Slow Baja - Racer Roger Mears On Bakersfield Baja His Famous Brother And The Mears Gang

Episode Date: March 27, 2021

Inducted in the 2020 Off-Road Motorsports Hall Of Fame, Roger Mears is the eldest son of racer Bill Mears and the older brother of four-time Indianapolis 500 Champion Rick Mears. Roger drove buggies, midgets, stock cars, sprint cars and competed in the Indy 500 twice in his long career. He made his mark in offroad racing and was a constant threat in both short course and desert racing.  Mears built and raced the Nissan trucks and won twenty World Off-Road Championships at Riverside International Raceway. Think motocross meets Baja in front of 60,000 fans. It was wheel-to-wheel-racing, with great sponsors, factory support, and the sport's best drivers. His first Baja race was in 1973, "my brother Rick and I showed up with a couple of spare tires and gas cans and just fell in love with the place." Mears went on to win four Baja 1000's, five Pikes Peak Hill Climbs, two HDRA/SCORE series titles, and the Mickey Thompson Stadium Series Truck title.  We stopped to see Roger when we were driving through Bahia de Los Angeles on the 2021 BajaXL Rally. He and his wife Carol have been living in BOLA for years. The conversation flowed easily; he was humble about his successes and honest about his struggles. His deep reverence for his family -his father Bill, younger brother Rick, and his sons Casey and Roger Jr were genuine and refreshing. I only called him Rick once, and we laughed about it! Enjoy the conversation with Roger Mears.

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, do you have a four-wheel drive? Did you always want to see Baja racing up close and personal? You need to join Slow Baja in the Nora Mexican-1000,

April 23rd through 30th. The Safari class is your way to get your street legal four-wheel drive vehicle up close and into the action. You've got to check out the safari class at nora.com. That's www. n-O-R-R-A.com. Hey, this is Michael Emery on the Slow Baja podcast, and I'm in Bahia de Los Angeles today with Roger Mears. We're going to talk about Roger's life. We're going to talk about how he got down to Baja and why he's made Baja home. So Roger Mears, nice to be with you this morning.

Thank you. Yeah. Hey, tell me about, we were just talking about Bakersfield now. Did you grow up in Bakersfield? Yes. Yeah, we were born. I was actually born in Wichita, Kansas, and 10 years old, we moved to Bakersfield. And it's great.

Bakersfield was really good for us. You know, made racing our, racing was our hobby, and fortunate enough that it turned into, a way to make a living. Yeah, it turned into a career for an entire couple of generations there. That's right. Hey, so tell me about your dad. Was he a mechanic?

What took him to Bakersfield? Because it seems to me, only known a little bit about Bakersfield, a whole lot of people built, you know, had mechanical skills, built stuff that went fast, went fast in it. It seemed to be kind of a, you know, a little bit of Texas right here in California. Well, my dad is the one that started the whole thing.

He was racing in Wichita, Kansas, modified in jalopies, and NASCAR, stock car stuff in the late 40s and all the way through the 50s, and then a little bit in the 60s. Like I said, in 60, let's see, no, 57, we moved to Bakersfield. And my dad was racing there also in Bakersfield, Hassarobles, L.A. and, you know, the local tracks. And then my dad started a backhoe business. And then he quit racing. It was about the time that I wanted to start. And I was 18, 19.

And I was working for him running a backhoe. Did that for a long time. And then started, I built a stock car to race out at the Bakersfield. Speedway. That's how I got started in racing in the stock car. And then my brother, you're the oldest. I'm the oldest by five years. Okay. And you do have a brother. Yeah, my little brother, Rick. Yeah, and he kind of went toward open wheel and I went toward stock car racing. And of course, we see how that worked out. Obviously, he was very successful in the open wheel and and then I it opened the door for me to go into open wheel I did it for a while and loved it and so I mean but but the whole time we

the whole time that we started racing it wasn't like a we weren't like a you know like like some of the families like the petties or whatever the under maybe the focused on one style of racing we right away started off racing everything. We raced. I started off in go-carts and motorcycles and stock cars and then midgets, sprint cars. And this is mid-60s. Mid-60s, all kinds of, and 70s, really started in the 70s doing all the off-road stuff too, the Mickey Thompson Stadium, the Ascot Park, doon buggy racing that we really started in. And then that opened the door for the desert. My brother won the championship one here at Ascot, which gave us a high jumper chassis.

