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Full Throttle: The Unstoppable Boris Said · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Break Fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all
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over the autos sphere, from wrench, turners, and racers to artists, authors,
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designers, and everything in between.
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Our goal is to inspire a new generation of Petrolhead that wonder to.
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How did they get that job or become that person?
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The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story
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on break fix.
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We're always trying to bring you closer to the legends of Motorsport.
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I. Today's guest is a true icon known for his fearless driving
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and unmistakable presence.
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On and off the track we're talking about none other than pro driver.
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Boris said, with a career spanning decades, Boris has raced and won in
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just about every discipline you can think of from sports cars and touring
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cars to NASCAR and endurance racing.
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He's a Daytona 24 hours champion, a TransAm winner, and one of the most
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respected road course specialists in American racing history.
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Boris, whether it's your aggressive style, your versatile talent, or
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that signature head of hair under the helmet, which, uh, has receded
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somewhat since the, uh, early days of your career, it was very impressive.
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You've carved out a legacy that's as bold as it is inspiring.
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And joining me tonight is Mike Carr, our resonant sports car, an endurance
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racing guru, and we're delighted to have him back in the studio with us tonight.
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So welcome back, Mike.
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Thank you very much.
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Happy to be here.
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And with that, let's welcome Boris to break fix.
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How you doing?
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It's good to be here.
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Well, Boris, like all good superhero stories, there's an origin.
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So let's talk about how you got your start in the world of motorsports and
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what drew you in all those years ago, and how did your early experiences
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shape the kind of driver you became?
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Well, I mean, I didn't really take the traditional route.
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I owned a motorcycle dealership when I was 21.
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I was one of the youngest Honda dealers ever.
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The guy that helped me get that dealership was a guy named John McLean.
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He owned a Ford dealership.
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And what happened was I bought the dealership but I couldn't get approved
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for financing for the credit line.
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And he was a big fan because the motorcycle shop I worked at
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before, he was like a race dad.
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And uh, we were all in the motocross and I helped his kid and him,
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and so he became a fake partner.
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And for doing that, I gave him a couple free dirt bikes back then in 1985.
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One day, he goes, Hey, I have this free trip to the Detroit Grand Prix.
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It's a Ford trip.
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It's all first class hotel.
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I go, what is it?
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He goes, it's an F1 race.
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I go, ah, car racing is stupid.
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I don't need to go to that.
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You know?
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I just never watched it, never knew much about it.
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I ended up going, you know, and I didn't want to go, but as soon
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as I walked out on the roof.
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In Detroit and I saw Ton Santa Go by and this Black Lotus, I was like instantly,
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like I gotta get a Formula One car.
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That's the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life.
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So, you know, one thing led to another, I met a guy named Bob Sharp
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who had a business up the street from where my dealership was, and I ran
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into him in, in the paddock and he said, Hey, what are you doing here?
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I didn't know you were in the race.
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I go, that was my first race ever.
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He goes, oh, you like it?
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I go, I want it.
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I wanna get a Formula One car.
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Where do I get one?
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How much are they the stupidest question in the world looking back.
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Right?
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But he took the time to sit me down and explain like, Hey, you know, you gotta
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go to the Skip Barber Racing School and then you get yourself to showroom stock
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car and you race some SCCA and, and you know, at the end of the conversation I was
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like, but how much is the Formula One car?
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Because that's all I could think about.
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But I did exactly that.
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I went to the Skip Barber Racing school and then bought a showroom stock car.
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And originally I was only gonna race cars for a year and then go
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back to the motorcycle business.
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You know, this is year 39 right now.
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So it was a crazy ride, but I, I loved every minute of it.
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You didn't ask your dad how to get into an F1 car?
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No, my dad.
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I didn't really know he raced.
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He left home when I was six.
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You know, I had the typical single mom living with our grandparents.
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Not a whole lot of parental supervision.
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I was pretty much on the career path to jail as a kid, you know,
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I got in a lot of trouble, but as a kid, you know, when you're 12,
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13, 14 years old, it's just fun.
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But I didn't know any better.
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And then when I was 14, I got a job in a motorcycle shop for like
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these bullies, you know, these guys are rough guys, ex roofers,
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and they straightened my life out.
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They just.
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Made me work and work and work and work.
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So I didn't know much about my father until I went to, you know, the first
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few races when I started racing, people would say, oh, you're Bob Said's kid.
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You know, your dad raced.
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And I never knew he raced the first NASCAR race at the Daytona 500.
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You know, the first Formula One race at Sebring.
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I had no idea.
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You know, one time I was lucky enough to race for the Wood Brothers, Eddie and
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Lenny, I mean, they're great great guys.
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First race to Daytona on the asphalt.
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He gave me the result sheet and my dad, he finished last, but he was in the race.
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So I learned more about my dad when I started racing than I ever knew about him.
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Wow.
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So I guess you could say it's in your genes.
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'cause I didn't know he did it, but that's, it's all I think about
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even after 39 years, it's still, I eat, sleep, live and love racing.
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It's interesting you say that, Boris, because you have one of the most
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unique but simple last names in racing.
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Have you ever traced back your genealogy?
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Are you somehow related to like Tatio N and we don't know it?
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No.
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No, man, I, I look back, you know, my grandfather immigrated, you know, he was
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a. Officer in Zas army when the Bolshevik Revolution, he immigrated and went through
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Ellis Island, you know, that's all.
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I had never met him.
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My wife went and did all that.
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She went down the rabbit hole and all that stuff, you know, I always thought the name
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was Sayeed, that's how it's pronounced.
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I thought, oh, you know, I'm Middle Eastern and they must
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have immigrated to Russia.
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But you know, one time I was in a Thai restaurant and the
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guy asked me, he goes, Sayed.
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He goes, oh yeah.
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I think they, you know, they went from probably Syria to Russia.
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No, impossible.
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He goes, you look like a Jew.
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And so we started thinking they probably chopped the name at Ellis Islands.
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You know, and I did the genealogy thing and sure enough, I'm, you
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know, 30% Jewish, so he was right.
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This professor, I've always said my whole life, I'm just a mutt.
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I never really cared about that stuff.
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I was just always looking forward and always looking to work hard,
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have fun, and, and then once I found racing, that was my passion.
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You know, I've turned that into a career and pretty much my whole life is.
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Based around racing now, you know, currently I'm a partner with Rick
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Hendrick, which if somebody would've told me that 20 years ago, I
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would've told 'em they were crazy.
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And uh, we've been partners in a car dealership for 14
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years and been quite the ride.
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Talking about it being in your blood, your dad Bob, his name
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was actually Boris as well.
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And your son is Boris and Right.
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But you're racing with your son now?
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Yeah, I'm actually, Boris said the third, but when my son was born, you know,
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in the hospital I just said Junior, 'cause I was good friends with Dale
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Junior and I liked the name Junior.
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I thought Boris said the fourth sounds kind of like I didn't want
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him to get made fun of at school.
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I didn't even wanna name him Boris.
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I used to tell people I was gonna name him Simon, and they
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would just walk away laughing.
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Simon said,
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that's great.
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My last name's Carr and I threatened to name my kid bumper
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or something stupid like that.
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We couldn't think of a name other than Boris, so we just,
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yeah, let's call him junior.
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Because I didn't know the first two anyway really.
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You know, growing up he didn't want anything to do with racing.
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I took him all over the world and that wasn't his thing.
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And I'm like, that's fine.
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And it wasn't until like five years ago, he said, Hey, I wanna try a go-kart.
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You know, we went, go-karting and I didn't really like the go-kart scene too much.
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It was pretty different than the road racing scene.
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So we bought a Miata and we went MI Auto Racing and SCCA and that was great.
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And then, you know, one thing led to another, now he is racing a TransAm car.
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So we're having a lot of fun going around the country doing that together.
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Getting back to the, the beginning, what did you first get into?
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So I bought a showroom stock Mustang and drove it to the racetrack and
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duct taped my numbers on there.
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I remember the first race was at driver's school at Pocono, Pennsylvania.
