Speeding ticket to Slow Jeep to Fast Racecar, Matthew Slyngstad on Episode 288

This week, Big Rich sits down with rising Ultra4 racer Matthew Slyngstad. Born and raised in San Jose, Matthew shares how a teenage speeding ticket steered him into a slow Jeep—and a fast off-road life. From cello and wrestling in high school to wrenching summers in the family construction business, he built the fabrication chops that power his racing today.

Highlights: 

·       Early days: Bay Area roots, yearbook photo editor, wrestling, and a love for the outdoors. 

·       Montana years: slower pace, more dirt—fishing, wheeling, and hunting. - Dogs and discipline: competing in Schutzhund with a powerhouse German Shepherd. – 

·       First Jeep mods: rock sliders as his first welding project; Rubicon trips that sparked bigger builds. 

·       Ultra4 entry: mentored by Jack Taggart and welcomed into Jason Scherer’s Rage 4 team; pit crew to Baja 1000 with Ford’s programs. 

·       The leap to racing: buying a 4800 car just weeks before KOH 2025; pre-running, shock tuning, and sponsor hustling. 

·       Race day rollercoaster: comms failure at the start, blazing desert pace, a boulder impact and broken rear upper link, pit heroics—and a proud finish, 18th in class. – 

Shoutout to the entire Rage 4th crew—and old-school legend Jeff Mello—for making the dream real.

Transcript

[00:00:05.080] - 

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.

[00:00:46.360] - 

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[00:01:12.400] - Big Rich Klein

My guest this week started off as a four-wheel drive enthusiast. Then he became a pit crew at KOH, and in 2025, he competed at KOH for the first time in the 4800 class, and actually even finished the race with plans to continue racing in 2026 and possibly beyond. My guest is Matthew Slyngstad. Hello, Matthew Slyngstad. Thank you for being a guest on Conversations with Big Rich, and I'm looking forward to this conversation. We've never had one really before, except a little bit of time while you were still driving home. So it's going to be good to do this interview.

[00:01:54.240] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, looking forward to it.

[00:01:56.140] - Big Rich Klein

So first question I have to ask you, which is the one I ask everybody, is where were you born and raised?

[00:02:03.840] - Matthew Slyngstad

San Jose, California. Born and raised, still living in the area.

[00:02:09.140] - Big Rich Klein

Your family, life back... Well, how old are you? If you don't mind me asking.

[00:02:15.080] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, 29 30th is in two weeks.

[00:02:18.790] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, okay. Happy birthday.

[00:02:20.760] - Matthew Slyngstad

Thank you.

[00:02:21.560] - Big Rich Klein

This might be a birthday episode.

[00:02:23.280] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, it might be my birthday when this comes out. Yeah, exactly.

[00:02:28.120] - Big Rich Klein

So So you're pretty young. Yeah. So I'm twice your age. Jeez.

[00:02:38.480] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah. I'm a young man. Actually more than that.

[00:02:41.260] - Big Rich Klein

So let's go back, way back for you there. And growing up in San Jose, were you guys in the suburbia part, or were you more downtown, or out in the boonies?

[00:02:54.020] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, it was the first house I was born in, which I don't have much memory of, but it was up in the mountains, Mount Hamilton, which isn't really mountains or hills compared to other parts of the country. But I was born up there. I think we had a couple of acres up there and was very young and then moved to a south San Jose area and was next to a golf course, and that's where I spent a good bit up through middle school and then moved to Central San Jose, which was a Willow Glen neighborhood, and then stayed there for pretty much a while and then hopped around. There was a little bit of college, moved away to Montana and was living out there for a couple of years and came back to San Jose, and then recently just moved to another place in Saratoga. Okay. Or sorry, not Saratoga, Santa Clara.

[00:03:49.020] - Big Rich Klein

And you said you were in Mount Hamilton. When you moved from there, you were still pretty young?

[00:03:54.720] - Matthew Slyngstad

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was an elementary school for me. Okay.

[00:03:58.420] - Big Rich Klein

And middle school, and then did you get into high school in South San Jose or more into the Willow Glen?

[00:04:06.680] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, it was Central. That was a big thing, that Willow Glen area. The school district was all the same. It was San Jose unified. I grew up with the same set of friends from elementary school in that South San Jose. We were able to keep me in those school districts in South San Jose so I could stay with friends and all that stuff. That still I was going into those areas, and high school was in San Jose as well. That was in that South San Jose area.

[00:04:36.980] - Big Rich Klein

And which high school did you go to?

[00:04:39.460] - Matthew Slyngstad

It's Pioneer High School.

[00:04:41.130] - Big Rich Klein

Pioneer, okay.

[00:04:42.660] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah. Just one of the many in this area. Right.

[00:04:47.040] - Big Rich Klein

There weren't so many back in the days when I was in high school. I'm talking the '70s, early '70s. Because I grew up in San Bruno, California, up the peninsula, and we would cruise down to San Jose and try to street race and all that stuff.

[00:05:09.220] - Matthew Slyngstad

Oh, my mom has stories of back in the day on El Camino, it was her and my uncle. My uncle has a bunch of Classic cars, but they would go out and do street racing back in El Camino when the cops were... There wasn't much there, and the cops didn't really care. They wanted you to go out and race in that area is what she always said.

[00:05:28.120] - Big Rich Klein

Yep, absolutely. How were you as a student?

[00:05:35.840] - Matthew Slyngstad

I was pretty good up until high school when it started getting a bit more life experiences and that stuff. Everything all of a sudden drew me out of the classroom. But I was pretty studious up through into high school. I always tried to be as many As as possible and push myself academically and tried to do that stuff. Then towards the end of it, realized I still had decent grades. I found out I'm a really good test taker. Part of that, I think, is the understanding problem solving of half the test or multiple choice. It's like at a certain point, you can just realize, All right, which ones are the bad ones? Which ones are the good ones? All right, it's a 50/50 shot. Floated through the end of high school and end of college with that mindset, unfortunately. But I definitely for a while there was always trying to soak in as much information and be as good as I could be in the classroom.

[00:06:38.180] - Big Rich Klein

Do you have brothers and sisters?

[00:06:41.540] - Matthew Slyngstad

One older brother. One older brother? Yeah. My parents both are remarried, so I have two step siblings on my mother's marriage and three on my father's marriage. Okay. All right. Yeah. Big families. My dad's the youngest of eight. My mom is the youngest of, oh, God, four, five, four, five. Wow. Eight? Yeah.

[00:07:02.280] - Big Rich Klein

Holy mackrel. And going into high school, or while you were in high school, did you take any electives, shop classes or anything like that, or play sports?

[00:07:16.000] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah. I did a lot. I played the cello in middle school, which is what helped me get into the high school I wanted to, which is where all like my friends at the time were going. So played cello. Then you also got into wrestling and wrestled for a few years in high school. I also did water polo and diving. That was just some fun things with friends most of the time on that stuff. The wrestling, I was a bit more competitive on until we had a bad staff infection that took me out right in my prime thing. It was hard to bounce back from something like that at that age when you're like, I was starting to really get a feel for myself and start really competing on a really high level. It was right when I was starting to get rankings and all that, it was like, Yeah, all right, can't wrestle for the rest of the season, and just threw me off mentally and all that.

[00:08:14.580] - Big Rich Klein

Almost like an injury, but more mentally.

[00:08:18.720] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah. I mean, it's pretty much an injury. It was just someone I wrestled just also had a staff infection at some point and ended up with it. It was one of those things that just took me out. But that, and I also worked in our yearbook committee for... I shouldn't say worked. It was a class elective where I was our photo editor for the yearbook my junior and senior year, and learned photography and all that stuff at that time.

