Small Towns Podcast
Small Towns Podcast
E32: Derby’n with Dan!
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Welcome millions upon millions, perhaps millions, of faithful podcast listeners. We are your hosts, Jason Kimber and Dave Simmons. We'll bring you along with us as we share life stories from our experiences living in small towns, or in Jason's case, an unincorporated community.
SPEAKER_03That's true. Along with genius suggestions for solving world problems and a whole lot of laughs. This is the Small Towns Podcast. Welcome into another episode of the Small Towns Podcast. I'm Dave Simmons, joined by my good buddy Jason Kimber. And Jason, I've been thinking a little bit about what we should talk about in one of these next episodes. And I'd like to kind of get your thoughts on as you grew up in Grouse Creek, Utah. Thank you for saying it properly. I have worked so hard. And you know what's funny about it is I you know there are people around that that just out of nowhere come up to me and say they've been loving our podcast, which is a lot of fun to hear.
SPEAKER_02It is a lot of fun to hear. And and um again, I don't want to jump off on a tangent here because we've got some fun things to talk about today. But when I say grouse crick, it's it feels better. But if I'm gonna talk about a local place here, like a local golf course, I'll always say Birch Creek. Right. Or Spring Creek Middle School.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. I'm not gonna say Spring Creek, and it just doesn't feel no, it does. And that's I'm on the opposite. So I've always grown up with Creek.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And when you told me it's Crick, I'm like, that um isn't quite right. No, well, it's but but people around here that talk to me that know me, that don't happen to know you, I they say, now who is this guy? And I'm like, well, first of all, you need to meet him. And then secondly, and then secondly, he grew up in Grouse Crick, and I've been saying it to them, Crick, and I can see their eyes like I'm like, no, he told me to say Crick.
SPEAKER_02That's that's the proper pronunciation. I think we dedicated a whole podcast about this. So I don't mean to get off on that, but yeah.
SPEAKER_03It would be so fun. Well, when I say fun, that's a strong word because it would require us to actually drive the distance to get to Grouse Crick. But if we could somehow record an episode at the general store in Grouse Crick. Say no more, I'm gonna make this happen. I'm sure you will.
SPEAKER_02Can we pack a lunch? We can pack a lunch and we'll maybe get dinner. What are they when you have like the special correspondence out in the field? Yeah, that I'd like to be that guy.
SPEAKER_03That's the kind of guy I want to be. Well, we're live out here from the field. But there had to be some pretty unique places in Grouse Creek. Um, I think you've talked a little bit about a general store.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, in fact, um you're exactly right. I think in every small town there are these these hubs or these places that are that help create a sense of community. And so for for me in Grouse Creek, probably the number one place that comes to my mind uh is the it was the Grouse Creek co-op uh growing up with culture. You just said Creek. I did. You know, sometimes I I mean I I was thinking we were talking about a whole different place. I know I feel like I just abandoned and I just like turned my back on all my routes.
SPEAKER_03You didn't. They're gonna they're gonna let it slide once in a while. I mean you've been a city boy now for I don't know how long.
SPEAKER_02Millville, Utah and City Boy.
SPEAKER_03Okay, fair enough. I mean, going from Grass Creek to Millville, it's pretty it's there's more people.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, for sure. Like exponentially. Exponentially. But the co-op was definitely a place of kind of community center. It was open Monday through Saturday, typically like 8 to 5, 8 to 5:30, 6 maybe on Saturdays. Um, but that's where people would go, and it was just like a small, small convenience store and a gas station. But I would go up there, particularly in the summer, or if I had a day off from a summer job or on a Saturday or whatnot, I would go up there, grab a Coke, and then just get comfortable, and then just visit with people that would walk in. I mean, and that's the place where you'd have all the um postings of happenings going on, you know, a school play, you know, it's it's it's hung on the door of the co-op. So super fun place. It is still out there, it's changed hands a couple of times, but it's uh it I still think it is probably a center for that community.