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And then I was gonna do the race.
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It was a double regional right after that, and I did that on the tires.
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I bought the car on and I met BF Goodrich and they were motorcycle guys, so they
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were, they gave me tires my first weekend, you know, just because we became friends.
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Literally that just started it and I just started going to the races and I, you
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know, I did some crazy things the first year I started really late and I might
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have rode in a lot of fake races in my log books so I could get a pro license to do
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a six hour race, and I did a six hour pro race in Atlanta escort endurance series.
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I even came up with a fake co-driver 'cause I'm like, I'm just gonna
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run the whole six hours myself.
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I'm not gonna let anybody drive my car.
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Literally got out and fueled it myself, swapped the tires from left to right
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myself, and did the whole six hours.
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It was really neat.
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It was fun.
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And then the last race of the year was at Seabring, and now I'm getting smarter.
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So I rented a car from Hertz, a Mustang, so I had spare parts, spare wheels, spare
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everything, you know, for $70 a day.
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It was the best deal ever.
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So that, that was my first year racing.
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That's amazing.
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I think it's the first time I've ever heard that somebody's got a backup
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car that came from a rental agency.
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That's awesome.
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So during the weekend at Sebring, it went through a fuel pump, so it
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was on jack stands and didn't run.
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And then in the race I. You know, I had brought two guys with me to fuel
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and when I pulled in I would get out with a T handle and start changing
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the tires while they were fueling.
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And when I get half of that done, I'd get back in.
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You know, I didn't really care how I finished.
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I just wanted to do the whole six hours.
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I had another fake co-driver on there, and near the end of the race I. I think I
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was coming in from my last stop and as I pulled in, all these guys jumped over the
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wall with air guns and they start changing the tires and they were all the saline
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racing guys from the Saline Ford team.
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My guy comes over, I go, Hey, what the hell's going on?
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He goes, well, they need you to finish in the top 10.
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The wind manufacturers right where you are.
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If you finish where you are, Ford can win the manufacturers, if
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not Porsche's gonna win, but they don't wanna get disqualified,
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so they wanna put this guy in.
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George Fulmer.
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And I didn't know who he was.
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We've heard of him.
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Yeah.
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I didn't know anything about racing when he's on the pit wall, ready to
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jump over the wall and me get out and I just tell him, I said, I told
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him, Hey, thanks for the tires, but I'm driving my own car the last hour.
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You know, I've already driven five hours.
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Right.
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Gone through this whole thing.
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And so, yeah.
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And they ended up not disqualifying me 'cause.
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Porsche thought it was so funny.
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I did the whole six hours and they were laughing at me for changing the tires
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with a T handle and the the whole bit.
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And at the end of the weekend when we left, I had to call Hertz and
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say, Hey, your car won't start.
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It's in the parking lot.
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So yeah, and that was my first year racing.
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That was 1987.
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Then in 88 I sold my motorcycle dealership and I said, I'm gonna go racing.
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And I bought a Corvette Challenge car.
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I did the Pro Series Corvette Challenge and you know, I was a one man band in my
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van and open trailer and drove around the country and had the best time of my life.
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So you would've raced against some other folks that we had on the show.
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I'm just gonna throw some names out there.
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Andy Pilgrim, David Murray, Johnny O'Connell.
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You all are from the same graduating class, right?
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Yeah.
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Andy Pilgrim was one of the first guys I ended up meeting
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in the Corvette Challenge.
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He was with a private tier team.
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These guys Al Bear from Texas.
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After the Corvette Challenge, I ended up racing their Mustang a lot.
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Over the years, you know, Andy and I were, after 88, we we're great friends
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and we ended up racing on the same Camaro team for mainline racing a lot of years.
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And, and we've raced in BMW over the years.
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So we've raced a lot together.
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Uh, actually all those names we've raced.
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Yeah.
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And Andy is a awesome driver, right.
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And a great guy.
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But he's also disgusting and I'm gonna tell you why it is ought to be good.
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So we were teammates.
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And you know, he's very English, sounds very English, and I'm
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like, what are you eating?
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He goes, A dripping sandwich.
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I'm like, what the hell is a dripping sandwich?
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He goes, oh, my mom made 'em when I was little.
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I still love him.
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They take the bacon grease, you know, and they pour it into a can.
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You know that white grease?
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Yeah.
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And he puts it on white bread and then adds salt, and that's their idea of
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a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
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Dripping sandwich.
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I'm like, Andy.
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I'm gonna remember that for the rest of my life.
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And that was probably 30 years ago he told me that.
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And I still, when I hear Andy Pilgrim, I think dripping sandwiches.
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Oh, that's crazy.
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Yeah.
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That's awesome.
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Well, Andy, Andy's a wheelman and a really good guy and always has
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been where I got plugged into Boris.
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Was through my dad and he's like, you gotta come watch this guy, because
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he was watching World Challenge.
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He had been following your career since the early days and stuff like that.
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And so for me, seeing you on TV and the Mustangs and the BMWs, then
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competing against the Audis in World Challenge with Mike, a Lotti behind
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the wheel, the S fours, stuff like that, it got my spidey sense tingling.
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So I wanted to know, you know, was this the second coming, like it was in
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TransAm in the old GTO days where Audi, quote unquote, the unfair advantage,
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what was it like racing against?
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The four wheel drive cars with a classic rear wheel drive setup.
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They were better, they had an advantage.
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But I didn't care what I raced.
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I just wanted to race and I always wanted to race the next fastest car.
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What's the fastest car I can get in?
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Like, you know, I'm in a showroom stock Mustang, now I'm
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in a showroom stock Corvette.
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Now I'm in a world challenge Corvette and I, I was always just trying
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to get to the next fastest car.
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I wanna get in a cup car, I wanna race against Dale Earnhardt Sr.
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Right?
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And then when you're, you're racing World Challenge.
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I mean, that seemed like every time I got somewhere it was
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like, this is the pinnacle.
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This is unbelievable.
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I'm getting a paycheck to drive these cars.
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And there were always guys along the way, like Mike ate is a hardcore racer.
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Doesn't look like it.
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You know, he looks like he should have a pizza restaurant and the way he talks.
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He's a great, great guy and he was deadly in those cars.
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I mean, he was, he was a really good front wheel drive guy and really
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good in the four wheel drive cars.
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I bring this up because it's a constant conversation.
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Nowadays, as I'm sure it was back then, which is BOP balance of performance, do
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you think it was right to keep adding weight to the Audis and penalize them
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and penalize them, or should Ford or BMW wherever built a better mouse trap?
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That's the argument against BOP, because that has perpetuated your entire career.
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But I, you know, especially now in the GT three series, it's whatever cars,
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whatever the BOP gives it that weekend.
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And I just always thought, you know what?
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I don't give a crap about that.
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I can't control that.
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You know, so why worry about something I can't control?
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I see that it's not right for, you know, one car to win every race.
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It's not gonna look good.
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The other manufacturers will leave and those are the guys paying you.
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It's a tough job for the sanctioning body to try to get every manufacturer to win.
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That's what they want.
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So everybody's happy, but are you equalizing drivers
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or are you equalizing cars?
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That's the big argument really.
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The Audi that Michael Audi drove was a well-funded team, backed by Audi, which
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was a lot for World Challenge at the time.
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And so I think if they were in two wheel drive, they'd probably still be just
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as competitive 'cause of, of all the engineering and everything they had behind
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it, and they had the really good drivers.
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But you know, I never really bitched about stuff like that.
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I didn't really see the point.
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I just.
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Drive harder.
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You gotta figure out a way to beat 'em.
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Always gonna be a weakness, you know, no matter how good their car is, is
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the way I always thought in my head.
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I started racing in an Audi and you know, we always just prayed for rain,
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but let's talk about road courses.
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You've had good success at Sonoma Daytona.
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Sebring, Watkins Glen.
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Bathhurst, I wanna hear about Bathhurst and the Berg Green.
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Obviously the Berg Green was a high point.
