Sturgis (Kentucky) produced a great racer in Bill Baird.

Adrenalin-junkies unite and listen in to our favorite, Bill Baird. Stunt planes to dirt to asphalt ovals, bill has done so much. Join us for episode 269 and hear Bill’s story!. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

6:33 – Sturgis, KY was the second school in the US that was integrated after Little Rock. Third grade, I went to school with 1200 National Guard troops around.

14:03 – Never been to a racetrack, I’ve never seen a race before in my life, I was a fish out of water.              

17:17 – Somewhere between 98 and 99 I started understanding everything about the race car. 

23:27 – I picked up the car up from Shannon and drove back to Oklahoma to race; but Shannon’s car had a kick to it! 

34:35 – I’ve been in Moab 17 times…what got me going out there was retracing my dad’s life while he was out there.

41:58 – I got out of it when you couldn’t run Tire Balls anymore; I had a single-seat car, I’m 56 years old, I couldn’t handle a tire by myself.

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

Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

Transcript

[00:00:05.280] 

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.

[00:00:46.170] 

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.

[00:01:13.890] - Big Rich Klein

On today's episode, my guest is Bill Baird. Many know Bill is a rock racer, but his background is very deep and fast. From stunt planes to dirt tracks, to asphalt ovals, to ARCA stock car racing, to NASCAR cup racing, Bill Baird loves to go fast. Hello, Bill Baird. I'm looking forward to this interview. I miss you. We haven't seen you in a while. And well, since I stopped Dirt Riot, so it's been at least five, six years now. So I'm looking forward to this interview, and hopefully I can get out to Kentucky and see you.

[00:01:53.370] - Bill Baird

I'm glad you gave me a call. We haven't talked in a while, and you're always welcome in Kentucky.

[00:01:58.980] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. Excellent. So let's jump right in on this interview, and why don't you share with us where you were born and raised?

[00:02:09.690] - Bill Baird

I was born and raised in Sturgis, Kentucky. I was born in 1949. I grew up in the little town of Sturgis, and been here most of my life. I lived in Florida for seven years, and it was too crowded. I had to come back home, and I've been back home.

[00:02:30.020] - Big Rich Klein

And those seven years in Florida, was that as a teenager or older?

[00:02:35.600] - Bill Baird

No, I was in... Actually, before I started off road racing, I just finished up my stock car racing career in '02. I thought I was on the semi-retired at that time, and I moved to Florida for seven years. In Sarasota. I stayed there for seven years. I saw some holes in my business because I wasn't here every day. I decided it was time to come back to Kentucky and take care of my business Right.

[00:03:16.290] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, fair enough. Those early years in Sturgis, Kentucky, I've been to Sturgis. We put a race on out there and really enjoyed the area. One of the things I noticed is that You guys have the walls for the flooding if the river there gets too high, correct?

[00:03:36.910] - Bill Baird

That's correct. Of course, the 37 flood. The flood started just in 1964. They got the flood all around the town, and they've had to put the gates in a few times. We just had a real high river this last year, or this year because of the rain, but it didn't get high enough. They had to put one floodgate in. So the little town started to completely surrounded by a dam.

[00:04:05.930] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. You think of that when you're on the Mississippi, like Hannibal's got the floodgates, and I know there's There are towns that have it. And then, of course, when you're in New Orleans and that area. But I never really thought about Kentucky having that until we were there and I saw the floodgates, and it was like, Okay, that makes sense because it's the Kentucky River there that flows by there, right?

[00:04:34.470] - Bill Baird

No, the Ohio River.

[00:04:35.610] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, it's the Ohio. Okay.

[00:04:37.260] - Bill Baird

When you're talking about the Mississippi River, we have dams on the, Corps of engineer dams on the Ohio River where I live, and they have to hold the water back to keep from overflooding the Mississippi River. So that's where we get our flood zones from.

[00:04:57.680] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Okay, that makes sense I think a lot of that... Are you familiar with the Great Loop?

[00:05:08.280] - Bill Baird

I've heard of it.

[00:05:10.030] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, so that's boaters that- Oh, yes. Yeah, that go around, and I think they come through that area.

[00:05:15.630] - Bill Baird

I live on the Ohio River now, overlooking the Ohio River, and I see those boats coming through quite a bit.

[00:05:26.060] - Big Rich Klein

Well, at some point, Shelley and I plan on doing that. So maybe we'll We'll stop by and say hello while we're on the loop.

[00:05:34.430] - Bill Baird

Yeah, there you go.

[00:05:36.110] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Well, anyway, so growing up there, what was life growing up in Sturgis, Kentucky, back in the, well, I guess it would be the '50s.

[00:05:45.110] - Bill Baird

Well, yeah, in the '50s and stuff. Actually, at that time, Sturgis was a large, small town. It had a lot of activities in it. We had a movie theater. Everybody shopped in Sturgis, didn't have the Walmarts back in time. As a young man or a child growing up, I hung out in town and played sports and did all that. And then as it got older, I started working for farmers on the farms. I got an early start, got some good work, I can't say the word.

