Episode 251 features Rory Ward of Racers Only

When you combine art and off-road, you wind up with Rory Ward. A fan since early days, Rory made connections that allowed him to combine his passions and thrive. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

5:37 – my dad would get Hot VWs magazine and I’d always look up the races, I missed being around that, even at 8-10 years old 

18:29 – Ivan (Stewart) was the one that really got me going with the artwork.      

21:54 – OMG, I don’t want to be a bellman for 30 years!

27:39 – I’ve got to thank Rob MacCachran, I did some shirts for him and he’s like I’ve got a business proposition for you.

35:58 – I’ve been really fortunate to race some historical race cars with some historical racers 

40:29 – I built a four-seater in the 2000s and the artwork is what built it. I traded a lot of art for parts.

52:20 – My forte is the history, I can help with the history of off-road. I’m the self-proclaimed curator for all these off-road cars, and I absolutely love it.

Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.

Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

Transcript

[00:00:05.300] 

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.

[00:00:46.530] 

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[00:01:13.030] 

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[00:01:39.560] - Big Rich Klein

This week's guest on Conversations with Big Rich is a board member for the Off-Road Motor Sports Hall of Fame. But how did he get there? As an artist, a fireman, an off-road enthusiast, off-road racer, off-road race car restorer, and off-road history keeper, Rory Ward is Ormhof's Self-proclaimed Race Car Curator. Hello, Rory. How are you doing today?

[00:02:06.600] - Rory Ward

I'm good. How are you?

[00:02:08.430] - Big Rich Klein

I'm doing surprisingly well. Well, good. Yeah. Let's find out more about you, and it's good to have you on here. We've been sitting on the board of directors together. I mean, I've only been on almost two years now. God, it's gone very fast. But I know that you've been on longer than I have, so Well, thanks, Rich.

[00:02:32.520] - Rory Ward

Yeah, it's a pleasure to be here. I appreciate you inviting me on.

[00:02:36.480] - Big Rich Klein

Let's get started with the easiest question most times. Where were you born and raised?

[00:02:43.900] - Rory Ward

I was born I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, and semi-raised there till I was about eight, and then moved up to Oregon for a couple of years, and then spent most of my life in Bullhead City, Arizona.

[00:02:59.240] - Big Rich Klein

And Your parents were working... What work were they doing where they went from Vegas to Oregon?

[00:03:10.070] - Rory Ward

Well, it was basically following my dad because he was a hotel manager, and he was one of the big wigs at the Sahara, the Aladdin, a couple of other of those big ones. Then they moved him up to Oregon to open up a couple of hotels. Then actually, when the Edgewater Casino in Laughlin, Nevada was being built, that's why we moved to Bullhead because it was across the river from Laughlin, and they wanted him to open up that hotel casino.

[00:03:48.500] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, that makes sense then. Oregon to Bullhead. Where in Oregon were you?

[00:03:56.070] - Rory Ward

Just south of Portland, so in Tewaliton.

[00:03:59.970] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. All right. And those early years, school, all that stuff, was there... Do you remember if there was a transition period that was maybe difficult, or was it pretty easy going from Vegas to Oregon?

[00:04:20.740] - Rory Ward

As a kid, we had a... I had three siblings, so It wasn't really that tough, I don't think. You know what I mean? It's not like I was an only child or anything like that. I think that might make it a little tougher. But no, I don't really remember it being a big deal.

[00:04:43.600] - Big Rich Klein

Same thing How long were you guys in Oregon until you went to Bullhead?

[00:04:49.370] - Rory Ward

We were only up there a couple of years. My dad didn't really care for the rain, but I loved it because coming from Las Vegas, we never got any rain. As a kid, the rain, we loved it.

[00:05:05.140] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I guess that was the biggest transition was going from dry to moist.

[00:05:11.420] - Rory Ward

Absolutely.

[00:05:12.860] - Big Rich Klein

Because I would imagine as a kid in Las Vegas, you never really got to play in mud puddles.

[00:05:20.280] - Rory Ward

No, not. No. Just basically just out in the desert for the most part.

[00:05:25.790] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And what activities did your family do Did they carry over from Vegas to Oregon and then Bullhead, or did things change? Do you remember?

[00:05:37.830] - Rory Ward

Well, in Vegas, that's actually where the off-road bug hit, but not really as hard until we moved out of Vegas because I'm a second-generation racer, off-road racer. My dad used to race in the early '70s to mid to late '70s. Then that's about when we… I think we moved in I'm like '78, moved up to Oregon, and then we came back. We moved into Bullhead around early January of 1980. Just playing out in the desert a little bit and watching him race and not really paying attention to it as much. But when we went up to Oregon, I remember being away from it. My dad would keep getting Hot VWs magazines, and I'd always look up all the races in the magazines and figured, I miss that, even at 8 to 10 years old.

[00:06:38.800] - Big Rich Klein

Right. I can understand that. Yeah, Hot VWs was my go-to magazine. I had a 54 Bug growing when it was my first car?

[00:06:49.390] - Rory Ward

Yeah, mine was a '68 Volkswagen. There you go. Baja Bug.

[00:06:52.740] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Yeah. Mine was all streeted out, California Slammer.

[00:06:58.430] - Rory Ward

Yeah. Mine was a piece of crap.

[00:07:00.580] - Big Rich Klein

Mine looked like that. I never did get it painted.

[00:07:06.070] - Rory Ward

I was lucky if it would start. I used to have to push start at about 50 % of the time, but that's okay.

[00:07:13.370] - Big Rich Klein

That's the one nice thing about Volkswagen They were easy to do that. You didn't have to get them going very hard.

[00:07:18.550] - Rory Ward

Absolutely.

[00:07:20.050] - Big Rich Klein

So going through different schools and then getting into Bullhead, you were right around 10 years old, I guess, at Bullhead. And What was it finally like getting back into the desert? But then again, you were desert, but you had water nearby with the river.

[00:07:41.230] - Rory Ward

Yeah. We lived, jeez, probably a half a block away from the river. I was in the river all the time. My dad had a boat, but I was... Usually, just me and my friends would go down to the boat launch and go swimming around there all day. We were We never really... We didn't have a lot of money, so we didn't have jet skis and new dirt bikes and stuff like that. It was always... If we got a super smoking deal, I mean, I think my first dirt bike, we paid 100 bucks for it. That ought to tell you something.

[00:08:17.230] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Did you have a favorite subject while you were going, as you got older in school?

