The most revolutionary car in rockcrawling history is undoubtedly, Tiny. Today we interview, Jon Bundrant, the driver Tiny was built around. John won 18 events in two years in the early days with this incredible car, then went on to off-road industry fame with All-Pro Offroad. Catch up with Jon in this episode.
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3:21 – history of racing goes back a long way, Arizona state champ in BMX at age 16
5:49 – start in four-wheel drive was Azusa Canyon and a Land Cruiser
11:10 – the start of All-Pro Off-Road
14:42 – Sounds like Randy
17:34 – Sitting on a milk crate as Tiny got built around me
21:04 – We didn’t know its limits
29:14 – Getting in Tracy’s head
36:53 – favorite location, that’s easy: Farmington
49:31 – history of All-Pro
57:05 – drag racing today
1:00:36 – spying on Tiny
TRANSCRIPT
On this week’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich, we’ll be talking with Jon Bundrant. Jon was the founder of All-Pro Off-Road.
[00:01:29.670]
He was also the driver of Tiny, probably the most revolutionary rock crawler in history. So let’s talk to Jon about those early days at All-Pro, the early days of rock crawling and where he’s going now and what he plans on doing in the future. Hello, Jon, thank you for coming on board with us today with Conversations with Big Rich and talking about your history and your history in off road and how you got to get to where you’re at today. So where did you grow up, Jon?
[00:02:02.670] – Jon Bundrant
I was born in Modesto, California, grew up there, I was like 12 or 13, we travel around a lot. My parents did. I’ve lived in Mississippi and Arizona and just all over the country, but mostly Central Valley, California, is where I grew up.
[00:02:19.450] – Big Rich Klein
What kind of influences did you have as a kid that might have gotten you going in the direction that you ended up going in off road?
[00:02:28.220] – Jon Bundrant
We used to go camping with my grandpa and my uncles and we would add dirt bikes. This was back in around. 68 to 70, I mean, a long, long time ago, but, you know, I started riding the Honda Trail 70, you know, I think it was like nineteen sixty nine. We would go dirt bike riding in the mountains up in the Sierras, just east of Sonora, Tuolumne up in that area.
[00:02:55.330]
And we would spend the weekends up there almost every weekend, all summer and into the fall. And so my grandpa and my uncle had a big influence on me, really got me turned on to off roading and the mountains and getting out and enjoying it.
[00:03:13.330] – Big Rich Klein
So did you race as a kid and anything? Motorcycles or quads or three wheelers or anything like that.
[00:03:21.850] – Jon Bundrant
So when I was 13, we moved to Tucson, Arizona, and I was in eighth grade. I started racing BMX there and I got pretty into it. Know, I was actually the Arizona state champion as a 16 year old in BMX and then started racing dirt bikes a little bit. But I really couldn’t afford it. I had a really old Suzuki TM125, I think in nineteen seventy three. So I raced several times, you know, on the dirt bikes, but I was kind of had to pay for it on my own. READ MORE