He won a desert chassis. So that prompted us to build my dad and I and my brother to build a desert car. So that opened the door for us to go desert racing. And your family, your dad, you're doing all the work on these things yourself. Yes. You're not having these built at some shop or anything. You're really working on this stuff yourself. No, yeah.

We worked all week just so we could work on their. race cars all weekend, you know. The friend who connected us, Barbara Rainey from the Offroad Motorsports Hall of Fame, sent me a picture of your dad's hands with the rings. Yeah. It's a beautiful photograph, but those hands say a lot. Can you tell me a little bit about your dad and his hands and his skills and his abilities? Well, my dad was a really good, hardworking.

He still is. He's 91. But he is a hard worker, dedicated, family man, and really never did anything the easy way. You know, everything had to be. He was just really good at everything he did. But he built, he was a mechanic. Started off as working for a Chevrolet dealership in Wichita, Kansas as a mechanic. And then he raced four or five nights a week.

He actually made more money at the racetracks than he made. working at the Chevrolet dealership. And so we come from a long, long line of racing. And what does it mean to be in the Mears Gang? Tell me about how that phrase came to describe your family. Yeah, the Mears Gang. We, you know, we were racing. We just, like I said, we were racing.

Hell, I was racing almost three nights a week. We'd race Tuesday night at Ascot. we'd race in the buggies. Then on Friday and Saturday I'd race a sprint car or midget somewhere. And I'd race a stock car in between. And then my brother was doing some open wheel stuff at the same time as we were doing the off-road racing. And we did it all at the same time. And I forgot what I was saying.

Yeah, I was just asking about what it meant to be in the Mears game. Oh, yeah. So what happened is down at Ascot Park, my brother and I got where we were, win and everything. We'd won almost all the races they had and and media actually tagged us with hey the mirrors gang's coming to be here tonight because all everybody from bakersfield would come down that's great to watch us race and then we had a lot of all a lot of people from bakersfield helping us pit crew and stuff for nothing you know just having fun fun weekend racing and so I was kind of dubbed with that I mean oh that Mears gang thing and at the time we're trying to

think at the time we were trying to think what to call ourselves because we had people saying you know what are you guys blah blah blah and my mom said when I said you know why don't you know why don't you just call yourself the mirrors gang I go man that's a great idea mom so I made up the logo I drew the logo mirrors gang logo and that's how it all happened it's how it all happened yeah so you're racing everything you're having great success you got your kid brother you know like every athlete's younger brother, he's the better baseball player, the better football player, works harder, is faster. So you've got your younger brother on your toes too. What did you really, was there one thing you really enjoyed racing more than the others?

Yeah, off-road is really my favorite. Out of all, I thought I was going to stock car racing. That's where I was really headed. That's what I wanted to do. And then like my brother, brother got into Open Wheel and it kind of opened the door for me to go because right at that time I was looking I was talking actually talking to some NASCAR people and I had Goodyear behind me and they were going to take me NASCAR racing and and I had to make I got to a point where I had to make a choice because I had an offer in Indy Cars and then I had an offer in the stock cars and I had to make a choice and I made that choice and went with Indy Cars. I did that for I don't know six or seven years and That was late 70s, early 80s, if I'm guessing correctly.