[00:06:32.030] - Big Rich Klein

No worries.

[00:06:33.660] - Bill Baird

Anyway, I grew up and started gaining a lot of knowledge, farm equipment, what the farmers did, and Then my dad started a business, and when he restarted that business after school and everything, I would go there. It was a real joyful town. Actually, a lot of people don't a little bit about this, but Sturgis was the second school in the United States that were integrated after Little Rock, Arkansas. Third grade, I went to school with 1,200 National Guard troops around.

[00:07:13.220] - Big Rich Klein

Wow. Okay. Holy mackrel.

[00:07:16.500] - Bill Baird

Yeah. At the high school, they had a Sherman tank sitting on each corner of the high school.

[00:07:24.800] - Big Rich Klein

Wow. With a crew in it, huh?

[00:07:27.470] - Bill Baird

Yeah, it was. I actually kept all newspaper clippings of all that time, whatever was going on. I go back in and look at those clippings every once in a while. I can remember a lot of stuff that went on during that time.

[00:07:46.270] - Big Rich Klein

What sports did you play?

[00:07:49.260] - Bill Baird

I played baseball, basketball, and football. I think I came as well way back during that time. I was 125 pounds. I have real small body. So I got beat up on a lot.

[00:08:06.200] - Big Rich Klein

But that probably came in handy with the racing career, which we'll get into in a little bit. So what student were you? Were you a good student or were you always looking out the window hoping to get outside?

[00:08:21.180] - Bill Baird

I was a person who looked outside the window. The space program was going on during that time, and I was a dreamer. I made through school, but I wasn't the person who got a ribbon hung around her neck.

[00:08:46.830] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Okay. You said your dad started a business that you worked at besides the farming. What was that business?

[00:08:58.490] - Bill Baird

His original business was It was called Western Kentucky Welding Company, and he rebuilt Bulldozer, Outer Hills, and stuff like that. Then we have a lot of rock quarries around this area, and he started working at the rock quarries and everything. That went on for about eight years. Then he had a fall. When he fell through the roof of the high school, when he was building it and it crippled him up. He He was working for a company called M&W Company. After he got healed up, those two guys got him to get in his new business, which is what is Saturday Machine and Welding. Then, of course, after school, I was working for him. My dad was a very knowledgeable guy and probably had one of the best relationships with father and son could ever have. We very seldom never had an argument. I bought him out of Saturn, 1992. And so I owned the business since 1992, up until three years ago, where I sold the business.

[00:10:20.350] - Big Rich Klein

And those early days, it was working on equipment and stuff. I know that you worked, you started doing Coke oven and had a bunch of patents around that. But did you learn the engineering and stuff from college or were you just self-taught?

[00:10:40.470] - Bill Baird

I was self-taught. My dad was, he He was a thinker also. I listened to every word he ever had to say. Then we had some other people working in the business that were real knowledgeable. My dad put me out there and just like any other employee. I didn't have me, because my dad owned the business. I wasn't treated in any way different than the other employee. I learned from a lot of different people. We had 17 worldwide patents, which they're all, of course, gone now. We broke off in 1985. We doing work for the German companies who were building all the Coke ovens. My dad came up with a patent on a jam cleaner on a Coke oven door. '79, business got real slow. I went to local coal mines here and started picking up work from coal mines. We got a couple of patents while we were doing that during that time. Then 1985, the steel The markets started coming back. I took our patent equipment up to Chicago, Illinois, as a coal plant, and we installed them. It was a big hit. Our business really took off then.

[00:12:16.980] - Big Rich Klein

Very good. I understand that you got into flying. Do you still fly?

[00:12:27.310] - Bill Baird

I don't anymore. I started off flying. For seven years, I would leave here every Monday morning. We had our own private jet because these coal covers are scattered all over the United States, especially the Eastern part of the United States. I leave here at 6: 00 in the morning, fly to Birmingham, Alabama, or to Gaston, Alabama. Then later on that day, I fly to Spare Point, Maryland. I didn't like staying in Sparish Point, so those Mondays were long days. Then I fly back to Pittsburgh or South Chicago and then work all those coal plants facilities in all those areas. I had people working there on job sites and just picking up new customers and everything. I did that for seven years. Finally, got everything established and then I back off. I'm a commercial pilot. I had over 5,000 hours of flying time. Also, I was in the stunt flying. Like you see at the air shows, I did that for a while. My wife's been in Canada Lat, so I went and bought it. She said I had a fine new sport. So a month later, I had a first Dirt Lake model with a Gurdy engine in it.

[00:14:03.870] - Bill Baird

Never been to a racetrack. I've never seen a race before in my life, and I was a fish out of water.

[00:14:10.150] - Big Rich Klein

So you just bought a car and showed up?

[00:14:13.110] - Bill Baird

Yeah. I I went to a place in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I didn't even know how to put the car in gear. It was brand new.

