The Flying Dutchman provides a masterclass in off-road on Episode 299

Big Rich sits down with ORMHOF inductee Dan VandenHeuvel—aka the Flying Dutchman—for a life-in-off-road masterclass spanning 40+ years of racing, building, promoting, and giving back.

Listen in for the these highlights:

·       First Crandon experience and the DIY beginnings

·       The legendary first race

·       Evolution of safety and tech

·       The rise and reshuffling of Midwest short course: SODA, CORR, World Series, TORC, and Lucas Oil 

·       Promoting events in Oshkosh and Antigo, and the hard realities of venues, neighbors, and budgets 

·       The power of volunteers and community glue at tracks like Crandon 

·       and MORE!!

If you enjoy stories of grit, ingenuity, and heart, this one’s a keeper. 

Transcript

[00:00:05.100] 

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.

[00:00:46.460] 

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.

[00:01:11.940] - Big Rich Klein

On today's episode of Conversations with Big Rich, I have none other than the Flying Dutchman. That's right, Dan Van der Heuvel. Dan Van Den Heuvel. Okay, help me out, Dan. I can say it I'm not reading it.

[00:01:31.460] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah, it's VanDen Heuvel. Okay. It's a try spelling it in kindergarten.

[00:01:38.360] - Big Rich Klein

Heck, I was having a hard time spelling it yesterday. So anyway, Dan, it's so good to have you on the podcast. I'm really looking forward to this one. We first met a few, oh, back in 17 or 18, when we were both working at or putting on races out at Crandon. And I just wanted to say that you were a pleasure to work with that weekend. And it was good to see you again at Ormhoff. So we'll get into all of that. So thank you for coming on board.

[00:02:13.060] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Absolutely.

[00:02:14.520] - Big Rich Klein

So the first question I ask everybody, and it's the easiest for me to ask, and typically the easiest for everybody to answer, is where were you born and raised?

[00:02:24.520] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Right, where I still live in Appleton, Wisconsin.

[00:02:27.660] - Big Rich Klein

Wow, okay. And has it grown much from when you were originally, what you remember?

[00:02:39.160] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Oh, absolutely. We're so big, we have an interstate going through, which back in the day in the '70s was just a two-lane highway coming north from Milwaukee. And now it's a four-lane interstate. Not quite like California, 8 and 10 lanes, but we got an actual interstate. But for me going north, so from me to Crandon, which is only 100 miles away, it's still two-lane, podunk roads.

[00:03:19.120] - Big Rich Klein

That's okay, though. Absolutely. That's what makes it what it is. Not everything has to change.

[00:03:23.840] - Dan VandenHeuvel

You're right.

[00:03:25.360] - Big Rich Klein

So let's talk about those early years. Did you Did you grow up on a farm? I know that's a fairly heavy farming area in Wisconsin.

[00:03:36.080] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yep, there's quite a few farms. I didn't. I grew up in the city. Okay. Hating life because you're in the city.

[00:03:44.040] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:03:44.820] - Dan VandenHeuvel

And my dad passed away when I was 13, so I had to get a job. My first job was on a farm.

[00:03:53.700] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:03:54.820] - Dan VandenHeuvel

And I was never so happy to leave that because those guys know how to work. Man, that is unbelievable work. And I did that for a summer and never wanted to work. I mean, there's working hard and there's farming. Farmers, they're the hardest working people on Earth.

[00:04:13.460] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Yeah. You know, I'm always amazed when I look back on history and what our forefathers did to get us to where we're at today. And they were, There's very few jobs that still carry that work, and work ethic, and hard work. And farming and ranching are two of those that I really believe do.

[00:04:44.220] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah, it is unbelievable. Seven days a week, 12 hour days, and you still don't catch up. Right.

[00:04:51.280] - Big Rich Klein

And so how were you as a student in school?

[00:04:56.600] - Dan VandenHeuvel

I would say barely passing. And for the reason, once my dad passed away, so I was 13, I had to get a full-time job because we still had seven kids living at home. Seven kids? Wow. Yeah. And I was the middle. So my younger sisters didn't have to. Me, my brother and older sisters had to get a job and help out. So from 13 on, I'd go to school from 7: 00 in the morning till noon, walk to work, took me a half hour, and then work an eight-hour shift every day, and plus Saturday. So six days a week, ever since then. Wow.

[00:05:44.400] - Big Rich Klein

That's amazing. And what work did... The first year you did farming?

[00:05:50.580] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah, first year I farmed. Then my uncle called, wanted to know if I wanted a job in his mattress factory. So it's just a mom and pop mattress store where they made them in-house, sold them, and delivered them. So did everything. And I was the happiest person on earth when he called and offered me a job.

[00:06:13.260] - Big Rich Klein

So working in a mattress factory, was it easy to nap on the job?

[00:06:20.020] - Dan VandenHeuvel

No, never. Never.

[00:06:22.680] - Big Rich Klein

Especially when you see all those beds there, huh?

[00:06:25.160] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah. You know, same thing. Work like most people. Work 50 plus hours a week. The only thing, I had to start much earlier than most, that's all.

[00:06:37.340] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And so, were you still able to graduate graduate? Were you still able to graduate graduate? Or did you leave early?

[00:06:47.260] - Dan VandenHeuvel

My thought was that I was going to leave early. When I sat down with, back then, your teacher, your guidance counselor, and the principal. And I'm like, Hey, this is the way it is. Either you work around my schedule or I'm leaving right now. And they're like, Well, we can't do that. It's not like you're special. So I said, Okay, then I'm out of here. And before I got to the door, the guidance counselor said, All right, come back. So we negotiated. So from 7: 00 to noon, that was my schedule. And again, at that time, I was more concerned with making money than books. And I wasn't the smartest student with books, but you get me into a shop class or woods class, anything like that, and I'll look so farther than anybody else. But just the book part of it. Yep, no, thank you.

[00:07:54.000] - Big Rich Klein

Got it. And so how long did you work in the mattress factory for your uncle?

[00:08:00.740] - Dan VandenHeuvel

29 and a half years.

[00:08:02.440] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, wow.

[00:08:04.000] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah. I was there forever. When my aunt and uncle owned it, they treated us great. We didn't get paid much of anything, but at the end of the year, if they did good, we did good. They always gave you a year-end bonus. So I stayed there and stayed for too long.

