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.
Success and result driven define James Schofield @schofield526 of DIY Fab Parts. Join us on this installment of The Talent Tank talking about what a lifetime of dedication to making racecars go fast looks like. Growing up as a track kid every weekend, through Crew Chiefing an NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car to a championship. How off-road has played a significant part of his past 20 years. From famous places like The Fab School, BlueTorch Fabworks, Trail-Gear, 40spline, and his current venture at DYI Fab. We discuss race family, community, and what the love of the sport, and the sports love of you means. Especially in times of tragedy as James experienced at King of the Hammers 2021 taking a very bad tumble in the #321 ULTRA4 Racing 4400 car and his road to recovery from it.
After the Checkered Flag-
When Nic Cage took on the leading role of Benjamin Franklin Gates in the movie National Treasure, he showed us how awesome it would be to become a treasure hunter. He also showed us how awesome American history can be once you get below the textbook definitions of it. two facts from that movie.
Are Freemasons real people? The Freemasons are very much real. In fact, they are one of the longest running "secret" societies left in the world. They have moved into the public light in recent decades, and if you want to join you should reach out to the local lodge to see what you need to do.
Did the Freemasons evolve out of the Knights Templar? There are rumors that the Masons were a product of the destruction of the Templars, but there is no proof to back that up. Most historians agree that the Masons were a separate group that formed on their own.
Please like & subscribe.
https://www.thetalenttank.com/
https://www.instagram.com/thetalenttank/
https://www.facebook.com/thetalenttank
Insiders Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTalentTankInsiders/
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.
Success and result driven define James Schofield @schofield526 of DIY Fab Parts. Join us on this installment of The Talent Tank talking about what a lifetime of dedication to making racecars go fast looks like. Growing up as a track kid every weekend, through Crew Chiefing an NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car to a championship. How off-road has played a significant part of his past 20 years. From famous places like The Fab School, BlueTorch Fabworks, Trail-Gear, 40spline, and his current venture at DYI Fab. We discuss race family, community, and what the love of the sport, and the sports love of you means. Especially in times of tragedy as James experienced at King of the Hammers 2021 taking a very bad tumble in the #321 ULTRA4 Racing 4400 car and his road to recovery from it.
After the Checkered Flag-
When Nic Cage took on the leading role of Benjamin Franklin Gates in the movie National Treasure, he showed us how awesome it would be to become a treasure hunter. He also showed us how awesome American history can be once you get below the textbook definitions of it. two facts from that movie.
Are Freemasons real people? The Freemasons are very much real. In fact, they are one of the longest running "secret" societies left in the world. They have moved into the public light in recent decades, and if you want to join you should reach out to the local lodge to see what you need to do.
Did the Freemasons evolve out of the Knights Templar? There are rumors that the Masons were a product of the destruction of the Templars, but there is no proof to back that up. Most historians agree that the Masons were a separate group that formed on their own.
Please like & subscribe.
https://www.thetalenttank.com/
https://www.instagram.com/thetalenttank/
https://www.facebook.com/thetalenttank
Insiders Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTalentTankInsiders/
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 Ultra4 and off road racing.
Wyatt Pemberton:All right, here we go. second installment of the spring 2021 talent tech sessions. I think this is Episode 42. And on with us why you clicked in today, you're curious about this guy that you've probably seen a lot on the internet lately. Certainly since February what he's up to James Schofield. Mr. Schofield How you doing, man? I'm doing pretty good, you know, round a lot better than I was two months ago. But everything's going good on my end. Well, let's talk. Let's talk about that. Let's talk about how is how do you go ahead and and you know, this is this is long story. James. James was co driving for a the infamous Tom weighs at King of the hammers here 2021 out in Johnson Valley, California. And it took a lifetime of your dedication to motor sports stuff. Find yourself in the right seat with with Tom ways, but then you guys took a tumble. Yeah. And you got your world rocked. Yeah. Walk us through what it was leading up to K weights that ended up with you co driving for Tom? Well, I mean, it started a couple years ago, it wasn't
Unknown:2020 it was a couple years ago it was I want to say it was like two years ago. That option came available when he got the new two seat car built. It could never work out with my drag race schedule. You know, I kind of pre commitment on drag racing side and their first race is the same weekend as the hammer. So I can't wait to talk about drag racing because that's you you've you've introduced me to your world there. And I good times with those people. So but some of that stuff for Tom. I mean, if we met back, man, it's probably been, I'd say 2009, something like that. And we met at the hammers. And this is back man. When Nicole Johnson drove for us at Blue torch. We had the same radio frequency like one number off, so he was getting stepped on by her blah blah. Like she flopped in the rocks or something like that. And they were trying to reach us at Pitt and then Tom comes through Pitt, and it's like, Hey, man, your car's upside down, down here blah blah and then we kind of hit it off after that with him and Greg Hussey old school Hussey Elliott oh yeah this is this is old school Tom ways and Hussey you know chewing tobacco in their mouth type Rock Crawler guys days and a hit it off after that and then Tom had the single seat car that tribe did and shear built and then he had some tuning issues with it one kayo H and we were there like a week early and some of the tune and stuff that I was messing with Tom come over and this guy kind of opened it up like Hey, man, if you ever need anything, let me know type thing and then it turned into Hey, come fix my you know what, and then the rest is history with that whole situation. But I kind of feel like Tom and I are from like the same side of the railroad tracks if you know like just good dude. Don't have a million dollars to raise for the big you know, big sponsorship deal but he gives it his all so I think that's kind of why I kind of like him as much as I do as far as helping him out where I can you know, I've done engines for him in the past did the engine for his new car when it first came out and we're gonna talk about that to your motor skills. That worked out pretty good. And then just the deal with the drag race inside of it, you know that that's a 2526 races a year type of thing. So you kind of sign up beforehand, and that's what it is. It's fixed. So every year that Tom asked me to go ride with him or come to a race with him, it always has to work around the nhrp drag race. Yeah, yeah. This year, with all the COVID Corona crap going on. They postponed kimono as not being the first race of the year. So Tom called me and I want to say end of November, or January something like that. And they're December I mean, and we kind of put it together and made it make sense and next thing you know, I show up at the hammers and it's on I show up to Reno to help him run the valves on his car and then kind of look load up his trailer and his junk show and we had to the hammers. So I kept everything on the quiet you know, now like super quiet, so yeah. We met you and I met right around that same time that oh 809 his time frame and I the first time I you know, raced with you as you. You called me out of the blue. Like, I kind of like, Hey, what are you doing? Was it like this weekend or like next weekend? It was something close. Right? And you're like, Hey, we're running a Jeep speed. The minute was this about mid 2011 2010? It's somewhere in that. I won't say 20 min 2010? Probably. There's probably 10 Yeah. And you said, Hey, we're running Jeep. Sweet. Do you want to come on my Hell yeah. Like Southwest Airlines. Let's go so on a train wreck. And I came from the airport, right to Fremont Street and catch you guys in contingency line. That's like, that was like how it's short notice like, maybe you guys might have called me two days before and it was like, and get there and, and just had a blast with you in James karner. And who was the other khattar Jason Carter sorry, Jason. Jason. Mikey delora, which was a fab school kid. That's right. Troy Johnson. We had Troy's trailer, which we wrecked my bed. When your fault that 18 Wheeler hit us. I know man. Well, I want to come back to that story about how we don't you know, but so you can see like the the the history have been a motor sports for, you know, offered more sports. We've touched on some HRA stuff, but so in HRA schedule for 2021 delayed COVID it's Pomona it's Pomona, California. No way there's going to be a race it's gonna happen in Johnson Valley, California, but it does. And right. And so you help Tom load up. And I I get out there and I of course, I'm going to come see Tom I mean, Tom, you know, a buddy of mine. You know, friend, I've always loved talking with Tom I walk into yells pit. You guys are working on the three to one car, and you're under the car. But I didn't see you. I didn't even hear you. And then all sudden you start talking to me. I i Hey, buddy, what do you do? I said, I'm like, Who's that? Like? Like, my ears go up? Or Who's that down there? And it was you? And yeah, like, what are you doing here? And you're like, I'm right seeing it, man. I got. I'm working on this thing. I'm fixing all atomic junk. Yeah, so we do a walk around on the car. Tom tells some stuff you were working on? What were you working on? Was it a dry sump? You're working on something? Man, there's no telling the problem. The problem is, when you I guess I look at it differently coming from like the drag racing side of stuff. If you don't look at stuff, it's gonna bite you in the butt. I would almost rather look at every single thing before you race it to determine that everything is raisable. Instead of just assuming that the last time you put it in the trailer, it was good to go. That's a novel idea. You know, it's crazy. But like Tom is on that same program, he gets it and so like, it's a lot more than putting a wrench on everything. There's a lot of stuff we do. Even on Tom's car or even at the blowtorch cars. When we had them it was a lot of work. But it never it never really bitchy in the butt if you did it. So it's just doing your homework, you know? So yeah, so you guys get the car. All good. qualify. race day. Yeah. Walk us through how that how that morning went? brush your teeth? Because I think that comes into play later. Right? It does. So yeah, you know, picked out the best clothes, I could wear under my fire suit, get ready to do the deal. And we walk over to line up in staging and all that kind of good stuff. And they're warming up the car and the diffs and Tom's guys are freaking awesome for what they do and got us all ready to go. So Tom and I could kind of take our time getting over there to staging and we started 10th so I think we started beside man, I can't remember we were behind Brian comprare I believe but you're on the fifth row. I mean, you guys are I mean up there. It's in that first wave of you're gonna get like worldly side a role Gomez, I believe and basically, we took the green and we opted to go straight desert like everybody in front of us. And Tom's car just gets it for what it's worth, you know, and we ran a super conservative pace for the first lap for sure. Trying not to beat ourselves, you know what I mean to where the cars not just getting beat and we're making passes that we need to make when we need to make them instead of forcing the issue but make it all the way through Cougar buttes coming back in and we catch Lauren in the Little Rock trails coming back to pit one he's there in it kind of there for the taking. If we wanted to just let Tom go full, Tom weighs on it it would. You just Tom's a freaking great driver, like his whole demeanor in the car, like the conversations we had in a car pretty priceless for what they're worth, but redneck conservative pays, we come in from pit one, and I'm sorry, not from pit one. But back to main pit. They load us up with fuel and top everything off. And after that we go out, start lab two and well, I want to get off on a tangent here before we get you know, towards the the meat and potatoes of this story. Yeah, co driving for Tom ways. There's not a lot of people that have done that. Certainly not in the