[00:14:20.630] - Big Rich Klein

I got to ask, how did that first race go?

[00:14:26.610] - Bill Baird

It was dark, had nice. I think I run around the bottom of the track.

[00:14:33.220] - Big Rich Klein

You didn't hang it out, huh?

[00:14:37.470] - Bill Baird

No.

[00:14:39.230] - Big Rich Klein

By the end of the season, were you feeling pretty comfortable behind the wheel?

[00:14:46.450] - Bill Baird

I wasn't really. I was running with all the big boys, Scott Blum, Chris, Billy Moyers, and stuff. But I kept learning, learning Then what happened to me was, I think one year I raced 50 different races, and then next year I raced 60-something races. I really got tired of... We was on the road doing summer nationals and the winter nationals. Of course, every night you're sitting there scraping mud off your car and everything. I did that for two and a half years. Then I said, I'm going to go to an asphalt racing. They had a series, real popular series back then. All of the races were televised. I went down to Ken Schrader and bought a car from him. Started AESA racing. It went better, but I still was in the back of the field. I did that for, let's see, up to 1996. In 1997, I went back down to Straders. I said, I want to go Arca racing. In '97, I ran four races. I went to Dayton the very first time. The very first time I got in the car was at Dayton. Straders went out and drove a car around the track before me.

[00:16:35.180] - Bill Baird

He said, All you got to do is hold it wide open. I go on the track and on the fourth lap, that's when your third lap, you're up to speed. My right leg on gas pedal was shaking like crazy. I was going to cross start finish line. I got out of the car, took a little break, got back in, didn't have any problem that time on, and run fourth in my very first race.

[00:17:00.460] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, very good.

[00:17:02.650] - Bill Baird

Very good.

[00:17:03.690] - Big Rich Klein

In '97, you ran four races.

[00:17:07.630] - Bill Baird

Yeah. And in '98, I ran one rookie of the Year.

[00:17:15.170] - Big Rich Klein

So you ran the full season then?

[00:17:17.210] - Bill Baird

Full season in 1999. Totally dedicated. Somewhere between '98 and '99, I started understanding everything about the race car. When I got an Arca car, it drove different than anything. I love the way they drove. '99, I won my first race in Atlanta. Went five races, had five poles, and only had one D&F, and that was at Talladega. Last race of the year, and I'd already won. I won the Championship that year of 800 and something points.

[00:18:01.950] - Big Rich Klein

Wow. You weren't a spring chicken then either, because that put you at 49 years old.

[00:18:09.070] - Bill Baird

Yeah. Then, right.

[00:18:12.370] - Big Rich Klein

Were some of those younger drivers calling you grandpa or anything?

[00:18:18.860] - Bill Baird

Well, at the year I've won, they call me a lot of different names. We have a grandpa was one of them, and I had a lot of respect. I ran clean. Like I said, I had one DNF, and everything just fell in place. I knew it did my work. Of course, in Arca, you run short tracks, super speedways and stuff. But four of my wins were over short tracks, and I dominated short tracks that year. Just It was a beautiful year. Then we're going 2000, and I thought at that time, 2000, I might remember, there was a recession going on. Sponsorship didn't come around too West. I cut my schedule back and run day toll in Talladega and NASCAR, Polk and O. Then I tried to make the Rickyard 500, but I didn't qualify in. That was pretty well the end of my racing career. Now, this is the time of my life where I moved to Florida. I kept one car and my race crew told me I've been out of it for two years. The Springfield Mile, I had won that race and been in a car for two years. Guys back here at home put that car back together.

[00:20:03.260] - Bill Baird

We went back to Springfield and I won the race again. Then I thought everything was over with for me at that time. I went over to Dayton, to the day taller to the Ark, I just... Me and Ken Strader bought another car then. I run Dayton, TallahVega for two years, and got out of it and moved back home. Then I've been going at the Moab quite a bit. I went out there during Easter safari and ran to a guy, but I just had no plans on buying a car or anything. I ran into Shannon Campbell and I bought a buggy from him. He raced and brought it back home. I had a little track out Back to my business here with my grandson to practice on. I went out there and flipped it. About two days later, Trader called me and said, Hey, there's a race in Pennsylvania. You need to come to it. He said he would use his crew to help me. Me and the guy loaded up on an open trailer and went out there. Pennsylvania went running, I think, a fourth or It was my very first race, and Dave Cole walked up to me.

[00:21:33.110] - Bill Baird

Was a good year guy, walked up to me. I wanted to put a decal on my car, and I said, No. They finally taught me to put decal on my car, and I run fifth in that race, and I got done. Everybody fickled death, and it was a rainy mess, but it was a lot of fun racing it. I got done, Dave Cole came up and said, Well, you just qualified for the King of the Hammers. I didn't even know what the King of the Hammers was. At the same time, Good Year guy said, I'll sponsor you for your tires. So I was beginning my off road racing. We went to, I think it was Salt Lake City. That car didn't have the spring shots. What was the shot called? Just a shot by itself.

