Justin Hall began as a rockcrawling and racing competitior. Moving from a Suzuki Samurai to an Unlimited car, then jumping over to the 4500 class, Justin grew up in rock sports. If you’re looking to do the same, listen in for some great advice. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
4:42 – I watched it go from small town to big town with a ridiculous amount of people
8:07 – every break I got, winter, spring, summer, my dad had me work at his company, and I got all the crap jobs, but it taught me a trade
12:42 – my parents knew I’d get myself in trouble with anything more than a 4-cylinder, we settled on a 1988 and and-a-half Suzuki Samurai
18:33 – we picked up a Campbell car and got it put back together, and that car was on the podium every event
23:07 – there are a couple of climbs at Oroville that I was the only person to do unassisted
26:21 – My all-time goal was to beat Tracy
38:13 – It was the biggest waste of money to go 10 miles, but it was the most fun 10 miles I’ve ever had
44:26 – when you’re racing at 100% against somebody, knowing that they’re going to hold their line, it makes it so much more fun
50:29 – at a certain point, you try not to drive with your wallet on the dash
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:39.740] – Big Rich Klein
On this episode of Conversations with Big Rich, I’ll be talking with a rock Crawler that started at a pretty young age and started in the mod stock class. He moved up into unlimited and had success in both classes. He now races in the Norcal Rock Racing Series and the KOH events. And his name is Justin Hall. Hey, Justin. Good to have you on here.
[00:02:02.120] – Justin Hall
How’s it going, Big?
[00:02:03.320] – Big Rich Klein
Going good. We haven’t talked in a while.
[00:02:05.990] – Justin Hall
No, it’s been a hot minute, I think. I think I randomly saw you at, I think Hammers. It was we briefly chatted and we talked here and there on Facebook, but that’s about it.
[00:02:16.730] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah. And that’s been quite a while. I try to avoid… To be honest, I try to avoid KOH anymore. It’s too much of a zoo for this old man.
[00:02:24.750] – Justin Hall
I was just saying it’s a lot going on if you’re just out there hanging out and spectating. When you’re racing, you get out the zoo-ness of it, and you’re just focused on racing. So I definitely get that.
[00:02:35.290] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah, exactly. When we were a vendor and doing the Dirt Riot races, it made sense. And then we went down a couple of times to cover it with the magazine and realized that it was easier to have photographers and writers down there than it was for us to do it. And so we save our lungs and stay home and watch the live feed.
[00:02:57.210] – Justin Hall
Yeah. Honestly, for spectators, I think the live feed is honestly a better thing to watch than sit there and go to Chocolate Thunder and watch one trail. Live feed, you see the whole entire race.
[00:03:07.530] – Big Rich Klein
What would be good, I would imagine, if I was to do it again, would be to take my Starlink, sit down there at one of the trails that I wanted to watch that you can get access to, and then watch live and watch it on the live feed.
[00:03:27.110] – Justin Hall
Yeah, definitely. That definitely wouldn’t be a bad option to do. Luckily, they’ve been doing a lot more with the Jumbotrons and putting those all over the place, so it helps out being able to watch the whole race. But yeah, I like your idea with the Starlink, though.
[00:03:39.170] – Big Rich Klein
When I worked KOH with Dave, I was in charge of Chocolate Thunder. So we always had the Jumbotron there, and then we had the one down in camp. So they positioned the Jumbotron so I could sit there on my rock making sure all my recovery crew was doing what needed to be done and dealing with BLM and all the media people, and be able to watch the whole thing from their live feed. But the live feed is so much better nowadays because of Starlink, and everybody running the cameras in car. It’s just phenomenal.
[00:04:16.750] – Justin Hall
Oh, yeah, most definitely.
[00:04:18.750] – Big Rich Klein
So let’s get started. And let’s start at the very, very beginning. Where were you born and raised?
[00:04:26.010] – Justin Hall
I was born and raised in Antioch, California. Well, It’s a small town in the East Bay.
[00:04:32.140] – Big Rich Klein
Antioch. Yeah, that’s like industrial town USA.
[00:04:36.250] – Justin Hall
Right. Right along the Delta there between Pittsburgh and Oakley and Brentwood area.
[00:04:42.380] – Big Rich Klein
So when the winds were blowing right, you get all the burn off from Pittsburgh and all the- Yeah, all the refinery. Yeah, all the refinery.
[00:04:50.270] – Justin Hall
Yeah. We’d get all that, and then you get all the smell of the delta. And it was an interesting little town. It was a cool spot to grow up in, but definitely it’s changed. And for myself, I’m thankful I got out of there. Because it was pretty rural. Yeah, it was super rural. I used to ride dirt bikes when I was a little kid, where I went to high school at, before the high school was built. They used to ride dirt bikes there. I lived there for 27 years, and I watched it go from small town to big town with a ridiculous amount of people. And it got crazy there. Right. READ MORE