[00:08:28.100] - Rory Ward

I'd say when I I got older. I didn't, probably like any teenage kid, didn't care too much for school. I wasn't that good at it. I was a C student my whole life. Never was an A, B guy. When I got into high school, I think what interested me the most was probably... We had a drafting class, so I really enjoyed doing that. I thought that's probably where I was going to end up doing is designing houses or designing something. That probably... And art. I always drew and drew race cars and cars and anything with four wheels for the most part. That was just for fun.

[00:09:21.770] - Big Rich Klein

I did a little research on you. On your website, it says that in seventh and eighth grade algebra class, you sat in the back and that's where you got your art or your art time was.

[00:09:41.080] - Rory Ward

Well, yeah. Basically, what it was, I get bored really easy. Even if I tried concentrating on algebra, I'm like, Okay, I can't draw. I've got to pay attention in class and get a good grade and blah, blah, blah, blah. Next thing you know, instead of doing math problems and listening to the teacher, I'd be drawing a race car. I'm still friends with my algebra teacher.

[00:10:10.170] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, really?

[00:10:11.550] - Rory Ward

Oh, yeah. That goes into a Nora race if we're going to talk about that later, but I can get into that later. But yeah, I've known him for years. We have a good friendship. He's probably close to 80 years old now and super nice guy, and he's really into off-road himself. So, yeah, good times.

[00:10:33.330] - Big Rich Klein

That's great. And I guess, being in those desert climate, that really does help with the off-road addiction.

[00:10:45.340] - Rory Ward

Oh, yeah. I mean, I could jump on my motorcycle and just at 12, 13, 14 years old and just go ride out to the desert and take the side roads and everything. The cops around here pretty good. As long as we weren't being jerks and doing wheelies up and down the road, they just let us go for the most part until we got to where we were going. There was nothing like taking your dirt bike out and going out for a ride for a couple of hours. Even if it was a piece of crap, Katie 100.

[00:11:22.420] - Big Rich Klein

You said you were one of four children?

[00:11:28.430] - Rory Ward

Yes.

[00:11:29.320] - Big Rich Klein

I I was the youngest. Oh, you were the youngest. And what was the mix?

[00:11:34.530] - Rory Ward

Two girls, two boys. So I was the youngest. I had an older brother and an older sister, and then my brother was second oldest and my other sister's third oldest.

[00:11:48.150] - Big Rich Klein

So you were like every other one?

[00:11:50.560] - Rory Ward

Pretty much, yeah.

[00:11:51.880] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And did you... I know that in some family dynamics, I'm an the only child, so I was always watching the family dynamics. It always seemed like the youngest child probably had the loosest reins when it come to parents because they'd already been through three others in your case. So did you have a little bit longer leash than maybe your brothers and sisters?

[00:12:29.860] - Rory Ward

I definitely did, but I was also probably the straightest arrow when it came… Because you get to see your siblings getting in trouble for stupid crap. You tend to stay away from stupid crap. I did get into trouble, but nothing that's too far fetched for a normal teenager. You know what I mean? Just your normal trouble you would get in as teenager, but I never got into doing stuff that I shouldn't be doing for sure.

[00:13:06.230] - Big Rich Klein

So no mug shot?

[00:13:08.410] - Rory Ward

No. Never got a mug shot.

[00:13:11.140] - Big Rich Klein

That's been my goal in life.

[00:13:14.410] - Rory Ward

Yeah, Well, I'm in the fire service now, so the last thing you want to do is get a mug shot because you get a mug shot, you don't have a career anymore. Right. That keeps you It's funny. You think a lot when you're doing pretty decent and you want to stay on that straight and narrow, you have to talk to yourself quite a bit and saying, this probably isn't a good idea. I should probably not do this.

[00:13:48.070] - Big Rich Klein

I've had a lot of those. So you had the good angel on your shoulder?

[00:13:53.510] - Rory Ward

Yeah, and I usually listen to that one more than the other side.

[00:13:57.740] - Big Rich Klein

That's good. That's a lot better than a lot of us. I can't always say that I always listen to the good side. I guess I never got that mug shot because I was just either a little smarter or a little quicker reaction to a situation. So I couldn't get... I never got caught doing anything. I never did anything super bad anyway. But still, there's a couple of things that could have led to probably a mug shot.

[00:14:27.500] - Rory Ward

Yeah, don't get me wrong. I was no angel, but by no means. Right.

[00:14:35.250] - Big Rich Klein

Then you're going through school, you're enjoying art. Did they have auto shop classes and stuff at the high school you went to?

[00:14:46.890] - Rory Ward

Not really. I think they were just phasing auto shop out. From a couple of the guys that were in that auto shop, they didn't like it because there was a lot of stuff that... It was a lot of stuff that it just didn't seem like it pertained to them very well. I don't know how to explain that because I wasn't in there, but it was like art class. I had art class and I absolutely hated it because it just didn't seem like it was helping me, which I'm sure it was at some point. But you were doing the same thing like, Hey, draw a chair. Here's the chair, draw a chair, and it's got a code on it. We seem to do that five or six times a year, I'm like, Why are we doing this? I'd rather do something else. I think that's how the auto shop probably would have been for me. I would have been thinking of something else. But I also worked in my uncle's repair shop, but I didn't do any repairs. I was more like cleaning up this and cleaning up that, but I did learn stuff. Everything I owned was junk.

[00:15:57.220] - Rory Ward

I was constantly working on my own stuff, which helped out a lot, farther down the road.

[00:16:05.930] - Big Rich Klein

Right. I can remember one of the first books that I went out and bought was the Volkswagen Complete... The Complete Idiot Guide for Volkswagen Owners or whatever it was?

[00:16:19.270] - Rory Ward

Yeah, I think my dad had one of the original... One of those original books the first time they were done. I think he had that when he had his race car in the '70s.

[00:16:29.060] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:16:29.370] - Rory Ward

So Yeah, and I have one now, but it's the updated version.

[00:16:35.710] - Big Rich Klein

Then you're doing your art, you're in high school. At some point, you started drawing race cars, and then how did that become a business or part of your lifestyle?