SPEAKER_03How big, just to kind of give us uh an idea in our mind's eye, we're talking, is it the size of a maybe a regular gas station? I'm gonna say a small gas station. How many pumps? Two pumps.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So if you if you go out there, you can get diesel or you can just get regular, which is like 85, you know, the 85 octane. Yeah. Don't be driving out there with your turbo because if you need higher than 85 octane, you're just out of luck. And it was only a few years ago, well, time gets away, that they actually added the pay-at-the-pump feature, which is a nice thing because if you didn't get there between eight and five, you just couldn't get gas. Oh, okay. Um, but got pay at the pump now, and it is, I mean, I would say for some of our local listeners, maverick is uh a pretty common you know. I'm gonna say half of a maverick would be the size. That that paints a pretty decent picture. And so you're going in there for we talking groceries? Well, you can. You can get bread, milk, Snickers, you know, coke. Ooh, a little bit of a scandalous thing. Uh, when it was a co-op, it was actually just that a uh a community co-op, and so the the community owned it, and my dad happened to be the president for a lot of years, and under my dad's reign, I mean it this was scandalous, but there was the question whether or not we should sell beer. Ooh. Yeah, dun dun dun. They turned out, yeah. I mean, and so now you can't buy beer there if you'd like to.
SPEAKER_03Well, uh, is that your dad's decision? We gotta be able to provide the size.
SPEAKER_02Well, he thought it was he says, listen, they're buying it across the border, so you know, whether it be in Montella, Nevada or Burley, Idaho, they're they're buying it anyways, and so we just as well keep the business here. So, um, thankfully it uh I don't think it's turned anybody into a raging alcoholic, so that's fine. Yeah, as far as we know, anyways. But I love the co-op, yeah, and it's still a great place. But that was one place, um the swimming hole. I'm pretty sure I've talked about that.
SPEAKER_03You better remind me to do that. Like it was gonna be a good thing. Because the only thing I remember you you getting into it was the cesspool. Yeah, you don't swim in that. You don't swim in that. You can't do the front crawl through the cesspool.
SPEAKER_02It's it's super easy, it's very buoyant in there because there's so much other stuff in the cesspool. But the swimming pool swimming pool, it was uh and I I remember telling the story to Heather about how I first learned to swim. It was like basically a wide spot in the canal, you know what I mean? And so it was a it was a spot that you could maybe take a few strokes, a couple of laps, if you will. But that's where I learned how to swim. Good clean water there? No, not at all. It's not like Nick Slough that he talked about that day. This is ditch water. This is ditch water for sure. And so um downstream from sure.
SPEAKER_03And I'm sure that I've drank from that ditch. I you probably have a better immune system than anyone around. Yeah, I'm COVID-free.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you've made it. You've made it through. Knock on wood. You drink out of a ditch.
SPEAKER_03I think that is one of the benefits. What about you? I mean, well, speaking of drinking out of I think I've told you this, but behind my house growing up, now up where I grew up, there's it's all houses. Sure. Yep. But when I was there, the whole there was a whole field behind my house. And David Webb and I used to just play around back there, rider bikes, and we make jumps and stuff like that. But there was a a hill just of dirt that you know, as a man now thinking back on it, it must have been somebody that had built a house and they just needed to put the the uh fill dirt somewhere for a little bit. And but in my mind, it was always there. And and on that hill, there was a running hose all the time. Like I don't know where it was coming from. I to this day have no idea, but we would stop there on our journey from wherever we were going to wherever we were going and stop and get a drink. Get a drink, why not? I don't know why not.
SPEAKER_02I'm proud of you. This I'm glad this is the first time I've ever heard this story, but I that is a great that's fantastic. I mean, you had no idea what the source of it was, but but were these fields kind of a like a place of like your buddies would be like, hey, let's meet at the hoes, or I mean, you kind of congregate.
SPEAKER_03People were always back there. Somebody put a backstop up and they they played some baseball back there, and um for the most part on the other side of it, it was dirt hills that kids were always back there riding their bikes and jumping them and doing all sorts of fun things. But it was kind of on our path down. I told remember I told the story about going down those hills the uh the with Dunkley on the back of my bike. Sure, yeah. Um, there's that one and there's the other one that goes around uh um more of a curvy hill but still very steep that I crashed on the last day at kindergarten. Kindergarten, yes. Those hills take you down into the lower end of uh the lower the lower side of Providence, and down there was the uh our local country shopper is what it was called. Okay. So I my guess is our country shopper was a hair bigger than your than the general. Do you call it the general store? Well, we always just call it the co-op. Oh, the co-op, okay. So I have to think that the country shopper was a hair bigger, but it couldn't have been much. I mean, if you're gonna compare it to a maverick, it may be a similar okay. Um but you could get bread and you could get milk and stuff like that there as well. Baseball cards we were always getting there. Um your penny candies like crazy, big league chew, all the good stuff. Um I I remember there was a uh payphone outside that you could use when it bumped to a quarter. I was like, this is crazy. This is ridiculous. Absolutely crazy. But connected to the country shopper was the country boy drive-in. Oh, I like the sound of this already. I'm talking greasy burgers and fries, so good. And it was kind of in now on the way from my home down past the country shopper and then to the ballpark, which is where we would all be in the evenings and summer nights for ball games. And it was it was awesome. I can still smell this smell the the burgers at the ballpark, and when kids are chasing foul balls, you bring them back and get a little piece of gum if you bring back the foul ball. And um Providence back in those days was it's still big on baseball, but it it was it was really big, and it was a lot of fun just being down at the ballpark on a summer night. I still smell it to this day.