[00:08:46.820] - Big Rich Klein

We share that in common. I did four years on yearbook staff. That's how I got through my English credits as the staff photographer. I didn't have to write anything. I I didn't have to do any public speaking, although I enjoy that. It was the photography carried me through my English credits. I loved it.

[00:09:10.440] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah. No, it was fun. I mean, it was a good excuse because I got to go to... You go to all the events and get to meet everybody. It's always funny when I run into people that went to high school. I just had a dinner with a buddy that recently got married, and the person he married was someone I to high school with. It was just funny talking because I'm like, It's funny because I literally stared at every single person's picture in the yearbook. There's so many people that look familiar to me around here, and it's like half the time I'm like, I probably stared at them, trying to edit their photo and make sure it all looked good in the yearbook at some point.

[00:09:49.440] - Big Rich Klein

I'm really good with faces. It's putting the faces to the names. I'll bet that most of the people that are listening to this have that experience with me, where they come up and say, Hey, Rich, how's it going? And I go, Hey, it's going really good. And we start talking, and then I figure it out. Oh, God. It's just too many people. I can't. I don't think my brain can handle it.

[00:10:16.700] - Matthew Slyngstad

I get the feeling.

[00:10:17.920] - Big Rich Klein

So then you get through high school. Let's talk about cello. How did you pick up the cello? I mean, or lean it up, I guess.

[00:10:29.140] - Matthew Slyngstad

That was That was middle school, and it was... I can't remember what it was exactly. There was some presentation. If I remember right, it was our last year in middle school. You get to pick an elective, and it was like, It was like an assembly or something, I think, midway through middle school. They had each of the electives show off something that they did. I can't remember the teacher's name, but he played an Ironman song on the cello... Or not Ironman, Metallica. He did Interest and Man by Metallica on the cello. I just sat there and went, That is the coolest thing ever. I want to learn how to do that.

[00:11:13.800] - Big Rich Klein

Cool. I mean, you got to have inspiration like that.

[00:11:17.140] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah. Then I did that a lot. Cleated up until sophomore year of high school. It was switching teachers. My first teacher did such a great job at introducing it and had a really great time and great teacher. Then going into high school, it was a different teacher and different classroom set up. I didn't really... I carried it through my freshman year and thought I was having a good time. Then sophomore year, rolled around and realized it just wasn't really the same anymore, and I don't really see myself progressing with it in my life.

[00:11:49.780] - Big Rich Klein

So you didn't do orchestra or anything?

[00:11:53.040] - Matthew Slyngstad

No, I mean, it was. We would do performances, so we would have competitions and stuff like that, like in middle school and high school, to go down to Disneyland and had some local competitions with it. But it was never... I mean, honestly, it was never really anything that stuck that way to me. I never really thought of that of competing and getting as excited like, Oh, this is cool. It's competition. It's that stuff. The other stuff that I do in my life is... It was just like, I enjoyed playing the cello, and I had to suffer through the competitions to play the cello.

[00:12:27.870] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, I get So then let's get into family life. What did you guys do for entertainment? Did you guys go camping, hunting, fishing, anything like that?

[00:12:44.140] - Matthew Slyngstad

Growing up, it was a lot of skiing. I mean, there was sometimes, I think there was one or two times in my life I can remember we got an RV and did something in an RV. It was when I was really young, but a little bit of camping. Big sur Plasket Creek area. That's my grandma on my dad's side. That was her family where the Plaskets.

[00:13:08.260] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:13:09.160] - Matthew Slyngstad

Then that's where her family came from was the Big Sur area. We actually get it. There used to be the family, the Slinkstead camping trip out there when I was growing up, and we'd be able to camp there for free stuff and enjoy that area quite a bit. But a lot of that family moved away and out of the area. So there wasn't as... That fell away and never really happened. It doesn't really happen anymore at all. But I do like to visit that area quite a bit.

[00:13:38.680] - Big Rich Klein

And your dad, from our previous conversation, works construction or has a construction company?

[00:13:48.660] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, yeah. Local construction company in San Jose. A license, general contracting. So it's like asphalt, concrete. We recently got a C13, so we do fencing A little bit of everything. Tennis court surfacing, striping, the asphalt. Our company size is a medium. We're about 30 employees in the field.

[00:14:12.580] - Big Rich Klein

Well, that's pretty good. When you first started working, your working career, were you still in high school, or was it after?

[00:14:25.000] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yes, I was very much in high. It was my freshman year of high school. I can talk about this, the statute of My limitations has passed. I was 100% child labor through high school. I was thrown in. It was my summers and free time. It's stuff that I look back out now and I'd have no hard feelings about it. It's something where I'm happy that I got to experience that stuff at that age. But it was from freshman year, the summers and any vacations I had, I was working with the crews in the field or working in the shop with our mechanic, learning the machinery and all that stuff and maintenance and repairs and welding. That's what started getting my mind into that whole mechanic side and like, Okay, this stuff is cool. I like it because it's a challenge sometimes of how you repair something that's broken or even just maintenance at that time. It was fun and cool to me. Working in the field wasn't as much. It was definitely shovel in the hand, broom in the hand, a little bit more back-breaking. But at that time, I was also wrestling, so I was And for me, it was like, Oh, this is a great workout.

[00:15:32.100] - Matthew Slyngstad

Right.

[00:15:32.900] - Big Rich Klein

And when you worked, so through high school, you're working for the family business. After high school, college?

[00:15:47.820] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, college. Went to, had two years at a local community college here, West Valley, which was in Saratoga. And then my My following two years were spent out in Montana and finished up my college out that way.

[00:16:05.300] - Big Rich Klein

Where in Montana?

[00:16:07.340] - Matthew Slyngstad

Billings. It was at Rocky Mountain College. Okay.

[00:16:11.260] - Big Rich Klein

What was your goal?

[00:16:15.640] - Matthew Slyngstad

Finish College.

[00:16:17.370] - Big Rich Klein

Just finish college. Okay. What was your focus of studies?

[00:16:22.640] - Matthew Slyngstad

Just finish College. It was business stuff. Some of my family on my dad's side was still living out still lives out in Montana. That's where his family's originally from was Montana. They had an uncle out there. It was one of those things where it was deciding to do that move. It was a point in my life where it was being in California for so long and living in the Bay Area and having different interests than most people in the area and just said, let's do the opposite. And pointed at Montana and said, Yeah, that's about as opposite as I could get. Went out that way.

[00:17:00.000] - Big Rich Klein

That's very true. That's very true. And what did you think about your time in Montana? What was it like for you?

[00:17:09.520] - Matthew Slyngstad

I enjoyed it a lot. Being out, it was outdoors every weekend. I mean, meeting people, I was a college age, so it was going out to the bars meeting people. I got invited to go bear hunting, meeting someone at a bar. I've been out just exploring, fishing, off-roading. The entire Every time it was like, Oh, I met someone at a bar, and then it was one of their friends I met at a bar, and then it just continuously snowballs in that direction. That's how you met people. It felt old school compared to California where it's like everything. Everyone was so online, and Montana was so the person-to-person interaction. A little bit slower pace of life. The Bay Area is very go, go, go, go, go. That was actually That was really the one thing I missed when living in Montana. It was definitely slower, a bit more like, Hey, just take it easy. Just enjoy what you're doing and all that. But for me, I always had the problem of, I just want to finish and go to the next thing. That's how my mind works. I just need to finish and get to the next job.

[00:18:21.160] - Big Rich Klein

After you left Billings, you moved back right to San Jose?

[00:18:28.620] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, came back for the family The business side of things. It was a bit of just ahead of that moment of like, Well, do I stay here and try and make a living up here? Do I go back? The family business and all that stuff has provided a lot of great opportunities. It was one of those things where coming back, I think, was the smart choice to say being able to get back and work and grow myself in the industry that has helped provide to me for my whole life.