[00:08:30.000] - Big Rich Klein

But it must have been something that was enjoyable, or was it just what you needed to do?

[00:08:35.940] - Dan VandenHeuvel

It was just a job better than a lot of my buddies I grew up with. They were in Mills, just hate in life, where every day was different. Either in the mornings, we would make all the mattresses, and afternoons, we'd deliver them. Then nights and weekends, we're on the sales floor selling. So you're always doing something different. I worked with my cousins for years, and my cousins are the ones that introduced me to my first Crandon. So without working there and without them, I never would have never would have started racing.

[00:09:17.220] - Big Rich Klein

And talk about that first Crandon trip and how that worked out.

[00:09:23.640] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah, it was pretty early, and we talked about this earlier, and I couldn't remember But I know I got on my cousin's... Back then it was a 400 Honda Matic motorcycle, so you didn't have to shift it, you just twisted the throttle. And he had a 750 Honda, and my other cousin had a 650. And we just got together and he said, Let's go to Crandon. I went, All right. Had no idea where Crandon was, didn't even know what direction it was. But I followed them up there and we're watching this race, and I'm going, Unbelievable. This is the craziest thing I've ever seen. The vehicles, they're nothing like they are now. Most of them were just... It looked like a rolling swing set. Just a bunch of tubes A lot of them welded on a pickup that once was rolled over, so they ripped the body off. But it's some roll cage on, two seats, and there's a motor sitting in front of them. Not like there's a firewall or anything, just a motor going There were a lot of dune buggies and a lot of... Like the Class XI bugs, there's... Jeez, maybe 50 of those.

[00:10:41.040] - Dan VandenHeuvel

It was quite a collection of everything Then guys that thought they could build the biggest, most badass four-wheel drive with 42-inch tires, they'd try racing and they'd end up bouncing right off the course. But it To me, it was the coolest thing I ever saw. I went, I'm going to do this someday. I'm going to build a vehicle, but making two bucks an hour and trying to help out at home, and trying to support yourself, and try to build a race vehicle was tough back then.

[00:11:21.620] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And so how did you get started in building? Was it, and putting things together, fabricating, basically? Was that... Did you have shop classes in school?

[00:11:37.040] - Dan VandenHeuvel

I did. It was auto mechanics, but not welding, not fab, anything like that. And I didn't know a thing about it. But a neighbor had a '68 Plymouth Ferry III four-door with a 318 and automatic, and he was going to bring it to the junk backyard. And back then you'd get 35 bucks for it. So I offered them 35 bucks. And I bought my first race car, and we chopped it apart. I went to the store and bought a four-inch Makita grinder. And that grinder cut everything off that car and did all the fab work for building this first car. And found a welder Found a Lincoln welder in the local paper for a hundred bucks. And back then it was just a stick welder. And a buddy of mine helped me and we junk-picked a big long cord so I could run this cord from my driveway in through the house, pulled my mom's stove out, shoved the wires in, taped them in. We didn't have money to go buy a plug. So we just stuck these wires in and then would weld all day long. And unbeknownst to me, that wire wasn't heavy enough wire.

[00:13:10.150] - Dan VandenHeuvel

So when I went to pull it up, it melted in the linoleum floor, one end of the kitchen to the other. Oh, wow. Yeah. My mom was not real happy when she got home. And I think it took me about 10 years to earn enough money to replace her kitchen floor.

[00:13:30.220] - Big Rich Klein

And every time you walked into the kitchen, she reminded you.

[00:13:33.960] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Oh, yeah. She had these throw rugs everywhere. Well, now they're all lined in a straight rope to cover up that burn mark. And it wasn't just to burn it. It was melted right down to the plywood. So it got a little warm. So we learned a lot that summer.

[00:13:54.080] - Big Rich Klein

And you're lucky you didn't burn her house down.

[00:13:56.920] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Oh, absolutely. And just the amount of stuff we do out in that shop, didn't know how to weld, but you buy a welder, you buy some rod, and you figure it out. And how do you notch tubing? Well, not with all the fancy notches we have out in the shop. No, you take a grinder and just start chiseling away at it. And if you got to throw a half-inch bolt in there to fill that hole, you do it. It's not anything like it is today.

[00:14:27.980] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And I would imagine tech inspection was a lot easier.

[00:14:33.920] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah. My first year, they still had it because I remember the tech guy climbed right in the back. He's standing on top of, I had a Volkswagen gas tank bolted to the back seat floor, and he's standing on it, and gas starts coming off the vent tube because I had it full. And this fellow weighed a little too much. And he's like, What's going on here? I go, You're too fat, buddy. Get off the gas tank. But, yeah, they looked at it and they deemed it was safe enough. And I think back then, anybody who showed up with anything, they're going to make a spot for you.

[00:15:13.400] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I like the term safe enough.

[00:15:17.540] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah.

[00:15:18.080] - Big Rich Klein

A lot of people don't realize the first couple of years of King of the Hammers. I did tech out there, and my guidance from the promoters was, We don't want anybody to go home, but we want people to be as safe as possible. So do whatever you have to do to allow them to pass.

[00:15:42.040] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah.

[00:15:42.660] - Big Rich Klein

Whatever suggestions. And then they started racing with best in the desert and had to get real.

[00:15:49.620] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah. Had to get... Yeah. Oh, yeah. Evolution of safety has come so far. And for a reason.

[00:15:58.660] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:16:00.860] - Dan VandenHeuvel

My first one, they said you had to have the lap belt and two shoulder belts. So mine were three separate seatbelts because back then you only had lap belts. I went to the junk yard and got the lap belt that was in the car, and then I got two more lap belts. So to get out, I had to push three buttons to get out. So they try to make them you safe, but boy, if something bad happens, it's going to take you three runs as long as you know.

[00:16:31.200] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And trying to find those buttons when you're upside down and on fire. That's because of that leaky gas tank somebody standing on.

[00:16:39.440] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Right. And I think because of a lot of guys like me, that's where a lot of this safety equipment came from. And now when I last raced, I said, this is like cheating. You don't bounce around, you don't move, you stay put, you're in a containment seat. It's It's so much easier on your body than it used to be.

[00:17:03.500] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Yeah. And that's all forms of racing, too. I mean, guys used to race Nascar at 200 miles an hour with open face helmets and a cigarette.

