Full Throttle: The Unstoppable, Boris Said

Boris Said - Professional Racing Driver for BMW of Murietta, K1 Speed

Contact: Boris Said at boris@bmwofmurrieta.com | N/A | Visit Online!

       

This episode of Break/Fix features an in-depth interview with Boris Said, a legendary pro driver known for his fearless driving and distinctive style in various motorsport disciplines. Boris shares his unconventional entry into motorsports, starting from owning a motorcycle dealership to becoming a highly respected figure in American racing. The conversation covers his diverse career spanning sports cars, touring cars, NASCAR, and endurance racing, highlighting notable achievements like his win at the Nürburgring 24 Hours and participation in prominent races like the Daytona 500 and Bathurst 1000. Boris reflects on the emotional highs and personal challenges throughout his career, including insights on racing dynamics, team collaborations, and his continued passion for the sport. Additionally, the episode touches on his involvement with K1 Speed and future aspirations, including racing with his son and building a race track in Southern California.

• Joining us tonight was Mike Carr, our resident Sports Car & Endurance racing Guru… who some of you might remember from our Randy Lanier and Bob Garretson episodes.
• Looking back, what first drew you to racing, and how did your early experiences shape the kind of driver you became?
  
• You’ve raced in everything from Trans-Am to NASCAR—what have been the biggest challenges in adapting between different racing disciplines?
  
• You’re widely regarded as one of the best road course specialists—what’s your approach to mastering a track, and how does that differ from oval racing? 
• What was it like being a “road course ringer” in NASCAR, and how did that role evolve throughout your time in the series?
• You’ve had a long career—how have you seen the sport change over the years, both in terms of competition and technology?
• With your distinct personality and style, you’ve built a strong fan base—how has your connection with fans influenced your journey?
• Let’s talk about the future, what’s next Boris?

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] Break Fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all over the autos sphere, from wrench, turners, and racers to artists, authors, designers, and everything in between. Our goal is to inspire a new generation of Petrolhead that wonder to. How did they get that job or become that person?

The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story

Crew Chief Eric: on break fix. We’re always trying to bring you closer to the legends of Motorsport. I. Today’s guest is a true icon known for his fearless driving and unmistakable presence. On and off the track we’re talking about none other than pro driver.

Boris said, with a career spanning decades, Boris has raced and won in just about every discipline you can think of from sports cars and touring cars to NASCAR and endurance racing. He’s a Daytona 24 hours champion, a TransAm winner, and one of the most respected road course specialists in American racing history.

Mike Carr: Boris, whether [00:01:00] it’s your aggressive style, your versatile talent, or that signature head of hair under the helmet, which, uh, has receded somewhat since the, uh, early days of your career, it was very impressive. You’ve carved out a legacy that’s as bold as it is inspiring.

Crew Chief Eric: And joining me tonight is Mike Carr, our resonant sports car, an endurance racing guru, and we’re delighted to have him back in the studio with us tonight.

So welcome back, Mike.

Mike Carr: Thank you very much. Happy to be here.

Crew Chief Eric: And with that, let’s welcome Boris to break fix.

Mike Carr: How you doing?

Boris Said: It’s good to be here.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, Boris, like all good superhero stories, there’s an origin. So let’s talk about how you got your start in the world of motorsports and what drew you in all those years ago, and how did your early experiences shape the kind of driver you became?

Boris Said: Well, I mean, I didn’t really take the traditional route. I owned a motorcycle dealership when I was 21. I was one of the youngest Honda dealers ever. The guy that helped me get that dealership was a guy named John McLean. He owned a Ford dealership. And what happened was I bought the dealership but I couldn’t get approved for financing for the credit line.

And he was a big [00:02:00] fan because the motorcycle shop I worked at before, he was like a race dad. And uh, we were all in the motocross and I helped his kid and him, and so he became a fake partner. And for doing that, I gave him a couple free dirt bikes back then in 1985. One day, he goes, Hey, I have this free trip to the Detroit Grand Prix.

It’s a Ford trip. It’s all first class hotel. I go, what is it? He goes, it’s an F1 race. I go, ah, car racing is stupid. I don’t need to go to that. You know? I just never watched it, never knew much about it. I ended up going, you know, and I didn’t want to go, but as soon as I walked out on the roof. In Detroit and I saw Ton Santa Go by and this Black Lotus, I was like instantly, like I gotta get a Formula One car.

That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. So, you know, one thing led to another, I met a guy named Bob Sharp who had a business up the street from where my dealership was, and I ran into him in, in the paddock and he said, Hey, what are you doing here? I didn’t know you were in the race. I go, that was my first race ever.

He goes, oh, you like it? I go, I want it. I wanna get a Formula One car. Where do I get one? How much are they the stupidest question in the world looking back. Right? But he took the [00:03:00] time to sit me down and explain like, Hey, you know, you gotta go to the Skip Barber Racing School and then you get yourself to showroom stock car and you race some SCCA and, and you know, at the end of the conversation I was like, but how much is the Formula One car?

Because that’s all I could think about. But I did exactly that. I went to the Skip Barber Racing school and then bought a showroom stock car. And originally I was only gonna race cars for a year and then go back to the motorcycle business. You know, this is year 39 right now. So it was a crazy ride, but I, I loved every minute of it.

Mike Carr: You didn’t ask your dad how to get into an F1 car?

Boris Said: No, my dad. I didn’t really know he raced. He left home when I was six. You know, I had the typical single mom living with our grandparents. Not a whole lot of parental supervision. I was pretty much on the career path to jail as a kid, you know, I got in a lot of trouble, but as a kid, you know, when you’re 12, 13, 14 years old, it’s just fun.

But I didn’t know any better. And then when I was 14, I got a job in a motorcycle shop for like these bullies, you know, these guys are rough guys, ex roofers, and they straightened my life out. They just. Made me work and work and work and work. [00:04:00] So I didn’t know much about my father until I went to, you know, the first few races when I started racing, people would say, oh, you’re Bob Said’s kid.

You know, your dad raced. And I never knew he raced the first NASCAR race at the Daytona 500. You know, the first Formula One race at Sebring. I had no idea. You know, one time I was lucky enough to race for the Wood Brothers, Eddie and Lenny, I mean, they’re great great guys. First race to Daytona on the asphalt.

He gave me the result sheet and my dad, he finished last, but he was in the race. So I learned more about my dad when I started racing than I ever knew about him. Wow. So I guess you could say it’s in your genes. ’cause I didn’t know he did it, but that’s, it’s all I think about even after 39 years, it’s still, I eat, sleep, live and love racing.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s interesting you say that, Boris, because you have one of the most unique but simple last names in racing. Have you ever traced back your genealogy? Are you somehow related to like Tatio N and we don’t know it?

Boris Said: No. No, man, I, I look back, you know, my grandfather immigrated, you know, he was a. Officer in Zas army when the Bolshevik Revolution, he immigrated and went through Ellis Island, [00:05:00] you know, that’s all.

I had never met him. My wife went and did all that. She went down the rabbit hole and all that stuff, you know, I always thought the name was Sayeed, that’s how it’s pronounced. I thought, oh, you know, I’m Middle Eastern and they must have immigrated to Russia. But you know, one time I was in a Thai restaurant and the guy asked me, he goes, Sayed.

