Conversations with Big Rich
Hear conversations with the legacy stars of rockcrawling and off-road. Big Rich interviews the leaders in rock sports.
Conversations with Big Rich
Explore Scott Rehn's Motorsports Journey on Episode 325
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Scott Rehn joins the podcast to discuss his colorful career across multiple motorsports disciplines—from motocross and late-model dirt track racing to short-course off-road, water skiing, Monster Jam, and beyond. Learn how an unplanned career launch led to decades in broadcasting.
Early Racing Years
Scott tried motocross as a teenager but found his true passion in late-model stock car racing. At just 17, a car appeared in his driveway—courtesy of a customer at his dad's grocery store—launching him into racing with zero experience. After five years racing dirt tracks, the grocery store closed and Scott shifted to spectating and crew work.
The Off-Road Discovery
His sister Valerie's success racing short-course trucks led Scott to Crandon Speedway, where he instantly fell in love. He describes feeling the ground move during the races—a moment that "hooked" him on the sport forever.
Broadcasting Breakthrough
Originally a professional water skier and announcer, Scott reluctantly filled in as a short-course race announcer when the regular crew needed a break. His mother literally dragged him to the booth. That one weekend led to an ESPN2 opportunity with Marty Reed, launching a broadcasting career that took him from pit reporting to stadium racing to Monster Jam.
Highlights Across Sports
Scott's career spans watercross (snowmobiles racing on water), stadium off-road championships, Red Bull Frozen Rush in Sweden, King of the Hammers, and nearly 20 years with Monster Jam. He's worked alongside industry legends including Jimmie Johnson.
From California to Oklahoma
After the CORE series ended, Scott relocated to Oklahoma, where he now works as a brand ambassador and semi-truck driver for a Ford Racing marketing company, hauling NASCAR rigs. He's transitioned from TV to radio work but remains passionate about the off-road sport that started it all.
[00:00:01.760]
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 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 in 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.
[00:00:46.620]
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[00:01:13.210] - Big Rich Klein
My guest this week first tried his hand at riding motocross, then late model sportsman cars, found off-road racing following his sister racing short course, soon became an announcer, and has great stories from all the types of racing he has been involved with. My guest is Scott Rain. Good morning, Scott Rain. It is so good to have you on the podcast. I'm looking forward to this. We've been trying to hook up for a little bit of time, but here we are.
[00:01:44.140] - Scott Rehn
You know, it's my honor. I'm telling you, I've been following you for a long, long time. Our paths cross every once in a while, and It— I can't believe you're calling me.
[00:01:58.270] - Big Rich Klein
Well, let's dive into your history. And we'll explore why I called you.
[00:02:04.890] - Scott Rehn
Awesome. Let's do it.
[00:02:06.530] - Big Rich Klein
Okay, so first question I ask everybody is, where were you born and raised?
[00:02:11.190] - Scott Rehn
Well, I was born in northern Wisconsin, probably about a half hour or so north of Green Bay, in a small town of Oconto, Wisconsin. But for the most part, I grew up in a small town outside— at that time, it was a small town outside Milwaukee called Heartland, Wisconsin. And I grew up there, went to high school there, went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater for a few years, never graduated. I kind of did the John— or Jim Belushi thing and partied out.
[00:02:41.730] - Big Rich Klein
Right. Okay. Well, that's— that sounds familiar.
[00:02:46.600] - Scott Rehn
Yeah, luckily more people have done that than actually graduated. So yeah, I'm somewhat embarrassed by it, but you know, I had some growing up to do, man.
[00:02:57.520] - Big Rich Klein
Right. So let's talk about those early years. As a kid growing up, what were your interests, you know, in those early years? I mean, did you ride bikes, skateboard? You know, what, what would— what, what did you find yourself doing?
[00:03:15.560] - Scott Rehn
Well, I was kind of a scatterbrain, man. I, I don't know if I had, uh, uh, I just— I was just all over the place. Um, I was really— I got to a point where I, I liked racing. We were watching NASCAR at the time on TV. Um, I had no vision, no aspirations, no dreams, um, at the young age. Um, I got my hands on an RM 125 dirt bike in the late '70s, and I fell in love with motocross. I tried that a couple of times. I was not a motocross rider. Had a blast, but just wasn't— I wasn't confident, and I had no skill. But the passion for motorsports or racing started to evolve. And my dad had a major grocery store in town. And obviously, with that kind of thing, you know, he meets people, starts talking to people. And next thing you know, he's— one of our customers races sprint cars and stock cars at Hills Corner Speedway in Milwaukee and invited my, you know, my dad and me and my brother, because he was younger than me. To tag along. And holy smokes, we got bit by the bug hard.
[00:04:37.110] - Scott Rehn
And, uh, uh, it was crazy because all of a sudden— I want to say it was my 17th, I wasn't quite 18 yet if I remember right, uh, came home from the store one time and there's a dirt track late model sitting in the driveway. I'm like, what's going on here? And evidently my dad worked out some deal with with another person that shopped at the store, says, you come up with a motor, here's the car, let's go racing. And for whatever reason, my dad take me as the guy that was gonna be driving. And I had no idea what I was gonna be doing. I had no clue. And so we went racing and I mean, just a funny sidebar story. I had no idea what wedge was. I had no idea the tire pressures are different. I had no idea nothing. Yeah.
[00:05:27.630] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[00:05:28.710] - Scott Rehn
And we're out there qualifying on a dirt track for the first time ever. I was hand over hand steering all the way down the straightaway, all over the place in the turns, all over the place. And I'm like, I have no idea what's going on. I pull back into the pits. I'm like, what's going on? What am I doing wrong? And all of a sudden I notice some of these cars had like almost flat tires and I walked up to a guy in line to go out qualifying again. And he goes, well, what do you want running for tire pressure? I go, 35 all the way around. He started laughing his ass off. And he walked up to the car, looked at it. And he's just— he just gave me general numbers and, okay, you want to run 12 there, 8 there, 22 here, and, you know, that kind of thing. I'm like, what? Yeah. And it just started improving from there. But yeah, I got into motorsports not having a clue what I was doing. And then to start in the premier division at that racetrack, I was in over my head. I felt like I was not knowing at the time, though.
[00:06:39.480] - Scott Rehn
I was walked out to the end of the pier and shoved in and told to learn how to swim.
[00:06:45.120] - Big Rich Klein
With sharks all around.
[00:06:46.480] - Scott Rehn
Oh, boy. Yeah, I remember. It's funny because you know, there's 2 cars on the track qualifying at a time. And they had, you know, it's a cool system. I know you're familiar with that kind of thing, but I had the former track champion in front of me and the current track points leader behind me, and I got lapped in a 2-lap qualifying session. I was just in everybody's way and I was not. I mean, I was just a scrawny little 130-pound kid at the time, and no one is paying me attention, and they're just kind of flagging me off, and rightfully so. I was in over my head.
[00:07:24.980] - Big Rich Klein
So you got that blue flag with the yellow stripe, huh?
[00:07:29.980] - Scott Rehn
Uh, no, it started with that. It started with the black one.
[00:07:34.360] - Big Rich Klein
Oh, wow. Okay.
[00:07:36.180] - Scott Rehn
And another funny story is that I remember I was getting the hang of things, kind of, But all of a sudden, for whatever reason, we're at Beaver Dam Speedway, um, in Wisconsin, and my car starts smoking like crazy, and I can't see. I can look up and I can see the lights around, you know, the track lights. So I'm trying to stay inside those, those lights, and I'm trying to come to a stop, and I'm still going around. I don't have a clue where I'm at. Next thing you know, I hear this Uh, tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink. I look and there's a black flag sitting in the car next to me. The flag man, I guess, was waving it for quite a while and I didn't stop or didn't pull off, and he just finally threw it at me. So yeah, I had the reputation. But, but I sold a lot of buttons and hats at the merchandise stand.
[00:08:33.710] - Big Rich Klein
Really?
[00:08:34.550] - Scott Rehn
Yeah.
[00:08:37.190] - Big Rich Klein
Oh wow. And what was all that smoke?
[00:08:42.970] - Scott Rehn
I think, if I remember right, the oil breather was leaking onto the headers.
[00:08:48.670] - Big Rich Klein
All right. So you weren't on fire, you know, you didn't pull a Ricky Bobby.
[00:08:54.030] - Scott Rehn
No, which that's a whole nother story, which you might have heard about a couple years ago, but yeah, no.
[00:09:00.390] - Big Rich Klein
Oh no, we'll have to get into that. Okay.
[00:09:03.490] - Scott Rehn
Brad Lovell knows all about it.
[00:09:05.350] - Big Rich Klein
Oh, Brad does, huh?
[00:09:06.350] - Scott Rehn
Okay. He was there.
[00:09:09.210] - Big Rich Klein
So those early years in school, would you consider yourself a good student, like in grade school, high school, or one of those that was always looking out the window to go do something else?
[00:09:22.290] - Scott Rehn
Define good student. Let's put it that way.