[00:17:16.800] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah, exactly. So it's not just off road because we're the guys crazy enough to fly in the air and go over jumps. It's, like you said, all forms of racing, from Monster trucks to NASCAR to every circle track, which is good because after a couple of broken necks that I had, these young guys don't need that.

[00:17:45.040] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So let's talk about that very first race you were in. You're working on that old Plymouth Furry 3, right? Yeah. And you get it done. You head out to the racetrack. And what was it like?

[00:18:02.860] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Well, heading there was an experience because it's not like we had a trailer, so we flat-toed it with a logging chain. So we had a 20-foot logging chain going down these highways. It's not lightning speed, but it's 55 miles an hour, and you're being pulled by a chain. And then, of course, it's after work Friday night and raining.

[00:18:32.180] - Big Rich Klein

And you're on a 20-foot chain for 100 miles at 55 miles an hour.

[00:18:38.980] - Dan VandenHeuvel

And several little towns along the way, and halfway, I finally had to stop, had to get in the Blazer that's towing me and get my helmet with a face shield on, because when that rain is hitting me in the face at 55, we didn't have a windshield in it. So that It wasn't fun getting there. But we got there and the next day show up at the track and we're pulling in. And first thing somebody goes, Hey, you had to ruin your transmission. You can't just tow an automatic on the ground. I'm like, Well, why not? And while they try to tell me how an automatic transmission works, I could care less. If it starts up, put it in gear and moves, Hey, I'm good. And it did. It worked fine. And back then we could have co-writers. So my buddy Chris and I were going to go race our first race. And then that year, it was still the 101 miles, but it's 10 laps or 4 hours, whichever comes first. So we're in a group of vehicles. Anything with the motor in front of the driver, that's what you're categorized as. From four wheel drives to the Class 8s to, yeah, anything with the motor in front, away you go.

[00:20:10.220] - Big Rich Klein

And this was more like the woods race, right?

[00:20:15.000] - Dan VandenHeuvel

This one, it did go through the woods. It wasn't the first 25-mile loop, but it was 10. 1-mile loop. But when they built that, and Cliff Lanner was telling me a few weeks ago that he took his dad's bulldozer, aimed it through the woods, and he says he never saw so many rocks and stumps ever. He's like, No one's going to make it through one lap. And surprising. I mean, we weren't going 50 miles an hour like we are nowadays. They had some field sections that you could open it up and get going. But when you're in the woods, I'm not kidding, it's 25 miles an hour or less because it was extremely rough.

[00:21:02.340] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:21:04.080] - Dan VandenHeuvel

I remember halfway we had to stop and fill up because we had no idea. There's no gas gage. It's just a Volkswagen tank. Who knows how long that's going to last. So we stopped and my crew of one are pouring a fuel in for me. And I'm like, I've been out there over two hours. I'm starving. So I made a sandwich before I got back in. So it's a little more relaxed than it is now. And about three-fourths of the way through, the motor mount broke and the motor moved back. And on a 318 Dodge, the distributor is at the back. So the motor moved far enough, hit the distributor cap and broke the rotor. And I hand my buddy Chris a rock. I said, You fix that firewall, I'll go find a rotor. So I was in sight of the parking lot where all the spectators parked. And back then, to open a hood, you didn't have to get in the car. So I'm opening every hood of every Dodge there was out there. And I came across a Dodge pickup with a 318, and I unclipped his cap, took the rotor off. I left the hood open so the guy would know somebody is screwing with his truck, ran back, put it on the car, and we finished the race.

[00:22:36.400] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Out of all these people in our class, which was Class 13 back then, front engine buggy, I was the second one to finish. It took me all four hours to finish nine laps. Joe Hultz, who beat me, a Crandon local, he did all 10 laps in three hours. It took me all four hours to do nine laps, but there was nobody else who finished. Just the two of us.

[00:23:08.400] - Big Rich Klein

And how much time did you take getting the rotor and then also making the sandwich?

[00:23:16.260] - Dan VandenHeuvel

The sandwich wasn't long. I had that done before they had it filled up. But the rotor, boy, because I had to run quite a ways and come back, I'll bet you it was at least 45 minutes that we were down trying to get that thing going again. And then after that, I couldn't go very fast because the motor is just going to move again and break it. So it probably cost me at least an hour doing that. But once we crossed the checkered flag, I drove right into the parking lot and pulled the rotor off and put it back on this guy's truck and shut his hood. And he was never the wiser.

[00:23:57.500] - Big Rich Klein

Never the wiser.

[00:24:00.000] - Dan VandenHeuvel

He doesn't even know. He helped me finish my first race.

[00:24:03.160] - Big Rich Klein

That's awesome. That's awesome.

[00:24:06.840] - Dan VandenHeuvel

And then we hung out for the rest of the weekend. And back then, they paid you at the track before you went home.

[00:24:17.260] - Big Rich Klein

Which is good.

[00:24:18.860] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Which is great because we needed the money to get home. But back then, I bought that car for 35 bucks, and I think I won $280 somewhere I have that check in a frame here. And my thought back then was, Oh, my God, you can win this much money racing? I'm going to race. And who knew? It doesn't always work that way.

[00:24:45.000] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, you got spoiled on that first race.

[00:24:47.500] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yup, that was a whole bunch of work. But never even crossed our minds, boy, if I hit a rock and ripped a AR arm or something off or rip the rear axel out. How would I get this car? It will never even cross their mind because, again, we got our 20 foot logging chain and away we go.

[00:25:12.900] - Big Rich Klein

So how many years did it take to get a trailer?

[00:25:16.800] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Oh, boy, it was probably three or four years because we kept towing that thing around for quite a while. On the chain? Yeah, on the chain. Even my next one, we kept towing. And every time get to a track. Somebody come up and explain these automatic transmissions, and you can't do that. And I'm like, buddy, I've been doing it forever.

[00:25:40.560] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, we'll see you on the track and tell me how that works.

[00:25:43.620] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah, when I'm passing you.

[00:25:47.240] - Big Rich Klein

So did you have a lot of success in those early years?

[00:25:51.560] - Dan VandenHeuvel

I mean, back then, just to finish was considered a success So we did all right. We finished, not all of them, but I know my second year. Actually, my second year, Crandon still owes me a case of beer for that one. They had the same track and they had these concrete-lined or concrete bottom mud holes. And if you went through the mud hole, they're supposed to give you a case of beer. Well, I wrecked my radiator, so I hit those mud holes as fast as I could to cool the vehicle down. And now that I think about it, I never did get my case of beer.

