Adventure-seeker Dave Simpson on Episode 302

Big Rich sits down with lifelong off-roader and adventure seeker Dave Simpson to trace a journey that began as a 10-year-old pitting for Malcolm Smith at the 1970 Baja 1000 to now a board member of the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame.

·       Pouring fuel for Malcolm Smith

·       Debuting his own race program at the 1977 Baja 500

·       Class 30 SCORE points champion on a KX500 in 1995

·       From Dad’s auto parts store to Rancho Suspension

·       Nineteen years with aFe Power

·       Camel trophy across South America

·       The WARN Adventure in Turkey/Africa

·       Summiting Kilimanjaro

Listen in as Dave tells of travels and adventures around the world.

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.

[00:00:46.400] 

Whether you're crawling the Red Rocks of Moab or hauling your toys to the trail, Maxxis has the tires you can trust for performance and durability. Four wheels or two, Maxxis tires are the choice of champions because they know that whether for work or play, for fun or competition, Maxxis tires deliver. Choose Maxxis. Tread victoriously.

[00:01:13.280] - Big Rich Klein

Today's guest on Conversations with Big Rich, had his first Baja Race experience as a pit member for the Malcolm Smith in 1970. And from there, his life has been about adventure and off-road competitions of various types. Working in the industry and now as a board member of the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame, my guest is Dave Simpson. Hello, Dave Simpson. So good to have you on the podcast. I'm really looking forward to getting to know you better. You've joined ORMHOF on the board of directors, which we're thrilled about. And yeah, this is an opportunity for all of us, or at least me, to get to know you better. So thank you for coming on the podcast.

[00:01:57.980] - Dave Simpson

Hey, great. Rich, it's very Very nice talking to you. I have been a huge fan of Rod Hall for a number of years and off-road racing, and I have a whole mix, diverse experience there. I I'm just thrilled to be part of Ormhoff, I will tell you that.

[00:02:18.000] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome. Let's get started with the easiest question for me to ask, and typically for someone to answer. Where were you born and raised?

[00:02:28.700] - Dave Simpson

I was born I grew up in Montebello, California, Southern California, LA, and I grew up in a little town called Rialto by San Bernardino. We moved to Redlands when I was 10. 1970, we'll circle back to that. I pretty well grew up in Southern California, and Mexico, and Baja was a big part of my childhood and my adult life.

[00:02:56.680] - Big Rich Klein

You're being down in that area, you're in pretty much the hub of off-road, especially off-road racing. Was your dad into off-road racing as you were growing up?

[00:03:15.240] - Dave Simpson

He was. My dad and his partner, and it's interesting, he grew up with a buddy of his, and his buddy grew up, had three kids. My dad had three kids. And my buddy Andy's son and me are best, best friends. We raced cars together, our first cars together. We built cars together, and to this day, we're best of friends. My dad and Dale built an open Class V car in the '70s, and they raced in '74-ish. Their car was a state-of-the-art Class V car. Their biggest competition was a guy named Lee. And their car was a swing-axel, a link pin front-end with just some AC Delco shocks on it. It was nothing but that was it, man. That was it.

[00:04:13.780] - Big Rich Klein

When As you're growing up, and that's when you're just early teens, I would imagine, or 10 years old. Yeah.

[00:04:25.280] - Dave Simpson

Go ahead.

[00:04:26.700] - Big Rich Klein

No, I was going to ask, what was school like for back in that time? Were you a good student or were you one of those that was looking out the window wanting to bail?

[00:04:37.600] - Dave Simpson

Well, I was extremely, extremely shy, and people do not believe that today. I would just assume die before I would get in front of a class and have to give a report or anything like that. I was a decent student. I learned mechanical stuff a little later in life. Heck, I took Spanish. I learned better Spanish than English classes. But I was a fair student, but I was just more shy, and my shyness hurt me more than anything else in those early days. Okay.

[00:05:22.680] - Big Rich Klein

Besides off-road, was there any other things that the family participated in outside of the normal work day?

[00:05:34.540] - Dave Simpson

Yeah, sure. My dad owned an auto parts business, and that really gave me my start in the cars and whatnot. I was in Boy Scouts. It was amazing. The skills that I learned as a Boy Scout, map and compass and hiking and survival, just really applied to a number of things that I did through my life, including racing Mexico. I mean, I raced a thousand one time. I got lost in a dust storm down at Diablo and got out and stood on the roof of the car and looked at the stars and navigated by the stars. I learned that in Boy Scouts. How cool is that?

[00:06:14.460] - Big Rich Klein

That's awesome.

[00:06:16.040] - Dave Simpson

Yeah.

[00:06:16.660] - Big Rich Klein

That's awesome. So then I think Scouts is a great base, or at least it was. I don't know scouting nowadays, but in our time frame, because you and I are close in age, that they taught a lot of great skills. And I think that over the years, they may have gotten away from that basic skillset learning and getting into other things like society has forced. But I think that that's a great basis for people to be able to go out and know they can do things.

[00:06:59.100] - Dave Simpson

Yeah, I was so shy, and thank God I had a great mother that was behind me, and I became an Eagle Scout. But what happened is my mother would make me wear my Boy Scout uniform to school on Pitcher Day, and it was so horrible. But it made me tougher because you talk about shy, how about that?

