EP 34 Bailey Cole

A play on the triumph and losses in performance and life.  The Talent Tank podcast will navigate the inner workings of lifestyle, lives, family, teams, careers, programs, and technology in and around the offroad motorsports industry.  What breeds success with your Talent Tank on full, failures when its on empty.  From the journey to the Starting Line to take that Green Flag, on to exploring trials and tribulations on and off the track in pursuit of victorious achievement and the Checkered Flag.

Heir apparent to the Hammerking Empire, the "Prince" so to speak jumps on The Talent Tank this week.  Bailey Cole, @bailey_cole_racing, driver of the 4454 ULTRA4 Racing 4400 race car.  4th at 2020 King of the Hammers, currently sitting in 3rd in the National points race.  Bailey has been around offroad since he could walk, and he's been around King of the Hammers and Ultra4 Racing since before they were a thing.  On this episode we discuss close calls, near death experiences, earning respect as one of the fastest drivers to come up through the ranks of the lower classes.  Cutting his teeth in underpowered straight axle cars to earn the seat he has in the elite Class 4400 field.  At 23 he's already a Class Champion after winning the 2019 Score Baja1000.  Now wrapping up college, we look forward at what the future may hold.  Sit down, crank it up, and lets go!

After the Checkered Flag-
The Crandon International Off-Road Raceway, Crandon for short. Is a short course offroad  racetrack, located near Crandon, Wisconsin.  The course hosts the World Championship Off-Road Races, Red Bull World Cup, Forest County Potawatomi Spring Brush Run Races, and Lucas Oil Midwest Short Course League points races. The track started out as a 1.75-mile long, now shortened to 1.5 miles venue. Heats are started with a "land rush" start side by side on a standing start-line.

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Transcript

Intro/Outro: 0:02

Let's drop the green flag on this episode of the talent tank podcast with your host Wyatt Pemberton bringing you the best, fastest, most knowledgeable personalities and ultra for and off road racing.

Wyatt Pemberton: 0:20

All right, all right. All right, here we go the talent tank back in session. Glad you guys tuned in. I'm glad you guys have this podcast up. I'm glad you guys are fans, subscribers, all that that you left great feedback for me. But yeah, man, here we go this week. Bailey Cole. Bailey. Gosh, man. Oh my gosh. So Bailey will be the first time. You know father son duo. This is a Dave Colson Bailey. But Bailey is a grown man. He's his own man. That's what we're going to talk about today. Bailey. Welcome to the Talent tank.

Bailey Cole: 0:53

Thank you very much for having me out here today. I appreciate appreciate it. Well, additionally,

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:00

Bailey is the driver of the 4454 you're just you just came off a top five finish up at Moab.

Bailey Cole: 1:07

Yes, we did finish fifth at Moab. It was a pretty hard fought race with everything going into it. But it all worked out the end.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:14

And I believe you finished fourth that King of the hammers this year and 4400 right. Sir, immediately behind the drama.

Bailey Cole: 1:24

Yes, immediately behind

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:25

immediately behind all the timing drama. Wow. Yeah, that was a that was that was something else. So that would tell me that you're probably sitting pretty good in the national points race and I didn't look those up. Are you?

Bailey Cole: 1:39

Yep. Right now I'm sitting third. I believe. tied for third tied for third. Oh, who you tied with

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:46

Raul I believe. Oh, Gomez. All right. Yeah, that's that's hot and contested battlespace right there. All right, man.

Bailey Cole: 1:54

Well, right behind those two Miller guys.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:57

Yeah. Well, I mean, there's that that's, yeah, you got to say those Pro Chassis get it done. Plus, they've got two really good pilots behind the wheel.

Bailey Cole: 2:06

No, they're they're pretty impressive and pretty fun to race against

Wyatt Pemberton: 2:09

and constantly being chased down. And that's the that's the IFS versus the solid axle battle, right.

Bailey Cole: 2:15

100%.

Wyatt Pemberton: 2:16

And so you and Ravel are really the guys in IFRS cars playing second fiddle

Bailey Cole: 2:22

right now. Yeah,

Wyatt Pemberton: 2:24

you've had lots of race time and solid axles and you grew up in solid axle. So

Unknown: 2:29

yeah, no, um, I actually almost preferred the solid axles in some ways. But right now IFs garcin is the fastest way to go. And in one of them right now.

Wyatt Pemberton: 2:39

Well, so yeah, you're you're certainly growing into how many races Do you have under your belt in an ifs car now? It's not a ton.

Unknown: 2:47

Just this season. So hammers, then the next race was Crandon in Moab.

Wyatt Pemberton: 2:52

Yeah. And crammed in races? Yeah, well, Crandon is a great segue. Um, wouldn't I be glad you brought that up on your own?

Bailey Cole: 3:00

They Yeah.

Wyatt Pemberton: 3:01

So guys, I'm gonna have to add the link to the show notes or somewhere. I don't know how to do it. We'll figure it out. But it's floating everywhere.

Bailey Cole: 3:09

It wasn't floating. It was definitely sinking.

Wyatt Pemberton: 3:12

It was definitely sinking. Well, first and foremost, before I dive into that, literally dive into this. I am glad I'm able to sit here and have a conversation with you on the show and talk about this and talk about what this equaled and how this happened. But because it could have gone the other way you could have you could have drowned. And what we're talking about is Bailey took the 4454 at Crandon crane in Wisconsin, wasn't it? It was a no points race. It was a you know, we're gonna go race Crandon because Crandon is cool as hell. And we're gonna see how many of us come back into a corner and come out but Crandon was a night race. Yes, sir. And with night race, and they watered the crap out of the track, but there's still some dust. There's, you know, lap traffic. I mean, there's traffic on the course. I think there was even a as I saw the video, maybe there was even Crandon track traffic, somewhere in there with some lights flashing, and you went to pass around a track truck that was doing some sort of work, and you just stayed wooded. And you were off to the left side of the course by How far would you say 25 feet, 20 feet, one very far.

Bailey Cole: 4:18

20

Unknown: 4:18

feet or so? Yeah. And so that section was actually a bridge and Crandon worker was parked right on the apex of the corner. And I didn't quite realize that until the next thing I saw was water. And they weren't going to help out Iron Man racing.

Wyatt Pemberton: 4:33

And so the way that went down you went to pass him. You stayed wooded. You didn't make it, you know you just stayed matted and you should have shifted to the right and next thing you know, you're swimming. You're like you're not swimming. You got a wall of water. You were met by Wall water. How did that initial slow down feel? What went through your brain in that initial second before you got wet?

Unknown: 4:57

So I was going and it was pretty dusty. It was kind of hard to see and even the video doesn't really give it quite as much justice but go and then all of a sudden the dust cleared and all I saw was water and I was like well this sucks and then hit the water and I thought it was going to be two three feet and just I thought it was going to sink the car but not sink me and I hit it in the water came up and around and literally hit me from all three directions both on the side of the head and forward just a wall

Wyatt Pemberton: 5:28

well the incar video that you had which man amazing, great in-car video this. It looks like Moses part of the sea, you know, because your hood, split the pond in half and you got a split second as your headlights went under. You got this white wall, two white walls of water as a split where the the hood blocked and throw up a wake. And then it just goes blind.

Bailey Cole: 5:51

Yeah, that was pretty much my view of the whole thing. Now was your

Wyatt Pemberton: 5:55

visor up and you got it in the face? Or do you have visor down?

Bailey Cole: 5:59

No visor was up because coming up over that hill. When we went back in the back area, I would put my visor up just so I could get that little more visibility through the rocks and the tights twisties of the trees. So went visor up there and got a faceful of water. So So folks, as you're listening we were five point harnessed into a 5200 5400 pound racecar probably race weight at crinan was probably around 5000 maybe a little bit under you probably Yeah, we got it nice and light. So right around five,

Wyatt Pemberton: 6:30

so around 5000 pounds. So you're five point harnessed into this car, you know 800 and some horsepower helmet on. You get plunged in dunked in water. Luckily, you're still up, you didn't roll and you're not upside down. Yep, window nets and steering wheel. And it's pitch black outside, it's dark. And how did your mind process those next steps of crap I need to get out of this car, and how do I get out without freaking out?

Bailey Cole: 7:01

So the way that I thought about it, even when it happened was just this is an unfortunate situation, but I've trained for this. I've gotten out of the car blindfolded before and done timed tests and make sure I could do it just most of the time I thought it'd be because of fire but this time was water and just kept myself calm and said there's no point in getting frazzled right now it's just going to make the situation worse. So when unbuckled the seatbelt and I kind of jiggled them loose just because you know how sometimes they get stuck if you just yank. So got them all broken loose, got all five harnesses off of me. And then I remember going trying to go through the windshield, just to get out faster. Except we had rock guards, because it was the short course race. So we did the crendon rock guard, so I Oh, even worse, Uh huh. bumped my head off the rock guard was like well, not going out through there, sit back in the seat and then did the window net and then swim up to the surface. And what was visibility? Was there some visibility or were you pitch blacked? under the water pitch black?

Wyatt Pemberton: 8:11

Oh, God. That's like worst nightmare stuff right there.

Bailey Cole: 8:15

It was a little sketchy.

Wyatt Pemberton: 8:18

What would you take now? Would you take that scenario or same scenario above water daytime, but on fire?

Bailey Cole: 8:26

I think I'd be on fire.

Wyatt Pemberton: 8:29

That says a lot. Wow. Wow, man, it could have so could have gone the other way. So glad you're here.

Bailey Cole: 8:36

One little funny story that I didn't talk about earlier. But there was a time that I was pre running the Baja 500 with JT and my dad and a four seat razor. And it was the year that it was 130 degrees down on Diablo The one that crazy like that waves. Uh huh. And we didn't have enough fuel in the four seat razor to make our section pre running. So we put two five gallon cans in the back of the UTV and when we left and snot It was 65 degrees. And then as we got moving it heated up and heated up, and about and they swell

Wyatt Pemberton: 9:14

hour they swell to Yeah,

Bailey Cole: 9:16

uh huh. So about an hour and a half into our pre run, my dad smelled some fuel. I was like, okay, and him and JT asked me to turn around and look, look back what was there and I look around and coming over my shoulder and I'm in the backseat of the razor. So coming over my shoulder and engulfing me at this point is a wall of flame, probably six to seven feet high.

Wyatt Pemberton: 9:44

How did you go Just get out of that.

Bailey Cole: 9:45

So my reaction was, Hey guys, we're on fire. And they that was a little bit of a panic for a second and then buckle and get out and it was actually a very cold flame. Because it was the vapors, and my dad reached in, grabbed the fuel and threw it out of the back of the car.

Wyatt Pemberton: 10:08

I mean if you're gonna I guess be on fire with people then yeah your dad and JT Taylor would be two people I'd be cool with having that problem with

Bailey Cole: 10:17

they were pretty good people to be around for that and I was in the backseat still doing low altitude air drops with the water bottles in the backseat and JT was throwing sand on and and we actually finished that pre run that day.