[00:26:35.360] - Big Rich Klein

Well, you have to have Cliff listen to this podcast so that he knows.

[00:26:42.520] - Dan VandenHeuvel

But for a couple of kids, just shoot me. I can't even remember if I was 16 or not when I drove my first race.

[00:26:56.960] - Big Rich Klein

It says in the history that it was 1976 '77, and you were 15 years old.

[00:27:02.200] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah, '77 was when I went to the first race. Okay. So I had to be the next year. I had to be 16 when I raced then. Okay. Yeah, because my cousin brought me up there in '77. So that was a whole different era back then.

[00:27:25.940] - Big Rich Klein

And was it just one race a year, or did they race a couple of times a year?

[00:27:30.000] - Dan VandenHeuvel

No, one race a year.

[00:27:31.250] - Big Rich Klein

One race a year.

[00:27:32.500] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah. And it was... I don't know. It wasn't that long after. Might have been maybe three years into it that all of a sudden somebody's talking about Bark River, and I'm like, What are you talking about? Well, there's a race there. I didn't even know it the first couple of years that there was more than one. And once, boy, I don't even know. I had to be, say, mid '80s before it was, holy shoot, there's 10 races across the Midwest. And that's when Soda, first it was superior off-road drivers association that we started racing for. And then it changed and went to short course off-road drivers association. So we used to do 10 of them a summer. And I still find it funny when teams are complaining about budgets and they don't have this. So I went, Here's a couple of kids. There is no such thing as a budget. We're working our butt off. Every part we have comes from our salvage yard. So you got to, nights and weekends, sit in the salvage yard, get whatever you need to build your vehicle, and then go race. And to race 10 weekends a summer, that's a lot more than we race now.

[00:28:58.900] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And at what point did you retire the chain? When you started going to Bark River, or did you chain it all the way to Bark River?

[00:29:10.120] - Dan VandenHeuvel

We did chain our first year to Bark River, and after that, We built a trailer, built it ourselves. I bought an old mobile home to put on some land up by Antigo, so between here and Crandon. So I'd have a little cottage to go to. So I pulled the axles off from under that and went to our local metal place and did a bunch of dumpster diving and got enough steel out of there. And with that same stick welder, welded this trailer together, and I still have that trailer today.

[00:29:50.500] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:29:52.060] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah, it's still the heaviest damn trailer you ever saw. It's built out of the place that It's built, it appears, fire trucks. It's built out of the frame from a fire truck. So that's what the bed is that you drive on is actual frame material from a fire truck.

[00:30:12.400] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, that would be pretty heavy duty.

[00:30:14.540] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I don't even know. I'll bet you it's close to half-inch thick. It's heavy. A couple of years ago, I sandblasted it and repainted it and made it look nice. For what reason? I have no idea. We haven't put anything on it since. Yard art. Yeah, that new Class XI I bought in Glen Helen this year, I think that will fit on it perfect. So that'll be the nostalgia trailer with a Class XI on.

[00:30:47.100] - Big Rich Klein

That's pretty cool. And so you're working your way up, racing more and more and more, and How long did Soda stick around, and when did it change to the next organization?

[00:31:06.160] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Soda was here, boy, for years and years, we raced Soda. Then Marty Reid and Jim Conway formed CORE. The first CORE, say, meeting or driver's meeting was at my house. So we got a bunch of the drivers. And back then, Soda had class reps, so we pretty much got all the class reps together. And they wanted to pitch this idea that they wanted to take... At first, it was they just wanted to take the pros. And back then, we weren't called pros. It was Class 8 and Class 4 and 7S, and I think Super Boogie. They wanted to take those four classes and start traveling so you can be in different markets and hopefully get to get paid more. And once Soda phoned out, they were furious. They didn't want this to happen, and they wanted everybody to stay together. And it's like, Hey, they just want these classes. We could still buy myself included. I was still in 13, so I wasn't one of those that was going to go travel. We can still do our own thing, and just those four classes will leave. They'll still be with us when we race Cranon and Bark River and Oshkosh and Luxembourg, all the local races.

[00:32:33.180] - Dan VandenHeuvel

They just wanted those top four to start traveling. And so did the President wasn't going to have it. So he took all our club money and tried to sue them. Well, once the club money ran out, well, there's nothing left to sue them with. So Corp just then, and they took over everybody. They just took the pros or the big classes and the sportsmen, and there was just a new organization. Marty Reid ran it for a bunch of years until Jim Baldwin, his boys, started racing, and Jim wanted to take it more to California, so he purchased the series, and the way we went to California.

[00:33:27.760] - Big Rich Klein

What was that like, having the series then split like that, where it went such a long distance?

[00:33:36.580] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah, it was... I don't know. That was, in my eyes, at least as We were living it, boy, we were... I mean, he was bringing us all over, from Texas to New York to freaking San Bernardino, Pomona, Chula Vista, racing some of those tracks. And with the crowds they got, it was unbelievable. At that time, I went, Hey, we finally made it. We were getting some decent purses. The best thing about it, they had a points fund. If you made every race, and the better you did for the year in points, you got paid. Not like it is today, where the year in points fund is minimal at best. We raced for, and it doesn't sound like a bunch, but back then, if you're racing for $20,000 or more, That's a huge payday. Everybody wanted to race all of them and to be there at the end to be in the top three in the points. That way you got everybody to go to every single race because we all wanted that. Even some drivers, they knew in the back of their mind they could never get it, but that carrot's being dangled out front, so they would go race.

[00:35:10.340] - Dan VandenHeuvel

We had some of the best competition ever There wasn't the dirty driving like there is now where guys will just- Take you out. Yeah, drive into the side of somebody on the last corner because they know they can get there. I mean, once in a while, somebody will screw up and something will happen, but it wasn't like it is today. But now, if the sanctioning body would crack down on it on the very first race weekend, then you wouldn't have that. If you had set a precedence early and going, Hey, we're not going to allow this, guys won't drive like that.

[00:35:53.220] - Big Rich Klein

Right. A couple of DQs would really stop that.

