Slow Baja - Eric Solorzano The King Of Class 11

Episode Date: November 10, 2022

Eric Solorzano, the King of Class 11, is a humble mechanic from Tijuana. He’s been racing a Volkswagen in Baja for over 30 years. “Out of the car, I don’t know anything. In the car, as soon as I put it in gear, a calm comes over me,” says Solorzano. Honored by the Mexican Government as the Winningest Mexican in Off-Road Racing history. Solorzano has 11 SCORE Championships, 1 Baja 2000 win, 9 Baja 1000 wins, 7 Baja 500 wins, 11 San Felipe 250 wins, 9 SCORE Primm 300 wins, 4 SCORE Desert Challenge wins, and 3 Mint 400 wins. An iconoclast among his peers, Solorzano does not pre-run. Instead, he spends his time obsessively preparing his race cars. He is outspoken about the current state of SCORE racers and owners. Solorzano compares racing SCORE (with Sal Fish) in the 70s to the era’s music versus music today. I’ll leave you to draw your conclusions, but at 62, it’s safe to say he cherishes his memories of race days (and organizers) of the past. Listen for the story of the Baja 2,000, where Solorzano jumped a junkyard fence, came face to face with a pair of pitbulls, grabbed the needed parts, and went on to win his class in only 69 hours! Follow Eric Solorzano on IG here Follow Eric Solorzano on FB here Watch Eric’s ORMHOF induction film here Watch The Legend of Solorzano by Jonny Mass here

Hey, this is Michael Emery. Thanks for tuning into the Slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches, and hands down, my favorite tequila. Hey, I want to tell you about your new must-have accessory for your next Baja trip. Benchmark Maps has released a beautiful, beautiful Baja California Road and Recreation Atlas. It's a 72-page large format book of detailed maps and recreation guides that makes the perfect planning tool for exploring Baja. Pick yours up at benchmarkmaps.com. Hey, before we get into today's show with Eric Sallarzano, the king of class 11, I want to shout out my heaping dose of gratitude to Salfish. Recently on my way home from the Nora Baja 500, I swung through Malibu, and I stopped and had a conversation with Laha conversation with Sal.

and he was just so gracious. We had a great time. I spent about four hours with him. We only recorded for about 90 minutes. We got all the way up to 1968. But Sal invited me to the Offer of Motorsports Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and I took him up on his offer, and I just attended, and I got to see Slow Baja alum, Kurt Leduc and Cameron Steele,

and Kurt paid me the nicest compliment. He said that I really captured him in our conversation, and that just means so much to me. And that's where I got to record this conversation with the humble L. Ray, Eric Solerzano. He was on his way to being inducted to the Hall of Fame, and I was able to steal him away for a few minutes and record the show. So thanks, Sal, for that. And thanks Eric for making some time. And before we get on to the show, I want to thank a few folks who've dropped Taco in the Tank.

It's November now. It's a season of thanks. And I am very thankful to Philip Greer, Amy Montgomery. entire tray of tacos and a side of table side guacamole service so thank you amy montgomery for that david carlo my amigo and alaska thank you for all you've done for the show joseph dean can't wait to see you and the bay watch chenith down at the nora 1000 in 2023 thank you for keeping slow baha going gary payne thank you brandon hopper jean ray tippo dropped an enchilada combo platter in the tank chris burkert jonathan Scott Tate, thank you, amigos.

And Jeff LaPlant just slid an entire tray of tacos into the tank today. Thank you, Jeff. And folks, if you're in L.A. and you're looking for a Porsche, go see Jeff LaPlante at South Bay Portia in Torrance. All right. And without further ado, today's show,

Eric Soluzano, El Ray, Class 11. Say hello. Hello? Tell me who you are. I'm Eric Solisano from Tijuana, California, Mexico. Just Eric Soluzano. Losano, just little Eric from Tijuana. Yeah. The king of class

11 sitting here in my hotel room at the South Point on the day that you're getting inducted into the off-road Motorsports Hall of Fame. You know, this started, you know, riding my bicycle on the dirt because everything was dirt, you know.

