00:00 [ROAR]
00:06 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:09 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:12 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:39 I am probably one of the luckiest men on the face of the earth.
00:42 My whole life, I've lived a dream.
00:45 I mean, my whole life.
00:46 I get up in the morning, I'm not sure if it's a work day or a play date.
00:48 And everybody says, well, how do you get involved in off-road racing?
00:50 I just had that burning desire, and I didn't know what it was going to take.
00:54 Beg, borrow, steal, rob, whatever I could do to get involved.
00:57 And I started working as a mechanic.
00:58 A friend of mine, a guy by the name of Bill Rinko, started building a two-seat dune buggy.
01:02 And I said, hey, Bill, let me help you work on the engine and put it together and prep the thing,
01:05 and I'll ride with you.
01:07 So it all started from just that burning desire and hard work,
01:09 and eventually built a name and a reputation.
01:11 And the Ironman name had a big part of the thing, too.
01:14 In the mid-'70s, the Valvoline Oil Company put up an award,
01:17 which was $500 and a big trophy to anybody that could drive the whole Baja 1000 solo,
01:22 or the Baja 500 solo.
01:24 Now, not only did you have to drive it solo, but you had to drive solo and win.
01:27 So I was the first to do it in the Baja 500.
01:29 I won another one in the 1000 that next year.
01:32 And then I backed it up with another Baja 500.
01:34 So it was Mickey Thompson, a journalist, started calling me the--
01:37 "Hey, that's Ivan Stewart," you know, "the Ironman."
01:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments