Slow Baja - Malcolm Smith Off-Road Racing Legend

Episode Date: December 24, 2024

Malcolm Smith is a legendary figure in off-road racing, known for his remarkable achievements on two and four wheels. Between 1966 and 1976, he won eight gold medals in the International Six Day Trial and six Baja 1000 titles—three times on a motorcycle and three times in a car. In 1967, he and teammate J.N. Roberts shared first place on a bike in the inaugural NORRA Mexican 1000. Smith died on November 26, 2024, at 83 years old, after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. In September 2020, I was lucky to sit down with him at his home, where I recorded this conversation. He was part of the inaugural class of the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame and has been featured in the film On Any Sunday alongside Steve McQueen. Despite his fame, he remained humble and actively supported the El Oasis Orphanage in Baja Norte through his Malcolm Smith Motorsports Foundation, which provides full tuition for university or trade schools to the children there. During our conversation, he fought valiantly to find and form the words to answer my questions. After we wrapped, Smith apologized for his performance. He is a relentless competitor, always striving to do his best. Before I left, I followed him up his long driveway in 110-degree heat. He wanted to show me a couple of old Land Rovers that he had stashed in his orchard. I had to hustle to keep up! Learn more about Malcolm Smith: http://www.malcolmsmithmotorsportsfoundation.org/ https://www.malcolmsmithadventures.com https://ormhof.org/malcolm-smith SUPPORT THE SLOW BAJA PODCAST: https://buymeacoffee.com/slowbaja BUY SLOW BAJA MERCHANDISE: https://www.slowbaja.com/shop FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM: @slowbaja Subscribe to the Slow Baja YouTube channel:    / @slowbaja  

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. You know, I've long said it, ask your doctor if Baja is right for you. If you've been hankering to get down to Slow Baja,

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Malcolm Smith, a legend off-road motorsports Hall of Fame, famed racer star of the movie on any Sunday road motorcycles with Steve McQueen. Doesn't get much cooler than that. Malcolm passed away at 83 years old just before Thanksgiving. I talked to him way back in 2020. During COVID, Malcolm passed from Parkinson's, and of course he was living with Parkinson's at the time, and it was COVID, and we sat in his living room in, Riverside well away from each other all the way across the room. So Malcolm can be a little bit hard to hear in this interview, but I do think it's worth the listen. I just drove cross-country and listen to this one as I was driving, and I thought I would share it with you again. So without further ado,

out of the archive, Malcolm Smith on Slow Baja from September of 2020. It's Michael Emery from Slow Baja, and I am delighted to be in Riverside, California today with the motorcycle racing legend Malcolm Smith. Hello, Malcolm. Thanks for having me. Hi, Michael. I want to talk about Baja. Well, I'm delighted because it's something that I have a deep affinity for, and you've spent an awful lot of time there, and sounds to me like you're deeply, you're still deeply passionate for the place.

Absolutely. So you said, in the front first page of your book, for me, few things beat waking up in the morning during a Baja ride and watching. the sea, watching the sun come up over the sea of Cortez. Yes. We have a little house there and our bedrooms on the second floor and the sun shines right in, big windows and just watch the day come. So before we jump into racing and your success on motorcycles, I just, I found it interesting reading about your family. Tell me a little bit about your mother and your father.

Well, my mother was a teacher in Provo, or Salt Lake City, Utah. And she was on a vacation. And she booked on a freighter in Sitka, Alaska. She got off the freighter and was on the dock. And actually it was Skagway. Skagway, not saying. And my father was there. At that time, not my father, but he was down there to meet a friend coming in on the same boat. The friend didn't come in. They got to talking and he invited her to go on a hike to the top of the peak, told her, It was a beautiful view, and anyway she went at the top of the peak with him, got married the next day.

That's an amazing story. Now, your father was quite an adventurer. Yep. He was 81 when they got married. He was 81, and your mom thought he was how old? Oh, I thought he was probably about 50. Yep. What do you think you inherited from that?

I think the sense of adventure. My mother was really adventuresome too. After my father died, she would still do things, camping trips. We did a trip to San Quentin when I was 13 years old. That's when I fell in love with Baja. And I think it was about when you were 13 years old, you also fell in love with the Lamberta. That's right. I went to junior high school and walking home from school, there was a garage open with a motor

scooter all apart. One day there was a guy in the garage, and I talked to him, I said, would you sell it? He said, yeah, I'll sell it for $50. So I got busy, mowing lawns and any stores I could do to make a little money in the neighborhood. Got the $50 together. Went to buy it, and he said,

nope, I don't want to sell it. I changed my mind. I was brokenhearted. And my mother said, let's go downtown. There's a motorcycle dealer. downtown San Maradino, and he has L'Ambrana Motor Scooters. I went down there, and John Burr was a guy,

and he taught me how to ride it in the alleyway behind the store. And I sat in the front, he sat on the back, he worked the controls, showed me how to do everything. And I said, okay, now you do it. And you did it. Yep. And what was it like, that first feeling of having that freedom and that machine? It just opened my horizons before I could go as far as I could ride my bicycle or hike.

And the scooter made a big difference. And then I, in those days, 14 years old, you could get a farm license, so I got a license and rode all the fire roads in San Bernardino Mountains. How soon did you just, was there a voice inside you saying, go faster, Malcolm, go faster? Well, was there ever a period where you were cautious? Probably not. A friend of mine, a neighbor, he was John Morland. He was the same age as I was.

And his mother, he kept hounding his mother and father until they bought him a lambretter too. So when you have two, you always race. You know, he got, he had the competitive instinct, and I did too. So everywhere we went, it was race speed. And that quickly led to, was it a matchless that came after that? Yes. Was that again in parts? No, it was a 49 matchless, and it was chained up to a telephone pole.

And I kept looking at it and thought it was really neat looking. had a great big front wheel, 21-inch front wheel, and a little leather seat, kind of high handlebars. And it was $175. So I sold the Lambrana and bought the matchless. And you were about how old then? 14, you know, I put probably 15. So you'd had the Lamberta a year or so, maybe a little longer?

Maybe two years. All right. Yeah. And survived. Yep. And the mass just gave me a bigger range of exploring, bigger gas tank, higher speed. And how soon did the accidents start? Well, I really didn't have very many accidents. I fell down on the labrata a few times, you know, just spin out, hit the ground, skin my elbows.

the mashness. It took some work to keep that going. I think that bike had been ridden a little bit hard and maybe needed some love and care. Needed parts. And you learned a lot about it. It needed parts. So I went down to Mott cycle and San Bernardino,

and I would dig through the trash can, get old chains, tires, tubes, parts. And that was my routine. Get it done with school, we're down and dig through the trash can to keep my mattresses running. And what did Pappy Mott think about that? Well, he kept kidding me.

He said, I'd have to hire you. So anyway, he hired me. I think I got 25 cents an hour, and I washed parts in gasoline. I can't believe it now, how dangerous that was. We had magnetos that if you spun them, it would make a spark. And we're a couple of gallon can of gas. And just working, washing it with brushes.

And I can't believe I didn't ignite myself. Probably not great to breathe all that gasoline either. No. Day after day. No. Well, you survived. And you learned a lot from Pappy Mott, I think. I did.

Tell me a little bit about that and a little bit about him. One day he threw away about his catalogs, new catalogs had come out with motorcycle parts in it. I took them home just to look at them, and I saw that he was maybe doubling his money on everything he's selling. If he sold the tire for $10, he paid five for it. And so a few days later, I said, Papi, you're a crook, you take the people's mind double your mind where you bought it for. And he said, come and look, I'm gonna show you something.

He showed me a part. Then he showed me, okay, my employees, my rent, he had all his expenses. And instead of making $5 on that tire, he made like 45 cents. So you learned a very good lesson about how business really works. Yep. And then we were one of the first Honda dealers in the U.S. And the mechanics didn't like Japanese motorcycles.

They called them Jap junk. They had Harleys and Triumphs and Matches. They didn't realize that Japan was going to eat their lunch with a better product. Anyway, we'd get these little Honda 50s in in crates. They didn't, mechanics didn't want anything to do with them. And so when everybody to go home at night, I'd put, I put maybe 10 of them in a circle. I grabbed my ranch to put the footpig on.

I put one foot peg on every one, one shift over on one. I production lined it. And it's usually done an hour and a half, two hours. And the mechanics said, say, how long did you work last night? Oh, it was one in the morning. I didn't want them to know I was making a lot more money than they were. As a kid. Yeah.

Wow. So you've learned a little bit about business early on from Pappy Mott, and you're feeding your hunger to learn about motorcycles and racing. When did you first start racing? I think I was 16. 57, 1957. Yeah. And I had, the matches I had, had rigid frame, no suspension, with really rough riding. By the way, I got that bike back from the guy I sold it to 50 years ago.

Wow. I have it at the store. I'm looking forward to stopping in at the store and seeing the museum on my way back to Los Angeles. Good. So. let me ask you, because my parents were really against motorcycles and really afraid of how I was going to hurt myself. What did your mom think? 1955, 55, 56, 57, San Bernardino.