[00:19:03.520] - Big Rich Klein

When you got back, were you still shovel and broom in hand or what?

[00:19:08.840] - Matthew Slyngstad

A little bit. I went back into the field as a foreman, and then I think that was only a couple of months of that. Then I spent about a year with our head project manager and our head foreman working as the in between person with and working with the head foreman and then going in the office side, helping out with our head project manager and doing that stuff, learning both things, and realizing the amount of work involved with both positions and all that stuff. It wasn't long after that is when I got moved into the office side.

[00:19:47.600] - Big Rich Klein

Very good. You're in a relationship?

[00:19:53.600] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah. I have a girlfriend, and her and I live together right now over in the Santa Clara house. Also, I have two dogs, which are pretty much kids at these points. One of the dogs- One of the dogs? Yeah, I compete with one of the dogs. I do a competition called Schutzen, and I have a German Shepherd, which is where that original Schützen competition came from, was a German Shepherd breeding line in Germany. It's a competition where it's tracking, obedience, and bite work with a dog.

[00:20:27.880] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, wow. Okay.

[00:20:29.400] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah. That was a whole other hobby that I keep forgetting as a hobby because it's just part of my life now where I go and work with the trainers for a couple of times a week. It's just something, get together with a group of guys and pretty much just hang out and train dogs, watch dogs bite things.

[00:20:46.880] - Big Rich Klein

How did you get into that? Did the dogs come first?

[00:20:51.820] - Matthew Slyngstad

The dog came first. Two dogs. The first dog was a bit more of a rescue situation mix. He He's a German Shepherd, Belgian male, Rottweiler mix. He's just an absolute cuddle dog and all that. But I wanted to have a really nicely trained dog because that's always appealed to me as far as having that in a dog. Went up to a training place a little who also did the schützen work and talking with them and meeting people and all that stuff. The problem is I'm at a point in my life where you put something that's like, Hey, you could compete doing this, right? And I go, Oh, no way. Really? I can compete with this? All right. Let's compete. That's where the dog sports stuff is. The other dog I bought when she was two, and she's going to be a breeding female. But She's a very high-end dog, very nice and strong. Every time I work her with someone... We've had seminars where people come out from Germany. Where's the other guy come out of? The Czech Republic and something else. We have another group that comes out of Spain, and everyone that's worked with the dog has gone like, I did not expect a female to ever be this strong.

[00:22:13.720] - Matthew Slyngstad

And it's just like, yeah, well, I somehow ended up with a dog like that.

[00:22:19.360] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome. That's good to hear.

[00:22:21.960] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah.

[00:22:22.600] - Big Rich Klein

So you're skiing, and you bought a Jeep, and And how did it go from your dad wanting you to have something slow that was not... How did that all work out?

[00:22:40.780] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, the speeding ticket right before going to buy the first car was... Well, I look back at it now and I say, That was the best of the thing I've ever done. I was doing 60 in a 35 at night. Like, best thing because that's where I've ended up where I am now.

[00:22:55.160] - Big Rich Klein

At what age was that?

[00:22:58.320] - Matthew Slyngstad

I was 17.

[00:23:00.300] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:23:01.300] - Matthew Slyngstad

I was young. I was supposed to be a good kid at that time. The cop pulled me over and gave me a earful and made me call my parents, and that's when I went, Uh-oh, I can't hide this anymore. I was hoping I was going to be able to get away scot free with it. But yeah, so the ticket thing happened, and then you get in a slow car and ended up with a four-door JK Wrangler in a sport. Like manual locking doors, manual crank windows, that Nothing. Basic radio. And honestly, I think- Vinyl seats. Yeah. But 100%, I enjoyed everything. I mean, it was always so... Like that Jeep, we had so much fun in going to Hollister, going to Rubicon in it. That's where I learned to do my fabrication. That was my very first welding project was building a set of rock sliders when I was working in the shop, and we had a little bit of downtime. I was like, That's when I started learning to weld. Now Now I do TIG aluminum, TIG stainless. I'm building a Jeepster right now and trying to do everything by TIG welding on it.

[00:24:10.020] - Matthew Slyngstad

It's just one of those things where I'm just like... It's funny looking at the progression throughout the years because I'm like, yes, it was that exact moment is why I'm here now.

[00:24:21.240] - Big Rich Klein

A speeding ticket.

[00:24:24.040] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah.

[00:24:24.960] - Big Rich Klein

And what were you driving at that time?

[00:24:26.960] - Matthew Slyngstad

That you got a speeding ticket. It was a Volkswagen Jetta Okay.

[00:24:31.480] - Big Rich Klein

So a pseudo sports car.

[00:24:33.310] - Matthew Slyngstad

Nothing even cool to be speeding in it.

[00:24:35.280] - Big Rich Klein

That's all right. My first speeding ticket was in a Datsun B210.

[00:24:47.480] - Matthew Slyngstad

Is that the truck one?

[00:24:49.120] - Big Rich Klein

No, that's the hatchback. A little 1300 cc motor, front engine, rear wheel drive. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little sedan. Yeah, it was I don't know. I was more proud of the 112 that I got in my... Or the cop claimed I was doing the Highway Patrolman in my 54 Bug. And I was like, please write that ticket.

[00:25:18.200] - Matthew Slyngstad

I want to post that on the wall to remember that one.

[00:25:21.160] - Big Rich Klein

Exactly. Doing, he got 112. He goes, I clocked you at 112. And I said, write that ticket. Nobody's going to believe a 54 Bug. And I told with a 36 horsepower. Well, it wasn't quite that. It was a lot more than that. But he didn't know that.

[00:25:39.360] - Matthew Slyngstad

Right.

[00:25:41.920] - Big Rich Klein

So then you get the Jeep, you start modifying it. What was the first trip on to the Rubicon like?

[00:25:52.140] - Matthew Slyngstad

My first trip on the Rubicon was, I think it was me and my buddy were actually We had a cabin up in Truckee, and we were up there one weekend. That was the same weekend as the cantina. I can't remember the year. But me and my buddy were sitting there and I'm like, Oh, there's an event at the Rubicon happening this week, and you want to just go? I've completely never been to the Rubicon before and all that. We go and meet up with a guy that we knew. I can't remember who he was, who he was, but I met up with a guy, and I'm just sitting there like, Oh, yeah, this is totally different. I At the time, I was sitting on 40-inch tires. I had one tons on it. I don't think I was on the long arm or the coilovers yet. I think I was still coil sprung, short arm, but I did the one ton swap and just went out there and without any idea of what to expect and started driving it. We got out to about buck before we turned around just because of all the traffic during the cantina.

[00:26:55.420] - Matthew Slyngstad

But that was the first experience I had out there. At that I was like, Man, this is awesome. This was so cool and so much fun. Then only did... I mean, this is going to sound bad. I've only ever done two more trips since then. I've had the curse of I can never leave good enough alone. I was fabricating and all that. I tend to take on big projects. The next time we went to the Rubicon, it had the long arms and coil over and bypasses on it. Then I built the whole kit under the Jeep and went out there. I had done the roll cage, too, and went out there, had so much fun, went back and said, I need to make this thing even better. That's actually what snowballed me into… That was about the time where I started getting a little bit more involved with the ultra four side of things.

[00:27:48.680] - Big Rich Klein

How did that happen? How did you jump into Ultra 4?

