The Talent Tank
The Talent Tank
EP 30 Puff The Magic Race Dragon
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.
Another famous Texan, now hailing out of the great state of Indiana. None other than the iconic landmark of Ultra4 Races and Hammertown USA, Puff The Magic Race Dragon. On this installment of The Talent Tank we have a sit down with current curator Brandt Erwin @keepviper13 of Team Indiana, as well as call in's from Terry Madden @terry_madden and Levi Shirley @levishirley on their involvement in the lore of the magical race dragon and contributions to offroad history.
After the Checkered Flag-
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Let's drop the green flag on this episode of the talent tank podcast with your host Wyatt Pemberton bringing you the best, fastest, most knowledgeable personalities and ultra for and off road racing.
Wyatt Pemberton :Holy smokes man, it has been a year the talent tank is officially a one year old podcast you guys myself everyone involved the whole team Whoa Wow blown every expectation I ever had you know when I first started this you know my goal was to do like Was it 12 or 13 episodes just to learn something new you know challenge myself find something new challenge and man this thing just grew legs and took off you know to be the beast and the animal that it is today. It does wear me down no lie. I gotta be honest about that. But just like you know prepping in the shop and how many hours you You're working on your race car for those a precious moments a green flag time. That's kind of how this works you know it's the exact same exact same thing. But here we go. So I took the summer off I appreciate you guys let me do that very very very very fortunate to to have such a such a family and community that uh supports work life balance for the most part and enjoying you know who doesn't want to enjoy this soupy hot humid weather all summer long in Houston and also be working on podcast stuff. It wasn't me anyway. Well hey man, guys, I'm back in the saddle this Wyatt. We're going at it here you go. This is the premiere the fall season. It is it's short it's a it's just a little teaser. It's a little fun. It was something that was really fun to make as you guys see it's a Puff the Magic race dragon. um you know pretty proud of it because it's a some of the folklore and that surrounds everything that is king the hammers and is ultra for racing and, and the guys that have you know, make it what it is. And the characters and in this case, I guess the landmarks that are But guys, we're gonna run through weekly Mondays just like we have in the past through Thanksgiving and then be off for the winter. And now we've got, you know, racing back underway. And we had Crandon though it wasn't a points race a little over a week ago over the holiday weekend, and then this past weekend off and now everybody is that was that that is now currently thrashing together junk together to show up in Moab for ultra for racing. And then as we fly towards a, you know, nationals going on in Oklahoma. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy. Welcome back to the party. I'm excited about this fall. there's a there's a lot of things going on a lot of fun people who, who are queued up and teed up and ready to go. I'm working on it, man. I'm working to bring the best stuff to you. All right. Enjoy. All right. All right. All right, here we go. This is a fun one. This exciting one because I think is a story that so many people are like, what the hell is that? Or why the hell is that and why do I continue to see that? But today on the phone I've got Brent Irwin Brandt How you doing?
Brandt Erwin :real well. Real well I
Wyatt Pemberton :if you guys don't know Brandt Irwin is his co driver for Nate Jesse in 4400 class bomber car. What is it the 4416
Brandt Erwin :is the 802 actually, we stuck with with a non 4400 number. I
Wyatt Pemberton :see that's who's 4416 Why don't have that in my head. Anyway I
Brandt Erwin :think that's Jesse Haynes actually yeah 4416 is yeah just
Wyatt Pemberton :added all this part out right. Okay. Well, hey, so we've got you on and why called you and why reached out to you this week to kind of run this to ground and kind of put together this little collection of stories is around a famous iconic individual and ultra for that you All yeah yeah all lines kind of pointed to you that you are something of the storyteller of this guy's history. And now I know there's lots of urban legend about him. And sure in even you've told me like pre call that you know there's one story then there's the other story and then there's the truth and we're kind of going to get maybe we're gonna get a couple different flavors of that for this guy.
Brandt Erwin :Somewhere in between for sure. Somewhere in between.
Wyatt Pemberton :and that guy is the infamous Puff the Magic Dragon
Brandt Erwin :Puff the Magic Dragon you got it man you got it so puff has been around me for probably the longest that's why they that's why they made me keeper the dragon per se but the original Where did he come from story get tossed around a lot so well. I
Wyatt Pemberton :think it's funny that you know how many times it's you know, it's been brought up just around me is at hammers. He's always at the hammers. And no matter where you're at in hammer town, you can
Brandt Erwin :see him in from everywhere. That's one of the best things about him You can see our camp from from Fisher mountain and know exactly where it's at.