[00:22:33.490] - Big Rich Klein

The air shots, the ORI? Yeah, air shots.

[00:22:37.670] - Bill Baird

At 2 L, I ran out there and that car beat me to death about kill me on jumps and stuff. But I made the race and then come home. Then Shannon had his car for sale and I bought it and went to another race and started raining real sandy. My eyes got up. I was leading the race for my very first time and I had so much sand in my eyes. I had to go to the hospital. They had to pump water in my eyes, get the sand out. That was again, my off-road racing.

[00:23:20.820] - Big Rich Klein

That was when you came up to Oklahoma and raced there with us at Dirt Riot.

[00:23:27.570] - Bill Baird

Yeah, that's exactly right. I I went and picked the car up from Shannon and drove back to Oklahoma. I guess that was the first time I met you.

[00:23:37.680] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. You didn't listen to me in the driver's meeting before qualifying or before practice. You endowed the car, if I remember right.

[00:23:57.560] - Bill Baird

Do I now? Yeah. Yeah, in practice, Shannon's car had a kick to it.

[00:24:04.270] - Big Rich Klein

Yes.

[00:24:05.160] - Bill Baird

And I'm going up hill. I hit a bump and the back end come over the front of me.

[00:24:11.680] - Big Rich Klein

Going up hill.

[00:24:12.500] - Bill Baird

Going up hill. I think I qualified. Levi, I think, qualified on the pole, and I qualified second or third. And then I passed Levi, and then, like I said, it started raining. I had raised my shield up because I had mud all over it, didn't have it tear off zone. That's when I got all the sand in my eyes and had pull out the race, lead it.

[00:24:37.840] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, that was copper mines. That got really… I mean, it rained heavy. Oh, I know it. It was pretty nasty out there. I think Derek West had problems with his eyes as well.

[00:24:49.380] - Bill Baird

Yeah, he did. That's great. I think Derek West, same hospital I did.

[00:24:54.720] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. So then, one of the things What I remember is that when you guys did, when you in practice, Endo going uphill, you guys rebuilt a lot of the car that night before qualifying.

[00:25:17.810] - Bill Baird

Yeah, that's exactly right.

[00:25:20.040] - Big Rich Klein

And I think everybody was like, jeez, Bill could just build a new car with everything he's got in that trailer. But that's what you guys are used to doing when you raced Arca and Nascar.

[00:25:31.170] - Bill Baird

That's correct. When I went off road racing, I knew a lot about geometry of cars, the front-end, the back-end. That really helped me when I went off road racing because I had the knowledge of that time of what made the car work. We rebuilt it and raced the next day.

[00:26:04.670] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. So I remember you out at... We were at Bridgeport, Texas. And there was a stretch, probably the high speed stretch that when you came out of the... It was a gravel road and it had a little dog leg in it. And there was a speed sign on the road that said like 20 miles an hour or 25 miles an hour or something like that. And you said that you got to almost 100 miles an hour on that straight away. I did. And then Clay Gillstrap was like, Well, if Bill can do it, I can do it. And he didn't do it. He rolled it up pretty good.

[00:26:51.190] - Bill Baird

Yeah, that Bridgeport race was a good race. I actually won that race. And I passed all Right there at the start finish line, I wasn't leading it. Right there, that first turn down the hill, I passed. Who was that passed? I can't remember who I passed. Anyway, I passed, and then I run off and left everybody in that race.

[00:27:20.560] - Big Rich Klein

If I remember right, you launched off. There was a single track down the hill, and they were taking that single track, and you just launched off of that. It's like a 10 or 15-foot drop.

[00:27:32.860] - Bill Baird

I don't even think they knew I was behind them.

[00:27:35.180] - Big Rich Klein

I don't think so.

[00:27:36.930] - Bill Baird

As left hand turned on top of the hill, went down, and I said, I'll turn left quicker. I just launch off in a passing. I did and kept on going.

[00:27:46.940] - Big Rich Klein

I saw you make that pass right there. Because that was right after where our start-finish line was. The timing was at, and I was absolutely amazed that you launched off of that.

[00:28:02.080] - Bill Baird

Well, if you remember coming back to the checkered flag, there was a left-hand lane and a spot on the right-hand side. I ran and I hit that and jumped all the way up to the top of the hill and made the pass.

[00:28:23.080] - Big Rich Klein

Crazy. Then another race that we had there, you ended up in that one mud puddle.

[00:28:29.780] - Bill Baird

I I did. I was leading the race and the sun was setting and there was a road to the right of it. I made that turn, the sun was in my eyes and I missed the road. I went upside down in the mud hole. I had mud in the car with me and everything else and got out of it. Then after the race, we pulled it out. It took me forever to get all the mud out of the car.

[00:29:00.400] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, that's when Darryl gray saw your car upside down in the mud and was like, Uh-oh, he pulls over, jumps out of the car, and goes into the mud to see if you were still in the car.

