Roger Lovell, of Colorado Springs’ Lovell Racing, on the impact of racing on his family. Part of the duo of Roger and Brad, Roger has had some incredible experiences that are worth hearing about. Be sure to listen in and find out what’s in store for the future of this family.
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5:34 – stupid, little competitions
9:39 – the thing about engineering is it teaches you a different way to think
15:03 – that’s some of the joy of being young
19:01 – the highlight of my racing career
27:23 – the Bronco is something that would compete with Jeep, but not replicate the Jeep
42:42 – it’s everything about a dirt road…
46:06 – we can recognize each other just by the driving style, or by the breathing
52:06 – “you’re not as bad as she said you were”
55:50 – what racing has done for me is really make me value family and value the relationships that I have
We want to thank our sponsors Maxxis Tires and 4Low Magazine.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:47.170] – Big Rich Klein
On today’s episode of Conversations with big Rich, we have Roger Lovell. You probably all know who Roger is, and if you don’t, get your head out of the sand. That’s Brad’s older brother and part of Lovell racing, the guys that had some great news in the last week or two, and it’s going to be really good to see you guys down in Vegas. I’m assuming you’re going to come down to the induction dinner for ORMHOF, is that correct?
[00:02:14.010] – Roger Lovell
Wouldn’t miss it.
[00:02:15.080] – Big Rich Klein
All right. So, Roger, thank you for coming on board and telling your side of the story.
[00:02:20.240] – Roger Lovell
Well, thanks, Rich, I appreciate the time.
[00:02:22.990] – Big Rich Klein
Let’s start off some of the people that will hear this have not listened to your brother’s podcast. So where were you born and raised?
[00:02:32.470] – Roger Lovell
I was born and raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Born in the same hospital as Brad and actually same hospital as my wife as well.
[00:02:40.830] – Big Rich Klein
Oh, wow.
[00:02:41.450] – Roger Lovell
Never left here.
[00:02:42.810] – Big Rich Klein
Never left. You left the hospital, of course.
[00:02:45.470] – Roger Lovell
Left the hospital, yeah.
[00:02:47.490] – Big Rich Klein
So what was it like growing up in Colorado Springs as a kid?
[00:02:53.050] – Roger Lovell
Well, it’s changed an awful lot since I was a kid and it’s grown an awful lot. Brad and I both went to the University of Wyoming college as engineers, and that’s when I kind of at that point in my life, I really wanted to stay in Wyoming because I like people and I like the slower pace, but ended up where there’s work and back in Colorado Springs. So it’s been a lot of fun and I don’t plan to go anywhere.
[00:03:17.480] – Big Rich Klein
Excellent. That’s interesting. I have no desire to go back to my hometown, but that’s the San Francisco bay area, too, so it’s all overgrown.
[00:03:28.720] – Roger Lovell
Well, you got to leave to have that experience.
[00:03:32.250] – Big Rich Klein
Yes.
[00:03:32.730] – Roger Lovell
I guess I never really did that.
[00:03:34.930] – Big Rich Klein
Let’s talk about those early days. And school and all that kind of stuff, the things that you did as a family. Because one of the things I’m really impressed. With Brad’s story. And your story. And having met your families. Is that it is such a family. I mean, it seems like you guys are almost, like, joined at the hip at times, but I see nothing wrong with that. And it’s great that you’re able to do that. Let’s talk about that.
[00:04:05.740] – Roger Lovell
Yeah. It is really neat. I got to give credit to our mom and dad. They raised us to respect family. And know how important family was. And that’s something that Brad and I both carried on in our lives. But going all the way back, I was born born in colorado springs. And it was December. There was a nasty blizzard, and to get home from the hospital, I had to ride in the back seat of my dad’s. I believe it was a 68 bronco at the time. So my true experience of four wheel drive. Started shortly after I was born. And coming home with blizzard. Growing up was a lot of fun. We started doing some camping and whatnot as a family. And every time we go camping, of course, my dad always had a Bronco. And brad and I would always try and convince him. To go do some of the hardest trails up in the colorado mountains. And as a dad now, I’m starting to understand it a little bit better. I prefer just to sit around the campfire and drink beer, but we were always pushing him to go out and do that stuff.
[00:05:10.280] – Roger Lovell
And it wasn’t long before I got my first car, which was the wonderful bronco two. And, in fact, I still have it, but I’ve been working on it for 30 years. Because I just keep modifying it. And making it better and whatnot. Now it’s a full blown close to a race car.
[00:05:33.150]
Wow.
[00:05:34.140] – Roger Lovell
But we started doing that. I got my license first, and Brad got his license. But the interesting thing about Brad. Is when he got his license, he got an 88 ranger. And he didn’t want anything to do with his truck. Or anything like that. He was just into flying model airplanes. I kind of went to him, like, do you realize how lucky you are? You’ve got this cool vehicle. You got to do some stuff with it. So we started going up camping. And then got involved. Our cousin mark had a jeep, and he’s our older cousin. And we’d all go up camping. And we always shoot to find the hardest trails, most difficult trails we could do trails with a destination in Colorado, and we started going to Moab, and as brothers would have it, we start competing with each other a little bit, stupid little competitions, and then we ended up at supercrawl as spectators, and that just really lit the fire for Brad and I. And before the event was even over, we figured out that that was something that we wanted to do. That was 2002, I think. Maybe it was 2001, I can’t remember, but it was in Farmington. READ MORE