[00:35:55.980] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yup. I don't care who you got to DQ If it's your favorite or not, you just got to start early. And once you do that, everybody else will follow suit. So especially nowadays, when somebody pulls a bullshit maneuver like that, it costs the other guy 30, $40, $40,000 in repairs. And that's what's going to start taking drivers out of it because you just can't afford to keep doing that.

[00:36:20.920] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And that's happening in a lot of different motor sports where they're willing Somebody's willing to... I mean, the big thing right now is with the Supercross, the guys are taking each other out in corners, and it's just, there you don't even have a cage. Of course, it's You can still get... What they're taking you out on a motorcycle is not like getting taken out by a car, but you don't have the protection either. Pretty crazy. Right.

[00:36:56.360] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Oh, yeah. For the life of me, I don't get it. The Promotors must think, Oh, this makes good TV. A true race fan does not believe that way. Just somebody wants carnage. Yeah, they like to see that. But if you want to see the best, most talented guy win, there's no place in any motor sports for that. And if sanctioning bodies would start doing something about it, crack down on it, it makes so much better racing.

[00:37:27.620] - Big Rich Klein

I agree. So was In those old days, was there like, roundy round dealing with the sprint cars and that stuff? You always see fights in the pits. I don't care if it's a local races or if it's one of the big place like Chilly Challenge or whatever. You always see guys throwing it in the pits. Was that happening back then?

[00:38:00.540] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Not near as much with drivers, more on with spotters in the spotting tower. I think spotters would tear into one in each other and let their fist fly. Until the sanctioning bodies had to put an end to that. But back then, it wasn't as petty as it is now. If you had a problem with the guy, you went after the race, not when all the spectators are there, and you this guy and take them out behind the barn at Crandon and go, Hey, listen, this is the way it is or I'm going to kick your ass. Back in the day, I'm sure Walker and Jack straightened a few people up behind the barn. You did what you had to do, but you didn't do it in front of the spectators. You didn't make a spectacle of yourself like these guys do nowadays. Yeah, I mean, a lot of... Now with TV, when somebody does something deliberate, which has happened a couple of times at the last few Crandons, the guy who does it looks like the Jackass. Everybody in motor sports can pick that person up.

[00:39:19.460] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Well, yeah. Nascar, guys stand at the edge of the track and throwing helmets at the other guy as he comes by, and then they mix it up in the pits as well. Most of those guys, it looks like they're playing Patty Cake. They're not even fighting.

[00:39:37.880] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah. To throw your helmet at somebody, come on, man, what are you doing? Somebody who does that, you know they're not paying for their own helmet. I mean, I would never do that because, hell, I got to pay for my own helmet. Exactly. These Jackasses that are doing that, they need to be taken out behind the barn and taught a lesson.

[00:39:59.240] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So then CORE disintegrated after the accident, didn't it?

[00:40:12.180] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Well, yeah, it started going downhill after Jason's ordeal. And that's when I quit racing CORE, and I came back to the Midwest to World Series days. And so I raced the World Series. The cool thing is the race dates didn't conflict, so I still got to drive either Ross Hooks semi or Jeff Kincaids hauler out to California. So even though I wasn't racing those last few, I was still at them all. And that's when '08 hit and the economy went to hell. And middle of the year, I think they had five races in. It imploded and Corp was done. And so then anybody who wanted a race came back to race World Series. And then the following year, because Lucas supported World Series a lot. And so after that, Lucas said, Hey, instead of supporting, say, a sanctioning body, let's just start our own. And then Lucas Oil Racing arrived out of the ashes. And that was really good for everybody on the West Coast because it gave them all a place to race.

[00:41:40.160] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And then when did Torque come about?

[00:41:50.360] - Dan VandenHeuvel

I'm really bad with years, but it was shortly after that. Okay. That Lucas is out on the West Coast. There's They understand all the drivers can't be driving back and forth across the country. Nobody can afford that. I think that's when Ricky and Mitch started Torque and brought racing. I don't want to say brought it back because we never went anywhere. We're all still here. Racing World Series, they just introduced torque. I think for the next two years, those two guys had torque. Then they sold it to USAC. They ran it for a couple of years and they sold it to MSI. They ran it for a couple of years for a I don't know, 8 or 10 years. It was every two or 3 years. Somebody comes in, they say they know what to do. Of course, most of them would not listen to any of us who have been living it our whole lives. They come in with their ideas, especially like going to Sturgis to race. What a great idea. You don't go there for two years and then leave. Everybody I know as a motor sports, the first three years, you're not going to make any money.

[00:43:19.050] - Dan VandenHeuvel

But after that, look out. We never raced at places, whether it was Syracuse, New York or Indianapolis. We went all over Charlotte Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway. We'd go there for two years, and then they go, We didn't hit a home run. We're not going back. It's like, Jesus, guys, you got to be smarter than this. You got to have a five-year plan, not a two-year plan. And none of them did. So they're in for two years and gone.

[00:43:56.500] - Big Rich Klein

At what point did you Did you get involved with promoting?

[00:44:05.920] - Dan VandenHeuvel

I was going to say it's after I retired, but it wasn't. I was still racing when I saw a need, especially for more sportsman events. So a local track in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, I contacted the fairgrounds there and said, I'd like to put a race on. And it started out, it was just going to be a sportsman event. And that's when USAC was running torque. Kevin Miller calls me and says, Hey, we need another event. Can we come? I'm like, Absolutely. This will be great. That's when I learned a lot of the politics about racing. Oh, my goodness. Who knew all this stuff that happens? But we put on one hell of a race. Heck, even Mike Jenkins won his, I think it was his first pro-four race there. Those guys had a blast. But we put on a couple of races in Oshkosh for, I think, two years. And after that, the fairgrounds, boy, these guys, if somebody does a burnout on their grass, they're charging it by the square inch to repair it. So the cost just got ridiculous. And the neighbors, of course, that move next to a race facility, then they complain about the noise.

[00:45:41.880] - Dan VandenHeuvel

I don't understand people like that.

[00:45:45.340] - Big Rich Klein

Same ones that move next to an airport.