[00:29:13.600] - Bill Baird

Yeah. Then finally, I don't know where I did or what. Of course, the belly of the car was up. I took my finger and wrote on the car, I'm not in this car. Yeah.

[00:29:31.080] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, God. So let's talk about... Let's go back and talk some of the NASCAR and ARCA racing. Sure. That year that you won in ARCA, your first year where full year, where you got the Rookey of the Year, what were some of the names that we might recognize that you got to race against? Because Arca was like the stepping stone into Nascar.

[00:29:57.160] - Bill Baird

Well, yeah, we had Frank Campbell, who was the big guy in the Arca at that time, okay? Okay. And he won the Championship the year before I did. And then I won the Championship next year. But I raced on all the Super Speedways, as you well know, that if you haven't run a Super Speedway, you have to come to Arca. It's a race. They don't That's what Arca was all about. I'm trying to remember names now. My memory's getting short.

[00:30:39.210] - Big Rich Klein

First thing to go are the nouns.

[00:30:41.920] - Bill Baird

Yeah. Cary Arnhardt, with him. Dale earnhardt actually called me, and Cary was coming to Arca races, and he said, Look out for my boy, Bill. I did. Ryan Newman Polkano, his first Arca race. He won the race. There was a lot of them. Worst thing about it, they were all factory teams. Those guys really come out with good cars. But I can't recall all of them. Probably seven or eight people who Went on to run Nascar.

[00:31:32.230] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. Ryan Newman was a Nascar Cup champion.

[00:31:36.830] - Bill Baird

Yeah. Trying to think of the other one. He's an announcement now for Nascar car. He's got the TV show, Kevin Harvitt.

[00:31:48.600] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:31:49.670] - Bill Baird

Yeah. I was watching one of the old videos, and I didn't know who Kevin Harvitt was back during that time. We were Michigan, and then Kevin Harvitt run side-to-side for the big part of the race. He's another one.

[00:32:04.790] - Big Rich Klein

What was it like being at one of those races in the paddock area, pit area? Was there a lot of secrecy between the teams, or was there more openness?

[00:32:18.960] - Bill Baird

No, you didn't tell anybody anything. And that's why I had a long learning curve when I started off racing round tracks. It takes years and years to learn it when you're a single team like I was. It started as Kentucky, not Charlotte. It's a long learning curve. But the geometry, I learned in my stock car racing days, where I built my brand new car, I changed my bump steer, all that stuff. I had all that stuff down to fractions of inches. I understood how to do all that. I think that's the one thing when I went in off road racing. That's why I was fast from the very beginning of it, because I understood what made a car operate the way it should.

[00:33:32.520] - Big Rich Klein

Right. You had the set up right. You said you met Shannon at Easter Jeep. Yes. You had got into jeeping off road, when did that all start?

[00:33:50.210] - Bill Baird

How did you get into off road? Well, what it was, I was going to Moab, and I just had a Jeep. That was the first Every time I went out to the Jeep. I used to go to Moab. I kept an old suburban out there all the time. I go out to it by myself just to get away from everything for a couple of weeks. Just so happened, I went up to it during the Jeep safari. Then that's the first time I'd ever seen an off-road racing vehicle in my life. I was so intrigued by them.

[00:34:26.160] - Big Rich Klein

You went out to Moab, though, but you were Were you doing photography or something like that? Is the main reason you were out there?

[00:34:35.790] - Bill Baird

Yeah, I was going out there. I've been in Moab 17 times and I'm going back this fall. But how I got introduced to... I got him as a photographer for a while, and I went to a school at Moab. That's how I got into being in Moab. Now, my dad, I'll tell you a back story here, in the '50s, during the uranium prospect, and my dad formed the company, and they were in Moab, Hanksville, Escalante. My dad had a lot of claims out there. I had eight-millimetre movie film of it. He'd take them while he was out there. What got me going out there was retracing his life while he was out there. Okay. That's why I started going.

[00:35:32.870] - Big Rich Klein

Interesting. All right. Then you took the photography course out there while you were there. All right.

[00:35:40.110] - Bill Baird

Yeah, and fell in love with that place.

[00:35:42.450] - Big Rich Klein

Then the first Jeep that you bought, you actually got out of... Was it out of Grand Junction? Somebody out of Grand Junction you bought it from?

[00:35:52.860] - Bill Baird

No. I never had a Jeep until later on in life, but I bought Shannon's car. They're a cheap Safari.

[00:36:05.800] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Did you go out right away with those guys after you bought it?

[00:36:11.700] - Bill Baird

I bought Shannon's car. I bought it. He had to leave. Bf, is that the place where they raced BF?

[00:36:25.690] - Big Rich Klein

Bfe. Bfe, yeah.

[00:36:26.820] - Bill Baird

Bfe or whatever it is. I took car, Shannon. I had my buddy with me, Slate Sprigg. And we go there, and right I turned down in the valley, it's got that big rock pile. Slate got out of the car, and I went up there and jumped on the gas and wound up on top of it. Then people... Of course, the car had Shannon Campbell on the side. Those people went nuts. Then so we headed up some of the rock trails, and there were a couple of guys there that I told them, I said, The first time I drove in this car, can you spot for me? So that's how it got started. And then we stayed out there, I don't know, three or four days. I took it everywhere and never messed anything up. I fell in love with off-road racing at that point in my life.