last, you know, you're greater than 10 years ago. Yes. Then you had a single seat for a long time. What is that? Like? If you're not a? How do I put this just Tom's very black and white? and 100% 100. There's there's no gray area? It's either it's either you're at 110% or you're zero? You're either on his channel, or you are on planet Mars 100%. So, so what's that, like? It's, I guess there's a there's like a mutual respect there. So if you as a driver, and as a co driver, like, you have to have the respect that the guy telling you where to go, is telling you the truth, you know what I mean? Where if you're a driver, and you're just counting on the guy sitting in the passenger seat, you're kind of screwed if both y'all don't know what you're doing. So if Tom is driving, somebody completely new, it would scare him to death. But Tom drives like, how I drove when I got to drive in some of that stuff. were driving by the seat of your pants, more or less as Tom style, but he has a whole lot of dirt bike experience to to ride at that level that he does. Like he said, his if Tom ways is kind of up there, like the dude will go for hours without food or water just to keep going instead of you know, the average guy would slow down and take a break and this and that. But I would say Tom situation riding with him. It's a lot of fun. But I've ridden with Tom in the past. So that's kind of not a new thing. I guess you'd say the new thing at the hammers Yes. But like we were over in China and stuff like that. I got to ride with him and kind of went for a wild ride over there. So this isn't my first time ways situation where I got banged up a little bit, but it's part of it. Right? So Yo, yo, come into main pit and and then you gas up and go out of Maine. And then did you guys got a backdoor then or did you guys? No, no, we opted to take back door on third lap and it was playing out to just be our side of things was trying to figure out tire life for what we're doing or killing the drive line or not killing drive line. That was kind of his big fear of that. Like, don't tax the car for what it's worth, you know, we're gonna winch back door Anyways, let's just winch it on the third lap when everything's fresh and kind of go for the rest of it. But just try to get the separation between the first group of cars and like lap traffic coming in on lap two. So just trying to check out where we could so I think we run in fifth or something like that. We came through main pit after lap one. And how much do you enjoy, because I'll tell you I greatly enjoy talking strategy with Tom ways. So Tom ways has his way of doing stuff. And then there's people that help Tom ways that are helping him on his pit side of things that are that next level, you know what I mean? Where you have the guy that says we get two miles a gallon and then there's the guy that shows you on paper that it's 2.4 miles a gallon. That's that's the difference in the way Tom's guys are. And then like the notes that you take in the GPS, like pulling the GPS out of the car, plugging it into a battery while you're sitting on the couch and just putting in all your notes from the day putting that same GPS setup in the Raptor truck running laps and laps and laps and laps of that as the course changes throughout the week with all the other races that went on that shared some of the first lap and like just seeing how it's changed from day to day and then car to car so we go from the Raptor to the race car and keep making changes every day that were big changes yesterday that today they don't need to be that big of a change or a big of a you know hazard. It's not as bad as it was two days ago type of thing where that kind of stuff is what gets you you know, and then trying new stuff in on the car like let's try a new drive line for this. To get more miles an hour, let's try this for more RPMs let's try this for it's all kinds of that strategy that plays into it versus just building a brand new car and hoping for the best. So yeah, yes, absolutely. And I the part of the strategy I like working with him is and he's kind of my go to on this and he'll tell you multiple calls. Tom doesn't text but is the like it started the genesis of this started when he took a back of the pack start at age four or five, six years ago, I don't know how many years ago and and so so shooting strategy with him since the you know, right? He's he's fun to strategize like pit strategy, Miley strategy, when to do backdoor when not to do backdoor. And so it's always cool to see, you know, the way his head works. And he's asking everybody else to and he may tell you, he's gonna do something, but he's only telling you that because he wants to hear what you have to say about it. So Right, right. So you guys leave you guys like out of there and you're in running roughly fifth, I think we're like fifth overall, like fifth position, and then physically fit, I guess. And then we go out, and we're catching Rollo Gomez. Again, we pass him on the first lap coming out and he passes us back in main pit. And then going around those trails up against the mountain going to lap two. Coming up the backside of scooters. That's the next section that we were coming to sprinters and everything's going good, like not killing the car at all or anything like that. And, man, we hit a hit a big g out and the next thing you know, that was pretty wild ride that we took it felt like it was 10 minutes long. And really it was only like 15 seconds and rest is history. The rest is history. And so you guys tumble you guys are on that you hit those big, huge rollers. They're on the NBR horse at the north end of the valley, as you guys you know, come out of Emerson. I believe that's Emerson headed towards spooners Yep. And you guys just yardsale Gomez is almost you know, took the trophy truck out there, you know, two days before I mean, or maybe they did there's been numerous people have wanted up on those. I've gone through there and you know, really puckered hard and because they sneak up we all know they're there, we've all hit a billion times but then they just sneak up on you when you're going 80 miles an hour It's crazy how quickly they're there. And so and Tom's gonna those hundreds of times at this point you know quite a few weeks we did it probably 15 times for that week of pre running and everything was fine. So you know it would it would toss you around a little bit but you knew it was there and kept on going but this time it threw it up on the nose and Tom did everything he could do to drive out from under it and when it hooked the front bumper once it past that point of like no return it's not driving out of it hooked the front bumper and that's what I think got my collarbone was that first initial hook and then at that point my left shoulder belt is kind of pointless so I'm just along for the ride on inside because my right side was basically the only thing holding my body back in the seat at that point so did full revolution forward front flip slammed down on the ground slid around did a roll to the side landing on the or stopping on the passenger side at what point did it end for you did you go unconscious? I never did I was actually awake so you remember it all see Tom Tom also says he remembers it all but you know I talked to you know Wayne Wayne is Wilson and cam steel. were two of the first guys on scene. And Raul Gomez was the first he was first one because he was right behind you guys you guys just passed him and he right so he blocked traffic he ran up there then cam steel and cam steel I actually saw a video recently of cam steel stopping you know on for down riders you know it's it's what you do you go make sure the guys that wrecked in front of you are good and then resume your race and it was just the glory to dust to glory. And there was a scene in there where the truck in front of cam wreck but so they stopped for you and and Wayne Wayne said y'all were out cold. I know we don't we don't remember where we were. Wait lane said y'all were both dirt nap in it and like they were scared. So they you Tom awaken you awake, Tom that gets out of the car, right and you're you the car comes to rest on the passenger side. So your side of the car is down. And you get your belts off somehow and you just crumble into the window net at the bottom of the car. And Tom is yelling at you from what I've been told in his recount of is he's telling you to come on get out of there and you go to use your left hand to grab the sheet. lifters in to pull yourself up and you got nothing. There's nobody home. And what do you what did you say to him like, hey man shitting working over here, man, probably something along those lines. And the dash bar the bottom of the dash bar absolutely eviscerated your right kneecap. Yeah, I got my left leg, my left knee cap, and my right knee cap. So my right knee cap ended up getting basically exploded from either the bottom of the dash or the bottom of the GPS. But that was visibly you could look through, look at my leg and see that that wasn't in the right spot where it was supposed to be. So basically, we land on the passenger side, we're talking back and forth on the radio. Like you got to get up and I'm like, dude, I'm trying something's not right. You know, there's a few things not right, like immediately not right, but just trying to pull myself up from the kind of position myself to slide my butt down to the, to the ground out of the seat by taking the belts off. And there's nobody home on my left shoulder. So that didn't help me at all. And then when I did take my belts off, I slid around and got on the ground, but my back felt like I had like three gallons Icy Hot on it. So that didn't really feel that great once I got out of the seat because of the containment seat. But my knee and my leg didn't bother me that much, until they got me out. And then when I stood me up and got me out of the car, I was standing there and they stood me up straight up and outside of the car and everything was good. And I went to take us like move my weight around the stand up correctly. And I just buckled there was no stop and my weight going backwards. And when I did it, I took the top part of my kneecap and pull it up into my thigh. So that was pretty excruciating pain for what it's worth. So yeah, yeah, when that when that piece that's not meant to go up there goes there, it's not good. So yeah, and then they drugged me around to the other side of the car if you had some fuel leak in and they were going to try to pull the car back over and waited there for I don't know, probably 10 minutes or something like that for everybody to medic and all that kind of stuff to show up and then JT shows up and he's like, what's the deal and kind of told him what was going on with me and the paramedic cuts my suit off up to my knee and he said oh, we need to cover that back up the pieces are kind of hanging out so we need to just bandage that up enough to get you out of here and I want to say it was like 38 minutes or something like that for the helicopter and at that point Tom was gonna kill the guy that was running the paramedic situation because the guy showed up with like a fanny pack full of band aids and Tom ways wasn't feeling that didn't have any splints or no that kind of stuff. Yeah, Tom's out of back country stuff and seen enough stuff in young boundary Alaska that like hey, you need this you know, blah blah blah this number neck brace and blah blah. And the guy's like all i got like this. It was like that episode of Joe Dirt where he's like, Oh, I got sparklers. Man. That's kind of what this guy had. We weren't so for you. So they, the call was we'll put get you on a truck and get you to hammer town to get you on an ambulance. Right? Yeah, I kind of left it to JT and Tom as far as like, this guy wanted to wait. And I was like, Man, I'm tired of waiting. So whatever these guys think is we need to do we need to get it because it's sitting in and like reality is hit that I'm hurt. It ain't good. You know? So I opted to ride out in the backseat of a Chevy pickup truck that the guy thought was a trophy truck and it was on so the few in the back of a crew cab and and you book it across you know it's not that many miles was three miles south. beings down here see where the wreck was? Man, it was probably a 25 minute drive or something like that. Get back get you in an ambulance. And and then did they take you straight to Palm? Palm Springs to Palm Desert? Straight to Palm Desert? Yeah. And then from there rolling in the car and what was the ultimate prognosis of what was wrong with you at that point in time? besides the obvious the need the collarbone so so right knee left collarbone and then your back felt pretty, pretty, pretty special. Yeah. So they, they wouldn't give me any medication to like, make everything calmed down but so they cut my fire suit off the rest of the way. All my garments and all that crap and then they were actually tripping out on the fact that I was wearing a catheter and this guy was like, I don't understand why you put this on. I'm like, this is how you do it. When you raise You don't stop to pee. And so that guy was freaking out about that. But