Yeah, it's all the way, yeah. 78 to 84 or something. Late 70s and early 80s. Yeah, okay. Up to about 83, I think. Right, right, right. And then I, you know, the IndyCar thing, I never could get a land a really good ride, you know. And I didn't want to be one of those guys walking around with his helmet at the races

every weekend begging for a ride, you know, because I kept seeing these guys come in, a lot of wealthy guys from out of country, come in with money hanging out of their pockets. And, you know, it just wasn't. Yeah, we're just touching on the real business side of racing, which is you start with a large fortune and you whittle it down to a small fortune.

But in much of racing today, those rides are bought by wealthy families. Absolutely. And the path up to that, you came up in a different way. The path up to that, you were funding yourselves on small budgets, I'm assuming, and winning, which got you attention and prize money and sponsor money.

On merit. Yeah. On merit. Yeah. And then when you get into the major league, so to speak, it gets to be a little different. It gets to be really tough. And I'll tell you a little story that I had a ride with, I was driving for the Machinist Union race team, indie cars.

And I had a, a fellow come in from Mexico wanted to drive actually come up to my car owner and ask him, said, how much are you paying that guy to drive? Well, I told him a rough number and he goes, because he was looking for a ride, see?

Well, I'll pay you that much. I'll pay you that much to let me drive. And so that's when I realized that, you know, this isn't going to work. So I just, I was really fortunate at the time that Nissan had called me and had wanted me to start my own race team for off-road. For off-road to go back to off-road. With the Nissan hardbody would be that. With the Nissan hard body. Yeah, that was a pretty popular truck. Yes. And so that's what we did.

That's what we, I ended up, you know, going back to Bakersfield and built a race shop and did everything to. Well, let's jump into that, pun intended. What was it like building those trucks and racing in short course and stadiums and Riverside? I photographed some of that stuff when I was at trackside in the middle 80s. That seemed like pretty hairy, wheel-to-wheel crazy kind of stuff. It was the most fun thing, honestly. I think the Mickey Thompson Stadium events were, I believed in that 100%. It was a great way to bring.

good, hard racing into a stadium where you have people to watch it. And, you know, so it was a really strong between some of the best racing you could do and entertainment. So it had the entertainment side that made it really attractive for sponsorships and all of that. And we had great sponsors back then, you know, with the Budweisers and all the tire companies. then the manufacturers are all competing. And I mean, it was a, I really, really believed in that. And it's a shame that we lost Mickey and his wife like we did,

because I think that thing could have kept going for quite a while longer. Yeah, for those folks who don't have any visual memory of what we're talking about, you've got to see on YouTube some of those videos from the middle to late 80s of stadium racing where you've got Roger going head-to-head with Ivan Stewart it and just crazy stuff. I mean, guys just hard on it. It seems to me like NASCAR was in the 50s or 60s. You know, guys are just hard on it, wheel to wheel, door to door, getting hot, throwing helmets at each other.

Yeah, exactly. So it was good entertainment, and it was great racing. Oh, well, we get, you know, we get 60, 80, 90,000 people at those stand, you know, in Anaheim and the crowds. This went crazy over it. So if I've got my number right, you've got 20 off-road world titles at Riverside? Is that right? Yeah.

I mean, you might have lost track. But that's just the number I pulled and doing some research on you. Yeah, I think 20-some there that we won. And that's just in the, that Riverside, the World Championship things. Yeah, which was that was that track and all that really suited me. And I drove a lot of different kinds of cars there. I drove the Jeep, honcho pickups, and Nissan. And I drove one for Cal Poly and won a race for them

and a Toyota truck. And then a lot of different buggies. And so I had my trucks. And I also rate, another thing I need to back up a little bit is a thing that really kind of got me really started was my real first professional ride was for Mike Moore, A guy named Mike Moore that owned a Jeep Hancho pickup, which Jeep AMC back then called me and wanted me to be a factory driver for them. And they said, hey, we got a guy named Mike Bor what we think will help fund this thing.