[00:09:26.850] - Big Rich Klein
No, you define it.
[00:09:28.790] - Scott Rehn
Yeah, I was an okay student. I was very much in athletics at the time. Like I say, my dad had a grocery store in town and he made a statement, both him and my mom, that if I'm not in a sport after school, I'm going to be working. Boy, I was in every damn sport I could come up with, man, whether it be football, get my butt kicked, or cross country or basketball and not playing. I didn't care. I was in a sport.
[00:09:57.700] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[00:09:58.420] - Scott Rehn
Because I was always working to begin with as it is. I didn't want to work anymore. But, so yeah, I was student-wise, studies-wise, I wasn't— I was about average. I could have been better, but I didn't apply myself at all.
[00:10:12.180] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[00:10:13.580] - Scott Rehn
But athletics, I became pretty good, pretty decent. I traveled a lot actually for track and cross country. I traveled across the country doing special events and special meets. So I was pretty good at running, but that doesn't take any skill set. That just takes strong legs and a big pair of lungs.
[00:10:33.190] - Big Rich Klein
So, so if you're doing track and cross country, you were a distance runner then?
[00:10:39.150] - Scott Rehn
Yeah.
[00:10:39.810] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah.
[00:10:39.990] - Scott Rehn
Okay. Cool. Yeah. And what was funny is as a sophomore, I was the, I think it was the 7th fastest runner in the mile in the country, but I wasn't even the best one in my high school.
[00:10:53.900] - Big Rich Klein
Wow.
[00:10:55.120] - Scott Rehn
Yeah. So, very competitive back in the late '70s, track was, at least in our area in Wisconsin. But, yeah, it was— I learned a lot from running, pushing yourself, enduring the pain. I was semi-psychotic because I was always watching the times in the newspaper of other guys I was competing against, and I always said, okay, he's 2 seconds faster than me. It means I got to go out there and do— run 2 more miles in practice. I was running it before school, uh, obviously in practice, and I was running after practice back at home. And that always set in my head that that would put me that much closer to these guys, or maybe even put me ahead if I got that many more miles on me.
[00:11:42.330] - Big Rich Klein
Wow, that's pretty— that's dedicated. Um, The only time I did that was with swimming. I was a distance swimmer and—
[00:11:52.310] - Scott Rehn
That's hard.
[00:11:53.070] - Big Rich Klein
That's the only thing. I mean, I didn't mind swimming a mile, but man, I did not wanna run a mile.
[00:12:01.730] - Scott Rehn
Dude, I'm a floater. Oh, by the way, I didn't realize it. We share the same birthday, only I'm 4 years younger.
[00:12:10.030] - Big Rich Klein
Really?
[00:12:11.400] - Scott Rehn
Yeah.
[00:12:11.760] - Big Rich Klein
Wow.
[00:12:12.440] - Scott Rehn
That's amazing. Happy St. Patrick's Day, man.
[00:12:14.240] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah. Happy. Yeah.
[00:12:15.960] - Scott Rehn
Wow.
[00:12:16.200] - Big Rich Klein
That's amazing. I've not met very many other people that are, that are born on the national drunk driving day.
[00:12:25.840] - Scott Rehn
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a situation where I've got certain friends that like to instigate things. And when I was in college, they would Obviously everybody's out partying already on St. Patrick's Day. And you know, when people start drinking, they turn, turn really generous. And all of a sudden, some one of my friends who's got a big mouth bigger than mine decides to let everybody in the bar know that it's my birthday. Next thing you know, there's 17 shots lined up on the bar.
[00:13:01.150] - Big Rich Klein
And of course, you took the challenge, right?
[00:13:03.570] - Scott Rehn
Yeah, who am I to say no?
[00:13:07.000] - Big Rich Klein
That must have been a painful 18th.
[00:13:10.680] - Scott Rehn
Yeah, it was. Yeah, yeah.
[00:13:13.960] - Big Rich Klein
17 shots will do anybody.
[00:13:16.120] - Scott Rehn
It lasted 3 days. When I'm hungover, it might as well be the flu because it lasts.
[00:13:21.600] - Big Rich Klein
Right. I understand. I've, I've always called St. Patrick's Day the National Amateur Drinking Day. Because at one time when I looked it up, it was the day that most, the most drunk driving arrests happened of the year. Oh, I believe it.
[00:13:43.790] - Scott Rehn
I believe it. I'm from Wisconsin, so we're experts at that stuff.
[00:13:48.670] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[00:13:49.530] - Scott Rehn
We're professionals. I mean, I don't know if you've ever seen that crazy stat where there's like the, 50 drunkest towns or cities in America, and there's like 45 of them are in Wisconsin.
[00:14:04.360] - Big Rich Klein
I just figured that would be because of the long winters.
[00:14:07.240] - Scott Rehn
Well, there's that too. Oh boy.
[00:14:11.040] - Big Rich Klein
So how long did you, uh, did you race the late model stock cars?
[00:14:16.460] - Scott Rehn
Uh, I want to say it was like 5 or 6 years, I think. 5 years. Learned a lot. My dad sold his— sold the grocery store. Just like everything else, the business financed the racing. So we ended up getting out of that and we just became fans. You know, we were going to the racetrack, you know, on Saturday night at Hales Corners and loving every minute of it. And at that time, I got to know— I had got to know a lot of the racers and Ended up being on the crew for one of them and really, really, really enjoyed that. So I stayed involved with it that way. But then at the same time, my little sister Valerie, I don't know if you remember her name, Valerie Rain. She raced, I want to say, 7 years in off-road, in fact.
[00:15:05.500] - Big Rich Klein
Wow.
[00:15:06.540] - Scott Rehn
Did very, very well. She started going to this. She got to be friends with some guys that she works with. Who are into this off-road thing. And, and, uh, so she started going to the races with them, the off-road races. And I, I mean, I had heard at the time of the Brush Run at Crandon. I'm like, or, hey, I never heard of the Brush Run, never heard of Crandon. Um, and I just— I probably shouldn't say it like this, but that's how I was at the time. I just thought it was a bunch of Northwoods rednecks that were bouncing off trees in their, you know, jalopies, and that's what the Brush Run is. I didn't know it was a full-blown race. And so anyways, my sister conned me into going one of these races with her, and it was the very last race at the De Pere, uh, Brown County Fairgrounds in Green Bay. And at the time, Jack Flannery was the big dog there, uh, Kevin Probst was there. Jeff Dorr, you know, at the time the biggest names in that sport were all there. And I'm like sitting up on a hay bale watching this.
[00:16:17.780] - Scott Rehn
I'm like, holy smokes, this is cool. And I couldn't believe it. And so she talked me into going to the next Crandon race. And probably much like you, I don't know if you've ever been there or not, but—
[00:16:32.520] - Big Rich Klein
I have.
[00:16:33.280] - Scott Rehn
I went to Crandon. I sat in the grass up by the barn on the hill, and they threw the green flag. And, you know, at 64 years old, I have no filter, and I don't care, I'm gonna say this. My ass started moving in the hill on the grass. It was an earthquake. The ground started moving. You could barely hear the trucks, but the ground was moving. And when they came around turn 1 and you were finally able to see the trucks, it was such an explosion of sights and sounds and the ground was moving. I don't know why somebody hasn't put a— was it a seismometer? Is that what measures earthquakes?
[00:17:21.000] - Big Rich Klein
Yep.
[00:17:21.220] - Scott Rehn
Why somebody hasn't put that in turn 1. It is— I was— from that point on, I was hooked. Absolutely hooked. And I curse my sister every day because of it.
[00:17:33.530] - Big Rich Klein
Nice, nice, nice, nice. And so that was your first brush run or your first runs. Did you— did she start racing right away? Or did you, you know, how did it all come together?
[00:17:53.050] - Scott Rehn
The guy that— the team that she was hanging out with, I'd say 3 or 4 of the guys on the crew all worked at the paper mill in Fox Valley in Wisconsin. And for whatever reason, everyone always seemed to like my little sister, just thought she was the coolest thing. Well, this guy, Pete Vandehay, was running a Class 8 at the time, which is now a Pro 2. He was running a Class 8 at the time and was doing pretty good with it. And he just got done with, I think it was the Heavy Metal Challenge, and did really well and was in a really good mood. And I want to say it was Fall Crandon, I think. And they still ran women's races at the time, Women's Heavy Metal, I think it was called. And he walked up to my sister and goes, you want to drive? And all of a sudden her jaw dropped to the ground, her eyes got really big like deer in the headlights, and next thing you know we were duct taping, uh, 4x4 blocks to the gas pedal and brake pedal and putting a bunch of pillows in the, in the seat for her.
[00:19:01.670] - Scott Rehn
And, uh, um, she went out and won.
[00:19:05.620] - Big Rich Klein
Wow.
[00:19:06.810] - Scott Rehn
Yeah, and obviously she got bit by the bug pretty hard.
[00:19:11.910] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[00:19:12.790] - Scott Rehn
At that point. And eventually bought, I think, one of Brant's trucks in like a year later, maybe, maybe even sooner. And they started racing in Class 13. And I think of the 7 years she raced, I want to say it was 7, she won the women's championship 5.
