on it, and I was one of the many that told him, this is a horrible idea. It's never going to work. You know And what was I wrong? But again. So he invited me to the first race, and I couldn't do it. And he invited me to the second race, and I was able to do that.
[01:01:18.090] - Chris Ridgway
And I raced with JR because Randy was racing with another guy that he built a car for, and he was the driver. Whereas with JR, you're never going to be the driver. Jr is the no matter what. I mean, it's his car, it's his money. Of course, that's the way it should be. Dave was like, hey, why don't you race with JR? He needs a good copilot. I think it'll be a good thing. I think you guys have a real good chance of winning. I went down and I started approaching King of the Hammers like I did my other professional adventures. And I remember JR and I getting laughed at because it would be, I don't know, not mid-summer, but it would be we'd just be on an off weekend out at the Hammers, wearing our full gear, fire suits, helmets, everything. And I was like, because we'd never run that stuff before in rock crawling. And I was like, JR, we're going to be in this car for hours. It's not like last year where you guys, I think you might have worn some cheap suits or something, but you're wearing motorcycle helmets. We're going to be in this thing for a long time.
[01:02:37.510] - Chris Ridgway
We're going to have a lot of competition. It's a real race this year, and I want to win it. I never go into a race not wanting to win it. I was like, We need to train like we're in the race. We need to wear our gear for hours. Who knows? What if our sweat is too much to handle without wearing a tampon or on your forehead? We had to do that in motorcycle racing a lot. You don't know that stuff until you're in the situation. And the worst time to find out about those problems is during the race. Right. So we were very serious. Jr was just as serious as I was about winning. And he's a professional. And I had no problems with him saying, oh, this is too much or this is embarrassing because we're the only ones out here looking like goons. And And it was a great experience. We almost won it, as everyone says. We broke a link while we were in the lead. And I think we had 13 miles to go. So that was my very first KOH. And then Dave, again. And Dave has always been...
[01:03:52.880] - Chris Ridgway
He's always had my back. That's why I always have his back. He's a friend through and through. Even when we're not friends or we're having a little bitch fight, we're still- That happens with Dave.
[01:04:07.060] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah. Me too.
[01:04:09.250] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah. Me and Dave went for a couple of years without speaking. And he called me one time because he had to. I don't remember what it was, but he had to call me. I know he didn't want to. And he called me. He's like, how's it going? This is during the recession. I was like, it's not going good, man. I'm going to probably lose my house. I haven't made a payment in a long time and this and that. And this is obviously after the Porsche thing. And he says, This is after not talking. And I didn't deserve to be talked to him by the things I said, basically, to Dave. And instantly, he was just like, What do you need? I was like, Huh? He's like, huh? He's like, just let me know what you need. And he said, I don't have the money, but I've got damn good credit. And he said, well, you're not going to lose your house. I mean, that was after two years of not speaking and having a gigantic blow up at each other. I mean, that's just the guy he is. And I'll never forget it. And that's just the way it is.
[01:05:25.570] - Chris Ridgway
A lot of people don't see that, but I've seen it. And Anyway, so Dave put me in touch with Trent Fabb, with Derek Trent. And Derek, I forgot They had a race, they had an XRA race in Moab, and I didn't have a buggy anymore. So I was just part of the scene. I had my little Jeep TJ, and so I went to a way out to take my Jeep and stuff. And this is before the whole house thing where I almost lost my house. But I went there and Lisa, Derek's wife, got sick. And I was talking with Derek already, and he's like, hey, you want to co-drive? And the first thing I said is, do we stand a chance to win? Because I just didn't want to be in it for half-ast. And he's like, yeah, we do. And I was like, all right, I'm in. Let's do this. And so I make Derek go out and we're walking. We're the only ones walking the course. And I'm trying to figure out how to... I'm like, all right, you can do these doubles right here. And he's like, no way, we can't do.