And so that's how Mike Moore and I got together. And then had Walker Evans build the trucks, and then I drove them for about four or five years. And that's how I won my first Baja 1,000. And let's jump into that. We're sitting in beautiful. It's a beautiful day in Baja. We're in your lovely garage, sitting apart from each other, trying to stay safe here. And you came to Baja with your dad, if I understand it correctly.

Do you come down here to pre-run a race? Was he racing? Yeah, well, actually, we brought up. My dad owned the car. It was the first desert car we built, and we brought it down here, and my brother and I ran it in the race, the Baja 500. Do you remember about what year that was? It had to be about 72, 73.

Yeah, about 73, right in there, 72. Things were pretty easy in those days, weren't they? A little different budget-wise on the car builds. We showed up with the car and two spare tires and four or five, gas cans and gave them to different people. We didn't know anybody. Just a few people we met from the stadium races. And came to Ensenada and started passing our cans out to people and said, hey, would

you mind if we come through, can you dump us, dump, you know, oh, yeah, and here's a spare tire case. That's just, it's all we had, you know. Yeah. Yeah, maybe that's a little different than Casey's run, right? His run in a trophy truck must have been a little different than you and Rick's first run down here. Oh, boy, big time. Yeah, that's for sure.

Things have changed. And then I built a trophy truck in 94. Well, let's back up a little bit because we're still in like 1972 or 1973. So let's talk about Bakersfield boy. What happened when you came down here and started racing through the desert and you saw this country? I fell in love with this with Mexico. And I mean, it was such a first thing, it was just an adventure, real adventure just to come down and see all this, and see all the different country and see all the different terrain.

Oh, my gosh, you know, you've got the desert, just sand, you've got the beaches, you've got rocks and rivers and pine forests. And, I mean, you know, you never see the same thing twice. I said, you know, I kind of grew up circle racing more than anything else. And you learn how to make all the corners, and you learn how to perfect everything. And here you've got to think on your feet, drive what you see. And it's super challenged. I feel like the desert's out to get you all the time. And so you race the desert first and then worry about your competition after that.

Yeah, and I think you have to be sympathetic to your equipment, too. Oh, absolutely. sense of what's going on under the hood and with the suspension and everything else. That was the hardest thing I had to learn because I came from short track racing, which is on the gas. And whoever was on the gas along this is going to go the fastest. That's how it used to be. Well, that's the hardest thing I had to learn was in the desert. I broke everything when I first started. I just couldn't understand how you had to keep letting off to win. You know, Malcolm Smith told me the same thing.

He said he had to go slower to win. That's it. Yeah, that's really hard to get your head around. It really is. But it's that red mist, and you're ready to go. Yeah. So you've fallen in love with Baja, and you had that first race, and then did you just keep on coming back? Was that part of the mix?

Yeah, and then I started coming down for a little vacations down then, and I'd still be racing up in the States, but I'd come down here and catch a vacation down then and go fishing. And then I had a friend that was coming to L.A. Bay all the time. And he says, hey, every Christmas we go fishing. Come on, go with us. So I come down here to go fishing. Fell in love with L.A. Bay. And we did that for a number of years.

And then I always said, man, you know what? Someday I'd like to have a place down here. And so then we race through here a lot. you know, with the Jeep honcho and then all the Nissan races. And I just, like I said, I just fell in love of the place. And then finally I had a friend moved down here right next door in 90, early, yeah, 89, 90. And then we got this property next door and just started building. And was Carol on board all the way?

Yes. Yeah? Mm-hmm. I love it. I mean, you have a stunning situation here. It's really beautiful. And if I understand correctly, you're off the grid here. I saw your truck last night.

You haul your own water and you're dealing with solar and everything else. Yeah, it is off the grid. We haul our own water. We have a big water tank out back that we have to peel that we have to keep full. And then, of course, generator and solar power. But I'll tell you, this, there's no. I just there's just a thing when I cross the border as soon as I can get away from the border towns and get down a little ways. I've just, I've never felt better.