[00:17:00.060] - Rory Ward

Well, that's probably when I was really getting deep into off-road racing, going to the... I finally turned 16, so I could actually drive to some of the closer races and just start getting closer to the racers, maybe. I mean, go to tech inspection. Usually, we wouldn't go to tech inspection with my dad and stuff. We'd just go the day of the race. When I was 16, I was able to go a day get up and look at the cars and see the drivers and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then probably '87, '88, I was always drawing off road race cars, and I said, I'm like, You know what? I'm going to get Ivan Stewart to sign this artwork for me or Walker Evans or whatever, and then I could actually talk to him. I thought that would be really cool instead of just seeing these guys, you could actually interact with them a little bit. Walker was actually the first person I ever talked to, and he signed some artwork for me, and he was really gracious. As soon as that happened, I thought, Wow, this is pretty cool. I'm I was going to keep doing it.

[00:18:15.850] - Rory Ward

I pretty much did.

[00:18:20.160] - Big Rich Klein

Did you carry on a relationship with a lot of those guys later on or throughout?

[00:18:29.330] - Rory Ward

Oh, yeah. Let me see. Ivan. Ivan was the one that really got me going with the artwork. Business-wise, because I did some artwork for him. I did a piece of artwork for myself and had him sign it at the 1988 Score Show. He had just won the mid-400 in his truck, I think, or it was '89. Excuse me, '89. I've got a line of people behind me because he's signing autographs and he's got a poster in front of him and he's like, What do you want me to put on this poster? I said, I'd rather you sign this. And then I showed him the artwork, and then he stops and he goes, Holy moly, and check this out. He's got a couple of Toyota execs behind him, and there's 50 people in line, and he's stopping signing, and he's showing it to all these Toyota execs. And he's like, Hey, would you do me a T-shirt design? I'm like, Yeah, I'd love to. He's like, How much would you charge me? I go, Nothing. He goes, No, no, no. He goes, Well, here. Here's my phone number. Or, Give me your phone number, and blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:19:45.770] - Rory Ward

That's what started it. Then from there, I got to meet like, Robbie Gordon, Ron McCadran, Larry Raglin. I consider those guys friends to this I talk to them every once in a while on the phone or whatever. I've been really fortunate to get close to my heroes and get to know what it's like on their side to talk to them about what they do and all that good stuff. It's really been a really cool deal for me.

[00:20:27.630] - Big Rich Klein

I can imagine because that's a great deal for me. I can imagine because that's a great deal for me. It's a great approach, is having something. And I've looked at the work that you do, and it's phenomenal. I don't know how people's minds work like that. I mean, I became a photographer because I used to draw, But I did more landscapes than anything. It ended up becoming too hard to just go out there and draw all day long somewhere. So I started taking pictures of what I wanted to draw, and then found out I was a better photographer than I was an artist.

[00:21:06.630] - Rory Ward

See, and I would do the same thing, but I take photos of race cars so I could have the characteristics that I want. I could find a jump and then take pictures from different angles off the course. I go through my photos after I got them done, and then I go, Oh, I like this angle, and then I draw a race car in that angle or something. I was always really I always loved off-road photography. I'm not that great at photography, just because I haven't applied myself, but I enjoy taking photos and video while I'm out there.

[00:21:43.360] - Big Rich Klein

How did you get into being a firefighter, paramedic, and when did that get started?

[00:21:54.540] - Rory Ward

Well, I guess probably in my Mid '20s, I was working across the river doing valet and bells and all that stuff. I had one of those coming to Jesus meetings, talking to a guy that was in his 50s doing bells, taking luggage up to rooms. He's like, Yeah, I've been doing this for 30 years. I'm like, Oh, my God. I don't want to be being a bellman for 30 years. You know You know what I mean? I was like, I need to... Because the problem is, you find a job like that, something that pays well in tips, it's hard to get... I mean, that's a good money for a guy in his 20s. To get out of that, it's hard to do once you're deep into it because any other job out there, you're not going to be... I mean, you might be making, back then, 45 grand a year. 45 grand a year for a 20-something-year-old is really good money. But the jobs that you're going to have to get to get... Because you plateau at that area. At $45,000 isn't a lot of money when you're in your 50s. Right.

[00:23:13.090] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. Because it's all... I mean, You got a base wage and tips.

[00:23:17.640] - Rory Ward

It's all relative, right? I said, you know... And I started looking around and I had a couple of good friends that were firemen, and they're all, Dude, you got to come be a fireman. Start and salary was $24,000 a year. I was like, Oh, my gosh. They're all, Don't worry. Give it a couple of years. You'll get some raise. You can do some overtime. I said, You know what? I'm going to do it. I put my application in. I was a reserve for about four and a half years, which you get paid junk. It was like six bucks an hour or something like that. You only work a couple of days a week. I had three other jobs at the time. With being a reserve firefighter, it was four jobs. I worked four jobs for four, four and a half, five years, until I finally got my full-time position at the fire department. I worked my butt off. It wasn't easy.

[00:24:19.340] - Big Rich Klein

Did you go to college for that? Was that part of the deal?

[00:24:25.350] - Rory Ward

Back then, you take a firefighter one, firefighter class, and the fire department put it on. It was a college class, but it was taught by the fire department. I did that. Then after I got hired, within the first year, I went to paramedic school. After my second year being there, I was a firefighter paramedic. Then a year and a half later, I was an engineer, and I just stayed there. I liked being the engineer. You get to drive a firetruck and you can pump the firetruck for the fires and all that other stuff, and I really enjoyed it. I got to the point where I was thinking about being a captain, but then it was also at a point where I didn't know if I wanted to be a captain. I just said, I really enjoy being an engineer, so I stayed there. Although I wish I would have pushed myself to be a captain, but it is what it is.

[00:25:24.500] - Big Rich Klein

You're now getting close to retirement, aren't you?

[00:25:28.200] - Rory Ward

Yeah, I'm a A year and, well, 13 months I got.

[00:25:32.830] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:25:34.080] - Rory Ward

Then I'll do something else for 10 years, but my body's getting old and shoulder and wrist and knee and all that stuff. I don't want to... It's getting time.

[00:25:50.220] - Big Rich Klein

Right. You were born in '70, so you're 55?

[00:25:58.060] - Rory Ward

I'll be 55 in April. Okay. So I'm 54.

[00:26:01.860] - Big Rich Klein

What I've noticed and talking to a lot of friends, right around '58, '59 is when everybody really starts to feel like, Oh, my God, I think I'm old.