[00:07:23.120] - Big Rich Klein

You're going to stand out. Yeah. Well, luckily, when I went to school where I did, almost all of the scouting was very active, and most of the kids were in the Cub Scouts that I grew up with. And then they got into regular scouting after that, and some even into Explorer Scouts. And a lot of us hit our eagles. And it was, in fact, we had a patrol called the Eagle Patrol. Oh, nice. We would go to the camperees and jamberies and just smoke everybody else. But we learned a lot, not only leadership skills, but just basic, how to get things done, I think, is what it comes down to.

[00:08:13.020] - Dave Simpson

Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:14.700] - Big Rich Klein

So let's talk about your experiences going into racing. Your list here shows me that you were 1970, you pitted the Baja 1000 for Malcolm Smith. That makes you right around 10 years old?

[00:08:34.440] - Dave Simpson

That is correct. That was really my first experience with a race. My dad and a guy named Franklin Freeman were good friends of Malcolm's. We all were here in San Bernardino, and we drove my dad's brand new 1970 F-250 pickup truck to El Rosario to pit for Malcolm. In those days, this was in Nora. The pavement ended in Mata Dara. We went to El Rosario, which is about 150 miles, which is a long way in a stock pickup truck. I was a 10-year-old kid. And I got to see, I got to see Parnelly Jones. Back then, your entry into a race came with gas. There was a big line at the PMAC station. It was across the street from Mama Espinosa's today. Malcolm came in there. He had about a 45 minute lead. He was calm and quiet and polite. My dad poured gas out of a five-gallon steel army gas can. I got on my knees and oiled his chain. He said, Thank you, and blew out of there. Just incredible. I mean, it was incredible. And I was hooked. I was hooked. Malcolm later on, I bought my first motorcycle from him, a Yamaha Mini Enduro.

[00:10:05.840] - Dave Simpson

Malcolm was 29 then. I was 10. He was one of my first He wrote for sure.

[00:10:16.500] - Big Rich Klein

Wow. I got to thank him at the grand opening or the premiere, you might say, of Dust to Glory, because of the on any Sunday, and then Dana Brown and Bruce Brown and all that. And he was there, and I walked up and thanked him for giving me the dream to get involved in off-road. Now, I didn't do motorcycles, and I didn't do off-road racing to begin with. I did the rock crawling, four-wheel drive sports. But I knew after seeing on any Sunday that I had to get involved at some point. And it took me until I was to jump into the industry. But I'm glad I had that opportunity to say something to him.

[00:11:08.800] - Dave Simpson

He was a good man. He was a good man. I got to go to his service last year, and he was always a hero. Bud Felkamp lives right down the street from me, and we're friends as well.

[00:11:24.260] - Big Rich Klein

Bud's a good guy, too. Yeah. So then let's talk about after that That 1,000 with Malcolm and your experience down there. Had the family been going down to Baja before that?

[00:11:38.320] - Dave Simpson

Yeah, I really grew up on a beach down there in Putabanda, south of Encinada. My dad was a fisherman. He liked surf fishing, and we camp. I don't know how my family did it. We had a car, we didn't have a truck. We lived in a tent for the weekend. My mom had three in diapers. My dad was fishing, and we spent a lot of time in Mexico, a lot of time. It was the early days of racing down there. My dad got involved, and like I said, he built a car, and I started going. I was 15 when I got my first Volkswagen, and I'm a Volkswagen guy. I've had 20 of those things, and I still got a bunch of them now. But I built my first car, a Baha bug, when I was 15. Then when I started getting into racing in the '70s, I used that car to pre-run with it. It was just a stock Volkswagen. It looked like something, but there wasn't a whole lot there. That's just how it was back in those days.

[00:12:48.460] - Big Rich Klein

I guess most people know it. The Volkswagen, the whole design of the Volkswagen was to drive the roads, the rough, beat-up, snowy, terrible roads in Europe. They are great off-road vehicles.

[00:13:10.840] - Dave Simpson

Yeah, they truly are. Independent suspension, the swing axel, limited travel as it will be. But you're right, they built it for snow. It has a great traction. It has really good traction. Right.

[00:13:25.420] - Big Rich Klein

Then you got to race the first time on your own. What was your first race?

[00:13:32.500] - Dave Simpson

My first race was the 1977 Baja International, the Baja 500. This is another funny story. I was 17 years old, and I had to get a notarized, written permission slip from my mother to race. That was pretty cool. We built the car ourselves, me and my partner, Dennis Webb. We got down there. We had done a little pre Baja tech at a saddleback, a little short course race that we did a little shakedown. Our car was a brand new, a different design. It was an unlimited car. It's more like a 12, 1,600. Today, it had a 2180 with a bus box and IRS in the back and LinkedIn, but pretty small car, and it didn't have a diagonal crossbar. I learned a lot about politics and engineering and chassis design, and they weren't going to let us race. I'm like, What do you mean you wouldn't let us race? Because we didn't have this bar. What was for our own safety? They had teched the car a couple of weeks before. We got around it, and they let us race. Thank God, we never really needed it. But that was our first experience. There was a lot of cars back then.

[00:14:53.920] - Dave Simpson

I think we got like, I don't know, 16, 15, 16. It doesn't really matter. But we finished We learned a lot. We learned how to be dedicated, how to put our heads down, how to pre-run. I was pre-runing in that 1965 Volkswagen Baja bug. Nice. I raced against the Mcmillons. That's the fun thing.