Wyatt Pemberton :And that's helped many, many people one find that find their way back to their their pits at the end of the night, you know, after a little stand up at the firepit. But it's, no one remembers, oh, hey, I'm at 122 spidertrax. Well, everyone loves, you know, having it or gin ride or 300 gin ride or whatever the addresses are. It's awesome. We have street addresses. It's really good on start day, it's kind of really good for the fans to find stuff. But generally, when you give directions we kind of give them by landmarks, right? One one block from puff one block from puff. So you've been that you've been the curator of puff boy before, right? So let's get into it. So how did he come to be and then we'll talk about all the stuff about him today. So how Did he come to be?
Brandt Erwin :So is is how he came to be you kind of have to you kind of have to go back to college and this is Purdue right? This is Purdue. Purdue Oh for a club or group of guys. amongst our group of guys. We had a guy named texts. He was from Texas. I didn't actually know his real name for probably a year or two. He was a he is he is a very interesting guy. He is very creative if you need a guy to sell an Eskimo popsicle or or fix a vehicle and middle of the desert. That's that's a random guy that you should have. He's pretty clever guy. But his jobs and his work put him in some interesting places, just because he'll take about anything and nobody thinks he can make some money off of it. So in college, he was working for a hot air balloon company. They had a cold air balloon side of their business and liability. I don't know if you remember. You see these play houses with kids flying away stuff like that. So
Wyatt Pemberton :Oh yeah, we For those
Brandt Erwin :yeah liability became an issue with his cold air balloon side and the guy just wanted to wanted to unload his cold air balloons and text being engineer guy came up with an idea of how to get it plus another one because it was puff has a brother from Texas all the way up to college utilizing some some extra vans they had that they were getting rid of it probably couldn't have made one vehicle other two vans but somehow he did plus a trailer and it was caravan all all of that from from Texas up to up to Purdue and in West Lafayette, Indiana. So that's the original, where it came from. But the reality is if it wasn't for tax being tax, they wouldn't have come through that channel. We would have never seen them but so did puff originate in Texas and make its way to Purdue. He sure did. He
Wyatt Pemberton :was looking at this. You heard it here. First.
Brandt Erwin :He is originally texting that's why we're we are pretty willing to accept the the texting guys that have 17 many pianos so yeah he's I think it's actually Houston
Wyatt Pemberton :Yeah, I'm pretty certain it was Houston Oh, my neck of the woods all
Brandt Erwin :right now so he came up to Purdue and and we were you know up and coming off for a group and in school and we thought why don't we just take it to all of our you know, call out events are offensive to the Badlands or wherever we go let's just take it blow it up and put in front of our stuff and get some attention and and that worked out really well. I mean, it's, it's got a spot you can hang a banner on it. He's 37 foot tall and he doesn't really take a whole lot of work. His work is moving him after he's done.
Wyatt Pemberton :He's hurt a lot of people right there's a lot of injuries from this dude he his kicks.
Brandt Erwin :say he did it but but bad decisions were made around him through sheer at times. You used to be able to climb them unless you say what you get out. Halfway three quarters way up. can't necessarily hold on as well. She couldn't bottom so he starts fighting back. Yeah, yeah, basically
Wyatt Pemberton :my first recollection of puff was I feel like the year was 2012 it might have been 2013 I'm gonna have to go get some some background stories on him on where this happened. But he shows up at the hammers. I believe he came out he rode out with the brannock crew with Stan and Brandon and Dino and MacGyver all those guys out of team Indy and as we know, teammates in the end of the day, kind of the the pillars, the bedrock of them, he rides out and then he gets inflated people like what the hell is this guy and then that's when kind of the urban legends started. So as I was told it, they had stopped somewhere to eat on the way out to the hammers. This dude was 30 foot purple dinosaurs blowed up at the dealership next door, and I swear in my head, it's they were eating tacos. I don't know why that stuck in my head but tacos and they decided They are going to steal this 30 foot dragon. And so that was the story I've always had in my head that hey, that's how POF came to be and ultra for was he was stolen on the way to hammers. But it wasn't until just in the last couple days of me kind of researching the story that speak of Jonathan Cahoon Tarun said no, no, no, no, no, this is the story of tax. But the story about text wasn't exactly that he did a deal to get it that he had worked for the guy. The guy owed the money didn't pay him and so text broke in and stole a bunch of stuff. One being off, but I don't
Brandt Erwin :I don't know that it's 100% false here though. So that's kind of the mystery of text. Sometimes you don't necessarily know for certain what what went down but pretty sure that it was a fair, fair and even workout but but it's hard to say
Wyatt Pemberton :it's hard to say. And so then you guys use subtext more or less donates. puff to Porque no Purdue off road club there you guys using for a bunch of events? Then how how is the circle connected with like brandy can company in all in it two hammers