He goes, oh yeah. I think they, you know, they went from probably Syria to Russia. No, impossible. He goes, you look like a Jew. And so we started thinking they probably chopped the name at Ellis Islands. You know, and I did the genealogy thing and sure enough, I’m, you know, 30% Jewish, so he was right. This professor, I’ve always said my whole life, I’m just a mutt.

I never really cared about that stuff. I was just always looking forward and always looking to work hard, have fun, and, and then once I found racing, that was my passion. You know, I’ve turned that into a career and pretty much my whole life is. Based around racing now, you know, currently I’m a partner with Rick Hendrick, which if somebody would’ve told me that 20 years ago, I would’ve told ’em they were crazy.

And uh, we’ve been partners in a car dealership for 14 years and been quite the ride.

Mike Carr: Talking about it being in your blood, your dad Bob, his name was actually Boris as well. And your son is Boris and [00:06:00] Right. But you’re racing with your son now?

Boris Said: Yeah, I’m actually, Boris said the third, but when my son was born, you know, in the hospital I just said Junior, ’cause I was good friends with Dale Junior and I liked the name Junior.

I thought Boris said the fourth sounds kind of like I didn’t want him to get made fun of at school. I didn’t even wanna name him Boris. I used to tell people I was gonna name him Simon, and they would just walk away laughing. Simon said,

Mike Carr: that’s great. My last name’s Carr and I threatened to name my kid bumper or something stupid like that.

Boris Said: We couldn’t think of a name other than Boris, so we just, yeah, let’s call him junior. Because I didn’t know the first two anyway really. You know, growing up he didn’t want anything to do with racing. I took him all over the world and that wasn’t his thing. And I’m like, that’s fine. And it wasn’t until like five years ago, he said, Hey, I wanna try a go-kart.

You know, we went, go-karting and I didn’t really like the go-kart scene too much. It was pretty different than the road racing scene. So we bought a Miata and we went MI Auto Racing and SCCA and that was great. And then, you know, one thing led to another, now he is racing a TransAm car. So we’re having a lot of fun going around the country doing that together.

Mike Carr: Getting back [00:07:00] to the, the beginning, what did you first get into?

Boris Said: So I bought a showroom stock Mustang and drove it to the racetrack and duct taped my numbers on there. I remember the first race was at driver’s school at Pocono, Pennsylvania. And then I was gonna do the race. It was a double regional right after that, and I did that on the tires.

I bought the car on and I met BF Goodrich and they were motorcycle guys, so they were, they gave me tires my first weekend, you know, just because we became friends. Literally that just started it and I just started going to the races and I, you know, I did some crazy things the first year I started really late and I might have rode in a lot of fake races in my log books so I could get a pro license to do a six hour race, and I did a six hour pro race in Atlanta escort endurance series.

I even came up with a fake co-driver ’cause I’m like, I’m just gonna run the whole six hours myself. I’m not gonna let anybody drive my car. Literally got out and fueled it myself, swapped the tires from left to right myself, and did the whole six hours. It was really neat. It was fun. And then the last race of the year was at Seabring, and now I’m getting smarter.

So I [00:08:00] rented a car from Hertz, a Mustang, so I had spare parts, spare wheels, spare everything, you know, for $70 a day. It was the best deal ever. So that, that was my first year racing. That’s amazing.

Crew Chief Eric: I think it’s the first time I’ve ever heard that somebody’s got a backup car that came from a rental agency.

That’s awesome.

Boris Said: So during the weekend at Sebring, it went through a fuel pump, so it was on jack stands and didn’t run. And then in the race I. You know, I had brought two guys with me to fuel and when I pulled in I would get out with a T handle and start changing the tires while they were fueling. And when I get half of that done, I’d get back in.

You know, I didn’t really care how I finished. I just wanted to do the whole six hours. I had another fake co-driver on there, and near the end of the race I. I think I was coming in from my last stop and as I pulled in, all these guys jumped over the wall with air guns and they start changing the tires and they were all the saline racing guys from the Saline Ford team.

My guy comes over, I go, Hey, what the hell’s going on? He goes, well, they need you to finish in the top 10. The wind manufacturers right where you are. If you finish where you are, Ford can win the manufacturers, if not Porsche’s gonna win, but they don’t wanna get disqualified, so they [00:09:00] wanna put this guy in.

George Fulmer. And I didn’t

Mike Carr: know who he was. We’ve heard of him. Yeah.

Boris Said: I didn’t know anything about racing when he’s on the pit wall, ready to jump over the wall and me get out and I just tell him, I said, I told him, Hey, thanks for the tires, but I’m driving my own car the last hour. You know, I’ve already driven five hours.

Right. Gone through this whole thing. And so, yeah. And they ended up not disqualifying me ’cause. Porsche thought it was so funny. I did the whole six hours and they were laughing at me for changing the tires with a T handle and the the whole bit. And at the end of the weekend when we left, I had to call Hertz and say, Hey, your car won’t start.

It’s in the parking lot. So

Mike Carr: yeah,

Boris Said: and that was my first year racing. That was 1987. Then in 88 I sold my motorcycle dealership and I said, I’m gonna go racing. And I bought a Corvette Challenge car. I did the Pro Series Corvette Challenge and you know, I was a one man band in my van and open trailer and drove around the country and had the best time of my life.

Crew Chief Eric: So you would’ve raced against some other folks that we had on the show. I’m just gonna throw some names out there. Andy Pilgrim, David Murray, Johnny O’Connell. You all are from the same [00:10:00] graduating class, right?

Boris Said: Yeah. Andy Pilgrim was one of the first guys I ended up meeting in the Corvette Challenge. He was with a private tier team.

These guys Al Bear from Texas. After the Corvette Challenge, I ended up racing their Mustang a lot. Over the years, you know, Andy and I were, after 88, we we’re great friends and we ended up racing on the same Camaro team for mainline racing a lot of years. And, and we’ve raced in BMW over the years. So we’ve raced a lot together.

Uh, actually all those names we’ve raced. Yeah. And Andy is a awesome driver, right. And a great guy. But he’s also disgusting and I’m gonna tell you why

Crew Chief Eric: it is ought to be good.

Boris Said: So we were teammates. And you know, he’s very English, sounds very English, and I’m like, what are you eating? He goes, A dripping sandwich.

I’m like, what the hell is a dripping sandwich? He goes, oh, my mom made ’em when I was little. I still love him. They take the bacon grease, you know, and they pour it into a can. You know that white grease? Yeah. And he puts it on white bread and then adds salt, and that’s their idea of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Dripping sandwich. I’m like, Andy. I’m gonna remember that for the rest of my life. And [00:11:00] that was probably 30 years ago he told me that. And I still, when I hear Andy Pilgrim, I think dripping sandwiches. Oh, that’s crazy. Yeah. That’s awesome. Well, Andy, Andy’s a wheelman and a really good guy and always has been

Crew Chief Eric: where I got plugged into Boris.

Was through my dad and he’s like, you gotta come watch this guy, because he was watching World Challenge. He had been following your career since the early days and stuff like that. And so for me, seeing you on TV and the Mustangs and the BMWs, then competing against the Audis in World Challenge with Mike, a Lotti behind the wheel, the S fours, stuff like that, it got my spidey sense tingling.

So I wanted to know, you know, was this the second coming, like it was in TransAm in the old GTO days where Audi, quote unquote, the unfair advantage, what was it like racing against? The four wheel drive cars with a classic rear wheel drive setup.

Boris Said: They were better, they had an advantage. But I didn’t care what I raced.