[00:19:37.660] - Big Rich Klein
Wow.
[00:19:38.960] - Scott Rehn
Yeah. She was full-blown sponsored by Ford at the time. I mean, they picked her up and they were giving her parts and giving her trucks and all this kind of stuff. And she was doing very, very well for herself. And that was right at the end of SOTA, if you remember that, and right before CORE started with Marty Reed and Jim— what was his last name? Um, Jim Conway.
[00:20:07.070] - Big Rich Klein
Yes, that's it.
[00:20:08.830] - Scott Rehn
Yep. So that's awesome. It's a shame that she didn't continue on, but, uh, that was her decision and you have to respect her for it. But sad to say, in a way, my, my career continued in off-road.
[00:20:23.550] - Big Rich Klein
And, and did you race at that time as well?
[00:20:27.530] - Scott Rehn
No, I was nothing more than a spectator. Um, I kind of figured after I got out of the late models I mean, I would love to have been given the chance, but I wasn't, I'm not one of those guys that runs around the pits and just harps people, or what I consider harping people about driving their car, driving their truck. I'm not one of those guys, you know? And I didn't have a wall to throw at them, you know? So next best thing is to be a spectator. I was really good at that.
[00:21:00.570] - Big Rich Klein
Right. It's a lot cheaper too.
[00:21:03.330] - Scott Rehn
Oh boy. Yeah. And as it turned out, it wasn't long after that that I was actually being paid to go to the racetrack. So it turned out pretty decent for me.
[00:21:12.990] - Big Rich Klein
And explain the being paid to go to the racetrack.
[00:21:17.210] - Scott Rehn
Uh-huh. It's kind of weird you asked this because everything I've done, there's always a sidebar story behind it.
[00:21:25.010] - Big Rich Klein
Perfect. I love sidebar stories.
[00:21:29.020] - Scott Rehn
When— I want to say— when was it? Late '80s, early '90s, I think. I got into water skiing for the first time in my life.
[00:21:38.620] - Big Rich Klein
Okay.
[00:21:39.280] - Scott Rehn
And it didn't take long, and I learned everything. I learned a lot really quick. I had great people to hang out with, made a lot of friends. And next thing you know, I was skiing professionally. And, uh, like slalom or like shows where, you know, you're like, like show skiing, like Tommy Bartlett's, um, jumping, barefooting, pyramids, that kind of stuff.
[00:22:05.290] - Big Rich Klein
Wow.
[00:22:05.950] - Scott Rehn
Um, and one day our announcer wanted to take the day off, and a couple of us guys drew straws, and I drew the short straw. And I was not happy about it. And I hated announcing. I hated it. It's one thing to be a hot dog and hamming it up out on the water and having a good time, but right as an announcer in the water ski show, you're right in front of the crowd, and I hated that. Um, it, it— trying to be a ham in front of that, I just didn't like it at all. So to continue on, I'm still going to the races with my sister And I don't remember exactly how it happened, but my mom had heard— because my mother was going as well, it turned out to be a family thing. Our whole family was going with my sister to these races and helping out where they could. But my mom heard that the announcers were complaining about they needed a break, and then, you know, this is too much, it's too long of a day, blah blah blah blah blah. And if I remember right, she literally had me by the shirt collar, taking me up into the booth.
[00:23:14.680] - Scott Rehn
And I was fighting it the whole time. I said, I don't know this sport. I don't know the drivers. I don't know. I don't know. This is a whole different— another avenue of announcing I've ever done besides the water ski thing. And I was freaking out because you're talking about now being in front of, you know, 10,000, 12,000 people. And that's not me. And so I started up, I started doing it, and the next weekend they liked me, so they wanted me back up in the booth again. And the next weekend they want me up in the booth again. And at the time, I want to say there was like 7 races during the summer, 7 weekends in the SODA Series, and 3 of them were broadcast on ESPN2 by Marty Reed and his production company. Um, and I don't— I, I think you would remember Marty Reed.
[00:24:06.820] - Big Rich Klein
Yes.
[00:24:07.160] - Scott Rehn
But, uh, um, so we never really sat down and had a beer or anything like that, but we— he knew me and I knew him. And as we're crossing paths in the pits, hey Scott, hey Marty, that's about it. And, um, so jump forward, season ended, um, I'm literally standing— I had a two-bedroom condo in Green Bay and I'm watching the snow rolling off the roof during a snowstorm and kind of going, "Oh, geez," you know, kind of thing. And it's like January and I get a phone call. Scott, this is Marty Reed from ESPN. Shut up. Screw you. This is not Marty. Why would he be calling me? This went on for like 30 seconds. I didn't— I thought it was a buddy of mine pranking me, you know? And after about 30 seconds, I kind of put my hat in hand and, "Sorry, Mr. Reed." Um, you gotta understand, I got a couple of friends that, um, would think this is funny. So anyways, it turned into like a, a phone interview. Have you ever done this before? No. Have you ever done that before?
[00:25:11.540] - Big Rich Klein
No.
[00:25:11.730] - Scott Rehn
Ever been here? No. Ever been, you know, there? No. Every question he had was no. And then at one point he goes, you know, I think I can work with this. I'm like, work with what? And he goes, well, the first race is, uh, Memorial Day weekend in Lake Geneva. Um, I'll have, uh, we'll pay you, you know, you know, um, all your expenses. I'll have, you know, you know, the clothing for you, and I'll have your cameraman. So hope to see you there.
[00:25:43.680] - Big Rich Klein
So you were like trackside?
[00:25:46.340] - Scott Rehn
Um, I actually This is the same time that Jimmie Johnson ended up doing the pit reporting for the Sportsman Series because he was driving in a Pro 2 for the Herzogs. I was doing the pit reporting for the Pro Series for the ESPN2 show. So that's how I got to hang out with Jimmie Johnson at the time too. And he was all of what, I think 17, maybe 18. But we were always hanging out. You know, doing that kind of stuff. But yeah, um, I was doing the pit reporting, um, stand-ups on the track or, uh, victory lane interviews.
[00:26:22.700] - Big Rich Klein
Nice.
[00:26:24.140] - Scott Rehn
So it was like, I believe it was Marty in the booth along with Larry Rice and myself in the pits. Awesome.
[00:26:32.340] - Big Rich Klein
And how old were you then?
[00:26:34.140] - Scott Rehn
Uh, boy, I call myself a late bloomer, so I want to say probably late 30s. I, you know, keep in mind, I've got no experience. I've no broadcast journalism degree, no nothing. I was— this time I was being walked out the end of the pier and kicked into the lake, right? Told to swim. I learned a lot. I learned a lot real fast. My Wisconsin twang— hey there, don't you know, toast, boatin'— all that kind of stuff. Came out really, really quick and irritated the producer back in the production truck. And when I get really excited, that's when you hear it really bad. And I never noticed it until Marty Reed lost his mind one at the end of the weekend. "Scott, I can't have you talking like that." He goes, "Go home, sit in front of the mirror, and talk to yourself." And that's what I did. Oh my God. Do try it sometime. If you don't think you have certain mannerisms or habits or whatever, do it in front of a mirror. Your normal stuff in front of a mirror. Oh, is it eye-opening.
[00:27:50.240] - Big Rich Klein
Right? I noticed that when I started podcasting and then having to listen to myself. And I was like, oh my God, I sound like a blithering idiot.
[00:28:00.200] - Scott Rehn
Yeah, I can relate to that one. Um, but I've learned so much from Marty, and I appreciate the opportunity that he gave me because it opened up a million doors for me to go off into other directions, still, but still able to hang on to, um, my off-road roots. No matter what I did, I was hanging on to short course off-road racing, period, because that's what got me into it. And that's where I wanted to stay and I'm not going to let go of it.
[00:28:30.100] - Big Rich Klein
Uh-huh.
[00:28:30.940] - Scott Rehn
So one time, uh, we're racing at Oshkosh and it was downpouring. And at the time, this was still— yeah, this is the first or second year of CORE with Marty Reed running the show. And it— we still raced in the rain. Downpouring, it didn't matter, we raced in it. Um, and I did a stand-up in the back section of the track at Oshkosh Wisconsin, where the rain— the— there was a, uh, I wouldn't even call it a puddle. It was a big rut that was close to being waist deep. And I had the full rain gear on. I didn't care. And I thought it would be kind of cool. No one else had ever done it before. So I went and I crawled into that rut, and I was standing in water looking up at the cameraman, waist deep in the water. And I'm, you know, this is what the guy— the conditions that the guys are racing through. How they handle it, it's up to them. But man, this is a dangerous situation. Um, that whole kind of thing. Um, it turned out pretty cool. But at the time, I didn't know it, there's a gentleman up in the booth by the name of Bill Easterly, um, who was running Monster Jam at the time.