Wyatt Pemberton: 10:27

Oh, wow. Wow. Well, man, what, what? How many? Well, those are two completely mind boggling stories that you actually have been on fire at one point, but the the drowning me. I think the drowning is the worst. I I don't know. Man. I I think going into water is one thing but going into water in the dark. And I think I I don't know, man, I think we're all blessed that you swim out of there. You know, because an ultra for car racecar is. I mean, it's kind of amazed trying to get out

Bailey Cole: 11:03

to begin with. They're not always the easiest things to get out of it. Get the steering wheel off. That

Wyatt Pemberton: 11:08

is funny that you get the rock guard, you know, having that on Wow, that. Yeah, that that'd be a problem. Could can you fit through the windshield of your car

Bailey Cole: 11:16

with the if you hadn't had the rock guard? I believe so. I know the old car I could. And I believe the new cars pretty similar. didn't test getting out the windshield though. So I might have been a good thing. The rock guard was there and I just sat back and got out the window.

Wyatt Pemberton: 11:32

You'll have to try it out and let us know how that worked out and be like, yep, no, I would have got stuck and then I would have drowned. Oh man. Well, hey, well, so here we go. We've got Bailey Cole on we just went through two times crazy life changing stories. They're like, lucky to still be alive. like they'd be still on this side of the dirt growing up, man. Growing up a couple things. One, you're from New Jersey, born in Jersey? Yep. And if anyone listened to your father's episode, at some point, he moved you guys to Southern California. You moved to Temecula or at least Moulton ended up in Temecula. But you you don't go to high school all the way through high school Temecula, right.

Bailey Cole: 12:11

No. So when we moved out there we actually moved to big bear up in the mountains in California and then move to Ontario. And I went to school in like Rancho Cucamonga area all through school.

Wyatt Pemberton: 12:26

See I don't know that part of the world at all. I know where Menifee is because I've been to Wayne's. I've been to Jeff Knowles.

Bailey Cole: 12:31

Yeah, so probably like an hour north of there. Okay, hour and a half hours.

Wyatt Pemberton: 12:36

Yeah, that's not bad. That's not bad. Well, I mean, I've flown into Ontario. Yeah, that counts right there.

Bailey Cole: 12:41

That was 10 minutes away from my house. How far

Wyatt Pemberton: 12:45

How far are you from car tech?

Bailey Cole: 12:46

probably half an hour.

Wyatt Pemberton: 12:48

Okay. Hey, that's a great place to be I'm I'm only like 24 hours from them. So

Bailey Cole: 12:54

but nice short little possible.

Wyatt Pemberton: 12:55

But to today you are you reside in Flagstaff, Arizona. I do. Which beautiful weather beautiful country and you're going to college there, right?

Bailey Cole: 13:05

Yep. Actually, one of the reasons I came up here was because I missed like the mountains and woods of Big Bear and just kind of that environment. So that's one of the reasons I chose to come up to flag and going to school up at Northern Arizona University.

Wyatt Pemberton: 13:19

Nice with that. That is certainly something we're going to talk about here in a little bit. You live with grunt you grew up with your stepmom Luan, and Yep, yep. And I know her through dad, but we went sailing together. We shared they were on we shared a catamaran in the Where did we sail the the Windward Islands. I think that was the trip we were on. It was great. Man, your your dad and your stepmom swimming machines. I mean, I can't eat, they put on flippers and we just be gone like starclan everywhere. Everywhere. We stopped in the water. Just it was a good time with them. I really liked them. Both of them. By the way.

Bailey Cole: 13:55

We used to go down to Mexico all the time, like Acapulco and yeah, I could definitely see that.

Wyatt Pemberton: 14:00

Right. And then you have you actually have a two younger siblings. You're the oldest,

Bailey Cole: 14:05

correct? Yep. Allison and Patrick. How much older Are you than them? I'm eight or nine? I think nine years older than my little sister Allison and 11 years older than Patrick.

Wyatt Pemberton: 14:17

Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, man. And so you're right. Where are you? 21 yet?

Bailey Cole: 14:22

23 now,

Wyatt Pemberton: 14:23

points a guy. I'm way off on when you get as old as me Bailey. Time just you tell it in like decades, like, I mean, I look at you and I knew you're young and I don't ask you for your birthday. I really should. I should be like, Okay, give me a copy of your driver's license.

Bailey Cole: 14:38

Honestly, there are times where I can't even remember my birthday. So that's fair. Fair. I feel

Wyatt Pemberton: 14:43

like I can count my whites a jackass. So okay, you're in college, but I should I always kind of like that this question when you were a kid. What did you want to be when you grew up,

Bailey Cole: 14:53

man? Honestly, I've always kind of wanted to do something in the off road industry. I never really knew What that would be just something in the industry.

Wyatt Pemberton: 15:03

And now you're, you know, top tier offer for offer a driver. It's pretty cool.

Bailey Cole: 15:09

Yeah, yeah, it's pretty awesome. It's, I definitely do not complain at all, I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world.

Wyatt Pemberton: 15:17

And balancing that with school is got to be just one of the hardest things to do, right?

Bailey Cole: 15:23

It can be challenging at points, balancing, being able to go out to all the races and all the testing and all the time that that takes to put in and then telling the teachers I'm going to be gone. And I would really like to do the work ahead of time. But like for hammers, I had to talk to a couple teachers and was like, I'm gonna be gone. And I really hope that we can work something out. But at this point, I have to go with no matter what. Yeah, right, balancing all of that.

Wyatt Pemberton: 15:53

So yeah, growing up growing up as a kid, did you play any sports? Were you in any sports like that? What were your interests as a kid? I know you guys wheeled all the time. So

Bailey Cole: 16:02

my mom lived down in Ontario. My dad still lived up in Big Bear. And the weekdays was down going to school down there and weekends, I was up with my dad. And it was a lot of soccer, baseball, did some field hockey kind of bounced around a whole bunch of different sports. My dad actually coached a lot of the teams well, because

Wyatt Pemberton: 16:26

I know that's big for him and your him and your uncle like their sports guys like so.

Bailey Cole: 16:31

100%. And I enjoyed the team parts and enjoyed playing the sports but I was never really super good at any of them.

Wyatt Pemberton: 16:41

You required a motor?

Bailey Cole: 16:43

Yes, yeah, the motor definitely helps.

Wyatt Pemberton: 16:46

So I heard this. I actually heard this recently on a on an interview with Travis Pastrana. And that's exactly what bosasa pestrol said, as a kid. He was okay. His parents made him play sports in it. But it wasn't until he discovered a dirt bike and what he was capable of with Motor Assist, that he was begin to really feel like himself. And so he enjoyed sports, but he didn't love them. It wasn't till again. Motor Assist. He's like, okay, now I now I'm who I'm supposed to be.

Bailey Cole: 17:19

It. The funny thing about that, even when I started with the motor sports says I was really nervous to do it. And really didn't feel like I was that good. Then just after enough practice, got there.

Wyatt Pemberton: 17:31

Yeah, absolutely, man. I mean, practice makes perfect, right. And there's some good stories there as we get into your early years of a offroading. You have any interest outside of offer right now,

Bailey Cole: 17:43

right now, with COVID. It's been pretty hard to do anything. But yeah, we have a couple hikes up in Flagstaff that are pretty nice. And I enjoy rock climbing a lot. But everything's been kind of close to do that.

Wyatt Pemberton: 17:59

So so you're living in Flagstaff, you're going to go to college, you're not married, you don't have kids, but you do have a very serious girlfriend who is a huge integral part of your program.

Bailey Cole: 18:10

It she is Yep. McKenzie. She does a ton around here. She recently has helped me write emails to a lot of my sponsors and helped me take care of that way. I do a lot of the base writing and then she makes me sound more professional and eloquent. She does it. She polishes it. Yeah, I get all the ideas down. And she's like, no to this idea. Yes to hear and it kind of helps me along the lines there. You

Wyatt Pemberton: 18:38

are so blessed by that. I mean, I've I've talked to Mackenzie on the phone with you. And then you know, we're on Facebook together. And it actually she just came out the door behind you. She's walking by you. I'm Mackenzie.

Bailey Cole: 18:51

why it says hi. Hi

Wyatt Pemberton: 18:54

to everybody just heard that

Bailey Cole: 18:55

we live in 400 square feet. So it's this is the office right now. And also the kitchen and bedroom.

Wyatt Pemberton: 19:02

Yeah, there you go. Well, for one, that's college living, too. That's, you know, young adulthood right there. And man, I think part of me is envious of that life because there's so much less responsibility. And it's, you do what you do, you know, but yeah, so so Mackenzie, she she makes it to all your races. She's at the hammers. She actually hasn't missed a race yet. Um, since we started dating, I heard that it's probably gonna happen though at Nationals. Oh, she's gonna miss miss Oklahoma here in a few weeks. Right.

Bailey Cole: 19:33

So she actually talked to her professors and got out of clinicals for a week and is making it happen to come out.

Wyatt Pemberton: 19:42

Yay. All right, tell her Mackenzie when you hear this, okay, you got to find me we're gonna meet up. I'm excited about that because any woman that sticks with any of us for enough years and they they get into the offroad and what goes on and the characters and truly this family They're special people, right? They're cut from like this like saints cloth.

Bailey Cole: 20:05

100%. Yeah. So how did you guys meet, actually met in the math lab up here at school up at an au? Okay. I was in there doing my class and she was in doing statistics. And I could actually tell she was struggling a little bit. And I walked over and said I could help. And I'm awful at statistics, but it got me your number, and then we started talking and all worked out.

Wyatt Pemberton: 20:32

And y'all have been together about two years, right?

Bailey Cole: 20:34

Yep. Actually, next one, two years. Was she

Wyatt Pemberton: 20:38

kind of already outdoors and offered stuff? Or was that an easy conversion? Or is this been a difficult conversion?

Bailey Cole: 20:45

So she grew up a desert rat like me.

Wyatt Pemberton: 20:48

Oh, nice. No wonder you

Bailey Cole: 20:50

get her so much common. Her dad races in that class five, unlimited Gar. So grew up out and she rode dirt bikes as a kid quads as a kid just grew up in the desert.

Wyatt Pemberton: 21:03

So is she a better driver than you? I mean, probably is. I'll tell you in my household, my wife, she doesn't listen to this. So she won't hear to brag. She stopped. Listen, I think that our 30 episodes ago, my wife is a better driver in forward. If he's in Drive. She's faster, better cleaner, I think. But if you have to do anything else outside of that, if she has to stop and back up, we're all screwed.

Bailey Cole: 21:27

Like then the world's over. Oh, yeah. Yeah,

Wyatt Pemberton: 21:30

we're racking. That's that's it reverse. Does that happen? before? Yeah, man as fast as fast as he gives. Now is Mackenzie, a Toyota girl.

Bailey Cole: 21:40

Well, she has a Corolla? that's designed to count,

Wyatt Pemberton: 21:44

man. No, not really, but

Bailey Cole: 21:47

probably not doing hot laps and chocolate thunder in the Corolla. But yet, yes. Just a couple modifications, and it'll work out. Nice. So, man, that is awesome. That one. She just said she could probably do it. I just couldn't.