SPEAKER_02And I love that. There, you know, graphswork was very similar in the summer, like uh our we had a uh a little ball diamond, but it was just part of our school grounds, like our elementary school, well, the only school, you know, the graph strike school. And in the summer, you we'd all go up there and you know play softball, and it was like everybody would play. I mean, young and old together and a like, so it was a lot of fun. But there's these there's these places that I think help create sense of community and almost almost identi help help uh a community identify what it's made of, if you will. And and and we see it here. I mean, we've talked about old mill days, we've talked, you know, again, almost every little community has uh an event or uh a celebration of some sort that's kind of unique to them in their little town.
SPEAKER_03So as we're talking about it, if if you grew up in say Smithfield, Utah, you you know Health Days. Yeah, for sure. You know, the and uh what what is it out in Wellsville? Uh Founders Day.
SPEAKER_02Founders Day.
SPEAKER_03You mean there are so many little communities around here, and I don't care if you live in here where we are, or if you live up in Alberta, Canada, where I have a good buddy living up there, we gotta get him on one of these tests. But um they they all have their own little community things, and and I think that's what makes them fun and unique.
SPEAKER_02Well, and we had uh we've got we've had several, we've had shouldn't say several, but we've had guests on the on the pod before. And uh as Dave and I were talking about our our we're gonna have a guest tonight. Um I I think he is one of the coolest guys I've ever met. Nobody cooler.
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_02Listen, we've had some cool ones. Nobody tougher. Nobody okay, fair enough, nobody tougher. Yeah. And this man has like, he's got a full beard. I mean, we're talking Duck Dynasty. Exactly. Like if he if he keeps going, he's gonna be Z Z Top slash Oak Ridge Boy. Yeah, well, he might have him caught. He may be there, but they don't come any better than I mean, Dunto Dun, spoiler alert, Dan Grange. Dan Grange. And he kind of is, in my mind, he is um, he epitomizes uh some of these small town functions and events that that he kind of makes that's just kind of a part of his is at the county level, I'm gonna say, because we're we want to talk to him about a very specific thing. Yeah. Do we just call him? Let's get him on the horns.
SPEAKER_03Let's just get him on the horns.
SPEAKER_02Did you text him while you're doing that?
SPEAKER_03Have you texted him and told him we're gonna be calling him?
SPEAKER_02He knows that I'm he knows that we're calling. He doesn't know we're does he know we're live? I had told him because I said, buddy, when you say hello, just know that you were gonna be on the live.
SPEAKER_03Alright. So here we go. Dan Grange, ladies and gentlemen, about to join you here on the Small Towns Podcast. Is that on speaker? It's on speaker, and I've got it right.
SPEAKER_02Crank it up.
SPEAKER_03There you go. Sound good?
SPEAKER_02That sounds good. Sounds great. Hey, buddy, Dan Grange, what's going on?
SPEAKER_00Jason Camber, I tell you what, it is a pleasure every time I speak to you to hear your voice.
SPEAKER_02That is the nicest thing anybody has ever seen. Wait a minute. I've said some nicer things. That's true. Buddy, and and don't listen, we're gonna make Dave feel bad because as you know, Dave is here with me. He's here with me, and and uh this is a real red-lettered day in our podcast.
SPEAKER_03We've been talking about having Dan Grange on this podcast for I don't know how long. Since probably day one. Probably. How are you?
SPEAKER_00Well, I don't know if that's a good thing. Dave, how are you?
SPEAKER_03I'm doing great. How are you doing night, Dan?
SPEAKER_00I'm just living the dream.
SPEAKER_02Another boy. Dan, give give um our hordes of listeners, if you will, just a taste. Give us a little intro. Where are you from? I mean, I'm just gonna go out there and say that you grew up in a small town as well.