when he got all that crap off, they take me to get to looking at my knee, they cut the bandage off. The guy was like, Hey, man, I hate to do you like this, but we got to stitch this up before we can get any x rays, because you're you're bleeding. I'm like, Okay. And he's like, you're just fixing to take it like it is there's no medicine I'm giving you like, well, I don't really have an option, if that's that's the least of my problems right now is the stinging from getting stitches without medication. And so I took eight stitches, like a champ and then went to get an X ray, determined that my collarbone was sitting on my left long diaphragm area, they did an MRI on my back. And then that's when they figured out that I had five compression fractures in my back. And so my knee situation was something they were going to fix right away and then do my shoulder at the same time. And then they determined that they wanted to do a rod in my back for my L One, two and three, and then my T five and six was okay to heal on its own based on your ribs are there to support that area. So it's it's pretty nuts. So this all happened like race day, so there was no like, figuring out what we're gonna do tomorrow. This was okay, this is what we're doing. Now you're gonna go in for surgery tonight for fix your leg. And then we'll fix your shoulder at the same time because you're already be out type of situation. So I broke my collarbone. Just took the collarbone out, it broke it in two spots. So that piece was just hanging out. And I go in for knee surgery. So I'm in ICU for a day, I think. And then I go the next day. So I was there for a full day. The next Monday, I had surgery on my leg, and then I wake up and my shoulders just got tape all over it, but it's sitting, like nothing's happened to it. And basically, they said they tried to fix it to where it would stay. And it didn't. So they later I went in for shoulder surgery, fix that situation. And then they wanted me to stay to do the back situation, fix it. And I opted at that point to let the swelling go down on my back because I had like two pool noodles running down the side of my spine and just ready to get out of California for what it was worth. It wasn't the greatest stay of a hospital, I would say. But the people that took care of me did if my understanding of Palm Desert was you know, because it's its location and Glamis. They're really good for compression fractures. They're back back there. Er is good. But right now trauma was good. Yeah, yeah, trauma is good. But after you leave the trauma, it's your It is not good. Then you add in COVID. That's very suboptimal, optimal. My toddler Tom, one of the points I talked to Tom, he was sleeping in his truck in the parking lot in the hospital waiting on like, just to get updates. They wouldn't let anyone in because a COVID, right, somewhere in there. Your wife and I end up talking or texting. And then it's shout to the icon guys that icon suspension, for sure. Which is Tom Tom sponsors, they get your wife, April, they get her on a plane to fly her from Alabama where y'all live out to California to get to you. And then she's I think Tom picks her up at the airport and they go eat lunch together. Because she can't come into the you know, in the hospital, but at least she's now there. Right? Yeah, tell me if my recollection is terrible. But you know, it's definitely your story here. And she is messaging me about hey, you know, we're thinking, you know, what do you think of this? She needs? You know, she needs some, you know, sane, other people, you know, to bounce ideas off. What if he didn't do his back surgery there? What if I bail him out now? Like, what what if, and, and then she walked through all of the perils and all the things that were not really jiving? Well, you weren't getting the best treatment at the hospital once you know, we said this after you left trauma. And then they came forward and they said they would release you at some point they would release you to a hotel, walk all that through. Man, it was after my shoulder surgery, like everything was Hurry up, we're gonna fix everything. And then after my shoulder surgery, it was like everything slowed down so there was no hurry up to get you anything. and blah, blah, blah. And I I didn't have a whole lot of communication with anybody other than April at the time, just because it was so freakin overwhelming, just everybody reaching out, but to try to make something make sense, where I'm on all kind of pain medication and stuff like that and they're poking and prodding you every four hours to see what's going went on. And I had a hard time trying to make it make sense. So what, it's probably going to cost me something with my wife. But at the end of the day, the I quit taking my pain medication at the hospital. And it was probably 15 pills at a time. And I quit taking it. And I was just, they would bring me my medication, and it gave me my food, and I would take my pills. And I would just push them into the mashed potatoes or the pudding. And after, like, two times of that, I went to bed and I slept like a million bucks. Because I still had an IV full of pain med happening, but the oral side of it, I wasn't taken. And then I woke up at like four in the morning or something like that, like I was detox and then woke up with enough mindset to say, Okay, I'm ready to get out of here. What do we got to do to get me out of here, like I'm going home. I know, there's plenty of places back home here in Alabama, that that specialize in this. So I'm not taking your word for you guys, we're gonna fix my shoulder and my knee at the same time only to find out that you didn't when I woke up. So just trying to make sense of it. Because I couldn't have anybody at the hospital on my behalf, like Tom or any of his guys. I mean, they even tried to be my family. They tried to say that they were my brothers and sisters and all this kind of crap. And they would let them in and then they wouldn't even let my wife in. So yeah, well, we talked about, you know, I brought the like the brushing your teeth, the morning of the race. So I want to say it was like Tuesday or even Wednesday, racist. And it was Wednesday. It was Wednesday. April told me that you finally were able to brush your teeth on Wednesday. I can't. I can't go five hours, you know, into the day of not brushing. And so your Saturday and you go five days without a toothbrush. And then even like the needing to go the restroom, you needed help to get up and go to the bathroom. And they didn't have like a nurse call button. And I mean, this is like it wasn't great, man. Yeah, so I hear all from April. It's like, bro, we got to get you out. Like, like, like, and I'm telling her like she got he got if you can get him out of there. Get him out of there. So she gets you bailed out somehow? Yes. So I talked to her. I briefly talked to you. I remember and I talked to her and she was like you're getting out, like in next day or two. And then under the condition that I can't fly for a few days, like I had to wait a week or something like that to be able to fly home. And there's a hotel right around the corner. So I get out, she picks me up from the hospital and we go about a mile around the corner. And it's all I can do to get in and out of this minivan that we rented and get to the hotel room and I'm out for it felt like three days just good sleep and sleeping in a good bed and having somebody that actually takes care of you. So it was a rough one at the hospital for sure. So yeah, there they said, you know, they were going to send somebody over daily to check on you. But then, you know, our good friend, you know, Doug Jackson gives me a ring and Doug's like, what's James's deal? We got you got to get him bailed out there. I'm like, Yeah, but you know, we were still the fruition thinking you were gonna get you on like on a commercial flight home. And, and talk to you guys. Dude. They're not gonna let him fly commercial. Like, like, no way. He's not had back surgery. His back is still broken in five swats they're not going to from a risk standpoint, liability standpoint, they're not going to let this guy on a plane. And on my Hmm. Interesting. I hadn't pondered this. So he makes some calls, talks to Andrew McLaughlin and Irma golf and talks to Steve Adams, Adams and Steve Adams has a has a plane and we start about you know, passing the hat chipping in or whatever there's this the offer community itself just throws in huge on a you know, some GoFundMe to help you guys out with knowing full well that you know, you're self employed. You're not there's not like a backstop here, there's not you know, hey, you know, we're sitting on, you know, millions, you know, and that's fun. So, so your time passes, I had to get you on the plane and one of the hurdles was was fuel. You know, that's a big fuel bill. And Dave Cole, Dave Cole said, Get that Mr. For home. Right. I wasn't getting home. And so between Steve Adams and his plane, and I think Andrew mcglothlin came and met y'all as well flew with you guys. He helped drag me into the airplane and like him and then Derrick Baker, so this is Derek and then Chad that helps on Bailey's car I believe. And one other guy that helps him Bailey's car was They're they've met us at the airport and show up and basically they take the rental car back for us after we leave, but they helped get me and all my junk into this airplane. And I mean, it's it's it's toilets, it's wheelchairs, it's walkers. It's it's an old folks home going to Alabama, basically. And my wife is just like, okay, like, this is how we're doing it. And it's like, yeah, and like, I guess the backside of that is like, my wife doesn't know everybody in the office world. So she doesn't know who who is who you know what I mean. So this whole thing like, just blew her mind. When that when I first talked to her, after you and heard set up everything. She said, Yeah, I got this guy named trip that's trying to get me to do this and that. And then I'm like, No, no, that's why it and she's like, no, this guy's name is trip. And I'm like, No, babe, that's triple Nichols. That's 555 it's his race number. And he's like, no, I swear, his name's trip. But you guys got all that hooked up. And he got an airport. And so we'll we're gonna talk about your wife here in a moment, as we talk about, you know, growing up and all that, but I'm April, and I, you know, talk in she basically confides in, I don't why I don't know what to do. I'm everyone is trying to help me. And I keep saying no, and now I realize that it, it sounds like I'm being disingenuous, like, I'm not grateful for help. How do what do I do? And I just said, except to help people right now, especially in our community in the offer community and racers in general, it was you on the Saturday morning of K wage 2021. It could have very easily been someone else. And to be honest, we just had, you know, another race or got, you know, very, very, very injured near two weeks ago with with West Keane, and his accident where he ends up you know, with with burns over 60 plus percent of his body. And that's, it can be any of us at any time. We were sure we know when we, you know, this in our sometimes our wives know what, and sometimes they don't, but we've caught we've come to terms with the reality of the risks of putting the helmet on. Right. And for most everyone listening to this show, you know, it's worth the reach. Right? Right. The juice is worth the squeeze. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So we talked you know, your wife and I, you know, we talked we exchanged notes and and then we just kind of started funneling everyone who wanted to aid into helping her and getting her comfortable getting her to California getting just get it to the point where she can focus on taking care of you and thinking about you and how to get how to get my husband out of prison I mean, hospital how to get how to get you to hop to a hotel that has a you know, handicap capable bathroom how to get you comfortable how to get you rested, to where you can start making decisions and you know, advocating for yourself right, you're your own best advocate. Right What's wrong, what's wrong with you what's hurting what's not hurting what you can and can't do? Right? And then just just hand off you know, in terms of like that so you know, Doug Jackson reaching out Dave being like, hey, work. Yeah, get get him home. Steve Adams got Steve with with a plane and McLaughlin. I mean, those guys, so you get you get hauled back home. You're in Alabama. How's that been? Are you doing how are you doing today? Today, I'm doing pretty good. I got a I got all the hardware taken out that was external hardware, stitches and staples and stuff like that. My knee is healing up fine. My shoulders. Moving right along, my back is still there, my L ones taken a little longer than the other ones to heal. But everything is healing on my back without surgery, which is kind of funny because California was pushing to put a rod in my Oh, one, two and three. And I get home and the doctors like man, I just don't know what that would have done for you that wouldn't have fixed your problem. So take out a little bit of time at home you know, and not doing too much. just laying in bed letting it do its own deal is what I've been doing. So just trying to stay busy doing a bunch of light duty stuff, whether it's tuned in cars are coming to the shop and just kind of sitting here it's kind of a I guess it's your body tells you when you're doing too much. So like the doctor saying it's gonna be four weeks or four months or whatever it is to heal. It's, it's at the end of the day. It's up to you what you can and can't work through and if you can't do it, then don't do it. It's kind of my mentality on it. We're not even at 60 days. Yeah, and it my wife hates You know what I mean? Cuz I'm a busy body I have bad add on a lot of levels and I can't sit still. So sitting in bed for the first two or three weeks was insane. I was losing my mind. I watched every episode of like Duck Dynasty and shipping wars and all these stupid reality shows just to do something. And it I ended up getting her to take me to the shop one day, and I told her, I said, Hey, why don't you just go head home, I'll take my truck home, because I got to be back down here tomorrow. And I weaseled my way into my truck, you know, busted to hell and back and I shouldn't have been driving because I still want a back brace and straight leg brace and I'm like, I'll be fine. You know, it's bad country roads, I, I'll be fine. I'm gonna figure this out. You know, and then after that, bro, I've been doing it every day. So just taking it slow. I mean, first a little bit with the wheelchair, man, it sucked. You just, you have no stamina. Like you couldn't stand up, you couldn't like get into the end of the bed was the job. So getting all that stuff passed and in the past now is working its way out. But now I'm not in a back brace. I'm just still have a leg brace on, but nothing that's straight leg anymore. I've got 30 degrees. But I keep doing some stretching and stuff like that at home to get my full range of motion back. But what's the degree of motion that they want you to have back in that 45 right now? Yeah, you're 30 now but what we're currently I'm only allowed 30 but I'm at like 125 right now. But I'm not telling my doctor that just because he subscribed you listen to hear this on Monday. I mean, he seems like a pretty cool guy. And he's he's, he's on my side a little bit. And I'm working on a buddy of his his car at my shop. And just a long story short, I got a phone call into the guy at my shop to tell him Hey, man, I've been busted up. This is a deal. I'm out for a little while. So it's gonna be a little bit on your car. And he's a wanting to know who you're seeing and where you're going. I've got people that do that. He's a trauma surgeon. So he's in the connection. Lupo, who's the bad guy and who's the lead guy type of thing. So he gives me this guy's phone number and he said, I'll call him until then we're gonna call him and we'll set something up. So he calls me back like 20 minutes later and says, Hey, your appointments Tuesday at this time, you need to be there like okay, and then bring him all your CDs and all your images from California. So I go in there and it was like 1145 in the morning, I think everyone I left at like 630 that night. And that dude went from the top end of the bottom and and went through every single thing and what we're doing and what we're not doing and all that kind of good stuff. And then I went back to him last Tuesday just for an update got a different leg brace a month ago that's got degrees in it now and then at 30 degrees for a little over a month but I got a two injections in my back for just a kind of a pain deal not a not a fix more or less. It's just some kind of way to let my muscles relax a little bit help the healing a little bit like a steroid injection and then some more x rays and on my back and my leg and everything seems to be healing like it's supposed to and that's wonderful. All right, pretty well, your body is pretty wild, man. If you actually think about it, pretty robust. You went got your ass kicked. So you've got I mean, literally you've got you know, you're the person you're like I got a motor guy I'm a motor guy you got it you know an axle guy. He got a trainee guy. And now you got now you got another trainee guy surgery. Now you got a guy that can handle you know just yeah, I mean that's kind of what you write the specialist and that's what we do when it comes to cars, race cars, or even you know, your drag cars. Yep, so right now today the road to recovery you're pretty far along right? Yeah, right now I'm up walking around, no cane no back brace just using a leg brace can't lift and twist anything at the same time. So like I pick something up, I can't turn at the same time just for a little bit longer. It seems like just to kind of help everything heal but no surgery is on the horizon. As long as the L one kind of comes around. I go back in four weeks for an update but everything so far is good. So my knees swells up like a grapefruit every afternoon but that's completely normal. The doc says it'll probably take eight months or nine months for that to kind of go away but everything on it's doing pretty good. Oh, that's wonderful. So I'm gonna ask you now the next hard question because this the cringe cringe one now that you know reality set in so you know insurance bills started to roll it you know hospital will start rolling and assurance. Oh yeah. once every two three days, man. What does what's that Palm Desert number Look like like a half a mil. So it's right there at it. So the funnel shit. The first bill was I want to say it was 419 or 490 something I'll have to check, but it was like 419 or 490. And then now I've got all this out of network because they didn't take the blue cross that I have. And so now I've got like this doctor's assistants gonna send a bill and then the anesthesiologist is gonna send their bill. And it's, it's, every couple days, we get more so the ambulance ride for anybody that wants to know, was 3800 bucks from the lake bed to the desert. That seems reasonable. That's a lot cheaper than I was anticipating. But it was worth it in the long run. But yeah, I would say I'm closer to at the end of the day on all this, it'll probably be six 700,000 bucks. Probably. You could have a four wheel drive trophy truck. And yeah, for one race. Race, don't ride with Tom lay No. Wow. No, cuz that's always the I mean, certainly that's something that is always in the back of our heads isn't back in my head, like what that looks like and then and you don't have a you know, a number to, to swag at it. But while you just gave us a data point that absolutely scares scares me. But that's what insurance is for. Right? Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of other things that go on to with that, like you have your personal health care insurance. And then you also have the USAC stuff, which you're just about an idiot if you don't race somewhere that has legit insurance. And having done in the past, I look back and kind of very glad nothing ever happened like this in the past. But the USAC stuff is pretty legit. Like the way they handle everything once ultra for sent in the initial start of the claim, like basically saying that, yes, this happened on our race course. And this is the guy and this is where he did sign up for all the insurance in blah, blah, blah. Well, now that secondary insurance covers just about every single thing that's left over from your personal insurance, besides your out of normal out of pockets and stuff like that, but it in it'll end up probably being like everything, but like 15% of every bit of it. And what you cycle cover 15% of a big number. Still a big number. But that is really wonderful to hear. Because I I don't know anyone that's ever had to, you know, exercise the nuclear option. Right? exercise, or sack. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like when we first got home, I mean, they were calling, like our health care was calling a couple times a week just checking in. And then the USAC lady, her name's Nicole, she was right on top of it, like, Hey, we're sending this over, fill it out, send it back ASAP, so we can get everything rolling. And, man it clicks right along now. So yeah, remember, I couldn't find anything on your sex website for the insurance and then so man, Allen Johnson was awesome. He's texting me. Contact Info. I'm sharing the contact info for with April. I mean, April, April got it on. Well, I don't want to dig too much further into into that that line of question thinking you know, we've talked about what uh, you know, how your life pivoted and changed right? On a Saturday in February and the desert but you'll be back at it right? For sure. Yeah, yeah. So let's let's let's dive into James who James Schofield is young. Everyone knows his heard your name, but now who you are and how long you've been in motorsports. I've known you since that. Oh, 809 and 10 timeframe. Same with wasting with a lot of folks and a lot of folks know you from your blue torch fab days. Anyone don't doesn't remember that world doesn't fab works. Sorry. Dothan Alabama. In which brings me to you're an Alabama guy. Right. You live there. Now. You're from eufaula Alabama. Now you live you live outside Birmingham there. Right? Right. Yeah, little south of Birmingham about down of 15 miles or something like that. But I was born and raised in Gambrills Maryland. My parents divorced when I was in fourth or fifth grade fourth grade and my mom moved to Alabama and little small town called you follow and went to school there graduate high school and then went to work in Dothan Alabama working on big trucks and you're getting way too far ahead for me to jump that fast. Let's walk this back a little bit so as a as a kid growing up from what I gather your family was a family of racers Anyway, you guys were drag racers. your this is your your stepfather. Now my dad, your dad, your dad. Yep. drag racer. So you were spending every weekend every other weekend that it wasn't raining out of drag strip somewhere. And and in you clearly gravitated towards it. Did you feel like you had a choice? Or was it a choice that you were like, absolutely. I'm all in on this racing thing. Like the drag racing side of it as a kid, there was no, like looking back at it nowadays. I don't know how anybody could do that. But my parents would go to the track. And it would be me and my two sisters, my two older sisters, and they would basically run their race program. And then my dad would make it clear that if your mother lost, we were leaving, and you needed to be at the truck when we got back type of thing. So you can run around with all the other kids that are at the track all day. But if your mom loses, you got to be back here. So we're leaving. And man, it was every Saturday. And then if it was in the winter, like they would build engines or whatnot. And it was the same program every weekend to where, if it was snowing outside, my dad would take us or take me to his buddy's shop that has a machine shop that did all his race engines. And I bet I threw away that in his shop, I probably threw, I don't know, a couple $1,000 worth of sockets into his fat as a kid just being a little crappy little shithead kid and just throwing nuts and bolts that went to this engine project into this big hot tank over here that you know, just being a kid but as a kid, that's all we did. There was no soccer or football or baseball and my parents raced. And that was what it was like the the the local gathering in the neighborhood. It was a whole different situation at my house like my dad ran a tight ship and still does to this day. I mean, even my kids get to go up to see him but like, racing is what he does, like everything he's ever done is raced, whether it's a stock car rental car, or a full blown drag car, like he would do it and take your money at the same time. And then educate you on why he just be you. So So when did you meet your wife? Like not that many years ago, right? 