I just wanted to race and I always wanted to race the next fastest car. What’s the fastest car I can get in? Like, you know, I’m in a showroom stock Mustang, now I’m in a showroom stock Corvette. Now I’m in a world challenge [00:12:00] Corvette and I, I was always just trying to get to the next fastest car. I wanna get in a cup car, I wanna race against Dale Earnhardt Sr.

Right? And then when you’re, you’re racing World Challenge. I mean, that seemed like every time I got somewhere it was like, this is the pinnacle. This is unbelievable. I’m getting a paycheck to drive these cars. And there were always guys along the way, like Mike ate is a hardcore racer. Doesn’t look like it.

You know, he looks like he should have a pizza restaurant and the way he talks. He’s a great, great guy and he was deadly in those cars. I mean, he was, he was a really good front wheel drive guy and really good in the four wheel drive cars.

Crew Chief Eric: I bring this up because it’s a constant conversation. Nowadays, as I’m sure it was back then, which is BOP balance of performance, do you think it was right to keep adding weight to the Audis and penalize them and penalize them, or should Ford or BMW wherever built a better mouse trap?

That’s the argument against BOP, because that has perpetuated your entire career.

Boris Said: But I, you know, especially now in the GT three series, it’s whatever cars, whatever the BOP gives it that weekend. And I just always [00:13:00] thought, you know what? I don’t give a crap about that. I can’t control that. You know, so why worry about something I can’t control?

I see that it’s not right for, you know, one car to win every race. It’s not gonna look good. The other manufacturers will leave and those are the guys paying you. It’s a tough job for the sanctioning body to try to get every manufacturer to win. That’s what they want. So everybody’s happy, but are you equalizing drivers or are you equalizing cars?

That’s the big argument really. The Audi that Michael Audi drove was a well-funded team, backed by Audi, which was a lot for World Challenge at the time. And so I think if they were in two wheel drive, they’d probably still be just as competitive ’cause of, of all the engineering and everything they had behind it, and they had the really good drivers.

But you know, I never really bitched about stuff like that. I didn’t really see the point. I just. Drive harder. You gotta figure out a way to beat ’em. Always gonna be a weakness, you know, no matter how good their car is, is the way I always thought in my head.

Mike Carr: I started racing in an Audi and you know, we always just prayed for rain, but let’s talk about road courses.

You’ve had good success at Sonoma [00:14:00] Daytona. Sebring, Watkins Glen. Bathhurst, I wanna hear about Bathhurst and the Berg Green. Obviously the Berg Green was a high point.

Boris Said: Yeah, I mean, Berg Green to me is, it’s the best piece of road in the world. You know, I remember we went over there, I forget what year we did an IMS race on the Berg Green Grand Prix Circuit, you know, and I was a teammate with Han Stook, so he was taking me around the old track and it was just like, are you kidding me?

I mean, a track that three times the lap, your all four wheels are off the ground. It is the craziest. Piece of road in the world. And so I was addicted to it and I wanted to do it so bad, so I kept bugging BMW to get me a berg ring. And they kept saying, no, an American can’t learn it. No, it’s too hard. No, it’s not an American thing.

And Hans, he talked him in to let me do it. They flew me over there. This is one of the most fun days they ever had. They gave me two BMWM three CSL lightweights street cars. And it was just open days with the public and they go, okay, those cars are yours for two days. Old cars. Both cars. ’cause I would go out in one with Hans and we’d run 10 laps, fuel it [00:15:00] up, go out, run another 10 laps, bring it back, and they’d change the tires and brakes.

And I’d take the other one and burn that up for a couple hours and I just kept rotating them.

Mike Carr: What a joy.

Boris Said: It was the most fun I’ve ever had in two days, and that was in a street car. So then going back in the race car, it was just unbelievable. You know, we did a lot of VLN races in one short, you know, they were giving us three hour races to get ready for the 24 hour, but the first 24 hour race, which was a big deal for BMW, it was first time back there as a factory effort on the pay lap.

Both cars broke down.

Mike Carr: Yeah.

Boris Said: They packed the radiators with dry ice so they wouldn’t overheat on the, you know, 30 minute pay lap. The Russell Line fittings froze and cracked. So they both lost tranny on the first lap, so we were way behind that first year. I had a lot of speed, but I crashed the car at like three in the morning going by a slow car down in the foxhole.

He didn’t see me turned in and clipped me in the right rear. And you know, I dumpster the thing. I remember going back to the hotel, telling my wife and just like, oh man, I just screwed the pooch. There’s no way they’re ever gonna invite me back. I’m bummed that was a low, low point in racing, but they [00:16:00] invited me back and then next year we finished one, two, I was second, and then 2005 I became the first American to ever win that race.

And

Mike Carr: congratulations.

Boris Said: Probably one of the highlights of my racing career was it was one of the most fun cars. It’s the hardest race in the world by far. I mean, you’re lapping cars every three laps, the difference in speed and there’s 230 cars on the track and you’re passing 50, 60 cars a lap. It’s unbelievable how much fun it is.

It’s complete craziness.

Crew Chief Eric: Mike mentioned some great memories of racetracks you’ve been to. There’s an almost at LAMA with Andrea Robertson and her husband. We could talk about that, maybe how that didn’t play out, you know? Is LAMA still a bucket list thing for you?

Boris Said: Well, I went to Lama the first time was in 94 with Callaway.

I put it on the pole. It looked like, you know, we were gonna win, but less than halfway through the race, you know, we had a French driver in the car that. Didn’t hear pit in two times and ran outta gas. So we got disqualified and that was it. It was really fun. But then, yeah, I met the Robertsons and did a few races.

David Murray got me in to run [00:17:00] with them and I ran, you know, Seing and another race and we were gonna go to LA Mall, but they only got one entry, so I got kicked out. But they were super nice people and it was a lot of fun. But after going to Berg Ring and Bathurst Lamas kind of boring, to be honest with you.

It’s a big track. It’s all straightaways. There’s only 48 cars on there. Berg ring is, that is the ultimate spectacle in in motor sports. It is the craziest thing ever. And I think the second craziest race would be Bathurst 1000. You know, those V eight supercar guys are wide open. They’re nuts. They’re 10 tenths every single lap.

You know, you can watch that track on tv, but the first time I went there was with a buddy of mine. He landed a helicopter there and I was like, are you kidding me? This is what they race on. It was. So steep and so fast and so blind TV doesn’t do it justice.

Mike Carr: It’s completely insane. I’ve seen some video and it looked like bathhurst.

I could be wrong. You’re in a Mustang Fox body. It’s full of smoke and your head is out the window because you can’t see through the windshield.

Boris Said: No, that was actually [00:18:00] a Sonoma early in my career.

Mike Carr: Okay.

Boris Said: In the Bayer brothers Mustang? Yeah. Yeah. When I went to Bathurst, I was in a pretty badass car.

Mike Carr: All right.

Let’s come back to Bathurst in a second, but tell me what it’s like to unbuckle and stick your head out the window and continue at race speed.

Boris Said: Well, I mean that was early in my career and you know, an oil line or something came off or something I thought, I go, man, I just gotta get back to the pits. And I figured the only way I could do it is to unbuckle, ’cause I couldn’t see anything in the car.

That’s when you’re not really thinking about safety. Full speed. Joey Chitwood hanging out the window, got it back, and unfortunately it was the terminal oil line situation.

Mike Carr: It looked horrible on video.

Boris Said: Yeah, it was as bad as it looked.