Brandt Erwin :to break you know? yep you gotta you gotta there's actually a middle a middle location there so plus huge he wasn't necessarily anything anybody wanted to deal with when we all graduated we all kind of didn't know what we're going all our separate ways all in the small apartments or whatever for the first couple years we didn't necessarily have anybody that wanted to be owner of it. So puff actually went to the full reports guys, Mike devore and terhune was at four parts that time working there so, so puff resided at full parts for for a number of years before the blower broke on him and then he ended up not getting put up at most places because nobody wanted to drag them out. And then he comes to me and once he gets back to me, I can want I you know I want to reintroduce him because Been a couple of years since most people seen him and I'm up in Fort Wayne. After I graduated college went up to Fort Wayne. That's when I met the Braden crew had a buddy and abrar tell me dude, if you're in Fort Wayne you got to go hook up with these guys and I didn't I didn't know that Brandon crew at that point. Just made a phone call and drove over there one day and introduce myself and you know stamp. Those guys are as welcome as welcoming as they can be. So now your family and now family so I was riding with them from Fort Wayne to the hammers that year. And I was like, Hey, can we can we drop off in here? Can you think we fit in here somewhere? So
Wyatt Pemberton :puff is like 200 pound ball of fun when he's rolled on he's rolled up. He's 300 300 pound ball sack. 300. Wow. Yeah,
Brandt Erwin :yeah. And he's about four foot in diameter, but you can push halfway into the bag because you can't get him tight enough to be real firm. So it's, it's a Yeah, it's a literally like a 300 pound ball sack. You got to talk to your brother but he's magnificent when it gets when it gets full size you introduced
Wyatt Pemberton :him out there that first year
Brandt Erwin :okay, I think so. Yeah, I think he needed he needed to drag out to get out there because the first one to get him out to he been to a lot of events in Indiana and surrounding areas but he hadn't made up gateways just yet. So now Are you
Wyatt Pemberton :still the current curator of him
Brandt Erwin :so yeah, now I'm I'm officially keeper dragon because I'm keeper of most every project. It seems like a lot of a lot of projects come my way and just hang out in the shop because a lot of guys come here to play with them and mess with them. So there's a lot of toys that end up in my shop just up on the rack and puff is certainly clink his space here now. So
Wyatt Pemberton :he rides around in the Nate, Nate Gesse's you know, the 802 trailer, right?
Brandt Erwin :He does, but the 802 trailers at the shop here for most of the year tubes. So it's been here since KOH and usually rides here and they just flies in and out because it's a lot easier to get logistics from here than Maryland versus Maryland.
Wyatt Pemberton :So back in the early days of puff being hammers, I remember being being there. And then I remember Terry Madden championing a charge of individuals. He thought it would be funny to go steal it from you guys. and move it over. It was multiple blocks, two blocks, three blocks over at least two, at least two and put him on top of the Shirley's 18 Wheeler. So you know Brian Levi, surely and they did it and I think some people got hurt doing it. I you know,
Brandt Erwin :I wouldn't be I wouldn't be surprised. He's no small feat to put up especially if you've never done it. That was that was probably the most impressive feat of all of that is that they figured out how to do it without any any major issues like he wasn't it was upside down half over his orange. He twisted up in the ropes all the time. I mean, he was like And he was legit on the top of assembly. And that was that was pretty. What's that name? I'm not even I'm not even mad.
Wyatt Pemberton :It happened. It happened in the dark. You know, it happened pretty late in the event and there was definitely liquid courage involved in this and liquid stupidity involved in all of this and I
Brandt Erwin :pulled it off. I don't know if we had street names or addresses or anything. If we did, we weren't really good with them yet. We used puff as our as our indicator to get back to our camp. And that year, you know, we're still pretty early, we were still partied hard to campfire every night. So we all went to the campfire and shut it down, essentially. And then we go strolling off in our golf cart towards POF. And we realized we're like, Wait a second. We're in the wrong side of town.
Wyatt Pemberton :Yeah, that's what turn says.
Brandt Erwin :So we didn't even realize that it happened until we're underneath it and we're like, this is even our semi like what what is going on here? Like Twilight
Wyatt Pemberton :Zone? Yeah, Jonathan ridiculous. Jonathan tahune told me he said, he said we're riding back to riding back towards puff. And I'm like, Man, this is wrong. This is the wrong part of town guys. Like, yeah, I think we're lost. And they're like, No, no, there's pub where you know that, but he's like, Nah, man, this nothing looks right here. Nothing looks right at all. And we're on the wrong side of the tracks. Yeah, as an impressive feat. For sure. I commend them. That was an awesome thing. And hilarious. I mean, we're, we're stumbling, and we can't, we can't even keep our breath. We're just so so. so ridiculous. It was hilarious. I mean, so did he write out the week there? Because I definitely I remember seeing it in the daytime. And I've seen pictures of it day time. Did he write out the week or did he get returned
Brandt Erwin :fairly quickly. I don't recall whether he got returned fairly quickly or not. I definitely wrote out till till morning for sure. Because there's definitely daylight pictures and it would have only come if they just stuck around the next day, but I feel like He came down the next evening but I wouldn't be surprised if he wrote it out there it's he was he was up there legit he was he was in good shape up there so I don't remember that may have been the first time he was on top of a semi and that might have been what gave us the idea that he needed to be on top in the semi we might have had him sitting on the ground originally.