[00:29:37.900] - Scott Rehn
And I never see— I keep in mind, even though I was in the motorsports, I'd never seen a monster truck before, never been to a monster truck show, didn't know nothing about them. And so anyways, he sees— this guy sees me standing in waist-deep in water on camera, and he goes— I guess he tells himself, I gotta meet that guy, I want to talk to him. And I don't know how he did it, but he found my phone number and called me the next week and invited me to come down to Chicago and talk to him and another guy I never heard of. Oh boy, what was it? It wasn't Clear Channel. At the time. I can't remember.
[00:30:16.470] - Big Rich Klein
It's now Feld, I think.
[00:30:18.250] - Scott Rehn
But yeah, yeah, I think it was Pace Motorsports at the time.
[00:30:22.110] - Big Rich Klein
That's right, Pace.
[00:30:24.510] - Scott Rehn
And so they called me down there and they were— they wanted to kind of drill me a little bit about short course off-road racing, which neither one of these two gentlemen knew anything about, and what I thought about starting up a possibility of like a remake of the Mickey Thompson Stadium Series. And I didn't know a whole— now keep in mind, I'm only like 2, 3 years into this whole off-road thing to begin with and following it. I didn't know nothing about no Mickey Thompson stuff. And I'm like, so I was— but still, I'm like, rah rah rah, heck yeah, this could work, that'd be cool. And they ended up with the Pace Motorsports US Off-Road Championship Series, and we ran in stadiums— I want to say 7 or 8 stadiums across the country for like 3 years was the series, and it was pretty cool. It wasn't a Mickey Thompson, there's a little, a little, um, uh, trade-off of that, um, but there was, uh, 4-stroke motorcycles, there was, uh stadium lights, um, Super 1600s. And at the time, Pro Lights was the featured class, and they had monster trucks as well. Um, but it was pretty cool.
[00:31:42.800] - Scott Rehn
We, we were all from everywhere from, uh, Jacksonville, Florida to Seattle Kingdome, um, St. Louis, uh, Phoenix, uh, San Diego, LA Coliseum. It was some It was a pretty cool tour. And again, it was a learning process. I was still pretty new at the whole announcing thing, but Ken Stout was up in the booth announcing, calling the event, and I was down on the floor doing the pit reporting. So that's how I ended up meeting Ken Stout.
[00:32:14.390] - Big Rich Klein
Wow.
[00:32:14.810] - Scott Rehn
As well. Fun, super fun guy to work with. Oh my gosh. Never at a loss for any, any one-liner. I'm telling you. And he's got some cool stories.
[00:32:26.400] - Big Rich Klein
I would imagine.
[00:32:28.760] - Scott Rehn
So, um, and then I think I was about to meet you for the first time soon after that. Um, did you come to any of the, the core races once we came to California? I'm trying to remember, like a Chula Vista or anything like that.
[00:32:46.200] - Big Rich Klein
No.
[00:32:48.100] - Scott Rehn
I'm trying to remember. Oh, I know what it was. Um, when Dave Cole hired me the first time to come to, uh, King of the Hammers. Okay. That's where it was, right? And you, I think you were running, um, was it Chocolate Thunder?
[00:33:01.760] - Big Rich Klein
I think I was running the Chocolate Thunder part of the course. Yeah.
[00:33:05.600] - Scott Rehn
And, uh, they decided to put me out there and do, uh, uh, spot updates for the live stream. And I think, wasn't that the year that something happened someplace else on the course early in the race and just clogged up one of the rock WE Rock runs, and I think we only had like 4 cars go by all, all day long.
[00:33:29.750] - Big Rich Klein
That would have probably been when the, uh, the, the second lap guys got stuck in Jackhammer going up, and they rerouted the third lap guys to go around so that, uh, And yeah, there was very few people on that third lap that made it around.
[00:33:54.110] - Scott Rehn
Yep. I just, there's one thing I remember about that is meeting this big rich guy for the first time. And then way at the top of Chocolate Thunder, there's this guy with a megaphone heckling everybody, the drivers.
[00:34:13.230] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[00:34:14.350] - Scott Rehn
Heckling him. And boy, when Casey Curry came by, oh my gosh, did he just rip on that poor kid. I told him, oh yeah, he's married with kids and that, but at the time, I mean, he'll always be a kid to me, right? Going back to the core days running a Pro-Lite. Um, but yeah, that's, that's, that's two things I remember about that weekend, uh, working with you out there and that heckler up on top of the hill.
[00:34:39.790] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah, we had incidents with drones.
[00:34:45.240] - Scott Rehn
What?
[00:34:45.730] - Big Rich Klein
Personal drones where some guys were flying a drone or two out of the back of their pickup truck from the crowd and going down into the course. And of course, all the drones needed to be accounted for because we were so close to the military base. And so I kept announcing to everybody put the drones away. And these guys kept flying. So I sent this guy that we called Bigfoot. And I said, go find, go find who's flying those drones and make them stop. And he, he relished that idea. And so Bigfoot starts walking through the crowd, finds the guys, grabs one of them that's on the tailgate and says, if this thing goes back up in the air again, I'm going to crush this like a beer can. And he goes, no more flying the drones. And the guys looked at him and his hand, you know, is as big as the drone. You know, it's the size— his hand was probably the size of a 15-inch laptop, you know, and he just picks the drone up and he starts to, you know, you can hear it start to crack. And this guy's like, okay, okay, okay, we won't fly anymore.
[00:35:57.560] - Big Rich Klein
Nice.
[00:35:58.160] - Scott Rehn
Really? Wow.
[00:36:01.210] - Big Rich Klein
It was pretty fun. Had a lot of control over things on that part of the course.
[00:36:07.200] - Scott Rehn
Oh, you did?
[00:36:08.100] - Big Rich Klein
Oh yeah. I mean, everybody that came up that was media had to check in with me. Anybody, you know, with any teams had to check in with me. Even BLM and the Emily Miller was out bringing out VIPs. And the one person she brought out was Ricky Johnson.
[00:36:38.440] - Scott Rehn
Okay.
[00:36:40.020] - Big Rich Klein
And Ricky, you know, she goes to introduce us and Ricky goes, "Big Rich!" You know, and gives me a big old hug and everything. And she was like, Oh, okay. Now I know who you are. Because she had raced, um, with Rod Hall when I owned Vora. And so she put two and two together, then Rich Klein with Big Rich. And so it was then she, she put it all together. But yeah, that was, those were some fun times back then.
[00:37:13.530] - Scott Rehn
Yeah. Before it got all I know, granted, I haven't been to KOH in, I want to say, 4 years. Um, but what, what I'm seeing and reading and seeing the videos of, I'm kind of glad I'm not going out there anymore.
[00:37:29.400] - Big Rich Klein
I quit going before then.
[00:37:32.020] - Scott Rehn
Oh really, you have?
[00:37:33.320] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah, I, uh, I made it a, uh, a promise to myself that I wouldn't go back out there again, and it It's just such a— personally, it's just such a shit show that I just can't do it.
[00:37:53.420] - Scott Rehn
It's one of those situations, I think it's kind of like, what is that, Wizard of Oz, where the guy controlling the stage and the curtain, don't look behind the curtain. So everything on stage looks great, but if you peek behind the curtain, oh my gosh, like you said, it's a shit show.
[00:38:10.500] - Big Rich Klein
That is great. Too bad he has too many flying monkeys.
[00:38:18.420] - Scott Rehn
You know, it's— it— in all honesty though, come right— for me, it was like almost every— whether it be— I announced Monster Jam for, uh, 17, 18 years, but it come like October, November, I start getting, you know, during the offseason, I start getting antsy. I'm starting to get happy feet, you know, whether it be looking forward to KOH or the Monster Jam season starting first quarter. I start getting happy feet and I'm looking forward to this kind of stuff. But then, you know, and you get everything arranged, you find your hotel, you get, you get out to the lakebed for the first time that, that week and everything's cool. The setup, the vendors, the racers, everything's awesome. And Dave is still somewhat in a half-ass decent mood, um, kinda, um, and then about 3 days later, I just want to go home, right? Whether it was the weather, the wind, uh, Dave, it didn't matter. I was ready to go home.
[00:39:22.060] - Big Rich Klein
Yep.
[00:39:22.060] - Scott Rehn
But it, it, um, it was— it's a world-class event. It really is.
[00:39:27.760] - Big Rich Klein
Oh, he is That event is, he has grown something, he's grown a monster.
[00:39:36.490] - Scott Rehn
Yeah.
[00:39:37.290] - Big Rich Klein
You know, it takes his personality, probably his kind of personality to do something like that. But it's definitely on the brink of total chaos, it seems every moment.
[00:39:52.830] - Scott Rehn
Yeah.
[00:39:52.970] - Big Rich Klein
And you know, like you said, don't look behind the curtains. But we've always said that as an event promoter, you know, as long as you don't let people know that shit is hitting the fan constantly during an event or leading up to it, that they don't need to know. And they won't, they can't tell, you know, unless you let them know.
[00:40:15.120] - Scott Rehn
Yeah.