Wyatt Pemberton: 22:03

I'm gonna back her up on that. I'm not that. I'm not a dissenting opinion of that. I have no doubt if a woman says she's gonna do it. She's gonna do it.

Unknown: 22:13

I'm with her.

Wyatt Pemberton: 22:14

In February, Mackenzie, we got a day, a 30 pack, and I will cheer you on why, but we can even get miles down there to announce it and you just bang it off the rev limiter, okay. Oh, man. Awesome. So, so yeah, so there you are in northern Arizona, and you're studying business marketing, how much do you have left?

Bailey Cole: 22:32

two semesters left? So just a little bit less than a year?

Wyatt Pemberton: 22:36

So you're about to have to do some adulting? Yes, here coming pretty soon. You have some ideas where you want to go with that. Do you think I mean, I can personally see you, Stan in the off road world. But do you have some ideas or avenues or venues where you think you fit in?

Bailey Cole: 22:53

I don't have anything set up yet. But I definitely like to stay an off road world.

Wyatt Pemberton: 22:59

What about heir to the throne? And I don't mean the scepter. I mean,

Bailey Cole: 23:05

that's definitely been talked about a lot and definitely in the cards.

Wyatt Pemberton: 23:08

Yeah. So so your dad grooming you a little he always has. He's been grooming you since day one. I get it.

Bailey Cole: 23:13

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Ryan? came in recently. Yeah. Ryan Thomas kinda. Yep. Ryan Thomas is coming in for that at the time being, but, and the future. I think all doors are open.

Wyatt Pemberton: 23:28

Yeah, I can completely believe that, you know, all options are on the table. Plus, there's some pretty awesome companies out there that would love to have a, you know, somebody with you know, at this point, you're 23 years old, and you've got 20 years of offroad experience, and you've got, oh, god, almost 10 years of racing experience. So that's a, that's hard to get that to be your age representing your demographic of age group. And to have that kind of knowledge because I think at some point, I'm gonna get totally off tangent here. I think at this point, where we're going with racing and land use and open access, all those things are going to fall on your generation. I mean, they're going to fall on you to be an advocate and I'm not saying specifically you but just you know, 20 year olds to carry that torch as guys. You get old and, and move on or pass away or whatever that equals this. This gap. I think I feels like there's this gap between, I don't know 40 and 30 year old now 50 and 30 year olds that really were never involved. It's like the old guys carrying the torch. And then we missed it my generation missed that we really there's a few of us out there is it not me I'm not in that I live in Texas we have we have no public land so it's like I I'm by proxy cheered for what's going on out there cheering for keeping stuff open, but a lot of that stuff is gonna fall on you guys to be the this the spokesperson spokespeople and I'm excited to see how you do it. I mean, I've full faith in you. I think a lot of people do. So anyway, I digress. No, I remember even as a kid going to the fo JV meetings and writing letters with my dad and yeah, trying to keep all the land open. And I think that is so important as you start to write your resume, which I'm sure you've had to do for class, I'm sure you have it. I mean, I know you don't have like a current day job aside from you know, your race. And you go to class those I mean, going to classes a full time job, but also what you do around ultra foreign to operate on the level you're on. And you know, one can downplay that. No one can downplay the hours it takes to be on and on and on and on and promote yourself and promote the sport and promote the races and, and get your car in the logistics. And the scheduling is more than a full time job.

Bailey Cole: 25:48

It's become a lot of work, but 100% worth it.

Wyatt Pemberton: 25:51

Oh, yeah, fully agree. I wish I could do it today. Right

Bailey Cole: 25:54

goes back to me feeling like one of the luckiest people in this world.

Wyatt Pemberton: 25:57

Yeah, no, I mean, I think you're in a good spot. You have worked your ass off to earn that spot. And clearly it's not a matter of just, hey, yeah, my dad owns the series. Of course, I'm gonna race it. No, if that were the case, you wouldn't have finished fourth at KH this year. That's an earn spot. That's you stood on your own two feet and you eked it out and grinded it out for eight hours. And you earned each each position. You earned each and every position that you passed and got to where you were at that finish line. You overcame so much adversity. And that's, you know, Moab Same way, you know, wrecking it. You know, I'm not gonna even bringing that up. But, uh, but you earned every drop of water that came in your helmet, right? That was on you. That's kind of where I stand on that. It's, there's a point and I end up kind of there in my professional career. My dad opened the first door for me in Houston. You know, I'm from Kansas. I'm from the same hometown as miles miles. You know, I actually had beers miles house on Saturday night and paler Kansas, with a bunch of our friends up there. So I'm from a small town in Kansas, but my father moved to Houston, in the late late 90s. And then I followed him in the early 2000s. And he got me a job here in Houston at an energy company, he, he got the door open for me. But I walked through and today I stand, you know, my own two feet in that world. That's how I look at you. I look at us, you this you're the Prodigy of your father, your father, open the door, but you've been the one who's standing on your own accord, right?

Bailey Cole: 27:30

Yeah, I feel like I'm starting to get to that point where I'm stepping out on my own two feet. And it's nice, but I definitely appreciate everything that my dad said to get me here.

Wyatt Pemberton: 27:42

Absolutely. You know, and that's that's the great thing about fathers and sons and fathers and daughters and mothers and sons of mother. So we want to tilt the playing field is far in favor of our children as possible. That's that's your legacy. Right? That is your legacy. And I don't fault your dad one iota for how much he's tilted the playing field in your favor. But even that said, he can't there's nothing he can do between the green flag and the checker flag.

Bailey Cole: 28:10

I get less information and all the other racers for sure.

Wyatt Pemberton: 28:13

No, yeah, absolutely. Well, you need to go to JT JT has information. JT would just kick. See what? Oh, man. So let's jump back to Yeah, you grown up in Wheeling, and like getting into it and being immersed because you've been immersed in this. I want to call it an industry, but it's really not at the level that we're talking about. It's not an industry, it's a recreational lifestyle. So you've been immersed in the lifestyle, your entire life, you know, you've grown up wheeling with your dad and, and Dave had this, you'll beat up for runner, and y'all would sleep in the back of it. You go up there on the weekends to Big Bear, and then y'all have vanished out to the hammers, or Johnson Valley or anywhere around Big Bear and fine. Tell us about those. Tell us about all that time. And what you went through in that era, as you kind of learned what it meant to be outside.

Bailey Cole: 29:08

We use to wheel up in big bear a lot. And I remember pretty much every weekend, Saturday, we would leave our house and it was probably a mile or two from the trails. And we just go out to the trails and we'll from three in the afternoon to about three in the morning. And I would be asleep for most of that. Probably fair enough. And I would wake up right about the time we'd be pulling into the Denny's parking lot because that was one of the few things still open. So wake up after wheeling to Denny's. We need some Denny's and then go home and go back to school for that week and then do it all again the next weekend.

Wyatt Pemberton: 29:51

Would your dad let you drive or At what age did you start driving off road.

Bailey Cole: 29:56

So definitely back in the four runner, he put Let me on his lap and cruise around. I don't remember doing many trails or anything like that. The first real experience I remember driving was in his pro mod car. And I remember him putting it in first gear and putting me on lower big Johnson. And just having me go and cruise and just low low. I mean, could you touch the pedals? Definitely not. No. And I don't even think I knew where like the kill switch was. So we're just cruising along at half a mile an hour, and they knew you weren't gonna

Wyatt Pemberton: 30:35

get hurt. And that was wheeling with you guys. We're out just wheeling with the other 10 vendors.

Bailey Cole: 30:39

Yeah, then it was the 10 vendors. That was after we found the hammers. And we're going out there every weekend instead of Deep Creek and Holcomb in those trails.

Wyatt Pemberton: 30:50

Now, were you guys the first Father, Son, I think your dad confirm this, but I forget the first father son duo that's 10 vendors together? Or was that Rob Park and crusty? Were they the first vendors, they will be the first they will be the first and then you guys would be like the second? Yep. Well, I mean, that's pretty cool. I mean, that's two generations of vendors,

Bailey Cole: 31:12

ya know, growing up out there, we would get to the lake bed, my dad would unload the truck, and then go and take off. And I'd be playing with my Matchbox cars or Hot Wheels at the lake bed waiting for him to come back. And all the vendor wives all everybody out there would always be like, come over, come eat some sandwiches and hang out. And

Wyatt Pemberton: 31:35

then eventually my dad would either be come back to in somebody or come back be towed. And, again, do it all the next weekend. and rinse repeat. So at what point did you get your own ride? Because I've seen you in a samurai out of the hammers before. And this is, you know, of course, everyone knew that at some point you would be you would be wheeling. Yeah. I mean, you would be racing with the belief was, but you would wheel around hammer town. I mean, don't get me wrong. I know you were in the samurai wheeling around the lake bed and Johnson Valley all year long. But you know, the rest of us we would only see you there that first week in February. And we knew Oh, there goes Bailey. I believe that was my 10th birthday where I got the samurai. And

Bailey Cole: 32:18

yeah, wheeled around in the desert all around. And that

Wyatt Pemberton: 32:22

was one where you When were you born? You were born like 99 are 2097 97 I should be able to do math. That's crazy. Um, because it's 2020 minus 23. Okay, 1997. Again, this is me. This is why this is how I roll. just terrible. terrible at math. I'm not terrible at math. I just hadn't thought thought it through. So yeah, so probably Yeah. 2007 2008 you end up with this, this little Samurai cruiser and that thing went everywhere. Now I'd heard this, I'd heard a story about the samurai where y'all ran it out of gas or y'all wrecked it like all the way on the other side of the lake bed and like you hit it and you came back and was the color around that?

Bailey Cole: 32:58

throwing some facts. So that one was at the edge of the lake bed. Do you know where all the really big bushes are? right at the edge of the lake bed kind of over by Randy's turn track over at that like that. So I was just kind of tooling around over there going over the bushes and stuff. And I came over one and bellied out on top of a bush. And I couldn't get it unstuck. So I took the keys and walked back to camp. Then got some help from somebody over there and got it towed back off. But yeah, definitely got it stuck once or twice out

Wyatt Pemberton: 33:34

there. Hilarious. And then what was the story you told your dad about it?

Bailey Cole: 33:38

I don't think I told him about that one. And same with the I jumped the samurai once and definitely went a little too big. And I tried to not tell them about that one either. And then about two weeks after that happened it got posted up on pirate as Samurai trophy track.

Wyatt Pemberton: 33:59

Oh, wow. Yeah,

Unknown: 34:00

for sure.

Wyatt Pemberton: 34:01

Well, hey, yeah, there's a great segue right there and I love love jumping into this but jumping cars at the hammers at a young age. Your dad had this pretty sweet ifms car built by Kirby early on you guys were testing kind of out there where if you're coming into hammer town it would be roughly where you pay the gate fee. Right. And you and Ridgeway I believe Chris Ridgeway was driving and then at one point you guys switch places and you're going down into the wash and jumping out of the wash and carrying some distance.