SPEAKER_00You know, I I did. I'm I'm actually from here in the valley. I grew up in well, we always call it college ward. Some people know it as uh the unincorporated area of the county, sandwich between Wellsville and Logan.
SPEAKER_03That's that's Nick Zollinger's stomping grounds too, right?
SPEAKER_00You know, I grew up just down the street across the you know, he's from he's from the uh east side of the highway. I'm from the west side of the highway, but you know, it's we're all right there together.
SPEAKER_03We all speak the same redneck language, and and you know it's where grammar isn't your grammar grammar isn't isn't necessarily something you would put a whole lot of stock into, right?
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_03We get we get the gist.
SPEAKER_00You know, there's no reason.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I it seems like a lot of work. Yeah. And and absolutely it it has taken me m years. I'm gonna go ahead and say years, and finally, uh Dan, you'll be pleased to know that earlier Dave uh and he said it a time or two before, but he actually referenced it as grouse crick as opposed to creek. And it was, I mean, like, I I I have never been more proud in my life. And and I've I anyways, it was a red letter day. But buddy, what what did you and your family do? Like, what why did you live in College Ward? I mean, what give us some background on what you did growing up and and what you do now?
SPEAKER_00Well, are you talking like profession?
SPEAKER_02Well, listen, buddy, nothing is off bat, nothing is off limits here. So we're gonna. There's some things off limits. That's true. This is a family show, so well, you know, I'm not I'm not gonna lie.
SPEAKER_00Dave, you guys know I'm I'm quite a colorful person, and especially when Dave's around, there's not much off the table.
SPEAKER_03I think he likes the shock factor when he talks to me. Fair enough.
SPEAKER_00There is gonna come a day, Jason.
unknownI promise you this.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna show up, I'm gonna show up on Dave's doorstep in certain outfits, and I'm gonna, I'm I'm I'm gonna surprise him. And I think he's gonna.
SPEAKER_03If you're gonna show up in a wrestling singlet, I'm gonna beat you to it. I I I told you, Dan, everything, everything I wear is pull away, and I wear a singlet everywhere I go, just in case.
SPEAKER_00You know, because that wouldn't surprise me, man.
SPEAKER_02I could just I can just see. I don't know who's knocking on whose door, but ding dong, and then all of a sudden, I don't know what the wrestling stance is, but I just see like singlets, and like you want to wrestle, and I feel it would be wrestle, not wrestle.
SPEAKER_03But the th I think so too. And the problem this is is I really don't want to wrestle Dan. No. I mean, so the problem is if I did do that, he would wrestle me. And I don't want to wrestle him.
unknownOf course.
SPEAKER_01Of course I would, Dave, and I'll chase you all the way through your house.
SPEAKER_03I know you would. And it's not a very big house. I got nowhere to go. I'm fishing a barrel at that point.
SPEAKER_00But listen, in answer to your question, Jason, I grew up, I grew up obviously wrestling, and this is where our little my little uh tiff with uh Dave comes in, you know.
unknownBecause I, you know, to me, there's only one better side on a basketball floor than wrestling mats laid down. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00And I I I know our good friend Dave's a big basketball player, but that just that's just a waste of a gym.
SPEAKER_03Dan, you you can catch diseases from those mats. You get cauliflower face just by laying on them in the wrong way.
unknownI don't know if that's quite how it works.
SPEAKER_03I don't know how it works either. I'm not schooling the finer points of the funguses that can be picked up off of a Rasselin mat. I think you'd be fine. I don't know. I think you'd get the cauliflower ear and then cauliflower eye, hand, foot, and mouth disease, there's things that you don't want. I love cauliflower, it kind of makes me hungry.
SPEAKER_00Um that's why growing up in college order is good, robust immune system.
SPEAKER_02We've talked about that just a few moments ago. If you have if you have ever drunk out of a crick, and it doesn't matter if you're upstream or downstream, then your immune system is like top-notch.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. I I remember one of our uh growing up, one of our best water holes was uh um, well, it was great at the time, and now I'm getting a little older.
unknownI'm like, uh, you know what?
SPEAKER_00That was right downstream from quite a few passengers.
SPEAKER_03Probably shouldn't be drinking. That's coming from the slough that Nick talked about. I guarantee you.
SPEAKER_00It's we're our water hole was just down the slough from Nick.
SPEAKER_03Oh no. No wonder you can grow hair that long.