In Tijuana, probably 70% of the city, you know, the streets were dirt. And so we learned how to ride bicycles on dirt, motorcycles and dirt. And we used to, you know, my dad's car, my sister car, we used to drive them on dirt. So that's how we start, you know, pretending we were racing. That was our background, you know, racing background.

And I think growing up, you're in your early, about 60 years old? 62. I'm going to be 63. So, you know, I think growing up in that era, the off-road racing had been a huge thing already. It started. Your fathers or uncles would have seen the first ones. And so for you as a kid, it must have been really in the air. Well, you know, my dad and my uncles and, you know, family members,

my grandpa moved to La Paz in 1957. He had businesses in Tijuana. And he moved from Long Beach to Tijuana. And then he moved to La Paz. that in to bring all this you know pipe benders

and stuff like that to the pipe to bend pipes for mufflers and break lates and you know material to bring to make his business

because we've been involved on a break business since I was a kid you know I was born in a in a shop where they did hydrovax

did shoes a clif and stuff like that. So I've been involved in an automotive since I was a kid. Well, we've just jumped right into it. I turn the recorder on.

I've got Eric Solisano, the king of Class 11 sitting here. We're drinking a couple of cold ones. We're going to keep it short because you've got to get prepared for your induction today. And I'm just delighted to have seen you in the parking lot when you were smashing

into that bench in front of the south point, getting your bugs. You've got your two bugs. here, your two famous bugs. And I think we ought to just get into, A, tell me about those two amazing machines that are out in front and tell me, you know, how you got going in this, riding motorcycles first, motorcycles,

and then as I understand it, you had an injury and you decided, you know what, maybe I should get into a car and be a little safer. So let's just jump through it. Well, you know, everything started up back in 1974. I was invited by my uncle. In La Paz, Mexico, I race over in a motocross track, you know, close to the ocean. So that was my first race.

And that was my start. You know, I kept riding and racing and doing this thing Wednesdays and Friday night racing. And racing, you know, national championships in Mexico and all that stuff, you know. So I kept racing probably till from 74 till 88 probably. On motorcycles. On motorcycles. And then I won a lot of first places, seconds and thirds. But, you know, I got injured a few times.

And so I was old, you know, getting old to do that same stuff, you know. So I decided to start racing off-road. in the cheapest way it was, you know, a class 11. But, you know, in the past, you know, I went to college in a, like, a pre-runner, class 11, so I knew how to drive it and go to the dirt and all that stuff. So it was easy for me to start racing class 11 because that was my daily driver. We used to go to Sierra Juarez to see the races. And I knew about, you know, off-road and stuff like that, you know, I used to go watch.

That's what... So wait a second, Eric. Back up a little bit. You said you went to college in a pre-runner? Well, it was like a pre-runner, yeah. Both are. Okay. So every day you're... I was dragging that buck, you know. Every day. With a bigger mortar, you know, it was built in shocks and it did not have a roll cage,

but it was a pretty nice, you know, a car. You know, I can send you some pictures of it, you know. All right. So when did you enter that first race in a class 11? You know, there's a lot of local races and, you know, class 11 races. No, not only class level, you know, races. And there's a code record. Back in those days, it was Pag International, Luper Altta, who made the,

it was the second after score that was Baja Promotions. You know, we learned with Baja promotions. They have a lot of cars, you know, on entries. And he made, you know, great races in Takadi, you know, that area. area and Sonata, you know, not the same courses at the score. So we start up racing there. We learned how to race, you know, with the Blue, with Buck International, with a record. That's our beginning of racing.

And then after a few years, we won the Baha'uantas. And when was that? 93. 93. He could still remember his first bit. overall win or class win. Mexico. Mexico.

Hey, what was your relationship with Ramon Castro? You know, I was, I never had like a friendship, but I always wanted to be Ramon. And, you know, I, unfortunately, when I started racing, Ramon started racing Class 7s. And, you know, I wanted to be Ramon. You wanted to be Ramon. Yeah. El Tomate? El Tomate. Okay. I figured that he's a little bit older than you?

