From Slot cars to NASCAR, Mark Stahl has a storied past in racing, catch up with him on Episode 226. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
2:52 – I guess you could say I was a professional slot car racer
7:29– We went to Tijuana and got a fake birth certificate so I could race at age 16; Cajon Speedway required you to be 18
16:01 – Well, off-road racing, the motto was never give up
26:29 – I pull up at the finish line and Scoop is sitting there in the Blazer, and Parnelli Jones walks up and looks at the number on my hood and just starts cussing
34:08 – If I ever want to race NASCAR, now’s my time – I need to make the move to the south
43:57 – my most memorable event from the NASCAR days was the ’87 Winston 500 at Talladega
1:01:18 – you go through a lot of wives in racing, not because you’re cheating on them, but because you like race cars more than them, race cars don’t talk back
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:40.030] – Big Rich Klein
On today’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich, it’s a gentleman that started his professional racing career in off-road, moved to NASCAR Racing in the Winston Cup Series, and after NASCAR, he raced in the ARCA Series. By 2001, he retired from racing, but that only lasted a few years because he found his way back into off-road racing. The gentleman is Mark Stahl. Hello, Mark Stahl. It’s my pleasure to have you as a guest today on my Conversations with Big Rich podcast. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while. Your name has come up in a lot of the podcasts that I’ve done, and I’m looking forward to this conversation with you.
[00:02:19.240] – Mark Stahl
Good morning, Rich. I’m happy to be here, too. I’ve listened to many of your podcast, and it’s an honor to be on the show with you.
[00:02:27.000] – Big Rich Klein
Well, the first question I ask everybody, and I’m going to ask you the same question is, where were you born and raised?
[00:02:35.800] – Mark Stahl
I was born and raised in San Diego and raised in National City and then Chula Vista until I got my driver’s license when I lived in Chula Vista.
[00:02:47.290] – Big Rich Klein
Those early years, what was life like for Mark?
[00:02:52.650] – Mark Stahl
My early years, my dad was always interested in cars, and he owned a construction company and had all kinds of different cars. I got a mini bike when I was probably 10 or 11 and played on that mini bike a whole bunch, so I got used to being on two wheels. Then, believe it or not, at 12 years old, is when my racing career started because I was, I don’t know, I was going to a lot of slot tracks in National City and Chula Vista and around that I could walk to. There was an older gentleman there that had slot cars that he built to race, and he needed somebody to drive them for him or whatever you called it with your little hand controller, and he picked me to do it. I did that with him for two or three years. I guess you could say I was a professional slot car racer because how it worked is if you got first, second, or third place, they gave you a little plaque that said what place you got, and you would get a gift certificate. I think first place gift certificate was a dollar and fifty cents, second place was a dollar, and third was fifty cents.
[00:04:04.120] – Mark Stahl
The deal we worked out was he would get all the plaques, and I would get all the gift certificates. I was making probably $10 or $15 a week in gift certificates. Because he’d pick me up and we’d go to two or three different racetracks a week all over San Diego to race. And that’s how my racing career started. READ MORE
