Helper should be his middle name; always one to give an assist, Bryan Crofts shares life from family Crofts to family Campbell and all the twists in between. Some great stories in here. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
9:39 – when I was a young kid, I always wanted to be a garbage man; they make good money.
15:51 – I had a buddy I went to school with, him and I would go out to Mt Shasta and do fireroads and mud wheeling, it got me interested in doing more
22:53 – I worked for the Sheriffs Department in San Francisco, mostly in the jails. I saw things that I probably wish I hadn’t, it definitely changed my outlook on life
31:17 – “Hey, Jody’s looking to get out of the Stock Mod rig if you’re interested,” and I jumped on it
35:11 – my brother goes, “Hey Bro, why aren’t you racing?”
47:14 – That’s what sparked the interest, it was way cheaper to build two cars at once
53:17 – one of the coolest things that we do, we’re all racing against each other, but we’re all racing with each other, too.
1:01:18 – I was chasing him down and I didn’t see those two rollers, and I hit one and nosed into the second one, and lights out! It knocked me out!
1:12:29 – I’ve got people calling me after the race that that was the one spot they were worried about, as soon as they say me and Bailey there, all their worries went away
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:39.180] – Big Rich Klein
My next guest on Conversations with Big Rich is a guy that went from firefighter to Sheriff’s Department, from rock Crawler to KOH racer, to becoming the 2003 Ultra 4, 4,400 class National Points champion is Bryan Crofts. Good morning, Bryan Crofts. Good to have you on the podcast. It’s going to be It’s a fun time. I’m looking forward to this one.
[00:02:02.850] – Bryan Crofts
I appreciate you having me on here big. And yeah, I’m excited to tell my story.
[00:02:08.170] – Big Rich Klein
Great. So let’s get started with the easiest question for me to ask. Where were you born and raised?
[00:02:14.300] – Bryan Crofts
Novato, California, which is just north of San Francisco.
[00:02:18.400] – Big Rich Klein
Right. You’re just… Novato is in that little section up there where the fog stays out of that area for the most part, even when the Bay is foggy. Is that correct?
[00:02:29.570] – Bryan Crofts
Yeah, which makes for optimal off-roading and just perfect weather.
[00:02:34.920] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah, when you’re growing up and stuff. And it’s shaded by the mountains there, so you don’t get the heavy winds. That must have been nice. I grew up south of San Francisco and in San Bruno, which was called the Windy City. That’s where they put the airport, so you know it’s windy. We had the fog and we had the wind. We had the miserable weather. But you guys up there had the sun a lot.
[00:02:59.100] – Bryan Crofts
Yeah, it was a It was a great place to grow up. It was a small town. Wanted out as a kid, but I think I want back in as an adult. But yeah, it was a great place to grow up.
[00:03:09.260] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah, I wouldn’t want to go back to anywhere close to the Bay Area now. The traffic is just horrendous. So let’s talk about those early years. What did you guys do growing up for fun? I know your dad seems like he’s always been into off-roading, and so I’m sure you guys got started early.
[00:03:32.690] – Bryan Crofts
Yeah, so growing up, my dad was into dirt bikes before I was born and in motor cycles. And so he got us started in dirt bike riding early. So two and a half is when I first started riding dirt bikes. And then as a normal kid, I played baseball, I played football. I played for the Junior Mustangs, the Ponies, the Mustangs, et cetera. And then I got out of school sports when when I got into high school and got more involved into off-roading and dirt bikes and everything of that nature.
[00:04:07.050] – Big Rich Klein
And your riding of motorcycles in that area, was that up in the hills or track type stuff?
[00:04:14.330] – Bryan Crofts
What were you doing Mostly up in the hills. So we’d go up to Forest Hill, Auburn area. We’d go out to Prairie City, Norcal Rock Racing area. We also had a cool little place, and it’s still out there, Rinn County Motorcycle Association. We’ve got, I can’t remember how many thousands of an acres, but it’s a little club that we belong to and plenty of trail riding. So we were able to go close and we’d go far. There’s a lot of different areas that we’d go ride, but for the main part, we’d go up in the hills, and it was my favorite type of riding. READ MORE