1213 years ago, 14 years ago, and it was 2009. So we were building years ago. See are that blue? Blue torch bill? For Nicole. I'm going I'll get off on tangent on that one right now. So you guys show up. That was an inch and a half inch and a half to chassis inch and a half cromoly chassis that was on revision about four by the time it made it to the lake bed. That final revision was was what happened you guys were testing tuning who was driving? Oh, so yeah, so back. revision, I would say that was probably for man. I'm looking at a picture right now. But like the, like the shock towers weren't gonna work with the way it was made. That means a bunch of stuff that was like a big learning curve. That didn't make sense at the time. But now you look back and you're like, man, there's no way that should work. And we should have known better. And obviously this sport has evolved. But yeah, so we get to we get to the hammers, and you're working for Dan Dubois. Yeah, so Dan, is it was his name on place. Everybody else did some work on it. But the we get there and was bender on that car and bender moved back to California. Also, there was a man there's so many people that came to help work on that car. But no, bender wasn't there. This is a this is a Birmingham car, Birmingham blue torch car. And so we moved to Birmingham in oh seven. But at the end of that project, we went to the hammers, Jason was owner of blue torch at the time, or majority owner, whatever you want to call it. And Dan was working his way out of blue torch. So I'll go to the hammers and make a run with Frank. Nicole's husband, Frank, I was driving Frank was riding and everything was going good. But this thing had like, too much steering speed input speed for a double ended RAM, you know, so like, trophy truck pump, you know, zing in the piss out of it and double any ram like, it's meant to go this fast. You know what I mean? And we just were hitting this one section and the guy on the outside tuning the shocks was tuning in one way and I would tell him what we feel on the inside and he goes some other way. And basically the back end, it just packed up and pass the front end, about five days before the race or something like that. And so we load it up and drag it to the fab school we cut the roof off. Behind the B pillar, it broke the tube out of the B pillar so we load up take the fab school and Troy's like, oh, no problem. We'll cut that out, fix it type of thing, project for the students and all that kind of stuff and We get it all fixed and we'd load it up and take it back to the hammers. And people thought we had a spare car because you can really tell that it was fixed. And now I was the same car, you know, just had the big rolled roof on it. And when we got home, the problem was like the steering just wasn't going to work. So once you drive a car with like a gearbox or steering rack on it, you don't really want to go after hydro, you know, and so reidman Troy's prerunner, stuff like that, you could kind of feel that road feel that you get and we got home and then we cut the car apart, put a bigger motor in it, because that's what you need and took the five to one transfer case out put up. I want to say it was a two or three o in it, and then put some gear in it and put a gearbox underneath the seat. So Troy Johnson came up with that whole class eight truck style swing set steering that we had on it, and it drove like a million bucks, but it would pick on a steering box pretty regularly, but like the sector shaft in it, it would twist it, it wouldn't ring it off, it would just start twisting it. But once we got it dialed in, it was good to go. And then we raced Vegas to Reno with it. And we loaded up the first year that Vegas Torino was a class with 4400 cars in it and you know, we put a big sell at the time in the back, I want to say it was like 40 gallons or something which now that's like a front tank on somebody's car. But you know, you put the biggest tank you could get at the time and 30 sevens and go for it. And we made it to that was a three day race. So it was like three days and 300 miles or something. And the second day we had a first day Jason was driving and it it exploded the transfer case. So this is like the early days of advanced adaptors transfer cases. cracklin half. Yep, yep. And it was like the Edelbrock case or something like that. It was just exploding. You'd have a front output and then a rear output that was still connected to the trainee. And while they were fighting each other as you were going over the top of whoops, they were just chocolate chocolate and it was Chinese water torture. Yeah, yep. And then so we changed transmissions a few times on that and we had a$700 for transmission and you know, we're full blown thinking you got to have gear. So this guy Mogi I don't know if you ever heard of him he's like the transmission guy in Southern California for that style Chrysler training and or Chrysler but the 700 or four but he was a big Chrysler guy evidently and he was like this shit will never live you guys are wasting your time. And sure enough, we went through like five transmissions that weekend and learning experience for sure. And then we retired that car and then sold it off now did it's not the car that Peter baszler rock bounce with a wall Yeah, you know that car straight out of desert king of the hammers trim was you know Rob Mac drove that car. So ride with him was a pretty wild experience learning how to learn how he navigated stuff and setting up the car and sharks and things like that. It worked out really good with him and Larry McRae rode in it with Rob Mac driving it but doing some practicing with Rob Mac, it was pretty mind blowing, but you learn how I guess you kind of learn how the car works and doesn't work. And then we kind of left this, this suspension alone, you don't have trailing arms and bypasses on it. So Peter buys it and takes it out to go, rock bounce. And then it's like 50 years advanced for everything else that's out there with expanded metal firewalls and stuff like that. So he puts a weapon on for I think two years in a row and then technology catches up, you know, that's a car that was retired out and they'd never seen bypasses and coilovers it was air shocks and diamond play and exactly, Dan Dibble and cut boggers and yeah, that car had wheel speed that they didn't have and then they quickly figured out that that's what you got to have on in the East Coast mud. So it worked out and yeah, my story about that car is so it was it was 2009 king of the hammers we show we got to I want to say it's after shock I want to say it's the waterfall and after shock it was like the first rock trail and Nicole Nicole Johnson who went on to you know drive drive and race monster truck. She was the driver of the Scooby Doo for around six, seven years. Eight years. It was a long time she's driving Scooby Doo. So she's broke on that waterfall on aftershock. And there really no way around her. And so I'm looking at She's out of the car, and it's like this, hey, you know, is this cool? And she's kind of like, gives me this look in the hands off like, I don't know, like, do whatever. And I had I drove across the hood of that car and I was like Wow. Because we'd seen that car being built on pirate for months and you were like, Oh my God, this thing is gorgeous. And it was a gorgeous car. And, you know, to lay 39 stickies across the hood. Kind of saddening, but yeah, amazing car so but let's let I digress cuz I made you I made you take take that sidestep. So growing up you know, you're asking about you know, meeting April, you guys you guys met and oh nine so you've been together about 12 years. You got two kids. A boy and a girl. You got the rich man's family. I think your boy is about the age of my daughter. I think they're both 10. Yep, he's 10. Six, and then Nate. Nate dog. Yep, mate dog and Lexi. I can remember Lexi, but you actually call it Lexington is our full name. And I initially wasn't sure that that was a girl. Yeah. Yeah. So So tell them what are their interest today, you know, they enjoy anything to do outdoors for the most part from fishing, the hunting the just hanging out coming to the shop, getting to help out build engines here to shop or work on cars type of thing. Or just hide my tools and having fun being kids, you know, run around the parking lot type of thing. So yeah, so you've been indoctrinated. And at least Nate at this point into the, the motor sports world and you've had him helping tune some motors. Yeah, so he's turned a handful ultra for guys cars that they don't know that he was doing the tune on. So he gets it, you know, I guess it's any kid nowadays is really hooked to electronics. So if you can give a kid something that they can learn, and at the same time learn and become something at a very young age, it would just make it easier down the line. So hopefully, he can take some tuning information from helping me tune cars over the couple years and use it down the line. And they often long run because I'm pretty sure everybody that tunes cars wishes they started a long time ago, instead of just here recently, or just a couple years ago. You know, if you could get it at 10 years old, you'd be doing it? Yeah, I think, Well, my mother always told me this. She said, you know, get a skill, have a skill set that at a minimum, you can fall back on, you can go try and experiment with other stuff. But make sure you have something always fall back on. And for me that was welding, I learned to weld and I'm somehow pretty good at it. I don't weld everyday every night. I might work once a month now. And strictly hobby, like strictly for fun, strictly an arts and crafts project. But I didn't start out that way. In the beginning. I can't say how much beer I earned by being able to weld, right? Or just not having to pay somebody to put roll cages in the race cars for us. Exactly. Or, as you know, you go out and you tear. you tear stuff up. You got to fix it. It's It's nice when you know how to fix your own fix your own junk, you know, so yeah, so before, you know you're gonna meet in April in 12, you guys, you know, in 2000 I'm sorry, you guys, two kids today, but you were you know, clearly you we skipped a gap between you kind of grown up in the 2009 world. And I think at some point you ended up racing and doing some stuff around the Alabama area, but then somehow in this is how you introduced me to these folks in HRA j and Shelly Payne they were running a Top Fuel funny car at the time Tom alcohol call and then they had a pro mod or a pro on that so we wouldn't saw them in Vegas at one point and then I went and visited them I think with you and without like, I shouldn't say with you. You were there working in Houston when you know we'd have an HRA O'Reilly spring nationals here in Houston it's uh you know, it's a mere sea level track so it's usually you get really good really good Fast Times. And it's in the spring so you get that you know that cool? very humid Yeah. Yeah. So you get some some fast times. I've been there when you were been around generally paying when you were working with them and when you weren't working with them. We go over there me and my buddies that was our thing. We would go on Friday for qualifying and walk around carrying around you know, The Fosters oil cans they sell you know the 36 ounces of beer and go see you know the fire nice you know j Payne crew and hang out with him and they're amazing folks. But so but they're they reached out to So Cal, how did you get from Alabama to there and how did you go from being this kid running around races on Saturdays with your dad and if your mom didn't win, you guys loaded up to running around on the in HRA circuit at the very top upper echelon of na Era, what was the what was the steps that got you from there to there seems to be so out of high school, we, you know, blue torch was a thing. But it wasn't a full time gig, everybody had real jobs and blue torch was an after hours type thing. And then blue torch became a full time gig. I did it for a few years, but it had its issues, you know what I mean? Just like any growing business, and things weren't going right. And I decided to make a change. And that change was and you're young, you're making decisions and one experiment and see spread your wings and fly so to speak. Right. So in the meantime, like I was racing with a guy out of Montgomery, Alabama, so north of doeth and a little bit, but he did a bunch of maturation stuff. And his style was to just get to qualify, and then get the qualifying money at big races, you know, it paid you a couple 1000 bucks, but a few of those doesn't make it fun. You know what I mean? Like, it's fun to go in and say you're a part of this, but you're really not. You're just paying an entry fee for the guy that wins it to have a purse and I didn't like it. The guy ran kind of a hack job type program. And you got beat every weekend that you went somewhere by somebody that had nicer stuff or was put together crew and stuff like that. Sounds like ultra force sometimes. Yeah, yeah. And we raced j and then they raced Division Two which is southeast United States and they would just beat the brakes off everybody. Like if they showed up it was over with you could just hand them the trophy like racing on paper you're not supposed to do but he could mess up and still be you made big, big power and could manage it and get down any basically any greasy track in the south. And I ended up leaving the guy I was working with just wasn't working out drag racing wise and went to Las Vegas for their fall nationals. And because they raced there twice a year, and I go over to Jace pit and I introduce myself. And he's like, Yeah, I know who you are a senior in Division Two type of thing. And we kind of hit it off. And he's like, as well, I'm, I'm looking for a job, just throwing it out there. And He's, uh, well, I'm looking for a guy. So we got to fit. Now I wanted to go my ambitions was to go Top Fuel racing. But to get an opportunity to go Top Fuel racing would be great. And I turned down a bunch of jobs over the years to go Top Fuel racing, because it's not, you're not going to learn anything. So you're strictly His job is going to be to pull this head off or pull this clutch out or, you know, pull the oil pan off. You're not