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Yeah, I mean, Berg Green to me is, it's the best piece of road in the world.
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You know, I remember we went over there, I forget what year we did an IMS race on
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the Berg Green Grand Prix Circuit, you know, and I was a teammate with Han Stook,
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so he was taking me around the old track and it was just like, are you kidding me?
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I mean, a track that three times the lap, your all four wheels are off the ground.
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It is the craziest.
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Piece of road in the world.
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And so I was addicted to it and I wanted to do it so bad, so I kept
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bugging BMW to get me a berg ring.
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And they kept saying, no, an American can't learn it.
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No, it's too hard.
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No, it's not an American thing.
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And Hans, he talked him in to let me do it.
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They flew me over there.
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This is one of the most fun days they ever had.
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They gave me two BMWM three CSL lightweights street cars.
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And it was just open days with the public and they go, okay,
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those cars are yours for two days.
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Old cars.
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Both cars.
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'cause I would go out in one with Hans and we'd run 10 laps, fuel it up, go
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out, run another 10 laps, bring it back, and they'd change the tires and brakes.
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And I'd take the other one and burn that up for a couple hours
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and I just kept rotating them.
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What a joy.
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It was the most fun I've ever had in two days, and that was in a street car.
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So then going back in the race car, it was just unbelievable.
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You know, we did a lot of VLN races in one short, you know, they were giving us three
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hour races to get ready for the 24 hour, but the first 24 hour race, which was a
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big deal for BMW, it was first time back there as a factory effort on the pay lap.
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Both cars broke down.
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Yeah.
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They packed the radiators with dry ice so they wouldn't overheat on
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the, you know, 30 minute pay lap.
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The Russell Line fittings froze and cracked.
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So they both lost tranny on the first lap, so we were way behind that first year.
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I had a lot of speed, but I crashed the car at like three in the morning
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going by a slow car down in the foxhole.
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He didn't see me turned in and clipped me in the right rear.
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And you know, I dumpster the thing.
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I remember going back to the hotel, telling my wife and just like,
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oh man, I just screwed the pooch.
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There's no way they're ever gonna invite me back.
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I'm bummed that was a low, low point in racing, but they invited me back and
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then next year we finished one, two, I was second, and then 2005 I became the
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first American to ever win that race.
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And congratulations.
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Probably one of the highlights of my racing career was it
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was one of the most fun cars.
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It's the hardest race in the world by far.
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I mean, you're lapping cars every three laps, the difference in speed
16:17
and there's 230 cars on the track and you're passing 50, 60 cars a lap.
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It's unbelievable how much fun it is.
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It's complete craziness.
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Mike mentioned some great memories of racetracks you've been to.
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There's an almost at LAMA with Andrea Robertson and her husband.
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We could talk about that, maybe how that didn't play out, you know?
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Is LAMA still a bucket list thing for you?
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Well, I went to Lama the first time was in 94 with Callaway.
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I put it on the pole.
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It looked like, you know, we were gonna win, but less than halfway
16:47
through the race, you know, we had a French driver in the car that.
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Didn't hear pit in two times and ran outta gas.
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So we got disqualified and that was it.
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It was really fun.
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But then, yeah, I met the Robertsons and did a few races.
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David Murray got me in to run with them and I ran, you know, Seing
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and another race and we were gonna go to LA Mall, but they only got
17:05
one entry, so I got kicked out.
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But they were super nice people and it was a lot of fun.
17:09
But after going to Berg Ring and Bathurst Lamas kind of
17:12
boring, to be honest with you.
17:13
It's a big track.
17:14
It's all straightaways.
17:16
There's only 48 cars on there.
17:18
Berg ring is, that is the ultimate spectacle in in motor sports.
17:21
It is the craziest thing ever.
17:23
And I think the second craziest race would be Bathurst 1000.
17:27
You know, those V eight supercar guys are wide open.
17:30
They're nuts.
17:31
They're 10 tenths every single lap.
17:33
You know, you can watch that track on tv, but the first time I went
17:36
there was with a buddy of mine.
17:38
He landed a helicopter there and I was like, are you kidding me?
17:40
This is what they race on.
17:41
It was.
17:42
So steep and so fast and so blind TV doesn't do it justice.
17:46
It's completely insane.
17:48
I've seen some video and it looked like bathhurst.
17:51
I could be wrong.
17:52
You're in a Mustang Fox body.
17:54
It's full of smoke and your head is out the window because you
17:57
can't see through the windshield.
17:59
No, that was actually a Sonoma early in my career.
18:01
Okay.
18:02
In the Bayer brothers Mustang?
18:04
Yeah.
18:04
Yeah.
18:04
When I went to Bathurst, I was in a pretty badass car.
18:07
All right.
18:07
Let's come back to Bathurst in a second, but tell me what it's like to
18:11
unbuckle and stick your head out the window and continue at race speed.
18:14
Well, I mean that was early in my career and you know, an oil line or something
18:17
came off or something I thought, I go, man, I just gotta get back to the pits.
18:20
And I figured the only way I could do it is to unbuckle, 'cause I
18:23
couldn't see anything in the car.
18:24
That's when you're not really thinking about safety.
18:26
Full speed.
18:27
Joey Chitwood hanging out the window, got it back, and unfortunately it
18:31
was the terminal oil line situation.
18:33
It looked horrible on video.
18:35
Yeah, it was as bad as it looked.
18:37
What else do you have to say about Bathurst that looked incredible?
18:40
I mean, that VH Supercar is as professional as nascar.
18:44
Cup series, but all road racers, those guys are some of
18:47
the best racers in the world.
18:49
You know, proven by McLaughlin Ambrose, SDG, coming over here.
18:53
They breed some really good race car drivers there.
18:56
So to be able to compete in that was a lot of fun and got to do four B
18:59
eight supercar races over my career.
19:01
You know, once at Bathurst, Philip Islands, and then
19:04
twice at Surface Paradise.
19:05
Great memories, I have to say.
19:07
It's really fun to see SVG in nascar.
19:09
Kicking ass.
19:10
You know, like it's really fun.
19:12
Yeah.
19:12
To watch him just jump in and get right up to speed.
19:15
That was the deal I put together for him, you know?
19:17
'cause Justin Marks, we met at BMW when he was this young kid that came
19:21
over and we raced together and I kind of mentored him a little bit.
19:24
I mean, back then he was this idiot kid, like, you know, every 20-year-old kid.
19:28
To see what he's become now in NASCAR is crazy.
19:30
'cause he is, in my opinion, he's the next Hendrick.
19:33
He's the next Penske, you know, he's that.
19:35
Next generation of, it's gonna be the super teams in nascar.
19:38
So I got a call from Paul Morris and he goes, Hey man, can, can you do me a favor?
19:42
Can you, you know, you know Shane, can you get him a ride in that Justin Marks car?
19:46
And I called Justin and asked him, and he goes, ah, you know, I don't know, you
19:49
know, got a guy, I'm not really sure.
19:51
And I'm like, I go, Justin, I've raced with this guy.
19:53
This guy could win.
19:54
I'm telling you.
19:55
Yeah.
19:55
He goes, all right, I'll call him.
19:56
And he never called him.
19:57
So I called him back and really bugged him.
19:59
I go, Justin, I'm telling you this guy can win.
20:02
And so they ended up putting a deal together.
20:03
He goes, yeah, I'm gonna put him in Chicago.
20:05
It was the first time in my life I ever been on a race.
20:07
Me and my son, 'cause he was, my son's a big gambler.
20:10
We bet on him.
20:11
And he paid off pretty good for us.
20:13
It was pretty neat to see him win and he's a great guy.
20:15
Do you think Shane's a road course guy or an oval guy?
20:18
I mean, he is a road course racer, but you know, he seems
20:20
to do quite well at the oval.
20:22
He's getting there.
20:22
I mean.
20:23
It's so much harder now because when I was doing nascar, you know, you got three
20:28
hours of practice before the race and he's going there with 20 minutes of practice
20:32
and qualifying to learn the ovals.
