Racing Vintage Desert-Sleds with Hayden Roberts & Scott Toepfer

Hayden Roberts and Scott Toepfer race mid-’60s vintage British Dirt Bikes in events like the NORRA Mexican 1000, NORRA Baja 500, and The Mint 400. Roberts, originally from England, is now a fixture in the Southern California Motorcycle scene, crafting and customizing bikes at his shop Hello Engine, in Santa Paula, California. Toepfer, a lifestyle-photographer with a specialty in motorcycles, met Roberts while they were on a motocross exposition in Japan. They became fast friends, and have been racing, wrenching, and traveling on their desert-sleds ever since.

In this conversation, we learn the meaning of “Only mad dogs and Englishmen.” Hear stories of swapping motors on the beach, sleeping in the dirt, and surviving a dreaded stingray sting. Joy Lewis joined us midway through. She tells us about an epic night of worry from the NORRA Mexican 1000 when she was in the chase-truck supporting Hayden, and his GPS position stopped moving. Her mind raced; did he crash? Was he injured, or worse? They were hours away and had no way to reach him. As she searched for information and tried to summon help -one grizzled Baja veteran (jokingly) suggested that he was “shacked up with a local senorita and in nine months a little Baja-racer would be born!”

In the morning, Joy found him tired but well-fed, nursing a carton of milk and teaching a group of elementary school children about England. During a sandstorm in Bahia de Los Angeles, they fell in love over a cup of hot tea,  prompting Joy to make the observation (that) “the stars are brighter, and the tacos are better in Baja.”

Listen to Podcast Here

Hello Engine Website, Instagram

Scott G. Toepfer Website, Instagram

Joy Lewis Instagram

Buck Smith Facebook

Nick Ashley Instagram

NORRA Mexican 1000 Website

NORRA Mexican 1000 Instagram