[01:06:50.130] - Chris Ridgway
I was like, dude, we can do these doubles. He's like, well, what happens if we come up short? I was like, well, why would you ever think about coming up short? We're not going to come up short. You make sure you do double. He's like, I'm not a motocrosser. I don't know how to do doubles. I was like, I got you. When I tell you to floor it, you floor it and you don't lift until I tell you to lift. And Derek's a good driver. He didn't race motor cycles, didn't race motocross. And so we were doubling this double all day. And I don't know, I think Shannon might have done it also. But I was driving from the... I mean, I was co-driving and telling Derek when to floor it to make these doubles. And we led all day long. And then we came up short one time, and we hit so damn hard. It knocked the wind out of us. Derek broke his back, and we still had one more run to do, but we were in the lead. Derek's like, he can't breathe, and I'm catching my breath. And we lost that round, obviously.
[01:07:54.850] - Chris Ridgway
And we go back and he's like, I'm hurt bad. I'm like, Derek, here's your option. If If you tell people how hurt you are, we're not going to be allowed to race again. So if you just suck it up, and I didn't know he had a broken back, of course. And I said, if you just suck it up, you're going to start feeling better when you catch your breath I was like, just don't tell people because they came rushing to us. And I'm having this conversation before people get to us so he can start telling them how hurt he is. And I'm like, just don't tell them that you're hurt. Just tell them you knocked the wind out of yourself and let's go out. And win this thing. And he's like, all right. The dude sucked it up, man. He had a broken back and we went out and he went and did the doubles again.
[01:08:43.780] - Big Rich Klein
And he knew not to back off or get the speed up.
[01:08:48.260] - Chris Ridgway
Well, it wasn't his fault. What happened is they had laid some water down and we spun the tires. And we didn't have enough speed. And Once we were so committed, there was just nothing to get out of it. And we barely clipped it, too. I mean, he knew. And so I think he hit it a little bit faster knowing that we had slid some. But we barely clipped it with the rear tires, and it jolted us so bad. And it was like a straight up thing. It wasn't friendly at all. If he didn't build such heavy duty tanks, then the car would have probably broken into three pieces. But yeah, so ironically, what happened is since Derek broke his back, and we were now, I think we finished third in the points, the only one that could race that vehicle for the rest of the season was me. So I mean, just by luck, I got into the driver's seat. And these XR races had a lot of motocrosser stuff, things in them, big jumps. And it was my thing. I hated the rocks. I never liked racing in the rocks. I liked rock crawling and doing super technical stuff, but I didn't like flooring it into the Boulder field, mostly because I never had the equipment to back me up doing that.
[01:10:21.120] - Chris Ridgway
And I wasn't good enough mechanical-wise to fix when I broke things really bad. So I was easy on stuff in the rocks. But when we got on the motocross tracks, I wasn't easy anymore. I was giving her the beans. And so I did pretty good in that XRA race or the season. I think we finished, I don't remember if it was sixth or eighth or something like that for the overall. But it was pretty good, considering I'd never driven his rig. And it wasn't the... That was when Derek still had a trail rig that he made into a race car Right. Instead of just making a race car. So I thought it was pretty good with what we had, and Derek was happy, and I was getting some press from being the motorcycle guy and this and that. I forgot that in 2008, the X games decided to have a motorcycle race for amputees.
[01:11:26.160] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[01:11:27.100] - Chris Ridgway
And so I went and raced that. And I did good there. And that helped with a lot of attention. I got free motorcycles again after that. And not that the factory ever sponsored me really before, but I had people buying me bikes before. But I was actually getting bikes from Suzuki and parts. And I was getting gear now. It was crazy. I I'm well past my motorcycle racing career. Well, the funny thing was when I got interviewed in the Porsche, I got interviewed a lot because of my prosthetic leg. And they asked me how it happened, and I'd say something, and then I'd say, Well, I'm probably the fastest guy in the world with one leg on a dirt bike. I'd say that. Then now, a couple of years after the Porsche thing, now X-games comes out with a race, and I'm like, Oh, shit. I got to back up what I've been saying. So I went out and I got a bike. I just went out and bought a bike, and I started riding. By now, I was working with Rod, and so I had a full-time job. And then I was working for this dispatcher.
[01:12:48.000] - Chris Ridgway
So I was like a broker to get loads transported and stuff because I knew the business and I figured I could make some money. Well, pretty soon I'm like I'm riding on the weekends and these guys are like, yeah, you're pretty quick, but there's this other guy, and he's going faster. I'm like, Son of a bitch, I feel like I'm going good. And so then I start taking a day off during the week. I didn't take the day off. What I would do is I'd go to the track and I'd park so far away that you couldn't hear the bikes. And I'd make all my phone calls and everything in between practice sessions. I'd always be sick to my stomach, quote, unquote. On Wednesdays. And so I could be away from my phone for 20 minutes at a time and make it seem like I was in the bathroom. And so now I'm riding Wednesdays and Saturdays and Sundays. And still, guys are like, there's this other guy. I'm like, all right. So I quit. I quit work. The smart thing to do. Quit work. I start riding like every other day, just hammering out motos, trying to get fast.
[01:13:56.780] - Chris Ridgway
And then so I had good success at that, at the X games. And I won two gold medals and I got a bronze. And then so that helped me getting like rides and more media coverage when I was racing Ultra 4 because I had X Games stuff behind me and the Porsche racing and in motocross. So it helped me get in to... And I think some guys were a little jealous of it, that the attention I would get because I wasn't putting down the results. I mean, I did win smaller stuff. At the time, Norcal races were small, and I won a lot of those. I never won King of the Hammers. I only finished once. And even though I thought I should have won it a couple of times, I only finished once.
[01:14:52.590] - Big Rich Klein
It's a tough race to finish. It really is.
[01:14:55.180] - Chris Ridgway
It is, especially when you're trying to win it, because then you're the risk of breaking the car is huge. But I'd go out there and we'd have problems. I mean, Derek was trying his hardest. And then in 2010, it all came to a standstill. Jessi Combs was my co-driver. Oh, maybe that was... I don't remember. I get messed up on my ears. So Jesse Combs was my co-driver for, I think, one or two KOHs. And we had a really good relationship. She was like one of the dudes. She would come over and work on my Jeep with me, just laying under there, wrenching, Just one of the guys, and we never dated or anything, but we spent quite a bit of time together. And when you go to SEMA and you got Jesse Combs on your arm as your co- driver, you get sponsorship. Let me tell you. I landed Good Year, Optima. I mean, there were so many sponsors I got, and I guarantee you it had more to do with Jesse being there than how cool I was. So we had some really good times. And Derek was trying. We had all this sponsorship going into our last year big time.
[01:16:28.930] - Chris Ridgway
And Griffin, you can edit this out if you want, but Griffin screwed me over pretty good. They were supposed to pay me quite a bit of money, and they didn't. And I ran everything up on my credit cards because they kept promising to pay me. And then they didn't pay me. So they didn't pay me. I ran up my credit cards, and that's why I had so much trouble with my house payment after that. So it was I'm still not happy about it. It still leaves a sour taste in my mouth because if they weren't going to do it, they should have just told me they weren't going to do it. But it was quite a bit of money for the X games, and in. And I was plastered with Griffin graphics everywhere, down my legs, Jersey, bike. Then even the day that I was at Fourwheel Parts, I was getting the wrap for Derek's buggy. And I said, Hey, you guys haven't paid me for X-games yet. Part of the other half of the deal was for King of the Hammers. What do you want to do? Because if you're not going to pay me, then I'm not going to put you on.
[01:17:45.470] - Chris Ridgway
I'll put someone else in your spot. No, no, no, no, it's good. So I put them on. Never saw any money. I'm super bitter about it, obviously.
[01:17:55.790] - Big Rich Klein
And you rightly should be.