[00:40:15.820] - Big Rich Klein
For the most part. I can't say that about all the events I've ever been to that have, that, you know, sometimes that curtain just sits wide open and you have no, no choice but to have to look.
[00:40:27.710] - Scott Rehn
Yeah, it's, it's that train wreck. Yes, you don't want to, you don't want to look, but you can't take your eyes off.
[00:40:35.010] - Big Rich Klein
Correct, correct.
[00:40:36.330] - Scott Rehn
Oh, I hear you, you know, and, and I, I sometimes I was, I was thinking there for a while that Dave could quit being a promoter and just do a tour on giving talks on how to become a promoter and how to do it right, because he's done it. Whether he's ruffled feathers and pissed off people or not, he's, he's been able to make it work. And there's a lot of racetracks, whether it be circle track or off-road or off-road parks or, or road courses, uh, driving schools, um, they should all be listening to him, you know.
[00:41:10.740] - Big Rich Klein
You know, there's there's certain people in certain events that can get away because they have the right drug.
[00:41:19.770] - Scott Rehn
Yeah.
[00:41:20.750] - Big Rich Klein
All right, and can get away with it. There's other that don't quite, have not found that perfect drug for their sport. And Dave has done that, you know, and, It's, yeah, it's pretty incredible. I mean, it's what he's built is, I have to give him absolutely 100% credit for what he's built. Oh gosh, yeah. And being able to continue it going year after year after year, going through all the staffing that he does and all of the drama that comes with it and stuff.
[00:42:04.410] - Scott Rehn
But— and his personal health issues, right? And still— and, and never quitting.
[00:42:08.810] - Big Rich Klein
Yes.
[00:42:09.310] - Scott Rehn
Wow.
[00:42:09.750] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah, he— that's the one thing you can say about him is he's not a quitter, and you can't say that about a lot of promoters. Yeah, you know, that Sal Fish was one of those that was not a quitter, um, you know, but it's, uh, it— they're far and few between.
[00:42:26.710] - Scott Rehn
Oh, while I'm thinking of it, I, I really want to— I mean, we were talking about my career and how I got started and and where it's going, that kind of stuff, and there was no formality to it, there was no structure to it, right? And I want to call out a gentleman that pretty much mirrors how I got started in it himself as well, and that's Miles, Miles Hasselquist.
[00:42:50.050] - Big Rich Klein
Oh yes.
[00:42:51.190] - Scott Rehn
Um, I mean, he— and just to— I mean, he's a walking encyclopedia of the sport, and he has been for years, And when he stepped in the first time at KOH, he was the little kid in the candy store. My gosh, you couldn't wipe the, the smile off his face. His eyes were all glassed over in disbelief of where he was and what he was doing. And at one point, he came to KOH as nothing more than a fan, and maybe, I think, a fan at first, and then he ended up being a crew guy. For a while, and I don't even know how he ended up in the booth, but oh boy, to see where he's at right now, I'm so proud of him.
[00:43:32.800] - Big Rich Klein
Yep.
[00:43:32.860] - Scott Rehn
And what he's doing and how hard he's working at it.
[00:43:35.740] - Big Rich Klein
And he's— yeah, he's doing a great job, and that voice of his is unique, to say the least.
[00:43:43.180] - Scott Rehn
Yeah, there's a— it fits the sport.
[00:43:46.200] - Big Rich Klein
Yes. I think.
[00:43:47.900] - Scott Rehn
I mean, and everybody likes him because he's such a little goober. He never says any— I've never heard him say anything even remotely marginally bad, uh, about anybody. It's— he's always, always upbeat, always the kid in the candy store, right? The entire broadcast, the entire day, at night. I mean, after 2 weeks. Yeah, he's— and he's—
[00:44:19.120] - Big Rich Klein
any—
[00:44:19.300] - Scott Rehn
any The thing is, he's just like I did when I got started. He is doing everything to be involved, whether it be set up 2 weeks before KOH race week, and then he's there for a week afterwards tearing it down. That's not a typical broadcaster.
[00:44:37.310] - Big Rich Klein
Correct.
[00:44:37.970] - Scott Rehn
He's going above and beyond for the pure love of the sport. So I love the guy. I haven't seen him for a couple of years. But I'm staying. I still follow him, and I don't think— he may have more miles on the road right now than I do because, uh, he is at every single Ultra 4 race and then some. So kudos to that kid, I'm telling you. I call— I'm calling everybody kid, listen to me, right?
[00:45:01.420] - Big Rich Klein
Well, once you get over that 6:0, everybody's a kid.
[00:45:06.260] - Scott Rehn
Shut up.
[00:45:08.890] - Big Rich Klein
Well, you said you were 4 years younger, so I know how old you are.
[00:45:14.660] - Scott Rehn
Shut up.
[00:45:17.120] - Big Rich Klein
So let's, let's talk more about, about you and your work in KOH. And then you've done monster truck, you've done the water skiing, you've done short course. What else have you, what else have you done?
[00:45:35.900] - Scott Rehn
Watercross. Watercross? Snowmobiles racing on water. Wow. Which is probably the craziest thing I've done because it's not a matter of—
[00:45:44.820] - Big Rich Klein
That's a total Wisconsin thing.
[00:45:46.900] - Scott Rehn
Well, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. Absolutely.
[00:45:50.120] - Big Rich Klein
Right, the Snow Belt. Yeah.
[00:45:51.900] - Scott Rehn
Yeah. It's, it's not like they start on the shoreline on one side of the lake and hope like hell they make it across the other side. They'll go out and do laps. Like 5 or 6 or 7 laps. And their, their skis obviously never touched the water in, in, in theory. And it's all momentum-driven, but they'll start like probably 20 feet on a back on a beach from the waterline. And they'll start, I don't know, 4, 6 wide. And they'll have heat races and main events and semi-features. And they'll go out there. And the craziest thing is, it's not unusual, and it's kind of expected, every once in a while one will sink. And I'm, I'm scratching my head going, what in the hell?
[00:46:42.510] - Big Rich Klein
No.
[00:46:42.810] - Scott Rehn
And, but they're, they're kind of modified. The seats are taken off, um, they take one of those square flotation devices, the, the cushions, right? And they Velcro them to where the seat would be.
[00:46:55.590] - Big Rich Klein
All right.
[00:46:56.790] - Scott Rehn
And, and they're, they're attached to the sled via a, a length of rope. Um, so they'll go up there and all of a sudden you start hitting these rollers and you start losing momentum and you start to slow. And it's not like you can like accelerate out of it or drag race out of it. You're kind of screwed. And so as the sled— sounds crazy to say it, but as the sled sinks, they pull the power cord off so that shuts the sled down before it goes underwater. They've ripped the Velcro from the flotation device. Sled goes down. They bail off the side. They're floating there. The sled goes down. The flotation device goes up to the water surface, and out comes a specially modified pontoon boat that looks more like a pickle fork boat than a pontoon. Mm-hmm.— but where the opening is between the pontoons is a, is a cherry picker. So this pontoon boat goes out there, goes over the top of the cushion, scoops it up, wraps it around the, the cherry picker, and they start picking up the sled till it's out of the water, pick up the rider, they go to the shoreline, they dump them off, and the rider pulls the plugs out of his sled, pulls the cord, half dozen, 10, 12 times, whatever, till the water's out of the sled, put the plugs back in, fire it up, and drive it back to their pits.
[00:48:21.540] - Big Rich Klein
Wow.
[00:48:22.900] - Scott Rehn
No, easy peasy. I'm like, then somebody asked me if I wanna go for a ride.
[00:48:29.060] - Big Rich Klein
No.
[00:48:31.400] - Scott Rehn
No. Again, this is where the being the really good fan comes in.
[00:48:36.600] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[00:48:37.840] - Scott Rehn
But that was, that's probably one of the craziest things I've done. One of the coolest things I've ever done was Red Bull for— the Red Bull Frozen Rush.
[00:48:50.810] - Big Rich Klein
Oh, yeah.
[00:48:52.270] - Scott Rehn
That was beyond cool to see, to be a part of, and it was really, really, really cold, but Pro 4s up and down— I mean, how do you conceptualize that idea of Pro 4s on— on the side of a mountain. Um, but Peter Brinkerhoff and Red Bull were able to pull it off, um, in such a cool way.
[00:49:20.550] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah, I remember those, that they were running spiked tires and everything.
[00:49:24.400] - Scott Rehn
Oh my gosh, they— BFG sent these tires to Sweden, Norway, and had them— had, had, had a company plug those spikes in there, um, just like they do for, uh, the rallycross— or not rallycross, for the rally, snow rallies.
[00:49:39.950] - Big Rich Klein
Okay.
[00:49:40.650] - Scott Rehn
Um, and I'll, I'll be honest with you, when— whenever they did the heat races and such, they would pull off to the side, the trucks would pull off to the side right where I was at, and I would go out and interview the drivers. But then I would look at the tires as they were getting back in and stuff like that. I'm telling you, in the 3 years that I was involved in that event, I never once could find a spike that got kicked out.