20:34
He's only really learning them when he gets in the race, and that's really hard.
20:38
So I, I hope they give him a couple years and I think he'll get it.
20:41
I mean, he's one of the best drivers I've ever seen besides
20:44
Connors Village, who I think is.
20:46
Probably the world's best.
20:48
There's a bunch of Connors, Connor Di Felipe, I think you ran with him.
20:51
Yep.
20:51
In the BMWs.
20:53
Well, he ran in the prototype.
20:54
You know I was way before him.
20:55
Yeah.
20:55
But he was the second American to Winberg ring.
20:58
And he's good.
20:59
But I'm telling you, Connors Village, if he went to Formula
21:02
One, he would beat those guys.
21:03
I've looked at his data.
21:05
I've never seen a kid like this.
21:06
He is head and shoulders above anyone I've ever seen or raced with,
21:10
and he is a nice kid, one of the nicest kids you'd ever wanna meet.
21:13
I wanna get your thoughts on the, the state of sports car endurance racing.
21:17
Today.
21:17
We've got S-R-O-M-S-A-W-R-L-A-E-R, champ CAR WEC.
21:23
Even Lemons, SCCA is doing some Trans AM is doing a little bit.
21:28
Has it become accessible?
21:30
In a way that you've given any thought to, I love how popular it is.
21:34
I mean, to go to a 24 hour Daytona race now, WeatherTech, it's packed.
21:38
Never had that kind of crowds.
21:39
Cars are beautiful to look at, you know, all the different GT three cars and
21:43
relatively, they keep 'em pretty equal.
21:45
Personally, I, I don't like racing those cars.
21:47
I think it's taken a lot of the skill away, you know, to have paddle shift
21:51
and track control and a BS braking.
21:54
It took a lot of the skill away from shifting through a gated shifter,
21:57
having to match the revs and use the clutch and not use the clutch.
22:01
Trans Am now the TA one class.
22:03
That's the best race car that anyone could ever drive.
22:06
It's almost 900 horsepower.
22:07
Some of 'em still have a gated shifter.
22:09
No a BS no track control.
22:11
Requires a lot of finesse, a lot of control.
22:13
The tires, you know, they still go 194 miles an hour at Road
22:17
America down the straightaway.
22:18
I mean, they really go.
22:20
In saying that I'm old school, so it's me saying, you know, I'm riding my horse.
22:24
These cars are stupid.
22:26
So I, I get that.
22:27
And these GT three cars are just so cool looking, you know, they have a
22:31
lot more arrow than the cars ever had.
22:33
The technology is unbelievable and they're beautiful looking cars, all of them.
22:37
I really don't enjoy driving 'em.
22:38
Like I enjoy driving a older school car with a gated shifter
22:42
and a lot of horsepower.
22:44
You know, I wish they had more horsepower.
22:45
Even nascar now they've dumbed them down so bad, you know,
22:48
they're only 700 plus horsepower.
22:50
They used to be almost 900, and that was a lot harder to drive.
22:53
You know, Mike brought up a really good point about all the different sports
22:56
Car and endurance series that exist, and I'm sure we missed a few, but there's
22:59
also been a rise in vintage racing.
23:02
Do you see yourself getting involved in that?
23:04
Maybe something as outlandish as like the Lamont's Classic?
23:07
I still really enjoy driving.
23:09
I mean, I did a NASCAR race last year.
23:11
It was probably too old to do it.
23:12
I had a blast and I still enjoy Trans Am.
23:15
There's such good racing in all the series.
23:17
Now, one thing, I mean, you look at real grassroots spec Miata.
23:21
You know, you go to an SCCA race that Road America, and you see 70 spec
23:25
Miatas driving around there, four cars, bumper to bumper, drafting,
23:29
folding in each other's mirrors.
23:30
Yeah, those guys put on the best show in racing, I think.
23:34
I mean, they're really, really good and they're, it's amateur racing.
23:37
There's so much good racing now in, in all this series.
23:40
It's really cool Now, I mean, you can turn on the tv, you can watch it anywhere.
23:43
Still after 39 years.
23:45
I love watching racing.
23:46
I love being around it.
23:47
You know, I have a really successful BMW dealership.
23:49
Super proud of it, building it.
23:51
But when I'm there, I personally don't feel like I belong there.
23:55
Where if I'm at a go-kart track or an SECA national or a TransAm race, I feel like
24:00
at home I just still love the race track.
24:02
I love car racing.
24:03
We may have breezed past it, but you are renowned for a number of things.
24:08
One being the road track ringer.
24:10
You know, I was doing some truck races.
24:13
Jimmy Spencer had me sub for him in a cup race when he got hurt.
24:16
Nobody knew who I was.
24:17
Showed up at Watkins Glen, qualified fifth, and then in the race,
24:21
you know, he started the race.
24:22
I got in, got all the way up to 12, spun out in a wreck, went all the way
24:26
to the back, got all the way up to 12.
24:27
Again, I forget where I finished, but in the top 15 or something.
24:30
So after that.
24:31
I started getting calls and I got, first person that called me was a guy named
24:35
Eddie Wood, the wood brothers, and they go, Hey, uh, you want to go, uh, teach
24:39
my driver road racing to Elliot Sadler?
24:41
And I'm like, well, I'm not really a teacher, you know, well, we're gonna go up
24:43
to Sears Point, you know, be really good.
24:45
I go, well, I'm not really a teacher, but what are you thinking?
24:48
He goes, well, I'm gonna bring two cars up and do some lead follow.
24:51
I go, so I get to drive a car.
24:52
And he goes, yeah.
24:53
I go.
24:53
Okay, I'm in.
24:54
I get to go drive a another cup car.
24:56
I, I, for sure.
24:56
I'm doing that.
24:57
And so we finished the two days of testing and it was fantastic, you know,
25:01
and they paid for my flight and a hotel and food, and treated me like a king.
25:04
It was great.
25:05
And at the end of the second day, he goes, well, what do I owe you?
25:07
And I go, well, I don't know.
25:08
Do me a favor down the road.
25:09
I'm good.
25:10
You know, you paid for all my expenses and I had a blast driving.
25:13
Oh no, I gotta pay.
25:13
What, what do, what do you charge?
25:15
And I go, uh, just forget about it.
25:17
And I went home and, and that was it.
25:18
Two weeks later, I got a check in the mail.
25:20
That was my biggest check in racing by far.
25:23
And I just, I remember just looking at it like, oh my God, this is crazy.
25:26
But what he did was he must have told everybody in the paddock because after
25:29
that my phone just started ringing to go testing and so I just became
25:33
this test guy testing for all the teams are these NASCAR guys who wanna
25:37
learn road tracks, all NASCAR guys.
25:39
Yeah.
25:39
There was 30 of them, you know, over a few years.
25:42
So that's just got me to be, you know, every year when somebody got hurt.
25:46
Or didn't wanna race the road courses, they called me or Ron Fellows and
25:49
we became these road course Rainers.
25:50
It was an awesome, awesome experience and I love racing.
25:54
I love racers and just, I learned so much by doing that and it, you
25:57
know, got me faster along the way.
25:59
We're sort of jumping around, you know, talking about, I. Trucks and
26:02
NASCAR and road racing and everything in between and jumping between
26:06
all these different disciplines in Motorsport, how were you able to adapt?
26:10
Or was it just Boris' full send?
26:12
We're gonna go as fast as we can.
26:14
No, you know, I, I did a lot of weekends, like Automobile Magazine did
26:17
an article on me once at Sonoma called The Hardest Working Man in Racing at
26:22
Sonoma, I would do all three races, the Cup Race, the Southwest Tour race.
26:26
A TransAm race, you're jumping back and forth.
26:29
The race days weren't the hardest.
26:30
The hardest was Friday doing two practices in each car and then qualifying two cars.
26:35
So you're jumping back and forth a lot.
26:36
You know, the hardest thing about that is I used to explain
26:39
it, it's like dating girls.
26:40
You know, every girl is different and you can't say the same thing to every girl.
26:44
They get the results you're looking for, right?