[00:37:37.830] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. And that car you bought, it wasn't a single-seater. That was a two-seat trail rig?

[00:37:44.360] - Bill Baird

Two-seater. It was his original car, one of his original cars before he built the rear engine car.

[00:37:51.680] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, okay. And you raced that car, too?

[00:37:57.040] - Bill Baird

Yeah, that's the car I went to Salt Lake City.

[00:38:03.750] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, Salt Lake. Okay.

[00:38:05.370] - Bill Baird

In Pennsylvania, I run fifth. I run 10th, I think, Salt Lake City. And then the next race was King of the Hammers. And I run real good in it. And I got right at the waterfall and I was coming down it and it vapor locked on me. So I sat there for a while and I finally got off. And then I was coming up the hill, coming back in the Hammer town, and one of my lower foot rods broke on it. And then so after that, that's when I bought Shannon's race car at that time, after he built his new car. Okay.

[00:38:47.270] - Big Rich Klein

And what did you think of that first KOH when you went out there? Not knowing anything about it, except that Dave Cole said you got an invite to it now.

[00:38:57.250] - Bill Baird

Yeah.

[00:38:58.060] - Big Rich Klein

What was it like showing up on the Lake fed?

[00:39:00.950] - Bill Baird

Well, I go out there and they said, You're getting ready to go up that valley right there. I said, You got to be kidding me. And I went to another place. So we pre-ran. I said, This is nuts. But I've had so much fun. And then at the start of the race, at that time, the race course went backwards and you went... I don't know what that flat was. You had a big lake bed. I don't know where I started at, but I got on the outside of the lake. It was dusty, and I got on the outside of the dust. I don't know how many cars I passed. I've run wide open all the way across there. People were in the dust, and I made a lot of games through there. I was tickled death, everywhere. Everything was going to that strip rod broke.

[00:39:58.460] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Those were the days that everybody was still hanging out at the campfire at night and not just locked down in their own pits. Right. Did you hang out at the campfire with everybody?

[00:40:14.700] - Bill Baird

Yeah, I did. Of course, I'm a new guy here, and really, the only person I knew was Shannon. Of course, he introduced me to a lot of people and everything. The first time in King of Hammers, I was totally shocked with the amount of people there. I hear now they have a whole lot more people. But a lot of good camaraderie there and talking to people and watching people. I go watch people go up through the rocks and stuff, and then I go try. But yeah, hanging I ran that campfire, it got pretty wild at night every once in a while.

[00:41:04.220] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, it did. So the track that you were able to open up in Sturgis? Yes, sir. I think If I'm not mistaken, Dirtriate, we were the first ones to race on it, or did it before?

[00:41:23.570] - Bill Baird

Then King of the Hammers come in.

[00:41:26.840] - Big Rich Klein

Then Dave came in. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, really We enjoyed being out there. The community was really, really great. People really nice. It was a fun little race course, that's for sure.

[00:41:42.310] - Bill Baird

It was. When we only got a race there, two years. In the last race, that's when I remember enough, that's where I said I was retiring from off-road racing.

[00:41:55.560] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Yeah.

[00:41:58.870] - Bill Baird

That's correct. One of the big things that happened, one of the big reasons I got out of it, I was running tire balls. I had a single-seat car. Whenever Dave to change the... Where he couldn't run tire balls anymore, you got to realize I'm 56 years old that time. Of course, I couldn't handle a tire by myself. That's really why I got out of it. My car wasn't built. I hold a spare tire, and I knew if I had a flat tire out there, there's no way I'd lose much time trying to change a tire by myself. I'm still single seat. That's when I decided to get out off road racing. Right.

[00:42:59.340] - Big Rich Klein

That makes sense. When you came out and raced Dirt Riot with us, was there any of the tracks that you really liked? What was your favorite track with us?

[00:43:14.380] - Bill Baird

I liked the one in Oklahoma and the one in Alabama. The first race in Alabama, I almost lapped the whole field. The second race we went down there. I qualified on the pole and I took off. If I was going to win, I always wanted to win big. I was down that valley, down behind there. Nobody chasing me or anything. I come around a corner and call it a tree with my right rear tire.

[00:43:48.630] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, that's right. Yeah, gray Rock. Yeah. In that valley right after going around the pond.

[00:43:55.470] - Bill Baird

Right. I took myself out a races.

[00:44:01.750] - Big Rich Klein

That area turned into such a mess going through those trees, that little valley.

[00:44:07.580] - Bill Baird

It did. I had such a lead there. I could have slowed down, not had a problem, but I just never could have slowed down.

[00:44:19.880] - Big Rich Klein

Your right foot was too heavy. Yeah. So once you got out of off-road racing, what did you do then?