[00:26:13.310] - Rory Ward

Well, and the thing is, I know I could go. We have this thing called the drop. Basically, you got five years, and this is a retirement plan. But if you decide to go into the drop, you've You've picked your retirement date five years from that day as soon as you sign on the dotted line. You're gambling with your health. I'm like, Okay, in five years, how do I feel about doing that physical agility every year? I've always had no problem with it. But I'm like, Do you feel like you'll be good in five years? Yeah, I think I'll be good in five years. They go, How about six or seven? You're like, I don't know. Because if you only get three years into the three out of five years, there's a lot of money you're leaving on the table. You got to go, Well, I got to make sure I make this five years. I gave myself a couple-year buffer. I could definitely probably... I wish I could extend it a couple more years, to be honest with you, but I can't.

[00:27:23.280] - Big Rich Klein

In the meantime, that whole time you've been with the fire department, you've still been doing your artwork, and you have a business that is around the artwork, correct?

[00:27:39.430] - Rory Ward

Yeah. I'd been doing I've been doing artwork ever since the Ivan Stewart thing. Now, that was '89. After '89, I'd go around talking to people, see if they want some artwork done. They'd be like, I don't know. I'm like, Why did stuff for Ivan Stewart Then they go, Oh, okay. Well, yeah. So Ivan got me my start, and that was just doing artwork. Then I started doing vending at the races, selling T-shirts. I have to thank Rob McCavern for that because I did some shirts for him, and he was sick of setting up a booth or his family setting up a booth at the races for him because he knows everybody. He felt bad about charging his friends to buy a T-shirt from him, right?

[00:28:31.500] - Big Rich Klein

Right. It's always hard to do that.

[00:28:33.750] - Rory Ward

Right. One day, he calls me on the phone and he's like, Hey, I got a business proposition for you. I'm like, What? He's like, I'm going to give you this box of shirts and you can sell them at the races. You talk to Charlie Inglebar. He's in charge of tech inspection and contingency. He goes, And you can start selling these shirts at the races. I'm like, I don't have money to go buy all these shirts. He goes, Hey, you pay me back whenever you want. He goes, Just get these things out of my garage. I don't want to deal with it anymore. So the 1994 Parker 400 was the first time I sold T-shirts, and I sold out within five hours. And I was like, wow, that's great. So Rob McCagrin pretty much got me started in the apparel business.

[00:29:26.980] - Big Rich Klein

Do you remember how many T-shirts you started off with?

[00:29:29.100] - Rory Ward

It wasn't that many. He gave me a box because back then I was skimping paycheck to paycheck. Just to go to a race was I had to save up for three weeks just to have enough money to have gas money and food money and all that stuff to get down to the race and back. I think I only had, I don't know, six dozen shirts. But to me, that was 800, 900 bucks or something like that is what we made. And I was like, oh, my gosh. Might as well have been a million dollars. That's what it felt like. I was like, Oh, this is great. It just started building up from there.

[00:30:12.460] - Big Rich Klein

When did you meet your wife, Tracy?

[00:30:17.660] - Rory Ward

I met Tracy in December of 1990 in Bullhead. She was working at a clothes store, and then I started taking her to the races. Surprised she didn't run as soon as she had the chance. But yeah, we've been together for 30 something years now.

[00:30:44.300] - Big Rich Klein

Very good. You have two daughters, Hannah and Lindsay?

[00:30:49.940] - Rory Ward

Yes. Lindsay is my oldest. She just had a birthday. Then Hannah is our youngest. They're doing well. They've got great jobs, and they don't have mug shots, so we're doing pretty good.

[00:31:09.360] - Big Rich Klein

That's a good thing to say about your daughters.

[00:31:13.150] - Rory Ward

Yeah, exactly.

[00:31:14.480] - Big Rich Klein

I'll be completely honest, I can't say that.

[00:31:20.280] - Rory Ward

Now, I'm not saying that they could have had mug shots. I have no idea. I'd rather it stay that way.

[00:31:29.310] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, my daughter It was just way too honest one time, and it just snowballed.

[00:31:37.730] - Rory Ward

Like I said, it doesn't mean that they don't deserve to have a mug shot. They just didn't get one.

[00:31:43.000] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Then you're working both the... Your first business was Desert Motorsports Designs. That was just doing the artwork. Do you sell the artwork to the drivers for their T-shirts?

[00:32:02.840] - Rory Ward

Yeah, I tried to come up with a T-shirt, a name for the company. But after a couple of years, I'm, I'm limiting myself to desert racers. I didn't want somebody to go, Oh, well, that guy just does desert racing stuff. I want somebody that does my sports car, my this or that. I was actually in the Harrods Casino, the Ramona Express Casino as a Bell captain, just sitting there, and it was a slow day, and behind the Bell desk, and some guy came up with a members-only jacket. He goes, Hey, can you hold on to this? You give him a ticket for it and say, Yeah, you can pick it up whenever. Then I started going, Members only. I go, Hey, how about Racers only? That's where that came up. I came up with that name for that. And then I think I even sketched the logo while I was behind the Bell ask that day. The logo that you see on my website or whatever, I actually sketched that font, just free-handed it, and there you go.

[00:33:14.150] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. Very good. Now that you brought it up, I'm going to have to ask, did you ever own a members-only jacket?

[00:33:22.700] - Rory Ward

I think I did at one point.

[00:33:24.980] - Big Rich Klein

I think we all did.

[00:33:26.190] - Rory Ward

I'm pretty sure it was probably mid-teens, you know what I mean? Right. So, yeah. Okay.

[00:33:35.850] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. Then it became racers only, and then you started doing apparel. What other motor sports did you draw for?

[00:33:48.830] - Rory Ward

Well, luckily for me, I met Robbie Gordon, and that's when Robbie was just the hot ticket, right? I mean, he had a He did the Mustang, which was what the GTO Mustang back then, Imsa. I didn't do anything for him for Imsa, but I did his Indy car, his Winston Cup car, his Dakar vehicle. The majority of the stuff, of course, is desert racing because that's where my love's at. Usually, if I did any sports car or something like that, it had some tie to off-road racing, whether it was this guy's buddy or this guy pitted for this guy, and he's got this car, and blah, blah, blah, blah. There was some tie to off-road racing in any form of vehicle that I ever did for the most part.

[00:34:50.210] - Big Rich Klein

Interesting. The apparel company, you're still doing racers only?