No, he's younger. He's younger. He started up with Ramon and Martin Garvey. He drove my car back in the Barra 2000. Martin, he was a great driver. Well, you've got two cars, the gray bug and the red bug. We got a third car. We did over at COVID.

You did another one. Now tell me about these two. We were sitting down into your red car to, do the interview in front of the, in front of the hotel. And I just had a moment of knowing that my editor, Christopher Kaiser, was going to just bust my balls about having that noisy environment, but I really wanted to do it. It was so cool to just be sitting in the car with you, but it's open. It's open windshield, no windshield, open, you know, windows. So we moved up to my, my hotel room here. And that car looks like it's been through a little bit. When you see the floor and the sills and whatnot,

It's it's had a life. Tell me a little bit about your two race vehicles. Between the two cars and I, you know, we've been to hell and back, you know, but it's been fun having them as a family because they are. Yeah, I mean, as I understand it, you've been racing that gray one since day one, yeah? That's amazing. Yeah. 33, 33, 32, 33 years now? 32, you know, but it's been.

Who's counting? Who's counting 32 years? You know, if you go into one of the race cars, you don't hear a sound or something that is loose and they're solid. They're solid, yeah. They've been beat up, you know, but you know, they're, when they go there, they want to race. They have their own life, you know. I can say that because they're different. They can have the same motor, same suspension, but they're a different kind of breed.

Hey, doing my research on you, I read a little bit about one of the suspensions. I think it's the 10th suspension that you have. Is it true that you bought that thing for $75, 30 years ago? On the red car, yes. You know, somebody was going to cut a car and send it to the metal guy. So I went to a guy and they asked him, what are you going to do with this car? He told him, Bollong, I went to. Send it to the metal scrap guy.

So I told him, how much do you want for the roll case? It was a Genoet roll cage. It is. You know, so I got a grinder, you know, cut the welds and cut the roof and took the whole thing, you know, the structure, because that's what it is, the structure. The other add-ons, you know, we made and reinforcements and all that stuff. But that roll cage is still there and it has been certified every year and no cracks. Amazing.

People tell me that even class 11 is expensive now, but if you're going with 30 years on the same cage that you bought for 75 bucks and put a lot of sweat equity into, that's an amazing story. Well, you know, luckily, we started with our right foot. You know, we try to look for sponsors, the right sponsors, you know, give them the right what we do with our sponsors. We reflect what we're doing. You know, that's very important, you know, in the right way, in the right fashion, you know. But, you know, we start up with BF Goodrich, Bill Steen, Tecati Beer, that was the main sponsor for score. So we started up on the right foot.

You know, that was our foundation, you know. I know a little bit of marketing, business and stuff like that. I have a business degree, so we start up on the right foot. So year-three-year wins and championship. championships and all our trajectory help us, you know, being with the right sponsors. And you've been with those sponsors since the beginning, a couple of them, right? B. F. Goodrich and Rugged? Bill Steen, yeah.

Bill Steed? So I ran into Frank DeAngela last night, and downstairs. He's here. Did your deer days with B.F. Goodrich go back to... I started with Dan Heism, you know, back in the early, you know, late 80s and 90s, you know. But, you know, they've been great to us, you know. I think it means something to say Baja proven. I think Baja still means something. And, you know, we've been tested, like, we race street tires, you know, on our class 11s, you know.

You can buy them, you know, at Costco or, you know, discount tigers or, you know, any place where they sell BFGs, you know, you can find BFGs. And our tires are not Kevler or nothing fancy there. tires you can buy on eBay or you know that's what we use so 30 plus years you're being inducted into the off-road motorsports Hall of Fame tonight let's just say that again congratulations what have you learned tires suspension terrain when to push when not to push I mean tell me about what what all that has amount I mean you've got a staggering number of of wins we're going to go into that in a minute But how do you distill all that? Something I can tell you is if I'm not racing, I don't know nothing.