[00:15:19.520] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome. And now we're sitting on the board with them, with one of them.

[00:15:23.260] - Dave Simpson

Yeah, exactly.

[00:15:26.120] - Big Rich Klein

And then in '78, you raced the 1,000. Is Is that correct?

[00:15:31.840] - Dave Simpson

Yeah. Dennis went to engineering school. I raced a lot of races that aren't really on this list. But that was a pivotal race. That was the race that started in Mexicali and ended in Encinada, and it rained the whole time. I have a great picture of Sal Fish and I at the finish line. Open windshield, no open helmets, no parker pumper, no windshield wipes in the mud for the whole day, and we ended up coming in second. It was just a survival thing. But it's tenacity. It's finishing what you signed up for, and don't quit. I think a lot of people just quit, and we just put our heads down and kept going. And we did good.

[00:16:24.380] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Second place is awesome.

[00:16:27.180] - Dave Simpson

Yeah. I've gotten an In the thousand, I've won a few times. I've got a second a bunch of times. I'm a competitive guy, and I didn't learn how to be competitive until later in life. So again, I was very shy, and I was introverted, and I never did much. But once you get that competitive feeling in that spirit, it goes a long ways, and it really makes you go to win, and I go to win to this day.

[00:16:58.620] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I get And that's an important trait. It really is. I think being competitive keeps you not only motivated to keep winning and doing better, not just in racing, but just in life in general. It's hard to have that competitive desire and work a minimum Home wage, 9: 00 to 5: 00 job type thing. Staying at McDonald's your whole life, being a competitive person isn't going to cut it.

[00:17:38.220] - Dave Simpson

Yeah, I didn't really realize that when I was working for my dad's auto parts business, he made me go be an outside salesman. I hated it because I was too shy. I didn't realize what that was training me to do in life. Later on, I would go to work for Rancho Suspension, and I figured out, wow, it's a sales job. This is what I should be doing. I loved it. And the more pressure, and racing is the same way. You do your homework beforehand. You win the race in the garage and building a team and building a car. The same applies to life and to customers and business. It really does.

[00:18:17.060] - Big Rich Klein

Right. I think a lot of people don't realize that when they're dealing with companies, whether it's on a marketing deal, sponsorship, however you want to name it, is doing their research. They'll pick a company, say, and go, Hey, I want to go. I want that guy as a partner or a sponsor. And they just walk in and ask, and they don't even know what they can give the person in return or what the person may want in return, how they can help that company.

[00:18:50.400] - Dave Simpson

I'll do a segue, and I don't need to derail this. No, it's all good. I think that's a great point. I'm going to tell you a little story. I It's down in San Felipe for the 250. I was by myself. I have a really nice Bronco that I used to pre-run in. It's caged in shocks and seats and computers, and it's got all the stuff that you need. It's got 100,000 miles in Mexico on it. But I was down there by myself. I got a call from my boss at AFE Power, and he needed me to come in. He needed a sales manager. I'm like, Well, I'm in Mexico. Well, we really need you. We really need you. I drove home with a yellow pad of paper, and that's an eight-hour drive, and I wrote a business plan. When I went into the interview, I was talking and I said, Well, this and that. I had a few questions, and I said, Oh, by the way, I brought a plan. They're like, What? You brought a business plan? Yeah. If I'm going to run this division, I need a plan. He's like, Nobody has ever done that.

[00:20:09.280] - Dave Simpson

I read on my plan, whether it worked or not, it's immaterial. At least I had a plan. Nick didn't let me leave the company. He said, No, you're not leaving until you sign. We're going to take you. I was there for 19 years. It was a great fit. It was a great, great fit.

[00:20:27.320] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. Yeah. And jumping around is not going to be a big issue in this interview. So when something hits me, I've got to ask the question or make the statement.

[00:20:40.340] - Dave Simpson

Well, that's my problem. I have ADD, so bad. If I see something shiny, I got to tell you, not too far.

[00:20:46.620] - Big Rich Klein

I understand that completely. So let's talk about some of you. I know that you're racing off road, young. Then you got into the opportunity to do some other types of racing?

[00:21:07.300] - Dave Simpson

I've been racing off road a lot. I've raced a lot of different classes from cars and trucks and buggies and whatnot. And again, when I started out, Rich, and I said about my first Volkswagen, I got that Volkswagen Bug. And I have built a drag racing Volkswagen Beetle. And back in the day, this is the mid '80s, and we had a lot of fun with it. I had some friends. I wasn't a big drag race guy, but it was fun. We went drag racing. But I really wanted to go to Bonneville, and I still didn't make Bonneville, but I took it to El Mirage a couple of times. And one time I drove it at 120 miles an hour, and one time at 150 miles an hour. A couple of different set-up, same car. It was scary light, and It was crazy. I was young and crazy back then and all that stuff. But yeah, I mean, and it's just motorsports, and it's competition. It's arguably off road at El Mirage, but it's dirt, I guess, right? It's spending the time and the dedication and the research in your garage at home and saying, Hey, this is what I want to go do.