SPEAKER_02And listen, listen, that's fine. It's fine. You know what? None of us have six toes. Well, I mean, total, you know. Um, but uh you you know, I'm I'm I'm just I'm just baiting here because I I think that there are a lot of cool things that you do, and Rastling would be right at the top of that list. But there was something that I, from a small town, I'm ashamed to say this, I didn't experience this activity until much later in life, a few years ago. You introduced me to it. Buddy, I'm talking about um demolition derbies. I mean, I went to my very first one just a few short years ago, and I think you actually had a big hand at putting that on, but like shame on you, Jason.
SPEAKER_00Shame on you. I mean, there is nothing that speaks just redneck ability than than just a good old-fashioned dumb wish and derby.
SPEAKER_03Dave, have you ever been to one? Well, I he had me to go go to one, and I'm not gonna lie to you, I was look, I'm I'm a man, okay, so I don't want this to come off like I'm that big of a wuss. Yeah. It was kind of scary. I mean, watching cars in normal, if you see something about ready to hit, you're cringing. You're cringing. And you're like, oh no, oh no, no. But there you're you you have to completely change your mindset that it's okay that that guy is driving backwards 25 miles an hour and he's trying to hit that other car.
SPEAKER_02Is that is that a good um synopsis, Dan, of of what a demo derby is?
SPEAKER_00Well, for for one thing, Jason, I I love the educated verb verbiage here, but synopsis is a little above my paper.
unknownI'm gonna go out on a limb and say sure.
SPEAKER_02Okay, all right. Well, I'm gonna rephrase. I mean, did did Dave sum uh demo derby up sufficiently?
SPEAKER_00You know, you know, one of the one of the best ways I like to describe it is is is you know we've all we've all been on the road where somebody pulls out in front of you or they're going like ten miles an hour under the speed limit. And and in your mind, you wish it was legal to plow into them. I mean I mean you you can't tell me you've never been there. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Oh no, I've been there, but I guess unless you're a far better man than I am, because and and I know you are.
SPEAKER_00You know, I I'm I'm very bad at driving down the road and wishing that that I was back in a derby car and I could just let 'em have it. And then when they pulled over and say, why? Just say, because you're an idiot.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you can't, that would be frowned upon. That would be frowned upon.
SPEAKER_00That is exactly what the derby world is, and you can do that. Okay. You can do that legally, and it's and it's cheer. You get paid for it. You know?
SPEAKER_03Speaking of, Dan, how many well let me let's back up just a hair, Dan. How did you get into that though? Yeah. Good question.
SPEAKER_00Well it's interesting. I my dad Well, I got into it through my family, through my dad. My dad started derbying in in 1985. He had a guy that worked with him that thought it would be fun, so they built a couple of cars together. My family got over there. And and uh Demolition Derby has been a huge part of our life um growing up. It's even gone into how I got into the profession that I'm in. All revolved around demolition derby cars.
SPEAKER_02Okay, then two follow up questions. Two follow-up questions. What profession are you in? And when you say build a car. I mean, we're not this isn't like Henry Ford and the assembly line. I mean, how are you building a car for the purpose of a demo derby?
SPEAKER_00Okay, well, first of all, I'll answer your profession question. So we I mean my family, we do concrete, and my that's what my dad did before he got into demoish and derby. And so we've done that for years. Concrete foundations, walls, you name it.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00But me personally, um, my family branched out into metal recycling, junkyard scrapyard essentially, in 2007. And the reason we branched into that is because my dad in college work had derby cars stacked sometimes three high on top of each other because we didn't have enough room to store all our derby cars that my dad had been bringing home for years. And uh we had some stored at my dad's buddy's farm, we had some stored at my uncle's farm, and uh the county was getting after my dad for so many cars on the lot. So we started getting rid of some of them, and uh the guy at the at the junkyard was like, my dad's name's Dave, and he's like, Dave, you know what? You come in here an awful lot, you ought to just buy me out. My dad's like, well, okay. And so that's essentially how we got into the scrap metal business is because of having so many derby cars around, we needed a place to store them.
SPEAKER_03So so so now so now if people go ahead, sorry, Dan.
SPEAKER_00I'm just gonna say what better place to store them than the scrap yard. Right.
SPEAKER_03So now if people total their car or if they just have a car, they're like, I just gotta I just gotta junk this thing. It's a place where they can bring their cars to you, because how many do you have down there now?