I mean, motorcycling didn't have, it was still Marlon Brando and the wild ones, and it was the birth of the hell's angels out there. So it must not have been the nicest people like you met on Honda's years later, right? Well, some of the people, yes. Some of the Hells Angels looked pretty bad. Was your mom really against the whole motorcycling thing and hanging out at the shop? Or was she happy that you were busy and you were working and you had something that, you know, fed you, that fed your soul? I think she was fairly happy. Then my stepfather came on the scene, and she and he had been engaged in Salt Lake City, Utah.

He was Chinese. His family came over and were coolies building the railroad, and when they joined the Golden Spike, hooked the train tracks together, they fired all the coolies. A lot of them went back to San Francisco, but a lot of them stayed in Salt Lake City. And my stepfather's parents started a doll hospital where they repair dolls. You know, dolls were mostly wooden carved faces and handmade, and they'd get passed down to the younger siblings. and so they had a shop where they fixed,

put new clothes on them, painted them and fixed him out. His, my stepfather, was a sports editor in Salt Lake Tribune, and his one brother was the editor of the Salt Lake Tribune, the other brother was a surgeon, and the other brother, her sister was a doctor.

Wow. So very successful for them. Very successful. And I rebelled against him at first, but he taught me a lot about business. He'd hold me the money to get started in business, and he'd go to the races with me. And you seemed to take business more seriously when you were young more seriously than you're racing. Well, I knew it made more sense in my life. You know, there's a few racers in those days that made a decent living, but not.

many. Now it's a whole different story. I mean, the motorcross kids are getting a million or two million dollars or five million. Crazy. Yeah. So you worked your way up from washing parts at Pappy Mots to work. Was K&N next door? No. They were in Riverside. I hit my best friend had on. We were out riding in the hills in the evening. Two of us came down the hill. You had to go, there was a flood control project. And to get around the fences, you had to go up the steep hill, down the other side. My friend and I, we waited and waited, and Mike, my friend, the other friend, didn't come.

So we went back to look for him. there was a blind rise and we had head on and it hit my leg right here at the femur and tibia and brought my tibia in about seven places lost pieces of bone and broke my femur anyway there was quite a concern and some thought of amputation from what I've read about that. And your mother wasn't going to have it. No, she didn't want any. We were a Kaiser health member,

and she started checking with Kaiser, and she found a young doctor that just graduated where they do bone grafts. They get bones out of your hip, graft them into your missing pieces. So they saved my leg. Long, awful recovery? Yep, I had a...

Almost a full body cast, yeah. Body cast on my back for two months. Yep, and then when I... So you got away from motorcycles for a little bit? A little bit, yeah. And into hot rods. And then my stepfather, he had... bought a 39 forged sedan.

It was a metallic red, beautiful car, and he kept it in the garage the whole time, and he brought it from Salt Lake to San Bernardino and gave it to me. We would, a lot of friends of mine, we'd go out camping weekends, and we started fire-roading the car, thinking it was a Pikes Peak.

years. Anyway, tore it up eventually. But learned how to drive sideways, I guess. Yep, yep. Actually, one of the front drum on the brake, was mechanical brakes, not hydraulic. The drum broke, so we just disconnected that wheel from the braking system.

So when you put it on the brake, it would pull to one side. We drove it that way for a while, but there were some roads in the orange groves in those days. East Highlands was all orange trees, and we would take turns driving it. Who could drive the fastest through this maybe three-mile course? We took a few orange trees down. So from what I've gathered, you stayed away from motorcycles for a little bit during this recovery period, where you were basically on a gurney with this almost complete body cast, two-thirds of your body and a cast,

but you were still fiddling with fixing parts and fixing things. I guess you had a lot of time on your hands. I did, but I took it up. It bent my matches about a 40-degree angle, bent it in the middle where the impact was. So I took it all apart. My friend that I hit, He took the frame down to, I think it was Buchanan's in Los Angeles,

and they had the jigs and everything. They straightened it out. I put it back together on a gurney. Amazing. And then I was afraid to ride it. I was scared of it. I sold it and bought it. I don't know, I traded it.

A guy had ridden down from, driven down from. Oregon, and he had a Lincoln north of Mercury, I think a 53 mercury. I trained him the motorcycle for the mercury. But then I went back to work for Papy Maugh. I'm not sure if we mentioned earlier, so we'll cover it again here. You went back to Papy Maude after your accident, but Papi Mott had a wooden leg from his accident as a... Speedway rider.