It's just wonderful down here. We really enjoy it. Yeah, and so can we get into that a little bit further? There's a lot of people who listen to this show that just don't really, you know, know what that feelings like. I mean, I breathe a sigh of relief once I get south of San Felipe or Mexicali. or, you know, south of Ensenada especially. It's just like, I'm in my old truck. It's in its terrain.

It's built for this. And it just seems like I say it's an Instagram filter for my soul. But it touches me to hear that, you know, you have the same feeling. Oh, absolutely. I mean, that's what has always just, like I said, my first thought is the, I love the adventure part of it. And then the second part was the tranquillity. and like for a long time here,

well, even now, we might go weeks and never see anybody, you know, and occasional neighbor drive by, but that's it. No outside visitors, you know, so it's wonderful. Do you just love it? Do you and Carol have run out of things to say to each other? Well, I'll just start a fight.

Rick, why don't you walk, why don't you go out to the garage? and work on something for six or nine hours. Yeah, exactly. I'll let you know when dinner's ready. Uh-huh. You know, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser down to Baja, and when we go, we go with Baja Bound Insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use, Baja Bound Insurance,

serving Mexico travelers since 1994. All right, well, let's get back in it. Hey, I'm back here with Roger Mears, and we're in Bahaia de Los Angeles in his garage, looking out on a beautiful. sunny day. It's a little brisk outside, but it's real nice sitting inside here in the garage, and we're just catching up on Roger's love for Baja. So, Roger, we were talking about Baja racing and your feeling of when you cross the border, and you've got some friends down here, and you've

got some old racing buddies down here. Do you ever get together with anybody who's you raced against and raced with and old friends from that world? Sure. Yeah, there's a lot of them down here. First, Lynn Chinneth, who I drove for a lot of times, won a lot of races with Lynn. He's one of best car builders ever and good friend long-time friend and we see him frequently and Ivan I've been I've been Stuart I see fairly often he comes by and he's got a place down just south of us between Lynn Sinnott and I and then Johnny Johnson down there too yeah and there's a number there's a number there's a number of guys. There's some guys, well, Malcolm Smith.

So when I saw Malcolm at his house in Riverside, you know, I hadn't seen him in person in a few years. And he's a diminutive guy, for starters, like all motorcycle racers. You're not going to see any big football player size guys. But he's, what I've been told is when he jumps on a motorcycle, something comes over him, and he's no longer that 80-year-old guy. He's just another fast dude on a bike. He's unbelievable. I mean, really, really, he impressed me so much. We used to do the Colorado 500 ride that Wally Dollenback put on every year in Colorado,

motorcycle ride, five-day ride. And that's where I first, well, I met Malcolm earlier in some desert races, but we actually got to spend some time together up there. And then I got to ride motorcycles with him and just in awe to watch him. He is so fluid, so smooth, so fast. And it looks so effortless. It's just like, how does he do that? It doesn't even look like he's trying, you know.

And that reminds me of my brother. My brother's the same way in IndyCar. And he raced motorcycles. the same way on motorcycles. Really smooth. Do you think every racer on four-wheels should have to start on two wheels and maybe even start on dirt? Well, I don't think you have to, but I think there's some advantages. That's like, I think there's advantages to when you, like my brother and I both did,

race so many different kinds of things. There's always something you can pull from each one of those things. you might learn some little bitty thing that seems like not much from this one kind of car or type of car you might be racing that you can apply over to this other one you just got out of. Oh, man, I can do that over there. And I don't, you know. So, and the same way with motorcycles.

And also dirt versus asphalt is huge, just huge. I think there's anybody that's really, really good on dirt, and can jump over on asphalt and if it suits them can do real well. I would imagine it be quite hard to go the other way, say from Indy car to Pikes Peak or rally car racing or off-road racing. I think that would be unnerving for a lot of folks who go very, very fast on very fine pavement. Yeah, I believe that too. I think it's more of a challenge to go the other way from asphalt.

dirt. Can you talk about Pike's Peak a little bit? That just seems very scary to me. The old Blake's Peak anyways, right? Yeah. Dirt all the way up. Yeah, Pike's Peak was a real challenge. You know, there's 156 turns, starts at 8,000 feet and goes to 14,000.

And no guardrails. Can you tell us about the lack of guardrails or safety on that? Yeah. Yeah. So it's, I think out of all the places I ever race that place there, that's one place you probably hold a little more, seems like a little more respect than just about any other place. And maybe a little more pucker, too. Oh, big time. Yeah, you just.

Sorry to be talking about the pucker on slow Baja folks, but yeah, I can't imagine. No, when you drop a right rear wheel off a left hand turn off the outside edge, you know, on your sideways. and you're hoping something catches. You don't lift. Do not lift. Do not lift. Do not lift. And you raced up that stuff in an air of some pretty fast cars.

Yeah, we raced. I mean, people are really getting some fast, fast cars up those. Yeah, I raced Camaro's up there. I raced Nissan. You were telling me about the turbo ZX. ZX, yeah. And then my first car I raced up there. The reason I went there was in 1970, I think it was.

I decided to try to run one of the Ascot buggies that I was racing at Ascot. I was driving for a guy named Richard Weaver out of Bakersfield. And I called him. I said, hey, Richard, let's take your car up to Pikes Peak and run it. Really? Yeah. So, anyway, we did. So we go up there. Here we are in a little Volkswagen-powered thing, and you're running against these Chevy V8 sprint cars and stuff like Unzors.

and we're driving and we won the damn thing. You know, first time ever up there, and it was crazy. But, you know, I look back on it and some of the things, the little Volkswagen was not weighing anything, and all the weight that we did have was in the back. And so it had a lot of traction and had a turning brake. So I could keep the throttle down most of the time and just use the turning brake to turn.

and it was unbelievably quick, you know. So we went back and won again, and then went back and won some more. We won the thing, I don't remember five or six times. What I found on the Internet is, I'm not sure if it's correct, but five class victories. Yeah, that's probably about right. And then I also won three celebrity events up there, too,

which I drove the Toyota, like we'd run at Long Beach Grand Prix. We ran those up there, too, and I won those too, against Parnelly Jones and Ivan Stewart and guys like that. And it was a lot of fun. And Bobby Ender, the last time, was really fun kicking his ass. So, Roger, what's that like? What's that like when you're among the guys? Do you have some heroes in this sport?

What's it like to be with some of those guys that are big-time legends in this world and you're beating them? Well, you know what? In equally prepared vehicles. I mean, it does feel good. But humbling, too, that these guys are good guys. Parnelli Jones was my hero growing up. I mean, he was my guy.

I thought that guy just wasn't anybody better. And then to actually get to know him and start driving for him, I actually drove for him a few times, and then raced against him. In fact, one of the races that I won at the World Championship, that I caught him past him and won the race. one of my biggest things of races that I

was so proud of winning and because of who he is and I just love the guys great great guy and was that when you started racing down here did you think about the Bill Strop Broncos and Parnelly Jones and all of that

when you're in your humble you know your first setups or your first trips there were you thinking about those guys who came you know, there was only five, eight years before you. Sure. Those guys who came down here in 67 and started this whole thing up. Yeah. Did that, was that weighing on you when you guys were taking it on?

And it just impressive when you, you know, as you're driving through all of this different kind of terrain and wondering how, you know, how, you know, all the cars just start getting better and better and better. And when you start looking back further where they only had six inches of wheel travel. and little bitty tires and, you know, no suspension. It makes you really appreciate what they did. Yeah, the driving ability and the endurance ability and the pounding that their bodies took. What do you do to keep your concentration when you're in these events? When you're racing at the edge, what's going inside your head? That's a tough one.