SPEAKER_00Well, uh yes, that that is exactly what we do. And so now, I mean, obviously we we have our derby cars here in a in a separate part of our acreage here facility here, but um and that's what I do every day is is buy and sell sell scrap metal, essentially, which you know sometimes is in the form of uh old automobiles, sometimes it's in the form of you know washers and dryers and s and um industrial scrap, you know, businesses that produce some scrap metal, you know, old water heaters, you name it.
SPEAKER_02Well then are you just are you then do you just find a car that you you like? Maybe it's an old Oldsmobile. Oh yeah, 1979 Oldsmobile that's like a tank, and then you say, hey, listen, that'd make a good derby car, and then what do you do to it? Do you just make it so that it runs? Because it's still crazy to me that you take a car, and and I mean the only time the only experience I've had with this is bumper cars at lagoon. Yeah, I mean it's you know what I mean. But then you're so do you beef up this car?
SPEAKER_00It's bumper cars at Lagoon on steroids.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00And uh so basically what we do is is is uh my favorite car is a 1970s, mid-70s General Motors product. Whether it be a Buitt, Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Chevy, it doesn't matter. As long as it's 72 to 76 is the range that I like.
SPEAKER_02That's a good range. I mean he's honed in. Yeah. He knows.
SPEAKER_00And so we yeah, well, I've been around a little while. And uh so we take it and we got it. We call it stripping it. And so we take all the plastic, all the seats, all the glass, the the motor that's in it comes out, um, and we take it down to nothing but a frame and a and a body, essentially. And then we start building up. Which by build up I mean we weld the door shut, we put a metal cage inside the driver compartment.
SPEAKER_02That's great.
SPEAKER_00Um we put our uh our own we call them derby engines, which is basically engines that have been specifically made. Well, some people run stock engines, and that's okay, but but like the one I have is specifically made for Derby applications, and I use that motor every time.
SPEAKER_03Oh, you can yank it out of one car that you've beat up so bad and just put it in another one.
SPEAKER_00Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_03Um, interesting.
SPEAKER_00Sometimes you have to fix, sometimes you have to fix little things here and there, but all in all, it's the same motor, a lot of the same parts, just go from car to car to car.
SPEAKER_02What's it like when okay, just just put me in the driver's seat. So, first of all, the one that I attended was down at the uh county fairgrounds. Right, me too. It seems like they made a huge, I mean, it's just in the rodeo arena, but they made like a huge berm of like dirt or something, I guess to kind of keep all you hooligans, you know, you know, from jumping their cars into the stands. But what is it like when you're sitting behind the wheel of that car, and then are you just kind of looking out and you're like looking for maybe the weak car, you know, or like how do you I mean because it am I correct in saying that the winner is the last car standing or last car running?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, when you pull in, you know, and I've I've been in hundreds of derbies, probably. Wow. I've never kept track, but and every time I put that helmet on, start that car, the butterflies are just fluttering.
SPEAKER_03I would imagine, but just talking about it, my I I bet you have adrenaline that's a million miles an hour. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely. And then you pull in that arena and see those stands and hear the people and hear the cheers, I'll tell you what, that adrenaline is going.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00But it and and and and and you go in and most derbies will circle. You you make left-hand turns and circle to the left. Um, and as soon as they say five, four, three, two, one, go, I'll tell you what, it's business.
SPEAKER_03And it's and it is loud.
SPEAKER_00It is loud and to and to me, you know, and and and there's different people. Some people are just out there to crash and have a good time, which is which is what it's about. But obviously, there's a little bit of strategy in it. Try to keep your driver's door in so that you know that because you can't hit the driver's door. That's a that's one of the rules. And so if you if you keep your driver's door to the middle of the arena, as cars come at you, they have to be a little bit careful because they don't want to hit that door because they can get disqualified. And so on the other side of that coin, I use it as kind of a shield per se that uh as you're driving around, you know, you keep that door towards them. People can't get as rowdy because they've got to be careful to not hit the door. Um just little things like that. That's kind of fun to strategies, you know, while you're in there. But on any given the biggest thing is to just go out and hit people and uh be the last one moving.
SPEAKER_03On any given year, Dan, how how on average, how many derbies are you racing in, or I guess participating? I don't know what the term terminology.
SPEAKER_00Well, the most I've ever done was was 12.
SPEAKER_02That's a lot. That's a that's a busy summer. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00No, it was a busy summer. I was I was 18 years old and I ran in 12 derbies in one summer.
SPEAKER_03How much money did you make that summer doing it?
