TRANSCRIPT: TCF Interview with Dylan Parsons

On 25 October, The Checkered Flag caught up with Dylan Parsons to talk about his Championship Off-Road Pro SPEC-winning campaign, the growth of the class, and the 2025 season.

The full transcript of the interview is available below. Some text has been altered from the actual dialogue to improve readability.

An article on the interview can be read here.

Transcript

TCF: You went from not winning any races your rookie season in Pro SPEC to winning five times this year and the championship.  Last time, you told me that 2023 was going to be more of like a learning year for everyone, so by comparison, what was your mindset going into 2024?

DP: To win races like that was definitely the mindset. Towards the end of the year, we started podiuming in ’23 and then got Rookie of the Year. We were just building up momentum and just not trying to wreck the truck. Beginning of the season, I came in, I tested twice before the season and I’m like, “We were ready coming into the first race to run with those guys,” and we won the first race of the year. We were ready to go.

TCF: How much of a confidence booster was it to win the season opener?

DP: Oh, that was huge. Lena, I got hundreds and hundreds of laps on Lena. It’s the closest track to us and to go test there, we tested there multiple times. Going there and winning, it’s not my favorite track of them all, but we had competitive lap times and we showed up and knew we were ready to go. Winning the first race, it kind of didn’t set in all weekend. We went first and second over the weekend and we were like, “Okay, we know we can run with these guys. We knew we can run with them last year. We just have to execute and be there when we have to be.”

TCF: Bark River was kind of an interesting weekend because you ran three races because of the Crandon makeup, and of course you won two of three and finished second in the other. How did it feel to run so well on what was such a busy weekend?

DP: I actually raced a buggy on Friday at Bark River too, so it was wild. I knew coming into the weekend that it was going to be super busy. I actually got an extra guy to come with just because I’m like, “We have three days to turn this truck around and if we have any problems, we’re going to be busting our butts.” But Bark River is probably my favorite track. Winning on Friday, it just escalated. We had a flat tyre on Saturday and still battled back to get second. I think the truck was battle tested Saturday like we had no body left. Definitely, winning at Bark River that weekend was as best-case scenario as you could get throughout that weekend, and then we took the Champ points lead at Bark River.

I podiumed both days at Bark River last year in the truck too, and I’ve won multiple times in the buggy and I think I podiumed in side-by-side there a few times too. So definitely, Bark River has been good to me. [chuckles]

TCF: So would you say that when you took the points lead at Bark River, or any time before that, where you started to realise your chances of winning the championship were a lot better than you might have expected?

DP: We talked about it a little bit. I’m like, “I’m just worried about racing race by race, like if that happens, it happens.” We kind of mentioned it at Lena, we were getting close. Nick (Visser) was running good, but he was having issues where he’d just crash out but he beat me in qualifying every time. He was always fast, he was just having super issues with the truck breaking or crashing. I wasn’t worried about any of that. I just wanted to take each race one by one and worry about winning that race or podiuming that race.

I mean, we podiumed every race this year except one day at Antigo. We had a flat tyre that day, like just from some contact; the flat tyre, some contact, I think I had a couple, but it was never a failure. It was always, we got hit.

TCF: I remember a couple of times where you and (Chris) Van Den Elzen and Visser and a couple of other guys got into it, like I think at ERX you and Van Den Elzen got together. Were there any hard feelings between you and anyone else or did you move on from it eventually because you’re all friends?

DP: Well, that one I was pretty upset about. We talked the next day, we were good, it just… It was escalating a little bit there. […] He’s super fast but he was starting to have problems at ERX. We crashed at ERX, and then it just escalated from there again. We had sat on the podium, we got over it and then like him and I got together again.

I had been doing it a little bit at Bark River too. We bumped on that last lap there and I made an aggressive pass for the win, but you’re going for the win that late in the season for points, if the opening was there, you had to go for it.

TCF: There were some other guys who gave you some good competition even though they weren’t full-timers like Chris Parrish and Wyatt Miller. What was it like racing with those guys?

DP: Parrish was super fast. He came from Formula 4 and stuff like that and it would have been interesting to see him the whole season, but obviously (Ryan) Beat had different plans, like with Wyatt coming in and that was the plan. Wyatt was super fast. I think he’s racing that truck again next year and he’s going to be super fast. Him coming into this sport is putting more eyes on the sport because of his family as an Earnhardt and all that as a 12 year old. There’s a few young kids and it’s kind of like, “Well, you got to race them the same as everyone else, but you got to remember that they’re 12.”

But yeah, having them come in is only going to make our sponsors get more publicity. Bass Pro Shops is going to post things about that and our truck’s in the same picture or JR Motorsports or whatever. It can put more eyes on short course with him coming in, just like back in the 90s, no one really knew Jimmie Johnson raced short course. That’s where he came from, and he went and did what he did in NASCAR for all those years. There’s the crossover of the stepping stones and hopefully Wyatt goes to that at some point and he can say he raced short course to start to grow himself into what he’s going to do.

TCF: Pro SPEC’s been growing and getting more competitive over these past few seasons from four trucks in Year One. What are your thoughts on how it’s grown?

DP: I think we had ten trucks this year. The first race was kind of like, “Where is everyone?” There were some trucks that didn’t race this year and there’s trucks that sold already. Chad Rayford who won the points last year, good friends with him, I was pushing hammers to buy that truck since Snocross season and getting that truck back on the track (with Avery Hemmer). She was super fast at Crandon. Like I actually went over and helped them test before Crandon and didn’t even take my truck. I just went over there and spotted for her. They’re like, “You think she’s ready?” Yeah.

[…]

Pro SPEC was growing. I think we had 11 trucks at Fall Crandon and not sure if there’s any more being built at the moment. There’s a couple for sale still, but I had a lot of questions after Fall Crandon on some. I know one side-by-side guy bought a Pro Lite, but he wasn’t sure what he’s going to do with it yet. It’s a carb Pro Lite and I think he’s going to race that next year in Pro Lite and see how that goes.

The Impulse Podcast would always say we were the best race to watch like every race. We would put on a show every race and there were people coming up to me at the parade and Lena, at Crandon, like, “You guys are putting on a great show. All this stuff.”

That’s really cool to know that we’re putting on just as good a show as Pro 2, Pro 4, everything else and we’re not the level they are.

TCF: Obviously, Pro 2 and Pro 4 are the big fish in the series, but do you feel Pro SPEC, being more of a driver series, is going to get even more popular?

DP: Hopefully. Pro SPEC, I think the biggest problem is there’s all these Pro Lites that guys are seeing for sale for so cheap. You get to explain to them like, “How much time’s on all that stuff? Like is it all new?” Then you see a Pro SPEC that’s for sale, I know there’s two of them for sale and they’re priced way higher than a Pro Lite, but those engines have zero time on them. They’re brand new, they are both brand new gone-through trucks.

I’m on my second season on an engine and I haven’t done anything with it; maintenance, that’s all we’ve done. It’s been proven that you could take a stock engine and race. We bounce them off the rev limiter and everyone knows that, but no failures and that engine’s been great versus some of these higher classes. They’re rebuilding engines halfway through the season and Pro Lites are buying engines and shipping them off and getting them rebuilt right away. It’s a big expense where this engine, yeah, it’s $9000 with all electronics, but it’ll run. Wiring harness all the way out to the alternator, you hook fuel to it and it’ll run.

My opinion is they’re spending more than that to rebuild them. You just buy a new one and put it in when you think the time is that you blow it up or it’s wore out or whatever, but I’m going to do some leakdown on mine and stuff like that this winter and see where we’re at. It feels stronger now than it did last season, I’ve probably been driving a little bit but it doesn’t seem to be so.

TCF: How big of a role have guys like Mike Vanden Heuvel and Matt Gerald had in building and developing the truck throughout the year?

DP: Huge. Mikey, I go up there maybe once a week and go to lunch with them or whatever, just shooting ideas off each other. We did a couple things this summer throughout the year and made the truck faster throughout the year. There were just some stepping stones of stuff we wanted to do and we did it before Bark River, we did a couple changes and before spring Crandon and it was huge. We definitely felt the speed come from the stuff we did in the truck.

TCF: How big was it to have a sponsor like Toys for Trucks, especially since they were a full-season sponsor this year?

DP: Toys for Trucks has been awesome. Bill (Ciuplinski) and TJ (Larson), they came to the races this year, the owner and the GM of all the stores, and they both came to a race this year. It was super cool. We’re kind of local and we see Toys for Trucks, they have a couple stores right by us, but most people don’t realise that they have like thirty stores across the country. They bought a couple 4 Wheel Parts and they’re kind of the same thing as a 4 Wheel Parts. Some of their numbers on sales, I never would have even realised that they sell so much of Bilstein and CURT Hitches and things like that. They’re a huge supplier for a lot of those products.

TCF: Last year, you told me you expected a huge learning curve going from a side-by-side to a truck. How big did it actually end up being?

DP: I’m finally to the point where I feel I can drive it the same way as the buggy. It’s just ‘jump in and drive,’ and it’s just like you drove it like that. It was the same thing jumping in the buggy the first time: the first two years, I wrecked a lot of stuff and stuff like that. That was the goal with the truck: the parts were way more expensive, you need to not wreck things. That’s why I was like, “I had to go out and prove myself that I can drive it.”

Now, I can jump in that thing and drive it however I want and it’s super comfortable. That was definitely a learning curve. Last year, I was constantly chasing, it felt like traction, just trying not to spin out in traction. This year, I could throw the truck wherever I wanted to and I knew what it was going to do. I think the Kenda tyres helped a lot on that. Our setup worked well, like we built the trucks all at the same time, Mikey had been working with Pro Lites that have been running Kendas for years now.