doing anything. You're not thinking big picture. You're just doing one job all day, every day. I decided to stay with Jay, because you would work with Brad Anderson, which is his father in law that manufactures engines and engine blocks and cylinder heads and all this kind of stuff and is very cutting edge. And his daughter is Shelley Anderson, the famous female drag racer, right? And then she and j get married. Yep, you have very high success rate just based on the players in the game right there. So like, her father is just a badass in general. So when you put them in, in the league of Top Fuel racing or alcohol racing or promo code racing, that's the guy. So why would you go work in a Top Fuel car where everybody calls this guy for input when you could just go work for this guy. And that's what I opted to do. And oh seven, so I left blue torch in. Oh 607 and did a full blown alcohol racing with a funny car for I want to say we did 24 or 25 races a year for all the way up until last year, for the most part and off and on throughout the years. You know, if something came up on my end, I couldn't make it. They would find somebody to fill my spot. And then I always had that want to get back to racing. And when things changed on my end, I was able to do it again. So I've been doing it the first time you know, you introduced me to that crew. It was in Vegas, and I don't I guess it would have been a spring and Shelley he introduced me Shelly, Shelly Payne chili Anderson. And I actually knew the name I didn't know j but I knew the name and she's a our Gosh, I don't know you know how many years older than me she'd be maybe 10 not not that old, much older but good looking blonde and she walks out and she grabs this tray and she slaps it over the top of the motor and she just strips this motor or while we're standing there. You're introducing us and we're talking and she I think that she didn't stop she she pressure checked. She did a leak down list cylinder and leak down test on all eight cylinders. Why? We're talking. And then and then she tore the thing down. And all while she's still just having a conversation with you, this woman tore this thing down. Just just in nonchalantly did it like, well, cuz she's done it 10,000 times, if it were more? Well, I think I'd heard the the statement said to be to master some skill, you need to do it 10,000 times. And so it should be a master of science. Clearly, I mean, she taught us. And before you knew it, the thing was back together. Yeah. Like it was, it wasn't like, you know, when you think about, you know, tearing down a motor and put them on a wreck every, like, hours and hours. Oh, no, this was, yeah, I if it took her 30 minutes, I would have been shocked. And so the biggest thing you got in in drag race in his time is your enemy. So in heat is your enemy. So like if you make a run, and at the other end of the track, you have from the end of your class, like 65 minutes or something like that to get back in to the staging lanes to run your next round. So it doesn't matter if you've just got to change the oil. Or if you got to build the motor transmission and replace the gear set in her in like, you got the same amount of time. So you kind of got every tool tray is job specific. So engine wise for the top and it's in this tray. If it's bottom, and it's in this tray to take the clutch out, it's in this tray. This is where you stand when you do this job. This is where I stand when I do this job. And if you're in my way, you're in the wrong spot. And that's his gaze it is it's a big ballet because even if you watch the fuel guys, everybody has their place that they've got to be in for everybody to work. So that big sewing machines got to keep running no matter what you're doing. Oh, I love this line, this line of conversation where it is a logistical, human capital management, and and then clock and time management. Yep, dude. I mean, I remember when I first started working with them, they're like, Alright, you're gonna do bottom in so that's, that consists of rolling rod bearings in it checking rod bearings every single run. So you get back from a run, you drain the oil, you drain the dry sump tank, you pull the pan off, you snatch all the rod bearings, loose, Rod caps loose, pull the bearings out, you measure them, see if you're beating them up. Or if you're not, you turn that into Jay, he makes a tune call. And then you roll new bearings in and then if it shook, you would check a rear main, which usually back then got beat up pretty bad because of the clutch weight hanging off the back of the motor, but you would roll a set of bearings in it, or if it went out and it burned a piston like we've been known to do in the past, we'd burn pistons just trying to make them leaner. Because lean is power, you would burn a piston, well, you would, you'd have to pull right side head off because Shelley doesn't like working around the mag. So the Magneto side distributor, that's the critical side of the transaction basically. So if you hit that with the cylinder head coming off, it's bad. Do you don't risk it you just replace it and then he would pull a cylinder head off and then you would dive underneath and you'd push the rods and pistons out that are messed up and then snatch a sleeve out. So like all these LS motors that we have now are all sleeve but they're the same concept aluminum block with a steel sleeve in it, you'd snatch the sleeve out, you'd pound a new one in and put it all back together. But your homework was caught up during the week by gap and piston rings or getting new sleeves home. That would be dropping ready. So they're in the freezer in the trailer. So the engines still you know 200 degrees turn 50 degrees, you can snatch a sleeve out and you can drop in a cold frozen sleeve into the hole. And then no problem. Yeah, well, we'll set a rings up and drop her in. So and whammo and away you go, for sure. And that's why I like having this conversation. You know, I don't have like guys on here that we've talked super technical about little about, you know, the technical side of stuff because some people it goes over their head and goes, you know, past them, but on the flip side, it talks to the expertise of guys like yourself, that are required to put these cards together to turn in ultra, you know, like an old for that can turn 800 850 900 or some beat on it through a wild course like Moab and not lose a motor not lose the training, not lose, not lose an axle. I mean, all of those finite, you know, we talked about, you know, clearances and tolerances, it's all in the detail. And if the details just a little bit off, it cracks, breaks, burns, destroys your day. Game over your dough. Yep. So like in the drag racing world, man, you you work on it every time you start it, period, whether it's adjusting the vows changing setups, changing the timing curve changes, changing a fuel jet, every time you started the weather change from the last time you started it so you every time you go out you want you know if it makes 5000 horsepower it needs to make 5000 horsepower. Every time you start it not 4500 because the weather changed or 3000 because you're lazy, like it's 5000 every time you started, you said 5000 horsepower. You just is boggling but you know I've seen like the jugs of like the the test the test bench, where they test like the fuel delivery, and it's like a gallon per cylinder. For me, it's, it's, it's, you hit it with a firehose of fuel and hope the spark plugs they lit right you don't bounce them and drown them. Exactly. In ultra for the the current. So Shelley you so I'm currently an ultra for remind it's it's a it's Bailey Campbell reminds me of Shelley when you know Shelley's pit posture, like her stature in the pit, when things are when they're when they're working on the vehicle. On the drag car. You see that in the Campbell pits with Bailey kind of orchestrating the guys all are the ones working in she is just orchestrate and making sure things happen. And so it's kind of cool to see two different genres, two women that do not know each other, but that they have found what works and they know what works. And they've each arrived there on different trains, right. But they're accomplishing the same goal. And that's kind of that's kind of in my mind, that's, you know, cool to step back. And wait things a lot of that is based on like how Shannon and Nick and Shannon's dad run that whole program was they did it all themselves. So if you want to do it, you've got to do it. That's right. So that that's that's exactly how Brad was. And you know, Brad is a hardcore guy that Shelley's dad, but at the same time, he ingrain that into them that, hey, this is what we've got to do. If you want to keep doing it, you're going to do it yourself. So did he end up in the NHL Hall of Fame? I think so. I think so too. He's not I don't know if he's not I don't know why he's not the dude's just a legend all around. And that's a big deal and kind of your I remember you telling me or me you didn't tell me Matt might have saw it on Facebook. But I was so excited for you guys. You guys won Indianapolis. And that's kind of the other Super Bowl. Yeah, Jay wanted, I think he wanted twice and the funny car once in a promo code, which in the grand scheme of things, that's the biggest race of the year, even though it's in the middle of the year. But winning it is pretty awesome. Because it's such a big prestigious race. Like everybody hears of drag racing. It's either Pomona or Indy and having won Pomona a billion times. It's not as cool as Indy. Indy always kind of alluded us on. Either you're beating yourself or you're overpowering the conditions or the tracking kind of situation. But we ended up winning it. Because 2019 2019 we want it so we won the 65th in the Indianapolis. That's a pretty solid a pretty solid win there. What other things kind of I'd say likenesses between you for in the drag racing world. It's got to be traction, right? Like everything traction is everything, you know, drag car traction, is everything in an off road car. What are the similarities and crossovers that you can pinpoint that match the hurdles? Is it axle size axles? You know, what are the things that come to mind when I say traction in one versus traction in the other application? You know, it's what are you doing with it? And how are you trying to use it so if you're building an ultra for car like for King of the hammers, and then you're also trying to run it at Reno, short course race, it's a totally different setup. So it's an ever changing situation. And there's guys that run the same setup at both tracks. But nowadays, you see guys swapping out atlases for sts is to try to get a gearing advantage, you know, make a little bit longer run out on a gear change or something like that, but or going down to a tire, smaller tire to get more engine RPMs to create more power in a way, you know, so you're not lugging such a heavy tire, but there's a million different things that cross between the two and it's an all in application thing. So, if today The weather is this and you can make X amount of power and you can change your setup to gain 400 RPM or 500 RPMs based on gearing or tire rollout or diameter you would change it just to get some kind of performance advantage you know off the racing beaten path for a moment. What do you do for a living man? You got your own business right? Yep, my own Do It Yourself fab DIY fab is what it is. So basically I make you know as at the end of blue torch, you know, blue torches fizzled out or whatever it situation is now. That's all I've done. So selling brackets and tabs and diff cover And, you know, doing that side of things is what I've been doing for a couple years now on my own and and then you had you also had 40 spline? Yep, I had it too. And then that was back when I was at Blue torch and Peter was partnering on it, which he's he still has it I, I got out of it. Okay, that's still going business. I figured that business was a pretty lucrative business to just at the time, it made a whole lot of sense, you know, Peters rocking it, but my side of business is, man I, I kind of do the mail order parts thing, I'd rather sell a million diff covers and not worry about it, not have to deal with the stress of a million employees. So I'll keep the two that I have and everything kind of keep rolling and run from there. Yeah. And so tell me about the line of products that you've got today cuz I absolutely love supporting you bunch of gussets and brackets and tabs. Whether it's actual tabs, or disc brake brackets, or diff covers, I try to keep everything under like 150 bucks, just to keep it cheap. And I don't feel that you need to make a billion dollars on one part, I'd rather make a billion dollars over a lot of parts. Keep it simple, man, don't try to make it something that ain't, you know, and help people achieve their achieve their hopes, dreams and goals by supplying them with affordable hearts. Yeah, my goal is to sell you a part that my wife and kids and I can put in a box and ship it to you and you do the work on your end and everything's good. You know, your project, not mine. Yeah, right. And that's part