[00:27:54.160] - Matthew Slyngstad

I need to talk about Jack, Jack Taggert. He's the guy That guy that got me involved with ultra four and Jason Sheer. This goes back to when my Jeep wasn't even on one tons, and I was in college out at West Valley, and I used to see this guy driving a TJ around. At the time, my family weren't off-roaders. No one was off-roaders around me. I was a kid looking at magazines, going online, thinking, Oh, how cool is this stuff? How neat is all this? The Jeep was definitely modified I like that, how you'd expect a high schooler to modify a Jeep to some degree. He'd always look at me like I was gross. I was like, What's giving me the stink eye? I wonder who he is and all that. Started making some more Jeep buddy He's around the time and got to a point where we were hanging out. We were in the in and out parking lot on a couple of nights a week. Buddies would hang out, and he actually drove by one and met up. I was like, Don't you go to West Valley? He's like, Yeah. It snowballed. That friendship snowballed from there.

[00:29:08.760] - Matthew Slyngstad

I was like, you realized that wasn't as bad as my Jeep made me look at the time. Looking back, I'll own up to it. I had no idea what I was doing. I wasn't surrounded by rock callers or off-roaders. I was just someone that was just like, Oh, yeah. I'm just flying at the seat of my pants with this stuff. Definitely was not surrounded by anyone that really knew stuff. But Met Jack, and he had another buddy that was helping out with Jason Sheer's team. He was going to Jason Sheer's stuff, and he asked me, Hey, do you want to come out and try out, just check this stuff out and see if we can give a hand and all that stuff. It was the worst year to do it. I'll tell you why. The year I went, the first time with Jason Sheer was, I think it was the last time he won. But it was like, imagine that experience. The very first time you get out and invited to a team and you're hanging around these guys, the guy wins King of the Hammers. You get that whole experience and you're like, Oh, my God, I want to come back to this.

[00:30:13.430] - Matthew Slyngstad

You can't say, Oh, That was good enough for me. That's one and done. It was like, Oh, this is awesome. Getting up on this stage and all this stuff. I was like, I'm totally out of my place because I barely knew anyone. I'm just like, Man, this is such a wild experience for me. There's so many There's so many people out here and so many people invested in this. One story, too, about King of the Hammers. Back when I was in high school and figuring out how to modify my Jeep, I used to sneak away during our lunchtime in high school, and I would watch King of the Hammers while it was happening live when it was back on Fridays. Oh, wow. The 4,400 Race. I was in high school, hiding in our computer, or in the yearbook room, actually. I was in our yearbook room watching King of the Hammers during lunch because I thought, Wow, this looks really cool. And then it was fast forward two years, and all of a sudden I'm on the Lakebed with Jason Sheer winning the King of the Hammers. And it's like, okay. It's like total opposite of like, you asked me back when I was high school, would I ever be in this position, I would have said no.

[00:31:18.940] - Big Rich Klein

So what did you think when... I mean, besides saying, oh, it's really cool, what did you think when you were watching King of the Hammers there in class?

[00:31:30.460] - Matthew Slyngstad

I remember, I think it was... Because Casey Curry had the IFS Jeep, and I remember, I think he had it at that time. I can't remember. Someone had one that really looked like a Jeep. Like really, really like the Jeep I had. I looked at it and I remember going like, Man, that thing's... I remember watching the videos of it while it was racing through the desert and going like, Man, that's pretty cool. I want to do that with my Jeep one day. But then it was also like watching the race and all that stuff. Again, I've never really been involved in motor sports at that time. Really, my only experience as a mechanic was working on construction equipment. It was seeing this stuff like a whole world I didn't know existed out there.

[00:32:15.140] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And so that was probably Casey in his, what he called the Trophy Jeep?

[00:32:21.580] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, I think so.

[00:32:22.660] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:32:24.140] - Matthew Slyngstad

But yeah, it's funny where I look at it now and it's being on the Lake bed like, oh, yeah, there's Casey's Jeep. I can go up and touch it now.

[00:32:34.580] - Big Rich Klein

And so you got the bug. You're there, the team wins first time that you're there. And what was it? Were you just automatically invited back or how did that work out?

[00:32:50.480] - Matthew Slyngstad

It was definitely a bit of investment. I mean, this really dives into the whole story of you get an opportunity. The opportunity, it's not like someone's there saying, Hey, man, come be a part of us. The opportunity is there of people saw you standing around before. You can go stand around again and then just wait for your moment to shine thing. That's what took place. He came back, and he was in Danville at the time, so it's a 45-minute drive from me from San Jose. I was younger and willing to do that drive a couple of times a week. Started going over to his house and just helping There was probably a year, year and a half where I did not touch that car. Part of it was I was just terrified of it. Again, I'm construction equipment. When you have an IFS car with his LS7 back in the day, and you're just looking at something like, I've never even seen any vehicle like this before this close. I was just terrified of even trying to help. I was helping out everywhere else in the shop and cleaning and just doing some things. People saw me just showing up, having a smile and just being happy to be there and started getting opportunities to help out on the car and kept snowballing from there.

[00:34:12.140] - Matthew Slyngstad

It got to the point where I helped him with his most recent car he has. I did like 80% of the plumbing on that car. Very good. It snowballed like that to where it was... I did absolutely nothing to where I plumbed his car and was one of the main guys and got the team pit jacket thing and was helping out a lot with that stuff. I thought it was the coolest thing ever to get to that point. He also started inviting me to his... When he does the Baja 1,000 races down in Mexico and when he does it with Ford on their Ford program. I've done a couple of those with him where it's a whole 'nother experience because you do ultra four, king of the hammers, and you get stuck stateside. The Baja racing always seemed cool, but never really had an opportunity and never really wanted to go invest the money to go do it myself. It was one of those things when I got the invitation, I was like, Yes, I will do it. The first year was two years ago when they did from La Paz to Encinada. They started in La Paz, and we got the start of La Paz route.

[00:35:31.840] - Matthew Slyngstad

That one wasn't as fun because the race started, Jason was in the car, and we chased the rest of the race all the way back up to Encinada. That was a tough one. The vehicle, he Keep in mind, it's a stock... I mean, the first car was the Ford Raptor R. It's a completely stock truck. I mean, they put a roll cage in it and a fuel cell. Everything else was completely stock about it. It's It's not the fast. It's not a trophy truck. You go up and you park there for a minute and you get your half hour of sleep and you wait for it to drive past, and then you go up to the next point. You're just playing leapfrog at that point. But at that time, the The Star had finished. Last year, we had the... They raced the Range r. The Bronco DR was last year. That thing's a bit more set up than the actual stock factory vehicle. But it was stuff like that. And it's a different style of racing. And when you're in a literal stock vehicle trying to get it across the Mexican desert, it's like, only Ford.

[00:36:45.240] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So here's a story for you. The first time Jason went down and raced in Baja, he was the gage guy for Pistol Pete, and Lance Clifford was the Navigator. And that was in Pistol Pete's trophy truck, and they sat three wide with Pete in the middle. And my job was the radio guy all the way down, and it was a race that we went from Encinada to Cabo. And with Pistol Pete's team, it's not a big operation. There's a truck and a trailer, open bed trailer, that normally what his pre-runner was called Harbor Freight, would ride on that on the way down. But it was what the Trophy truck was on. And the Harbor Freight looked like the trophy truck, but it was called Harbor Freight for a reason. And that race was pretty wild because we were running in in third place almost the whole way. And then had the rear-end took out the ring and pinion and limped it in with... And Robbie Gordon got around us for third place, and Pistle ended up fourth. And we had a really good time down there. I knew all those guys from pirate and from the early rock crawling competition days.

[00:38:31.780] - Big Rich Klein

Jason competed into one of the first events I did, which I actually was... There was two different events going on. One was the Fairgrounds in Napa, and that's the one Jason was competing in. And I had somebody running that event, which turned into a nightmare. Never worked with that guy again. And then I was up at Donner Ski Ranch putting on an event. And then Jason, along with Jeff Mello and that whole Rage fourth group. Oh, yeah. They were all competing, Ryan Taylor and a couple of others. And I guess it was five or six of them. And most of them were in our mod stock class at that time. So it was fun to be around those guys, and then down in Baha, and it was just a classic week down there.

