Dave Ashley

[Dezertpilot]

RIP Dave, you will be missed by many. Thanks for giving us some great memories.

 

[toddz]

I have two great memories of Dave. One was the '91 Parker 400 which was the inaugural outing for the Enduro Class 4 truck. He broke something on the front end and hung out with us for the rest of the day until his chase team could get in there to get him and the truck out.

Years later, I was at one of the Laughlin races when they were still racing the Duralast TT. I was in the pits and wandered over to the Fairway/Enduro pit and peeked into the back of the semi or one of the box trucks. There was Dave, with a push broom in hand, sweeping out the interior of the rig. It struck me then, as it does now....here's one of the top TT drivers in the world at the time, and he's pushing a broom helping clean up the equipment. You didn't see that often then and probably even less now.

Todd Z.

 

[El Plomero]

Baja 2000 win 8 to 1 exhaust

 

[randy68]

One hellova guy! RIP Dave, nice to have known you..............

 

[NicksTrix]

another icon gone, leaving a legacy of talent, kindness and friendship behind.. RIP driver. on to the next event...

 

[ACME]

Godspeed and our thoughts and prayers to his family and friends...

 

[Tom_Willis]

Some great memories of him (& the Enduro Racing team) while working for SCORE. Last time I saw him was (on his birthday) at the Fabschool, and I mentioned that on more than one occasion at a race in Baja I was approached by locals asking for my autograph because they thought I was him. I eventually figured out that when anybody walked up to me with a sharpie I should do my best "Dave Ashley" counterfeit signature. What was his response? He said thanks . Vaya con Dios my friend.

 

[PBR]

Dave was definitely one of the good ones! He really helped my brother and I out when we were young, dumb kids and had no idea what we were doing. (still dumb, not young, still don't know what I'm doing)

Godspeed Dave.

 

[Israel Moore]

The good old days, this truck is unstoppable. I had so much fun watching this classic video.

 

[sb4pro]

The good old days

 

[Dave_G]

Fast forward to the end and here's a TV commercial I did with Dave Ashley back in the mid 90's. The video before that was a crash recovery I did for the Venable family.

 

[Josh 8]

I saw Dave. I saw you in the commercial did I hear Wally’s voice in it too?

 

[Dave_G]

I saw Dave. I saw you in the commercial did I hear Wally’s voice in it too?

Yes, that was Wally.

 

[zachary__]

Keep the stories coming -- His family appreciates them!

 

[Dave_G]

Here's a photo of a wild hog hunt I took Dave and Dan on in Central California near King City. Dave got a monster of a hog with his H&K SR9T in .308 Winchester. There's a great story behind getting this hog and maybe I'll type it up when I get back on my laptop Monday.

 

[Josh 8]

You should type the story. Dave told me it once. Something about Dave crawling down a hog tunnel. I remember he was totally animated when he was telling me. Haha…

————

I am still shocked and can’t believe this.

 

[Mark Kovalsky]

I met Dave when I worked at Ford. I was sent to Enduro Racing to help with the transmission we supplied to the team. Dave made me feel like an old friend right from the start. I really enjoyed working with him. I was able to work with the team at several races, those are special memories for me. RIP Dave, we will all miss you.

 

[Dave_G]

You should type the story. Dave told me it once. Something about Dave crawling down a hog tunnel. I remember he was totally animated when he was telling me. Haha…

————

I am still shocked and can’t believe this.

Yep. I ended up climbing a tree so I didn't get gored cuz I didn't have my gun with me. Dave layed down in that hog tunnel and took the shot before we got attacked. We were both out of breath and our lungs were burning from all the running we had to do. I will never forget that for as long as I live...

 

[Josh 8]

the stories coming -- His family appreciates them!