[00:22:29.180] - Dave Simpson

You just make it happen. We had a great time. I am building another car. I have a drop tank out of a Mustang airplane, and they built the race cars out of that. Well, I'm going to build one and go back to El Mirage or Bonneville, and I'll get that done one of these days. But I bought a Formula V race car. I split the tank in half, and I'm surrounding it with the tank. Again, It's Volkswagen power. It'll be a lot of fun.

[00:23:03.740] - Big Rich Klein

I have to ask, in El Mirage, when you went 150 miles an hour, did it have a Volkswagen Bug body?

[00:23:11.800] - Dave Simpson

Yes, yes.

[00:23:12.690] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, my Lord.

[00:23:14.260] - Dave Simpson

The car had a small turbo motor in it originally, and then my partner built a big turbo, 2332, a big turbo. I said, Well, it's too short. I cut it in front of the windshield and stretched it out a foot and and a half. But it was a full-body Volkswagen Beatle, and it was guttet. There wasn't much to it. Right.

[00:23:37.840] - Big Rich Klein

150. They're not real aerodynamic.

[00:23:41.600] - Dave Simpson

Well, it's an upside down wing. It's round on the top and flat on the bottom.

[00:23:47.000] - Big Rich Klein

You had a chance to race Pikes Peak as well?

[00:23:56.140] - Dave Simpson

I did not race Pikes Peak. I put that on my list. There was an MDR race. I was a good friend of Walt Lott. I'm a good friend of his grandson today. He's another big Volkswagen guy. Walt had a short course race at a place called Pikes Peak. It was called Pikes Peak Meadows. It was a horse track. It was a horse track. It was at the base of Pikes Peak. We loaded up the car, class 2 car, 2180, changed the tires and the motor and the carburetors a little bit. We went back there and I did good. I won the race, and it was a big deal. It was a big deal.

[00:24:39.080] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. Then at the same time you're racing cars, were you racing motorcycling The motor cycles as well?

[00:24:47.100] - Dave Simpson

Well, the motor cycles came and went through the years, depending on... If I didn't have a car, I would revert back to the bikes. I love motor cycles. I love them today. I It was pretty active in the district 37 stuff. I raced Barstow to Vegas a couple of times. I did a protest ride that was sponsored, and one of the guys was, again, Malcolm Smith. It was a ride because it was a protest because they took Barstow to Vegas away from us. I did good with that. And then in the later years, I bought a KX500. That was the bike of the day. I raced some Baja races with it. I was blessed to win the points champion in class 30 in 1995. I have a great story about racing the thousand. That year, it went from Tijuana to La Paz. It was 1,300 miles. And we did it on a bicycle, a motorcycle. We had four riders, and I took four different sections myself. And I remember getting the bike in San Ignacio for my second leg at one in the morning, and we had no lights. Our lighting coil took a shit.

[00:26:12.800] - Dave Simpson

And back then, there wasn't the equipment and the technology. I had a little light on my helmet. I said, Well, guys, we don't have the parts to get this fixed. We could sit here and wait for the sun to go up, or I could just go slow and see if I could put in another or 100 miles and get down the road because we're not giving up. I just kept going. I rode all night with no lights, and I crashed 100 times. That silt bed in dust of glory where the bike goes through there and you almost crashed. I crashed in that, and it was pitch black, and I got up, and I couldn't find my motorcycle. It was laying over in this silt, and it was dark, and I'm feeling around. It was crazy. I found it and got it and got going. And long story short, we made it all the way to La Paz, and we had a good ride, but we won the points. That was a big part, a big deal. But the thing is, the funny thing, Rich, is this. I won Class 30, that's a 30-year-old guy, unlimited bike, and that was on a KX500.

[00:27:24.380] - Dave Simpson

And I got another Yamaha, blah, blah, blah. Well, I want Class 30. I I should be able to Class 40. I didn't. And then I should run class 50. I didn't. And now I'm working on class 70. I don't know if I want to get back on a bike again, but I do like motor cycles. I do. That first thousand with Malcolm, once you get on a bike, it is part of you for sure.

[00:27:50.220] - Big Rich Klein

Interesting. So about that time, I guess it was a little earlier than the class Class 30 Championship, you went to work for Rancho Suspension. You mentioned that. How did that come about? And what job did you have?

[00:28:12.580] - Dave Simpson

Well, what happened was I worked for my dad's auto parts business. He had a wholesale and some retail stores. He had a partner. Kind of a long story. Unfortunately, he ended up losing the business. Now, that was one of the lessons that I learned in business is I couldn't have learned in college to watch what he did right and what he did wrong and et cetera. I needed a job. I found an ad for Rancho Suspension in the LA Times. This was before the internet and whatnot. One of the lines that my dad sold was Monroe Shox. Well, Monroe owned Rancho. I had won various awards through the years with Monroe, and they sent me on trips and whatnot. And I put that on my resume. I sent in. They hired me. I had a great run with Rancho. I learned a lot, but it also brought me close to a couple of guys. One is Rod Hall. Rod and Rancho were good business partners. We worked on that Lightning Rod race shock before anybody. This is way before Chester and King and Fox and all that stuff. And got to work with Nelson and Nelson and Racklin.

[00:29:28.800] - Dave Simpson

And that That was the fun part, man. I was working a job that didn't seem like work. I love racing. I went to 100 shows. I've been to FEMA probably 30 times, and I just live in it. And And it was good. It was a great ride for sure.