26:45
So they, they have their own personality and that's how cars are.
26:49
When you sit in that car, it's like, am I in a batting cage or am I hitting
26:52
golf balls with the driving range?
26:54
Everything's different.
26:55
So I was always good at just switching from one to another to another, and I,
27:00
I don't know, I just had a knack for it.
27:01
You know, one year at Daytona, 24 hours, I drove four different cars in the race.
27:05
I drove 18 hours of the race.
27:07
I drove Callaway C seven and GT one, and I drove three BMWs in the GT
27:12
class, which one of 'em we won and at one point in the race we were leading
27:15
in both classes, but the Callaway expired about two in the morning.
27:18
And I won't name names, but you hear things in even recent times of racing
27:22
where pro drivers are struggling with their engineers or struggling
27:26
with their crew chiefs to communicate how the car should be set up.
27:28
Maybe they have braking problems, maybe they have steering problems,
27:30
electrical problems, whatever.
27:31
But now you're telling, you're jumping between three different
27:34
cars, four different cars.
27:36
How are you able to translate your driving style, how you want the car to act?
27:40
To three entirely different teams, engineers to say, I
27:43
wanna steer off the rear end.
27:45
I don't want it to push.
27:45
I wanted to drive like that had to have been a challenge to get those cars
27:48
dialed in so that you could just jump between them and feel good about it.
27:52
It didn't really seem that big a deal to me.
27:54
I mean, every car has, its.
27:55
Feeling you're just like, all right, it's a little loose here.
27:58
It's a little tight here.
27:59
Most important thing is I need to make a turn better.
28:01
And, and you pick something to make a turn better.
28:03
Like, can you put a little bigger springs in the back, in the cup car?
28:05
You know, the sports cars are a lot more of a compromise, but
28:08
it never, I don't know, for some reason I always had a knack at it.
28:11
I had a really good butt with a good feeling, and, and I could translate what
28:14
I was feeling to the guys the years I did in nascar, testing all the cars and
28:19
working with Penske, Childress Hendrick.
28:23
I knew what everybody had.
28:24
I knew what they were doing.
28:25
I had so much information.
28:27
I was really good at knowing what the car needed in that era.
28:30
You know, now the cars are so different the way they run.
28:33
It's a lot harder where you, they'll change the shim.
28:35
The 16th shim in the shock will make a big difference.
28:38
So you know now what you would just tell it feeling this, I needed to turn
28:41
a little better in the center and the engineers will come up with something.
28:44
Where back then it was so easy to say, yeah, you know, go up
28:47
the 16th on the sway bar or put a round a wedge in the right rear.
28:49
It was really easy to relate what you needed, but now
28:52
it's a lot more scientific, I think, and it's a lot smaller.
28:55
Adjustments make a big change.
28:57
Talked a lot with Colin Brown's dad, Jeff, about hi.
29:01
His early involvement in damper testing and those minor adjustments
29:07
that make a NASCAR car run better and a sports car run better.
29:11
It's magic, it's complete science and if your butt can tell your engineers what
29:15
you need seems to be super important.
29:18
And you know, it strikes me that that is what has led teams to
29:22
say, yes, we would like you to come along to perfect these cars.
29:26
Well, Dale Junior's, he was probably my closest friend in nascar and I
29:29
remember, you know, I got a call, you know, to go teach him road racing.
29:33
I showed up at Sonoma.
29:35
I walk up to the car early in the morning.
29:37
Tony and Tony are senior, are working on the car, and I'm like, Hey, I'm Boris.
29:40
Said I'm here to help you test.
29:42
And, and it was kind of like days of thunder.
29:44
They looked at me like I was poisoned, cold as could be.
29:47
And I'm like, okay.
29:48
And I just backed up and I'm standing around for about 45 minutes.
29:51
And it is early in the morning, like eight o'clock or seven 30, and I'm like,
29:54
Hmm, doesn't seem like they want me here.
29:56
And then this engine guy came up from uh, Childress and I was good friends with
30:00
him and I'm like, Hey man, we're talking.
30:02
I go, it doesn't seem like they really want me there.
30:04
I go, where's Junior?
30:05
Anyway, I, I haven't even met him.
30:06
He goes, oh, he is probably in the trailer sleeping.
30:08
Go in the holler and meet him.
30:09
And you know, I had this preconceived notion that he's
30:11
gonna be this spoiled Brad.
30:12
I mean, he is Dale Earnhardt, SR'S kid.
30:14
He's got everything right like this in my head.
30:16
Sure enough, I open the door to the lounge and walk in.
30:19
He is dead asleep and he wakes up.
30:20
Man, I was 180 degrees off.
30:22
He is the coolest dude.
30:24
And we just hit it off.
30:25
It was like we were brothers, you know, he is like my little brother right away.
30:28
Never had a little brother, but he would've been it.
30:30
So the test starts going and he's running.
30:32
He is running.
30:32
He is like, well, let's put Boris in the car.
30:34
So I get in the car and, and go quite a bit faster than him, and
30:37
then I tell him their car's crap.
30:38
I go, here's what you need to do.
30:40
And they made some changes and it got faster, and now all of a sudden they're
30:43
like, oh, buddy, buddy, buddy, you wanna go to dinner with us tonight?
30:45
Hey, let's go to dinner.
30:46
You know, they wanna pull all the information outta your brain.
30:48
And that started our relationship with Dale Junior.
30:51
You knew Dale Sr, too.
30:53
Yeah.
30:53
So Dale Sr. I mean, everyone always asked me about what's your best racing story?
30:57
And that's a Dale Sr story.
30:59
You know, one day we were all, there was about 15 cars tested at Watkins Glen.
31:02
And I was pretty fast.
31:04
I was in a car, Jimmy Spencer built, sponsored by Federated Auto Parts.
31:07
So this is after I've helped Dale Jr. And you know, his dad, he would
31:10
always come up to me and he was the only guy I've ever met that I was
31:14
starstruck that I would just lock up.
31:16
I couldn't say anything, you know, he'd come up and he'd
31:18
squeeze my neck, you know?
31:19
He always called me, said, he goes, Hey, s said, man, my kid couldn't
31:22
stop talking about you, man.
31:23
Thanks for helping 'em out, man.
31:24
I owe you one.
31:24
I'm like, okay.
31:25
So that day he walks down to the garage where we were and I'm
31:29
like, Dale's coming this way.
31:30
He goes, Hey, said man, come here.
31:32
Will you help me out?
31:32
I'm like, yeah.
31:33
So we start walking towards his car and he is got his hand on my neck squeezing it.
31:37
He always did that.
31:38
He goes, yeah, just run like crap, man.
31:39
This car's just saying, I don't think it's right.
31:41
I tell them boys, but I don't know.
31:42
I don't know what to tell him.
31:43
He goes, we drive my car, and I'm like, holy crap.
31:46
I'm gonna get to drive the number three car.
31:48
That's unusual for him.
31:50
And at the time, I didn't know only three people in history ever drove that
31:53
number three car other than him, Jeff Green, Paul Newman, and Neil Bonnet.
31:57
That was it.
31:58
Why was Paul Newman in that car?
32:00
Because they were friends and he took some laps at Daytona.
32:02
Okay?
32:02
So anyway, he goes, let's see if you fit in there.
32:04
And I get in there and I'm sitting, you know, my knees are in my chest,
32:08
and he sits leaning way back and kind of his hands on the door shut.
32:11
And he goes, man, s you don't fit.
32:13
Very good in there.
32:13
I think you can drive it.
32:15
And I go, I know one thing.
32:16
I feel like a bad motherfucker sitting in this thing.
32:19
This is the coolest thing ever.
32:20
He goes, can you drive it?
32:21
I go, I'll drive it on one condition.
32:23
I go, I know I'm the only race fan you'll ever let drive your car.
32:26
I want to picture me driving this thing.
32:27
Oh my God, that's fantastic.
32:29
And he goes, ah, yeah, on.
32:30
So I go get my helmet on with my big Ford sticker, you know, right here.