Wyatt Pemberton :Well, I think so. I think he was a he did some grand and you know, real estates that are pretty you know, we're in the middle of the desert it's wide open spaces except for during hammers week you're well we're at a you know, inside hammer town is a fight for real estate. Just uh, you know, park your chair. Well,
Brandt Erwin :well, so tell me tell me a couple things about puff. So he's about 3037 foot tall, he's 400 pounds. You use guy wires to to pin him down. What runs him he's got a big ol fan. So he he has a fan. And originally in college, he had a super heavy duty fan and that's why we could climb because he was he blow up so hard that you could actually grab a hold of a spike or something on his back and just climb up that when that fan died that's kind of when puff died for a couple years because that fan died and then four parts guys got another fan for it but it wasn't really the right fans so it was it was a lot weaker so you can climb it he was quite placid Yes, exactly. He was
Wyatt Pemberton :he was a soft flaccid puff.
Brandt Erwin :So we've we've since put another carpet fan is what we've got on it now and that's what it's made for carpet fans kind of old so it's not as strong as the old or the original one but but it holds it up pretty well. The tighter you can get the air the less he bounces around so
Wyatt Pemberton :yeah and then it's just hard as a rock he's not moving you got it. Yeah.
Brandt Erwin :But yeah, the ropes we actually on nice, nice semi trailer since we had a permanent spot we could claim for the first time for puff on top of Nate's semi trailer, we actually make mounts for him to tire or guide ropes off to and it really works out well now so he goes up pretty easy, and he's not too he's not too difficult. The hardest Parts it's a three man job to throw it up to the top of the top of the semi.
Wyatt Pemberton :So get it going now is there I mean next odd random question. Is there any maintenance on him? He ever bust a seam spring leak and what do you
Brandt Erwin :do? Oh, he you know there's not really any maintenance I've tried cleaning them in a lot of different ways. He doesn't really get clean. The hammers does kind of ingrained into the, to the cloth or material, whatever it is that he's made of. So can't brush it out. Can't can't vacuum or pressure wash it out. It kind of sticks to him or sticks in and we've we haven't busted a seam on puff. Surprisingly, he's been around a lot of places and he hasn't busted off his brother that came up to up to college with us. He got stabbed once or twice so he's been he's been so not but
Wyatt Pemberton :yeah, so he's got this brother. We brought this up. You brought it up earlier that he came up with a he had a he's got a brother his brother's a Santa Claus.
Brandt Erwin :His brother is a Santa Claus. Yes, but
Wyatt Pemberton :there's a little there's a funny story about the Santa Claus is statue Right, he's standing basically with a Nazi salute.
Brandt Erwin :He's heading he's waving. That was the intention of the blue maker was that he was going to be waving, but he's 35 foot tall and his wave is straight up and down with a little bit of forward lean to it because of the shape of the balloon. And he's got a glove on. So yeah, we call them Nazi closs because that's what he looked like. And people don't like that one necessarily as much. So he's been stabbed a few times. When we're not looking somebody sneak in and
Wyatt Pemberton :try to do a lightning bolt. You know, that's, that's one of those cases of you know, good intentions, right. I mean, who's gonna stab Santa Claus? Well, you would think he would think it would be. Maybe it looks like he's thrown up the old the OC Kyle, you know, he's going down. So as we're sitting here talking, you, you guys are about to leave and get on the road for dirty turtle. It's this you guys would have been on the road today for Crandon Brandon's kale this weekend. So you guys know there's a little bit of scramble. There's a couple Couple hammers, Star races, or even spirited prayer rides depend on what locale in the country you're in this weekend and you guys are so you have kind of a full house you've got a bunch of guys there and in the background I know you have Jonathan tahune because he's hearing his talk and he's texting me and he's telling me on my text that 2013 is the official confirmed date of introducing puff to the hammer so I need to I need to run the rest of the story down with with Levi and Terry about that first year in the move, but man Yeah, what a what an epic kind of kind of dude, he's become iconic for hammer town.