[00:34:57.580] - Rory Ward

I don't do apparel. I stopped vending in 2013. The reason was I bought my first race car from Butch Dean, the Trophy Truck killer, Pat Beans on Chenith. I bought that in 2007. Then I started racing, and I started using the racer's only apparel money for racing. The apparel was I wasn't getting the stuff that it needed to keep it going. I wasn't doing that great. I was still doing okay, but man, I needed to concentrate on spending the apparel money on apparel and not using it on a race car. But God, I just loved racing. It was hard not to.

[00:35:53.450] - Big Rich Klein

How long have you raced for?

[00:35:58.380] - Rory Ward

Well, she I still raced today if I can. As you know, I got quite a few vintage race cars anyway. But my own cars, I haven't raced my own car since, I think 2016 is the last time I raced my own race car. Everything else, I've just been really fortunate to hook up with other people that wanted me to race with them. Ed who had the Larry Raglin car, I raced with him two years in a row, and we won two Nora races and a Mint 400. Then I raced with Mark McMillan in McAdoo in the Nora 1,000 and the Nora 500. Every time I've raced with Mark, we won. I've been really fortunate to have some really cool cars to race and historical race cars with actually some historical racers. You know what I mean? Yeah. To crawl into Larry Raglin's Woodstuff Shaparel, oh, man, it was such a cool car. Then you get to talk to Larry in between stages and he's like, Hey, how'd you like it? Oh, my gosh, I love it. How fast you go? Blah, blah, blah. Same thing with Mark. You got Mark and Larry, and they both won the BAA an overall five times.

[00:37:32.500] - Rory Ward

To be able to race with those guys or in their cars that they used to race, it's a pretty cool deal. I mean, for me, it is anyway.

[00:37:43.890] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, I can imagine. I can imagine. I've been around and worked race teams, but I've never had the opportunity to race. I've been an event promoter since 2000, so I mean, I've put on rock crawls, but I've never driven an unlimited buggy. I've put on, I owned Vora, Valley Off-Road Racing after Ed Robinson, who we just inducted a couple of years ago. And I ran that for nearly five years, and I never got into a race car. But I did go around the Prairie City racetrack with Kurt Leduc, in a stock Grand Cherokee, and we jumped it and everything. And I thought we were just going to drive around and look at the track because I was trying to get him to come race with us. And instead, we pulled out of the pits, and he was basically sidestepping it and drifting the corners and come up to the first jump. And he's not backing off at all. I'm like, okay, well, if I'm going to trust somebody, I guess Kurt Leduc is a guy Oh, absolutely.

[00:39:02.650] - Rory Ward

I mean, and I've been fortunate to get in, get behind, get in the passenger seat with Robbie Gordon when he went testing his old babbling trophy truck. And his La Victoria Rangeer and Rob McAchrean in the Venable Class 8 and the... Who else? Simons. To sit in those trucks and have those guys throwing those things around, man, Man, what a rush. You wonder why you get hooked on this sport. I'm hooked. I can't even explain how hooked I am on this sport. It's because of opportunities like those, that's why I'm hooked. But I also put myself in the position to get there, too. There's a lot of hard work that went into it. Sometimes just being in the right place at the right time. But my heart's definitely in it, and I think that has a lot to do with it.

[00:40:07.750] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Yeah, I can understand that. Let's talk about what you're... You're not doing racing full-time, you're not doing the artwork per se, but you're restoring vehicles. How did that come about?

[00:40:29.420] - Rory Ward

Well, I built a four-seater to get me into the desert in the 2000s, and the artwork is what built that four-seater. I did artwork for a lot of companies, and they just traded me product. So I built my four-seater on artwork. Then in 2006, I sold the four-seater and I bought the Trophy Truck killer that needed to be That would almost be my first restoration, although it wasn't really a restoration, but it was because we left everything pretty much the way it was, except for the motor, because I couldn't afford a flat 6 Porsche motor because that's about 30 grand by itself. But everybody knew, Oh, that's the Trophy truck killer. That's Pat Dean's old Jenna. That's about the same time I raced it for a couple of years. I had it for a couple of years. Then in 2009, I was getting ready. I go, You know what? I need to get into a class because I had to race sportsman. That's all there was. There wasn't a vintage class. It was sportsman, or you could go race Class I Unlimited. I wasn't going to race Class I Unlimited in a 20-year-old car because now you're just in the way.

[00:41:53.320] - Rory Ward

I put it up for sale, and that's about the same time that Nora came out. Mark Post wanted to buy the car. He goes, I want to buy that car because I used to race against it in Class I, and I know what that car is capable of. I started thinking about it. I'm like, Wow, that's a good idea. But at the time, I was thinking about something else. Sold it to him and then bought me a Class XII car, but then I went down to Nora with Jeff Furrier. Because I really wanted to look at some of these old cars that I'd always seen in the magazines and stuff like the Silver Bullet. Well, we called it the Silver Bullet, but the Malcolm Smith Bud Felt Kemp ISS Funco.

[00:42:42.450] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:42:44.250] - Rory Ward

Or SS2. Whatever. Then Parnelly was going to be there, and Rod Hall was going to be driving something. I'm like, That's my era, so I want to go down there. Well, me and Jeff, we got bit by the bug, and then we started That's when we started the Mark Stahl, Kenneth, because he said, Hey, I know where the car's at. I'm like, That thing was on the cover of Hot VWs in '79. He's like, Yeah. That's where my racing, even though I had raced Sportsman and the Baja 1000 and the Mint and Lafflin and all this stuff. We had a lot of success. It was still the sportsman class and all your buddies make money in, but I didn't really care. But that's when we got into the vintage racing. There was just something about the vintage racing, and it bit me hard. I was like, I'm going to stick with this. This is fun because it was the hunt to try and find parts and the story behind the car. Then we got a hold of Mark Stahl, and we were able to put the pieces together. It was such a fun deal. Then I just kept going with that.

[00:43:58.700] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. Nice. How many cars have you restored? Are you restoring them for yourself or for other people?

[00:44:10.090] - Rory Ward

The only one I restored that I knew wasn't going to be for me, even though it was my car until I sold it to him, was the Ivan Stuart Modern Motors Chenet 1,000. I bought I got the chassis from Lynn Chenet because I was going to do like a... I had an idea for a vintage car and I go, Maybe I'll build this car and then I'll go race it at some of these races. Then when I got the car home, I realized that the top of the chassis was a lot higher than the Mark Stahl car, because the Chenet 1,000s had a really cool look to him. I always liked the Chenet 1,000s. But after I put the body on it and started looking at it, I'm like, God, this cage is really high. To me, it didn't look right. So I started talking to Lynn Chaneth about it, and he goes, Oh, that must be one of those high cages. I go, A high cage? He goes, Yeah. He goes, We probably built five high cages. He goes, And Ivan Stewart was one of them because Ivan was so tall and so was Johnny Johnson.

[00:45:19.330] - Rory Ward

Those two raced that car a couple of times. He goes, We had to cut the top off of it and make it a little higher so their heads would fit. Then I said, Oh. I Well, would you be interested in a modern motors tribute car? He said, Absolutely. It was like a handshake deal. He didn't give me any money, didn't do this, didn't do that. I built that car, and as soon as I was done with it, sent me a check, and that was his. That was the only one I've ever done like that. Everything else I bought and built because I wanted to, because I thought it was cool. Nothing other was built and sold like that Chenethe was for Lynn Chenet. Okay.

[00:46:11.230] - Big Rich Klein

How many cars do you think you've done now?

[00:46:17.470] - Rory Ward

Well, I'll start with the Pat Dean car. There's the Trophy Truck killer. Then we did... Me and Jeff Furrier did the Mark Stahl Chenet 1,000. Then I did the Mickey Thompson Challenger 4. Then the Dirtrix 252 car, and then the Ivan Stewart Modern Motors car. Then we did the Mickey Thompson Challenger 3. We just did. Now I'm working on the Macmillan High Jumper, their very first car that they ever raced back in We call it the Bucket List High Jumper because that was their plan. They were going to race it one time at the Baha 1,000 and then say, Okay, what else can we do now? Look where they're at now. Then I've got Ivan Stewart's Toyota that I'm still working on. It's been a long, drawn-out process. I also have one of the stadium trucks, although the stadium truck I'm probably not going to do. I bought it more for spare parts for the Ivan Stewart truck because a lot of the parts on the stadium truck actually fit on this truck because four trucks were built at the same time. Two of them were desert cars and two of them were stadium cars, but all the suspension was the same, the trannies, all that stuff, the shocks.

[00:47:49.000] - Rory Ward

I bought that one for that. Then recently, me and my buddy Cody Swani, we're partners actually on the MacMillin High Jumper, and we bought the Miller American Old Mobile.

[00:48:05.110] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, really?

[00:48:06.500] - Rory Ward

Yes. That one's sitting in Cody's shop here in Kingman, and we're going to tackle that, but I got to get the Ivan Stewart truck done first. Cody has been really good to me. That's another guy that's, Hey, you want to come race with me? He let me race with him in his pro track in 2017 and 2018 at the Baha' Baha 1,000. Then I was lucky enough in 2022, he bought a trophy truck, and he said, Hey, you want to come race with me at the Baha 1,000 in the trophy truck? I'm like, Yeah, twist my arm. Yeah, of course I do. They say partnerships are probably not the best thing to do because guys have different expectations and stuff like that. But I've done two partnerships, one with Jeff Furrier That one worked out. It worked out really well. The other one has been with Cody Swani. Actually, me and Cody Swani also own the Challenger 3, which is the short course version of the V8 Mickey Thompson car, because I have Challenger 4, which is mine. That's the desert car, and Challenger 3 is the short course car. We've got that partnership going, so it's actually been really good.

[00:49:28.090] - Rory Ward

But we'd like to sell some cars now, though. We're going to see if we can sell some.

[00:49:34.140] - Big Rich Klein

Like the MacMillon and the two Mickey Thompson cars?

[00:49:40.140] - Rory Ward

Well, yeah. I need to sell the Mickey Thompson car, my car at least, but I'm sure me and Cody would like to sell the other one, too, because we'd like to sell them as a pair. We'd like to get some collector to buy them. For one, that's going to get me to restore the Ivan Steward truck, give me some money to restore the Ivan Steward truck, and then we can get going on the Old Mobile. The high jumper, we don't know yet. We don't know what we're going to do with that. That might be one of those cars. It's going to be like a parade car. It's runs and drives and everything, but that'll be a fun little car to take to the mint 400 and go do the parade in it and bring it to some races or some off-road expos or something like that. It's a cool little car. It really is. So who knows? Of course, everything's for sale, right?

[00:50:36.960] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I would say for most people, everything's for sale. I'm one of those that I have a hard time getting rid of anything. I look back on the list of cars that I've had, and almost every single one I've ever had, I wish I still had.

[00:50:54.630] - Rory Ward

Yeah, but then you wouldn't have... There'd be cars that you wouldn't have because you didn't get rid of it. That's how I look at it. Everybody tells me, How are you going to be able to get rid of that Mickey Thompson, that car that you rebuilt and you raced it and you won? How can you just get rid of that? I'm like, Pretty easy. Somebody just comes up and hands me some money and then it's gone. The cool thing is, is my name's still attached to it. I did what I wanted. I restored that thing. I bring it back to life. We put Mickey Thompson's name back in the public eye again, which he doesn't get enough accolades for what he did for the desert racing community. You ask people today that new guys have kids. Who's Mickey Thompson? I don't know. He makes tires or something, doesn't he? It's like, Oh, my God, it's so much more than that. You guys don't know your history. That's one of the reasons I like bringing these old cars back, because then they start asking you questions and they can start learning a little bit more about this sport that we love.

[00:52:04.690] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So true. Let's go into that history part of all this. You're on the board of directors for the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame. How long have you been on the board of directors?

[00:52:20.060] - Rory Ward

I think I'm going on six years. I'm pretty sure it's... Yeah, I think it's six years. I think Bob Ham was the one who threw my name in the mix when they were looking for some more board members. The board for Ormhoff, I look at it this way. We've got, what do we got? Fifteen people maybe a little more now. I think we expanded a little bit, right? Yes. We need a little bit of everybody. We need guys that know the history and then guys that know how to do the marketing and then guys that know how to get the money. Then we need salesman. We need just all these different facets. I think that's my forte. My forte is basically the history. I can help with the history of off-road. I'm the curator for all these off-road cars, and I absolutely love it. But they don't necessarily come to me when they're like, Hey, we need to get some money from a sponsor for Ormhoff. I'm like, Well, I'm not your guy. You know what I mean? Actually, I probably scare When they start talking about, Hey, we need to go for silent auction items and stuff like that, I'm like, Well, I'm not necessarily your guy on this.