Mike Carr: What else do you have to say about Bathurst that looked incredible?

Boris Said: I mean, that VH Supercar is as professional as nascar.

Cup series, but all road racers, those guys are some of the best racers in the world. You know, proven by McLaughlin Ambrose, SDG, coming over here. They breed some really good race car drivers there. So to be able to compete in that was a lot of fun and got to do four B [00:19:00] eight supercar races over my career.

You know, once at Bathurst, Philip Islands, and then twice at Surface Paradise. Great memories,

Mike Carr: I have to say. It’s really fun to see SVG in nascar. Kicking ass. You know, like it’s really fun. Yeah. To watch him just jump in and get right up to speed.

Boris Said: That was the deal I put together for him, you

Mike Carr: know? ‘

Boris Said: cause Justin Marks, we met at BMW when he was this young kid that came over and we raced together and I kind of mentored him a little bit.

I mean, back then he was this idiot kid, like, you know, every 20-year-old kid. To see what he’s become now in NASCAR is crazy. ’cause he is, in my opinion, he’s the next Hendrick. He’s the next Penske, you know, he’s that. Next generation of, it’s gonna be the super teams in nascar. So I got a call from Paul Morris and he goes, Hey man, can, can you do me a favor?

Can you, you know, you know Shane, can you get him a ride in that Justin Marks car? And I called Justin and asked him, and he goes, ah, you know, I don’t know, you know, got a guy, I’m not really sure. And I’m like, I go, Justin, I’ve raced with this guy. This guy could win. I’m telling you. Yeah. He goes, all right, I’ll call him.

And he never called him. So I called him back and really bugged him. I [00:20:00] go, Justin, I’m telling you this guy can win. And so they ended up putting a deal together. He goes, yeah, I’m gonna put him in Chicago. It was the first time in my life I ever been on a race. Me and my son, ’cause he was, my son’s a big gambler.

We bet on him. And he paid off pretty good for us. It was pretty neat to see him win and he’s a great guy.

Mike Carr: Do you think Shane’s a road course guy or an oval guy? I mean, he is a road course racer, but you know, he seems to do quite well at the oval.

Boris Said: He’s getting there. I mean. It’s so much harder now because when I was doing nascar, you know, you got three hours of practice before the race and he’s going there with 20 minutes of practice and qualifying to learn the ovals.

He’s only really learning them when he gets in the race, and that’s really hard. So I, I hope they give him a couple years and I think he’ll get it. I mean, he’s one of the best drivers I’ve ever seen besides Connors Village, who I think is. Probably the world’s best.

Mike Carr: There’s a bunch of Connors, Connor Di Felipe, I think you ran with him.

Yep. In the BMWs.

Boris Said: Well, he ran in the prototype. You know I was way before him. Yeah. But he was the second American to Winberg ring. And he’s good. But I’m telling you, [00:21:00] Connors Village, if he went to Formula One, he would beat those guys. I’ve looked at his data. I’ve never seen a kid like this. He is head and shoulders above anyone I’ve ever seen or raced with, and he is a nice kid, one of the nicest kids you’d ever wanna meet.

Mike Carr: I wanna get your thoughts on the, the state of sports car endurance racing. Today. We’ve got S-R-O-M-S-A-W-R-L-A-E-R, champ CAR WEC. Even Lemons, SCCA is doing some Trans AM is doing a little bit. Has it become accessible? In a way that you’ve given any thought to,

Boris Said: I love how popular it is. I mean, to go to a 24 hour Daytona race now, WeatherTech, it’s packed.

Never had that kind of crowds. Cars are beautiful to look at, you know, all the different GT three cars and relatively, they keep ’em pretty equal. Personally, I, I don’t like racing those cars. I think it’s taken a lot of the skill away, you know, to have paddle shift and track control and a BS braking. It took a lot of the skill away from shifting through a gated shifter, having to match the revs and use the [00:22:00] clutch and not use the clutch.

Trans Am now the TA one class. That’s the best race car that anyone could ever drive. It’s almost 900 horsepower. Some of ’em still have a gated shifter. No a BS no track control. Requires a lot of finesse, a lot of control. The tires, you know, they still go 194 miles an hour at Road America down the straightaway.

I mean, they really go. In saying that I’m old school, so it’s me saying, you know, I’m riding my horse. These cars are stupid. So I, I get that. And these GT three cars are just so cool looking, you know, they have a lot more arrow than the cars ever had. The technology is unbelievable and they’re beautiful looking cars, all of them.

I really don’t enjoy driving ’em. Like I enjoy driving a older school car with a gated shifter and a lot of horsepower. You know, I wish they had more horsepower. Even nascar now they’ve dumbed them down so bad, you know, they’re only 700 plus horsepower. They used to be almost 900, and that was a lot harder to drive.

Crew Chief Eric: You know, Mike brought up a really good point about all the different sports Car and endurance series that exist, and I’m sure we missed a few, but there’s [00:23:00] also been a rise in vintage racing. Do you see yourself getting involved in that? Maybe something as outlandish as like the Lamont’s Classic?

Boris Said: I still really enjoy driving.

I mean, I did a NASCAR race last year. It was probably too old to do it. I had a blast and I still enjoy Trans Am. There’s such good racing in all the series. Now, one thing, I mean, you look at real grassroots spec Miata. You know, you go to an SCCA race that Road America, and you see 70 spec Miatas driving around there, four cars, bumper to bumper, drafting,

Mike Carr: folding in each other’s mirrors.

Boris Said: Yeah, those guys put on the best show in racing, I think. I mean, they’re really, really good and they’re, it’s amateur racing. There’s so much good racing now in, in all this series. It’s really cool Now, I mean, you can turn on the tv, you can watch it anywhere. Still after 39 years. I love watching racing. I love being around it.

You know, I have a really successful BMW dealership. Super proud of it, building it. But when I’m there, I personally don’t feel like I belong there. Where if I’m at a go-kart track or an SECA national or a TransAm race, I [00:24:00] feel like at home I just still love the race track. I love car racing.

Mike Carr: We may have breezed past it, but you are renowned for a number of things.

One being the road track ringer.

Boris Said: You know, I was doing some truck races. Jimmy Spencer had me sub for him in a cup race when he got hurt. Nobody knew who I was. Showed up at Watkins Glen, qualified fifth, and then in the race, you know, he started the race. I got in, got all the way up to 12, spun out in a wreck, went all the way to the back, got all the way up to 12.

Again, I forget where I finished, but in the top 15 or something. So after that. I started getting calls and I got, first person that called me was a guy named Eddie Wood, the wood brothers, and they go, Hey, uh, you want to go, uh, teach my driver road racing to Elliot Sadler? And I’m like, well, I’m not really a teacher, you know, well, we’re gonna go up to Sears Point, you know, be really good.

I go, well, I’m not really a teacher, but what are you thinking? He goes, well, I’m gonna bring two cars up and do some lead follow. I go, so I get to drive a car. And he goes, yeah. I go. Okay, I’m in. I get to go drive a another cup car. I, I, for sure. I’m doing that. And so we finished the two days of [00:25:00] testing and it was fantastic, you know, and they paid for my flight and a hotel and food, and treated me like a king.

It was great. And at the end of the second day, he goes, well, what do I owe you? And I go, well, I don’t know. Do me a favor down the road. I’m good. You know, you paid for all my expenses and I had a blast driving. Oh no, I gotta pay. What, what do, what do you charge? And I go, uh, just forget about it. And I went home and, and that was it.