But as soon as that I put in the first year, you know, all the everything that I learned, you know, it's it goes like it flashes, you know. But I'm a regular person, you know, when I'm not racing with as soon as that flag goes down, you know, I'm a different person. That's what I can tell you, you know. All the knowledge that I have, you know, it's unbelievable, you know. It's not because I'm saying it, but it could be a Class 11 or it could be anything of automotive, I can tell you. from a motorcycle to a bicycle to a race car to a new car to it doesn't matter you know i have fortunately i have the knowledge to understand the automotive business you know cars and you need to have some sympathy to your vehicle in the baha i mean maybe not trophy trucks these days but

when you start with something like your your bug it's a a 74? One's a 74. The other one is a 69. So to start with those vehicles, you've got to have some sympathy. You just can't flog them. You can't beat them the whole time if you want them to last. Are you faster now with 30 plus years of experience than you used to be when you're a young, young man? Or is it different? You know, I can see that it's different. I have never been somebody that is fast, unflat, because I'm not. But I'm pretty fast at the roughest places. It doesn't matter if I'm like, yes, a guy, you know,

a young guy or whatever, you know, I have ways to go faster. I will look for my lines. You know, I see people that raises our class. Any guy from a class 11, can guide a trophy truck guy to tell him where to go. You know, they have their egos. We don't have our egos. We don't have money.

We don't have, you know, it's different. Our racing, we have to keep the car in one piece. Well, I saw it firsthand in January of this year. I did a 2,400-mile dirt drive working on mapping the course for the Nora 1000. So Hector Sarabi was driving for most of it. But he had to fly home and then Elisao Garcia moved over into the driver's seat. And it's just interesting to see how a class 11 guy approaches terrain and how softly he goes into things versus Ellisio, you know, who races, I think, a class 10. So he just hits things a little bit differently.

And we were driving a Toyota Land Cruiser in FJ80. But it was very interesting for me to be behind the driver in the, you know, the backseat. but directly behind the driver for both men, how they, how a class 11 guy sees the road. Yeah, you know what, even if we go to the same map, you know, in the same BCPs, you know, we see the scene of it differently. And, you know, I see trophy trucks, drivers, they go and hit all the bumps. And, you know, if you move a few feet, there's another course. But you have to drive it. You have to know about it.

And you have to get the feeling of it. You don't have to go that fast. You know, these guys are killing themselves to go pretty fast. But you can move a few feet in the courses there. Different course. So that's what, you know, one day Marty Fiolka told me, why don't you do a book or write a book, you know, about your knowledge and all that stuff, you know? Because you have different feelings.

I have different feelings of driving, different feelings of intuition. You know, this is, you know, guessing is not right when you're racing. I think, yes, I'm going to guess, and that's when you make your mistakes, you know. Guessing does not exist enough road. That's my feeling.

Probably I'm wrong. Yeah, but listen, as I understand it, you don't even pre-run. I do not. You just get, you put your helmet on, put the driver suit on, you prep your car, and you get in and go. And occasionally, you get in and go a long, long way. It's a long time before you give a seat up to somebody else.

Well, you know, I get out. When I get tired, you know, I love to drive, you know. Their first probably 100 miles I get bored. You know, I think about what am I doing here, you know. I should have been in my house or whatever, you know, stay with the grandkids. But, you know, the race that's the race that, you know, it's, you know, a different feeling. You know, I love to race at night.

You know, I like to go race 500 miles, you know, why not? Get out of a car, drink a beer, you know, see everybody that is waiting for me. That's, for me, that's an accomplishment. Hey, we're gonna jump into some accolades here. And then I'm gonna introduce Robert Lawrence, who, as I understand it, nominated you for the Hall of Fame.

So, Robert, let me just introduce you here and say hello. Hello. So what was it about Eric that made you say, you know what, I'm going to make this guy a Hall of Fame or make sure that they finally recognize this king of class 11? Well, I was pretty aware of Eric, and I knew that he was a legend in the sport in class 11. And I had the honor to talk to him and meet him

as we kind of worked to coordinate how we were going to integrate the vintage race cards into the 50th Baja 1,000. And I got to know him, and then I found him to be just a genuinely really nice guy. I mean, I was a little bit scared about doing the 1,000. I hadn't done it before. And he was telling me a lot of things that I would have had to have race for 30-some years to find out. He was giving me great pointers. He was mentoring me. And so I just really appreciated.

the help that he gave me. And I felt more confident going into that race. And then we met again at the beginning of the race because we start weighing the back with the class 11s. And he was sitting on the curb and we're sitting there. And I think we had about two or three hours before we're going to start. So I went over, talked to him some more. And then I just thought he was, you know, a true champion,

but also somebody who was humble and that would help another racer in need like myself. And so I called him one time and I said, hey, you know, I'm thinking about nominating you for the Hall of Fame. Is that okay with you? And he's like, oh, yeah. He goes, that'd be great. And, you know, it took a while. It was, you know, three years of trying to convince the voting committee and the board.