And it's, to me, the most, the thing I'm thinking most about is I'm looking way ahead and try not to get surprised by anything. But thinking about the vehicle, about what the vehicle's going through. You know, try to be, go as fast as you can and be as easy on everything as you can, same time. Just little things like I learned early not to hold the steering wheel. Not to hold the steering wheel really hard. Don't grip it. Let let it kind of go just a little bit so that you're easier on all the parts and pieces in the steering. If you just try to muscle it and hang it in there, then you're just, you're giving up a stopping spot that some weeks

spot might find. And in the same way with being smooth and using the tools that you have, the only tools you have, the throttle brake steering wheel. And you've got to get those all in combo. Yeah, but what's up here? What's up here in your head that's telling you to keep that throttle on? Well, the main thing, it's the feeling of competition. of like I said before you've got to think about the desert first but you can't help but be thinking about the guy you're chasing or the guys that are after you or whatever so you got every time you come through every corner everywhere you everything that you do you go god could I got that better I got it I could have could I could have gained a little bit there

I should have left I left something on the plate on the plate there you know so there's It's that constant thing of trying to be better the whole time you're doing it. And there's nothing better than knowing that I got to catch that guy. I mean, end up going to pass him. I got to beat that guy. And so you work on that. How often did you and Rick get to race against each other? We raced against each other a lot.

In the beginning, we raced against each other all the time. time. And that's one of the benefits with the Mears gang is that especially early on, because we lived in the same house, lived in the same bedroom. And we'd lay there in bed at night and say, well, man, what did you do over here in this section? What did you do there? And he'd ask me and I'd ask him. And we learned a lot from each other early on on what to do and what not to do. And we're competitive and everything. I mean, you're older. I got it. Yeah.

So, you know, he's your kid, your kid brother, so you didn't play on the same high school baseball team. You didn't play basketball in elementary school together because you were that many years apart. You wouldn't have been on those same teams. Did you, were you competitive when you went fishing? Did you trap or skeet shoot against each other? Did you hunt? Was there any, was it always competition in your house?

We grew up at racetracks as my dad. Because your dad. So we didn't do anything else. We never played ball. We never really did anything. I played football and, you know, the high-skill sports and stuff. But, uh, and Rick, too, but we didn't, uh,

the only thing we did that was competitive early, early on was we started racing in slot cars and remote control cars, you know, and we were really competitive, uh, doing that. Well, um, we're about three quarters away through. I'm going to stick around and ask you a few more questions. and I was wondering if you can tell me a little bit about fishing down here. So fishing is what brought you in. A lot of people obviously love Baja for the desert, love the off-roading, but fishing is world-class, spectacular.

The Sea of Cortez here that I wake up to every morning that I just absolutely love is that's what really brought me down here because I like to fish. I always loved to fish. My dad used to take us fishing over at Moro Bay, and I used to get sicker in a dog every time I'd go out. And I could come down here and fish and not get sick because there's no swells. It's just like a giant lake. And it's just, the fishing is wonderful. We've caught a lot of really good fish. And today I don't fish nearly as much as I did because I sold my boat, but I'm going to be a lot of really good fish. but I'm going to get another one here pretty quick.

But we mainly now just fish to catch to eat. We don't really go out and do fishing to see what you can catch, you know, like we used to. So if you were going to get out and fish for something for the sport of landing it, what would it be? And then the second question is, if you were going to go out and fish for dinner, Are you going to eat anything you catch or are you hoping to catch X, Y, or Z? So tell me about what you like to eat and then what you like to fight. Well, what we like to eat, honestly, them are the best fish that we, our favorite fish is what we catch right in front of the house.