Two weeks later, I got a check in the mail. That was my biggest check in racing by far. And I just, I remember just looking at it like, oh my God, this is crazy. But what he did was he must have told everybody in the paddock because after that my phone just started ringing to go testing and so I just became this test guy testing for all the teams

Mike Carr: are these NASCAR guys who wanna learn road tracks,

Boris Said: all NASCAR guys.

Yeah. There was 30 of them, you know, over a few years. So that’s just got me to be, you know, every year when somebody got hurt. Or didn’t wanna race the road courses, they called me or Ron Fellows and we became these road course Rainers. It was an awesome, awesome experience and I love racing. I love racers and just, I learned so much by doing that and it, you know, got me faster along the way.

Crew Chief Eric: We’re sort of [00:26:00] jumping around, you know, talking about, I. Trucks and NASCAR and road racing and everything in between and jumping between all these different disciplines in Motorsport, how were you able to adapt? Or was it just Boris’ full send? We’re gonna go as fast as we can.

Boris Said: No, you know, I, I did a lot of weekends, like Automobile Magazine did an article on me once at Sonoma called The Hardest Working Man in Racing at Sonoma, I would do all three races, the Cup Race, the Southwest Tour race.

A TransAm race, you’re jumping back and forth. The race days weren’t the hardest. The hardest was Friday doing two practices in each car and then qualifying two cars. So you’re jumping back and forth a lot. You know, the hardest thing about that is I used to explain it, it’s like dating girls. You know, every girl is different and you can’t say the same thing to every girl.

They get the results you’re looking for, right? So they, they have their own personality and that’s how cars are. When you sit in that car, it’s like, am I in a batting cage or am I hitting golf balls with the driving range? Everything’s different. So I was always good at just switching from one to another to another, [00:27:00] and I, I don’t know, I just had a knack for it.

You know, one year at Daytona, 24 hours, I drove four different cars in the race. I drove 18 hours of the race. I drove Callaway C seven and GT one, and I drove three BMWs in the GT class, which one of ’em we won and at one point in the race we were leading in both classes, but the Callaway expired about two in the morning.

Crew Chief Eric: And I won’t name names, but you hear things in even recent times of racing where pro drivers are struggling with their engineers or struggling with their crew chiefs to communicate how the car should be set up. Maybe they have braking problems, maybe they have steering problems, electrical problems, whatever.

But now you’re telling, you’re jumping between three different cars, four different cars. How are you able to translate your driving style, how you want the car to act? To three entirely different teams, engineers to say, I wanna steer off the rear end. I don’t want it to push. I wanted to drive like that had to have been a challenge to get those cars dialed in so that you could just jump between them and feel good about it.

Boris Said: It didn’t really seem that big a deal to me. I mean, every car has, its. Feeling you’re just like, all right, it’s a little loose here. It’s a little tight here. Most [00:28:00] important thing is I need to make a turn better. And, and you pick something to make a turn better. Like, can you put a little bigger springs in the back, in the cup car?

You know, the sports cars are a lot more of a compromise, but it never, I don’t know, for some reason I always had a knack at it. I had a really good butt with a good feeling, and, and I could translate what I was feeling to the guys the years I did in nascar, testing all the cars and working with Penske, Childress Hendrick.

I knew what everybody had. I knew what they were doing. I had so much information. I was really good at knowing what the car needed in that era. You know, now the cars are so different the way they run. It’s a lot harder where you, they’ll change the shim. The 16th shim in the shock will make a big difference.

So you know now what you would just tell it feeling this, I needed to turn a little better in the center and the engineers will come up with something. Where back then it was so easy to say, yeah, you know, go up the 16th on the sway bar or put a round a wedge in the right rear. It was really easy to relate what you needed, but now it’s a lot more scientific, I think, and it’s a lot smaller.

Adjustments make a big change.

Mike Carr: Talked a lot with Colin Brown’s [00:29:00] dad, Jeff, about hi. His early involvement in damper testing and those minor adjustments that make a NASCAR car run better and a sports car run better. It’s magic, it’s complete science and if your butt can tell your engineers what you need seems to be super important.

And you know, it strikes me that that is what has led teams to say, yes, we would like you to come along to perfect these cars.

Boris Said: Well, Dale Junior’s, he was probably my closest friend in nascar and I remember, you know, I got a call, you know, to go teach him road racing. I showed up at Sonoma. I walk up to the car early in the morning.

Tony and Tony are senior, are working on the car, and I’m like, Hey, I’m Boris. Said I’m here to help you test. And, and it was kind of like days of thunder. They looked at me like I was poisoned, cold as could be. And I’m like, okay. And I just backed up and I’m standing around for about 45 minutes. And it is early in the morning, like eight o’clock or seven 30, and I’m like, Hmm, doesn’t seem like they want me here.

And then this engine guy came up from uh, Childress and I was [00:30:00] good friends with him and I’m like, Hey man, we’re talking. I go, it doesn’t seem like they really want me there. I go, where’s Junior? Anyway, I, I haven’t even met him. He goes, oh, he is probably in the trailer sleeping. Go in the holler and meet him.

And you know, I had this preconceived notion that he’s gonna be this spoiled Brad. I mean, he is Dale Earnhardt, SR’S kid. He’s got everything right like this in my head. Sure enough, I open the door to the lounge and walk in. He is dead asleep and he wakes up. Man, I was 180 degrees off. He is the coolest dude.

And we just hit it off. It was like we were brothers, you know, he is like my little brother right away. Never had a little brother, but he would’ve been it. So the test starts going and he’s running. He is running. He is like, well, let’s put Boris in the car. So I get in the car and, and go quite a bit faster than him, and then I tell him their car’s crap.

I go, here’s what you need to do. And they made some changes and it got faster, and now all of a sudden they’re like, oh, buddy, buddy, buddy, you wanna go to dinner with us tonight? Hey, let’s go to dinner. You know, they wanna pull all the information outta your brain. And that started our relationship with Dale Junior.

Mike Carr: You knew Dale Sr, too.

Boris Said: Yeah. So Dale Sr. I mean, everyone always asked me about what’s your best racing story? And that’s a Dale Sr story. You know, one day we were [00:31:00] all, there was about 15 cars tested at Watkins Glen. And I was pretty fast. I was in a car, Jimmy Spencer built, sponsored by Federated Auto Parts.

So this is after I’ve helped Dale Jr. And you know, his dad, he would always come up to me and he was the only guy I’ve ever met that I was starstruck that I would just lock up. I couldn’t say anything, you know, he’d come up and he’d squeeze my neck, you know? He always called me, said, he goes, Hey, s said, man, my kid couldn’t stop talking about you, man.

Thanks for helping ’em out, man. I owe you one. I’m like, okay. So that day he walks down to the garage where we were and I’m like, Dale’s coming this way. He goes, Hey, said man, come here. Will you help me out? I’m like, yeah. So we start walking towards his car and he is got his hand on my neck squeezing it. He always did that.

He goes, yeah, just run like crap, man. This car’s just saying, I don’t think it’s right. I tell them boys, but I don’t know. I don’t know what to tell him. He goes, we drive my car, and I’m like, holy crap. I’m gonna get to drive the number three car.

Mike Carr: That’s

Boris Said: unusual for him. And at the time, I didn’t know only three people in history ever drove that number three car other than him, Jeff Green, Paul Newman, and Neil Bonnet.