Speedway rider when they raced on board track. Yeah. I went, there was the auto parts store right next door to Papy Mott. And the guy was the owned it. It was real sharp. And he liked that I was interested in business. And so he'd help me tell me things. Anyway.

So you ended up, we're going to fast forward a little bit here. you ended up getting back into motorcycling. You couldn't stay away. There was a family in Hawaii at Schubert's. The whole family raised. There's about two generations of them. And they had, they traded in a 53 matches of Pappies, and I bought that from him.

started riding that and then I wanted a new bike and they had a leftover on the floor and he sold me that credit which I had to make payments for it but

I left the store to go home one evening and there was a park on the way home and it had some curves, winding road through the park. I used to go as fast as I could go. Well, I didn't realize that new tires had wax on them.

So this is a brand new bike. A brand new bike. I had this mold release, and I rode about a mile until I got to the curvy road, light it down the first corner and slid. all the way across the hannah bars footpay me underneath it. Brand new bike. Yeah, brand new bike.

Freshly healed body. Well, you had some success as a local racer, and then one day Edison Dye walks into your life. Yep. Can we jump fast forward right through all that racing that we're not even going to talk about, but you're damned successful and local stuff, Southern California, her and hounds and here and there?

I'll tell you, one story, short short. Please do. Reno Valley, they had a motorcycle guys that made different tracks up and down the hills and through the canyons and a little bit of everything. They'd maybe 10-mile loops, and they'd do five loops.

The first race, I went out there, and I felt, I thought, just go wide open. It's a trick to winning races. So I went wide open. First turn, I took out about four other guys. And we all, some older guy came over, said, stupid kid, what are you doing?

Anyway, I went home driving. I had a del Camino. And the way home, I started thinking, you know, I fell off about seven times. If I hadn't fallen off, I'd have won the race. So I went back a month later and didn't fall off, slowed down a little, and actually speeded it up. And that was quite a revelation, slowing down to speed up. Yeah.

I still, I've had that problem all my life when I go too fast. Well, this is the name of my podcast is Slow Baja. and I have not had the machinery or the ability to go as fast. And so I'm looking at you and I'm in deep admiration of somebody who had to slow down to go fast enough to win. You were going so fast that you were keeping yourself from winning by going too fast. If you slowed down, you could win, which is quite a revelation. Yeah, I have young guys now that I try to explain that too. Can you tell me a little bit about your internal drive since we're talking about slowing down?

Can you tell me about your internal drive and where your mind goes when you get into that racing zone? All those things coming together on a motorcycle, so many inputs coming into your brain, your vision, you're hearing, the road. Where does your mind go? I love that feeling, that adrenaline high, when you're using all your sight, all your ability, your balance, your calculation. You have to make a quick decision. Like going down a dirt road in Baja

and coming over a rocky rise, you don't know what's over the helm, but you have to make a decision quickly or a crash. Makes you feel very alive, doesn't it? Yes, it does. When you get it right. Yeah, when you get it right. And I've gotten it wrong a couple times.

I broke my famer in Baja, Baja 500 race. Here at SLOBaha, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border. And when we go, we'll be going with Baja bound insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at Bajabound.com. That's Bajaubound.com, serving Mexico traveler since 1994. A big thanks to those of you who've contributed to our Baja baseball project. You know, we launched our gear deliveries on my winter expedition.

Michael and Matthew from Barbers for Baja. We're along for the ride, and we got to deliver that critically needed baseball gear. Up and down the peninsula, it was really, truly amazing. And on my last trip, I got to go to the state baseball championships and see some of our alums playing, some recipients of the Baja Baseball Gear Deliveries. And congratulations to Guerrera Negro and Muley, the Austenaros and the Cardinalitos won silver and bronze at the state championships. Big stuff. And it's really fun to be there and fun to see them.

All right, well, please help us continue this vital work. Make your tax-deductible donation at the Barbers for Bahamas for Bahamas. Click Barbers for Baja.org. Click the Baseball in Baja link. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really do. It is so amazingly gratifying to be able to give these kids this chance to keep playing this sport. Keep them on the field.

Keep them out of trouble. Please check it out. Baseball in Baja link at barbers for Baja.org. Thank you. Well, let's get to the sixth day in Sweden, which then led to you rooming with, was it Bud Eakins you were roaming with? Yes.

And he told you about the upcoming Baja race in 67, the Nora. I think it was Polish 16. Sorry, right. You were in 66. You were in Sweden, and the next year you were in Poland, and you won that six day in Poland, correct? Well, I won a gold medal.