I actually met Dave probably 15 years after meeting Dave’s Uncle Tom. Tom worked for my families business that is trucking. Tom was the paint and body man for crashed trucks. We affectionately nicknamed him “Bondo Tom”. This was from about 85 to 95. Oh, and this was in Fontana Ca. So I was a kid in my teens in the late 80’s and I would work with Tom on Saturday’s. Tom was proud of Dave and tell me all about his off road racing successes. Tom also told me about racing in Mexico in or around 1970 in a Baja bug. This is what originally sparked the idea of actually racing in me. Before Tom it was an idea. Tom told me I could do it and that’s when it stuck! The first time I met Dave he was skeptical of me or my story that I knew Tom because as Dave later put it he was the back sheep of the family. And these were some of the years he was gone and not in the picture. So the first time I met Dave, it was at the shop on G st. Another friend of mine at work in about 1998 told me after discussing dirt bikes that he was a close family friend of Dan Smith’s. He asked if I wanted to meet him. Of course I did so he set up a lunch meeting. At this is when I met Dave. So as I said, Dave was skeptical of my story of knowing Tom. Or at least shocked. So he had a bunch of questions for me about him because he was so skeptical. I finally told him the story of how Tom lost the end of his pinky finger on his left hand in the Baja 1000 trying to pull the engine through. I guess his wife bumped the starter little to hard and it got caught. When I told him that story he knew it was all true about Tom and I was in. I then became a regular and stopped by the shop about once a month from then on till closing. About 2003 I started chasing for them at the 1000. I actually have Dave’s old prerunner f150, I bought a 1996 husky 360 from him and he gave me his old light blue and white Chevy blazer for helping him out once. When I bought my first race truck Dave was there to for years helping, giving advise and going to my races to help out. He never gave me the easy answers either to my questions. He made me work for them so I would learn something in the process. In that way he was a great teacher. When I had questions he would start taking with Dan or Mike Backholden and they would discuss my problem and what they did to deal with it and how they figured it out. Never once would he tell me what to do or give me the easy answer. But if I listened closely I could figure it out. I spent hours listing to them about how to tune shocks, about every part on a truck. Even the psychology of winning. It’s still happing too. Just this week Dan was telling me how to treat ring and pinions for longer life. But Dave, he loved his secret tricks to the trade. He actually showed them to me too under a vail secrecy that he made me promise not to break, (no joke). Like his set up and tune on 4150 carburetors. Wow it works so well. Dave had a great insight into people too. Dave was the first person to point out to me that a had a business gift/talent to make deals. He said, sure, you know how to weld and do other things but your not the greatest and never will be at things like race car fabrication. Your true talent is the art of making the deal. He then went on to explain to me that until I focused on what I was gifted at I would never truly be successful. He was right too. I quit working as a small fab shop and focused on my family’s business and make deals and it’s blown up in the real estate. I owe this to Dave. He point it out. No one ever had before. Not even my parents. After the racing was over Dave and I got together for Bible studies a few times and he showed me in Mathew ch. 7 where it says just because some one may know Jesus’s name and things about Jesus, it does not mean Jesus knows them. This blue Dave’s doors off. He set out to learn and meet Jesus based on this. Dave is/was right about this too. I had been reading the Bible diligently for about year and I grazed over this. I had never stopped to understand what it was really saying and that is we are destined for distraction in this life and the next with out Jesus. Well Dave caught and it effected him big time. He then passed it on to me and I pass it on to you. As Dave put it, “It has to the scariest passage in the Bible”. As a foot note to Tom, in 1987, when I was 16 he and I actual rode Xr’s together to Cabo. He had to be 70. Any one that knew Tom knew he had “issues” but he too was a good man just under surface. And a tough old coot too.


Dave was a good man. I miss him.

 

[Josh 8]

I have never told any one this and people will ask me why my truck is painted so plain. Just back and white. Well it’s in remembrance of Tom Ashley. His race cars were the same colors. All white with a flat back hood.

Post script, truck is actually Dave’s old prerunner. It’s been completely rebuild and not much is original to Dave. All that’s original is the frame rails and floor pan, fire wall, shifter and steering wheel.