[00:50:06.880] - Big Rich Klein
Wow, that's amazing.
[00:50:09.140] - Scott Rehn
It was nuts. And I mean, there was a lot of shredded fiberglass fenders. Let's see, Ricky Johnson, I believe, landed on the back of Bryce Menzies one time. And no damage was done, but boy, the, the rear bumper, if you want to call it that, um, looked like a shark had taken a bite out of it because these spikes would just rip the, the rear bumper. Um, the chrome moly bumper, it was nuts looking. Um, but it looked like just like a shark going after this thing. It was, it was really, really neat how they did that. It was cool part of the country. Kind of wish it was closer, maybe like in Colorado. It would draw— might have drawn better. But whatever the deal was that they worked out with Red Bull and the ski hills and the amount of water that was used to make snow to build the track, the track, the mountain— the general manager that ran that particular mountain, the ski hill, said that they had used the allotted amount of water for the entire season of the 4 surrounding ski hills.
[00:51:25.360] - Big Rich Klein
Wow.
[00:51:26.500] - Scott Rehn
And they're talking millions and millions and millions of gallons of water. And he took me around and gave me a tour of the place, and it was simply amazing. I tell you, Peter Brinkerhoff, I haven't seen him since, so he might be in hiding, but wow. It was a monstrous, monstrous event. And the fans that were there were really digging it. Were really, really digging it. Even though half of them, if not more, were there for the skiing. What the hell's going on down there? Is there up there in the ski lifts looking down, there goes a truck up a mountain. What the hell's going on down there? And, but everybody was getting off on it big time. They were with me.
[00:52:05.730] - Big Rich Klein
One of the things that I've realized with with Red Bull is while they do things for the crowd, they don't do things just for the crowd. They do it for the impressions.
[00:52:18.100] - Scott Rehn
Yeah, exactly.
[00:52:19.500] - Big Rich Klein
Whether it's YouTube or whatever kind of videos they're putting out there, they're—
[00:52:23.340] - Scott Rehn
Collecting content.
[00:52:24.120] - Big Rich Klein
Yes. And they, they don't seem to care about what the costs of, of doing business is. We, we came really close to doing one way back in the day when Paul Crandall was running the North American Red Bull, and we were going to do a rock crawl event made for Red Bull that was going— that we were going to call Urban Assault. And we were trying to find like an old stadium or a building that had just been demolished and, you know, record the demolish and then put the event on. The rock crawl event on what— before they cleaned up the demolished building.
[00:53:06.060] - Scott Rehn
Oh, okay.
[00:53:07.200] - Big Rich Klein
And I had, I had gone and found Veterans Stadium because I was dealing with one of these big demolition companies that do this.
[00:53:15.500] - Scott Rehn
No kidding. Ah, way cool.
[00:53:17.000] - Big Rich Klein
And I was like, all right, we got this. And they go, no, we want to be in the south somewhere. And I was like, but we have the perfect— and they said, it's too close. In time and location to 9/11.
[00:53:34.810] - Scott Rehn
Oh.
[00:53:35.570] - Big Rich Klein
And I said, okay, I understand that. So they wanted to move it south, and I could not find a proper building that was being demolished in the south.
[00:53:45.890] - Scott Rehn
Okay. Yep, I remember that.
[00:53:47.430] - Big Rich Klein
It was really sad because I was really looking forward to doing this event, but it never came together. But you know, that's— there's been a lot of those in my life, it seems like, where we've been on the brink of just blowing something up and then something, you know, the carpet gets pulled out from under us.
[00:54:04.010] - Scott Rehn
Oh yeah. I mean, it's— I'll never forget two things that, two things that happened that changed my life. Um, was one time, the first time was early in my career. Um, I was at Falk-Randall, and at the time there was still Victory Lane was out around the turn in Turn 1 off the track. So for the TV and but they still do PA interviews down in front of the crowd and we're done with that, then they would come up by me to do the TV thing. And at the time it was like NASCAR with all the white collar sponsors were there and TV cameras and all that stuff was going on. And Brendan Gaughan had just won the race.
[00:54:48.760] - Big Rich Klein
Okay.
[00:54:48.840] - Scott Rehn
And he was doing his trackside interview. We're waiting for him to come up to the victory circle where we were at. And Herb Fischel from Chevrolet was there and Sue Sieglund was there. And I might— this might have been the first one of the first times that Herb Fischel was there to see this because I was standing right behind him. He didn't know me from a hill of beans. And I heard him tell somebody, he goes, this without a doubt is the best kept secret in motorsports, quote unquote. Heard it right from Herb Fisher.
[00:55:24.580] - Big Rich Klein
Wow.
[00:55:25.140] - Scott Rehn
And I never— I'll never forget that. The second one that I'll never forget that changed my life was the final season of Championship Off-Road Racing. At Chula Vista. Um, obviously it was 2008, 2009, I can't remember. Um, and the housing market crashed or was crashing, and that's what Jim Baldwin used to help finance Core, right? Um, and so anyways, uh, our salesman at the time, which you know very well, Alex Stryler—
[00:56:03.250] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah.
[00:56:03.410] - Scott Rehn
Except I wouldn't— I don't like calling him a salesperson. Um, he was our marketing guy, and he was, he was very, very smart, very, very good at what he does, and he's fun to listen to because he's, he's, he's just so smart.
[00:56:16.510] - Big Rich Klein
Oh my gosh, marketing guru.
[00:56:19.210] - Scott Rehn
Yeah. And, uh, he had it worked out for the final race of the year was going to be at Chula Vista in 2008 or '09, whatever it was. The president, the CEO of Home Depot was coming to Chula Vista. And as it turns out, something happened at the time where we had to cancel the last race. The week before the last race, we had to cancel it. And that changed everything.
[00:56:48.900] - Big Rich Klein
Yep.
[00:56:49.210] - Scott Rehn
Because you know for a fact, if, um, Home Depot had showed up at, uh, Chula Vista to be a part of this, you and I'd probably be talking about different things right now in a different location. But yeah, that— I can't help but think Alex did his job, Jim Baldwin did his job, we were all doing our jobs to make that the coolest sport ever. And the economy or the will of God, whatever you want to— just didn't see it right.
[00:57:19.760] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah.
[00:57:20.280] - Scott Rehn
Wrong time, whatever it may be. And that definitely— that moment right there changed my life forever.
[00:57:26.380] - Big Rich Klein
And canceling an event is like a death knell for the series. It just doesn't— it never looks good.
[00:57:36.620] - Scott Rehn
Oh, exactly.
[00:57:37.800] - Big Rich Klein
And it doesn't matter what the reasons are. It can be completely out of the promoter's control, but it doesn't— I mean, it's a bad thing.
[00:57:48.740] - Scott Rehn
Yeah. And to be honest with you, a lot of it was naysayers on the internet.
[00:57:55.210] - Big Rich Klein
Oh, always.
[00:57:56.330] - Scott Rehn
Gosh, the power of a person behind a keyboard is absolutely scary because people thrive on the negative as compared to the positive.
[00:58:04.350] - Big Rich Klein
Yep.
[00:58:04.970] - Scott Rehn
And I was actually— this is a true story. I was actually the last person to be let go from Championship Off-Road Racing. Jim Baldwin and I had lunch. Boy, what was the name of that restaurant? At the restaurant that actually him and his wife first met at, um, there in Newport Beach. And we were having lunch and he's just beside himself. Um, he was very emotional, um, and he was telling me in his way that, um, he has to let me go. And he says, but it's not forever. He goes, we're gonna come back, we're gonna do this, this, and this and this, and hopefully this will all take place and we can get— you'll be the first guy I call. That kind of It was, it was that kind of positive talk. And so Jim was— even when he knew he was right on the edge of the cliff about to be pushed off, he was still hanging on to the thought of saving the sport of short course off-road racing.
[00:59:10.330] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[00:59:11.650] - Scott Rehn
More power to him. And what's funny is I'd say probably 75% or so of the people that were negative and, you know, rich Jim Baldwin, I was in it for the money, that kind of stuff. Years later, look back at it, you know what? The old man was into something. He was on to something. He wasn't so bad after all.
[00:59:33.030] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[00:59:33.550] - Scott Rehn
You know, he— I look at it this way. You may not like his delivery, but listen to the words.
[00:59:42.250] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah.
[00:59:42.970] - Scott Rehn
You know, I mean, the guy just absolutely thought outside the box like I've never met anybody before. Who would have thought having an off-road race at the Pomona Fairplex in the parking lot of the drag strip, digging a hole 40 feet deep the size of a football field and building an off-road track? Who would have thought of that?
[01:00:07.510] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[01:00:08.210] - Scott Rehn
No, I'm like, true. You know, we're sitting around the table in the, in the office. You know, there's 4 or 5 of us, Jim included, along with Alex Striler, a couple others. And I'm like, I never verbalized it, but boy did I think it inside my head. You want to do what? You know, um, just a lot of things like that. The guy was just so proactive in his thought processes and his imagination. Um, I loved working for him. Um, I was— I felt like Spicoli, or I felt like, uh, remember Mikey from Orange County Choppers?