You won a gold medal. Bud told me about the race coming up. I came back. Maybe I should tell you. story about Edison Dye. Well, I was going to say, so Edison Dye and the Husca Varner. Yeah, by this time I had bought the service. You were at K&N, and you took on partnership and ended up with the service department.

Yes. Yeah, we, Kenny and Norm, I was going to leave and go back to work for Poppy, on. And they said, no, you stay, you'll be a partner. So they made me a partner. But they kind of stopped work. After they convinced you to drop out of college to be a partner and they had this other air cleaner thing going on. Yeah. Anyway, they're still good friends of mine. But I bought the service department home. I would, I bought a, I bought a, heliarch welder, aluminum welder, taught myself how to use it. And there was nobody in town with a heliark in those days.

So I got Volkswagen engines and cases and stuff from all kinds of flame. I do the welding and I wait on the counter. And one day a guy sticks his head in the wind. and said, who's Malcolm Smith here? And I said, I am. And he said, I want to hire you to race my Swedish motorcycles. I'm going to be the importer of them. And I brought two of them over here.

I want you to go race them. I went out. He had the husky in the back of the pickup, and I was raising Greaves motorcycles from England. I argued with him how much better the grease were in the husky, big aluminum frame. He said, well, just come out and ride it. Let's go riding. Where can you ride around here?

I said, well, round Snake Mountain, there's a bunch of tracks out there. And we went, unloaded the motorcycle. motorcycle started it up rode one lap in this motor cross kind of course we had and I pulled right up to him I said you've hired yourself a rider it was so much better than the old grieves that was the Swedes are great at simplifying everything and they use Swedish I'm just a great product. I realized the opportunity of being a dealer. So I said, I'll race it, but you have to make me a dealer.

So I was the first dealer in the U.S. I was another dealer in Burbank. He and I were at the same time dealing with. at the same time dealers. And I bought a little Dodge van, and I filled it with parts for huskies, tires, and chains. And I'd go to the desert races. I'd sell parts.

And I'd go race, and then I'd sell parts before I went home. Well, it sounds like Edison Dye was a very smart man. He was really sure. He did tours, a BMW motorcycle tours in Europe. He had, I don't know, 20 or 25 motorcycles. He took American tourists over, and he had all this layout everywhere. They'd go to different hotels all over Europe. Tell us that story about he sent you to the sixth day in Sweden,

but he flew you over to Norway and you had to pick up his van. That's a pretty good story. Well, when he was trying to talk me into riding us for a racing for him, he wasn't getting any headway. He said, no, if I, you ride for me, I'll send you to the six days in Sweden. So that tip, that convinced me that I should be on a husky. and before I was going to I was waiting for the tickets

they wouldn't come when I'd call him and he'd say oh pretty soon pretty soon and then he finally said when the last day he said I'll meet you at the L.A. airport I'll have a ticket for you so I get to the airport he's got a ticket alright but it's to Oslo, Norway

and he said I have one of my tour luggage Volkswagen vans in the parking lot of the airport there and you have to drive that to Sweden. I got there about two in the morning

it's raining like you had I have a motorcycle with gear bag and oh he didn't know what color it was. He just gave me the keys. And didn't know quite where or it was parked, I understand. No, somebody else had parked it. That was your job at 2 a.m. in the rain.

Yep, and anyway. How many vans do you think they were in that parking lot? Well, I tried the key in about four or five of them. In those days, probably half the cars were both a million van. And then I, on Norway, you drive on the right side of the road. In Sweden, you drive on the other side of the road. in those days. Sweden changed back to our style.

But in those days, the college girls hitchhite all over Europe. And if there were girls hitchhiking, I'd stop and pick them up. If there were guys there, I'd just keep going. We had a kind of a roundabout. One needed to go to...

So you became attack. Yeah, kind of a taxi. It went out of the way a little bit. Two of them have to go over here and another one there. Were they surprised to see an American motorcycle racer driving in their country? They're pretty friendly people. Yeah, and they spoke good English. But it sounds somewhat innocent. You were a married guy and you had some important work to do. Yep, I wanted to do the race. My timing was eight hours difference than there.

So I woke up and it was a bright, sunny day. Yeah, so you had some jet lag. Yep. And they have 24-hour sun there. Yep. What time did you get up? It was about three or four in the morning, but it was. So did you have access to the garage or did you just have to walk around?

No, I didn't. walked around. They had an executive hotel that was up on the hill and they had big Swedish breakfast. The next year they had bought a castle from a family that had a big castle up on the hill so that's where we got to stay in the castle. Amazing. The factory, there was a big lake there, Lake Vataran, and there was a river that fed it and had a waterfall, and they had a wheel.