[00:45:47.940] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah, complain about it then. Yeah, it's amazing. But so then I went to Antigol, where we used to race for years, talked to the fair board there and Made a deal and promoted races there for a couple of years. And same thing after a couple of years into it, all of a sudden they jacked their rates so darn high. I'm like, I know all these drivers are coming in with semis and half a million dollar motor homes, and you think there's all kinds of money in it. And I try to lay it right in front of them. At the end of the day, hey, guys, it cost me money to put on an event. Well, they an extra, whatever, 10 grand here, five grand there. I'm like, no. So you always got to bow. And I always said after that, the only way you can do it is have a permanent facility where you're not building a track, spending 10, $12,000 to haul in material and build a track for the end of the weekend, take it all back down.

[00:46:54.420] - Big Rich Klein

Exactly.

[00:46:56.040] - Dan VandenHeuvel

And then the hard thing is to own a facility and only race once a year. That doesn't pay either. That's a hard thing with our sport. After promoting myself, I went, Well, I could still help. Even our local track at Lena, Wisconsin, at first I helped a bunch there, not near as much as all the local guys, but then to any track. Even now, my wife and I, if we have a weekend off, we'll go, whatever, pick a track and go to. A lot of times we just go up to Crandon and pull in and just ask Cliff, What do you want us to do? He's like, What do you want to do? Sometimes, don't ever say whatever you want because you'll stick you on a packer for the weekend and you're just driving around parking lot, packing it. Well, that's not very fun, but that's when you need it done. So that's what we did.

[00:47:58.360] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And a lot of times, unless you do like you've done, people don't realize what it takes to put on an event.

[00:48:11.220] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Oh, right. If you try to it and pay everybody. I mean, hey, it's a great thing if you think you can, but the amount of effort, the amount of work it takes to put on a race, it's impossible to pay every person out there.

[00:48:27.700] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:48:28.420] - Dan VandenHeuvel

And I I've been trying to tell a lot of tracks. It's like EAA, the world's biggest aircraft show in Oshkash here. They have thousands of volunteers for a month ahead, and it We're just mainly a bunch of retired pilots that love to come, love to help, whether it's painting a building or erecting a new building or doing whatever it takes. Same with off-road. It's been around long enough. There's enough of us people that aren't punching a clock nowadays that would love to come and hang out at the track a week or two ahead and do whatever, whatever whatever you need done, whether it's putting the outhouses in place or putting the garbage cans up or painting a building or doing whatever. So my wife and I, we go up to Crandon and normally we call a couple of buddies of ours and And we have a great time at night hanging out. And a lot of times either Marty or back then Tina or Richie or Whitey or somebody will come over and hang out and we'll have a few drinks that night. And we have all kinds of fun doing it.

[00:49:50.500] - Big Rich Klein

Do a little bench racing?

[00:49:52.620] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Absolutely.

[00:49:53.980] - Big Rich Klein

I think that's just about as much fun as getting in there banging doors, too.

[00:50:01.400] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah, a lot of times it is. It's a lot less expensive.

[00:50:05.300] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Let's talk about family. When did you meet Nancy? And how?

[00:50:13.860] - Dan VandenHeuvel

I should know all this. A lot of years ago.

[00:50:19.920] - Big Rich Klein

A lot of years ago, okay.

[00:50:22.020] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Let's see. I think I was 18. So not long after I started racing, I was up at my buddy Chris's cottage, so my crew chief or co-rider, guy that helped me get in all this trouble. We were up at his cottage and we went to the local lake in Polar, Wisconsin. We pull up to this lake and there's two girls out there swimming. I went, Hey, look at that. And swam out there and met them. And a couple of years later, I'm married.

[00:51:00.980] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. You got to make the move. That's the racer in you.

[00:51:06.700] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah. It's all what you wanted and went for it. Yeah.

[00:51:11.900] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. Saw the opening.

[00:51:14.120] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah.

[00:51:14.800] - Big Rich Klein

So I know Mikey. Do you have any other children?

[00:51:21.020] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah. Dan Jr, which is a couple of years older. Back in the day, he drove a pro-light under Flying Dutchman when Mikey was in a buggy. He met his first wife, of course, at the racetrack because that's where we lived all summer. After he had kids and he didn't race anymore. He didn't really care for the racing he loved. It was the hanging out and being there all week or all weekend. He liked the motocross style where you put a motorbike in the back of your pickup, you show up, you unload it, you go race, put it back in and go home. He went the motocross route and not to be some Jeremy McGrath or anything, some superstar. He just went to race and have fun. Okay. And today he still does that. And now he has a two-year-old. He got a 20-year-old and a two-year-old and an 18-year-old.

[00:52:32.680] - Big Rich Klein

Well, that's what motorcycles will do to you. Yeah.

[00:52:38.140] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yes. Stretch it out. And I used to go to some of his races But it just scares the hell out of you when there's some guy flying over the top because my son's smart enough and old enough. He knows if he flies like that and crashes, it's not if you break, you're going to break your You're going to be broken. But these young guys, they'll come up behind them and hit these jumps and fly over the top of them. I'm like, no, thank you. I don't even want to be here.

[00:53:10.380] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, because you see that too often when somebody either tail whips somebody in the helmet or just lands on them.

[00:53:20.220] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah, but he's still the fastest guy off the line. He'll get to the corner before anybody. But after that, when it comes to hit and jumps, just because he doesn't have the youth anymore. So after seeing that, I'm like, no, I don't care to watch it. Right. Okay. I'd rather have them in a cage.

[00:53:46.020] - Big Rich Klein

And how was it in the early days? Were you able to find sponsors, local just dismantlers or whatever that would help out?

[00:54:01.520] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah. Before we went, say, pro-racing, when it was still our class 13, when I ran the old '90s Ford, you never got anybody real big, but you got local sponsors, you got the local bar that'll sponsor you. Because doing everything myself and working on my back was always I grew up, so I got a local chiropractor to sponsor our family, so we never had chiropractor bills. Just a bunch of local stuff. Then one year, because The hard truck back then was always the just say no to Drugs truck, and we took it in parades and took it to the kids' school. Philip Morris contacted us. That was Probably one of the hardest decisions ever because they came to the table with a real offer and I had to say, no, thank you because I can't be running a truck saying, just so you know, and then start promoting or an advertising cigarettes. I just couldn't do it. That was a tough one. I directed them towards the series instead. I said, you're better off to go that way, and actually the series can offer you more than I can. I know back then, Marty Reid was pretty surprised that I would send a sponsor, Third Direction.