Bailey Cole: 34:32

So that is what happened with Ridgeway where I jumped the samurai was that same jump Okay, and I believe we jumped over Randy's hood or Jr's hood, somebody back then hood and Ridgeway was driving, but then that same weekend over so you go up and over a hill over towards outer limits. Okay. Oh, it's the military base. Where the biggest ups are down the back side of the hill. That's portion of MDR course right there, right? I believe so. Yeah. My dad was testing the car over there. And it was actually, same weekend I got the samurai. So he was out testing and then he said, I could drive it once. And I got in and when Ridgeway was my passenger, and going down the hill and just kind of cruised and turned around and came back, and my dad said, Okay, go faster now, and turned around and went down. And then when I turned around, Ridgeway reached over, grabbed the bottom of the steering wheel, and said Matic. I matted it and we did this flying past where we were probably doing 5560 up that hill, with Ridgeway in the passenger seat steering and me just holding the gas. And yeah, and if your dad heard that story, he also wasn't impressed with us for that one either.

Wyatt Pemberton: 35:57

And you look at it everyone watching and we're just jaws on the ground like

Bailey Cole: 36:03

Probably, yeah. Oh, no.

Wyatt Pemberton: 36:06

I mean, that was a that was a fun car. Whatever happened to that it went to Arkansas at one point and then was it Stevens? What was his first name?

Bailey Cole: 36:15

JT Stevens right at

Wyatt Pemberton: 36:16

Stevens. Yeah, yeah. And then he took it Arkansas and then

Bailey Cole: 36:20

fade away state for a while. He put some big trophy truck motor in it. And I think he actually did pretty decent in it for a while then. Yeah, yeah, I know. He raced for a couple years. And then I think the chassis just was getting tweaked over time. I mean, by that time, it was a eight or nine year old car. And I think it ended up in offroad Hall of Fame. Wow. Okay, something like that. I know it ended up somewhere

Wyatt Pemberton: 36:46

Oh, nice. Yeah, I remember when Ridgeway caught that thing on fire it Vegas to Reno and tried to burn us back up and all that Yeah. Oh, frickin Ridgeway awesome. It didn't even get the car to your dad. I'm sure that was a I know your dad was warmed up about that. I mean, cars can be replaced rejoice can't but at the same time, it always sucks when the car doesn't get to you.

Bailey Cole: 37:06

Yep. No, they actually my dad had some good success in that cartoon then. That was a fun car. It was a fast absolutely was man.

Wyatt Pemberton: 37:15

So uh, we rock. You also grew up kind of around the we rock competition circuit. You had Wayne Israel sin. You had your dad, you had a lot of guys in that area that were hitting, hitting we rock, the crawling world and very successful, very competitive. You grew up walking around those pits and walk around those courses. By walk to how many miles of course do you think you walked?

Unknown: 37:39

All of it?

Bailey Cole: 37:40

Yeah, pretty much anywhere. My dad walked throughout all those events I walked to and it was it was a blast. It was a great learning opportunity.

Wyatt Pemberton: 37:49

Yeah, all over the country, man. Yeah, that was when in the endurance offroad had really the endurance rock sports. They they were not even in infancy. It was just you know, crawling is for babies. Right. You know, it was everybody was you know, how, how low Could you go, you know, front digs, rear digs, you know, cutting breaks, you know, everything that Jessie Haines still has going on in his head on a daily basis was say, pretty awesome cars. Oh, yeah. That was just the that was the day in day out life back then. You know that late 99 2000. Then up until up until 2008. You know, 2007 obviously first getting hammered here but it really kind of didn't take off till Oh, wait. And then it really took off in oh nine but so there's about that decade there were crawling was the evolution. I mean, and the advancements that were made in, in rock sports were just an axle tech and steering tech and huge joint tech and

Bailey Cole: 38:48

everybody was pushing the limits of everything. But y'all

Wyatt Pemberton: 38:51

are still but that said y'all are still pushing the limits today. It's just much more expensive limits.

Bailey Cole: 38:57

No kidding.

Wyatt Pemberton: 38:59

It was the first k wage that you attended.

Bailey Cole: 39:02

So I missed the first year the odd 13 but I went the year after that.

Wyatt Pemberton: 39:08

Okay, so you were there no way. Yep. And then what was your first year to compete? I they blend together hmm 1314 somewhere in there. I think it was 13 or 14 Yeah. Now Okay, I'm gonna go I'm gonna flashback a little bit since we're kind of talking to this. This air in this genre. You encoding Oh, there's there's some contention here and story of how the story actually went. I've heard from Cody's memory is not that great. And you're and it's not even that Cody's not Cody's memory. Isn't that great. Your dad said it never happened. But that said, Were you involved in this booby trap story from back in that era. Oh 809 10 digging a booby trap off the start line.

Bailey Cole: 39:51

So yes and no, I was there. Okay, but so we started digging the hole and I was no help back then because I was nine or so I think there was only two shovels and I don't remember if I was purposely filling in the hole, or just I was that little help, but they kicked me out of there pretty quick. I don't even think they were finished taking the first little trench across the trail when I was kicked out of there. I was there, but not there all at the same time.

Wyatt Pemberton: 40:23

And that's kind of what Cody said. Cody said, I think you were just kind of along for the ride. So I was like, guilty through Association. He's like, yeah, basically somewhere in there. Not even fully, not even fully. So yeah, man. So your first year racing they let's flash to that so rough 2013 2014 I think it was 2013 based on what I looked up, but I mean, our ability to keep good records and history in ultra fours actually it's very contingent on having a good website and you know, with ultra for there's been iterations so before certain years is kind of hard to find information. So you have to get off almost context clues off of social media. So that said, That's why some my information isn't always right. So I'm going with 2013 erasing class and you race like a like mid 80s for runner.

Bailey Cole: 41:15

Yep. 86 for runner,

Wyatt Pemberton: 41:17

and you finished?

Bailey Cole: 41:19

No, no, not that year. The first year we as an 86 four runner and big Rob Jose Tim bender that he wrote with me that first race and we were having issues breaking the torsion keys. And gotcha we actually didn't I don't believe we broke one in the main race. But we were taking it really easy got into aftershock and lost steering and I remember walking up to the pits right and then taking forever to find the pits and then walking back that first race and we just timed out

Wyatt Pemberton: 41:58

but it's okay so you didn't finish that race but that year you did do well in the national points in stock class so your rookie season you did pretty well I I won't say third I believe we did get third that year end points that's pretty that's something else to be you know barely legal to drive I mean low pass that and go out and put down a your rookie season end up like third national point series in a nationally accredited syndicated race circuit that's that's a feat man. I was freaking kudoz way back then. It was a big learning curve. I remember the first time we went out to hammers I was

Bailey Cole: 42:37

I was still not great with the clutch the point that I was stalling out the truck on the trailer pulling it off and I was like this is gonna go sideways. I don't think I'm ready for this but trial by fire we went out there and just kept on moving kept on swimming and it all worked out and great learning experience. Ryan was able to just keep going

Wyatt Pemberton: 42:58

and what point did the Tom Dorf Meister start co driving for you? Because he's

Bailey Cole: 43:02

your current co driver? So he rode with me the hammers after that. And that was the year we did finish but after time in the forerunner and then he didn't ride with me after that for a little bit and got back in the car with me eventually this later in the story but when we got in bed Trent fed cars.

Wyatt Pemberton: 43:24

Gotcha. Okay. In this is Yeah. So after spec cars, and we'll go into that. So after spec cars, he ended up coming back into the fold. I was curious. I'd heard a funny story about you that in confirm, confirm or deny or tell him I'm crazy. But uh, that you have a tendency to fall asleep in the start line

Bailey Cole: 43:43

that has happened once or twice. There's been a couple times where a rusty who items us all up, has to come over and flick the side of my head and start lying once or twice. Yeah,

Wyatt Pemberton: 43:54

now it is. That's funny. It's confirmed true. But is that because you're that calm? Or is it because you're just not getting enough sleep the night before and you're partying until the wee hours of the morning?

Bailey Cole: 44:06

Definitely not the party. It's just it's actually funny once. I feel like once I get strapped into the race car, everything just kind of goes away and almost like a whoo soft feeling. And everything just gets relaxed and that they fall asleep a couple times on the start line because of it. You find

Wyatt Pemberton: 44:25

your center. Yep, I'll tell you I'm the polar frickin opposite of that. I get in and I you could pretty much say that. I didn't need any coffee that morning. And if I'd had it they'd be like you had you drink a whole jug of it. You know, like, I'm fully amped up and just buzzing and itching and scratching and rechecking and checking and like playing with knobs and and rechecking the window net and playing with a steering wheel making sure it's connected and then rechecking it because because I messed with at once now I probably disconnected it Oh man. total wreck it I don't think I get butterflies Though I don't get nervous, it's just a matter of

Bailey Cole: 45:03

making sure everything's right. What's the thing that you forgot?

Wyatt Pemberton: 45:08

though? That's exactly it's exactly what got forgotten. And will it bite us? Yeah. And then right about then you're like, Oh, now I got to go the bathroom.

Bailey Cole: 45:16

Yeah. Yeah, I do check the steering wheel because I have had that pop off before and that that's never a fun experience. I've experienced that as well on Barstow, Maine. Yeah,

Wyatt Pemberton: 45:30

yeah, cruising does not seem like a fun place for that to be experienced. It certainly was not. Luckily, I didn't think anyone saw it. I got the steering wheel back on got the car back under control. And then, I don't know, maybe a half hour later, some guys like way down by one end. Who'd seen it happen actually came down. We were we were out there with Wayne. And they. They came by my man, when you went by us. And we saw that you had your steering wheel in the hand. We're like, oh, man, that guy's out of control. He's crazy. And then Wayne and everyone else are standing. It looked at me. And I was like, yeah, the steering wheel came off. I mean, I thought I was only gonna play that off like cool. Like it never happened. No, I fully got busted. clown. Yeah, you let that happen once and you never let it happen again, I think is the way that works.

Bailey Cole: 46:15

Yeah, it's it's definitely not something you want to repeat. Mine was I hit a G out in the spec car and go into correct and the steering wheel popped off. and was like, well, that's not a good time. And you hit a bush or two and it settled back down and put it back in the steering wheel made sure it was fully connected and kept on Drive. and away you go.

Wyatt Pemberton: 46:37

So man, I'm gonna roll through a list here. This is kind of a litany and it's going to be kind of almost rapid fire because you have a very you for such a young guy. You've been racing a lot of years and ultra Ford, you have a very decorated list, but we'll roll through these really quick and then you got to tell me what year you kind of moved into the Trump fab cars and we'll talk about their involvement, but so 2014 you re stock and you're a spec class, but you also raced Europe that year, which is how cool is that? You raced like Portugal, Wales. I mean, that first year I just raced Portugal in Wales and that was a really amazing experience that was in Axel Berman's old bruiser chassis.