[01:00:46.310] - Big Rich Klein
Yes, absolutely. Mikey.
[01:00:48.020] - Scott Rehn
Yeah. Uh, Mikey was the only one that could make the old man laugh, right? I was continually called up, whether it be from the development side of the office or the core side of the office. I can't tell you how many times I was, um, given a call on my, on my phone to go up to Jim's office and make him laugh. I was the only guy that could make him laugh, I guess. And I'm like, Scott, can you call— talk to Jim, talk to Jim, talk to Jim. I'm like, uh, okay. But for whatever reason, um, yeah, I, I loved working there. Um, it was the best job I think I've ever had. Uh, it— I was at the right place at the right time because people were still needing to be educated on short course off-road racing in Southern California. Nobody— everybody talked about trophy trucks or Mickey Thompson. No one knew what a Pro 2 was, an actual Pro 4, or what short course was all about. And I loved talking about it.
[01:01:53.360] - Big Rich Klein
Right, because at that point, short course was— it was total Midwest thing.
[01:01:58.640] - Scott Rehn
Oh yeah, absolutely. Yep.
[01:02:01.800] - Big Rich Klein
So what do you, what do you got going on now?
[01:02:06.110] - Scott Rehn
Well, I'm— since I'm just a few years younger than you, I now have grown into a face for radio. So the cameras, I guess, don't, don't like me too much anymore. So I've, I've kind of, I've For like, I'm out in Oklahoma now. I'm no longer in Oceanside, California, so I'm out in just outside of Tulsa, um, because of Mid-America Outdoors. I relocated out here.
[01:02:38.290] - Big Rich Klein
Okay.
[01:02:40.390] - Scott Rehn
Um, I announced at a local Circle Track, um, that rivals the, the facility rivals that of everyone talks about, um, Lucas Oil Speedway, right, in Wheatland. This place is everything and then some, like that. But I did circle track there for 2 years. I kind of stepped back from the announcing part of it, I guess. And right now, I'm working for a marketing company out of Dallas area or out of Fort Worth area that is contracted with Ford Racing. And I'm actually a brand ambassador slash— Yeah. Semi-truck driver hauling their race rig around to the NASCAR races.
[01:03:26.280] - Big Rich Klein
Oh, nice.
[01:03:27.540] - Scott Rehn
So yeah, it's, it's, uh, I got my CDL a couple months ago. Holy crap.
[01:03:35.220] - Big Rich Klein
Come on.
[01:03:36.860] - Scott Rehn
Uh, that's, that's interesting, uh, in itself. But, uh, no, I'm driving around a NASCAR rig, um, to the NASCAR races, and it sounds like I'm going to be coming out kind of Towards you a little bit, not so much, but I'll be out in the LA area in the next week or so with a brand new rig, getting it ready for San Diego NASCAR race.
[01:03:57.910] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah, I'll be at Vegas, the Vegas race.
[01:04:02.010] - Scott Rehn
Oh really?
[01:04:02.770] - Big Rich Klein
Okay. With Legacy, 'cause Cal Wells is one of our board members in the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame.
[01:04:10.290] - Scott Rehn
Okay, yeah.
[01:04:11.530] - Big Rich Klein
And that's the team that Jimmy Johnson owns. Yep. And so we were— my wife and I were able to go to Daytona for Speed Week and hang out with all the legacy and be embedded with the team as—
[01:04:28.890] - Scott Rehn
Oh, no kidding.
[01:04:29.630] - Big Rich Klein
As super fans, you might say. And this time he's invited us out again since we'll be in the area getting ready to start the Rebelle Rally as well on the Monday after the race. So It's perfect timing for us. So we're gonna, I was hoping to go to Sonoma, but we're doing the Ormhoff Golf Tournament fundraiser down in San Diego at the same time. Oh, okay, yeah. So we can't be at Sonoma, but yeah, it's pretty cool. I enjoy, especially being with one of the teams like that, it really makes a difference.
[01:05:07.450] - Scott Rehn
You know, I've lost contact with Jimmy pretty much as soon as he entered the NASCAR world. You know, him and I hung out quite a bit when he was still doing short course stuff, and he was doing the Sportsman Series and I was doing the Pro Series for ESPN2. So we hung out quite a bit. And it was funny because, you know, He started ASA stock car racing on asphalt. And I went to— and there was a car show in Milwaukee one year, or his first year in ASA, and he had— the Herzogs had his number 44 car on display at this car show in Milwaukee. So I went down there to hang out with him, and we're just, you know, walking around, and all of a sudden he's like looking at me.
[01:05:57.600] - Big Rich Klein
Scott, Scott!
[01:05:58.100] - Scott Rehn
He's all— 'Come here, you gotta see this, you gotta see this.' He's pointing at his car. So I walk over there, he drops the window. You, you know Jimmy Johnson well enough to know that he's not really a work on a car kind of guy, right? You know, maybe— I don't see him changing the oil. Maybe he tried to back then, but anyways, he's not a work on the cars kind of guy. He's like, Scott, you gotta see this, you gotta see this. So he dropped the window net in his race car and he pointed to the bracket behind the seat that you attached the belts to. And he looked at me, he pointed at that weld and then pointed at himself. He goes, I did that, I did that, I did that. And it was just like, okay, well, you know.
[01:06:51.960] - Big Rich Klein
It was just—
[01:06:52.370] - Scott Rehn
he was so damn proud of himself. And then, um, we, we stayed in touch a little bit during his— we went— I went to, uh, a couple of ASA races to hang out with them and stuff like that. Had a really good time with the Herzogs and him. And he was one of those drivers, you know, you knew even as an uneducated race fan that, um, there was something special about him. There was just something special. And so he's racing ASA and we stayed in touch and he's now running the ASA car. I'm sorry, he's now running the Herzog car. No, I'm sorry, he just went to Hendrick.
[01:07:31.700] - Big Rich Klein
Okay.
[01:07:31.820] - Scott Rehn
So he's a couple of years into NASCAR, so he's now running for Hendrick. And this was his rookie year at Daytona. And he's going, Scott, don't be surprised if there's a a Hendrick car on the pole. A Lowe Chevrolet. Don't be surprised. I'm like, shut up. A rookie does not qualify on the pole in Daytona ever. It doesn't happen. No, I'm telling you, dude. I'm serious, dude. He's like, California dude, dude, I'm so sorry. I'm so— I'm so— you're— it's going to happen. I'm telling you, the Lowe Chevrolet is going to be on the pole. I'm telling you, dude, dude, you know. And about a week or so later, Sure enough, he qualifies in the pole for his first Daytona 500, and I ain't heard from him since.
[01:08:20.520] - Big Rich Klein
Maybe you can, while at Vegas, maybe you can scope him out.
[01:08:29.300] - Scott Rehn
Well, here's the thing. I really want to see him because I've always been a fan of his. I've always stuck up for him for all the naysayers, and I mean, he doesn't need that. He doesn't, but it would piss me off when people are negative.
[01:08:41.240] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[01:08:42.840] - Scott Rehn
I want to say it was his first year, the end of the first year with Herzogs in that new Pro 2 and the final race of the season moved out to Glen Helen. And the t-shirt that Glen Helen was selling to the fans was a picture of his Pro 2 with a left rear flat tire and all, was going over a jump at Glen Helen. I've got that t-shirt and it's never been worn and it's still in plastic, and I want him to sign it.
[01:09:19.260] - Big Rich Klein
Well, he's agreed to do a podcast interview with me. I just gotta get— I gotta get hold of his person and set up a scheduled time and, uh, I'll try to remember to bring that up and then maybe we can get you guys together down there at, you know, at least at Vegas.
[01:09:42.730] - Scott Rehn
So that would be very, very cool. Yeah, that would put a smile on my face.
[01:09:49.090] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah, he's a super nice guy. Just—
[01:09:51.250] - Scott Rehn
Hey, what do you think about Brendan Gaughan running the truck races next weekend?
[01:09:54.790] - Big Rich Klein
I love it.
[01:09:56.270] - Scott Rehn
Ain't that cool?
[01:09:57.150] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah. Yep.
[01:09:59.630] - Scott Rehn
But that's gonna be neat to see. Oh, boy, you just stirred the memory pot for sure, man.
[01:10:08.850] - Big Rich Klein
Well, that's the whole idea.
[01:10:11.050] - Scott Rehn
Wow. Stuff that I forgot about. Oh, man.
[01:10:16.050] - Big Rich Klein
So you're semi-retired then now?
[01:10:22.290] - Scott Rehn
I'm officially retired, but I am still working. Okay. So yeah, yeah. Right.
[01:10:29.620] - Big Rich Klein
Well, cool.
[01:10:31.180] - Scott Rehn
And then a little bit more.
[01:10:32.300] - Big Rich Klein
Your wife has horses.
[01:10:34.280] - Scott Rehn
Oh, God, you had to bring that up, didn't you? Hayburners? Yeah. Yeah. She has turned into a professional.
[01:10:45.550] - Big Rich Klein
Careful how you say it.
[01:10:47.800] - Scott Rehn
Yeah. You know, you notice that pause there. Let's put this way. When she sees a kitten in the ditch, she stops and picks it up, right? When there's a dog in the medium of a highway, she stops and pick it up. Um, when she hears that there's an issue with somebody not being able to take care of their horse, she goes and picks it up. So you can imagine what our household looks like here. Um, she has turned into a professional rescuer.
[01:11:13.770] - Big Rich Klein
There you go.
[01:11:15.430] - Scott Rehn
Um, so I can't falter for that.
[01:11:19.120] - Big Rich Klein
No, not at all.
[01:11:19.520] - Scott Rehn
Not one bit. I may not like it, but it's like, if you're gonna start rescuing animals, make them income-producing animals, not income-consuming.
[01:11:29.100] - Big Rich Klein
That's, uh, I'm trying to think of what kind of animal that would be.
[01:11:34.700] - Scott Rehn
I don't know.
[01:11:35.480] - Big Rich Klein
Sheep, because you can shear them over and over and over.
[01:11:38.220] - Scott Rehn
I don't know, because that's— it sounded good coming out of my mouth, but then I thought about it afterwards. It's like There ain't no chance in hell that's gonna happen.
[01:11:46.030] - Big Rich Klein
Chickens and eggs? You know, I mean—
[01:11:49.870] - Scott Rehn
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't wanna get too crazy, otherwise I'm back to being at the horse ranch in California where we boarded like 30-some horses and—
[01:12:01.730] - Big Rich Klein
Wow.
[01:12:02.770] - Scott Rehn
Yeah, that was— Yeah, I'll never do that again.
[01:12:06.490] - Big Rich Klein
Well, at least she's not into circus animals. Yeah, think about elephants and that kind of stuff, you know.
[01:12:12.670] - Scott Rehn
Well, our immediate neighbor, a couple miles, about a mile or so down the road, has camels, um, uh, emus, and what are those monkeys that, that have rings around their tails?
[01:12:27.020] - Big Rich Klein
Lemurs.
[01:12:28.220] - Scott Rehn
Yeah, yeah, a bunch of lemurs. Yeah, they got out a little while ago, about a year ago they got out, and next thing I know I looked down my driveway and Here's like really big raccoons crawling around our fence. I'm like, what? So I looked again. I'm like, there's lemurs got loose. And I ran back to the house and grabbed the bag of marshmallows. So I spent the next hour or so feeding marshmallows to lemurs in Oklahoma.
[01:12:53.170] - Big Rich Klein
You know, I, down, we have our boat down in the Corpus Christi Bay area and in the town of Rockport. And there are a couple of lemurs that are— that have freed themselves. So I think it's something that happens all the time with lemurs. I think they must be pretty damn smart primates because there's a lot of communities out there around the country that seem to have roaming lemurs in their community.
[01:13:25.640] - Scott Rehn
Oh.
[01:13:27.190] - Big Rich Klein
And Rockport, Texas is one of those.
[01:13:29.930] - Scott Rehn
Yeah, and the thing is, I, I was freaked out when they got out, and I called my neighbor right away. I'm like, oh, you know, doing one of those deals. And he starts laughing at me, goes, no, I let them out once or twice a summer and they just go wherever the hell they want in the neighborhood. Now keep in mind, we're, you know, what, 8, 9 miles outside of town, so there's— I'm at the end of a dead-end road. And here they were messing around on my, on my gate, getting into the driveway, hanging out there. The next day they're still out because I go down the road and I come around the corner and here's like 9 or 10 lemurs hanging out, just, just chilling out in a tree. And it's, it's something you don't expect to see when you're going down a two-lane country road in Oklahoma. Yeah.
[01:14:18.120] - Big Rich Klein
That's wild. And I guess they just show, they just head back to their house when they're ready.
[01:14:24.320] - Scott Rehn
I guess they were out for like 4 or 5 days and then ended up back. Yeah, exactly.
[01:14:31.640] - Big Rich Klein
Free-range roaming lemurs. Yeah, no kidding. Too funny, too funny. So what's on the horizon? Collecting more rescues and—
[01:14:45.420] - Scott Rehn
No, no, no, no, no, no.
[01:14:50.280] - Big Rich Klein
NASCAR.
[01:14:50.600] - Scott Rehn
You know, it's— as far as the future goes, it's wide open. I'm— even at 64, I'm open to trying and doing anything. If I got a phone call from Champ Off-Road or a racetrack to go back to short course for a race or two or maybe a season, I don't know, I would still do it. Heck yeah. I don't necessarily have to be on camera. I can be the public address announcer. I don't care. Um, I just love the sport so much. There's nothing like it. Um, uh, there's certain instances of, of different events, whether it be short course or KOH or 4400 or Ultra 4 USA, whatever you want to call it, um, that are just second to none. And I've always, when it comes to the announcing side of things, It's been a very, very tough bridge for me to cross sometimes to get the crowd excited as a PA announcer and get them into it, and I really thrive on that. But then you cross that bridge to doing TV, it's a whole different scenario altogether. Sometimes it's been hard to temper my enthusiasm for the TV thing, um, but then when it comes to being the PA guy and getting them into it, oh, I absolutely love that part.
[01:16:06.870] - Scott Rehn
And when you got the crowd in the palm of your hand like that, you can just feel it, and they thrive off of it. I know it sounds like I'm going off on a tangent here, but I absolutely love opening ceremonies of any event. I've got a very— even though I was never in the military, I feel I have a very strong military background. My son-in-law is still in the Marine Corps after like 23, 24 years. And he's, I think, an E-9 serving in the Pentagon, and he'll be there till he retires. My wife and I have been involved with the Chris Kyle Memorial Benefit in Texas for 7 or 8 years now. If you remember the American Sniper.
[01:16:53.530] - Big Rich Klein
Oh yeah.
[01:16:55.190] - Scott Rehn
We were involved with that for a while, quite a while. So as far as, It's very hard for me to narrate opening ceremonies the way it needs to be done and to get everybody's hair on the back of their neck to stand up a little bit in patriotism. It's very hard for me to do that without choking up sometimes.
[01:17:21.140] - Big Rich Klein
Right.
[01:17:22.540] - Scott Rehn
Just thinking about these men and women that that run towards the fire, run towards the source of those bullets, that run towards the bombs, to run towards everything, to run towards the danger and not duck and dive and dodge out of the way like probably you and I would, or at least probably me.
[01:17:43.710] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah, it takes a, it's a different breed that become those true heroes.
[01:17:53.420] - Scott Rehn
You know, it's— and, and for total strangers, right? That's the thing. I, I know if somebody started messing with my wife, there ain't nobody gonna get in the way. And I'm not the biggest guy in the world, you know that, but, um, there's going to be fight to be had. And I may not— might not win that fight, but that whoever's ever messing with my wife, they're gonna know that they were in one, right? Uh, that was it. So But to, for these service people to do it for total strangers, the first responders to do that kind of thing for total strangers, that's why I, I, I don't think people can respect that enough.
[01:18:34.460] - Big Rich Klein
Awesome. Yep. Scott, I wanna say thank you so much for, for being a, a guest on the podcast. I hope you've enjoyed it.
[01:18:46.090] - Scott Rehn
Oh, heck yeah. Are you kidding me? Thank you for even considering me. I still think you're nuts, but—
[01:18:53.930] - Big Rich Klein
If we're, when we're in Vegas, I'll try to find you out there in the chaos.
[01:19:00.590] - Scott Rehn
You got it, man. I'll be out in the fan zone, wherever that's gonna be.
[01:19:03.510] - Big Rich Klein
Okay, that'll be perfect. 'Cause that's, I know that I'll have access to that. So we'll make our way over there. Sounds great.
[01:19:13.630] - Scott Rehn
Big Rich, thank you so much. I've had a great time. I always, you know, you might be leery about certain things ahead of time, but once you dive into it and all of a sudden it starts stirring up all these memories of your past life and how much you enjoyed it, kudos for you for doing that for me. And I'm sure that happens quite a bit with other guys too.
[01:19:36.190] - Big Rich Klein
Well, I've done like 320-some-odd of these podcasts. Interviews, and, uh, all of them are special. And, well, awesome. You know, I never had anybody call up afterwards and say they regretted doing it, so that's always good to know, you know.
[01:19:53.500] - Scott Rehn
Hey, Big Rich, I hope our paths do cross in Vegas, um, if not there, someplace real, real soon, because you're a fun guy to talk to.
[01:20:00.740] - Big Rich Klein
All right, you take care, and thank you so much.
[01:20:04.100] - Scott Rehn
Best of luck, buddy.
[01:20:04.980] - Big Rich Klein
Okay.
[01:20:06.100] - Scott Rehn
Bye-bye. See you, man.
[01:20:08.460] - Big Rich Klein
Bye. Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have, or if there's anybody that you have that you think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get him 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. Thank you.