[00:55:37.700] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, because that's one of the things, being a promoter myself, that the show needs help, the drivers need help, and sometimes there can be a conflict there. Somebody shows up, a driver shows up with a sponsor, and maybe They're new to the sport, and then all of a sudden the sponsor goes, wow, I could get the series and be in more places and it may be in front of more people. And then there's some animosity that can be built. And so that's one of the things I always tried to do is to make sure that whatever driver, whatever sponsor came along with the driver, if they were interested in the series, not to discourage them to leave the driver as well.

[00:56:28.700] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Right. That was always the hard. And probably once CORE got rolling and then we transferred to Pro 2, that's when we really had to put a lot of effort, a lot of work into sponsors. And we were pretty fortunate where we could race all summer on somebody else's dime, but we still had to work our 50 hours a week job to make ends meet. We just quit. We did that for a bunch of years. That was one of the hardest things when I would bring a sponsor, a new sponsor on board, and all of a sudden, the first thing Boy, I'm bringing these corporate guys in, and now the series is talking to them, and now the tracks are talking to them. And it's like, Guys, you're killing me here because you guys can offer them more air time than I can. I mean, I have to race for that air time. They can offer it multiple different ways. And same with the track, with signage. They can offer guaranteed air time. And that became really frustrating after a while, every time you brought a sponsor in, besides every race team going after the same guy, the promoters would go after them.

[00:57:58.620] - Dan VandenHeuvel

I always thought that was shitty moves where it's one thing if they bring it up and they want more exposure and stay with the driver and help whatever, a track or the series, Hey, that's great. But to have those guys just come out and seek them out, it's like…

[00:58:16.360] - Big Rich Klein

Totally poach them. Yeah.

[00:58:18.380] - Dan VandenHeuvel

We all have to be in this together. And there's a couple of drivers that made their career out of poaching sponsors from other ones. And all of us in Pro 2 and Pro 4 know who that is, or not just that, who those people are. But they were pretty good at it. And it's crazy, though. Our team, we'd never do that. We want to be known for everything we got, we work for it. Right.

[00:58:50.100] - Big Rich Klein

So what was the most memorable race that you had, or Race Weekend?

[00:58:57.980] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Oh, my God. I don't even know. I guess the one I remember was my final race. But there were so many before that that you remember because certain things happened. One at Park River, when I woke up two days later in an MRI machine. So that one will never leave my mind.

[00:59:25.640] - Big Rich Klein

At least from the point you woke up.

[00:59:29.380] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah. Yeah. Leaving the track and stuff. Yeah, I was taking a nap then. But every World Championship ring I won, of course, you'll remember that forever. And back in the day, those rings didn't mean that much to me. It was like, Okay, you win a race. I try to win every race, not just that one. But it wasn't until later on in life where you go, Oh, my God, this ring is the best thing ever because I still have it and I still wear them once in a while. More tracks should have a big special race and do something unique like that because Every year you get older, that stuff means more to you.

[01:00:18.600] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Yeah, I was just talking to another promoter in Rock Crawling, and it was both of us were like, if we knew we were actually going to be doing this for so long and producing something that has a history, we would have paid more attention.

[01:00:38.060] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Right. I know. There's a track in Beaver Dam. Actually, that was in the soda days. This promoter had this beautiful gold eagle, or gold, I don't know. There's gold in it and golden eagle on top. And I think Pro 2 and Pro 4 back then, you got one of the replica trophies, but they had this great big one that was going to stay in their lobby. Every year, they just keep adding the names who won the races. I know Kirt Leduc and myself were the first two on it. And then after that, we never went back there. I'm like, I mean, this guy put in so much effort, bought this cool ass Eagle trophy for 10 grand back then. And then let's never go learn race again. The politics part of it like that, I never did understand it. But I wish that would have continued because that would be something as cool as these rings. But I guess back to the question, the most memorable race, probably because it was my last one and it was that cranted. And I let it flag the flag. And this is after my neck isn't like... I'm not 100% healed yet from breaking my neck.

[01:02:18.400] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Still seeing the doctors for it. And as I'm racing and driving around and I have both my boys on the radio and The stars aligned. I mean, at that point, I probably had half the amount of money in my race truck is my competitors. And we're racing on a prayer back then. I remember crossing that finish line, and I knew what I was going to say as soon as I got up on the podium, but nobody else did because I didn't know that starting. I get up there and my My whole crew is cheering, and Creighton King is there cheering. I said, Well, everybody here just saw history. I just drove him to the last race in my life. I'm retiring as of now. Oh, my God. All the cheers and everything just turned the opposite way. Creighton comes up and he's like, Dude, you can't do that. Maxis is behind you. We're going to continue racing. I go, No, something inside tells you when enough is enough. I said, I'm one rollover away from being a happy meal. My doctors advise me not to be out here. I just had the best time of my life, so I want to go out on top.

[01:03:45.620] - Dan VandenHeuvel

I never put a helmet on and raced after that.

[01:03:49.720] - Big Rich Klein

Wow. That's pretty awesome.

[01:03:53.220] - Dan VandenHeuvel

I'm happy with that. Right.

[01:03:58.120] - Big Rich Klein

So you and your wife started the, or co-founded the drivers' Injury Fund, is that correct?

[01:04:13.060] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah, when I was President of More, at the year-end banquet, we do a basket raffle to raise money for more, and then that money always goes back to the drivers. Well, one of our first years, Matt Jerold is a buggy driver, and he had a chance to race pro-light. So he gets in this pro-light at Red Bud, Michigan, and ends up over jumping a jump and destroying his back. And at that time, it was he's never going to walk again. Here's this young guy. He's at my shop quite often. My oldest son married his sister. So he's a fixture at the Flying Dutchman shop, and we're going to do this banquet. And I went, and my wife brought it up. So we're in these meetings. She's like, Hey, when we do our raffle, why don't we start an injured driver fund? Every year, more can set some money aside, put it in a separate account. If there's ever a driver injured, We can help them out. Sometimes it might not be a huge amount, but anything's going to help. Then first year, when Matt finally got out of the hospital and he's like, How am I supposed to make house payments and everything else.

