Off-road legend and 2021 Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee Steve Kelley joins Big Rich to trace a lifetime in the dirt—racing, rules-making, giving back, and globe-trotting.
From his first Baja 1000 in 1969 that hooked him on racing to helping build a Class 11-style VW and taking it 200+ miles before limping it back home. Steve ironmanned a Class 1 from Ensenada to La Paz—no driver change, no flats, 20+ hours; 2nd in class, 3rd overall in 1979.
There is much more to a lifetime of racing. Listen in for dusty silt-bed memories, class-building history, and the camaraderie that makes off-road special.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:12.820] – Big Rich Klein
My next guest attended his first Baja 1,000 in 1969, and he was hooked from then on. Sal Fish even credits him with helping establish class rules in the early days of SCORE. He was a co-founder of a nonprofit charity to support children. He is a 2021 ORMHOF Inductee, and now sits on the Board of Directors as well. My guest this week is Steve Kelley. Hello, Steve Kelley. It’s so good to have you on the podcast. You’ve joined the Board of Directors with ORMHOF, and I don’t come from the off-road racing background, so I don’t know you very well, except for what I’ve read and the few conversations that we’ve had at the gala and at some of the meetings. And I’m looking forward to this podcast, and I’m sure even some of your racing buddies will hear things today that they probably never heard.
[00:02:12.420] – Steve Kelley
Well, thanks, Rich. It’s great to be on and look forward to talking to you.
[00:02:17.680] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah. So let’s get started with the easiest question for me to answer, and hopefully the easiest one for you to answer, or for me to ask and you to answer. And that’s, where were you born and raised?
[00:02:30.000] – Steve Kelley
I’m born in Hawthorne, California. Grew up in a little town called El Segundo, where the Chevron Refinery is. That’s what it was called. It’s the second refinery built in the state, and then next to LA Airport.
[00:02:45.240] – Big Rich Klein
All right. Okay. I’m assuming that it was a lot different back then than it is now, that area?
[00:02:57.700] – Steve Kelley
Yes. It’s actually a small small town, and you got the airport on one side, the refinery on one side, the ocean on the other side, the Pacific Ocean, obviously, and aerospace companies on the other side. It’s a square town, really limited. I think there was 10,000 people there when I grew up, and I bet there’s not more than 15 now.
[00:03:25.060] – Big Rich Klein
When you’re boxed in like that.
[00:03:28.160] – Steve Kelley
Yeah. It’s like Yeah. Growing up, it was like an old Midwest town, very small. Everybody knew anybody. Like I said, the people, the dads either worked for Chevron or Chevron Standard Oil back then, or the aerospace companies, North Air Pews, North America, that thing.
[00:03:48.580] – Big Rich Klein
Okay. I would imagine with the third or the fourth side being the Pacific Ocean, water played a big part in your growing up?
[00:04:00.000] – Steve Kelley
Yes, it did. Went to the beach a lot, surfed a lot. Yeah, it did. That was our summertime.
[00:04:08.340] – Big Rich Klein
Was at the beach. Going to school there, I would imagine being a small or community like that, you stayed with the same kids all through all the grades?
[00:04:21.260] – Steve Kelley
Yeah, there was two grammar schools, one junior high, one high school. High school was built back in the mid-20s, 1920s. It looks a lot like an old East Coast College. The movie companies used to use it a lot in their sets and in filming programs and movies and stuff. It was really a cool place. There was really less than a thousand kids in high school. So you did know everybody. READ MORE