Are these little rock bass. They're maybe a foot long, 16 inches. And they have the best meat on them going. and we can go out, we call them tacos. We go out and catch some tacos. And my wife goes out on her kayak right here, and she can catch lunch in probably an hour. She'll have eight or ten of those beautiful rock bass,

and that's what we like to eat. But to catch the big stuff, I like catching, there's some black sea bass around here that are huge. And I didn't catch him, but my buddy that was on our boat, three years in a row, caught 300-pound black sea bass. Wow. Every time we went out. And anyway, that's a good one because we like to take that. Then we take that fish and give it to the village restaurant and spread it around.

Yeah, and lots of people are going to get to eat from that. Yes. That's a lovely gesture. Hey, that Carol is going to go out in her kayak and catch lunch for tacos. She seems like a real keeper. Can you tell me about your family and your children? Yeah, well, I'll tell you, Carol. You met when you were 19 years old.

She met you. Yes. And did know you're a racer. Exactly. Was that because you were looking at the ground and just stammering when you saw her? She was gorgeous and she still is. And I'll tell you, she doesn't get the, the accolades, I think, that she deserves because, my gosh, she's been with me through thick and thin.

And when we started our, you know, when we started off, I was racing for a living just a hired driver. That's all I did for quite a few years, which is a wonderful thing to get to do. But then when we actually decided to start a business, like with the Nissan, the only thing we had was I had a helmet and she had a typewriter. and a house to start it in it in a shop, a little shop. And that's, so she's worked, she has just worked so hard all these years. And she did all the bookkeeping, all the travel arrangements. She ran the, she actually ran the whole business all. I was just driving for her, I think.

Is she a pretty good boss? She's the best. It's a good gal. Really good gal. Tell me about your family. Tell me about your child. children. Yeah, my, uh, one of them gets some attention. Yeah, yeah. Uh, Roger Jr., who's my oldest boy, who he did most of all the, all the off-road racing with me, did all the Mickey Thompson stuff,

did the Baha. In fact, him and I both won the last Baja, I won in 91. Uh, he won also in a, in a, in a, a, a buggy. And I won in the truck. So that was really cool to have a father's son, you know, when the same race, same week. In fact, he pulled in right behind me after I come in, you know, different classes. And then my other son, Casey, who we're really proud of too, has obviously been very successful in all the racing he's done and won all kinds of open wheel stuff early on. and then broke into Indy cars for a little bit, and then the NASCAR thing opened up for him. So he went NASCAR racing in him.

It's been very successful in them. Something I'm really proud of, both of my sons, are they are just good guys. They're good fathers, they're good husbands, and they're both hard-working, dedicated. They decide they want something they go. after it and I'm just really proud of them. Seems like that Mears gang tree, those apples don't fall very far very, don't fall very far. Yeah. So that might come all the way back up to Bill, huh?

Yeah, exactly. All right. That's exactly right. Well, I think we're going to leave it right there, Roger. I think you've been darn generous to make some time for Slow Baja on a sunny Saturday and Bahaia de Los Angeles. I've got to get down the road. So I'm just going to say thanks for making some time and hope our paths crossed someday soon. Same here and thank you very much. I appreciate it. All right. Take care. Slow Baja's wardrobe is provided by Taylor Stitch. I was lucky enough to wear test some items on my 3,000 mile Baja XL trip, the vertical jacket, the California shirt, which is a beautiful flannel shirt. I call it the Baja California shirt and some white oak, beautiful, salvage denim jeans. Put all that stuff on to make me look good in Baja, and I never

took it off. I was wearing that stuff for 10 days straight. That vertical jacket is a handsome, handsome jacket in the truck, under the truck, at dinner. Taylor Stitch, clothes that are meant to wear in, not out. Folks, you made it this far. I got to ask you, please help us out. Rate it, review it if you're on iTunes, share it with a friend. Go to slowbaha.com or slowbaha on Instagram or Facebook and get some stickers, hats, t-shirts. Every little bit helps me put a gallon of gas in the old FJ 40 or a taco in my belly. So please do what you can to help out. I really appreciate it.