of the you know, that's part of the business model and some of that, that you learned in your days at Blue torch, right? For sure. What was the coolest thing that you built a Blue Origin? I know I'm gonna dive back to that you because blue torch was almost like, what's the right word for it? It was almost like a reality TV show. Set type deal. Crew without without the cameras you guys had at one point you rub into Park Road through there. Yeah. Dan, you built the company up and sold it to Jason corner corner and you ran this thing you guys you do on some racing? You guys did some UTV racing. You built a single seater. I remember. Wow. I'm jumping back. I can't believe I didn't have this in my notes. I remember racing against you, or with you slash at one ultra for racing Kentucky. And it was we got to mix it up, I don't remember is the heat race or what it was, but it was we were swapping position. You were in a very nimble, agile single seater. And I was in, you know, 5300 pounds at Desert class. Drive class one on a on a I've been a rear axle on that. On that race. I cooked a tree at 40 or something. But man, that was not a good time to mess with you. I remember I think unnerved you once probably that little car was fun man it was. So I took a lot of the stuff that I learned from what not to do on that big to see car that we built and the cold drove and all that kind of stuff. But the same basic drive train like the drive train evolve to big you know, 430 inch LS motors to turbo four hundreds from a 700 r four and turbo 400 to a two oh Atlas to a one five Atlas to a 543 gear to a 583 gear 585 whatever it was and just created this torque monster of an animal of a car and then I had this bright idea to put a steering rack and pinion on the front end to have that route of road field back and the guys we had blue torch at the time. Were all on the same page. Like let's do it and we made that car and we could change the gearing input like speed input to the rack part to the servo which would change the feel based on what we wanted it to do. So if we wanted to zing the crap out of it, we could sing it and it not get dicey. You know you could keep the input speed down and all that kind of good stuff which Joe Thompson's probably losing his mind that I put a steer rack on the front end but he's he's fighting some issues right now on Anca prayer Branca prayer, his new ipfs worker, he was trying to make it to where the racket in my commentary which is, you know, totally mental on this is he did something that all made sense on paper and but in actuality it was it actually ended up failing it Joe I love Joe in the sense that Joe will come out and say this is what we did. And it didn't work and it failed. That didn't work right so here's what I did next. In here and we don't we're about to test. I love Alsace right now. I loves right word. We shouldn't celebrate failure. I we shouldn't celebrate it. But we need to address it and aerate and somewhat embrace it. Because if you're not failing, if you're not making mistakes, then you're not trying hard enough and you're not pushing the envelope enough and you're not learning and, and I made the post your response to Joe on Facebook about this being we have in this is totally tangent. I'm sorry, James, is that on Facebook and social media today? We live in this world where everything is glossy and shiny and success and pretty we're always on vacation. We're always life is grand life is perfect. It's wonderful. And you know, it's the optics in everyone's world are just amazing. And they're not we're all all of our lives are dirty. We all make mistakes. We're human, we're, we're fallible, we're not infallible we it just is what it isn't in in we should be making mistakes and we should be learning from them. And I don't think we should celebrate failure. That's not what at all. But if you're not yet the trustee on below, you have to push the envelope, right? And it's when the envelope pushes back. You're like okay, well that didn't work so well. So exactly what you're talking about we put a rack down there and yeah, it ran great. I mean, I ended up winning a little dirt right and championship deal with it and that was a fun car. It was completely overpowered in a good way. Like it was balanced. It had a whole lot of power and it was fun. Kick Ass paint job. It was black with blue, blue lightning all over it. Yep. I see you're reminiscing right now Your eyes are rolling by your head like oh yeah, I had a good Yeah, I'm looking at two pictures on it that thing was that was a fun car man just kind of situations that played out you know they are what they are. But it was a fun car. Where did it end up? Anthony Yon bought it from Peter. After Peter acquired it when he got blue torch and razors now he's a he's racing a single seat razor. single seat UTV Yeah. Yes, that car made some changes. And you know, we changed a few things on it. And then Peter started rock bouncing it, I think and put a double ended ram on the front just to keep the cost down on what you're tearing up up front. You know? Now Anthony's got it. So he was really claiming on this in February that he was the single seat. UTV champ or, like, no, that's not how this works. that other guy they said that one time and those are for crap. I can't remember his name starts with a C his last name starts with a C Yeah, that's exactly right. And he that the joke was somewhat lost on on. All right. Yeah, you're we're talking about Yeah. But he wants to you know, I think this next baja 1000 he wants to Iron Man, the 1000 in the single seat razor and I think all sort of like, dude, you we've blown bubbles by your kidneys. We'll be hanging out. Yeah. I'll clap for I mean, it. It's like all go for it. Yeah, absolutely. But you know, the world is made up of people telling you not what you can and can't do. Don't listen to me telling you you can't do it. You gotta do it. actually prove prove us all wrong. We want you to practice wrong. Yeah, as a matter of fact. So what is next for James Schofield? Man, you're gonna, you're healing up, more? back every time. Right? So let's, uh, we'll back up to last Tuesday. I get a phone call from this guy, random number in my phone. And it's obviously a black guy on the phone. He's like, Hey, man, I got your name number from this guy, which ended up being a mutual friend. And he said, Man, I'm running this sweet 16 race in Valdosta. Georgia this weekend. I need you know, my Well, when do you need me down there. He's like tomorrow. And I was like, buddy, it don't work that way. Like, it's Tuesday evening. And now you want me to come to Valdosta Georgia, which is like a five hour drive. And he's uh, yep, just get down here. We'll work it out. So I call my buddy that reference to deal and he's like, Oh, yeah, this guy's legit. Well, I get down there and it's Fletcher Cox, the some All Star defensive player for the Philadelphia Eagles has this drag car. And he owns the team and has a guy driving it and all stores short. We hit it off and we blew up one motor on Thursday. But we ended up walking away with the pole position and set the basic record for the class. Eight Mile race 366 with a seven that 203 61 in the Eight Mile. That's a radial tire no wheelie bar. That's insane. Dude, it's badass. So I don't know what the future holds with this guy. But he's basically wanted me to come to all his races and all that crap now just to help him out and taking some funny car information over to a pro mod car is kind of fun and moving forward, if it works out then. So be it, but trying to do some more light duty stuff that was pretty interesting, you know, not really having to do a whole lot, you know, because I can't I don't have a whole lot of back stamina yet. But, you know, running the valves and helping his guys look for things that would be normally problematic. And if you didn't catch it early, you would have a problem. So did that raced this past weekend and we ended up losing in the semis, we just kind of overpowered the track for the conditions, but it happens. So he was over. Pretty, pretty excited about it. But then we walked away with the with the record. So we kind of went in hoping to run a low 70. And we were on a 66. So the weather kind of came to us and everything lined up right there. Yeah. So this, this is my last question. And then you can send me some stuff I suppose. In ultra for what do you think is the next technological, mechanical, technological advance? You've seen a lot over the last 1215 years. You've messed with a lot of steering, you mess with a lot of suspensions, a lot of motors, a lot of balances. Yeah. What's the next? Where do you think we go? I mean, that's a million dollar question. You know, I would probably say that the next greatest situation that somebody is going to figure out is going to be brakes. And everybody says they got the best brakes in the market. But are they there when you need them later in the race? Are they there? When they're cold or they they're only when they're hot that type of situation is obviously the harder you can drive a car into a turn in the later you can break. Most of the time, you're faster through the turn. But it's kind of temperature driven. So I think the biggest thing is everybody's making big power now you know, 490 inch motors that has you know, 300 horsepower brakes on it. I don't think that's the end all be all but I think it's all drivable. it's manageable, but I think some of the brake situation is going to be the the biggest thing whether it's a hydroboost setup or something along those lines that has real petal instead of a little thin rotor that's lightweight for you know, that kind of stuff. Alright, so I'll fall down the rabbit hole with you. So okay, one of the biggest constraints we have there is a 17 inch wheel and the 17 inch wheels because it gives us on a 39 to 40 inch tire gives us this optimal sidewall and this ultimate bias so we have a set a 17 inch wheel that we have to fit in the confines Are you proposing a more robust caliper maybe in my say robust I mean, like bigger like, you know, currently calipers are 25 to 30% Yeah, around the radius, are you they may we slap some like 50 percenters on their half moons that are, you know, eight piston or Yeah, I don't, I'm totally I'm telling you going crazy. And I think I think it's, I think it's a pad compound. Like, even on Tom's car, we would try we changed pads to see what the brakes would do. Like let's change the pad compound and just see what happens. So we change pad compounds and his guys bled this thing out like they didn't really do and then still had not enough brake pressure for what it needed to be and then I bled it out the way I've always been taught to bleed them out and we got some pressure out of it that each wheel and I think the pad compound is the biggest key factor you know, Tom runs all the big brakes like all the trophy trucks guys run but it's all mechanical, there's no hydroboost or none of that kind of stuff. So I don't know if it's a pressure thing that he could get away with with the program setup that he has, but I think hydroboost is something that probably wouldn't be too far down the line with a legit pad that doesn't need to be as hot to work or some type of boost right I mean, maybe it's an electric boost maybe it's just just something to get more and maybe it's dual calipers right I mean, that one on one on the front one on the back or whatever this I don't know piggyback I don't know what you write but on a single Speaker I remember seeing in this was this was Lauren Healy. I don't think it was the dragon but it might have been it might have been after that, but I saw him go across the table top and grab breaks at some event. God I wish I remember where it was. In literally they work like it was in I remember, just mental note. Like, I gotta go look and see what breaks he's running because that's the first time I've seen breaks right work. Right, right. I never I've never had a car that breaks worked on. It's like yeah, I mean it's always been spongy like everybody's car I've ever been in the tune. It's like, Oh man, this thing's latest greatest and you're like me brake suck and it's just what it is like they weren't great when it 500 degrees but driving it around, it ain't got no brakes. So we didn't talk about what happened this past weekend at Moab. Congrats Brian Crofts on your first win. That's pretty awesome to see. You know, when come out of the Campbell Campbell stable, but James what what happened was Bailey cool ran a really good race. I know you purposefully and intentionally stayed away from from this Oh, Bailey rensis good race. But he was running some lines that were liberal lines, and he ends up colliding. Because of he grabbed brakes. He slid for 6080 feet was and hits Marcos Gomez, who was broke And off course. And that was the proof that Bailey was off course because he wrecked into a car that was off course. Course. And you know, sad deal. You know, he thought it was from minor saying he thought it was a legit line. But he ends up with a DNF at that point. But that puts Brian Crofts winning behind him. Darien Gomez. I gotta congratulate during Gomez