[00:44:34.620] - Bill Baird

I really didn't do hardly anything. I just went back to work and used to play golf, and back got bad and couldn't play golf anymore. So I got lazy and just attended work most of the time. That's the biggest thing was on my mind. Then I decided to sell the business three years ago. None of my children or anything weren't in part of the business. I have a boy named Charlie Lynch, who had been working for me for 20 years and sold him the business. What I do for entertainment now, I took up sporting place. I just got back from a tournament down in Tennessee this last week with 500 rounds of shotgun shells in three days. Wow. That's my new entertainment now.

[00:45:44.810] - Big Rich Klein

How How does your shoulder feel?

[00:45:46.700] - Bill Baird

It doesn't hurt at all. The only thing I found out, I know it's sharp as it was. My eyes don't see as good as they did. I've been 76 six years old in two months, and maybe started at too late of age, but I love doing it.

[00:46:08.620] - Big Rich Klein

Your grandson was racing ATVs. Right. And was pretty good. I mean, he had won some championships, right?

[00:46:25.790] - Bill Baird

Yeah. We'll go back a little bit. When I was racing, he was racing, too. Right. And so I didn't have any weekends off. I missed some of his races, but he was five-time national champion, and he was really good. They broke off and started doing it yourself, which was fine with me. I spent a lot of time with him, giving him a lot of encouragement. He started there, he was, I guess, I think eight years old. I tutored him along the way, and he was a really good racer. Then two years ago, they down to Texas and racing one of the national races, and he had a look wrong way and it paralyzed him. But that kid has worked so hard, and they say he'd never walk again or anything else. Right now, with braces on, he can walk. His job is built. He builds four-wheelers for other people now. It's a tragic thing that happened, but he He found from it very well and lived a different lifestyle now.

[00:47:54.800] - Big Rich Klein

I'm glad to hear that. I'd heard about the accident. I did not hear that with the braces, he was able to walk again. That's awesome.

[00:48:07.560] - Bill Baird

He's worked so hard. It was unbelievable. See, the last race I had, Sturgis, I built him a racing Razor. He was 11 years old, and we had a razor class out there. Dave Cole raced 11 years old, and the pro division, he run second.

[00:48:39.090] - Big Rich Klein

Very good. Wow. A wheelman like his grandpa.

[00:48:42.710] - Bill Baird

Yeah, and he got out of his house, I don't like this. I knew about the safety. I've seen a lot of people on the sides get hurt really bad. No protection. That's why I built him a razor. But he made a choice. He didn't like it. But anyway, he's really worked hard to get to where he's at today.

[00:49:06.420] - Big Rich Klein

What are your plans going forward? Still going to do some sporting clays?

[00:49:14.660] - Bill Baird

Oh, yeah. I've built a sporting place behind my house where I can practice. On Fridays and Saturdays, if there's not a tournament going on somewhere, we have a lot of people here from Saturday to come out and shoot. We have 10, 11 guys come out and shoot. If I want to go out and practice any time, I can just walk out my back door and start shooting. I say this probably as my last thrill thing in my life.

[00:49:46.240] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[00:49:48.690] - Bill Baird

A lot of back problems I've had. I got a lot of that straightened up, good and healthy, and just enjoying the life.

[00:50:01.360] - Big Rich Klein

When you were in Nascar or Arca, did you have any big wrecks?

[00:50:09.460] - Bill Baird

Yeah, I had one I had one at... They told me the last lap of practice, right front tire out, hit the wall hard, down to turn two, it knocked me out. It I run the race the next day, but I wasn't right. Worst wreck I had was Atlanta. They just re-blacked off it. I qualified down, I think, 197 miles an hour. I blew right in front of the tire, hit the wall there and had broke my scapula and all that stuff. One of the worst wrecks I had was whenever Dave Cole, we went up to Ohio just for a demonstration race. Okay. Excuse me. I sent my Shox to Penske to get them reworked and didn't think anything about it, and I hit a big jump up there and it didn't work out good and land on my roof and it broke collarbone, scapula. They told me I wouldn't be able to race for six months. I was in intense care for two days up there and come home My grandson, I make a lake for him. Two weeks later, I was on board over. One month after the wreck, I built my new car, and I took it to, I don't know where we were, Oklahoma somewhere, and I raced it.

[00:51:53.450] - Bill Baird

I've been sitting in a race car a lot of times, a lot of pain. Right.

[00:51:59.490] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, But it gets into your blood. I mean, it's something you got to do.

[00:52:05.840] - Bill Baird

I guess racing is one of the biggest healing powers there is. You can be hurt in this love of racing. You put everything aside and you get in that race car if it's humanly possible. Wow. That's racing blood.

[00:52:28.310] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. Did you race Crandon with us?

[00:52:33.540] - Bill Baird

Yeah. Actually, I went to Crandon the very first time and just had to rebuild the engine in and was leading every race. On the last lap, they didn't take the sensor out for overheating. And last lap, both times, my car went in left mode. That was the only time I raced. Okay.