Bailey Cole: 47:19

Okay, so yeah, and that was that was really cool. I mean be able to get

Wyatt Pemberton: 47:26

talking to Chris baller you know he's you know lives in Wales now and kind of that stuff there. I mean, they're racing over theirs especially back then was one thing but now today you're bracing is really kind of taken off like I I never really paid a lot of attention until here the last probably 24 months or so. And there is a lot of racers over there building some really nice cars. There's some really really cool stuff over there. It kind of seemed like back then the technology was a year or two behind where we were out here and they've just been catching up and catching up and now it's the point that I think the technology is all the same they just need to fly way and over and Oh right. last little touches get the Wayne you know Chris Butler's building a new car for for Levi surely and that's that's pretty exciting to have you know that you haven't a Brit you know a building a car for a US guy it seems like the reverse flow but I'm sure you make some

Bailey Cole: 48:30

really great cars though the Euro fighters are top notch oh yeah are offered offered armor yeah

Wyatt Pemberton: 48:36

offered armor been in Houston I'm in a port city and you know knowing Levi base, you know, for gosh, you know, 13 or 14 years now. They had they'd ship the car over four km h one year. I know I've said this on Tom tank at some point way a long time ago. But yeah, I actually went down to the port and picked up one of Butler's cars and started at my shop for a little bit until leave I could get down here. So yeah, I've not only have I driven I have I've driven one I've driven one not racing driven one. And I've had it in my shop and have the chance to climb all over it and kind of look at and I put now people that don't know well, they can look at them like the the the brothers the Gomez brothers cars, which are the UFO cars built by Joe Thompson. And how technologically advanced in Joe solves everything different ways than everyone else. Almost like he built the car, which is funny the name um, you know, is UFO fab right out of this world or something, you know, built on another world. That's kind of what I think about him. He doesn't build them in this world. And that's how I view Butler stuff Butler creates kind of in a vacuum and he does it his way and it's a different way to skin a cat and it's really, really cool. And it works and his stuff really works like see why you know, Levi's stepping out trying to make a change. You know, we've seen you know, the Campbell cars all work a certain way that our cars now work a certain way. So Levi is looking for a competitive advantage. Let's go. Let's go get something that's built completely out in left field or in this case, way out east all the way across the pond. But yeah Butler's build some stuff some crazy cool stuff and and I think that's really awesome what's coming out of Europe and that was cool that you that you've raced and you've raced over there a bunch now since but that first year 2014 then 2015 was your first full year in spec cars, and all those spec cars at that point they were all built by. They were all built by Randy Rogers four by four right at that point.

Bailey Cole: 50:32

Yep. So at that point, there were six of them, I believe. And they were all owned by my dad, and was getting prepped by him and just everybody was on an even playing field.

Wyatt Pemberton: 50:45

And there was some cool names in there too. Like Ricky Johnson.

Bailey Cole: 50:49

Yeah, Johnson. Johnson

Wyatt Pemberton: 50:51

was Rob. Rob Mack ever drive a spec car?

Bailey Cole: 50:54

I don't think so. Bradshaw did though. Okay. Damon Bradshaw. Jessie cogency. Combs.

Wyatt Pemberton: 51:01

Yeah, she's probably the most notable spec car. Yeah, she won a lot in that spec car.

Bailey Cole: 51:08

And finished a lot. I remember 2014 was my first race in it, and it was to Ella. And I remember getting around her. And that was like the highlight of the event. I was like, I just passed Jesse. And she's like, She's such a fierce competitor to so and she was, I think, the next corner, she came in and undercut me and we did a couple of really good battles. It was it was a lot of fun.

Wyatt Pemberton: 51:32

That's a fun memory to have. Then it by 2016. You moved up to legends, cars, and racing 4800. And you were on 4800 for a while. I mean, you have a second place national title, you have a first place national title. When you started racing the 4800 is that when you guys got involved with you start racing track five cars.

Bailey Cole: 51:50

So 16 we just took the spec car race the year before. And we put a six four Hemi in it, and raced it in Legends. So yeah, that was the year me and Rick Waterbury. were battling for the championship. And he ended up pulling it out in front of me for that year. And yeah, that was a lot of good battles.

Wyatt Pemberton: 52:14

And then 2017 you guys went? Then went to trip five. Right? And then how was because I love this guy. I love telling stories environment or hearing stories about him to working with DSI. Ah,

Bailey Cole: 52:25

I DSI is always a fun person to work with. He is difficult sometimes, but always in the best possible way. If that makes sense. You get

Wyatt Pemberton: 52:37

no does he is and I've called him this. So he's not gonna be like, Oh, yeah. Why just made that? No, I've called him something like, dude, you were a walking talking offered encyclopedia.

Bailey Cole: 52:46

Like he is truly one of the most knowledgeable people like just walking around. And it's like, what should this bolt be tacked to here? And where did this come from? Over here. And like, just literally, if you need to know something, he knows the answer to it

Wyatt Pemberton: 53:02

in pulling part numbers just out of his ass you like how do you know what that is? Well, I had it on a car. It was an s&m fab car. We built it in 2006. And that was the water pump that we use to fit around this tube. And that was a 1637 to four, whatever. And that's what you need for this guy. And like, again, how do you know that? Like?

Bailey Cole: 53:23

Why? Why do you remember that? Yeah,

Wyatt Pemberton: 53:25

yes, yes. He's actually somebody I need to get on here because I have a good rapport with him. I think at one point, I think he didn't think I liked him. But it's probably because I cussed him. But it wasn't like I cussed him because I hated him. I cussed him because he was right. Most of the time.

Bailey Cole: 53:39

Yeah. What's your kind of work the kind of how it works, man. Then finally 2018 you moved up to 40 420 18? Right? Yeah, so races there. 17, we won the championship in that trend fab car. And that was the old crawl America car at that point. And then 2018 we stepped up in that same car into 4400.

Wyatt Pemberton: 54:05

And just got your feet wet. You're playing with the big boys. And that's in grand scheme of things. That's truly that's three years ago. And so it's no surprise, it will be like well, you know, Bailey qualifying, you know, qualifying Second, you know, he's finishing fifth. He just had a fourth place finish at King of the hammers. It felt like he came, you know, I've had people ask me like, well, man, he came out nowhere. You know, how did he you know, man, he's, he's paid his dues. He's in there, you know, graduated out with everybody else. He's, he's earned he's really earning every single spot that he's that he's got. It's not like he hasn't he really truly has. So that's been really cool to see you move to that. But I want to touch on a long story. This is actually a very long story, probably. But you're a you're a baja 1000 champ.

Bailey Cole: 54:54

I am Yeah, yeah.

Wyatt Pemberton: 54:56

How cool is that? That was 2019 you guys racing. in you, your dad, there's a bunch of guys involved in that. But the savvy Gladiator you took it to baja you raced seven full.

Bailey Cole: 55:09

Walk us through how that How did that come to be? How did that come to fruition that you guys are going to race that and how you're going to do it and who was driving and all that. And then some of the story's about that, because that was a long race. Man, that one was a really long event. Ah, it started when Dan, Dan fresh and my dad were driving all before this, all the races before so the 500 the 250. And so they were racing up to that point. Dan fresh got a ride in a 6100 truck in the thousand. And he had to take that opportunity because I mean, who who passes up on a spec trophy truck? No one and and this No. So my dad was the solo driver for the thousand and seven f Jeep Gladiator and that that math doesn't quite add up. So he let me have the opportunity of driving. And Doug also drove that first day. So Doug drove, then I drove and then my dad did the last stage. Last section. What was your finish time? like

Wyatt Pemberton: 56:17

hours? You guys took on that?

Bailey Cole: 56:20

It was a long one. I don't remember what the cutoff was it. I think it was like 48 hours and I think we finish in like 44 I was gonna say I thought it was way up there. But that's actually probably 2029 hours. 30 hours.

Wyatt Pemberton: 56:39

Yeah, it was it was definitely up there. I don't know. 40 was 40 doesn't jive for me though. I'm with you there. It was a little but it was very, very long. But no, you guys ended up first in seven f seven F and you guys aren't part of champs class. That's Yeah, no,

Bailey Cole: 56:57

that was a crazy achievement. It was. It was awesome to be part of that team.

Wyatt Pemberton: 57:01

That'll make you a man right there that much time. Yeah, I mean, lack of sleep, lack of everything. So what great stories you tell me at least one great story that came out of that adventure?

Bailey Cole: 57:13

Well, there's a few. First one would be we drove without steering for seven of our eight hours in the car, our tie rod bolt the nut on the tie rod. It came loose, and it was hitting the bar above it. So it was loose the entire time we were driving and did all of metonymy wash all of Diablo we hit I think 90 going across Diablo with the steering a little loose, but we just went through the pit and that was fine. I think the nut was just starting to come loose there. Right when we were leaving the pit and then yeah, it came off, not too far after that. And we just cruised in for six, seven hours without a nut on that bowl. and hoping the steering didn't fall apart. Man I saw the craziest picture from baja this past weekend where the tie rod the link from the tie rod somehow managed to on the rear axle. On this I think it was on a spectrum of retrack as well. inverted the link came loose from the axle, it flipped up and when the car came down the Haim the link and drove through to being went through multiple pieces have to be next to the gas tank went straight up and pierced it and stuck inside and then the car came back down and then it broke the the this tie rod link it bent it in half and an L shape. But left it wedged where it ran through multiple pieces of looks like inch and three quarter tubing. Probably to get 188 Well, it was super impressive carnage. But you know, that's what happens when you got that much weight. You know, basically a big old hammer driving down on a little nail. The nail was perfectly set up to run through the tubes. So it went through the tube and mean hidden those loops that 90 that they do. And a lot of force a lot of force,

Wyatt Pemberton: 59:03

the way I feel about telling that story and you tell them that story is kind of I feel about like like Rob used Nick who was on you know, last season to hint on his his son. He him racing Nora and his son winning Nora, based on that and being able to share that with his son. So you and your dad Bella share this. This champion thing is a was pretty damn brag worthy.

Bailey Cole: 59:25

It was really cool. And then I believe right after that was the national championships race. And we were the first father son team, I believe to finish first and two different classes there.

Wyatt Pemberton: 59:38

Oh, yeah. Cuz your dad raced that he raced a 1400 stock. I can't remember which one.

Bailey Cole: 59:44

He raised. 4500 4500 Okay.

Wyatt Pemberton: 59:47

Yeah. And then he did he did very well.

Bailey Cole: 59:49

Yep. And then I was able to go out and that was my that was 2019 again, and that was my second championship and legends.

Wyatt Pemberton: 59:57

Now, this year, like I said, We touched on it early on that you ran. I mean, forth at Keio. Ah, yep. Now, how did your race effort that day go clearly to end up fourth? You had to have had a clean, good day. But did you hit all your marks? Did your strategy worked out? What were the pitfalls, the failures that hampered you that day?

