GNCCRacing.com: It looks like you’ve had a killer season so far, before the summer break you won all but one of the races in 4x4 lites, right?

Rick Valentine: You know, when you’re a little kid growing up, you always dream of being the best in your class or winning something, whatever your particular passion is. This year has been like one of those daydreams! The only race that I didn’t win, I got a flat tire early on, but was still able to finish second. How can you complain about that?

What do you think helped you be so successful this year?

I don’t know. The guys in our class, they’re great guys and riders. The class is competitive and I have no idea how I’ve managed to do so well on such a consistent basis. I’ve just been really blessed this year. Everything just clicked, and I’m just grateful it happened this way.

And you actually wrapped up the title this past weekend at Mason-Dixon, even though the circumstances were less than ideal….

I bet I calculated the points a hundred times, called Jeremy once, and will again (heads up to you Jeremy) to see where I stood.  I had it figured that I needed to make at least 1 lap to get enough points to tie it up.  I made it through the first lap in first place, then about the 4-mile marker, I blew my belt.  I hated to end it that way, but I got the points I needed. 

What are your plans for next season?

I’m not sure right yet. I’ll probably move back to 4x4 senior like what I rode before, but I’m not sure yet.  I really want to make sure that my son has everything he needs to have a successful season after a rough one this year.  The 4x4 senior class is a tough one, but also a lot of fun with a great group of guys.

How did you get started riding and racing?

Well, I was born and raised on a farm and I was riding by the time I was four years old. As far as the racing, it’s a bit of a long story. I own a food production company. We make sauces, salsas, barbeque sauce, bloody Mary mix, things like that. We also had a concession trailer for our barbeque company. Back in 2011, the promoter who puts on our local series asked if we would be interested in bringing it out to the race. When we did, our youngest son was completely taken with the racing and wanted to race so badly… he was six years old at the time, so we bought him a little four-wheeler. I told him that if he wanted to race, that I would race with him too, so that he wouldn’t be doing it all by himself.

That’s a really unique story! Does your son still race with you?

Yes, his name is Tyler Valentine. He’s been racing on a Honda 300 in the 13-15 schoolboy junior class this year. He’s been at all the rounds except Mason-Dixon… it’s homecoming weekend and he got a date, so he didn’t want to miss it (laughs). It was really weird not having him with me at the race.  I know he really wanted to go to Mason-Dixon, but I’m proud that he stuck to his commitment.

How has his season been?

He started out doing well, but had just about one of the worst runs of bad luck that I’ve ever seen. He’s blown five motors this season, and before a local race two weekends ago, he hadn’t  finished a race since April. On the bright side, he came away with a first place in class and the morning overall for the race as well!

Backtracking a bit, I know that owning your own business is a huge responsibility - are the hours flexible enough to make traveling reasonable?

Yeah, it’s not a huge problem, we just have to schedule in advance. We have some really good people who can take care of things while I’m gone. I’m fortunate in that regard, since Iowa is a pretty long drive from the races… It is a lot of fun being in the business that I am with the races.  I think we have a lot of people addicted to our food products!

Yeah, Iowa is a little outside the usual GNCC territory! What’s the racing scene like out there?

We have a really strong local series here, the IATVHSS. We get really good turnouts, usually 120 to 130 people in the morning classes and about 70 to 90 in the afternoon. Our UTV scene is pretty strong too.  We average about 50 of them. Unlike most of the series around you guys, it’s UTV and ATV only. The best part is that we have a lot of kids involved, usually 40-50, which brings us back around to how I got started racing. They even get the very youngest kids involved with battery powered car or ATV racing.

Do you still run the series when you aren’t racing GNCCs?

Once in awhile. I’m at the age now though where it’s really nice to have a weekend off in-between races though. (laughs)

As far as the GNCCs, it looks like you’ve been doing them off and on for the last several years…

Yes. I think I just ran one race in 2014 and then two or three in 2015. In 2016 I ran the 4x4 senior class – it went pretty well so we did the whole series. I ended up 5th in points. I didn’t actually race in 2017, because the previous year I’d gotten hurt in a pretty bad wreck at Snowshoe. It was muddy that year, I hit a water break on the way down one of the hills under the ski lift. I came in too hot and it was too slick – I just couldn’t stop. Those utility quads aren’t too forgiving either! I ended up having knee surgery the following year, so I sat out last year to make sure it healed right.