[00:39:25.780] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, I mean, if there's one person I should shout out, it's Jeff Mello. He always welcomed me with a big set of arms with the team. I'm trying to phrase this right because he's old school. Oh, yes. He's old school, and I mean, even to this day, I go to his house. It's been a while, but I go to his house probably once or twice a year. Every time I go there, I'm like, there's nothing my... Well, actually, no, he recently got a Jeep Gladiator, but I'm like, everything here predates me by a lot. That's how he is. It's like the conversations. For me, it's such a learning experience being around guys like that that are still a part of the Rage 4 team that have that history. It's a different way of thinking about things and how to problem-solve and all that. Because I've gotten used to... There's a computer strapped in my car. My computer is going to tell me the problem. Their stuff is like, Oh, no, it could be this, it could be that. Just crack this open, see, you might need to grind this or do something, just tweak it a little bit and get it to work.

[00:40:35.140] - Matthew Slyngstad

I've seen it work. I've seen the stuff Jeff Mello puts together in his garage sometimes, and I'm like, I don't know how you got those two things to work, but they work.

[00:40:42.840] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Yeah, Jeff is definitely old school. My wife and I were able to go to Cinco de Melo this year. And it's Jeff's birthday, which is right there in May.

[00:40:57.820] - Matthew Slyngstad

Oh, you were at Cinco de Melo? Okay. I I did an appearance over there. Okay. All right. We may have met. May have. There was a lot of people there. I was doing something the following day, and I remember I went. I did the good old Irish goodbye out of there.

[00:41:17.080] - Big Rich Klein

We did, too, because it was getting late and we had to drive all the way back to Placerville.

[00:41:22.980] - Matthew Slyngstad

It wasn't late for me. I was ready to go to bed. I wake up really early for work. So my schedule, and I know Melo is very opposite time schedule with me, but my time schedule is... I'm usually trying to be in bed by 8: 39, and I'm up around 4: 45 right now. And that was actually Oh, yeah. Going back to the time schedule was my very first King of hammers. I was on Pit One with Jeff Mello. He came out of his RV. He looked like he got an hour of sleep. He had a hot dog in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. He got in my truck and said, Let's go pit for Jason's here. I said, Yes, sir. Tell me where to go.

[00:42:09.920] - Big Rich Klein

I have a feeling I'll be seeing him in a couple of weeks down at Sand Hollow during Trail Hero.

[00:42:18.580] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, I believe he's going out there. I think him and our group chat, I think Casey's going to be out there, too.

[00:42:24.240] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, that'll be great. I'm looking forward to seeing all those guys again. So Let's talk about now your evolution from being a pit guy to actually becoming a racer.

[00:42:39.640] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah. So I had an opportunity last year and I had always wanted to race. Like I said, with the dog stuff, it's you give me an opportunity to compete, and I'm going to compete. My dad's the same way. He raced sailboats. He has a race boat right now in the Bay, but he previously had a big sailboat that was in the East Coast for some time. So always had the... The competition bug is definitely in the family. And got into... Had an It was an opportunity to get into a car. It started with the last year's Baja trip. When we were down there, it was racing the Bronco DR. I'm in the truck with Jason Sheer, met him up in trucky, we're driving down, and I talked to him like, Man, I really want to get racing. At the time, my first Jeep, I had completely torn it down and was building it to go racing. That's where my mind was, was trying to get this thing. I wanted to go race Jeep speed just to get experience, something entry-level. We're going down and the conversation comes up and you start talking about it. I tell him like, Yeah, the Jeep was running and driving at the point I was getting it ready, and I wanted to do some Jeep speed races this year with it.

[00:44:03.320] - Matthew Slyngstad

He just looked at me and he shook his head. He's like, Just get into ultra four. Just get a car, get into ultra four. Then we started talking and started poking around some 4,800 cars. He gave me the face of, If you buy a car, you can come into the pit and race with ultra four. Or sorry, with Rage 4. I sat there. This was the start of the trip. I'm sitting there just Uh-oh. All right, I need to start figuring some stuff out. I just got the opportunity of a lifetime, so I think I need to jump on this. Found a car I was looking originally for a bomber chassis, and I had a budget in mind, and it seemed like the bomber chassis were definitely the used price for them because I was looking for a used car because this was also November. This was Baha'1,000 time. He said, You get a car, you can come race at King of the Hammers. It's like, I'm buying a used car. There's no other option. I was first interested in a bomber, and then I came across Steve's Graphs old car, which is a Steel Nuts chassis, and did a little bit of research and digging into it and went, This thing's actually pretty well set up.

[00:45:19.700] - Matthew Slyngstad

It looks light. It looks like exactly how I'd want a car to be built. We went down Thanksgiving weekend with a cashier's check in hand and went down without a trailer, too. I drove down. I had two different deals going. He's out in Arizona and went and found another guy with the trailer because I was like, I don't feel like driving to Arizona with the trailer empty and then having to come back and come all the way back up with it. I'm like, If the deal falls through, I'd like to be able to back out of the trailer deal. I was trying to play it smart. It was holiday weekend and I didn't want a trailer buying. I understand. I was like, All right, we go down, stop by PCI on the way down, pick up some of the racing gear and stuff. It was just ahead of schedule, so just killed some time there. Jack was with me. We get into Arizona that night. A buddy flew in because he was bored and just said, Hey, what are you guys doing? I'm like, Well, we're in Arizona, I can buy a race car. He's like, All right, I'm going to catch a flight.

[00:46:27.060] - Matthew Slyngstad

I'll be there soon. I was like, Oh, okay. Those are the friends that I have around me where it's random stuff like that just comes up and happens. We pick him up. No, he got an Uber to the hotel, meet at the hotel, pick him up, go pick up the trailer the night before he get in the race car and get down, pick up the race car, and went through it. Was like, All right. This seems like a good car. Starts up right on the start, drove it around his neighborhood and paid the cash, gone in the truck, and go. At this point, it's Saturday, and we're trying to make it to Hammers to go out and test the car because it was like, I want to at least get some seat time in it before I go all the way home and prep it for King of the Hammers. Yeah, had a bit of adventure with the trailer, lost all the studs right in... Why am I drawing a blank? Where all the golf courses are there right before What is that place? Southern California.

[00:47:33.560] - Big Rich Klein

Palm Springs?

[00:47:34.980] - Matthew Slyngstad

Palm Springs, yeah. I had Palmdale in my head, and I'm like, I know it's on Palmdale. But yeah, Palm Springs. Right in Palm Springs, had all the shears come off, one of the wheels and tires, or all the lugs come off one of the wheels and tires and just sheared them right as we're driving down the highway doing 70 with the trailer. The trailer's big. It's 34 feet and it's extra height, so it's 8 feet tall on the... Or no, eight It's really tall on the inside. When that thing starts swaying, it catches air and it'll drive the truck. We're like, All right, sit on the highway. It's Saturday on a holiday weekend. The trailer, it We just couldn't find parts anywhere. We found, I think it was like 91 Honda, some Honda lug studs from... I think they went to Autozone and found that they were about the same match as what was in the trailer and replaced studs on the side of the highway and kept driving. Nice. That was a little two-hour detour in the middle of Palm Springs. Then we caught a hotel in 29 Palms. Then Sunday morning, we finally get out, tested the car.

[00:48:55.840] - Matthew Slyngstad

That first test drive, I remember sitting there taking this car out and going like, Oh, my God, I can't believe this is mine now. I don't know. I'm committed at this point. So I'm driving the car.