[00:29:48.620] - Big Rich Klein

And was that how you got involved with the Camel Trophy?

[00:29:54.700] - Dave Simpson

I was at FEMA. I will say yes to that answer. I was at Cema, and I was walking around, and there was a booth by Super Winch, the wench guys. And there was a guy there by the name of Chuck Thompson. I just shot this shit with him. Nice guy. Turned out he was the President. And they had a Landrover discovery with all this stuff on it in their booth. I asked him, I said, So what is this Camel Trophy thing? Oh, so he told me about it. It's funny because most people don't even understand what Camel Trophy is. And so he, Well, what do you do? Well, I run. I was a marathon runner back in those days. I raced vehicles, I raced off road. I do all this stuff. I was a Boy Scout. He said, This thing is meant for you. And I didn't know at its time, but it was. He sent me an application for a camel trophy. That was in like 1993. It was too late that year. But I filled it out and sent it in. There was a guy who ran the US team called Tom Collins.

[00:31:03.440] - Dave Simpson

Really nice guy. He should be inducted into the Off-Road Motors Hall of Fame. A little side note there. They sent me an application. I filled it out. In the US that year, we had about 900 applicants. Just by comparison, in Spain, they have 13,000. It's a European event. There's not many people that know what it was. It's not around anymore. Twenty countries, identically prepared Landrover discoveries, diesel engines, mechanical diesels that are made to run underwater. And they picked me to go to the US trials. There was 10 of us that competed for 36 hours nonstop, running and winching and driving and and navigating and rallying. They picked four of us out of that, which I made. I went back to Rancho, and I told them all this time that I'm going to need to go do this competition because I'm going. I told them, I'll quit if I have to. They said, You're not going to quit, man. That was such a supportive thing. Go out, do your thing, and come back. They sent me to Istanbul, Turkey, for the international tryouts with the other three guys, the US guys, and we battled it out for a week or so.

[00:32:37.070] - Dave Simpson

Then they picked me and a guy named Mac Barber to represent the United States. My year was in South America, Argentina, Paraguay, and Chile. And we did the Camel Trophy. Now, I learned a lot. I think that really was the turning point in my life that made me more I'm self-assured and not so shy. I really think that is. It changed my life for sure. And we came in, I think, fourth or something like that, which was a bummer because I went to win. You really shouldn't do that. You should just go as an adventure thing. But yeah, that was a big feather in my cap. The interesting thing is there's not a whole lot of people that know what it is. If you look it up, it's pretty cool.

[00:33:31.360] - Big Rich Klein

Most of us old timers in the four wheel drive side of the industry know Camel Trophy because we all had our heads in the magazines. And of course, the Petersons always Their magazines always covered that stuff. So a lot of us knew that. And it's interesting because I just watched a video that somebody had online where the guy was talking I thought how narrow tires are better than wide tires. And that's why they were used in the Camel Trophy. And not a flotation tire, but a narrow tire. And I'm thinking, they're land cruisers. There's no room for a flotation tire. That's not why they use those tires.

[00:34:19.840] - Dave Simpson

Well, and the thing is, it was mud. That was a little different, and open differentials were a little different. And the The mud and open disks were... It was new to me.

[00:34:33.800] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Luckily, you had winches.

[00:34:37.660] - Dave Simpson

Well, we used them a lot. We used them a lot. I messed the cable up, but there's a whole other story about that. I can tell you, we prepped, we trained, we traveled light. I wore the same pants and the same shirt for three weeks. We started out on the jungles and we ended up in the desert. It was the heck I'm going to bet. I'm really proud to have done that for sure.

[00:35:10.260] - Big Rich Klein

Is there support teams at Dakar and stuff, or do you guys go out there on your... You went out there on your own. Was there a bivouac set-ups, or how did that work?

[00:35:24.800] - Dave Simpson

We lived in a tent in a sleeping bag. Like I said, I wore the the same pants and the same shirt. I took three pairs of underwear, and I can remember forcing myself to take a journal, which I have, every night and say my prayers and thank God that I'm here. I would strip off my wet, muddy underwear and put on clean, dry underwear, which is heaven, and get in my sleeping bag, and get up first thing in the morning and pull off clean, dry underwear and put on wet, muddy the underwear, and wet, muddy pants and a shirt. And so we lived in a tent. No showers, nothing like that. We brought the food. I walked on the airplane with the food I was going to eat for three weeks. There was support guys there, because of the whole Camel Trophy thing was a giant marketing event, and there was tons of journalists, and magazines, and whatnot. And they were there to help. But in reality, you're on your own. And so, part of it is just like pre-runting, on a day, get from point A to point B, like a liaison in Dakar.

[00:36:41.280] - Dave Simpson

And then some of the events are your team with other countries. Some You're by yourself. A lot of that's the luck of the draw and how you do and that thing. It was a great event. Learned a lot.

[00:36:56.480] - Big Rich Klein

I heard rumors that somebody was talking about trying to to bring that back. It'd be interesting to see something like that.

[00:37:04.160] - Dave Simpson

I get a call every now and then, and somebody that's trying to do that, and would you be interested to help? The answer is, of course I would. I'd be all over that. The thing that's neat about Camel Trophy is it's designed for amateurs. Once you do it once, you can't come back. I think that's a nice thing. It's not like racing Baha. It's an amateur event, but there's professionals, and you can race it as many times as you walk.