32:34
And I pull out and I drive like three or four laps and I come into the garages.
32:38
Were real small at Watkins Glen, and as I pull in, there must have been
32:41
30 people there taking pictures.
32:43
It was crazy.
32:45
And I was like thinking of that old EF hunting commercial, you
32:47
know, where everyone just stopped to listen to what he said.
32:50
Yeah.
32:50
And as he took the window net down, I was just horrified looking at
32:53
all these people and he is like, well, like a deer at the headlights.
32:55
I go, man, this thing's a piece of crap.
32:57
You drove my car, you wouldn't get in this thing.
32:59
Right?
32:59
He goes, come on, let's go.
33:01
So me, him and his crew chief, Kevin Hamlin, we go in the Hollerer.
33:04
Now we're sitting in the Dale Senior's Hollerer, and
33:06
I give him this laundry list.
33:07
I go, the first thing is your brakes, man.
33:09
It's like pushing concrete.
33:11
You need a smaller master cylinder to get a little travel.
33:13
He's like, man, I told them boys that wore my leg out at Sears Point.
33:16
And they don't listen.
33:17
And I'm thinking in my head like, how do they not listen to him?
33:19
He is the freaking king.
33:21
So I give him this list of second and third gear.
33:23
I remember the front sway bar, the rear springs, and he
33:26
just told this guy, he goes.
33:27
Okay man, do it all.
33:28
I'll be here.
33:29
Call him when you're ready.
33:30
And so now it's just me and him sitting there in the lounge looking at each other
33:33
and I'm sweating and I'm nervous and I'm like, I am thinking something cool to say.
33:37
Think of something cool to say.
33:38
And airplane two, the movie was on the tv and I go, pretty funny movie, huh?
33:41
And he goes, yeah, I like that guy.
33:43
And he put his hand on the table and he walked outta the lounge.
33:44
And I'm like, oh Jesus, that's the best you can come up with.
33:47
And I was just so nervous and all of a sudden he yells, he
33:50
goes, Hey, SED you hungry.
33:52
You want anything to eat?
33:53
And I was just like.
33:54
Make me a peanut butter and jelly and cut the crust off and hurri it up.
33:57
Just a joke and nothing, not a sound.
34:00
And I'm like, if there was a door in the front of that lounge, I would've took off.
34:04
It seemed like an hour, but it was probably two minutes.
34:06
He walks in with a peanut butter and jelly on a paper towel and a water.
34:09
He goes, here you go, man.
34:10
And I'm like, Hey, you didn't cut the crust off.
34:12
He goes, no, man, it makes your hair curly.
34:13
I don't wanna ruin your look.
34:15
Did he make one for himself?
34:16
Yeah, he had one for himself too.
34:18
Oh, good.
34:18
And so we sat there and ate.
34:20
That was just the coolest thing ever.
34:22
Then I finally could talk to him.
34:23
I finally was like, at ease.
34:25
Let's look at some data.
34:26
Yeah.
34:26
Yeah.
34:27
It was pretty neat.
34:27
That's really cool.
34:29
The, the variety of cars that you've done that in is insane.
34:34
I mean, we're talking about trucks, cop cars, sports cars,
34:37
the X Games in rally cars.
34:39
Like I want to hear a little bit about that.
34:41
I never said no to anything.
34:42
You know, if it was front wheel, rear wheel, never tried it.
34:45
You know, I did the X Games, you know, that weekend I was doing the Xfinity
34:49
Race in Montreal, you know, and they were doing a special test on like a dirt track.
34:54
And I was missing that.
34:55
So I literally, the first time I went to the X Games, I
34:58
literally got one lap of practice.
35:00
I literally left the Xfinity Race in Montreal, got in a helicopter,
35:04
flew to the airport, took a private plane to Chicago to get a commercial
35:08
flight to LA just to make the X Games.
35:10
They go, don't worry, you'll have plenty of practice in the morning.
35:12
I'm like, okay.
35:13
And, uh, sure enough, in the morning the track was delayed
35:16
getting built and blah, blah, blah.
35:18
And you know, so I did the X Games, but I literally got one lap of practice
35:22
and, and, uh, didn't do the best, but I lost by like a quarter of a car length.
35:26
So I was bummed, but it was a lot of fun to do.
35:28
It.
35:28
Did Travis or, uh, Travis helped a lot.
35:31
But if I bring a driver that's never been to a track, I can tell him about the
35:35
track, but until he goes out and drives it, it's like, teach him Greek, you know?
35:39
But once he drives it, I can say, okay, now in that corner, you know,
35:41
if you turn in earlier, he'll get it.
35:43
So that's how it was tough at the X Games to talk to Travis.
35:46
'cause he helped me a lot there and just say like, how do I do this?
35:49
And he kind of told me I did my one lap and I'm like, oh boy,
35:51
it's gonna be tough in the race.
35:53
But it was still, it was a blast to do it.
35:54
Yeah, it sounds like a lot of fun.
35:55
Yeah.
35:56
Yeah.
35:56
I don't know how you choose between Sonoma and Daytona and the ring.
36:01
And if you have a favorite, I'd love to hear about it.
36:04
I have multiple favorites.
36:05
I mean, the ring by far is my favorite.
36:07
To be the first American to win, there was a big feather.
36:10
And you know, I'm a big World War II buff to be standing on the, I remember,
36:14
I remember this so distinctly standing on the podium when we won and thinking, you
36:18
know, 50 years earlier, Adolf Hitler, he'd be rolling over in his grave right now.
36:23
If you saw some Paul kid from California with an Afro winning on his track.
36:27
'cause it was just by the Arden force where the Battle of the Bulge was fought.
36:30
That to me was one of the highlights.
36:32
And then, you know, second was just competing in Daytona 500
36:36
as where I started, you know, driving my car to the track.
36:39
I just never, ever thought I would get there, and I think every time I lined
36:43
up for a race there, I would just sit there and think like, man, only 43
36:47
people get to do this in the world.
36:48
It was one of the most fun experiences you could ever think of.
36:51
Even though people say Drafting's boring, that place was a little
36:55
crazy and it was a lot of fun.
36:56
Getting back to, uh, the rivalries that you had, you have a
37:00
reputation for not taking any crap.
37:02
We all get more mellow as we age, but I want to hear about how the whole biffle
37:08
thing has played out over the years.
37:12
Oh, man.
37:14
Do you still want to give Greg Biffle a black eye?
37:16
No.
37:17
So, I mean, I did a lot of training with Greg Biffle, you know, 'cause
37:20
I did a lot of stuff with Roush and that day he made me super mad and
37:25
he remembers the story different.
37:26
I remember the story different, so maybe the truth lies in between, but we were mad
37:29
at each other probably for three years.
37:31
I'll never forget it.
37:32
We're at the, I was at the SEMA show and I saw him with a girl and the girl,
37:36
I saw the girl say, Boris is here.
37:38
Then he came and we started talking, and now we're really good friends again.
37:42
You know, we went on some off-roading trips together in razors at the desert.
37:45
He was a good guy.
37:46
Just racing gets emotional.
37:48
I was always a very emotional racer.
37:50
And so was he.
37:50
And that day our emotions crossed, you probably know Mike Skeen.
37:54
Oh yeah.
37:54
His girlfriend, Kelly Hefe slapped Max Papas after That's the truck race.
38:00
And, and when Max took him out, and Kelly and Mike and I are really good friends
38:05
and I. She got famous from this, right?
38:08
It was a shame, but it wound up being pretty funny 'cause they wound
38:11
up on an airplane together, one seat away from each other, right?
38:15
Kelly and Mico.
38:16
That's Max.
38:16
Should we make friends?
38:18
And they decided that they should.
38:19
Which was the right move I guess.
38:21
So my situation with Greg Biffle, what happened was when I got interviewed
38:26
after I had my son who was probably sick.
38:28
Six or seven at the time, standing next to me, I'm holding his
38:31
hand, but he is not in camera.
38:33
I didn't wanna just start swearing and bleeping in front of him.