Bailey Cole: 1:00:24

So that was already a busy week up to that point, because that was one of the times I partnered with another driver. And me and Cameron steel actually partnered that whole week. So we raced legends and UTV together. So it was a pretty busy week going into that.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:00:42

And his deal was he was going to handle the the desert loop and you were going to handle the rock loops, right?

Bailey Cole: 1:00:49

Yes. Yep. I talked to him out at a laser town because he was kind of you know, headquartered laser cannon. We talked multiple times throughout the week because I was there outlays of town every day. But man he had nothing but the best things to say about racing with you. He was very happy about how that was working out. Did that work out good for you. He is amazing to work with he just incredibly nice person to work with. And incredibly talented wants everything to be set up right and meticulous, but in a good way. Like, oh, he's serious. wants to hit all the points. Yeah, it was. It was professional, which was really, really cool to work with. They didn't slam a beer and get in the car. Nope, there's no flavored beers getting cars.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:01:33

Now he was he was cool in the sense of how serious he was, you know, I would be out of town. He knows does the sun is coming up. And he and I would be coming in together, I would get the gate for him. Or then the next day he gets the gate for me as we were coming in there. And just having that kind of in passing conversation. I've really looked you know, from years ago, pabx on, you know, race Azur and then, you know, just following the trackers and following racing and you get to know his name. And then you see him on TV as an announcer. But it's another story when you kind of you know, us guys from the East Coast show up at these West Coast events. And these guys are just gonna walk around. So to be able to have conversations with him. He has a pretty badass Raptor, no getting around that and actually Cody Wagner, he has a pretty badass Raptor as well. Well, I'm there and you know, my pretty badass Chevy prerunner. And Cameron's like, Man, that thing. I think's pretty sick, man. I'm like, yeah, you know, I sent you an email about trail emissions. You should let me come sometime. He goes, yeah. away we went those other day started but I'm trying to bury that one in his ear, you know, because I want to come down and do that. But yeah, that was a cam. He meets a lot of people, right? A lot of people meet him and just like you Bailey, a lot of people meet you. And but it's when you kind of have that you have that commonality when you meet you meet another guy. And then you see like, Oh, this guy's got a pretty sick truck. And he's in the same shit. I am. Wow, we have this. We've caught like, ooh, Nagi like all sudden, it they also become cooler, not because of what they have. But because, you know, their mind wavelength works a lot like your mind wavelength, you're into the same stuff

Bailey Cole: 1:03:10

that shared shared stuff in common.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:03:12

Yeah. And then tribal knowledge about that stuff. Yeah, that 100% that goes along with so racing for you, though. You've been involved in offered your entire life. And you know, we all know who your father is Dave Cole, but exclusive that racing has opened up some pretty cool doors for you. And even just in the simple sense of meeting pab. But meeting guys like Robby Gordon.

Bailey Cole: 1:03:36

Yeah. I've been really lucky. And actually the first desert racer I was able to partner with was Rob McCarron and blue the goat. He's the guy. He was insane. And just a great person to work with too. And we race back in I think that was 2014. And, yeah, very pretty early on. And we were racing a razor together out at hammers, and neither one of us had finished hammers up to that point. And that was we both he did the desert. I did the rocks. And we were able to finish and it was both of our first time finishing at hammers. So that was pretty cool.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:04:15

But no, I mean, let's talk. I don't want the magnitude of that lost on anyone because it's blowing my mind. You're 17 years old. You're splitting driving duties with Rob Matt.

Bailey Cole: 1:04:26

Yeah, that. That's still crazy to me. Yeah. Just the people I've met along this journey has been insane. And

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:04:37

let me put this a different way. It's 2040. It's 20 years from now. Rob Mac. He's, he's not the old folks home yet. But he's not racing anymore. He's he's putting around he's got his pre runner. He's still hit, hitting his spot, you know, hanging out drinking beers. And he's like, Bailey Cole, man. Did you see he just won you know, the all world national championship last year. I raced with him when he was 17 years old. Can you guys believe that? And the all the other folks, the old folks on we're gonna be like, you don't know that kid? You're like 16 years older than him. Right?

Bailey Cole: 1:05:14

Maybe? Yeah.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:05:17

Yeah. Yeah. Knock on wood, knock on wood. Don't let me jump ship. You're pretty serious, though, from what I've been told when it comes to your race prep and doing your homework. And I will talk about you know, this 2020 K, ah, and how you how you pulled it off in your strategy. We kind of got a little sideways. Talking about what you're teaming up with pab earlier in the week and how that worked. But let's talk about the 4400 race. Did it go the way you expected it to go for you?

Bailey Cole: 1:05:49

Yeah, I think I still didn't really know exactly what I was getting into at the start of that hammers. So I know early on into the race, I felt like I wasn't pushing quite as hard as I should have been, and picked it up throughout the day. And we had a couple small hiccups here and there but hitting all of our points. We stayed in contention all day. We were top five all day long. So I would say it was everything I hoped to achieve. Going out there the first time how much

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:06:19

pre running Do you do out there considering you grew up? So this is you almost are the you know, somewhat of a Randy slawson for the hammers. It's like the back of your hand, you know where the rocks you know, where rocks have been hanging out of XYZ trail for 20 years and not to go around at tight because you'll slash the tire. They're kind of got this. I'm gonna repeat in tribal knowledge of the hammers that plays in right?

Bailey Cole: 1:06:46

Oh, definitely. There's, there's some corners that we go around. And it's like, I remember going off this and the samurai. And there's a big hole on the other side of that. And yeah, definitely wheeling out there from when I was little definitely plays into it. It's kind of funny. So cam was supposed to drive the first desert laps. And I was driving the rock labs for all the other classes. And I didn't really get to pre run the first lap much. And cam had an issue at Cooper buttes in the legends race and car was broken and done there. He ripped out the links just came down on iraq wrong and had a failure. Dave Schneider, coming back to him was racing modified to DSI. Yeah. DSI. Yep. And he was not feeling well. He was a little sick. And under the weather there, he had some pneumonia going on. And came into the first pit where I was going to hop back into the legends car. But the legends car was done. So I was just standing there. And he was like, Well, do you want to drive the car this first lap? And I was like, sure. And I got in for him brought the car around. And that was actually my pre run laps for the desert for that week. Oh, very cool.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:08:03

I mean, it's good hammer relationship again DSI relationship with DSI always end up paying off.

Bailey Cole: 1:08:09

Oh, 100%.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:08:11

Yeah. And he's once he's won a lot. Always. He's the turtle, the tortoise and the hare stories. He's the tortoise.

Bailey Cole: 1:08:19

Oh, yeah. He's a tourist. So he knows what he's doing. Oh, yeah.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:08:22

Yeah. Oh, man. I haven't talked about that guy in a while. But I did see what the hammer is. And we did talk. It was daytime. And he did mention that he had been under the weather. Hell, he might have had COVID back then. I mean,

Bailey Cole: 1:08:35

it's possible. There's coming back from SEMA. I know me and my dad got sick and who knows what was gone on back then.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:08:44

The Chinese flu man the other Chinese that came over for SEMA. Right? They were there's a knock knock off savvy bumpers. And yeah, and there we go. All my sponsor dollars from any Chinese company. Yeah.

Bailey Cole: 1:09:00

All goes out the window right about now.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:09:02

So I do have some questions from for you around. I've asked other guys this. But when we talk about some of the some of the drama that is having certainly some of it happened at mohabbat. Or even take it back to hammers. When we talk about like course markings and course width. How do you feel where do you weigh in on the course width? And is that something that needs to be in a driver's book? Or do you believe is something that each race that should come out during the drivers mean about where the course is 50 feet wide, or you need to stay in the to track or you need to stay in the bottom of the Canyons or it's 150 each way you have some liberty in finding the fast line and that's on you basically like it is in Baja?

Bailey Cole: 1:09:47

I think as an organization we've always, I always thought it was 50 feet to each side of the track. I thought that was already in the rules. It's not just found out. That it wasn't Yeah, I wasn't aware of that either. The way I look at it I I can't really do anything that's deemed unreasonable or cheating. So I tried to stick within the rules I I've definitely found corners that I can shave a corner here off their corner there. But all definitely with within reason

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:10:21

in along those lines does Tom pretty much you know keep you in check on that as he cuz he's running the show they're on where you're going.

Bailey Cole: 1:10:29

We're definitely team on that. So one of the biggest things I've learned and hammers this year was not a good showcase because I didn't get to pre run quite as much as I wanted. But I like to literally walk every single course like the Reno course. Every year that we go out there I walk it, Tennessee this year, I walk it just to literally see every rock and know exactly where we're going. Oh, that's

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:10:57

that's pretty cool. Now handicap catch 21 you think it happens? I certainly hope so. I certainly hope so, too. But

Bailey Cole: 1:11:07

I don't think anyone knows. But uh, you know, catch you off guard there. See your take on your face was like a better, you know, do you believe there's a reluctance in drivers to throw the red card? I would think so. I mean, me personally, I, I think a lot of the racing is done out on the track. And I'd like to think most of us all respect one another enough to not blatantly do something bad. And if they do, call yourself out on it. So my perspective is, if I beat you on the track, I beat you out on the track. And if not, Don't be that guy. I know some drivers have thrown red cards in the past. But

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:11:45

yeah, I think they're few and far between. I don't, I don't know I I'm not a current driver. So I don't know if I have a legitimate take on it.

Bailey Cole: 1:11:54

I really think it kind of comes back to we all know each other, we all hang out in the pits. And I feel like we all have that respect for one another. Like, I don't want to get something over on Lauren, or Jason or any of the drivers out there. And I don't think they want to get anything over on me. So just go out there and do what we do. Do

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:12:14

you think the red cards can be used or utilized? You know, you're calling on a driver, but in part, holding the organization accountable?

Bailey Cole: 1:12:25

I'm sure yeah. Yeah. I know, there's been times where red cards have gotten a situation handled,

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:12:32

right? No, I think that's it that and that's where I was kind of going was I feels like we really just don't you don't see him very often. I know because of exactly that there's a respect, right? There's this, you don't want to be that guy. Right? It's

Bailey Cole: 1:12:46

kind of like the same as when I went into the water at Crandon. Literally every single ultra for racer gave me a part or a fluid and got me back out on track the next day, we all want to beat each other at the best of our game, and win under those circumstances, not cutting corners and not.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:13:06

Yeah, that's trying to, they'll give you the shirt off their back, if it means that they can beat you on course versus beat you on the pitch. Right? Yeah. And that's, and that's why we love what we love. That's what we love. That's why we hang out with who we hang out with them race against it, we race against because of exactly that commodity. Yeah. And then those same guys in the very exact breath, they will hand you a life jacket, or a buoy or throw you a lifeline, or 100% or you know, I mean, there's a shortage of water wings on Amazon already, because Santa has been buying them to put in your stockings.

