Lately it seems that the" www" world has really been lighting up with the hosting of off road racing sites. And each is unique and different enough to co-exist with each other in this tiny world of GNCC. It all boils down to the fact that if you ever experience GNCC you will never be the same. That is basically what happened to Garth Fine when his buddies Daniel Engle, Justin "Brother" Ramsey and Dustin Engle took him to his first GNCC. Meet Olaf Magnusson "The Off Road Viking."
Photo By: www.offroadviking.com
Olaf Magnusson
OffRoakViking.com: It's going good! What's going on? (The whole crew was present for this one and recorded the interview for a podcast on Offroadviking.com follow this link to listen to the whole interview)
Not much just getting psyched up for the new season of GNCC Racing. What have you guys been up to?
Quite a bit actually, we have been wide open trying to get as much video shot that we can during the winter. A lot of road trippin'. Anybody we have been able to shoot video with we have been shooting. We are just trying to shoot interviews and get'em up as soon as we can. Just trying to give people some stuff to watch over the winter.
Thanks for taking the time to talk with me, I know you guys are pretty busy pillaging and plundering all the off season gossip. What's the big news right now?
Right now it's Honda coming back with JT Bennett and JG Off-Road, that's pretty big stuff. Also Am Pro is looking pretty stacked right now with Keith Obermyer helping out there. There is a lot of stuff going on right now. We have been working with WP Suspension, testing with the Baylor's and that should be pretty interesting this year. Grant is looking super- fast and we think he is definitely going to be one of the contenders for top amateur of the year. All in all this should be a pretty good year of racing.
I haven't talked to whole lot of people so far but from what I can tell it seems like the classes
Photo By: www.offroadviking.com
Just "Brother" Ramsey and Alex Engle a big part of the crew
Yeah I think the XC2 Pro Lites class for one is going to be tough. You got J.T. (Jason Thomas), Steward Baylor, Jesse (Robinson), Jordan Ashburn coming up from the Open A Class and more. That class alone might see some Overalls from the second row this year. It's just a guess though.
In XC 1 Pro always looks stacked with Josh Strang, Charlie Mullins, Paul Whibley and all those guys. I watched a video of Kailub Russell on DigitalOffRoad.com and the kid is flying. All the KTM guys were really moving down at eduro Sunday. Corey Buttrick, Charlie and Kailub as well were really going for it. I think it could be anyone's year this year. I really don't expect to see anyone really dominating this year.
Photo By: www.offroadviking.com
Mike Brown stopped by for a visit.
A few years ago we kicked around the idea of trying to start an off-road website and it just never happened to be honest. But Garth, "Olaf" as a lot of people may know him had never been to an off road race and we took him to Vero Beach in '07 and he loved it. We were joking on the way home and he said "Man I want to go to all the races with you guys and pit for you next year. I just got one condition, you have to get me a Vikin' (Viking) helmet and I will be the Pit Viking". We laughed it off and really didn't think anything about it. Fast forward a couple years and at his bachelor party actually we got some money together to buy him a Viking helmet that they had seen in an antique store.
Myself and Justin "Brother" Ramsey had started talking a little more seriously about doing the web site and decided to have Garth make some appearances at some of the races. Then at Steel Creek this past year it was a big hit. We just wanted to kind of test the waters and see what kind of a response we would get from people. It was pretty good so we set up a Facebook account for Olaf and from there it kind of grew its own legs and took off running. One door just seems to lead to another and it's been a blast so far.
How long has the actual website offroadviking.com been up?
July 8th of last year is when we actually launched the first website. Our intention when we first started was to wait till the first of this year. But with the popularity of the Facebook and everything else we just went ahead and went up. Snowshoe was the first video and that's when we launched the site.
Wow! You guys just kind of exploded onto the scene.
It's been mind-blowing for us. We didn't expect to be this busy, it's been in a good way and we have had a bunch of people helping us out along the way. Jason Raines does the weekly riding tips, people like the Baylor's who had us down for the weekend and welcomed us with open arms and were as hospitable as all get out. It's people like that helping out along the way.
Photo By: www.offroadviking.com
Garth Fine the Off Road Viking.
Yes it is. We all have, minus Garth raced full seasons of GNCC and we were spectators and fans first and foremost. I mean just to get to be around those guys is as cool as it gets for us. It's been a blast and amazing how fast it's took off for us.
What's the coolest thing you guys have done?
It's hard to say really. We get to hang out with Jason Raines quite a bit shooting video down there on Randy Hawkins farm and that's cool to do that. We got to hang with Mike Brown who is huge in motocross and WORCS and raced a few GNCCs. We podcasted David Knight and that was probably one of the biggest things. We were virtually unknown and David Knight stepped up and did that podcast with us. The one thing though that sticks out is probably the Jason Thomas podcast that we did after the incident with Kailub Russell. It was pretty cool to get to hear Jason's side of it and his emotion from it all was cool to hear. (Garth/Olaf in the background: "Paul Whibley offered to make me a sandwich!") (Everyone laughs)
What kind of sandwich did he offer?
(Garth) I'm not sure, I felt bad so I didn't take it. (Brother Ramsey) He tried to get him to ride his Honda 70 but he wouldn't take that either. We are still working on getting Olaf on a bike. We are going to start campaigning in 2011 to make that happen. That's the goal for this year.
Will Olaf make all the races this year?
That's the goal. Florida for Olaf may be a little iffy but we're working on it right now. There on out we are trying to get him to commit to the whole year. (Garth) So most of the races you will see me at the starting line. You can't miss me.
(Daniel) Even if Olaf isn't there someone will make it to all the races. We want to have more of a presence this year at the GNCC. We were at quite a bit of the GNCC last year but we only filmed at a couple. So this year you are going to see a lot more of Off Road Viking at the track. We will have more cameras and we brought on another videographer Carson Waugh this last week. So I think we will have more of a presence there and hopefully be able to turn out better stuff than we have before and keep it interesting.
Photo By: www.offroadviking.com
Jason Raines Riding Tips are a big hit on ORV.
We have got some stuff coming up this week with Bart Hayes and the Baylor boys doing some suspension testing with Bart's company WP Suspension. We shot video and did an interview with Bart and should have this up some time this week. We've got a three parter coming up with Chuck Lemaster from Team Faith Ministries. We have some stuff before the East Coast Supercross starts up with Jammin Jimmy Weinart. We have got quite a bit going on right now and a lot of different projects not only with Off Road Viking, but with some other stuff we have in the works right now.
Thanks again and good luck with everything! Hopefully I will get to wear that Viking helmet at one of the races.
You got it! We will hold you to wearing it too.
We really appreciate you doing the podcast on our end too and thanks to GNCC for all that they have given us. We want to thank are wives and family for supporting us while we're gone on the road. We also want to thank Charlie Johnson who has been a huge help with getting this off the ground. We want to also say thanks to Jason Raines for the weekly riding tips, Bart Hayes who has been great to work with and introduced to a lot of people. Finally, a big thanks to everyone who visits the site!
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