38:36
So my interview was this most ridiculous, funny thing, 'cause I'm using all
38:40
these words like wampum and, and so the interview played everywhere.
38:43
I had no idea how it, it went that viral.
38:45
I mean, when I got to Australia that year to race, that's all
38:48
they wanted to talk about.
38:49
Greg Biffle.
38:49
Gotcha.
38:49
Greg Biffle.
38:50
And so it was funny, but in saying that about Mike Skiing.
38:54
That to me is a tragic story.
38:56
That's the hardest thing about racing is unlike other sports like golf,
39:00
tennis, baseball, if you're good enough, you get your shot right.
39:04
I think Mike skiing is the most underrated, fast guy ever.
39:08
I mean, that guy can get in anything and drive it, and his style is like the
39:12
smoothest glass, how he is on the car and.
39:15
I like feel for that guy because like I know he's better than I am.
39:18
He just for some reason, didn't get the right brakes.
39:21
I mean, that guy should be in a NASCAR or he is too tall for an Indy car, or he
39:26
should be in a factory ride somewhere.
39:28
I mean, the guy still to this day is fast as lightning.
39:30
Oh, he's amazing.
39:31
And he is the nicest guy.
39:32
He is just quiet, you know, and he just, man, I wish the guy would exer himself
39:35
more because he's a hell of a racer.
39:37
He really is.
39:38
I would like to ask you about.
39:39
Characters in nascar.
39:41
I think NASCAR has gotten sort of mellowed out by like the
39:45
commercialism and all that.
39:46
And you know, it used to be the, the, you know, the guys who were running moonshine
39:50
and you were a character in nascar.
39:52
Here we have this Cletus McFarland guy coming into ARCA and shaken things up.
39:58
I think NASCAR is recognizing it from my perspective.
40:01
It's really fun.
40:02
A hundred percent agree.
40:03
I think NASCAR has become way too vanilla.
40:06
You know, all these young guys, I mean, granted, they're talented,
40:08
but they're boring back in the day, I mean, you had Dale Earnhardt Sr.
40:12
And Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin, and they all had these personalities,
40:15
you know, that were entertaining.
40:17
And now, you know, the most entertaining guy is Kyle Busch, because you, wow.
40:21
I wanna hear what he has to say.
40:22
It's gonna be big.
40:23
But he's even mellowed out now in, in his old age.
40:25
Right.
40:26
You know, it's still great racing.
40:28
I miss the characters and maybe just 'cause I'm old
40:30
school, you know, I'm 62 now.
40:32
May it could be that too.
40:33
There's really good drivers now and they're all young.
40:36
But I, I agree with you.
40:37
I think guys like him are gonna have a big career just because he is entertaining.
40:41
I. Cletus and Biffle are very tight, which is fun to watch.
40:46
And then he's got, is it Harvick as his spotter?
40:50
Ooh, I'm not sure.
40:51
I'm not sure either.
40:52
But there's a lot of guys that have moved between NASCAR and the road
40:55
courses and stuff like that and Smoke and Dale Jr. And you know, Dale gets
41:00
out at Talladega to give Cletus.
41:02
Some coaching in a streetcar, and it's fun to watch and the
41:07
YouTube videos are off the charts.
41:09
I think that's what NASCAR is missing.
41:12
But I, I thought Dale Earnhardt Jr. I mean, after knowing him all
41:15
these years, that's why he was always the most popular driver.
41:18
Kind of similar to Chase Elliot today.
41:19
I mean, he's the same kind of character, you know, really, really good guy.
41:23
Top-notch.
41:23
'cause he was so genuine.
41:25
Even if his name wasn't Dale Earnhardt Jr. He would've still been that guy.
41:28
He's just such a cool dude.
41:30
Everything he says is genuine.
41:31
There's nothing made up with him.
41:32
If he thinks that, he says it, you know, I was always genuine.
41:35
I said what I thought a lot of times people did not like it, and maybe I
41:39
should have shut my mouth just the way I am and I can't change Too old to change.
41:42
I've been thinking about this.
41:44
With all of your expertise and various disciplines and all the time you spent in
41:48
nascar, what was it like for you seeing the Garage 56 car at Lama two years ago?
41:53
Oh, I thought that was the coolest thing ever.
41:55
It was just awesome.
41:56
And then to see him win the pit stop competition was, I thought, one
41:59
of the highlights of the weekend.
42:01
And you know, everybody thought that car was gonna be the slowest car in the field.
42:04
And they ended up being faster than all the GT three cars.
42:07
So I thought it was, that was a big win for Chevrolet.
42:10
And I saw all the work that Hendrick Motorsports put into it.
42:13
Chad Canal and his whole team, and it was pretty neat.
42:15
I mean, I'm a partner of Rick Hendricks and I, I'll call him a friend because
42:18
he's definitely my mentor in the car business and we talk a lot.
42:21
I think they put a lot of effort into it and showed.
42:24
You know, Hendrick Motorsports, you know, the organization is just ridiculous.
42:27
It's top shelf.
42:28
That's the pinnacle of motorsports, I think.
42:30
You think that car was a one and done or are we gonna see
42:33
more of that kind of racing?
42:34
Uh, that's a one.
42:35
And, and done.
42:36
That's the museum piece.
42:37
Now you're not done.
42:38
You started the Go-Kart franchise, but you were hanging up your
42:43
old suits on the walls of these.
42:45
Go-kart tracks.
42:46
Well, my wife was so mad because I used to keep one suit from every car I raced.
42:50
And I probably had like 400 suits in the house, all stacked everywhere,
42:54
you know, and all these things.
42:55
And they opened this indoor go-kart track by us in Carlsbad.
42:58
I saw the sign and it was off in this industrial park way in the back.
43:02
I go, nobody's ever gonna go there.
43:03
They're never gonna find this place.
43:05
And I went in there and met the guy.
43:06
It was a French guy named David Denard.
43:08
His girlfriend at the time, and we became friends and they couldn't
43:12
get the use permit, so I helped him with all the businesses in the area.
43:15
They had to, you know, write letters of support and they ended
43:18
up opening and I go, man, this place is never gonna make it.
43:20
So, you know, they go, Hey, can we get some suits?
43:22
So I'd hang up some suits there and some memorabilia and an old race car went
43:26
in there and, and the place just rocks.
43:28
It was packed all the time.
43:29
I became a partner in the second store.
43:31
Just for the benefit of our listeners who have probably been Googling
43:34
this for the last couple of minutes.
43:36
Boris helped put K one speed.
43:39
That's right, folks.
43:40
K one speed.
43:41
Indoor go-kart tracks on the map back in 2003.
43:44
So if you've ever been to one, you can say I've been to Boris's place.
43:47
I didn't do much with the business, but you know, they grew it from, you
43:50
know, one store to two stores to three stores and before long they had 60 of
43:54
these things and, and then I didn't have any more suits in the house, so
43:56
my wife was really happy about that.
43:58
Yeah.
43:58
So it was a good place to throw all my memorabilia.
44:00
But then one day you got a call from Corvette Racing and,
44:03
and they said, jump in a car.
44:05
Like always.
44:06
I think I have a Corvette suit hanging in a go-kart.
44:09
No, it was Lou gel, it was a private tier Corvette.
44:12
And he goes, Hey, do you wanna do Long Beach with me?
44:13
I'm like, yeah, sure.
44:14
And then I go, Hey y'all, you wanna take the team?
44:16
Go-karting.
44:17
And we have a a go-kart track in Torrance.
44:18
Oh yeah, that'd be great.
44:19
So the night before practice.
44:21
They're all go-karting, and the crew chief goes, Hey, do you got
44:23
a suit with the right patches?
44:25
And I'm like, ah, IM za.
44:26
I'm like, shoot.
44:26
Oh yeah, there's a Corvette suit on the wall there that I was supposed
44:30
to use with Dale Jr. But he caught on fire and I never used it.
44:33
So I pulled that suit off the wall, and then two days later,
44:36
it was in the same condition that Dale Earnhardt Jr's suit was.