Yeah, a water wheel. Water wheel. And it ran this big shaft down to the factory, and they would tap off. to run their lathe or mill. They made guns for the Allies and the Germans. They were neutral, but they made guns and cannons. So that event got you on some terrain that was unlike anything you had ever ridden here in the desert, correct?

Boy, it sure was. mud. Mud and slippery stuff. Yeah, mud and roots. You survived that, ended up with a silver medal if I've done my homework. Yes. I hit the ground many times. For that kind of riding,

you have to have a lot of throttle control. You have to keep the wheel from spinning. And from desert racing, my method to win was just go full throttle because the ground was more traction. Right. We're going to fast forward. So next year you're back to the sixth day and won a gold medal. Yeah.

And you roomed with your hero. And he told you about Baja. Yes. He told me about Baja in the race. It's going to happen. And in those days, 1967, Nora was a brand new thing, but didn't Bud and his brother, hadn't they done a speed run, set a record on down all the way?

Yes, Billy Robinson. He was a Honda Dealer. And Dave Eakins, I don't think Brad rode the first ride. I'm not sure. I think you're right. I think he didn't ride the first one. Those are facts I should have straight. away. So he told you about Baja and you thought why not? I thought well boy that would be fun

because I had been down there with my mother when I was 13 and anyway I had to talk Edison Dye and giving me a motorcycle and I think he paid the injury fee and you did an awful lot of homework with this little book that I brought. You brought the, you had the Lower California Guidebook. Goodhart and Garrett. Yeah, and again, your, your preparation really, I think, probably helped set you up. Obviously, you had a great bike and great skills, but you were very well prepared about roads and where to go.

Tell me a little bit about your partner on that ride. Yes. Jay Ann Roberts. He seems to have gone on to some fame in his life. Yes, he did. He was a really good writer. He still lives in Montana and rides. But Jay Ann didn't do his homework.

No, I kept telling him, read the book. Figuring out you can miss, there's some turns. You have to take the right turn. Anyway, he missed the turn in the end to something. And Ignacio, he kept going straight to Santa Rosa Leia. Got there without a gas. Found a fisherman. It was now midnight.

Got some gas. Came back and went back out to the west coast. And he just felt lost. Missed again. And he laid down under a cactus slept for a while until somebody came by. was Vic Wilson and

Myers-Makes Right and he just followed him into the finish line So for a one too You were number one in bikes And they were number one in cars Yeah

Yeah But when When they had The race started The Bullfight ring in Tijuana, and they said, the first vehicle will be at the halfway point, El Arco, at six the next morning. I was there five the night before. I was like 12 hours ahead of what they expected.

So obviously there wasn't an arch. They weren't ready for you. No, they weren't ready. Did you have to go looking for the officials? How did you handle that? No, they were. they were camping in the area it was a little village

there was still a Catholic church there and everybody was kind of hanging around there so they didn't realize how fast the bikes were they had no idea no or how fast you were on the bike well we'd put a big gas tank called triumph gas tank and

my friend of mine he was I think about 16 years old and we filled we bought a little Volkswagen stripped it down took the vendors off that little beetle

yep and he carried five gallon cans of gas and left him at Ransha for you to pick up and fill up and the first one was El Rosario and it was supposed to be at the first house as you come into the village

I knocked on the door No, no gasoline The old lady answered the door No, no So I went to the next house Nope, nope So I went back to the first house When she opened the door

I just kind of walked by her Went to the back porch And there was my can again Ran back out And filled it up filled it up just as John Barnes on his trial came through. But I hadn't pre-in-on or anything. We just read the guide book and decided where we'd hide a stash.

So I think that's the amazing thing now. To see where that event has gone in the 50 years since then, 50-plus years since then, imagine that you could just look at a guidebook, send a buddy down with a Volkswagen Beetle full of five-gallon cans, and you finished, you won, you never had a chance to pre-run, and it just boggles my mind compared to what people are doing today.

Yes. The amount of money they're spending. Flying and pre-running and pre-running and GPS and all that, yeah. Did you have any techniques to help you memorize things, or was it just, did it just come naturally to you? It came natural to me. It must have helped you immensely to be able to have these facts and figures and where to go and deal with the fatigue and the pain and whatever else you're doing at speed and still be able to remember. When I got off the bike at the halfway point, I hadn't drank very much, and I couldn't talk. with a dry

out dehydrant. But I have an imprint of a race course 20 years ago I could go down and repeat it. It's just

It's locked in your mind. Yeah. It's locked in your mind. Well, you've been generous with making some time and telling me some stories. won't stay all day, but I do have a few more questions for you. From that first Baja run in 1967 to now you have a house there, how many wins?