Brandt Erwin :Yeah. And he's um, he's pretty. Everybody Everybody loves him. Like there's not really anything not to like about hardest, you know, the worst thing about him is how difficult he is deflated. So the best thing to do is just having having played and played everywhere, kids love them. There's tons of pictures always get taken of them. Well, you We've
Wyatt Pemberton :there are absolutely but people are still walk away going either they have a huge purple dinosaur on their you know to be
Brandt Erwin :surprised once once we took it out once or twice and realizing value and just in just in placement of our camp and being able to find it we're like yeah, this is cool and then we just kept taking it everywhere so now it's just a plague that if it's not windy and you're at something that has got a team Indiana crew at it you probably will have puffed up because it's just a thing now we hang banners off of it Brand X had his banner off of it for years we put team Indiana banners off of it it's just a fun thing. He's been in a lot of places too. He's got his Facebook page and we he does Puff the Magic Dragon in that and that brings me to my next question have you said you hang Stefan stuff? puff has something that also transports with the every now and then he's got is this this dude hauls his own bottle of crown with him. The crowd didn't make a wager this year Gaillard Got a big round bottle and I haven't I haven't opened it up and seen 100% damage but he when got to him and ripped his his base off. So be interesting to see if I make that one work. That was a fun addition the crown bottle, the big
Wyatt Pemberton :crown bottle big average. What is that? That thing's probably 20 foot tall, 20 foot tall.
Brandt Erwin :It'll say the Crown's probably about 12 but it's appropriate. It's almost a perfect size for scale. Yeah, it's pretty good.
Wyatt Pemberton :How did you come into possession of that thing?
Brandt Erwin :Oh, the crown bottle is EDS eds. This is fun. I didn't even think about it adds another Texas guy. So all our balloons come from Texas, apparently. Ed is Ed's. Let's just go epicenter of hot air. Yeah, there you go. As a team Indiana guy. He's good friends with Scooby grew up with Scooby. He's in Texas. Now. Michael Fagan's. Yep, you got it. But Ed he he brought it a couple years back And just set it up on his stuff and and then POF and he were eyeing each other ever camp and then by the end of the week they were sitting next to each other so now they just kind of run around together if they can. That's
Wyatt Pemberton :no oh man. Well Brent Thank you, thank you for for getting on the phone with me and and you know fill in a little time here and you know given the background on this iconic individual you know ultra for they did their 10 most iconic drivers. They did their most iconic moments, but they miss so many things right. And this is one of them, like 10 most iconic things I am or town. I mean, I think puffs it's very squarely in the throne on that one. Or I'm with you. We love him. I do need to I need to throw this in there. This is for one individual he sits squarely in the catbird seat of hammer down, right.
Brandt Erwin :Perfect.
Wyatt Pemberton :Perfect. A Brandt thanks for coming on, man. I appreciate you. Appreciate it. Take care. Yep,
Intro/Outro :Your talent tank isn't full yet.
Wyatt Pemberton :All right, so here we go. This is a little bit more a little bit bigger, a little bit deeper dive a little bit more digging a little bit more insider information on Puff the Magic race dragon. You guys just heard from Brent or one. But right now to continue the story, adding his color and flavor and flair to it. Terry Madden Terry, welcome to the show. Hey, Wyatt, how you doing? Man? I'm doing great man. Always good to catch up with you. You know? Right at a little more than a year ago, we recorded your Episode Two. And then Tom Hanks been very well since your life is changed. Tragically and magically and kind of a growth and setbacks and all that this year, right?
Terry Madden :Yeah, we could go for hours on all that. I know if we want to get into that right now. No, I don't. I don't want to do a puff show. Don't want to dwell on
Wyatt Pemberton :it. But yeah, so exactly right, you know, but I just recap that we've had you on before man Episode Two you're at man you bought in early, and I really value that but circling back to the matters at hand Puff the Magic race dragon. So that first so that first trip that those guys brought it out there in this my memory and people heard this at this point that I remember it was set up and it was on the ground and then, miraculously, some way it ends up on top of the Shirley's 18 Wheeler trailer, and then we come to find out you were a party.
Terry Madden :So it's simply amazes me that years later out of everything we did that year, the magic dragon is the one that's being remembered.
Wyatt Pemberton :Right. Well, there's a lot right that you know, that Dragon has come to be known that you know, he's this kind of, I don't know, you know how country folk give directions, right? And they say, hey, yeah, goin. Bye bye. By that tree that's leaning over by the post and make a right then that the White House make a left and well puff. Is that for hammer town?
Unknown Speaker :Well, he almost finished a couple of assaults that night. We didn't realize how big he was till he till we tried that little stunt. So that all started. We were standing down at Jabnasty's camp. Anybody that remembers Matt Enochs
Wyatt Pemberton :Oh, yeah, Mr. Alvord, Texas, just north of Fort Worth. He's a riot. Yeah, the UTV racer that had the COCK not like a penis. The chicken like a fake chicken bolted to the roof of his UTV. He almost won that year. He, he led most of that. Wow, what was that was that 2012 2013 he led I don't know right up until almost the very end. He had he I think he got a flat like two miles out and Mitch Guthrie passing.