But, you know, I'm very proud to know him and know him as a friend. in fact we're neighbors now in the same country since I moved to Mexico permanently from Texas and like said he's just a champion and you know one of the things that all the racers know is we all have a very special respect for class 11 because you know any racer even the guys in the trophy trucks they have a special respect for class 11 because none of them want to do it it's like That's the hardest way you can possibly race the Baja 1,000 is in a class 11. You know, he's not driving a couch with three feet of suspension travel. And a thousand horsepower.

And a thousand horsepower, 1,200, whatever they're up to now. So it's just an amazing thing. And, you know, and I thought about it. And, you know, one of the movies, he has been featured in now, I guess three movies that I'm aware of. The first one was Dust to Glory. And watching that, you know, I, I, I, I, I, really. really took notice of the fact that what really got attention in that movie were the motorcycles, the trophy trucks, and class 11.

Absolutely. For sure. I mean, if that didn't spawn a whole new generation of people wanting to do class 11, I mean, I don't know what would. I was ready to go find a bug. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old Landcruiser south of the border. When we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance. If their website's fast and easy to use, check them out at Bajaubound.com.

That's Bajabound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994. Have you asked your doctor if Baja is right for you? If your doctor says yes, well, maybe you need to check out the Baja Exile. It's every other year, and it's coming up February, 23, the 17th through the 26th, San Diego, all the way down the peninsula, and all the way back up to Tijuana, 10,000. days, 3,000 miles. If you're interested in doing it, and you got some questions, hit me up at Slowbaha.com, click that contact button, or you can direct message me at Slowbaha on Instagram or Facebook, and always check out the BajaxL.org page. That's Bajaxel.org. And hope to see you down

at the start line in San Diego for a grand adventure. Hey, we're back with Eric Solisano, the king of class 11s and we're going to wrap up our interview. But I wanted to go into some stats. 30 years in the same cars, eight Baja 1,000 wins. You won the Baja 2000 in the year 2000, class 11. 9 San Felipe 250 wins, 7 Baja 500 wins, 3-Mint 400 wins, and an absurd amount of wins and record in Well, you know, I want to clear that, I want to clear that it's been 11, Sanfalia, 250s. Not, it's been 11. Oh, I'm sorry, I shortage you a couple there.

Well, you know, it's probably, my research was probably a couple years old. I wasn't up to date. It's one head of Rob McCackeren's. One head. So we want also, the more races here in, in Prim Nevada, eight. So we have the record in Prim Nevada. Nevada also. With score.

Most of my racing has been with score, with cell, you know? I cannot say something, you know, old scores, old scores, like I would say

you cannot compare music from the 70s from music from now. That was score back then, you know, score was score. There was a beautiful purity,

a rawness to it. It was a different thing. It was more family, you know. You can feel the environment, you know. Right now you go and it's different. You know, I don't want to be, I don't want to say that, you know, I love to race with scorn nowadays, but it's different. Well, we'll change gears a little bit here.