You had, was it two in motorcycles, three in motorcycles and three in cars? Yeah. Three and three. I think so. You're like the John Surtees of off-road. You had two-wheel and four-wheel wins. Yeah. And if I understand it correctly, you ended up in a buggy because you broke your leg on a photo shoot with the LA Times who was doing a story about you on your previous win.

That's right. Yeah. Shav. Shav. Famous Shav Glick. Yeah. Got to know him a little bit in the 80s. And we were about shooting.

Should I tell a story about? Sure. Please. Well, they had Big Welton. brought the buggy out, and then we went to the same place that I had tested with the husky, right on Snake Mountain. The sun was going down, and the photographers had to hurry and get some pictures before they lost the light. So I was at the bottom of this hill, and I said, go up on top of the hill,

and you can shoot there when I jump up. Well, there'd been a flash flood, and there was a big canyon. So I jumped up the hill and smacked right into the other side of the canyon. And my leg got between the motorcycle on the bank. Now, was this the leg that you had previously broken? Yes. Another had to have plates put in. So from that, you said, well, I'm not going to.

to miss Baja, I'm going to build a buggy. Yep. There was a company here in Riverside. They built Volkswagen engines, Revmaster, and they were the sponsor. And they bought the frame. And the friend that I had sent down with the gasoline, he and I put the buggy all together. and he drove with me too.

And I learned another, never quit. We were in the race, and we were at the L.A. Bay Turnoff, where it turns off. And I hit a big hole, and the front wheel flew off. In those days, the Volkswagen had a hollow spindle on the front to drive the speedometer cable. So the right side spindle was very weak. And I didn't know what you were supposed to put a Porsche spindle and that fixed it.

Well, anyway, the wheel flew off. We found our way into Punta Prieta. and there was a bunch of old cars laying around there. There was the old Volkswagen. I could have taken it apart, taken the spindle off, put it on, and won the race again because I think I had about hour lead,

but just gave up. So never give up has been your motto. Yep. and slow down to go fast enough to win. So you've developed some affinity for the place. You've developed some affinity for the people. Can you talk a little bit about that? What the people and the place means to you?

Again, you've been to Africa. You've been all over Europe. We haven't even talked about on any Sunday. You're an international film star that that film's almost 50 years old and people are still talking about it. It's amazing to me, and here you are, you know, we're talking about our next door neighbor here, Baja. What does it mean to you? It's just the freedom.

You know, if we want to go ride our dirt bikes, we can ride them side by side, get on the sea doze or down the coast. I have a good habit or bad habit, but if there's a road that turns off, I want to go down to the end of it, and we found some amazing things down there. I've read about that. You're very curious. You're flying from the air you're always looking.

When you're out and about on the dirt, you're always looking. My son was a pilot, and my wife is too. I just want to stay on, on Baja for a little bit here. You've developed a foundation, and you have an orphanage that you're involved with. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yes. It's in Valichita, and we pay any ongoing education that kids want, like if they want to go to boarding school in mainland Mexico, we pay all their expenses and we have one

he's a dentist now. graduate down school and he's going to take two more years to be an oral surgeon and he just sent us a beautiful video he did

of his self and you raise money for the foundation through your charity rides do I have that correct yes we have some big donors we have one Don Mackey he used to be a

GMC truck dealer in Tucson and he hits up all his suppliers, his insurance, brokers, finance people, and makes a very big contribution. And all the riders contribute in them. Well, you're nearing in 80 years old here, if I'm correct, right? you're a little bit. Seven, eight. What do you think about when you look back and say,

wow, this was my life? Oh, there's a few things I'd do over differently. But, you know, I have great kids and great grandkids. There's still too many places I want to see and go do. I love Africa. I love the backcountry of Africa. And you race the Perry Dakar, which is a whole other crazy thing. Yeah, it sure is.

In Land Rovers, correct? Yep. I have infinity for old range rovers. I've got four of them out in the backyard there. Maybe you can show me before I head out. Yeah, I drive a 50-year-old land cruiser around Baja, 1971. Six-cylinder. Six-cylinder, FJ-40, total.

stock, just, you know, just an old-fashioned lump of a machine, but it's a beautiful old portal to another era. It's like your old bikes. It just takes you back to an older, simpler time. The range rovers ride fairly smooth because they have a lot of wheel travel. Anyway. With the advancements in motorsports and the speeds, did you ever want to get in a in a trophy truck or a new buggy and really tear it up?