Bailey Cole: 1:13:41

I'm waiting for the giant unicorn to be strapped to the roof of the car.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:13:45

It'll probably happen. It will probably happen though. You're gonna go out there and you know, they're next to your ultra for tag chassis bracelet. There's going to be a water wing, you know, wrapped around inflatable ban hilarious, hilarious stuff, man. So I want to talk about team effort. And your partners and your sponsors. And you know, I know there's some guys that have a hand in your car, I want to talk about them because I believe in supporting them. Also, the guys that you know, totally stripped your car down after Crandon in that two week period and totally flipped it back to Moab. I believe, you know, this is a platform that you know I'm gonna afford you to you guys as drivers and his co drivers and whatever but uh, I'm gonna just hand over the reins to you to talk about your team and kind of your sponsors and how and I mean this in sponsors in the sense that they are your partners. These guys are like Neil over UConn and Tom spidertrax and what they mean to you and your abilities to put that car, out on the field and out on the street. Ordering grid, and then and your team effort behind it man Bailey, I'm just gonna hand it over to you. I know you've got a lot to say there

Bailey Cole: 1:15:06

to start with like Thomas spidertrax, even more than just helping us all of us out with building some amazing parts. I know, we've sat down in the past a couple times. And he's told me to just stay who you are, and don't really change where you're going, if that makes sense. Like don't change who you are to get to someplace. Just stay true to who you are as a person and things will work out. So I've always kind of respected that from Tom. And the level of personality he brings into the sport like he walks around every race and takes pictures of all the cars and shakes hands with everybody and is just a amazing person to be around that he is. And similar story with Neil from UConn. Actually, the year I was stepping into legends car from the spec cars, he he sat down with me and was like, Okay, I like you right now. But you're not really doing a whole lot the marketing side. And I think that has to step up in order to become more professional. And he's over the years helped me become a more well rounded racer. Like, it's not just always what you do out on the track, you also have to support those who support you, if that makes sense.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:16:23

That's, that's exactly spot on.

Bailey Cole: 1:16:25

Those two people have really helped me out not only as being an amazing part sponsor and partner in that way. But being a good, good people to be around as like mentors.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:16:39

You certainly pick two really good ones. I mean, like I said, I've I've nothing but great things to say about Thomas spidertrax. I don't know Neil econ. But I do you know what I've seen, they've always had logos on your car. I know that, from my experience with Tom and Ross. I mean, throw Ross in there to aspire x. Yeah, you got Ross in there, what they've done is new, even with COVID. And when their ability to there, provide customer service and provide support and provide just as parts that work. You just can't go wrong with them. Like I said, I do believe that exactly support those that support you and they are really good supporters. But your your personal team, the guys that are helping field your car, the guys that are helping get your car up to the starting grid, and help you get that car across the finish line. They've done some amazing things certainly in the last month with that car, you I mean, you're racing a truck powered by a fast car, and what they've been able to do to make that thing get from one race and in short course trim after you know, and they didn't paint yellow, the yellow submarine.

Bailey Cole: 1:17:44

Hope it was not the yellow submarine. But yeah, my entire team did an insane amount of work. I have Travis brake, who used to help out Derek West a lot and has been in the industry for years and years. He's been my crew chief starting this year. And he's done a ton to help. He makes sure that everything stays on track and has been phenomenal. One of the true reasons that keep making finishes at the races. I have Chad and Derek and they're coming over and doing fabricating stuff and they've been helping. They're building my dad's nuisance jury and, and just helping out what's the centurion? So this insurance is the four door Bronco.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:18:33

Okay, okay, okay. Yeah. old, old.

Bailey Cole: 1:18:37

Okay, it's an F 350 frame with a bronco body on it.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:18:42

Yeah, I believe. I do know that looks like it's like the Texas limo.

Bailey Cole: 1:18:46

Yes. 100% it is three miles long.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:18:50

So what we'll get home? Yeah, he probably didn't want us talking about it. Can we talk about it?

Unknown: 1:18:56

Oh, maybe? Maybe.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:19:00

Is it just gonna be like a street cruiser? Or is he like truly Cajun and all that jazz?

Bailey Cole: 1:19:05

No, it's a full on prerunner. So I think it's fine to talk about building. Yeah, the centurion. And so Derek is used to work at bomber and Chad used to work at UFO. So they are some amazing fabricators. And spoiler alert, they hope in in the future to build car after they get done with the centurion. But the centurion is for door Bronco pudding, trophy truck trailing arms on it solo front beam suspension. Okay, and yeah, go in full, full awesome pre runner.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:19:41

So compared to your dad's current Bronco, pre runner, is it very similar or is it leveled up and just longer?

Bailey Cole: 1:19:51

I would say two pretty big upgrade. Okay. Yeah.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:19:56

Wow, I'm excited. What What does he have a paint scheme for it yet? Is it It's not

Bailey Cole: 1:20:01

quite that far still in the building process, but it's going to be it's going to have like air conditioning. It's going to be the ultimate desert. limo for seats. It Yeah, coolers in between both seats, front and rear beer and ice cream. I like where this exam is going. Alright, I gotta get I gotta get myself I'm gonna start texting your dad on a more regular basis saying reserved myself a seat. So yeah, so that's Chad and Derek, and they definitely helped put the car back together. Chad was there the entire two weeks, and Derek actually drove out the new motor nutrients from California, the week before Moab then helped install it and get it stabbed in.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:20:45

Well, I have some questions about that. So what do you do? We actually didn't talk about that. We talked about you you go in and underwater. We talked about the car taking a bath. I saw some amazingly hilarious videos of you extracting it. I think you're taking your fire suit off. You're in your skivvies I mean, like red underwear your asses in the air and you're riding the car out and somebody's playing like, like flute music like they'd overlaid it with like some tik tok music and for like, any

Bailey Cole: 1:21:14

music, I think with like a flute,

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:21:16

but yeah, but it wasn't like classical Titanic music. It was like, it was like that I can't. Terrible. And I couldn't stop laughing I bet I bet I watched it 13 times. So you recovered the car? You race it the next day? What? Yep, no problems. What? You know, I would think that were you able to kill it? So I didn't ask Did you kill the car it kill itself? What happened?

Bailey Cole: 1:21:39

So I didn't think I killed the car. And then actually, it's funny. Chad and Shawn, who I was about to talk about, look back at the videos and they noticed I reached for the kill switch right as I hit the water, and got the motor back to CBM not too long ago, and he said the internals of that motor were actually fine. So it managed to not drink water.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:22:02

Amazing. Yeah, like I'd be worried about like the like, electrical connections and all that jazz. And so what do you guys do? Did you even you know, change all the fluids and gave her a look over at fired up and you're good to go?

Bailey Cole: 1:22:15

Yep, we use motek and American wire harness and all of them held up. Right? It stayed on the entire time while it was underwater. So that's actually how I was able to find it. When I had to wade back out into the water and hook the chain to the car.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:22:32

Yeah, all the headlights were on. Uh huh. Oh, man. Ah, so so when they when they tore down the car, what were they looking for? before you went to Moab?

Bailey Cole: 1:22:42

We made the call because just to be safe to change the motor and trans. And yeah, CBM got us new motor. Awesome. Working with Josh out there. Josh West, right. Josh West. Josh. Yep. And Chris at maximum transmission got us a transmission. It was actually an old spec car transmission that just rebuilt and sent out the door.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:23:04

The Hey, that works. Whatever, whatever gets the job done. Yeah, man. Yeah. And then and then they banged it out, though. I mean, to take a car. That's one bin Anwar strip it all the way that level rebuild everything, and then show up. You know, let's call it 10 days later in Utah. is a frickin Feat. Those guys are heroes. Right? They walk on water. They don't sleep. But 100%

Bailey Cole: 1:23:25

Yeah, no, they are superhuman, like, the crew is just fantastic. couldn't do it without them. 100%.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:23:33

And now, you know, I talked to Josh, you. We've talked about this in the past. Josh West over at CBN. We talked about the value of like tuning in destice motor tuning. I've talked to other guys like Phil accardi, who you would have been on a recent time tank where we talked about his you know, tuning suspension. And then we talked about you and your time at school and your time to be able to actually put into tuning the car for stuff. How much time have you been able to dedicate and how much value do you put in tuning and getting it right? Like, are you an 80%? Or an 85? Or 90%? Or are you like, No, I'm gonna spend days and days and days to get every last ounce of tune out of it where I like the suspension where I like it. Where are you out on that? Because it's a it's it's a weight, right. You know, there's a returns to effort, you know,

Bailey Cole: 1:24:22

so I definitely lucked out. And I know Wayne very well, we actually. He raised my family and his Yeah, we spend every Christmas dinner together and working with him has been phenomenal because he is truly just the best. Then we have spent probably five, six days on just the ifms car. And the Legend's car. We spent probably more than that. I definitely think putting the effort in before the race is more important than what you do at the race. Because you can only do so much at the race.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:25:00

And that goes back to my philosophy of that you win the race in the shop. 100% Don't Don't be wrong during the race, absolutely a 60 cent seal in the transmission that take you out or, I mean, that's those are freak accidents. They happen to everybody. But by and large, I mean, everyone who is one king of the hammers knows what it takes. And it takes, you know, some luck, but it takes a lot of prep, and it takes a lot of preparation takes a lot of homework, and then it takes hitting your marks and hitting your plan. And then the luck is other guys not hitting their marks. It's not. It's not luck, luck. It's truly you're hoping that someone else messes up when you don't?

Bailey Cole: 1:25:42

Yeah, no, it's the Racing's getting so competitive now like Moab I felt like I was on a pretty solid pace the entire day. We had a sway bar go out which cost us a few minutes, but we had to push all day and that course was brutal. And you just have to do that now because the level of competition has gotten to a point where everybody's pushing the entire time. So you have to how many times did you kill it my lab? None None. Oh, nice nice because it seemed like every single time I looked at the live feed there was cars coming into that main pit with flat with right side flats It was like one after another after another. It's just like so yeah, you lucked out man. Well done that is one thing that I've been ingrained to do is not get flat because you're not winning races by sitting in the pits. So that's one one part where I feel like I'm a pretty solid driver is just keeping the tires under the car and driving knows to what their ability is like we didn't have a flat at Tennessee. We had a slowly get hammers but got us to the pits with it still inflated. And

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:26:50

yeah, that's a solid one right there. If you can change it in the pits, that's 557 10 minutes ahead. And that's a that's a big place.