You've raced a lot. You've driven thousands and thousands and thousands of miles in your race cars, not even pre-running, because I have. understand you don't. Do you have any, do you have any rituals that you go through before you get into a race car? I've, I've read that you're nervous. I've heard you say on, that you get real nervous. You know, I get nervous, but it's like I, like I mentioned you as long as, you know, as soon as I put in a first gear, and then I turn into a different person, you know, different. You know, I get calm and and I know what I'm doing. I don't do things. I do think, I think, I think, I think, you know,

I drive through the years more technical. You know, I'm a technical. You know, I went to school, writing school, back in the late 70s and 80s. So you know techniques how to write, you know, and you can apply those techniques to any kind of hover-up racing, you know. Well, I think it helps in any sort of racing that if you've, if you've ridden a little dirt bike and slid that around,

sliding a faster motorcycle on a track is helpful and then sliding a car around in the dirt or on a track has to, it's a natural progression. Yeah. Let's get into a couple of crazy stories here. You ever been face to face with the Pit Bull? Well, one day, you know, we went to the Barra 2000. You know, Victor Barajas

got into San Ignacio with a broken spindle. Hang on a minute. You ever been face to face with the pit bull? Yeah, you know, this is something real, real funny, you know. We went to the Baja 2000, Victor Barraas, broke a spindle, and we replaced it, and then another one got broken, so I didn't have the third one, you know, from the same side. So I saw this Wesadero that's a wrecking yard, and I saw a bug, you know, and at the end, but nobody was there. and there were two pit bulls, you know.

And then my co-driver, he was with me. His name was Ruben. He died a few years ago, Ruben Camacho. And I told him, Ruben, let's go. You go with me and, you know, you watch the dogs, and then I pulled the spindles from that bug. So he told him, I'm not going. I'm not going.

Let's go. And then I jumped the fence, and the dogs didn't do nothing. He just followed me, and they were on the side to me. And then I took the spindles, the arms, everything from. And I didn't give permission to no one, but I took them. And we finished up on 2000 with the stolen spindle. Stolen spindle from the junkyard. You face down a couple of junkyard dogs, and you're still here.

You're not all stitched up, ripped up. That's something that really happened, you know. that's amazing. Hey, another story I heard is you were stuck broken down for three or so days. You call your wife, she thinks you're drunk, can you go into that a little bit? You know, this is a part of me. You can't make this stuff up. You know, we're talking about two different entities. But a guy from Rosarito, Venegas, is his last name. He builds race cars for a long time. He does the race cars for a long time. He does the race cars for earning the directing class 5.

The race score here in the States. But anyway, he shows up in a four-seater, and we didn't have water, we didn't have nothing. We were going to pick up, pull the race car, because we had two flats. So we didn't know what happened to the car. And then this guy shows up with water and asked him, hey, you got water, he gave me like a big stack of water. And the guy told me, are you fine?

He asked me, do you need something? He asked me, do you have a satellite phone? He said, yes. So I asked him, can I borrow it? So I called my wife, hey, Diana. I'm here, you know, broken here with the Jeep and the race car. And she hanged me. And I call her back, are you drunk or what?

I don't know. here, you're stranded and she didn't believe me and she hanged me. So later on she called everyone, put it on Facebook and stuff like that. And my friend, Dennis Holdenbach, went and we met him over at the highway. And another one, another guy, Eric from Ensenada, went and helped me bring the car to the, to Ensenada. But that was, we have a lot of stories, not good stories. Let's take that moment of borrowing somebody's sat phone and just talk about the immense amount of technological changes that you've seen in racing since the time that you started to where we are now. And how do you feel about...

Well, something I can tell you, it's been a lot of changes, and we still race with the same cars with being competitive. But I think that... You started with root books and paper and dead rest. And reckoning and other things. Now people drive on a screen and a line and a dot. Something you forgot to mention, respect. Respect. Respect was the key of an off-road racer, off-road interest. You know, people didn't leave all this dirt.

Not dirt. Leave all this garbage on the course. They've been doing booby-traps all the time, you know. But respect was different. You know, I don't remember somebody hitting me 20 years ago. It was not acceptable. So you're saying a faster car wants to bump you

to get you out of the way? They don't care. They're more in a hurry. Yeah. You know, they don't care. They don't have respect. But when they broke down, we go and tell them what to do because unfortunately they don't know what to do.

If a spark plug wire goes out, well, most of them, they have coils. nowadays, you know, but, you know, they don't know what to do. They don't. Well, that's what we're getting into. So the changes. Well, you know, humble opinion, promoters need to listen what I'm going to be saying. But if I have the money, I cannot start racing a trophy truck. If I have the money, I cannot raise a 10 truck or a class one car or a trophy speed. Or a trophy truck. expect, it's not acceptable. I may have the money.