[00:49:07.080] - Big Rich Klein

I think when you were committed is when you drove to Arizona to go buy the car. Yeah, that. Realization hit while you were in the car.

[00:49:15.220] - Matthew Slyngstad

I was driving a lot and it was holiday traffic. So my mind was like... Like I said, my mind, I'd like to get from just whatever the next task is, just get done. But when we unloaded the car and I got the gear I sat in that car was a moment when it was like, there's no goal to this. There's just learn the car and get comfortable in it and make sure it still runs and drives. It's not like, Oh, we need to get here, finish this task and get to the next thing. When I operate like that, my mind just... I'm just looking at getting done. But when I strapped into the car, that was that time where I just all of a sudden went, Oh, my God. I have nothing. I'm just driving the car at this point. We went out and did one first lap just to get heat in the car and try and get a feel for it and went, Oh, this thing's quick. It had a... Oh, God. What was it? It was a 429 LS and supposedly with 700 horsepower and all that stuff. It was big motor and big power out of it.

[00:50:22.600] - Matthew Slyngstad

Again, didn't really have any experience with anything like that. I was just like, All right. Yeah, this is something all right. Drove it around a little bit. Other buddy hopped in, which Jack was with me. He hopped in and he got a little drawing sketch from Sheer as far as like, Take it on these. This is a good easy area. You guys shouldn't get stuck or lost or should be fine. This is an easy enough course. He gave me what course to drive. We did that drive. The entire time, I'm just sitting in the car like, Man, this is... I was driving the car and I'm just like, Man, this isn't really that bad. Getting it through the rocks and getting it through stuff. I was like, Yeah, this is pretty... This seems fun. I'm not as stressed. I wasn't as worried as much anymore. Got the car back, tore it down. Being on the sheer level racing and you get someone else's car and you realize, Okay, there's two different levels of prep and stuff that goes into a car. It was getting that car on level what I'm so used to doing this year.

[00:51:32.550] - Matthew Slyngstad

It's like you feel something and it's like if that heme feels too easy to move, you swap it. It was just going through the car with all the little nuts and bolts and fixing up some wiring and all the stuff, and got it to a point where I was like, All right, I think this will hold. Because in my head, it's always been it has to be a perfect prep. You have to cross all your teeth, dot all your eyes, check every bolt twice, mark all your bolts, and all this stuff. Otherwise, the car is going to come apart halfway through the race. That was always my mindset working on Cher's car. So as I going into that car with that mindset, it was realizing- But you were Less than two months away from KOH. Yeah. At this point, I'm still no sponsors. At this point, she was helping me out with, Here's who to call. That was the extent of help with sponsorships I got. Was like, Here is who to reach out to about a sponsorship. This is on you. It helped out. I got a couple on my own. Vision Wheel was able to step up and helped out quite a bit with some nice billet wheels for the car, which That's a whole different thing that we did with a car that a couple of people were very adamant that I shouldn't have done that.

[00:52:52.570] - Matthew Slyngstad

Then when I did it and actually went out racing or pre-running, I went, Oh, my God, that was the best thing I ever did. But we'll get to That was during hammers. But yeah, it was just prepping the car, getting it ready. I had been involved in it. I just had never been the one to coordinate it all. I'm doing the prep and coordinating all this stuff. It was definitely an experience sitting there. It turned into a second job, making phone calls, making sure parts are on the way, all this stuff, and getting stuff expedited, and swapping out things to higher-end or keeping it simple stuff as much as we could around the car. Because at the end of the day, it's a 4,800 car. My mindset was keep it light and keep it simple. We're trying to do that on a car that it's like, Well, the extent of my experience with this car is a month ago, and I'm learning as I'm tearing into it. But yeah, no, it worked out, and we got it all wrapped up and got out to the Lakebed with it. Amher's week was definitely... When we were here, we were out there two weeks.

[00:54:04.780] - Matthew Slyngstad

We spent the whole first week pre-running and doing the whole course. But it was definitely fun. That car, it was The whole other side of things was like, when you get down there and it's like someone else is in the car that wasn't in the car the first time that has a lot more experience that looks in there and says, Hey, you might want to tweak the suspension a little bit. For us, the way I wanted it to drive, it was like... Each day was different. It was we'd go out for running for the day, make a suspension change, go out the next day, make a suspension change, go out the next day. It's like the car was also just a It was a completely different car every day. I was driving it down there for free running and all that. It was getting it to a point where I was happy. I had to get the shocks rebuilt while I was down there and lost the day of rerunning. But yeah, it was definitely an experience of getting through pre-running and into racing. Because the other thing was, I didn't have time to get the motor rebuilt.

[00:55:07.860] - Matthew Slyngstad

I didn't have time to get the trans rebuilt. Every day I'm waking up going, I really hope the motor and trans holds together today.

[00:55:16.600] - Big Rich Klein

Because, yeah, those are the two big items that can bite you, and you don't really know the history on them.

[00:55:25.100] - Matthew Slyngstad

Because, yeah, I didn't crack anything open, which now, I mean, the car is going through a pretty major rebuild right now, and I'm a lot more familiar with those components at this point. But, yeah, at that time, I pulled the valve cover off to make sure a rocker wasn't broken, but that was my extent with motors. I never really had a big experience or anything with motors until after King of the Hammers more recently. But yeah, it was definitely It was definitely a challenge at points and just mentally of getting out there and learning to drive race pace. It's like going... We went out with Sheer. Sheer's in his 4,400 car. I'm in my 4,800 car. There was days where I would see him when we started, and I'd see him when he was finishing his lunch, when we finally caught up. There were some days where he'd wait for us and get us to catch up and all that stuff. But it was a fun experience with that. But realizing the pace you have to drive it was totally a whole learning curve for me. But it worked out. We were able to make it to the race.

[00:56:41.580] - Matthew Slyngstad

I qualified a little less. We were pre-running the qualifying course the night before qualifying and had a little bit of a, excuse my French, but an oh, shit moment where we went up to the first rock and I hit it just a little wrong. I mean, it's nighttime and the car didn't really have much lights on it, so I just hit it a little wrong and I had the thing wheeling, and I'm just staring up at the stars going, That is not what I want to do during qualifying. I got the car back on all fours and then just took it easy. But when I got out there in the light, I had Jason Berger in the car with me, and I just looked at him and started off all right and got to the rock, and he looked at me and he's like, Why are you driving so slow? I'm like, Dude, I had a scary moment on this rock last night. Can you give me a break. Qualified, I think it was high 30s, which I think today I could probably do a lot better in the car. And once we got through that, it was- Why are you driving so slow?

[00:57:42.120] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah. We had a couple of little hiccups during the rest of the qualifying, but it was one of those things. Actually, one thing I should talk about was the very first pre-running we did was... Sheer didn't go out yet. It was me, it was Berger and I, and we go to a free run, the qualifying course, and he got my car stuck in the most precarious. He's like, Oh, turn left here and get the car like this. I did, and it's like we started teetering. I'm looking at Berger, and he got out of the car, looked at it, and he said, Oh, We're in a bit of a situation, and I just went like, How do you get me into a situation? We've been like, free running for 30 minutes so far. That was a little bit of a funny just thing we ran into. But yeah, that was It was fun. It's fun to look back at it now. It was right at the top, right as you dropped down, and there was a big boulder in the middle. I forget what that section is called, but it was right when you dropped down from the ridge where Hammertown could see you.

[00:58:47.000] - Matthew Slyngstad

But we got in a little situation. The boulder was up higher. We moved the boulder about 6 feet down the hillside, trying to get the car unstuck. But it was one of those funny radio calls where we I told everyone like, Yeah, I would think you guys could see us. And I ended up with six pictures of my car teetering on this Boulder, and I'm just like, Yeah, all right. Sweet.