[01:06:03.330] - Dan VandenHeuvel

And I handed him some money and said, Well, this is from everybody. And I know him and his wife really appreciated that. And a couple of years later, we're at Bark River. And one of the stump jumpers, they're the guys that would help rate you when you flipped over or if you got stuck in one of their little crick crossings, they'd come pull you One of these guys got backed into by a racer, and he was off of work for a week. So I just made a phone call and found out what he made that week, and we sent a check off to him. And I know Morse still has a separate account just for that. So if something happens, they can help out.

[01:06:57.980] - Big Rich Klein

That's great.

[01:06:59.260] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah, my wife is the one who thought that up and started that.

[01:07:04.640] - Big Rich Klein

This year, you were inducted into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame, Ormhoff. Tell me how that experience was for you.

[01:07:19.320] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Overwhelming. It's like a lifetime achievement award, really. It's being recognized for everything you've done. Like I said, it wasn't just for racing for 40 years. It wasn't just for being a promoter. It wasn't just for being more. It wasn't for volunteering. It was everything all grouped into one. I always say it wasn't just me. It's my family, it's my crew, it's everybody who helped along the way. And it was... I don't know. It's so cool to be part of that. And now you're down in history with some of the greats of off-road motor sports. I don't know. It's hard to put in the words. I've been to four of the banquets before this and knew what what happened and how everything happens. But when you're the one up there and then got to talk in front of people, and I can talk in front of people, but I'm not good at talking about myself. I'm good at talking history, what has happened. But it's hard for me to stand up there and pat myself on the back. I know a lot of guys that are really good at doing that. And so it was hard.

[01:09:01.230] - Dan VandenHeuvel

But the amount of work that my wife and son put into this because people don't realize, to put these videos together, back when we started having somebody video, it was one of those great big machines that sat on your shoulder and weighed 30 pounds like a beta tape machine. And just throughout all these years, all these All these tapes that we have, and most of them not even labeled what year it was or what track, my son went through them all. And then when he found parts that he thought we could use, he would transfer them to digital. So we had to buy this machine that would do it from all kinds of different, from reel to reel to that beta tape to, I don't know, there's four different I know a bunch of it's not 8 track, but I don't even know. Super 8. I don't even know the name. Yeah. To transfer it all and then send it off to the guys who put it all together. And these three fellows worked their tail off for months. And then would come to our shop and interview people and then go up to Crandon and interview Cliff and then interview me.

[01:10:31.960] - Dan VandenHeuvel

So these guys, they put a huge effort into it. And I said the first time I saw it, I'm in their apartment and they show it to me. He says, What do you think? I said, It's like going to your own funeral. I said, and he's like, Wait, what? I go, No, dude, this is a good thing. It's like my whole life right out in front of me. I'm not saying that to be rude at It was the coolest thing ever. But I said, I cannot watch that at the banquet when seconds later, I got to get up and talk to people. Because with Creighton King starting the whole thing off, there's no way I'd be a mess. So when that happened, I was in the back in the kitchen area with all the staff while that was playing. And then as soon as it was over, Marty reached in there and got me and up to the stage we went. I didn't want to be a total mess up there. That's awesome.

[01:11:46.180] - Big Rich Klein

That's cool. What's in your future, Dan? Would you continue going to races? Anything else?

[01:11:59.700] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Yeah, Yeah. Because I'm working for Kenda, and I have now for 10 years. So I got the best job in the world. They pay me to go to races, be part of the motor sports program, I still do some displays and shows or whatever they want. So I travel the US, displaying their product and at the tracks, of course, and we have the tire machine and mount and groove tires for our race teams. So I'll continue doing that. At Glen Helen last year, I bought a Class XI. My wife When we left Crandon, she's like, We need to own a race vehicle again. My son retired from Pro 2. My other son retired from Pro light. My grandson was racing buggies, and now he went to motocross. She's like, We as flying Dutchmen, we need a vehicle again. She goes, Those just look like a blast. Talked to Blake Wilke, I bought his car, and he delivered it to Glenn Helen. And instead of putting it in a trailer and going home, Chad Rayford was there. I'm like, Chad, you want to race a Class XI? And his first time ever driving it, didn't get to practice anything.

[01:13:32.560] - Dan VandenHeuvel

He gets in and goes out there and puts it on the box. I mean, he's in third place. And from here forward, I think one of the guys from Kenda said, So now what? Now what are you going to do? I said, Same thing. I'm just going to bring it to the tracks. And if there's a race, I don't know. I don't know. I said, Maybe somebody in In a class before that had some bad luck or something happened, I can say, Hey, you want to drive this? Hop in and go. Or every weekend, just... I mean, we have so many different drivers that are here working on their race stuff, paycheck to paycheck, barely making a track. If I can help somebody else out, just put them in and let them go have some fun. Nice. Yeah, it's one of those things. If we can in that class, I sure hope more and more start being purchased or built so they can start running them at all events here and not just that cranted. So, yeah, it's just going to be fun to do that. And I know we'll continue wherever we can. Even now, because I can, I go to the tracks It's always a day ahead.

[01:15:01.920] - Dan VandenHeuvel

So my wife and I will be at the tracks a day ahead. And same thing, if they need us to drive a water truck, I'll drive a water truck. She spends so much time sewing drivers' patches on. She'll be sitting in their lawn chair. And so many racers show up, especially the first couple of races, they don't have the proper series patches on. So if she sews those on for them or Crandon puts her work painting the checkerboard in front of their little entrance barn where everybody comes in. So every person who comes in, walks across that checkerboard. She's the one who painted it. Nice. And we just try help out wherever we can.

[01:15:48.580] - Big Rich Klein

That's awesome. So, Dan, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and telling your life story. I really appreciate it. Like Like I said, it was my pleasure to meet you there at Crandon when you were doing the sportsman racing, and I was putting on the rock racing dirt riot stuff. I really appreciate it how easy it was to work with you.

[01:16:16.920] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Absolutely. It's one of those things we're not in it. Just this weekend or this year, not like a lot of racers show up. They come in, put a big splash, and they're gone. We're in it forever. We already proved that. We're always going to be here, and you just got to be fair to everybody.

[01:16:38.940] - Big Rich Klein

Yep, that's the way it is.

[01:16:41.240] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Absolutely.

[01:16:42.220] - Big Rich Klein

Well, thank you very much, and you have a great rest of the day, and say hello to the family for me.

[01:16:47.400] - Dan VandenHeuvel

Will do. Thank you.

[01:16:48.500] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Take care. Yeah. 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.