Bailey Cole: 1:26:58

I actually thought there was something loose up front like in the steering or something because it just kind of felt Wally because it was just getting low on pressure. I think we pulled in the pits and it was at like 10 psi. Still holding there. I think I just caught a rock rock rock coming down resolution and caught

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:27:13

it right there. The end. ha yeah. Well, man, as we kind of start to move towards the the wrap here. I want to talk about sponsorships and, and being young and kind. We talked about what you've done and how many years you have racing as your ability to walk in the door and have sponsored conversations been, in your mind easy or hard or difficult. And I know before I think even before the camera started rolling in before we started recording, you even mentioned that you're not a big public speaker. So I'm like, man, just treat this as just you and I having a conversation, but going in and asking in pitching yourself because at this point when you're talking to UConn, or you're talking to Tom spidertrax in other people and other companies as you've tried to get to the point where you are a professional racecar driver and you're trying to make your program stand on its own two feet, right? You want to be cashflow positive, and you know, to where the race cars paid for the preps paid for all your guesses. You want to get to that point, right. That's the ultimate goal and you can earn a living doing it. You know, guys like what Lauren Haley's doing? You want to get to that point? Right? I believe that's your ultimate great place to be. Yeah, that's your look at Bailey Cole's Big Boy job, you know, once you graduate college is that you want to do this full time, if if you can. So you've got to work on you know, your public speaking, but I think you're really good at it. I mean, I know you have your doubts, but I think you're good at I think you step up to it. You've certainly had some good mentors and good, good folks around you to help you there. But when you are having the sponsor conversations, have they been very receptive to you? Or what has been kind of your hurdles, and one talking to sponsors, but to getting them to, you know, loosen the purse strings.

Bailey Cole: 1:29:01

So I feel like the biggest lesson I've learned over the years is not going at sponsors at what they're going to give to me. It's more of what you can give to them. Because it's it's a partnership. It's not it's not a sponsorship, you have to both get something out of the relationship. You have to both get net positive. Right sage

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:29:25

advice right there from such a young guy. 23 years old sage advice? No, that's I think exactly that you hit the nail on the head. And that is and I've heard Brad Lovell describe this is it's the partnerships with guys in companies I want to be in business with for the long term nothing I'm not worried about today or tomorrow or the next race. I'm worried about five races from now I'm worried about 10 races around worried about five years from now that these guys are still people that I still want to I'm comfortable putting their junk on my car and running their sticker on my car. Because I'm running the best parts that I feel I can put on there. And that's just from a part standpoint. And when you start carrying, you know, which your dad did an amazing job this year, this is really, in my opinion, bringing in like Progressive Insurance. I've always felt like, ultra for what we've sucked at. Drivers promotor, all of us at the whole offered industry, we've sucked getting out of the industry, we've sucked attracting outside dollars, and to see like you, the ultra organization bring in progressive. You can say Yeah, well, they're automotive because they insure cars. No, they're not automotive that is an insurance company and they are in the insurance industry. And so if you can attract outside money, and then it's like, well, they brought in Polaris, will Polaris is still sponsor, and you know, the air cannon. And you know, whoever it is, will know they're still in the truly automotive they, they have a car that has a brand that is can leave the start line, then they're not. I mean, even for Ford as an example, for this kind of before kind of in Jeep. It kind of half in half out right there automotive, they're not really racing, but their support means legitimization of everything. So yeah, I get that. So your experience has been with outside the industry, you've had very a lot of luck inside the industry outside the industry. Have you been in a situation to look for outside industry money yet?

Bailey Cole: 1:31:26

I've looked a little bit not not super hard yet, but definitely towards where I'm going.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:31:32

guess. Yeah, I think that's all we asked for. So as we kind of, though, I don't want to go too far deep into the sponsorship come conversation just because I know some things and I don't want to beat you too hard. The be really mean to me you feel like dammit, why? But anyway, so yeah, so you've got about a year into graduate. We've kind of talked about you know, the future after graduation, you know this, and I'm using the term Big Boy job because that's what you put on your questionnaire was my big boy job well, it's gonna be when I'm an adult. I'm finally adulting which I think you're doing a good job now but you put in something there that was kind of really surprised that I shouldn't have been was a maybe branch out to other series elaborate on that for me what what what's kind of going on in your head there? What are what what intrigues you what interest you what's piqued your curiosity,

Bailey Cole: 1:32:23

nothing set in stone or anything but had a ton of fun chase my dad at three of the races last year at the score races and race the final one within the thousand. And it was a lot of fun and just a different style of racing. Yeah, it's just a different headspace that you have to go into in different preparation. Okay, I think that's a fun aspect to go to. So if I could get into some more of either the desert side or really any kind of race in it.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:32:54

What time visor time is there's no replacement, racing shopping cards down a hill. It's it's all the same thing. Right? We can set that up. I know some people they can probably get us a time slot during hammers a week. And we can do up down backdoor shopping carts down backdoor.

Bailey Cole: 1:33:10

This is a lot of commitment.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:33:11

Literally, we're gonna get a United Health Care to sponsor it. Insurance competition. And we're gonna call it the the copay downhill. I got it. Totally marketing genius.

Bailey Cole: 1:33:25

I'll let you pitch that one to my dad, and I'll be outside of group.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:33:29

Oh, no, your dad would love it. He would absolutely be like, I will definitely watch it. You're not doing that during hammers week, but I'll definitely be there to watch it all the time.

Unknown: 1:33:38

Exactly. Yes.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:33:40

Okay, so. So you've alluded to you're you're probably going to be having a new car built, you know, coming up in the near future. Pretty excited about that. I'm pretty excited about the couple guys that you're that you know, they're working on your dad cinterion. And that they're going to be looking at punching out a car for you. That's, that's pretty awesome. Which leads me to my question. What are your thoughts on the next big steps in ultra for the ultra foretastes? Where do you think it goes? In? It could be this is totally wherever you want to go with this? Is it tech? Is it on the cars? Is it at the series? Is it tracks? Is it sponsorship marketing? What do you think the next big thing is for for?

Bailey Cole: 1:34:23

I personally think the next biggest thing is getting more sponsorship buy into the race teams, and all the racers getting to a level of professionalism where we can sell ourselves to those bigger budget sponsors. And a lot of teams are doing it now like Levi Shirley's been fantastic at it and obviously Lauren and that there's a lot of names now that are getting to that professional level where we can really start selling ourselves as more than just friends go out and go and really fast on the weekends and push in that way. I think that's the biggest step. Because I mean, last year, I know through the first 30 miles of the desert race 30 miles of the hammers race, Jason shear was faster than the trophy trucks. And I feel like says something, doesn't it? Yeah, that we have the speed and the technology now in the cars where we can push pretty hard for a long period of time. And I feel like the cars are at a place where we're finding seconds now instead of minutes. And I feel like the sponsorships coming up is where the next big step is.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:35:38

Okay, yeah, that's absolutely fair. I remember Jeff funnel co founder of the hammer series with a or at least cameras the race individually with your dad, we were in a chase truck, his truck I don't remember what we were in. I feel like we were in his truck him telling me about one of his goals was he wanted to get it the series to where you could walk into at the time Toys R Us was a thing, right? It wasn't out of business. But the so let's just say target will change the story it was Target or Walmart you walk in the toy section. And you could buy next to the GI Joe's would be ultra for driver, little toys. Like you could get you could walk in and buy a Bailey Cole or you can buy a Jason cheer. Or you could buy a you know, a JT tailor you know, just be like a ball GI Joe guy, right? Yeah. Look at the same guy. But yeah, that that was where Jeff thought, you know, he he thought that's where we can drive the sport would be to the point where not only was it a common household name, but that there was toys and I remember a guy named you're gonna have you may have to help me, Todd. Tonka Todd, what's Todd's last name but he has an ultra for car he has. It was the ifms 4400 car and

Bailey Cole: 1:36:54

it was it's the bomber

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:36:57

bomber car. Why am I drawn them? He lives in Park City Utah great guy really tall guy desert guy but he had a he had a Tonka toy is a class one that you could not you could walk into Walmart and buy a White Desert class one. That was so cool. It was a Romano Todd Romano Yes. Why was it Aaron is blank on it? Yeah. Because I do that.

Bailey Cole: 1:37:20

You know, you can buy an ultra for car at I think Walmart right?

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:37:25

The low secret the crawler right the the coding diner Aki. Oh, oh, yeah, you can buy brockie Wow, see? And there you go. That's why I haven't been getting Vaughn gittin Jr. in the ultra for stable is you know, he is a quintessential marketer that we all have a lot to learn from that guy. Cody Wagner's car just came out and RC you know it's $400 or something I should probably price one out I I've literally looked at him and like I don't want to know the price because then I want one because they're they're pretty they're pretty cool. And then you we've had a rainy sauciness had a RC bombers out for melee.

Bailey Cole: 1:38:03

Yeah. years now. Right? Yeah, for a long time.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:38:05

So no, that's cool. That that is cool that the cars were of course the cars are characters in our series. They absolutely are that are in our family in our community. They are they are characters in you know in they have names like you know, the Red Dragon, the dragon slayer things along those lines. But we haven't got to the point where we have little characters. You know, we haven't had what we need is you know, we need a Bailey Cole bobblehead. See, do I get

Bailey Cole: 1:38:29

floaties with it or?

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:38:30

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. He's wearing water claims. It's an inflatable unicorn doughnut. Like you're wearing it around your waist, right? And then you know, I think there's a there's, like I said, there's there's a lot of JT jokes in there too. Like we'd have the JT bobblehead. But it's like the head is the same size. Like it's just Oh, he's gonna kick my ass. Man. I love when I can't wait for him to be listening to this. He'll be in the middle of bfhi nowhere, windshield time and going somewhere to a race and he will call me and be like, I'm gonna kill you. I know where you live.

Bailey Cole: 1:39:04

Yeah, he's he's pulled the knife on me a couple of times. It's

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:39:09

well, they did we cover everything you wanted to cover? That we didn't make it through? I think we hit the punch list pretty pretty hard. I believe so. Yeah, we went quite a while to man. That's That's awesome. Especially considering I don't really know you very well, we we really knocked it out. But as we go to sign off, I'm going to drop a bomb here. You have some really big news coming up in a few weeks, right?

Bailey Cole: 1:39:35

Yeah, there is some really exciting gears turn in here. So as we speak, honestly, everything's changing on the daily but some really big things planned for next year. And

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:39:44

if I heard it's like, it's like, not one item, but it's like multiple items. All for 2021.

Bailey Cole: 1:39:50

Yep. A lot of things coming down the pipeline here pretty soon. And so you think Well, no. What do you think? Two weeks, three weeks. Pay attention. I would say right around the time nationals is going on, we should have more word on what's coming out.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:40:05

Oh, man, those are some good carrots. I'm gonna have to tune in man. Bailey, you've been an amazing individual to watch as a kid playing in the pits up through young adulthood, you're driving your prowess. How you have developed as a human, how you've developed as a racer, how you've developed as a result for and, and something I've learned, I don't know what the right word is a just a spokesman for for the sport on I know, a lot of us, you know, look at you and like, man, I remember when he was this young and now we're seeing you on podiums, and just a very, just a great representative of the community. It's really cool to, to see you carry that torch in the way that you've carried it. Thank you so much for for coming on the talent tank and, and agreeing and agreeing to talk to me and tell your story and, and and introducing McKinsey and and all that man, I really value your your buy into my program and

Bailey Cole: 1:41:09

I appreciate being here. Thank you. Thank you for telling all the stories of everybody in our sport, and letting us all grow in that way.

Wyatt Pemberton: 1:41:17

Awesome. Well, I appreciate that. Everybody. Thank you for tuning in. Bailey Cole. Thank you. Thank you. Alright guys, we are out and by.

Intro/Outro: 1:41:27

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