Money doesn't say nothing. Well, you can't get into a Formula One car unless you've raced go-karts and moved your way up. You set the right thing. But in off-road, if you've got the money, you can get into a trophy truck. You know, I started racing motocross. I went to the Suzuki-Karlsbet

Motorcross School. Then I went to Marty Smith, you know, to learn, you know, how to write. make me a better person. You know, really know one of my, you know, you can be a fast rider. You have to prove it. You know, how can you, how can you jump from nothing to something is like buying a weapon?

You know, I'm just going too far. Start with a 22. Start with the BB gun. Yeah, you're right. You know, you're right. You know, but that's my point of, that's, you know, if they need training, you know, they can call me. I can train people.

what to do, what if the car stalls, you know, people, the first thing is, they go out of the car. You have to wait. You have to see what's happening. You have to, your navigator has to know how to use the stella, get out of the car. You know, those triangles we put in that they don't work nothing. It doesn't say nothing. The other drivers, they don't care about the triangles. You have to put flares, you know, go walk a half a mile, put flares. They know, you know, you know, you know, you know, whether you're there. Why? Because these guys,

they're into electronic games and stuff like that and real life is not that. That's why a lot of accidents happens. I don't blame them. They don't know what could happen. You learn how to

PlayStation, whatever, you know, games, and they think life is that. But we are in constant danger because we are. And you don't get an extra life when you're in Baja. Well, you know. I mean, you've probably gotten a few extras yourself,

but what you're getting to is it can be, it can actually be something serious. Of course. You know, you can, I mean, let's not get too deeply into that, but yeah, you're saying that people need to take it much more sincerely and seriously than they are. Hey, well, you've been awfully kind on this amazing day of your induction to the Offroad Motorsports Hall of Fame.

I'm looking forward to hoistening a tequila and saluting you later. Do you have any, I mean, it must just kill your body. You look great. You've been doing this for 30 years. It must just kill your body to race a class 11, 40 hours-ish. What's a typical thousand mile? my race like 520 miles

you know probably 24 27 30 hours but you know for me it probably is easier because I used to train

motocross and motorcross is not easy you know you have to you know you have to center gravity your body and move all your nuts and bolts you know when you're riding so probably it was not a

big transition from going pretty fast in the corners and jumping double triples and all that stuff, then being on, you know, five and a half inches on the back and nine at the back, you know. So probably it was not that as hard as people think. So as I said to you earlier, drive to my old Land Cruiser, my secrets, you know, tequila and Tylenol. Do you have any secrets for recovery or any preparations that you do for staying fit and staying, active and being able to compete at your at 30 years in of racing? Well, I do my drill every night.

I work four or five hours on a race car after work, and that's not funny. So you work a full day, plus you put in a half day on the car? Sometimes I think, you know, what am I doing here? You know, I can stay in my house or go travel or, you know, I love the sport of road. I love my class. And I love people that raise my class, you know, because we speak the same language. You know, probably I can say something

that it doesn't feel right to another class guy. But starting from the bottom and being on the bottom all the time, and me bringing here for me is something that I'm very proud. And now that I have the time to, I want to thank Robert Lawrence to give him.

me the opportunity to be here because, you know, this is a big step for my life, you know, I'm downhill, you know, one day I'm going to say I'm going to hang the boxing gloves or, I don't know, one day I will say, you know, I'm done. I don't know when, I don't know when, but I don't think it's going to be pretty soon. No, I think it's very interesting. I really do believe it's very interesting that there's nobody who can be competitive in Formula One at 62 years old. That does not exist. I don't think you can do it in Lamont car. I don't think you can do it in the top of any sports car or any other form of racing Grand Prix motorcycles,

but you can do it in off-road racing. You can be Larry Rossler who can still win. Yeah. You can be 50-something years old, 60 years old, and you can still be at the very top of your game if you've got the equipment. And explain that to me. Well, the beautiful part of our class is we're able to see the course. That's something that, you know, we're in a hurry as fast as we can go, you know, because we're living.