[01:17:58.670] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's frustrating because the money that they owe me is nothing to them. You know what I mean? It was a lot to me. I'm not a rich guy. And then that soured me on the whole racing thing. I had to go back on my word to all the sponsors that I got, telling them I was racing the whole series and this and that. And basically, I was out of money and I couldn't do it. And so I had to reneg on all those promises I made about going places. And so that was it. That was it for me in racing. And then Jean came along, and Jean Mooneyham. And we were friends. And I wanted just to get the finish at King of the Hammer since I never had one. So in 2016, he said I could race his car. And he had a car that he bought from some guy up in Northern California. I don't want to say it in a bad way, but it wasn't super special. It was just a car. It was a really good car. It wasn't the fastest car or the best suspended car. I think it was a 4,800 car, so single shock on 37s.
[01:19:22.860] - Chris Ridgway
I'm a wheelman, so I went out for qualifying, and I did pretty good. I forgot what I qualified. I think it was I want to say I was in the top 30, but that might have been better. I don't remember. But we finished the race, so it was an awesome Race. We never got out of the car. My co-driving, Brent, Team Indiana was there, and he... Or Brent, sorry. Team Team Indiana, and we never had to get out of the car. We just drove the race, we finished, and it was awesome. I was super excited, and then that was it. I haven't raced it since.
[01:20:15.000] - Big Rich Klein
And now you're transporting vehicles, vehicle transport company. And you're not just delivering a car next door type You're still doing the high-end cars.
[01:20:33.770] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah. I've got a $40 million car in my trailer right now. And then I've got some cheapo GT4 RS, it's only worth 300,000. That's behind it. Yeah, those guys, they can't afford a $40 million car. It's crazy. But yeah, so I'm in a good spot because I have a really good reputation for being on time and not crashing, at least not crashing the truck. I have a reputation, I guess, for crashing race cars, but-Not while you're towing them? Not while I'm towing them. So I drive slow. It's a good job for me because my legs, they're not the greatest. So now I've broken both my femurs, and I just got my knee replaced about a year ago. My ankle's fused. And then my other leg, I'm missing my leg from about mid-shin down, which is no big deal, really. It looks scary and all that stuff, and you think it's going to be bad. But just so you guys know, if you ever have to lose a leg, it's not that bad. And I get to sit on my ass and make decent money, listen to podcasts and music and Go places. It's exciting when the weather's bad and you got a lot of responsibility.
[01:22:05.830] - Chris Ridgway
You're sliding around with some expensive stuff on the trailer. It's a lot of responsibility, and I like that. I like having that on my shoulders for some reason. I don't go shopping. I don't do anything when I have a car in the trailer because everything I haul now is really high-end, and it's just too easy to steal the whole truck and trailer.
[01:22:32.490] - Big Rich Klein
Right. So you don't leave it.
[01:22:34.260] - Chris Ridgway
I don't leave it. And my reputation is so good that I don't advertise. I don't have to call anybody. My phone rings, and when it doesn't ring, I'm happy for it. I've been on the road now since September 14th, so I'm looking forward to getting home. Yeah, and not a single phone call was made. I I mean, I had a big job to do in Rhode Island for this Audrey Motor Week thing, and I was responsible for 20 cars or something getting there. And these are all high-end Porschas, and mostly all I haul are Porschas. I do have a couple of Ferraris that I haul. One guy has a GTO 250, and it's an $80 million car. And I haul that thing all over the place, too.
[01:23:29.390] - Big Rich Klein
That's insane. It is.
[01:23:31.770] - Chris Ridgway
It really is. I don't know why, but I'm never nervous about it. It just doesn't bother me. It doesn't affect me, really. I know that I think that I avoid I'm pretty smart at it. I don't go through cities during the wrong times. I try to go through the big cities in the middle of the night. I try to stay away from people. I'll take the loops around the cities almost every time and just stay away from people because I don't think I'm going to crash. I think that someone could hit me, and that would be pretty bad, too. So it's a good place for me. I feel important in what I do, and I feel part of it. The car I'm hauling right now is the number 46 Porsche. It's the very first Porsche that won Le Mans. It's the first time the factory ever even entered a race car. So it's Porsche's very first race car, and it's a 1951. It's got 43 horsepower, and it won its class in Le Mans, and it beat all the competitors in the class above it because they didn't break. They just kept driving. And it's super cool.