44:39
'cause you know I had a big fire.
44:40
That was a weird coincidence.
44:41
I have always regarded carting as the place to start off.
44:45
Young road racers.
44:46
Do you think that's still the goal?
44:47
Or would you go down, like you mentioned before with your son?
44:51
I put him in a Miata and we just went for it.
44:53
I think go-karting is the place to start, especially K one speed.
44:56
You can start there very cheap and start indoor.
44:59
And then now K one has two outdoor tracks.
45:01
One of the best circuits in North America by far.
45:03
A Go-Karting facility, you know, out here in in Winchester, California.
45:07
But I mean, look at.
45:08
Kids like Connor Village and Brett Cruz, you know, they all came from Go-Karting.
45:13
You know, you look at Formula One right now, you know Kimmy Antonelli
45:16
and all these young hot shots.
45:18
I mean, they're all go-karts.
45:19
So it's definitely the place to start, if you can start that early.
45:22
I never started go-karting until I became a car racer.
45:25
I never did anything like that when I was a kid.
45:27
But I, I think it's definitely the place to start.
45:29
I've only ever had one racing budget and my kid goes to the
45:33
go-kart track as often as possible and gets fast time of the week.
45:36
I just pretend that that didn't happen because I only have one racing budget.
45:41
But what's next?
45:42
I mean maybe some GT three stuff.
45:45
In SROI have a team that would love to welcome you.
45:48
Well, I mean, it's good now because I'm a bronze driver.
45:50
That's kind of perfect.
45:52
Yeah.
45:52
It, it works into this strategy and I, I like it.
45:55
I like doing TransAm.
45:56
I'm gonna do a few more TransAm races this year.
45:58
I'm working on building a, a race track in Southern California right now and start
46:03
like a country club track very close to la so it would be definitely different.
46:06
That's the big project I'm working on right now.
46:08
I just invited you to come drive for an S-R-O-M-S-A team that I do
46:14
not own, but that I sort of manage.
46:17
I don't know whether that invite, I can execute on it, but I do own a lemons team.
46:22
And if you were ever interested in driving in the 24 hours of lemons,
46:26
I have a shitty old BMW that I could completely put you behind the wheel of.
46:31
And I've done it with other famous older race car drivers, including
46:35
Randy Lanier, who Eric and I interviewed, and the invitation is open.
46:40
I would do that for sure.
46:41
SRO don't need any money anymore to race.
46:43
I just do it for the love of the game now.
46:45
But yeah, I still go.
46:46
All right.
46:46
For a bronze guy, I would love to see a rematch between Boris and Andy.
46:50
And we talked a lot about the past and now Mike has brought us into the future,
46:54
but there's one thing that we sort of left on the table from your origin story.
46:58
You said you wanted to buy a Formula One car.
47:00
Did you ever do any open wheel racing?
47:02
Did you ever get a chance to sit in a Formula One car or even
47:04
an Indy car and run some laps?
47:06
Let's assume that he bought one.
47:08
I wasn't gonna ask.
47:09
No, I never bought one in racing, driving other people's stuff's a lot
47:12
more fun, so I never owned any race cars.
47:14
I agree completely.
47:15
Yeah.
47:16
But one time I was doing World Challenge in uh, probably 1990 at
47:21
Des Moines Super V was racing there.
47:22
S-S-E-C-A Super V Racing, the Pro Series, and I was walking
47:26
through looking at the cars.
47:27
Some guy stopped me and he was a New Zealander guy, and Ken Marillo ran for
47:31
him and he goes, how come you never tried any open wheel cars, Barris?
47:34
And I'm like, oh, no one's ever asked.
47:35
He goes, well, you come out and test my car sometime.
47:37
I'm like, when?
47:38
And I remember, you know, I kept bugging the guy and I went to Willow Springs.
47:41
You know, I was living in Connecticut at the time.
47:42
He tested me in a Super V and it was Chad McQueen's car.
47:46
Steve's son.
47:46
Yeah.
47:47
I, I ended up being really fast and he goes, okay, I'm gonna sign
47:50
you as my driver for next year.
47:51
And I thought, well, I got a ride.
47:52
Sure enough, a month before the season, he goes, I'm sorry man, I
47:55
gotta take somebody that's paying.
47:56
And I'm like, okay.
47:57
So that was the only time in a, in an open wheel car, but I didn't really fit.
48:01
You know, open wheel and even running the prototype cars the
48:04
little as I did a few years, I was too tall on the legs for those cars.
48:07
It was just hard to be comfortable in them.
48:09
It's a real shame the more I think about it.
48:11
They did the wrong casting call for the US top gear.
48:14
I think Boris should have been on the US top gear and that show would've survived.
48:18
I tried out for it, actually.
48:19
I didn't get it, but I did try out for it.
48:21
Yep.
48:21
That's awesome.
48:22
That's crazy.
48:22
'cause a couple of the rally guys that I'm friends with Got it.
48:25
Whatever.
48:26
Like Tanner.
48:27
Yeah, Tanner.
48:28
Yeah.
48:28
Uh, it's frustrating.
48:30
You mentioned earlier, we've hit on it a couple times, you're now racing with
48:33
your son who, like you kind of had to be brought into racing a little bit.
48:37
So that means the said legacy lives on in Motorsport.
48:40
What's the family goal there?
48:41
I mean, obviously you are still turning laps as well.
48:43
What's the plan for your son and maybe grandson, future generations?
48:47
Let's not talk about a grandson just yet.
48:49
Big fella.
48:49
But, uh, so he, uh, even though he, he is going out with Dave Jones's
48:54
daughter, which is pretty neat.
48:56
She's super nice girl.
48:56
Carrera Jones.
48:58
He loves it, but my son has his own business.
49:00
He is more successful than I am and he is doing really well.
49:04
And I think he's torn right now.
49:06
Between his 70 hours a week, you know that he works.
49:09
Is it working or bracing?
49:11
And right now he's doing both.
49:12
But I. I love doing the racing with him 'cause we do it together
49:15
and you know, we're best buddies.
49:16
But I'm not sure if that'll be his career.
49:18
I think business is gonna be his career and I'm super proud
49:22
of what he's done in that.
49:22
I mean, it's, he's 21 years old and it's amazing what he is accomplished.
49:26
Well, Boris, we have reached that part of the episode where I like to invite
49:30
our guests to share any shout outs, thank yous, promotions, or anything
49:33
else that we haven't covered thus far.
49:35
Uh, no, I'm good.
49:36
Thanks.
49:36
After 39 years of racing, I just.
49:38
Still love it.
49:39
So I like being around it, like talking about it.
49:41
It was a hell of a ride for me.
49:42
You don't have a website where you're selling t-shirts or something?
49:45
No, I've never had any of that stuff.
49:46
Okay, cool.
49:47
If any of your fans need A BMW, they can come to BMW Murrieta.
49:50
How about that?
49:51
I need one.
49:51
I would like an M three 40.
49:54
I. That's a great bar.
49:56
For something less than 80 grand.
49:59
It is less than 80 grand.
50:00
Well then we're in luck.
50:02
I'll be out.
50:03
Okay.
50:04
Alright.
50:04
No problem.
50:05
Well, folks, that brings us to the checkered flag on this episode,
50:08
and it's been an absolute ride.
50:09
Talking about the legendary career of Boris said, a driver who's raced it
50:13
all, one big and never back down from a challenge from road courses to stock cars.
50:18
Boris has left his mark on every track.
50:20
He's touched and his passion for racing continues to
50:22
inspire fans and drivers alike.
50:24
If you wanna keep up with Boris and all the cool things, he's
50:27
still up to on and off the track.
50:28
You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter at Boris said.
50:32
So whether it's racing, mentoring, or making appearances at events around
50:35
the country, Boris is still very much part of the motorsports world.
50:39
Great talking to you, man.
50:40
All right.
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Take care.
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We hope you enjoyed another awesome episode of Break Fix Podcasts, brought
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And remember, without you, none of this would be possible.