Unknown Speaker :His primary mission to win was because he wanted the microphone because Dave Cole would not let him talk and he knew if he won He could actually get a microphone because he wanted to talk on stage so bad and he was the only person more grounded than a Gomez Brother from the microphone.
Wyatt Pemberton :And as I recall exactly what he said was they asked, Do you have any sponsors to thank? And he says, yep. Me, and then drop the mic.
Levi Shirley :Yeah. Then he had a beef with Dave over something and it went from there.
Wyatt Pemberton :He's a riot. He's a good dude, man. He's just, you know, pipeline welder and now he's running his own shop up in North Texas.
Terry Madden :I don't remember who all was there that night.
Unknown Speaker :We were in Matt's camp drinkin leave, I was there. We had aaron Dupree who still helps leave by I think miles was a party to it. But we'd seen puff and we didn't even know I never met branding. So at that point, we didn't even know whose dragon It was. It just it showed up that day and we decided we needed to relocate it and as we stood there and bounced off ideas Firstly, we're going to take it to the top of Fisher mountain and then it was going to backdoor and then it was going to sledge hammer and then we're gonna have to steal a generator to make that happen and then it was going to the fire pit. It ended up we thought it'd be a great idea to put it on top of Shirley's trailer. It was it really was. We got it about halfway up there started airing it up and as it got larger, it was pushing us off the sides of the trailer and catching the wind and we realized maybe it wasn't such a great idea. But as we got it aired up and tied down then we realized how big it was and we just almost took it back down. Because we were all scared of Brian surely being mad at us The next day, but he slipped
Wyatt Pemberton :right through it though.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, he slept through all of it. But we almost aborted and took it down because we were afraid Brian was gonna be mad at us
Wyatt Pemberton :now did levi I sleep through it because I
Unknown Speaker :know Levi. Levi I participated.
Wyatt Pemberton :Oh good, good, good. Good cuz I'm cuz I've got to get him on here too.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, leave. I participate. They did. So it's crazy because yeah, the next morning puff was on the trailer and they kind of came over to claim it and that's how we all met and it turned out to be, you know, Branik or family now, so that was really probably the best thing that happened at that dragon was making the acquaintance with them. They are good people. I
Wyatt Pemberton :mean, well, that whole team Indiana is just very congealed and a part of it and great but yeah, yeah. So anything else that any other antiques that went on with the puff?
Unknown Speaker :Oh, god, there's been so many things over the years with that dragon now that was it. That first year was just getting it on the trailer and then we tried to take it back and they decided that it was better off there to just leave it. And it's spent the year they're hilarious. Some of the pictures they hammered down with the dust on it. You can't see the trailers. You can just see the dragon hovering over hammer town. So so random.
Wyatt Pemberton :Yeah, I think the i'm not i'm not sure what the picture will be that I'm going to use of him for a town tank but he's, I've got it. I got a couple good choices. You Man Well, that was it. It was it was really just to grab that little piece of how he actually made the migratory transition from, you know, the Indiana guys that very first year to being on top of Shirley's trailer, which was insane but now he's moved and now he rides on top of Nate Jesse's trailer so that whole thing where you put him on top of a trailer you guys did that night ended up being now the his home when he's at races, he sits on top of trailers. Yeah.
Terry Madden :I admire them guys for setting him on a trailer. Because after we did it once, it's no easy feat. Well, what they said
Wyatt Pemberton :is even Brant, you know, is said Neil, here at some point here is you are not the first person that he's almost hurt or has hurt. He's hurt quite a few people.
Terry Madden :So did he tell you the backstory of how they got the dragon?
Wyatt Pemberton :Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that'll be on there. Like I said, Well, actually, everyone hearing to this point. would have heard that already.
Terry Madden :Yeah. It's uh,
Wyatt Pemberton :you're the You're the only one Terry that didn't have the benefit of hearing what's been said.
Terry Madden :Pretty
Wyatt Pemberton :well hey man, thanks for thanks for let me dial you tonight and grab you know, five minutes of your time to hear kind of your story on how that very first night went down when you guys decided hey after these beers this sounds like a great idea. Let's go move that thing on top of that trailer over there.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, definitely good memories. That's what I love about the hammers family how you could go literally steal something from somebody else's camp that you do not know. And they come over happy the next day to talk about it. It's just it's just amazing how our race family truly works. We are truly blessed individuals in this community. Military. Thanks for dialing in, man. I'll catch you later. No problem. Thanks. What?