That was it.

Mike Carr: Why was Paul Newman in that [00:32:00] car?

Boris Said: Because they were friends and he took some laps at Daytona.

Mike Carr: Okay?

Boris Said: So anyway, he goes, let’s see if you fit in there. And I get in there and I’m sitting, you know, my knees are in my chest, and he sits leaning way back and kind of his hands on the door shut. And he goes, man, s you don’t fit.

Very good in there. I think you can drive it. And I go, I know one thing. I feel like a bad motherfucker sitting in this thing. This is the coolest thing ever. He goes, can you drive it? I go, I’ll drive it on one condition. I go, I know I’m the only race fan you’ll ever let drive your car. I want to picture me driving this thing.

Oh my God, that’s fantastic. And he goes, ah, yeah, on. So I go get my helmet on with my big Ford sticker, you know, right here. And I pull out and I drive like three or four laps and I come into the garages. Were real small at Watkins Glen, and as I pull in, there must have been 30 people there taking pictures.

It was crazy. And I was like thinking of that old EF hunting commercial, you know, where everyone just stopped to listen to what he said. Yeah. And as he took the window net down, I was just horrified looking at all these people and he is like, well, like a deer at the headlights. I go, man, this thing’s a piece of crap.

You drove my car, you wouldn’t get in this thing. Right? He [00:33:00] goes, come on, let’s go. So me, him and his crew chief, Kevin Hamlin, we go in the Hollerer. Now we’re sitting in the Dale Senior’s Hollerer, and I give him this laundry list. I go, the first thing is your brakes, man. It’s like pushing concrete. You need a smaller master cylinder to get a little travel.

He’s like, man, I told them boys that wore my leg out at Sears Point. And they don’t listen. And I’m thinking in my head like, how do they not listen to him? He is the freaking king. So I give him this list of second and third gear. I remember the front sway bar, the rear springs, and he just told this guy, he goes.

Okay man, do it all. I’ll be here. Call him when you’re ready. And so now it’s just me and him sitting there in the lounge looking at each other and I’m sweating and I’m nervous and I’m like, I am thinking something cool to say. Think of something cool to say. And airplane two, the movie was on the tv and I go, pretty funny movie, huh?

And he goes, yeah, I like that guy. And he put his hand on the table and he walked outta the lounge. And I’m like, oh Jesus, that’s the best you can come up with. And I was just so nervous and all of a sudden he yells, he goes, Hey, SED you hungry. You want anything to eat? And I was just like. Make me a peanut butter and jelly and cut the crust off and hurri it up.

Just a joke and nothing, not a [00:34:00] sound. And I’m like, if there was a door in the front of that lounge, I would’ve took off. It seemed like an hour, but it was probably two minutes. He walks in with a peanut butter and jelly on a paper towel and a water. He goes, here you go, man. And I’m like, Hey, you didn’t cut the crust off.

He goes, no, man, it makes your hair curly. I don’t wanna ruin your look.

Mike Carr: Did he make one for himself? Yeah, he had one for himself too. Oh, good.

Boris Said: And so we sat there and ate. That was just the coolest thing ever. Then I finally could talk to him. I finally was like, at ease. Let’s look at some data. Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty neat.

Mike Carr: That’s really cool. The, the variety of cars that you’ve done that in is insane. I mean, we’re talking about trucks, cop cars, sports cars, the X Games in rally cars. Like I want to hear a little bit about that.

Boris Said: I never said no to anything. You know, if it was front wheel, rear wheel, never tried it. You know, I did the X Games, you know, that weekend I was doing the Xfinity Race in Montreal, you know, and they were doing a special test on like a dirt track.

And I was missing that. So I literally, the first time I went to the X Games, I literally got one [00:35:00] lap of practice. I literally left the Xfinity Race in Montreal, got in a helicopter, flew to the airport, took a private plane to Chicago to get a commercial flight to LA just to make the X Games. They go, don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of practice in the morning.

I’m like, okay. And, uh, sure enough, in the morning the track was delayed getting built and blah, blah, blah. And you know, so I did the X Games, but I literally got one lap of practice and, and, uh, didn’t do the best, but I lost by like a quarter of a car length. So I was bummed, but it was a lot of fun

Mike Carr: to do.

It. Did Travis or, uh,

Boris Said: Travis helped a lot. But if I bring a driver that’s never been to a track, I can tell him about the track, but until he goes out and drives it, it’s like, teach him Greek, you know? But once he drives it, I can say, okay, now in that corner, you know, if you turn in earlier, he’ll get it. So that’s how it was tough at the X Games to talk to Travis.

’cause he helped me a lot there and just say like, how do I do this? And he kind of told me I did my one lap and I’m like, oh boy, it’s gonna be tough in the race. But it was still, it was a blast to do it.

Mike Carr: Yeah, it sounds like a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know how you choose between Sonoma and [00:36:00] Daytona and the ring.

And if you have a favorite, I’d love to hear about it.

Boris Said: I have multiple favorites. I mean, the ring by far is my favorite. To be the first American to win, there was a big feather. And you know, I’m a big World War II buff to be standing on the, I remember, I remember this so distinctly standing on the podium when we won and thinking, you know, 50 years earlier, Adolf Hitler, he’d be rolling over in his grave right now.

If you saw some Paul kid from California with an Afro winning on his track. ’cause it was just by the Arden force where the Battle of the Bulge was fought. That to me was one of the highlights. And then, you know, second was just competing in Daytona 500 as where I started, you know, driving my car to the track.

I just never, ever thought I would get there, and I think every time I lined up for a race there, I would just sit there and think like, man, only 43 people get to do this in the world. It was one of the most fun experiences you could ever think of. Even though people say Drafting’s boring, that place was a little crazy and it was a lot of fun.

Mike Carr: Getting back to, uh, the rivalries that you [00:37:00] had, you have a reputation for not taking any crap. We all get more mellow as we age, but I want to hear about how the whole biffle thing has played out over the years. Oh,

Crew Chief Eric: man.

Mike Carr: Do you still want

Boris Said: to give Greg Biffle a black eye? No. So, I mean, I did a lot of training with Greg Biffle, you know, ’cause I did a lot of stuff with Roush and that day he made me super mad and he remembers the story different.

I remember the story different, so maybe the truth lies in between, but we were mad at each other probably for three years. I’ll never forget it. We’re at the, I was at the SEMA show and I saw him with a girl and the girl, I saw the girl say, Boris is here. Then he came and we started talking, and now we’re really good friends again.

You know, we went on some off-roading trips together in razors at the desert. He was a good guy. Just racing gets emotional. I was always a very emotional racer. And so was he. And that day our emotions crossed,

Mike Carr: you probably know Mike Skeen. Oh yeah. His girlfriend, Kelly Hefe slapped Max Papas after That’s the truck [00:38:00] race.

And, and when Max took him out, and Kelly and Mike and I are really good friends and I. She got famous from this, right? It was a shame, but it wound up being pretty funny ’cause they wound up on an airplane together, one seat away from each other, right? Kelly and Mico. That’s Max. Should we make friends? And they decided that they should.

Which was the right move I guess. So

Boris Said: my situation with Greg Biffle, what happened was when I got interviewed after I had my son who was probably sick. Six or seven at the time, standing next to me, I’m holding his hand, but he is not in camera. I didn’t wanna just start swearing and bleeping in front of him.