[00:59:09.260] - Big Rich Klein

Here's the rookie. Yeah.

[00:59:12.980] - Matthew Slyngstad

Well, for me, I mean, it's never me. It's never my fault. It's the co- driver's fault.

[00:59:17.400] - Big Rich Klein

Always the navigator or the spotter. Yep. Yeah. Absolutely. Unless you win, then it's all you.

[00:59:23.460] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, 100 %.

[00:59:24.720] - Big Rich Klein

So let's talk about Race Day then.

[00:59:28.220] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, Race Day. I mean, I'm not kidding when I said I was more nervous for qualifying than Race Day. Race Day, woke up, was nervous, were totally fine. It was like any other morning to me. Had my coffee, got He went out into the car, sat down, and even on the line, was just sitting there relaxed. He wasn't worried about anything, not stressed. It was just one of those weird moments where as I'm sitting there, it dawned on me that qualifying was For some reason, just made me a lot more nervous than race day. Race Day. Race Day, I'm sitting there, I'm joking. I had Jason's brother-in-law, Jess Latton in the car with me for Race Day. And so me and him are just sitting there, joking around, laughing and all that. And I'm just sitting back, relaxed. It was just any other day. But it was...

[01:00:23.130] - Big Rich Klein

When that green flag dropped and you guys were in the drag rates to the jump in the first corner, what went through your mind as you see that flag getting ready to drop?

[01:00:37.020] - Matthew Slyngstad

I told the guy, Go ahead of me. I'm not letting you jump over me. And I did not let him jump in front. I did not let him jump over me. Smart. Our mindset was just, Let's just get finished. The qualifying wasn't the best. For me, it was, All right, just get out there, race, and just finish. That was the mindset I had. That mindset did not last long. We got through the gap jump. We get up to the Bronco arch, and I lose comms with my co- driver.

[01:01:11.400] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, nice.

[01:01:12.440] - Matthew Slyngstad

30 seconds into the race, I lose comms with my co- driver. I didn't know the severity of it. It was my helmet wire came unplugged from the intercom. I'm sitting there. Keep in mind, we had been rerunning the whole week. Absolutely no problems with it. Never even thought that was going to be a problem. Of course, it happens on race day. I lose comms that time. It was just one of those moments where I sat there and just said, Well, I'm just going to drive what I can see. I don't have call out. I don't have anything. I'm sure he'll hit me when if I start coming up to do something stupid and all that. We get through the first section and start making our way out in the desert. That was where it was a bit more... It was weird me because I'd always had comms, the entire free running. All of a sudden, racing, now I don't have comms, and I'm just...

[01:02:06.060] - Big Rich Klein

You feel like you're winging it?

[01:02:08.600] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, I'm winging it, but that's when I realized how fast the car actually is, too. We got out into the desert, and I'm driving where I'm comfortable. I'm not pushing the car because I don't have comms. I don't have call-outs. In my head, it's like I'm driving what I can see and where I'm 100% comfortable in the car. We are passing people quite quickly. The car does 80, 90 miles an hour with one hand on it on the steering wheel comfortably in a 4,800 car. I'm sitting in the car and we're cruising down, and I'm just sitting there just watching obstacles, doing the lines. He's hitting me when I need to go hit the checkpoints and all that stuff and point for me to make sure we're crossing all the stuff and point out other lines to get past people. But we We were cruising, and that first lap went really, really well for us. Well, not the whole lap, about seven-eights of it.

[01:03:08.480] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. What happened in the other eight?

[01:03:11.220] - Matthew Slyngstad

I would say three quarters of it. See, the problem is I don't know the whole area the best. I don't know all the names of everything, but we get through the military base. We're coming up towards Pit Two, and we're in the sand wash. I think it's It's after shock, I think at the bottom where it's a big sand wash and there's big boulders all around. We go and I pass a guy coming up into the sand wash, left-hand turn, blind corner. I'm sitting having the time of my life because I'm just like, Man, I'm just passing everyone out here. This is so much fun. I come around this blind corner, passing this guy going sideways. I have the car pinned. As we come around the corner, I go, Oh, there's a giant boulder right there. I tried doing anything to get the car to rotate back over, but it's just stuck in the sandy silt stuff, and I can't get the car to slow down or anything. I'm just sliding through it. We smacked the rear of the car against the Boulder and broken up her control arm in the rear. Got it to limp back to Pit 2 with the drive shaft turned into the fourth link, but it held together.

[01:04:25.140] - Matthew Slyngstad

Get to Pit 2, we got a drive shaft in it, found out shears upper links are the exact same length as my car, so we were able to swap an upper link right there, get back into the car, fix the comms issue. I mean, we were there. It wasn't a quick pit. We were there for 45 minutes waiting for parts from name pit. Got the comms fixed patched. Yeah, get the comms patched back up. My co- driver comes up to me and he goes, Hey, you know where we were sitting when that happened, right? I'm like, No, no one's told me anything. I was It put me in a mood. I'm just standing off in the corner pouting and just pissed off. I can't believe I did that. I can't believe that happened. I can't believe comms went out and I couldn't hear any callouts or anything from anyone. I'm just annoyed at this point and just upset with the circumstance. He comes up to me, he's like, Dude, we were sitting fifth on corrected. I don't think that had the same intention as what he meant because that just made me even more pissed off.

[01:05:28.640] - Matthew Slyngstad

Because I went, Are you We were fifth uncorrected after all that? It was just one of those things where I was just like, Oh, that just hurts. The car is just that fast, though. We're making a lot of changes to the car right now where we're expecting it to get hopefully even better in the desert and rock crawling, too. But yeah, that was just... That's a moment I look back on where everyone has that story of everything was going so good. I was going to win the race, and then it wasn't. Something just had to happen. It's All right. Well, my first race, I'm going to have a story like that now, too.

[01:06:03.080] - Big Rich Klein

So I got one for you. We were doing a race in Texas at Hidden Falls, and the beginning of the race, I'm flagging people on the start. They're going out. And an hour, two hours later, this guy comes up and goes, Hey, I'm broken out there. But, man, I was moving fast. I was winning. And I said, Well, where are you broken? He goes, At the first turn. So there's a straight away that goes like three quarters of a mile, and then it was a hard turn and down this hill. And he broke on the turn and just got down part of the hill. And I was like, Yep, you were winning.

[01:06:52.840] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah.

[01:06:54.200] - Big Rich Klein

That's that old saying, Yeah, I was winning. I was in first place until I broke.

[01:07:00.000] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah.

[01:07:00.720] - Big Rich Klein

So did you finish the race?

[01:07:04.500] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yes, we did get to finish the race. Definitely had a much different pace in the car after that. The rear link went in and the rear did not get aligned, so we had a little bit of a crab walk going on with the car. Still felt stable. We're still able to do 60, 70 in it, but get through the rest of lap one, go out to lap two, and get out in the desert again. We're taking it easier and slower, and we're just sitting there like, All right, just take it slower and take it a little bit more easy. The thing about the car is it's just still passing people. We're still doing 60, 70 with this car that's slightly crab walking. It turned really well to the right. We get into the rocks, and that's when the car shined to me because I had... Pre-running in the rocks, I was trying to take it a little bit easier on the car. One of the big changes, one thing I brought it up earlier, But one of the big things we did was we put positive offset wheels on it. We actually made the car super narrow.