Intro/Outro :Stay tuned. Your talent tank is in full yet.
Wyatt Pemberton :Okay, here we go on Levi. Surely this is Levi Levi. I've got him on the phone. We're still talking Puff the Magic race dragon leave. I was Kind of the benefactor the beneficiary of that first night of Terry Madden and company stealing Puff the Magic rage dragon from the Indiana guys. We've heard little bits and pieces of that. But now we've got it from the horse's mouth. And we all know this was a long time ago, Levi, but thank you for coming on. Thank you for let me call you and run less down. How you doing today?
Levi Shirley :Good, man. Thank you so much for having me on this deal. Like said I will try to try to remember the best I can on this whole story. But yeah, I it was quite a long time ago, but very fond memory. lucky dog racing. King of the hammers experience,
Wyatt Pemberton :so you guys used to have this big red Volvo 18 Wheeler tractor and a big white trailer. And I think that trailer came to Texas right did Carl Langerhans buy that from you guys? Yep, yep,
Levi Shirley :Carl bought the trailer. It was a Frito Lay trailer potatoe chip trailer that's right to get it in your head on what kind of trailer it was. And dad built like living quarters in the front of it and we can haul like four racecars in the rear of it was just super awesome and really, really economical setup. An 18 Wheeler actually went to Eric Miller so that 18 Wheeler is still running around. I think it goes by cliff, the big red truck in their crew. I think
Wyatt Pemberton :that's correct. And then there was a reason why your dad why Brian surely was into you know why he hunted after chip trailer a chip tray was it had to do with the tire wheel size and how low the deck was and some things like that, right?
Levi Shirley :Yeah, so So the biggest deal is the tire wheel size was like the biggest like Achilles heel of that trailer was those little I can't remember the correct animals are 17.5 or what exactly
Wyatt Pemberton :like that's what they were with 17.5's
Levi Shirley :yet they did not like speed we'd blow him out every brace it seemed like because we did the whole but to get to every race we went to but yeah, no those things have a super low deck, no inner fender really tall interior height and 53 foot long and they're dirt cheap if you go to research him so it was the perfect ultra for racing trailer at that point in time.
Wyatt Pemberton :And you guys were running multiple cars at that time between your car your dad's car, you guys usually have another one in there or you'd haul your dad's airplane.
Levi Shirley :Yeah, so it had it had a little bit of everything hauled in it. It kind of had this like crazy front interior setup just full of bunk beds and Carpenter balls and just a cheap cheap toy hauler and we're running multiple cars. Like he said out of it, and it was we were running the old solid axle sniper fab cars as well as when that trailer was originally built. Believe it was built to haul a moon buggy, one of the old Campbell enterprises moon buggies that dad had bought there from rusty Bray at that point in time. And then it also had some airplanes in it and yeah, it was just the perfect trailer it was it was just crappy enough that you you you didn't care what you did with it. But it was also nice enough that we didn't look like complete rednecks blown up to the track. Fair enough. It was just it was just the perfect race trailer literally.
Wyatt Pemberton :So this night so I think as I recall, I think the first year that trailer at King the hammers was 2009 is where we were headed next to you guys are pitted with you guys because being the Kansas crew out there, but I feel like in I know Brent, you thought he clarified Terry wasn't sure that you're but we all kind of came back to circle around I think it's about 2012. They Terry and company are marching back from the fire pit. They see the thing they decide Oh, what a great idea. We're gonna steal it. We're gonna take it the back door we're gonna take it all these places and mount it then they realize they need a generator and then somehow they turn and they look and they see well Clifford the Big Red truck as we know it today with the chip the Frito Lay trailer. You know it is a white trailer but they decided they're going to strap it on top but your was your I think your dad Brian, he's inside asleep. You I think they woke you up.
Levi Shirley :Yeah, so I remember sitting around and I want to say it was probably 2013 maybe maybe around that, that time. Don't they run together. They all run together. All of them at this point, but we were all we're all sitting around I want to say the I think we had a smudge pot, which is the if you don't know what that is. It's just basically they burn oil and kerosene and diesel to warm orchards up. And so they're the perfect the perfect camp. fireplace desert here, desert heater, so we're all sitting around it. And I want to say a guy by the name of Keaton crisp. I want to say Jeremy Dickinson was there. Terry's group Mason, which Mason passed away here a couple years ago and I would love to hear his side of the story. Absolutely love it because he could tell a pretty good story. And they all decided they're going to go to the campfire. And I was like, whatever dude like, you know, we got to race like I'm gonna I'm gonna go to bed. And so they all walked down there. And I guess on the way back they saw puff and decided it was going to be a good idea to steal it. You know, kind of reminiscing talking to my buddy here in the shop tonight, like just kind of going over the events through that night. He was One of them that walked down with with everybody to the fire that night and saw that they got the idea to steal puff and talk to Aaron they said that Mason decided to curl underneath the brand x tense like it was some of the white tents and and unplug it while they were in there working I don't know if there's any truth to that or not any truth with brand kicks in they're actually working or not but they're probably in their Bs and if I were to guess, and somehow got it unplugged and deflated without them knowing and at that point in time they got it down and drag it over to I mean
Wyatt Pemberton :that's legendary though that is just legendary. That is like some movie 007 secret agent stuff right there.