[00:53:02.600] - Big Rich Klein

What did you think of the big track like that?

[00:53:07.340] - Bill Baird

I loved it. I just fell in love with it. Well, like Dave said it was impossible, but I did it on the lake bed I turned. I hit 150 miles an hour on the lake bed in my car. Wow. And Dave said, It's impossible. I on GPS and took a picture of it, but I come back and figured all the air ratio and everything was. So the next year, I was going to go back, show Dave I could do it again, but it rained. The moisture never come out of the lake beds out there.

[00:53:48.900] - Big Rich Klein

So- Slowed it way down.

[00:53:50.470] - Bill Baird

Yeah. Yeah, it slowed way down. But I think from high speed racing and going off road racing The speed never bothered me.

[00:54:04.500] - Big Rich Klein

Right. I know a lot of guys, especially in the ultra four cars back then, those king of the hammer cars, there is no error dynamics, per se. The front ends would start to lift. The air would get under the cars.

[00:54:27.030] - Bill Baird

I never had that problem, a car. I built a new car, and we were getting ready to go to King of the Hammers. I put the shots the same way Shannon had his. The week before the King of the Hammers, I cut the rear end, took it off the car, and moved the shots forward on it. That finally took a kick out of it.

[00:54:52.860] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. Very good. You're on the river, right? Your property now?

[00:54:57.830] - Bill Baird

Yes, sir. I overlooked the river.

[00:54:59.950] - Big Rich Klein

Do you ever fish?

[00:55:02.730] - Bill Baird

I haven't fished in a while, but I've got a 23-foot John boat. Where I live on the river, it's a wide place. One place right there in the river is over a mile wide, and we can run between dams, we're in what's called the Smithland pool. In the summertime, here where I live, the river has no mud, it's all sand. So it's A lot of people go boating here, and I get in a boat, and there's a restaurant down the river, about 25 miles we'll go eat, and just enjoy it. Got a beautiful view, and really enjoy where I'm living now.

[00:55:51.270] - Big Rich Klein

Very good. Well, Bill, I want to say thank you so much for agreeing to do the interview and for your friendship over the years out at the races and coming out and letting us race there in Sturgis and doing everything you did to make that possible. One of the things that I regret is that when we were there, that it rained when we were supposed to go to Talladega and you were going to get us a ride around the track. And then it rained. It was like, dang it, because that would have been awesome to ride with Bill Baird at Talladega. Oh, my God.

[00:56:31.430] - Bill Baird

It's a little Talladega story. There's a steel plant about 40 miles from Talladega. I went down there, like I said, and I went I've never seen a race car. I went down with the superintendent of the coal plant, and it was hot. It had an arc of practice. I'm sitting there looking, How in the world do these people drive around this track like it? Not ever dreaming that I'd be one of the people doing it one day.

[00:57:06.240] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. There you go. Yeah, because that Talladega is super steep. I mean, on those corners, You don't just get out and walk up the track real easily.

[00:57:20.940] - Bill Baird

It's easier walking up it than it is walking back down because your ankle's not far enough.

[00:57:29.690] - Big Rich Klein

Well, I know that when we visited the museum there, or the Hall of Fame, that your picture was up there.

[00:57:37.860] - Bill Baird

Yeah.

[00:57:38.530] - Big Rich Klein

And that was pretty cool. We held the Dirtriate hat up to your face, and we took a picture of you, of your picture with the Dirtriate hat. So it looked like you had the Dirtriate hat on, and that was pretty awesome.

[00:57:53.940] - Bill Baird

I got inducted in Talladega Hall of Fame. I don't know, I forget what year it was, but Every Orphan champion is always getting inducted into the Talladega Hall of Fame.

[00:58:08.650] - Big Rich Klein

That's pretty special. That's awesome.

[00:58:10.530] - Bill Baird

Yeah, pretty special.

[00:58:13.240] - Big Rich Klein

Well, Bill, thank you so much. When I come out to visit, I'll bring my over and under, and- Okay, there you go. I'll go out there and miss a bunch of clays. I don't think I can hit so many.

[00:58:26.510] - Bill Baird

We can have a lot of fun.

[00:58:28.220] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. Sounds good. We'll jump in your boat and head downriver and go to that restaurant. Sounds like a fun time.

[00:58:37.960] - Bill Baird

It'll be a great time, I promise you.

[00:58:39.560] - Big Rich Klein

All right. Bill, you take care, and thank you so much for coming on. Like I said, for being a friend all these years.

[00:58:46.440] - Bill Baird

Yes, sir. Just tell all my racing fans out there, I said hi and keep digging in that sport because it's a wonderful sport that off-road racing is.

[00:58:56.910] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely. All right. You take care and We'll talk again later on. Thanks.

[00:59:02.680] - Bill Baird

Thank you.

[00:59:04.420] - Big Rich Klein

Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have, or if there's anybody that you have that you think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the gusto you can. Thank you.