Rich Minga got his start in off-road racing, then turned it into a career in the movie business. Stuntman to the stars, winners do daily what losers do occasionally. Rich is a winner. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
9:57 – I thought I’d learn from the school of hard knocks. I was a better student of the universe than the school system
12:43 – It’s not O-N-E, it’s W-O-N; it means WE won the race!
17:24 – he got me across Diablo Dry Lake by Morse Code with a horn, it was crazy
25:10 – It was life-changing; I ran out of gas and had to walk out of Baja, it was horrific
36:28 – The people, the culture, there’s something magical about the people of Baja; I think we’re always celebrated, never tolerated
48:05 – I’ve been k*lled a bunch and k*lled a few people as well. That’s what I do; I work as a stuntman in the movie business
52:53 – I was the stunt coordinator for a TV show with no stunts – it makes me a lifeguard at the car wash
1:02:26 – You got to be in the FBI – friends, brothers, or in-laws! It’s the way it works
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:46.780] – Big Rich Klein
On this episode of Conversations with Big Rich, I’ll be interviewing Rich Minga. Rich got his start when his brother bought him a Volkswagen Bug. From racing, to prep, to building, to Hollywood as a car expert, and then a stuntman, and then back to Racing NORRA. Hello, Rich Minga. How are you doing?
[00:02:07.470] – Rich Minga
Hey, I’m just right, Rich. How are you?
[00:02:09.320] – Big Rich Klein
Good, good. It’s great to have you on the podcast this week, and I just want to say that I’ve been a big fan of yours, but I don’t know a lot of your past history and how you got to where you are. So let’s find all that out.
[00:02:26.260] – Rich Minga
Wow. Well, thank you for having me, Rich. I’m honored to tell my story, I guess.
[00:02:34.740] – Big Rich Klein
Okay, here we go. First question, and it’s a hard one, where were you born and raised?
[00:02:41.210] – Rich Minga
Wow. I’m a third-generation San Diego kid. My grandmother was born in 1897, and my mom in 1927, and my dad in ’25, and we’re all San Diegans. I’m a third-generation San Diego, La Mesa, San Carlos, right on the edge of El Cajon and the hot bed of it all.
[00:03:02.740] – Big Rich Klein
Wow. There you go. You grew up in that absolutely tropical area of San Diego.
[00:03:14.220] – Rich Minga
Yeah. I grew up with two older brothers. One is seven years older than me and one’s 10 years older. Tommy is still alive. He was the one that introduced me to the sport in 1975. He took me to the damn 400, which became the Parker 400. Later. But the damn 400 was my first race. Him and Pete Alisi were the inspirations to me going off-road racing. They had me work on their stuff and taught me a few little things, and I got in the way and swept the floor.
[00:03:47.100] – Big Rich Klein
Everybody’s got to start somewhere. Let’s start even farther back. What was school like and what was family life like back in those days?
[00:03:59.390] – Rich Minga
Wow. I’m a pretty small man. I got a pretty small stature, but I was a teeny, teeny kid in junior high and high school. I played basketball and soccer, and I was fast and quick and loved it. I was into bass fishing and did really well at bass fishing. My best friend Ralph and I, we joined the San Diego Bassmasters Club, and I just had all this energy, and I would just go fishing all the time and learned how to bass fish with some of the top guys in the in this city. Man, a little bit of sports and a little bit of bass fishing and hanging out with my grandfather and my dad teaching me how to do woodworking. My grandfather teaching me how to build things out of metal and use a lathe and a mill. He was like this engineer guy, an imagineer, so to speak.
[00:04:52.660] – Big Rich Klein
Okay. And your dad, what did he do for a living?
[00:04:57.370] – Rich Minga
My dad worked for the County Road Department. Okay. He was Lieutenant Colonel in the Army and got out of World War II and fought in the Philippines and has really unbelievable stories. Let’s see. Gosh. He also taught Sunday school at church, and he was a great father. He always played basketball with me and inspired me. He was the Cub Scout leader of our Cub Scout group. Then I became a Boy Scout Scout, and I disappointed him because I never made it to to Eagle, but I made it to Life, which was a category of the Boy Scouts, which later on inspired me to make it through a really wild trip I had. So I was able to survive through a lot of things because of those trainings. READ MORE