Oh, yes. That never abates. That feeling's always there. But Belkamp and I built that Belray bullet, and that was the state of the art in those days. And then I drove Pernely Jones this Don Adams bought. Parnelli's

The Blazer The Bronco No, the Blazer Oh, the Blazer Later And I drove that And that You could

You could win Overall on that It went so fast Down the roads You The wind buffeting you And the buggies Are going maybe 90

And you're going 125 You had mentioned At one point at one point, that you admired a friend of yours, you would be fretting on your way home from a race if you didn't win. And you would be fretting and fretting and beating yourself up about, you could have done this, you could have done that,

and he's just all smiles. He finished 12th or 15th or what have you. If you can't win an overall or first place, does it really, really tear you up? No, no, no, anymore. Not anymore, but for how many years? I had a, yeah. I had a very good coal driver

as Dr. Feldkamp. So I met Bud in Mexico for La Carrera back in 2000, I think it was 2008. He was racing with Bob Summerauer and had kind of a crazy crash, but I got to meet those guys a little bit. I've seen him a couple times since then. But how did you, and he was a dental student, correct?

Yeah, I worked on his husky. motorcycle. He rode motorcross. So it seems to me things were simpler in that era in that if you found a guy who could share the expenses, you're an internationally known motorcycle racer at

this stage, and he's a dental student. And the two of you got together and won in Baja. Well, he has a winning instinct too. He wants to win. Yeah, we just went to dinner with him a couple nights ago. Well, he's a nice guy.

Yeah. All right. Well, Malcolm Smith, I can't say thank you deeply enough for making some time for the slow Baja and telling me about your life and your affinity for the people of Baja. And you've got a place that's in Gonzagape, yeah? Yeah. And do you get down there much? We go about six times a year.

That's a lot. Yeah. We have got a lot of friends to buy houses there. So now we have a lot of adventures. We'll do whale watching trips. We'll do the back roads on the four-by-fours. I think I saw a Volkswagen van out in your front yard here that looks like it's Baja ready. Yeah. My son built it, and then he gave it to my son.

and he was going to take it to Baja, but he doesn't want to rest up like it would down there. And when you get down there, does the rust come right off of you? Do you feel, is there a new spring in your step? Is there a new feeling that comes over you when you get to Baja? Yeah, they're always there. And we've been doing that ride down there 25 years now. How many people go on that with you?

We've been had sometimes up to seven. And do you still get on a bike and ride or do you just get to make an appearance now? My balance is not right now. I would think that's got to be a tough one. I have a Honda-powered pre-rider I built and I would chase. I had a rack on the back. I can put a motorcycle on top of it. So I was the rescue.

Well, thank you very much. It's been really a delight. Hey, well, I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Malcolm Smith. What an amazing, amazing motorcycle racer, buggy racer, Baja racer, Raleigh Racer, Malcolm Smith, astonishing talent on a motorcycle and damn fast in a buggy as well. All right, well, if you like what I'm doing here, if you like what I'm doing, I'm going to ask you to drop a taco in the tank. You can do that by going to Slowbaha.com.

Hit that donate link, drop a taco in the tank. Help me keep doing these conversations in person. Again, this was early in my Slobaha life, and I was pretty stoked to get out to Malcolm's house and sit down with him, and thanks to Bud Felt Camp for helping with that and Malcolm's son, Alexander, for making the connections there.

All right, I'm going to tell you about Mary McGee. She also passed a day after Malcolm. She was an amazing woman, 87 years old, almost 88. And you know, She got to ride out in the desert with Steve. She was the first person to ever solo the Baja 500 on a motorcycle, and she was damn cool. There's an ESPN 30 for 30 with Mary called Motorcycle Mary.

I urge you to stream it on YouTube if you haven't seen it yet. But you know what? I'm going to get back to her pal, Steve McQueen, coolest cat in Hollywood in those days. And Steve said it. Baja's life. Anything that happens before or after is just wait. You know, people always ask me, what's the best modification that I've ever made to slow Baja? Without a doubt, it's my Shielman seats.

You know, Toby at Shield Man USA could not be easier to work with. He recommended Averio F for me and Averio F XXL for my navigator, Ted. This Ted's kind of a big guy. And Toby was absolutely right. The seats are great and they fit both of us perfectly. And let me tell you, after driving around Baja for over a year on these seats, I could not be happier. Shieldman, Slow Baja approved.

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