SPEAKER_00Um I probably, well, the funny thing is back then derbies weren't near worth as much as they are now.
unknownI bet you I won pushing $10,000.
SPEAKER_03That's awesome. That's awesome. For like hey Jason, what's your pat what's your pastime making you?
SPEAKER_02Uh nothing. I think about squats.
SPEAKER_00The bad thing though, guys, is is is those those exact same derbies this year, that probably that $10,000 probably would have been a hundred thousand.
SPEAKER_03Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02So no wonder you got your wife into it. Well, now listen, Dave just said something. I don't know if that came through, okay, but like, but he read my mind. Like, not only do you do these derbies, but somebody who may be even slightly cooler than you, I hate to say it, but it's true. And tougher. And tougher for sure. It is true.
unknownAnd you know, the funny part is, is she is a movie star in the derby world.
SPEAKER_02Your sweet wife is a movie star?
unknownShe is.
SPEAKER_00But not in the United States. She last, let's see, this would be 2019. She was filmed as a as one of the centerpieces in an episode of it's called Body Hack.
SPEAKER_02It's an Australian reality TV shoot series that did a uh thing on on uh what did he just say? I know I think I think it was just a slurring of the word. I would hope so. Anyways, go ahead.
SPEAKER_03We heard something completely different.
SPEAKER_00And uh reality TV series, and she uh which speaking of my sweet wife, okay. Yeah, she uh was they did an episode on extreme driving, and uh she was the driver that they did this episode, part of the episode about and uh so the guys flew out here from Australia, um, filmed her and me and some of our kids building the car, and then uh she drove the car and ended up second in the derby overall.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00And she was the only lady in the well, I think she was I think there was one other lady in the derby, but but uh she uh ended up second overall, took home, I think she ended up with five, I think it was about five thousand dollars for second place.
unknownThat's awesome.
SPEAKER_00And uh so yeah, she's uh as cool as as cool as uh I think I may be she's by far cooler than I am.
SPEAKER_03Did you get her into Derbian? I like that we can use it as a verb. Yeah, you got her into that? So she wasn't growing up with it either.
SPEAKER_00You know, you know, Jason, I love how he said Derbian.
SPEAKER_03We verbed that right up.
SPEAKER_02I think he's I think he's turning redneck on us. Yeah, yes, he look, buddy, all our work is almost complete. So you got her into that.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I got her into it. She she had been to Derbies before we met, but had never been in one. And uh she's drove uh actually quite a few now. And uh but the coolest thing is is I've uh I've got another one that's starting next year. Keegan, my oldest daughter, will be old enough to drive in the youth heat next year in Logan.
SPEAKER_03Wait, Keeg's is only 14? 15?
SPEAKER_00Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_02Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00They're doing they've started doing youth heats and they can drive a 14. I love that.
SPEAKER_03That's awesome. That is awesome. So let me ask you this, Dan, is because we're running a little bit short on time here. If if it's if you're in the same heat as Danny, by the way, listeners, it's Dan and Danny.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, if you're in the same heat as Danny, are you going after her or are you guys like in alliance?
SPEAKER_00Well, we have been in two derbies in our life together.
unknownAnd uh I'm sad to say she's beat me both times.
SPEAKER_02You're sad to say it, but I'm not surprised, brother.
unknownStraight up, she has beat me both times.
SPEAKER_00And I will never forget, we were in a derby down in South Jordan, and at this, we were driving suburbans. It was a truck derby. And uh she uh for some reason her her suburban was running really, really well, and uh for some reason about halfway through the heat, her carburetor was having some issues and it was and it was flooding out, so it flooded out and died on her. Well, and it was so I kind of drove around her, tried to see if I could nudge her to keep her time going. And anyways, she uh I went down to the other side of the arena where some of the action was and was was battling out with a couple guys, and all of a sudden, Jason, I hear I hear these headers just and you know as well as you know from being there, they are loud.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I hear this, I hear this motor fire up, and those headers start screaming, that exhaust starts screaming, and I look up right as she broadsides me, and I had never, I have never in my entire life been hit that hard. She hit that front of my suburban so hard, I I think I still feel it today.
SPEAKER_02I feel like that's like the equivalent of like a mic drop in the derby world.
SPEAKER_03And then I can see her little eyes as she looks at him through the woo through the window. Well, there's no windows, through where the window would be and giving you double barrel birds.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Because because I love that woman to death, but there is nobody in this world that I think is more competitive than she is.