[01:24:54.480] - Chris Ridgway
And I've been hauling this thing for a long time now, maybe 10 years or so, maybe 12, I don't know. And I haul it all over the country, Florida, Rhode Island. I just left Seattle yesterday, and we do shows and stuff. And it's at all the big car events. And I feel like I'm part of it because I was hauling it. The story on this car is it was nobody knew, not even Porsche knew which car won Le Mans. There was only three maybe four that were built. And one of them won the race. And nobody... Porsche was such a small company back then. They didn't realize this was the start of what they are now. And so they sold the cars, and nobody knew which one had actually won the race because they stripped all the decals off. And that was it, and they just didn't know. And so Rod Emory ended up finding the car and taking pictures and measuring pictures from the race back in 1951. And since all four cars were hand-built, all four cars were different. One door wasn't going to fit on any of the other three cars. And so he did a bunch of measuring and this and that and then figured out which car was actually the race winner.
[01:26:26.110] - Chris Ridgway
And then his investor, his partner, bought it, and they did a restoration. I was hauling it before it was restored when nobody knew that it was the car. So like I said, I feel like I'm part of it. And and they enjoy having me there at the events and stuff. It's a lot of responsibility, and I like it.
[01:26:53.950] - Big Rich Klein
And your personal life is going good?
[01:26:57.160] - Chris Ridgway
It's going real good. I got married in in 2017. I mean, I had a practice marriage for a while, but I got my real marriage in 2017. And she is a nurse. She is a hard worker. She's a horse girl. And horse girls, they're super hard workers. They're not afraid of getting dirty, taking some risk. They can run a little rich sometimes, but That's what you get. But I like it. And she has a couple of boys. And so back to the whole Rod Emory thing and being charitable. After X games, I was going around different hospitals and stuff, and I would talk to kids that had lost a leg or were getting ready to lose one. And I'd tell them all, Hey, it's going to be okay. You're going to be fine. I learned how to snowboard, wakeboard. I still ride motor cycles, obviously. You're going to be totally fine. It's not that big of a deal. And I was like, You're still going to get hot chips. And your mom's pretty hot. And then, next thing you know, we're married. So no, it took a while, but that was the beginning of it.
[01:28:27.160] - Chris Ridgway
And she's such a good person for me to have in my life. I've got some really quality people in my life. I don't have a lot, but the people that are in my life are high-end, and she's one of them. We live in Apple Valley, California. We bought John James' old house. Okay. We live in Apple Valley, and we bought 50 acres in Utah. We're in the process of... We got a barn on it. We have a fifth-wheel trailer out there, and we're going to put a big shop up and a house. I want to put a skid pad out there and a go-kart track and a shooting range. Yeah, it should be pretty fun.
[01:29:14.180] - Big Rich Klein
So we have a Your house then in Apple Valley is next to Eric Anderson's?
[01:29:20.650] - Chris Ridgway
It's not right next to him. John's new house is basically right next to... Well, Eric is right next to John. Okay. Right. But I bought the old house. Oh, okay. And I bought it back in 2003.
[01:29:37.070] - Big Rich Klein
All right.
[01:29:42.100] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah, everything's gone very good, actually. So I got a new knee. Hopefully, I'll be riding again pretty soon. I literally got my knee replaced because I wanted to ride better because my old knee, had so many surgeries and stuff. It was holding me back. I didn't care about walking. I still complain because it should have been healed up. In my opinion, it should have been healed up better than it is now. I'm always bitching about it, and And I'm like, well, I know I walk around better every day and I can do my job better, but that doesn't matter. I did this so I could ride better, and I haven't been able to ride yet, so I'm a little bitter, but I'm getting there. I'm probably going to be riding in the next couple of weeks and see how it does.
[01:30:34.280] - Big Rich Klein
Goals.
[01:30:35.650] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah. All I do is trail ride now. I don't do any racing anymore. I got a Porsche 914 that we're going to make into it. It's already a track car, but it needs to be a faster track car. So we're going to do that. Actually, only a few weeks ago, Rod bought our old race car back. So we have the GT3 cup car, and he said, We're going to start taking that to the track and do track days. Because he's got a son and a son-in-law, and he wants to teach them how to drive and that thing, too. Not that they don't know how to drive, but how to drive on a racetrack.