So my interview was this most ridiculous, funny thing, ’cause I’m using all these words like wampum and, and so the interview played everywhere. I had no idea how it, it went that viral. I mean, when I got to Australia that year to race, that’s all they wanted to talk about. Greg Biffle. Gotcha. Greg Biffle.

And so it was funny, but in saying that about Mike Skiing. That to me is a tragic story. That’s the hardest thing about racing is unlike other sports like [00:39:00] golf, tennis, baseball, if you’re good enough, you get your shot right. I think Mike skiing is the most underrated, fast guy ever. I mean, that guy can get in anything and drive it, and his style is like the smoothest glass, how he is on the car and.

I like feel for that guy because like I know he’s better than I am. He just for some reason, didn’t get the right brakes. I mean, that guy should be in a NASCAR or he is too tall for an Indy car, or he should be in a factory ride somewhere. I mean, the guy still to this day is fast as lightning.

Mike Carr: Oh, he’s amazing.

Boris Said: And he is the nicest guy. He is just quiet, you know, and he just, man, I wish the guy would exer himself more because he’s a hell of a racer.

Mike Carr: He really is. I would like to ask you about. Characters in nascar. I think NASCAR has gotten sort of mellowed out by like the commercialism and all that. And you know, it used to be the, the, you know, the guys who were running moonshine and you were a character in nascar.

Here we have this Cletus McFarland guy coming into ARCA and shaken things up. I think NASCAR is [00:40:00] recognizing it from my perspective. It’s really fun.

Boris Said: A hundred percent agree. I think NASCAR has become way too vanilla. You know, all these young guys, I mean, granted, they’re talented, but they’re boring back in the day, I mean, you had Dale Earnhardt Sr.

And Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin, and they all had these personalities, you know, that were entertaining. And now, you know, the most entertaining guy is Kyle Busch, because you, wow. I wanna hear what he has to say. It’s gonna be big. But he’s even mellowed out now in, in his old age.

Mike Carr: Right.

Boris Said: You know, it’s still great racing.

I miss the characters and maybe just ’cause I’m old school, you know, I’m 62 now. May it could be that too. There’s really good drivers now and they’re all young. But I, I agree with you. I think guys like him are gonna have a big career just because he is entertaining. I.

Mike Carr: Cletus and Biffle are very tight, which is fun to watch.

And then he’s got, is it Harvick as his spotter? Ooh, I’m not sure. I’m not sure either. But there’s a lot of guys that have moved between NASCAR and the road courses and stuff like that and Smoke and Dale Jr. And you know, Dale [00:41:00] gets out at Talladega to give Cletus. Some coaching in a streetcar, and it’s fun to watch and the YouTube videos are off the charts.

Boris Said: I think that’s what NASCAR is missing. But I, I thought Dale Earnhardt Jr. I mean, after knowing him all these years, that’s why he was always the most popular driver. Kind of similar to Chase Elliot today. I mean, he’s the same kind of character, you know, really, really good guy. Top-notch. ’cause he was so genuine.

Even if his name wasn’t Dale Earnhardt Jr. He would’ve still been that guy. He’s just such a cool dude. Everything he says is genuine. There’s nothing made up with him. If he thinks that, he says it, you know, I was always genuine. I said what I thought a lot of times people did not like it, and maybe I should have shut my mouth just the way I am and I can’t change Too old to change.

Crew Chief Eric: I’ve been thinking about this. With all of your expertise and various disciplines and all the time you spent in nascar, what was it like for you seeing the Garage 56 car at Lama two years ago?

Boris Said: Oh, I thought that was the coolest thing ever. It was just awesome. And then to see him win the pit stop competition was, I thought, one of [00:42:00] the highlights of the weekend.

And you know, everybody thought that car was gonna be the slowest car in the field. And they ended up being faster than all the GT three cars. So I thought it was, that was a big win for Chevrolet. And I saw all the work that Hendrick Motorsports put into it. Chad Canal and his whole team, and it was pretty neat.

I mean, I’m a partner of Rick Hendricks and I, I’ll call him a friend because he’s definitely my mentor in the car business and we talk a lot. I think they put a lot of effort into it and showed. You know, Hendrick Motorsports, you know, the organization is just ridiculous. It’s top shelf. That’s the pinnacle of motorsports, I think.

Crew Chief Eric: You think that car was a one and done or are we gonna see more of that kind of racing?

Boris Said: Uh, that’s a one. And, and done. That’s the museum piece. Now

Mike Carr: you’re not done. You started the Go-Kart franchise, but you were hanging up your old suits on the walls of these. Go-kart tracks.

Boris Said: Well, my wife was so mad because I used to keep one suit from every car I raced.

And I probably had like 400 suits in the house, all stacked everywhere, you know, and all these things. And they opened this indoor go-kart track by us in Carlsbad. I saw the sign and it [00:43:00] was off in this industrial park way in the back. I go, nobody’s ever gonna go there. They’re never gonna find this place.

And I went in there and met the guy. It was a French guy named David Denard. His girlfriend at the time, and we became friends and they couldn’t get the use permit, so I helped him with all the businesses in the area. They had to, you know, write letters of support and they ended up opening and I go, man, this place is never gonna make it.

So, you know, they go, Hey, can we get some suits? So I’d hang up some suits there and some memorabilia and an old race car went in there and, and the place just rocks. It was packed all the time. I became a partner in the second store.

Crew Chief Eric: Just for the benefit of our listeners who have probably been Googling this for the last couple of minutes.

Boris helped put K one speed. That’s right, folks. K one speed. Indoor go-kart tracks on the map back in 2003. So if you’ve ever been to one, you can say I’ve been to Boris’s place.

Boris Said: I didn’t do much with the business, but you know, they grew it from, you know, one store to two stores to three stores and before long they had 60 of these things and, and then I didn’t have any more suits in the house, so my wife was really happy about that.

Yeah. So it was a good place to throw [00:44:00] all my memorabilia.

Mike Carr: But then one day you got a call from Corvette Racing and, and they said, jump in a car. Like always. I think I have a Corvette suit hanging in a go-kart.

Boris Said: No, it was Lou gel, it was a private tier Corvette. And he goes, Hey, do you wanna do Long Beach with me?

I’m like, yeah, sure. And then I go, Hey y’all, you wanna take the team? Go-karting. And we have a a go-kart track in Torrance. Oh yeah, that’d be great. So the night before practice. They’re all go-karting, and the crew chief goes, Hey, do you got a suit with the right patches? And I’m like, ah, IM za. I’m like, shoot.

Oh yeah, there’s a Corvette suit on the wall there that I was supposed to use with Dale Jr. But he caught on fire and I never used it. So I pulled that suit off the wall, and then two days later, it was in the same condition that Dale Earnhardt Jr’s suit was. ’cause you know I had a big fire. That was a weird coincidence.

Crew Chief Eric: I have always regarded carting as the place to start off. Young road racers. Do you think that’s still the goal? Or would you go down, like you mentioned before with your son? I put him in a Miata and we just went for it.

Boris Said: I think go-karting is the place to start, especially K one speed. You can start there very cheap and start indoor.

And then now K [00:45:00] one has two outdoor tracks. One of the best circuits in North America by far. A Go-Karting facility, you know, out here in in Winchester, California. But I mean, look at. Kids like Connor Village and Brett Cruz, you know, they all came from Go-Karting. You know, you look at Formula One right now, you know Kimmy Antonelli and all these young hot shots.