SPEAKER_03Well, you told me one time she got mad at you when you didn't win.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. You if you if Dan goes and competes and doesn't come home a winner, and he's in a doghouse. Well, Danny's gonna let him know it. Yeah. Well, fair enough.
SPEAKER_00She is so competitive. If we leave the grocery store at the same time, she's gotta beat me home. She's awesome. Buddy, we we gotta she is a great lady, but she is super competitive.
SPEAKER_02Well, I'll tell you what, there's there's not better people than Dan and Danny Grange. Oh, 100%.
SPEAKER_03And you got great girls and I love the Granges.
SPEAKER_02You're you're raising them right, buddy. You're raising them right. Uh, you let us know when uh Keegan is participating because uh I kind of have a feeling that she would give both of you and Danny a run for your money. And she may Well, let's let's just put it this way, Jason. Danny's competitiveness has passed on to the generation. Yes. Yes, that's awesome. Uh Buddy, we we probably better uh we gotta get you on here again. Maybe we'll do a live it would be fun to do a live episode at the Derby. I don't think that's possible. I don't know. But we gotta get a Dan Grange part two. Yeah, could you have a can I be a passenger in one of us? Oh my gosh. You don't want to do that. I'm so soft. I would not, I'm like, it'd be like having a snowflake in there. Um Dan, thanks, buddy.
SPEAKER_00It would be fun to get you down at least driving around or something.
SPEAKER_02Buddy, thanks. This has been fun. We'll see you, buddy.
SPEAKER_01Okay, see you guys.
SPEAKER_02See ya.
unknownBye.
SPEAKER_02You know, oh geez, that guy is he's the real deal.
SPEAKER_03A couple real quick things. Um, I he let me take my sons down to his scrapyard one day, and it's it's a I don't know, it's a paradise for boys. Yeah. I mean, he you can throw rocks at cars. We were trying to break windows out, and you'd be surprised. Those things are tempered or whatever to the point where you throw a rock and it's gonna shatter it, but it's not usually gonna break it. You gotta keep trying.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I mean, it was so much fun, and then he told us to hop in a car and go bash another car, and so I'm like, and then I get right there close and I'm like, bing. You dwell a derby. You know, one other thing that gets me about a derby is you watch those guys and you think the car is dead, and so you think they're done and out. Yeah, and then if you look closely, you look you the person inside almost disappears. They're down underneath, they're hot wiring the thing, like fixing what they can't do. The battery is sitting on the f on the floor by them or latched into a I don't know, into a belt or something. It's it's not like it's under the hood, it's right up there. So then they're trying to hotwire the car to get it going again. And so, like he said, out of nowhere, Danny's car is resurrected and he pokes his head up and she's coming just full-blown broken. I the the thing that got me when I went was three things. One, the the noise level is unbelievable.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's it's it's off the chain.
SPEAKER_03And I'm not talking the fans. I mean, they they add to it, but the sound of those cars, it's not like they've got nice mufflers, and it's not a good vehicle. Yeah, you're not seeing a whole lot of Toyota Priest. And so that and the exhaust in the air was crazy. Sure. And my adrenaline just started and I'm not even driving, and my adrenaline's like, oh, what am I seeing here? And the other thing that got me was the the the people at the Derby watching. Yeah. Some interesting folks. Sure, without question. I didn't know a pack of cigarettes could be stored in the place where the lady had them stored. You but it's a bad place.
SPEAKER_02That's why, you know, you you think of any sporting event, they've they've got their core group of supporters and believers, and I love, I fit right in. I love going to those derbies.
SPEAKER_03Dan's an all-star man. That's a that's a guy who if it if a grange is, and and it's not just him and his wife, his brothers, his dad, yeah. Just there is, I think around here there are very few derbies, and there's enough of them. Yeah, there are very few derbies that are driven in where there's not more than one grange.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. And he's actually good. Helped a lot of some of the neighborhood kids, young boys that were interested in it, and wanted to get involved with it. So my I know we're running late on time, but my thoughts are like if you get a chance to go to one of these derbies, do not like I missed it out, I missed out on those for the first 42 years of my life. Um I will not make that mistake again. Go. They are so much fun. And and there's so much skill strategy that I just it blew my blew me away.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and and watch for Dan and Danny Grange, because they'll probably be one of the last cars running. Thanks again, folks, for listening to another episode of the Small Towns Podcast. We're pretty sure we've changed your life for the better. If not, well, we'll try again next time.