1:04:01
Race for an afternoon in the Baja.
1:04:03
And you'll have
a year's worth of stories.
1:04:06
At least. That's the case
for Mike and Robby Groff
1:04:09
and Indy Car champion
Jimmy Vasser.
1:04:15
Vasser has a relationship
with the Groffs
1:04:17
a lot like Larry Fine had
with Moe and Curly Howard.
1:04:19
Twenty-five minutes,
and he said,
1:04:21
"For sure I knew
it was Robby Gordon, you know?"
1:04:24
And when he finally caught
and passed,
1:04:26
it was like a truck full of Mexicans
going, "Go! Go! Go!"
1:04:33
My earliest memory
of the Groff brothers
1:04:36
was in Columbus, Ohio,
at the Grand Nationals in 1974.
1:04:39
At eight years old,
he was already a stud,
1:04:41
and he has this leather racing jacket,
1:04:43
and he has this patch with Wile E. Coyote
holding the Roadrunner by his neck,
1:04:47
and it said "Beep-beep my ass. "
1:04:48
And I said, "I gotta know this guy. "
1:04:52
And here we are.
1:04:53
Last year's 1000
was their debut as a team.
1:04:56
A series of problems led to Vasser
getting in the car at sunset
1:04:59
while the light bar was
still a hundred miles away.
1:05:02
And I jumped in the car with no lights,
and the sun was going down,
1:05:06
no moon or nothing.
1:05:08
You know, like a Toyota pickup...
looked like they were inebriated...
1:05:10
were honking their horn at me
trying to go around.
1:05:12
That's how slow I was going.
1:05:13
And I'm in the race, right?
1:05:17
And eventually, we found a stop,
1:05:18
and I borrowed two lights
off of the paraplegic Israeli team,
1:05:22
I swear to you.
1:05:23
But he said, "I'll give you that one
and that one. "
1:05:25
So I got 'em
and I rigged 'em on the front.
1:05:27
I had two lights
to go like a hundred miles,
1:05:29
and with no front brakes, I might add.
1:05:33
I had to have a Lear jet pick me up.
I had to abandon the race.
1:05:36
I had a Lear jet pick me up
in the bay of L.A. On a dirt strip
1:05:39
'cause I had to get back
to this cart banquet.
1:05:41
They wouldn't let me get out of it.
1:05:42
Otherwise, they wasn't gonna
give me the prize money for the season.
1:05:44
It was a nightmare.
1:05:45
I slept in the runway
and in, you know, the desert.
1:05:47
I started reminiscing.
1:05:49
I started looking back,
thinking about it
1:05:50
and started telling stories
to my friends, what happened.
1:05:52
I thought, "I had a great time. "
You know?
1:05:55
I finally realized.
1:05:56
Took a couple months
for me to figure it out... I had a great time.
1:05:58
Unfortunately. This 1000 would give
the Groffs and Vasser many more stories.