[00:53:40.170] - Rory Ward

You know what I mean? I do this. That's what these people are really good at. We have a really good lineup at Ormhoff, and I wish more people would sign up and understand what it is that we're doing. We don't get paid. None of us get paid. We do this for the love of the sport. We The off-road community, there's a lot of money being made out there. For the history of this, we're trying to keep the history going. It'd be nice that these companies, and a lot of them do, like BF Goodrich and Fox and all these other companies that donate and become serious sponsors or gold members or all that stuff. It really helps. We'd like to see more of it. Plus, we'd like to see more people get on as members, just regular members, because you're $50 It helps with all kinds of stuff. I mean, Barbra Rainey put every issue of Dussy Times online, so you could look at any issue of Dussy Times that you want to at your fingertips instead of digging through old boxes and trying to find the right issue to look at something. There's a lot of...

[00:55:06.310] - Rory Ward

That's a lot of history at your fingertips that normal people don't have access to, but it costs money. That stuff costs money. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to, deserve.

[00:55:20.410] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, just the upkeep of the vehicles that we have under our care and moving them around from location to location and the insurance on those vehicles. You know, there's the everything that, trapping that history, and then making it available to the general public is not only time, but money.

[00:55:45.810] - Rory Ward

Oh, absolutely. I can tell you from sitting in on some of these meetings that... I'm not going to mention some names, even though I should, but there's guys that are on our board that something's come up and they're like, Hey, I think we were going to give money a couple of years ago to one of these organizations, and we had a certain amount of money allocated for that. We were going to do one of those big checks, you know what I mean? We were going to present it to him and somebody on the board said, You know that? That money just doesn't seem like it's enough. It's almost embarrassing to put that much money on a big check and try and promote it. So I'm going to throw in X amount of dollars so that number's a lot bigger on that check. That guy didn't have to do that. You know what I mean? He knew what he was doing, and he was right. And I can tell you there's been more than a few people on that board that have went above and beyond what they're supposed to do, whether it's setting up a booth at an event.

[00:57:01.500] - Rory Ward

They're asking... Barbara's usually, Hey, give me your spendage chairs for that race. You're like, No, don't worry about it.

[00:57:09.310] - Big Rich Klein

You know what I mean? That's me.

[00:57:10.910] - Rory Ward

I know. Yeah. Me. There's been a few of us that there's more... I bet you everybody on the board has done that. You know what I mean? Because we could all be, Oh, yeah, it's $300 or $1,500 or this, that. We're like, No, that's how we give back. You know what We do it out of the goodness of our hearts and we want this thing to succeed. Hey, I'm going anyway. I'd be more than happy to do it. That's the people we have at Ormhoff right now, and I hope it stays that way.

[00:57:45.470] - Big Rich Klein

I think it will. With the addition of board members just since I came on, and then the list of people that we have targeted for the future, which some of them know about it, some of them don't know. There's some of the people on the board that can write checks, and then there's some of them that are the worker bees that can get out there and do the work. I'm one of those. I can't write the big checks, but I can sure get out to the events and promote and help expand that base and knowledge of it and try to capture more of that history. You need both of those on a board of directors like we have.

[00:58:37.550] - Rory Ward

Absolutely. I'm the same way. I don't have the checkbook to be writing checks to Ormhop, but I What I make up for is doing what you say, being the worker, be going around doing this and going around doing that. We're not making paychecks, and we're also not drawing from that to say, Hey, it was a $1,700 for fuel to go to Florida and back and blah, blah, blah to do this and do that and yada, yada. We're like, No, we got it. We'll handle it.

[00:59:10.660] - Big Rich Klein

Exactly. You feel you're the curator, and that's what I believe, that you're the curator of those vehicles that are in our care.

[00:59:22.790] - Rory Ward

Self-proclaimed. Yes.

[00:59:23.730] - Big Rich Klein

That's okay. We all have that. It's my connections in the four-wheel drive side of the industry, and hopefully what I can bring, being that salesman at events, especially the four-wheel drive side. That's where I'm looking at the expansion of Ormhoff and what we bring to the table to the off-road industry is capturing and getting more of the four-wheel drive side of the industry involved.

[00:59:56.390] - Rory Ward

Yeah, for sure. You got people Gary Hogley, he's been a great asset, and he's only been on for, I believe, a year. He's one of those guys that, man, he knows so many people. That guy could sell ICE to an Eskimo. I'm telling you, he's been so good for warm-off. He gets us all kinds of stuff for the silent auctions and all that stuff. What you do for the four-wheel drive stuff, he's like the buggy guy, and he gets all those smaller companies interested in helping out. He almost forces them sometimes. It's funny. That guy knows what he's doing.

[01:00:41.900] - Big Rich Klein

Good guy. Yeah, we came on at the same time. It was Yeah, there you go.

[01:00:45.290] - Rory Ward

Yeah, that's right.

[01:00:47.620] - Big Rich Klein

Where do you see yourself doing after retirement?

[01:00:53.570] - Rory Ward

Well, I'm just retiring from the fire department. I can't retire at 55 years old. I'm going to have to do something for another 10 years or something. But I see myself definitely still restoring all race cars. I just love it. I mean, it's probably not the most lucrative retirement job because I have built quite a few cars, and I haven't sold that many of them. I keep accruing them. But you know what? I just love it. It's It's so much fun to put these old cars together. I put the stories out there on Race Desert and everywhere else, and I get so many people private emailing me or whatever and go, Hey, I got this part. This might work great on that. You know what I mean? Oh, great. Whatever. Asking me about the history of this or the history of that. I love doing it. I absolutely 100% love doing it.

[01:01:56.920] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent.

[01:01:57.890] - Rory Ward

That's what I'll be doing for at least, well, probably longer than 10 years or as long as my body will let me, I'll probably always be restoring some old off-road race car or something. But I also need something that pays the bill.

[01:02:16.320] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. One of the things that I think that would be good with Ormhoff is the establishment of an actual endowment fund, where racers that maybe aren't racing, but their whole life has been spent racing. And when they move on up to the blue skies, we'll leave something to Ormhoff to help us succeed in the future. An endowment fund like that would be, I think, as It's something that will be explored shortly.

[01:03:05.950] - Rory Ward

We've been fortunate enough. Rod Hall and Dick Landfield, those guys left us with some money to help Ormhoff. I think the big plan at some point would be to have a museum of our own. I think Mark McMillon's even said, We have the money to build the museum, but we don't have the money to keep it going. Mark's a smart dude. If Mark says, We're not quite ready for something like that. We just have to keep going and keep building this thing. Once it can sustain itself, then we got that museum. We've accrued some great vehicles. Actually, it's Cameron Theriot's birthday today. He's 70 years old. Cameron Theriot has donated the scoop vessel's Class 8 truck from, I think he won the '76 Baha 1,000 or Baha 500. Then the BFG Blazer. He donated both of those vehicles. Wow. Yeah. Wow, those two vehicles are... He restored them running a whole nine yards. They're great vehicles. Then we've had Mark Fusting donated another Class A truck. Ed Marn donated the Woodstuff, Larry Raglin' car. We got the Chabby Nova, we got the Rod Hall Hummer. We've got some great vehicles, and we keep getting a few more here and there.

[01:04:55.370] - Rory Ward

One of these days, if we do get a museum, it's It's going to be a fantastic museum with some really cool vehicles. To see all those vehicles all in one place would definitely be something to come see. I know that right now we've got vehicles spread out a couple in Nebraska. We had one in Dayton. We had some in Las Vegas. We had some in California. We've got a little bit sprinkled out everywhere for right now just to trying to keep those vehicles in rotation and moving around. I can tell you, those museums are really happy to have those vehicles. But hopefully, one day we'll have our own.

[01:05:41.690] - Big Rich Klein

I agree. Is Ormhoff the keeper of the history? Are we the curators for the history, or are we just those that celebrate the history? And I think both myself. And there's so much, there's so many items out there besides the cars that mean so much to the sport, whether it's trophies or body panels or photo collections or movies and videos and all the stuff that has come about because of the sport of off-road. And I would love to see us in a position someday, or Ormhoff in a position someday to have a place, but also to be able to maintain it and have it. I don't know if you've ever been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or to the NHRA Museum West down there in Pomona. But it's not just cars. It's also things that people used, or whether it's fire suits or helmets or innovations like the first of the fuel refueling tanks, those things. Things that really made a big difference.

[01:07:15.430] - Rory Ward

Right.

[01:07:16.200] - Big Rich Klein

And in rock crawling, which is part of the off-road community, John Nelson, who just got brought in, the car Tiny. It was truly the first It was an out-of-the-box buggy, and it redid the sport of rock crawling. A car like that. There's just so many things out there that need to be, I don't know, need to be preserved so that people understand where the sport came from.

[01:07:49.720] - Rory Ward

Well, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. I can tell you, I think we have three vehicles up at the Museum of American Speed in Nebraska. I just went for the first time in August of this past year and talk about one of those things. You've been to the CEMA show, right? You know you can't just spend one day at CEMA because you're not going to see everything. Well, that's pretty much the Museum of American Speed. If Ormhoff was to have a museum, you go to Nebraska and see how they did it and you say, Okay, here's the template. This is how you do it. That place is amazing. If we could have something like that... I'm pro desert racing, so a lot of that stuff you hear from me is pro desert racing, right? But there's a lot of other forms of stuff that you're talking about the ultra four stuff or just the adventure part of it. Or there's There's so many different forms in off road for the Offer Hall of Fame. I'm just a desert racing guy, so that's what I talk about. But if you could get a museum like the American Speed Museum in Nebraska and just do for that off-road, it would be an amazing place to go visit.

[01:09:22.570] - Rory Ward

That way you could see all of the facets of off-road. You know what I mean? That would be something if If we're going to base a museum off of something, I would probably highly recommend people to go check that place out and see the history that's in there. It's not just the cars, it's the displays. I mean, I Go check their website out.

[01:09:47.020] - Big Rich Klein

Not only that, I'm going to go there. This year, I'm making a trip to Kansas City for more, which is an off-road expo, a Missouri Off-Road Expo, but it's in Kansas City, Missouri. I'm going to make that side trip and get to that Museum of American Speed in Nebraska. I'm going to make that side trip.

[01:10:12.380] - Rory Ward

Don't put a couple hours aside. It's not enough. You need a full day in there. At least a full day, I'm telling you. It's two stories. It's amazing.

[01:10:25.030] - Big Rich Klein

Now you got me all excited. You should be. I want to see this.

[01:10:30.160] - Rory Ward

That's the good thing about what we're doing with our cars. If we can't have our own museum, we're going to put our cars in places that they can showcase it. They can definitely showcase some stuff. I've even told them, Hey, if you guys need some memorabilia to go in with this stuff, you let us know. We'll be more than happy to supply you guys with this stuff because most of their vehicles don't have the with them because they're slowly... They're still building and building and building. They just opened up a brand new wing. I don't know, it was 15,000 square feet or some crazy number, or 50,000 square feet. I don't know what it was, but it was Yeah. So they're slowly building displays for these vehicles.

[01:11:21.140] - Big Rich Klein

I've been to a lot of different types of museums and Hall of Fames. And that's one of the things that I've always looked at, is how everything is displayed and presented. And it's just like there's a towing museum and Hall of Fame in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is incredible. And in Phoenix, there's what would be Mesa. There's the Fire Truck History Museum, which is another place that's absolutely incredible. With all the displays and everything, and stuff, interactive things to do and stuff. So I'm looking forward to that. I'm definitely going to get to the Museum of American Speed.

[01:12:12.290] - Rory Ward

Cool. Yeah, you need to. And so does everybody else.

[01:12:16.320] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Everybody put that on your bucket list.

[01:12:18.310] - Rory Ward

And be a member of Armhof, too.

[01:12:19.890] - Big Rich Klein

Yes. Be a member of Armhof. It's easy to become a member. Just go to armhof. Org.

[01:12:26.670] - Rory Ward

Absolutely.

[01:12:27.520] - Big Rich Klein

Well, Rory, I want to say thank you so much for spending this Saturday afternoon with me, and I get to know you a little better. I mean, we talk at some of our meetings, but we've never really had it. We don't have a chance to converse like this at those meetings. So it's good to know more about you.

[01:12:48.750] - Rory Ward

Well, thank you very much, Rich. I appreciate it. And I love the podcast. I listen to it all the time. So it was nice to be on it.

[01:12:55.920] - Big Rich Klein

Well, great. And thank you. And say hello to your wife and Girls, and hopefully I get to meet them someday.

[01:13:04.800] - Rory Ward

You got it, buddy. We'll see you at the next event.

[01:13:07.540] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Sounds good. Thank you. All right. 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 think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the gusto you can. Thank you.