80-ish miles an hour, right? Well, it will go, you know, sometimes we'll go like one, one, miles per hour, you know, and sometimes we go 60, 65, 70, 80. But most of the time we're going, we're hitting the 20-ish miles per hour. And you have to

have your own pace, you know. There's a lot of newcomers, new guys, new kids. They're pretty fast. You know, they turn this glass lemon into I don't know what class, you know, but they're pretty fast, you know. And I see them and I

was thinking, you know, they're going to break down and they don't, you know, I don't know. That's the truth. You know, I have to be, I have to see reality. If I didn't, you know, I see some kids here, like, geez, they launched those 11s, you know, Crandon, you know,

the 11th probably are faster in the class 5, 1,600s, you know, they are. And, but I get excited, you know. What this class had, hit evolve, you know. One day Marty Fielka saw me driving my

11 and he said, you know, he said to Dana, you know, we're going to put a class 11 on the movie and that was that was me. You know, I've got you know, I got the chills when I remember that when he told me, you know.

And we're talking about Dust of Glory, folks. We're talking about this. An amazing film. The very first Dust of Glory was a truly transformational film that put people into the emotion, the exhaustion, it's like conquering Everest to do this event. Yeah. And then I saw

the first time the music and interviews and you know, every time that I see it, I get very excited, you know, it's probably, I would say it's like the Bible of of an upward movie, you know.

He's got a mixture of that music and, you know, it travels you, you know, to a different point. Yeah, and the connection from the filmmaker to his dad, Bruce Brown, who did the very first 27 hours to La Paz is such an amazing documentary as well of the beginnings of this sport. Well, listen, we don't need to waste more of your time. You've got a big night ahead of you.

So, Eric, I can't say thank you enough for making a little time for Slow Baja. I hope our paths cross south of the border. somewhere, Tijuana or on a race someplace. And again, Robert Lawrence, thank you very much for nominating this humble man. And I just am delighted to see you get into the Hall of Fame tonight. Thank you very much. And whenever you were down and down the border, you know, we can take you to the shop so you can see what we do on a daily basis. And everybody's invited. Thank you very much. All right. Well, thank you, Eric Salzano. The king of class 11s here with Slow Bowens. AHA, Robert. Have a great night tonight, and we'll see you soon.

Much thanks. Have I told you about my friend True Miller? You've probably heard the podcast, but let me tell you, her vineyard, Adobe Guadalupe winery is spectacular. From the breakfast at her communal table, bookended to an intimate dinner at night. Their house bred Azteca horses, Solomon, the horseman will get you on a ride that'll just change your life. The food, the setting, the pool.

It's all spectacular. spectacular, adobe guadalupe.com. For appearing on Slow Baja today, our guests will receive the beautiful benchmark map 72-page Baja Road and Recreation Atlas. Do not go to Baja without this, folks. You never know when your GPS is going to crap out, and you're going to want a great map in your lap. Trust me. Well, I enjoyed that conversation.

I hope you did. One of the reasons I strive to do these things in person is to meet the people behind the voices, is to meet the people who've lived these incredible lives, had these achievements that have them on Slow Baja. Eric Solerzano, what a wonderful, humble human being. He's just a normal guy until the green flag drops. You heard him say it. And the other thing that I hope you caught was him talking about racing score in the 70s with Sal.

It's like music from the 70s versus music today. I think he's saying a lot there. I'll leave you to sort that out. But I really enjoyed this conversation. I hope to cross paths with Eric. down in Baja in Tijuana, see his shop and share some tacos and a beer with him. He's a cool cat. I still have the Slow Baja store on hold.

I have not gotten settled here in Chicago, but we've secured a place and hope to move into it shortly. So hopefully all that merch will be in hand before the holidays are upon us. So if you need to get a slow Baja shirt or sweatshirt or a hat for that, somebody special, well, I hope to have them in hand in a few more weeks. So stay tuned for that. Got a bunch of fun shows coming up, so stay tuned for those. And to paraphrase Baja 11, Steve McQueen, Baja is life. Everything that happens before or after is just waiting.