Ours and Chad Rayford’s setups were real close last year. I knew that he was winning, that he’s got the same setup I do, it’s just the kind of tyres I think made our truck work a lot better than where we were at before.

TCF: At the end of the season, you won at Crandon. You said last year it was fun, but it’s also extremely stressful because of all the hype. How did it feel to finally win there, especially on Labour Day weekend?

DP: I didn’t win the big day but Saturday was still cool, definitely. We came into the weekend and we had to start the race, we had to qualify within a couple positions of Nick. He qualified first and I got second, so I just had to start and I won the championship. It was just, ‘Okay let’s go race. We don’t have to worry about winning the championship, any of that.’

The high all weekend was up there. You can’t even explain that high. The weekend was awesome. Saturday, it was a dream come true and it was pretty cool.

Winning at Crandon, I won my first race there in buggy. Winning the ring, that would have been cool to win on Sunday. But winning the championship, we did what we could do. We got taken out on Sunday on the first lap and that was our only DNF for the year; that was my choice because we came into the pits and the tyre was all wrapped up. I couldn’t have won two laps down, but you don’t get paid for fourth in the Red Bull Cup.

TCF: What are your plans for next year? Are you going to defend your Pro SPEC title or do you plan on trying out some other classes?

DP: That’s the plan. We bought a semi a couple weeks ago so that’s going to help out with the programme. I think I took five trailers to Fall Crandon, just between campers and extra trailers and the UTV and parts. Everything will be all going in one trailer, that’s going to be super nice, and just defend the Pro SPEC title. We got a few other companies coming onboard for next year that we are working out some final details. That’ll help in like, just trying to make the truck better.

There’s still room for improvement on making the setup better and truck better and there’s a few things I want to change, but just do the same thing again. Hopefully, as long as things go well, we’re going to go to the Mint in March for that short course race if the Pro SPEC class is going there. There was a group chat going around that most of us wanted to go and it sounds like Beat wants to go, so as long as we get the funds for that, we’re going to go there.

I believe Champ’s going to post their schedule, I heard November 1st or 3rd next week or two weeks. They have most of the schedule out, but there’s still one race up in the air at the end of the season. I’m not sure where that’s going to be yet, but we heard it was possibly west.

Super pumped to go to Wheatland in May. I’ve been there once with the MidAmerica UTV series, but I just went and helped out Colin (Kernz) and that was the first time ever being there. That was the time when the Pro Lites ran there and my truck wasn’t quite done and I’m like, “I’m not going down there for that first time driving it” kind of thing. But that track looks awesome, like that big jump in the back and the over/under, there’s no track like that around here. I’m super pumped to go there. That should be really fun.

TCF: I think Champ is also adding a race in South Dakota, so what are your thoughts on that if it happens?

DP: That one, I’m not sure what’s up. It’s South Dakota or further west. There’s kind of some rumbling of what’s happening there and rumours and stuff like that. I mean, South Dakota would be cool. We race Snocross there and that town Deadwood is a super cool town. Everything’s right there and supposedly the track was going to be close to town.

But I heard rumours there were some issues with permits or something like that. I’m not sure where they put the track there. It’s not mountainous, but it’s pretty hilly right there. There’s cliffs and stuff like that. But we’ll see. I mean, hopefully we go there, it’s a little closer than California, but there’s rumours of Arizona or California. I’m not sure yet though. We’ll see.

TCF: To play on the Snocross thing, how different or similar is working on a Snocross programme compared to a short course?

DP: It’s a lot of the same thing and a lot of the stuff I learned from my programme, I’ve learned from Snocross and stuff and back and forth. You’re dealing with the same people; Champ runs Snocross also, so all the officiating, most of them you’re dealing with the same people and stuff like that. I’m just a wrench for one of the teams. Last year, I worked with Nick Lorenz and we got second in Pro Lite points. That was a lot of fun and it’s a good filler that I can work for a team like that and then still do my programme in the summer. Super pumped for that. You get to see the country too. I went to Canada last year, Deadwood. It’s super cool.

But yeah, like the same thing. You prep the sleds at the shop, you race one day and then you take it all apart and redo it and put it back together for the next day. It’s the same mindset with a snowmobile as you do with the truck, like it’s, make sure you get one chance to go on the track and you got to make sure everything’s perfect.

TCF: Would you ever see yourself actually racing in snocross or are your hands already full as it is?

DP: I did a little bit. I did a little bit when I was younger and I raced cross-country snowmobiles for a little while and then I did a few regional snocross races, but I had more fun wrenching on snowmobiles and that kind of thing. I’m too old to race now. All those guys are pretty young.

TCF: Yeah, I get it.

Before we wrap this up, is there anything else you’d like to add?

DP: I’m not sure. [laughs]

No, I’m just super pumped on the championship. Between Matt and I, that was the goal. That’s always the goal is to win the championship. I think winning that, we’ve just got to keep growing on it and defend it next year. Just keep growing at it, like I’m not sure. The future is endless. It’s just, how far can we go?

Interview on YouTube