[00:37:33.660] - Big Rich Klein

Then the next year, it seems that you did a war and adventure in Turkey. Talk about that.

[00:37:41.940] - Dave Simpson

Yes. I got a call, and it was a gal that worked at Ford. I had known her from my days at Rancho with the project vehicles. She was putting a team together, wanted to know if I wanted to navigate. I'm like, Really? I How do you know me? She said, Well, I did my research. I thought that was interesting. That was nice. Warren, the witch company, had put on an event. It was just called the Warren Adventure. It was in Turkey. The event comprised of a three-vehicle team with six people. It was a GPS team. It was a GPS event. Camel Trophy, I'll back up one second. We had two days of using GPS GPSes. Back then, GPSes were not the GPS as they were today. It's just an electronic device that does math and tells you where you are. It's not a map or anything like that. This Warranty venture was the same thing. They gave you a roadbook that had GPS checkpoints, and I would put it on a topographical map, and we would go find them. You got points depending on. You had to take all three vehicles and take a picture to prove that you were there.

[00:39:00.900] - Dave Simpson

We put a team together, and we flew three full-size Broncos to Madrid, Spain. We had to take them apart to fit them in the airplanes. We got there and spent a day putting tires and winches and bumpers and lights back on them. Then we drove from Madrid down to Gibraltar and took a ferry with a lot of other teams that was mostly European to Istanbul. We got in the country. We did a parade. We went out. We did this race of sorts. It was a great deal. Well, we were doing extremely, extremely well in this thing, and we ended up breaking down. One of the wheelbarrions went out on the Bronco. And again, I was prepared. I brought some food and whatnot. I ended up staying with the vehicle, and the rest of the team We dropped out of the race. They went to Casa Blanca to get some parts and come back and let's fix this thing and drive it home, thing. But it was a great adventure. I got to live with these people in the middle of the desert and be part of their lives. And again, it was a wonderful, wonderful adventure.

[00:40:23.000] - Dave Simpson

And I'm glad I was part of it.

[00:40:26.120] - Big Rich Klein

So while you're out there broken down with the vehicle waiting for help, did locals come out? What was that like being out there?

[00:40:44.260] - Dave Simpson

One of the gals ended up staying with me. They were very, very poor. Dirt houses, dirt floors. They slaughter a goat for us, which was a big deal. They We had fields of vegetables. They took us out in the fields, and they were very proud because they had a well. The well had an old single throw engine, and it I didn't start. I went down there, got a starter for them. We pump the water out, we put it in buckets, and we hand watered the fields with buckets of water. They took the buckets out of my hands because that's women's work. Crazy, right? There were no No men out there at all. They brought us into their house. They prepared a meal. All the men were there. We sat in the living room together. These guys speak Arabic. I don't speak that. It was a wonderful experience. And Dev and the other women from the tribe were in another room, and they brought the food in one platter. We ate it with our hands on the floor. When we were done, we ate what we wanted. They took plate into the kitchen, and the women ate what was left.

[00:42:04.080] - Dave Simpson

And when they were done, they gave it to the kids, and they got what was left out of that. That's the experience we had. And it choked me up. The neat thing is we put care packages together for those kids because they wanted our pencils and paper more than anything else. We sent them toothbrush and toothpaste because their teeth were really, really bad.

[00:42:32.300] - Big Rich Klein

Right. How long were you there in that situation?

[00:42:39.540] - Dave Simpson

Only for a few days, a couple of days. One of the things you learn in life is you have some close friends, and I gave them phone numbers and names. I said, You call these guys in the States and tell them Dave broke down in Africa, and he needs this part, and you see what they do for you. That's a nice thing. They got the parts. We got them in there and got it fixed. But it was way too late to finish the event.

[00:43:11.180] - Big Rich Klein

What an experience. That's crazy.

[00:43:14.680] - Dave Simpson

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:43:16.800] - Big Rich Klein

That another life-changing moment.

[00:43:19.440] - Dave Simpson

Yeah. Third-world country.

[00:43:21.560] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. So then running down the list here, and I know there's probably things in between and all, but you went to work... Well, before you went to work there, you ran the Baja 2000? In 2000?

[00:43:38.940] - Dave Simpson

Yeah. So we built it. This guy from Ford gave me a dollar vehicle. We prepped it. We raced a few races, and we built it for the Baja 2000. We had some friends and partners and whatnot, and we never really... We didn't do so good in that race because we thought it was a Class 8 car not a full stop. But one of the drivers ended up ripping the rear end out and that thing. And so, hey, that's okay. It's racing. But we ended up campaigning that truck for a few years. We Raced it in three of the thousands. We had some good times. We did it on a shoestring. We got third one year racing that truck against Rod Hall. Again, one of my a hero. And we drove it from Riverside, where we built the truck, to Intanada, raced the thousand and drove it home. Wow. Crazy. It got rolled down by San Felipe. It was beat up. One of the things is, is nobody put oil in the transfer case. On the way home, during the race, the transfer case would get so hot, it would get the transmission hot, and the transmission would turn off.

[00:45:02.680] - Dave Simpson

The car would go into limp mode. We had just a ton of issues, but we made it. On the way home, the transfer case said, That's enough, and just absolutely exploded. Which was interesting. But yeah, that was a good part. That's another vehicle. It was a good part of it. Yeah, for sure.

[00:45:26.400] - Big Rich Klein

Then after that, 2003 is when you went to to AFE Power.

[00:45:32.540] - Dave Simpson

Yeah, that was a good ride. I just retired in May. I'm good friends with CEO. Nick was the head engineer at KNN for years. He started the company. He went to a Canin and wanted to make a KNN plus or a Canin Gold, or extra, like a Chevy truck versus a GMC truck. One just is a little bit better. One costs a little bit more. He wanted to do the same with filters. They didn't want to do it, so he started his own company. And it was a great, great run. In the last few years, it was neat because I was the VP of Sales there, and I got involved with a lot of the trophy truck teams. And it started with the Hearst and Joe Gibbs. And we built the filters for those guys. And I'd go to the engine factory and all that stuff. And they've been using our filters for a while. And then with that, some of the other, the Mason guys and the Kroyer guys, and all the guys are using our filters. So it's neat that I'm still that part of it, but on the business side for sure.

[00:46:46.860] - Dave Simpson

But man, it's been so cool because it's in my blood.

[00:46:53.120] - Big Rich Klein

It's a lot of fun. Pretty much everything that you've done since 1970 has been off-road related?

[00:47:03.600] - Dave Simpson

Yeah, it really has. It truly has.

[00:47:08.020] - Big Rich Klein

Then let's talk about Kilimanjaro.

[00:47:13.420] - Dave Simpson

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So like I said, I was a Boy Scout. We were a big hiking troupe. I was on the top of Mount Whitney when I was 14. I I was running marathons and trying to stay in shape, and that's difficult when you get older and whatnot. And then my dad had passed away, and I needed something to... I just needed something out there. Just something. And I always wanted to do Kilimanjaro. And so it's just like racing the thousand. You have to have the dedication, and you have to have a plan. And I spent four months Going to the gym three times a week, running three times a week, and climbing all the local mountains on every Saturday. And I took it very, very seriously. I flew to Tanzania. I was with a group. It was a eight-day hike, living in a tent with no showers in the same clothes. Again, I think I have some experience with that. It's 18,000 feet high. That's Camp 1 at Everest. I was with a group of 10 hikers and support staff and whatnot. Out of the 10, only four of us made it to the top.

[00:48:50.850] - Dave Simpson

It was a big, big deal. I was unfortunate that I lost my my mentor. I cremated him. Sorry. I took some of his ashes and put him at the top of Kilimanjaro, instead of prayer.

[00:49:13.440] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome.

[00:49:14.560] - Dave Simpson

Yeah, That's cool. And there is something else I did is I took a golf ball, a golf club, and hit it off the top.

[00:49:22.420] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[00:49:23.940] - Dave Simpson

Right?

[00:49:25.000] - Big Rich Klein

So are you a golfer?

[00:49:27.380] - Dave Simpson

No, I'm a hacker.

[00:49:28.640] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, you're a hacker.

[00:49:30.840] - Dave Simpson

I love playing golf. I really do, but I'm not very good at it.

[00:49:34.980] - Big Rich Klein

Well, good. Then do you know about what we're doing with our spring event?

[00:49:39.780] - Dave Simpson

I do. I do. So I want to be part of that for sure. Cool.

[00:49:43.840] - Big Rich Klein

So then let's jump ahead to 2025. This last year, we just finished it off. One of the things on your on your list, it says Half Dome. So Talk about that.

[00:50:02.940] - Dave Simpson

Yeah. I'm on that plane coming back from Kilimanjaro. It's like, well, now what are you going to do? I was going to go to Australia and climb the highest mountain, and it's like climbing Mount San... It's only like 6000 feet high or something like that. It's crazy. I always wanted to go to Half Dome. It was a big deal. The hard The thing about Half Dome is you need a permit to get up there. I tried for two years to get a permit, and I'm not real good at standing in lines and trying to get a permit to do anything. Then I went with another group because it came with a permit. They went on a little three-day. We hiked around the valley a little bit. We ended up at the base of Half Dome. You go up the backside and you climb the cables. It was a bucket list thing. It was cool. And honestly, I took some of my dad's ashes up there and spread them around as well.

[00:51:08.140] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome. That's cool.

[00:51:10.020] - Dave Simpson

And it's crazy. I don't know how they do it. It's very dangerous. I don't know how people do it.

[00:51:17.480] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I've seen photos of it. I've been to Glacier Point and photographed it, but I never went up the top of Half Dome. It was easier back then when I was in that area a lot, which was the the late '70s, early '80s, but I never felt like I had the time to do that.

[00:51:44.820] - Dave Simpson

When the government closed down because they ran out of budget or money or couldn't agree on anything, there was no ranger enforced the permits. That Half Dome got attacked by tons of people because they didn't need a permit. They just went and did it.

[00:52:02.860] - Big Rich Klein

Nobody died, I guess. I didn't hear about that.

[00:52:06.300] - Dave Simpson

Yeah, right. But they do. They do all the time.

[00:52:10.980] - Big Rich Klein

Then the other thing you've got written down here for 2025 was getting married.