during Gomez Flaco Flaco. Didn't that in seniors old car. Now that you mentioned it? Fair, Vani seniors card? I don't know if that's the car he was in or not? Or that one got sold? I don't know. I watched it. and mentally. Okay. And then JP Gomez rounds out the podium. But yeah, I still get excited about current current ultra for race. And they were talking about like the current we always talk about, like the stories and it was cool to see Jason shear, and Jason Blanton, at, you know, series races. That was kind of cool. But anyway, man, we cover everything you want to talk about. I marked off every box I had for you, man, you gave me more tech and more detail than I thought I was gonna get and I am greatly appreciative of that. Man, I don't have really anything else. I don't Yes. Well, I'm glad to I'm glad that we can still have this conversation. And it not be a different one where you didn't make it through that crazy Saturday, in February this past year, you know, your good friend, talk to you, you know, a lot years ago, and not as much here in the past couple years. But uh, I think that's his, as we say, you know, it's, you're somebody who I go years without talking to and then just pick up the phone and we're good to go. And, and in February, that's kind of what happened, right? You know, something happened to you. And you're like, dude, that's my buddy. We got to, we got to make something happen. And your wife is identical to my wife in this. She doesn't know the racers. Right? Right. And we're the only ones I mean, she does know some because she's, you know, like JT spent Christmas with us one year or he was just, that's an insane story. And so, but you know, sailing in the islands with a bunch of racers will allow those racers on that trip. Those guys are all retired now. Right. Doug Jackson. He's out play Gil's draft he's out. Yeah, just you just start running just rattle through them. They've cold they've coals not even run an ultra for anymore. He's like crunchy for Bailey. So yeah. It's just crazy. The world we're living in. It may still be his company may still be his organization. But he's a crew chief. So I'd love to see what that chapter holds for him. Anyway, man, crazy times. James. I'm so glad that we have this conversation. I'm so glad that you. You survived. Yeah, a ride with the venerable Tom ways. Man, I'll do it again. Next weekend, if you'd have me. Any changes? You know, when it changes single thing, man, like, all the help that I got from everybody in this community? It was insane. So I don't think it was just because it was me. I think it would be for anybody. That's the next guy down the line or girl. So I think that's a huge thing for the community and having somebody like you kind of setting everything up and everybody they've kind of reached out to my wife in that whole situation. I greatly appreciate it. As we're done. I this has been bugging me kind of the whole interview and no one can see it online. And so I mean, as you listen to this, it's just because I've run you know, Skype, and we're watching each other. You are wearing a Mason's hat. Yep. I don't know anyone our age. I know. I said, we're done. But I don't know anyone our age. That is masons tell. Tell me about the Masons. My grandfather was amazing. He passed away last September, and he was 93. I want to say he's probably the youngest Mason I've ever known. And at 93 so you're, what are you 3838? Yeah, see, I'm spot on. You're, you're in the Masons. Yep. Tell us about that. Like this is a this is a generational a massive generation. From gap, I don't know anything about him aside from Nicolas Cage and, you know, his movie was an American treasure was called, uh, I don't know, it's probably probably not accurate. I'll be honest with you. So, Freemasonry is nothing more than a big fraternity full of pretty solid individuals. It's like the oldest fraternity. In the world, I believe. It's basically, I can't really dive off into it too much because of what we're doing. But the it's a way of making other men better. So, at the end of the day, the ultra for community helped me out my Freemason side of things fraternity helped me out my family out. And it's all in good. I guess you'd say in good. It's nothing bad. And if you get in the reading everything online and stuff like that, you get lost in you know, we're sacrificing goats and killing cats type. Oh, I didn't think it was that at all. Yeah, dude. I mean, it like, like all my fraternity brothers that are Freemasons now that are their older people. And I kind of always hung out with older people. I always looked up to people that were successful. And those people that are successful, always ended up having something in common, and it was Freemasonry. And the way they portray stuff to me was like, Hey, man, you know, you should probably look into that, and a couple years of that, and not really falling into it. So my buddies from high school got into it, and they're like, Dude, this is what you need to be doing. You need to get into this, you need to take a look into it, and I've done it. And, man, it's, it's the greatest thing I've ever done. I should have done it when I was 21 years old. The people that I've met, throughout the country, drag racing, the people I've met here in my local town that the lodge I go to they're just genuine good people, and they want nothing better than they want nothing more than for you to be a better person. Whether it's your character or not being a piece of shit to somebody just being like a legit person and helping somebody out without actually expecting anything in return is a predominantly tradesmen craftsman. Hands on people. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So it's nothing more than if you're a Mason, and I'm a Mason, I would do business with you. And you would do business with me, or you would give me an opportunity to do business with you, or vice versa. Now, it's not saying that it's a cult, and we're gonna, you know, take over the world, it is just a way of life. And I wear a ring every day. And I wear a hat when I can. So some people look at you funny, but most people understand that situation. And if shit went down, and you needed to talk to somebody, you could talk to somebody. That's amazing. So that is very cool. You know, we build support networks around us. And sometimes they're, they're personal. Sometimes they're professional. And sometimes I don't know the right word you you gravitate towards? Will you hold those people in your life that you crossed paths with that you might not have something today, but in the future, you know, hey, I have this issue, I can call him or support. Here, I'll give you an example. I needed help on a solar. I'm looking at solar, you know, solar farm for my house. And I looked around and there's a lot of misinformation on the internet and, or good information that's hard to sort through sift through. Right? So I reached out to someone that in my network that I know is, it's in their wheelhouse. Derek West, I called Eric West. And I'm like, Hey, man, this is gonna sound crazy, but you have a few minutes. I'm looking at to do this. And Derek took time out of his lifetime and walked me through it. And then a week later, two weeks later, yeah, we can have later, he hits me up again with a whole bunch more information. And I was just like, man, I don't have anything. You know, I'm offered Derek on that. But But you know, I asked the question, Derek, Amelie, he came back with all of this help. And that is, you know, I'm gonna tribute to this offroad fraternity that we have this, this family of offroaders that, you know, we if it's out a race, you know, I'd rather give you the shirt off my back to make sure you get out onto that course. So I can beat you on the course. But then we're gonna race to the cooler after the race. And then if it's next week, and you need a part and if they're backorder, and I've got it, let's use FedEx it let's drop ship. But let's, let's get there and forming your mental health standpoint. That's massive to know that you've got you know, that type of reach and Rolodex in your back pocket. And for the new racers coming in, to know that there is this fraternity that they're new that some of they're joining in. In ultra foreign off road racing, and there's this wealth of knowledge that you don't have to, if they want to get in, they can get in and they don't have to recreate the wheel at every turn. Exactly. And it's kind of set down. Now I'm getting remnants of, you know, sad that, you know, like pirates gone and that remarry, that free flow of information that we used to have there. Now, it's not, it's not as accessible. It's not our fingertips like it was. But like, when I was in California, in the hospital, man, I had all the ultra for crowd hitting us up, and then all my Masonic brothers hit me up, and my sister was watching my kids at my house. And somehow, someway, they clogged up the sink. And so my sister's like freaking out that sinks clogged up and all this kind of crap. Well, she calls the plumber, and the plumber is like giving her the run around on getting the sink, unstop type of situation. And she's like, done all she could do to try to clear it out, and it just isn't happening. So April, tells me about it. And she's like, your sister's freaking out, you're gonna be mad type of thing. And I'm like, How can I be mad? It's a sink. Like, it's not the end of the world. But don't, don't get bent over trying to deal with this. So I'll call a friend of mine, and see if they can come over and look at it. Just give me a fair evaluation on what I'm fixing to deal with. So I called a brother Mason over and he's like, Hey, man, I'll take care of it. And then next thing, you know, that's it. I can't get a bill from him. He won't give me a bill. You know what I mean? Like, he won't give me a bill. And he played with my kids and made sure everything was good at the house. Like everything good. Y'all need anything? Nope, we don't need nothing. So fix the sink and carry on about your day, you know, and then on the backside, he know, he knows that I would do the same thing for him, just like this ultra for community. Like, at the end of the day. Everybody's got their little clicker group. But at the same time, if something happened, everybody is all hands on deck. You know what I mean? And that's what I think is cool about the mason deal. And it's same as ultra foreground. We just do a little different stuff. Awesome. Well, thank you for giving me a little bit insight I normally am prepared for certain portions and topics of the conversation. I read know anything about Mason's like I said, I'm, I know, when my grandfather passed away this past fall, you know, we made sure we had one of his Mason rings that would fit on his hand, and he was buried with his ring. And it was a big deal. And, and, you know, I said, his headstone and he's got the Masonic logo, I guess, the protractor and ruler or whatever, I don't know, square and compass, Square Square compass, all the way off, you know, on his gravestone, but, ya know, I just didn't I don't know anything about it. And he wasn't someone who would ever talk about anything to anybody about anything. So I don't I don't know. And he seems like when I would see that, that logo, I would always think, you know, generationally, you know, like, these are World War Two vets. And in light of that age, and to sit here with you at 38. And I see you when I might, huh, I know not I just know nothing about now. I've got to go research some Sonic temple stuff because interesting. You'd be surprised how many ultra four guys are masons. Oh, yeah, no kidding. So I'm the one who's outside like, I'm not an insider. I'm a total outsider on this one. You know, plenty of them. I promise you. Okay. Yeah. And if anybody wants to talk about it or has questions about it, they can ask me Okay, we're happy to answer any questions anybody's got no problem. I have some more questions for you. Well, James, like I said, I'm glad I'm glad you survived through everything in February Tom. Everything counted. I really am very ecstatic about it. Not the not the situation by which I met and got a dialogue with your wife, but that you hit it out of the park. Man, you out kick your punk coverage. You married an amazing woman. Well done, sir. She's uh, I mean, I know she's a keeper. But she's definitely Yeah, and I've got a I got a lot of making up to do I did a Valentine's Day at Del Taco drive thru in Palm Springs. So I'm, I got a lot of catching up to do. The only way to want to build taco there is del taco in Barstow. Yeah, testing. That'd be great. A van Well, thank you, James, for for coming on The Talent Tank. Thank you for going deep with us on some tech stuff, and given us a bunch of, you know, foray into the HR a world where you kind of came from, but you're solidly one of our people on offer. Oh, that's for sure. You can't shake it. For sure. All right, man. We will. We'll catch you later. On that note. We're out.
Intro/Outro:Thank you for listening and taking the dive into the tail end take please like and subscribe on Instagram at the tail end. For our website, the talent tank.com