I mean, they’re all go-karts. So it’s definitely the place to start, if you can start that early. I never started go-karting until I became a car racer. I never did anything like that when I was a kid. But I, I think it’s definitely the place to start.

Mike Carr: I’ve only ever had one racing budget and my kid goes to the go-kart track as often as possible and gets fast time of the week.

I just pretend that that didn’t happen because I only have one racing budget. But what’s next? I mean maybe some GT three stuff. In SROI have a team that would love to welcome you.

Boris Said: Well, I mean, it’s good now because I’m a bronze driver.

Mike Carr: That’s kind of perfect. Yeah. It, it works into this strategy

Boris Said: and I, I like it.

I like doing TransAm. I’m gonna do a few more TransAm races this year. I’m working on building a, [00:46:00] a race track in Southern California right now and start like a country club track very close to la so it would be definitely different. That’s the big project I’m working on right now.

Mike Carr: I just invited you to come drive for an S-R-O-M-S-A team that I do not own, but that I sort of manage.

I don’t know whether that invite, I can execute on it, but I do own a lemons team. And if you were ever interested in driving in the 24 hours of lemons, I have a shitty old BMW that I could completely put you behind the wheel of. And I’ve done it with other famous older race car drivers, including Randy Lanier, who Eric and I interviewed, and the invitation is open.

Boris Said: I would do that for sure. SRO don’t need any money anymore to race. I just do it for the love of the game now. But yeah, I still go. All right. For a bronze guy,

Crew Chief Eric: I would love to see a rematch between Boris and Andy. And we talked a lot about the past and now Mike has brought us into the future, but there’s one thing that we sort of left on the table from your origin story.

You said you wanted to buy a Formula One [00:47:00] car. Did you ever do any open wheel racing? Did you ever get a chance to sit in a Formula One car or even an Indy car and run some laps?

Mike Carr: Let’s assume that he bought one.

Crew Chief Eric: I wasn’t gonna ask.

Boris Said: No, I never bought one in racing, driving other people’s stuff’s a lot more fun, so I never owned any race cars.

I

Mike Carr: agree completely. Yeah.

Boris Said: But one time I was doing World Challenge in uh, probably 1990 at Des Moines Super V was racing there. S-S-E-C-A Super V Racing, the Pro Series, and I was walking through looking at the cars. Some guy stopped me and he was a New Zealander guy, and Ken Marillo ran for him and he goes, how come you never tried any open wheel cars, Barris?

And I’m like, oh, no one’s ever asked. He goes, well, you come out and test my car sometime. I’m like, when? And I remember, you know, I kept bugging the guy and I went to Willow Springs. You know, I was living in Connecticut at the time. He tested me in a Super V and it was Chad McQueen’s car.

Mike Carr: Steve’s son. Yeah.

Boris Said: I, I ended up being really fast and he goes, okay, I’m gonna sign you as my driver for next year. And I thought, well, I got a ride. Sure enough, a month before the season, he goes, I’m sorry man, I gotta take somebody that’s paying. And I’m like, okay. So that was the only time in a, in an open wheel car, but [00:48:00] I didn’t really fit.

You know, open wheel and even running the prototype cars the little as I did a few years, I was too tall on the legs for those cars. It was just hard to be comfortable in them.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s a real shame the more I think about it. They did the wrong casting call for the US top gear. I think Boris should have been on the US top gear and that show would’ve survived.

Boris Said: I tried out for it, actually. I didn’t get it, but I did try out for it. Yep. That’s awesome.

Mike Carr: That’s crazy. ’cause a couple of the rally guys that I’m friends with Got it. Whatever. Like

Crew Chief Eric: Tanner.

Mike Carr: Yeah, Tanner. Yeah. Uh, it’s frustrating.

Crew Chief Eric: You mentioned earlier, we’ve hit on it a couple times, you’re now racing with your son who, like you kind of had to be brought into racing a little bit.

So that means the said legacy lives on in Motorsport. What’s the family goal there? I mean, obviously you are still turning laps as well. What’s the plan for your son and maybe grandson, future generations?

Boris Said: Let’s not talk about a grandson just yet. Big fella. But, uh, so he, uh, even though he, he is going out with Dave Jones’s daughter, which is pretty neat.

She’s super nice girl. Carrera Jones. He loves it, but my son has [00:49:00] his own business. He is more successful than I am and he is doing really well. And I think he’s torn right now. Between his 70 hours a week, you know that he works. Is it working or bracing? And right now he’s doing both. But I. I love doing the racing with him ’cause we do it together and you know, we’re best buddies.

But I’m not sure if that’ll be his career. I think business is gonna be his career and I’m super proud of what he’s done in that. I mean, it’s, he’s 21 years old and it’s amazing what he is accomplished.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, Boris, we have reached that part of the episode where I like to invite our guests to share any shout outs, thank yous, promotions, or anything else that we haven’t covered thus far.

Boris Said: Uh, no, I’m good. Thanks. After 39 years of racing, I just. Still love it. So I like being around it, like talking about it. It was a hell of a ride for me.

Mike Carr: You don’t have a website where you’re selling t-shirts or something? No,

Boris Said: I’ve never had any of that stuff.

Mike Carr: Okay, cool.

Boris Said: If any of your fans need A BMW, they can come to BMW Murrieta.

How about that?

Mike Carr: I need one. I would like an M three 40. I.

Boris Said: That’s a great bar.

Mike Carr: For something less than 80 grand.

Boris Said: It is [00:50:00] less than 80 grand. Well then we’re in

Mike Carr: luck.

Boris Said: I’ll be out. Okay. Alright. No problem.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, folks, that brings us to the checkered flag on this episode, and it’s been an absolute ride. Talking about the legendary career of Boris said, a driver who’s raced it all, one big and never back down from a challenge from road courses to stock cars.

Boris has left his mark on every track. He’s touched and his passion for racing continues to inspire fans and drivers alike. If you wanna keep up with Boris and all the cool things, he’s still up to on and off the track. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter at Boris said. So whether it’s racing, mentoring, or making appearances at events around the country, Boris is still very much part of the motorsports world.

Mike Carr: Great talking to you, man. All right. Take care.

Crew Chief Eric: We hope you enjoyed another awesome episode of Break Fix Podcasts, brought to you by Grand Tour Motorsports. If you’d like to be a guest on the show or get involved, be sure to follow us on all social media platforms at Grand Touring Motorsports. And [00:51:00] if you’d like to learn more about the content of this episode, be sure to check out the follow on article@gtmotorsports.org.

We remain a commercial free and no annual fees organization through our sponsors, but also through the generous support of our fans, families, and friends through Patreon. For as little as $2 and 50 cents a month, you can get access to more behind the scenes action, additional pit stop, mini SOS and other VIP goodies, as well as keeping our team of creators.

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Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

• 00:00 Meet Boris Said: A Racing Legend
• 01:27 Boris Said’s Early Career and Influences
• 05:53 Family Legacy and Racing with His Son
• 06:59 Racing Stories and Memorable Moments
• 09:53 Competing Against the Best
• 13:50 Iconic Racetracks and Experiences
• 24:03 Becoming a Road Course Ringer
• 29:26 Teaching Dale Jr. Road Racing
• 30:53 Driving Dale Sr.’s Car
• 34:41 Racing in the X Games
• 36:56 Rivalries and Friendships in Racing
• 44:41 The Importance of Go-Karting
• 45:41 Future Plans and Reflections; Conclusion

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