“We’re all here to win races. We should be out here to win a life.”

The presentation

0:00can do anything you want to do. You just have to want to do it bad enough. And I think, well, it doesn't that make sense, everybody? His words fit very well for our last award. We will now present the Louis Unser Never Give Up award, which is sponsored by Riviera Racing. These recipients demonstrate a pursuit of excellence under great adversity. Doesn't matter their age or anything, it's like that. Louis was tough. He was tough. He had to be tough. His health issues with his body never got his way about his passion for building engines. He never quit. Never gave up. And George Hammel, neither did you. Yeah, that's the truth.

0:54Like Louis, George exemplifies Louis's never give attitude in his off-road careers, because he has a relentless attitude, an indomitable spirit, and a sense of perseverance that outweighs the rest of us put together. It cannot be a better name for this award. So, if you would, let's give George Hammel a new name. Let's call him Louis Unser tough, because that's what he is. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the stage, the recipient of the 2022 Louis Unser Never Give Up award sponsored by Riviera Racing, George Hammel, and a company with him will be Mark Post and Jeff Furrier for the photograph.

1:50[Applause]

The speech

2:20Thank you. I tell you what, man, it's never ever even dawned on me that I would be standing up here in front of you guys. The dirt teaches us a lot. I grew up in a real small town called Baylor, so we didn't have paved roads. During that time, we learned a lot, just like you guys talked about tonight. Everybody here that is raised or done anything that signifies dirt understands what it takes to get to the finish line. The battle that we all face in life is the same as race, right? You want to never give up. You always want to complete it. And I think everybody here agrees when you say like Laverne and Louis giving us the opportunity to talk about this stuff and to give an award like this really means a lot to not only me but I think to everybody here because we all exemplify the same package. It doesn't matter what you're faced in life, you're always going to give it your all to cross the finish line. Jeff Furrier has taught me a lot. I sat in his office one day as his cocky little side-by-side professional racer, right? Thinking I'm the cool guy. And I said, Jeff, I got all these cool things. I got a Yamaha support contract. I'm this Billy Patass, whatever. We had a conversation. He goes, George, you know what? I'm hearing a lot of II when it should be we, we, we. And that changed what I thought for the rest of my life in the racing and in business and everything. I'm going to go through a quick a quick version of my life because it's been one hell of a ride. I live by three things. Perception, choices and accountability. All things that a winning race car driver can know and deal with very well. They can do it in milliseconds.

4:33My life has been four decades of craziness. I was a little kid, grew up in dirt, like I said, didn't have paved roads. Started dirt bike racing, very late, 12 years old, reached a professional level by the time I was 19, which meant I had to fast forward. I broke a lot of bones. I learned the hard way. During that time, I taught myself a lot of lessons. First of all you don't want to fall down. But I got paralyzed at my first national race at Glen Helen Raceway. That turned my life around. I had to pivot like a lot of you guys have done in your lives. When some significant emotional event happens, you have to turn and you have to face it and you have to move forward. So you have to perceive it. You have to make choices and you have to have accountability for it. Then I decided to go to school in a wheelchair. Was in a wheelchair for about five years. During that time I was at school, I was able to get a computer science degree. So now I excelled myself into internet and all these crazy things. But I didn't have a pocket protector. I was the guy that could talk the language to off-road and action sports and music.

5:42So I was in a class of my own, so to speak. I got kind of bored of doing the computer stuff and I wanted to get back on a dirt bike. So I got back on a dirt bike. Even though I was paralyzed, I could hold on with my arms. I just put a bunch of grip tape on. Got a little shifter that you could press the button. And I qualified for the X Games. Race is Super X Adaptive class. Funny story. Got a couple sponsors. But I still, I fell down. I broke my arm on national TV. I still, I was so pissed off. I went to the podium. I watched all my competitors. Get their medals. Because I knew how much it meant to them and to me. And I just wanted to kick their ass next year. It turns out practicing the next year I broke my back again for the third time. To date I've broken nearly every bone in my body except for my humerus. A lot of lessons, right? But during that time I sat in a hospital or in a doctor's office. My mom and my sister were sitting next to me and the doctor goes, "Dude, you cannot break yourself anymore. There's gonna be one of these times when you're not gonna be fixed." And I was like, "You know what?

6:56F that. I can still do this. I can still race X. I can win." But I looked over at them and they were crying. So my perception was wrong. During that time I said, "Okay, well I need to change what I'm doing." So I started riding pedal bicycles like Tour de France kind of stuff. Started making a mark for myself. I worked for Casey Currie at the time building websites. He goes, "You want to come out and race an off-road truck?" I was like, "No. We'll come out and test then." I was like, "Hell yeah. This is gonna be awesome." It was like hitting whoops on a dirt bike but it was in four wheels, right? And then he goes, "Yeah, it's about $10,000 a day." I go, "What? There's no way." This off-road racing stuff is way out of my realm. But I decided to go look for sponsors anyways and it's about the time UTVs were coming out. So I set a five-year goal, did pedal bicycle riding and got some really great sponsors like Supercuts, National Haircut Chain, and started understanding marketing and all of these great things.

7:57When I did that, I got the ability to get into a side-by-side. Fast forward, I win races and I do well. Get some support. But then in 2019, I had another accident at the UTV World Championship. Something that forever changed me. Unfortunately in that accident, I lost my life. And being able to see the other side is very scary because it shows you how much life is worth. And the reason I wanted to tell this story is because we're all here to win races but we should be out here to win a life. And winning a life is going to be the most important thing that I want to teach everybody. The off-road community is an amazing, amazing community. Look at all you guys, all sitting next to each other. We're gonna all have drinks later. It's gonna be amazing. But all of us support each other. Like my family supported me. Like Jeff supported me. Another guy that you guys all know, Craig Scanlon supported me. All of these things have changed the way that I deal with life in general. So now, I have another opportunity to pivot again. And we have this little tiny podcast that's called The Dirt Life Show.

9:19And we give the opportunity for kids, professional racers, to share their stories so that we can talk a lot more about them. Because I think what Laverne really means by never give up when her and Louis give us this award, which I consider all of ours, is that we can all grow together. And this little podcast is my little give back to everybody that supported me so that we can all grow more. So I appreciate everybody. I appreciate everything that you guys do for the community. And most of all, the support that you give me and my family. So thank you.

Afterwards

10:24You're quite welcome. My goodness. I hope he caused you to think as much as he caused me to think. Very definitely. So we celebrate the Helping Hand Award. We celebrate Impact Awards. We celebrate the Louis Unser Never Give Up award. All of these are about people and their actions. Has nothing to do with data, races or scores. It's people.