Levi Shirley :Yeah, if you knew Mason, you knew Mason could be s his way through and out of anything like like literally that kid was a military guy that was just just an amazing amazing individual. So so they got it they got it back somehow and this is when they come and got me and I'm gonna say actually physically woke me up and said, Hey, we're just what we're doing. Or if they actually it's just them crawling on top of our trailer woke me up but I remember going out and getting on top of the trailer and looking up and they're just they're trying to pull pull this thing up on the trailer and I'm like, What the heck are you guys doing? And they eventually got it up, man. They got it up and got it plugged in and got it and played by crazy. Yeah, crazy, absolutely crazy. I remember there was one dude that decided Good idea to crawl inside of it when they finally got it plugged in such good memories
Wyatt Pemberton :well in I think I've heard another rumor maybe you can confirm this that there was some some shenanigans have had gone on inside a pump before. Like it I bet
Levi Shirley :there was but I cannot confirm that by any means.
Wyatt Pemberton :Yeah. Levi, we're off the record here. Come on. I mean, you're only going to share it with like, you know, several thousand 8000 whatever of our closest friends. It's okay.
Levi Shirley :Yeah, exactly. Chances are if you're in the opera community, you're not you're not a shy individual.
Wyatt Pemberton :I just can't imagine sitting there thinking you know what, hey, I'm here with my girlfriend and let's go get inside a puff. That's that. I mean, but but whatever. Hey, what
Levi Shirley :It's pretty private, it's air conditioning. Um, it should be sorted just free maybe.
Wyatt Pemberton :Yeah, right. Oh man. Awesome. Well, Levi, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for for letting me call you today and a rundown a little bit of you know, memory lane on what that first event was, you know at King the hammers were puff made the migratory change and kind of the the relationships that evolved out of a kind of that and all the branding crew, you know, good stuff. Yeah. And
Levi Shirley :yeah, absolutely no problem. I'm sorry to talk over you there. I just I gotta say, I remember like we were pretty good friends with Branik at this point in time, you know, doing the XRRA before Ultra4 racing, and we've had multiple parties together, but I remember them and I don't know if it's just my memory game file year what but I remember them being pretty upset that we stole it like, I don't remember it going down like, awesome. I think they were pretty upset that we got it still. So I just I just had to say that and that they'll probably come on and be like, No, we were totally okay with it. But I remember there was some kind of some shadiness that they were maybe a little upset that we stole it.
Wyatt Pemberton :Ah, see, cuz when I talked to Terry Terry's recollection was the polar opposite of that. He's like, Oh, no, it's It was awesome. Like, they loved it. They thought it was hilarious. And all these relationships evolved out of that. So I do love how history has the time. And memories have the ability to smooth everything over? I do enjoy. Oh, absolutely. Well, Levi, thank you. Thank you for hopping on here. And everyone that's listening. You know, a little teaser, you know, Levi is in the stack for this season. And we'll we'll have him back on and some point we're gonna make it happen right, Levi?
Levi Shirley :Yeah, buddy. I'm looking forward to it.
Wyatt Pemberton :All right, well, Hey, everybody. Leave. I will catch you later.
Levi Shirley :Hi. See you later, right?
Wyatt Pemberton :Wow, Wasn't that a fun episode? I did just cracks me up. I mean, just the lore around this iconic inflatable that has become a part and, you know, just something to look at. It's not an eyesore. It's everything but an eyesore. But it's quite the landmark in in hammer town USA. There inlanders California on means dry, like, every February Gosh, hey, if you guys liked this episode, and you look forward to what the content is going to be coming up, subscribe. Please click the link on whichever your streaming app is. And if you have the opportunity, especially if you're on Apple, will you drop me a you know some five stars and in a review, it helps in the SEO's search optimizing engine. It helps for my social proof. It helps other people discover us. It helps us the entire industry that I entire community be discovered and be more mainstream. It helps companies put valuations on what they want to give sponsor dollars to, to racers or to the series itself. Anyway, appreciate guys Tune in next week. We'll be going. Alright, we're out.
Intro/Outro :Thank you for listening and please like and subscribe on Instagram. For our website, the talent tank.com Transcribed by https://otter.ai