[01:31:13.980] - Big Rich Klein
Right. There's the difference.
[01:31:15.670] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah. And so, yes, the things are going really good. I'm excited about it.
[01:31:23.550] - Big Rich Klein
That's so great to hear.
[01:31:26.530] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah, I've been through some down times, and I got through it. And, I try not... Something my dad always taught me, which hurt me a little bit with friends and everything, too, and people, the way they look at me. But my dad, being a baseball pitcher, he was like, you don't ever, ever show anybody what makes you tick. You don't show when you're super happy, you don't show when you're super sad because you don't want your competition to know how to get to And that was drilled into me since I was a little boy. So a lot of people think I'm, and I'm not saying I'm not cocky, where especially I used to be, but they thought I was more cocky because I had that an attitude. I wouldn't be too happy when I did really good. I didn't want to show it. I was jumping for joy inside, but it wasn't allowed to... That was against the rules to show it. And it wasn't... My dad He wasn't trying to be a dick. He just was trying to help me out as a competitor. And some people don't have to be like that. Jason Sheer, guy's incredible.
[01:32:41.460] - Chris Ridgway
He's one of the gnarliest best dudes I've ever met. And same with Rod. Those guys, they show their emotions more than I do. And I wish I could, but it almost feels fake if I change now. You know what I mean? Right.
[01:32:58.820] - Big Rich Klein
Understood.
[01:33:00.300] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah, but things are going good, and I'm just trying to keep a level head about it and make sure that they don't start dipping too low again.
[01:33:10.530] - Big Rich Klein
Well, good thing. Good thing. Chris, I want to say thank you so much for spending the time. I know that you're working, you're driving, and you're hauling a valuable load, and you're on your way back and all that stuff. You took the time in your day to to do this. It's awesome. Thank you. Yeah.
[01:33:31.970] - Chris Ridgway
Just for the record, I did pull over to do this. I needed the break a little bit, so that's good. I really appreciate it. I sacrificed a lot for racing, a lot more than a lot of people. When I get to do stuff like this, it helps because nobody knows who I am, and it makes it a little bit better that some people think of me still, and I appreciate that.
[01:34:01.840] - Big Rich Klein
Well, and I hope that this story of yours is able to motivate or enlighten others that may be in the same situation or something similar, at least, and know that you don't give up.
[01:34:19.320] - Chris Ridgway
No.
[01:34:20.390] - Big Rich Klein
You keep going.
[01:34:22.300] - Chris Ridgway
Yeah. I mean, look at all the things that have happened to me. And even getting my leg removed. I mean, my life has gotten so much better after I got my leg removed. It's unbelievable. The things I've done are just incredible. The opportunities. I mean, I had so many doors open up for me. And my dad always said, You got to make yourself available to take advantage of those opportunities. And I've always tried to. I had to sacrifice a lot to race the car. I had to move out of my house. I had to give up everything I was doing. I was making decent money already, transporting. I had to walk away from all that stuff so I could go try to be a race car driver. I'm not there. That was awesome. My story is pretty damn cool. Absolutely. Raced Dayton Supercross, raced Dayton Rolex 24. That's pretty badass. Not too many people have done that.
[01:35:29.140] - Big Rich Klein
No, I would say that double hit or no, absolutely not. Well, Chris, thank you. Thank you very much. I hope to run into you figuratively, not necessarily an impact, but at some point. I'm really grateful that you spent the time and shared your story.
[01:35:53.790] - Chris Ridgway
Well, thanks again for calling me.
[01:35:55.540] - Big Rich Klein
All right. I'll let you know when this is going to air. Sounds great. All right. You take care and drive safe.
[01:36:02.290] - Chris Ridgway
Thanks a lot. You, too. All right. Bye-bye.
[01:36:03.840] - Big Rich Klein
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 think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information 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.