[01:08:08.200] - Matthew Slyngstad

I found out in pre-running that I was able to take completely different lines than everybody else. Because I went out You're running with some other 4,800 guys, and they're like, You won't fit through that. My car just literally was driving between boulders. It's like the guy that has the old-school CJ5 and goes out on the trail, and you see him doing stuff, and you're like, Oh, man, I'm too white for that. The new and all that can't go the same route as the CJ5. I felt like the CJ5 guy. I was able to hit rocks and fit between stuff and take lines that were different than a lot of other people because I was so narrow. The car felt stable still everywhere else.

[01:08:45.220] - Big Rich Klein

That's great.

[01:08:46.700] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, it was one of those changes. It was funny because it was the only wheels vision had available. That's why I did it.

[01:08:53.800] - Big Rich Klein

So it wasn't planned. It just was how it happened to work out.

[01:08:59.540] - Matthew Slyngstad

It was Yeah, it was like, Hey, can you make these work? I went, I think so. Did some measurements on the car and went, Yeah, I think we can, and then put it on. Everyone's like, Oh, you shouldn't have done that. Went out pre-runing, and I'm like, I don't know. It's pretty good on the rocks. Then pre-run the desert with them and went, I think this is going to work.

[01:09:15.780] - Big Rich Klein

So you're sticking with them?

[01:09:19.260] - Matthew Slyngstad

For King of the Hammers, yes. I think we did a short course race afterwards, and I think I want to try and get some wider wheels on it for the short course stuff. It gets a little bit more tipsy. I had a little summer salt when I was out at Prairie City earlier this year. Landed on all four. Still finished fourth, but had one little incident on that one. But yeah, so the car, we get into the rocks with it, and the car is just eating everything. Because I'm at race pace now, I'm like, Okay, this is where the car actually wants to be driven in the rocks. It's so much faster, and I'm having such an easier time getting through stuff. It was one of those things where it was just quick. The We went through the first section off-ramp, went up through the sand wash, no problems, did that whole ridge line drop down. I know a lot of people were concerned with Jack, and that was actually one of the funny things. We only had to winch twice at Jack, and it was at the bottom of the trail because there was a minefield of broken cars out there, and I was having to winch I get my car position to go around him, taking all these lines.

[01:10:33.900] - Matthew Slyngstad

We were able to hit the waterfall. I think I had to back up once. It was a second shot on the waterfall, made it up without winching. I was out at Prairie City, and when I was telling people that, and they're like, Well, you had to winch the waterfall, didn't you? I was like, No, I didn't. They're like, Oh, BS. You're just BSing us. I have a video of it. They all went like, Oh, wow. You really did it. I was like, No, the car just went right up the waterfall all that Jack. I just had to give it a little bit more beans than the first attempt. But yeah, went right up it and heard the whole crowd cheering and all that in the video. At the time, I was like, What did I do? Would I do something cool? I just drive in my car on the rock right now.

[01:11:17.400] - Big Rich Klein

That's awesome.

[01:11:20.040] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, I got through the rest of it. We run a bottle on our locker, and I think the bottle ended up getting a leak or something, or one of the seals went out. So we lost our locker, had to wait for a bottle to get swapped out. So that was like another half hour waiting for main pit to get that out there and then getting to the The backsides were in, what was it, outer limits and Spooners. That was the last big holdup is turn the corner right where there's one of the rock, what were they calling them, the Rock Racer checkpoints or the Rock checkpoints or something like But turned the corner to two cars just absolutely stuck together right where the only line through this obstacle is and sat there and had a moment of back and forth with the co-driving. Well, do we take the penalty and just drive around? We're like, Yeah, we'll hang out and help them out get unstuck. I ended up, I think I took a 10-minute nap by accident because I was just sitting there and the car driver said, You just stay in the car, just stay strapped up.

[01:12:26.760] - Matthew Slyngstad

I sat there and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep for 10 minutes. But we were there, got stuck there for like 45 minutes. Everyone else behind us was just sitting to bypass at this point, but got the two cars unstuck and then was able to finish. I think we did 18th in class still.

[01:12:45.000] - Big Rich Klein

Very good.

[01:12:45.780] - Matthew Slyngstad

Afterwards. But yeah, it was eight and a half hours in the car, eight hours in the car. It was one of those things. I feel bad sometimes still. I think about it and feel bad because at the The end of the race, my co- driver was just... Jess was just happy and all excited. We're coming up into the short course, and he's hitting me. He's like, Dude, isn't this awesome? She's so happy. I looked at him, I'm like, I want to get the hell out of this car. I'm done. I'm ready to go to bed. It was fun looking back on it, but it was in that moment. I was just like, Oh, my God, I see the finish I'm having done. This thing. And get finished on the 18th. It was learn some stuff and things we wanted to change on the car. Next day, he was back with Sheer and his staff and was in main pit helping him out there, which that turned into a long night because he had broken up in the hill and I conveniently had a car that could easily get up to him because my car was still running and driving after all that.

[01:13:51.210] - Matthew Slyngstad

So we, sure got broken up there. We ended up strapping a tool bag to the back of the race car and driving it up there to go help him try and get the car back together. Yeah. And that was a long night.

[01:14:03.940] - Big Rich Klein

Well, cool. So then you're going to race, I guess, again, this next KOH?

[01:14:13.780] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah, that's the current plan. The car is with get bent fab. We had a little bit of a redesign in the rear suspension, so we're getting some stuff changed there. Shooting for like 150 pounds of weight loss in the car, too. We found some stuff to shed some weight with and simplify. That's the goal with the whole car is just simplify it and try and lose weight. I'm doing the good old Jason Sheer LS7 package, the same motor that he won all his hammers with. We got that going into the car as well, which I'm excited for because I think the formula that he had figured out with those engines should really work well, especially in a lighter car like the 40. I think when the car is done, it's going to be pretty light is the goal for it.

[01:15:07.260] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. What other plans you got coming up? Anything you want to divulge?

[01:15:16.860] - Matthew Slyngstad

Lately, it's been work, work, work. I have projects all throughout the Bay and just trying to stay busy with that. The new house move in has been the whole fun, exciting It's one of those things where I'm happy the car is with someone else because it's getting the attention and care it deserves because with everything else I have going on right now, it's just been absolute craziness. Part of that is also I bought an old-school Jeepster, a '72 Jeepster that I had planned to fix up and bought some crate axles, just staying a '44, '64, and started it. It's been sitting for about a month now just sitting collecting dust. And it's like, I need to get that thing finished at some point. But it's all coming together. It's just time.

[01:16:08.280] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Just time. Just time. Well, Matthew, I want to say thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and talking about your life and your experiences and what you've got coming up. And I think it's great that your first time out, your rookie year, and you finish the race. That's the goal for some people just to finish. And it takes a lot, sometimes a lot of years to finish. I know guys that have gone out and refinanced their house twice to be able to race and have never finished. So congratulations on that.

[01:16:48.740] - Matthew Slyngstad

Thank you very much. Yeah, there's a lot of work. I mean, and honestly, it's one of those things where I can't praise the guys, the crew guys, the team around me enough. I mean, everyone That has been a part of Rage 4 and helps me out. Those guys have been the backbone to everything that we do, from helping work on the car to prep it to all that stuff. I was one of those guys with Sheer, and now it's like I get a look back and go, Yeah, it's so hard to make a program like that come together without that crew behind you. True. And those guys deserve all the praise. I'm just some rock donkey in a car, strapped in just trying to win it. But If anyone deserves the praise, it's all the guys on the crew.

[01:17:33.640] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. Well, Matthew, thank you so much. And I'll let you know we're going to air this. And it was great to get to know you.

[01:17:41.560] - Matthew Slyngstad

Yeah. Thank you very much.

[01:17:43.260] - Big Rich Klein

All right. You have a great evening, and I'll talk to you later.

[01:17:47.580] - Matthew Slyngstad

All right. Sounds good.

[01:17:48.560] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Thank you. 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.