[00:52:17.900] - Dave Simpson

I did get married for the third time to the love of my life. It was a gal that I've met many years ago through another race partner and our lives went in separate directions, and then we hooked up and had a great time. We got married in Thailand on a customer trip, again with AFE, and We stayed after the trip was over and down at Parket, got married on the beach in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. It was wonderful.

[00:52:54.800] - Big Rich Klein

It was wonderful. Nice. Would it be more like a A Thailandi shirt at that point?

[00:53:04.120] - Dave Simpson

Yeah, exactly. What did you have for dinner? That's the Thai food.

[00:53:10.720] - Big Rich Klein

And that's how you say it, the name. Because I always wanted to pronounce it differently.

[00:53:19.140] - Dave Simpson

Yeah. Oh,. Yeah.

[00:53:23.260] - Big Rich Klein

And then, of course, you became a board member on the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame.

[00:53:30.260] - Dave Simpson

You know, Rich, I got to tell you, I am so honored with that. When I worked at Rancho, there was a guy named Colin Butcher. Oh, yes. That was my direct boss. And Colin had, I'm pretty sure it came from him and got me on the voting committee a couple of times. And just for me to sit in the room with guys like yourself and Sal Fish and Alexander Smith, and the list goes on. Then last year, it was probably Josh Hall that got me on the voting committee. Again, I was just honored. I didn't think I was able to do that. Then I got the call from Jeff Furrier. I've known Jeff and his brothers through business for many years. With the companies I've worked for. He said, Yeah, we want you to be on the board. It's like, Holy moly. I'm so honored. I truly am. Just to be part of the group and those people. I've always admired the Mark MacMillon and his family through the years. To be part of that, I'm just humbled. I don't think I'm worthy. I truly don't.

[00:54:56.920] - Big Rich Klein

I completely understand that. When When Rod put together the first meeting, and it was after the Vegas to Reno race, and I want to say it was 2003. It may have been 2002, but I think it was 2003. He put together a meeting after the Vegas-Torino Race with all of the who's who's in off road. And for some reason, I got invited. At that time, and the reason I think it was 2003 is because that's when I had taken over Vora from Ed Robinson. And so I was doing the Cal Rocks rock crawling, and I was doing Vora racing, and I had met Rod at Vora. And all of a sudden, I'm in this room with all of these who's who's, right? And I'm standing there with Walker Evans and Jeff Cummings. And Rod is talking about what he wants to do with the Hall of Fame. And after that, he's asking for help from everybody. And donations or time or whatever. And I talked to him and he said, Rich, I want you on the board. And I'm like, oh, man, I'm brand new to all of this. I was the pup in the room.

[00:56:31.040] - Big Rich Klein

And I didn't feel I was worthy, like you said. I turned him down. I have to tell you that that was probably my biggest regret in off-road ever was turning down the opportunity to be involved from the beginning of Rod's reign of the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame. When I finally got a chance to to redeem myself on that, it was something I was jumping at. And it was because of the podcast, I think, is where I got the recognition from the rest of the... From Mark and the board at that point to be asked to come on. And I jumped on it. To me, it was pretty important, and it still is. Yes. Oh, you got pups.

[00:57:25.200] - Dave Simpson

Oh, I got pups. Yeah.

[00:57:27.920] - Big Rich Klein

So what pups you got?

[00:57:30.400] - Dave Simpson

Oh, we have a Husky mix, rescue dog. We have my dad's old mix dog, and my wife's got a multi poodle mix.

[00:57:46.660] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. What's in the future for Dave?

[00:57:55.500] - Dave Simpson

I will say I don't know, but I still have some miles in me and race cars. I have a ton of projects that I'm working on. I have seven cars still. The Hall of Fame, for sure. Nick and Rancho has me doing some business stuff for them. So I have a good friend that's getting married I'm buried in Cabo in a couple of months. I don't have a definite thumb tack on the wall, per se, but I'm not going anywhere. I still have my house.

[00:58:43.300] - Big Rich Klein

Great. So nothing on the line of climbing Kilimanjaro?

[00:58:49.540] - Dave Simpson

No, I don't really see that next, but I wouldn't put it past me. I wouldn't go back to Kilimanjaro Mounjaro unless somebody like you said, Hey, Dave, I want to go. Will you go with me? I don't have a desire to do it twice.

[00:59:08.020] - Big Rich Klein

Understood. You'll never get me climbing like that. Not with my knees. No way. Maybe after they get replaced.

[00:59:19.160] - Dave Simpson

Right. Well, Georgette is going to do the same thing. She's had one done, and she's going to have another one done.

[00:59:26.880] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. Dave, I want to say thank Thank you so much for coming on board and talking about your life and your experiences. It's great to get to know you better. I'm looking forward to the future of serving on the board of directors with you and some of the things that we have coming up, and we'll be able to hopefully spend some time together.

[00:59:47.860] - Dave Simpson

Well, I appreciate your time this morning, Rich. Yeah, likewise. I look forward to getting to know you better and doing some events and helping the whole organization get a whole new level.

[01:00:01.540] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. Thank you. Have a great day, and I'll talk to you at the next board meeting.

[01:00:08.300] - Dave Simpson

Okay, my friend. Have a great day, and thanks for your time.

[01:00:10.910] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, you too.

[01:00:11.720] - Dave Simpson

Bye-bye. All right. Bye.

[01:00:14.200] - Big Rich Klein

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