Changing Gears to Pass the Time : Agoura Senior Citizen Makes Up Lost Years as Desert Racer
Unlike many senior citizens who peacefully spend their time on the golf course trying to keep their drives out of sand traps, Gregg Symonds is the kind of guy who would take delight in driving his 4 x 4 truck right through them.
Symonds, 65, placed third in the Class 7 4 x 4 stock mini-truck category of the Baja 500 on June 6.
He and passenger Warren Miller, 59, of La Crecenta, finished in 13 hours, 2 minutes.
“I wouldn’t sit down in these things with just anybody,” Miller said. “Gregg knows what he’s doing and we pass a lot of people out there.”
Symonds, who lives in Agoura Hills, began his racing career on a motorcycle on his 48th birthday.
“I finished the race,” he said, “but don’t ask me where.”
Symonds eventually gave up racing motorcycles after some painful encounters with the desert.
“My wife used to worry about me when I was on motorcycles and I’ve got a lot of scars on my face and knees to prove it,” the retired general contractor said. “If I fell off a motorcycle, the first thing down was my face.”
So Symonds turned to trucks and dune buggies to satisfy his passion for racing. He believes that his desert disposition is the key to his winning edge over younger competition.
“I have a feel for the machinery,” he said. “But the big thing is that I read the desert.
“If I can keep the machinery running, it seems as though I’m in the money.”
Symonds, who will be racing in the Fireworks 250 in Barstow on July 4, credits his success to both hard work and natural ability.
“I have to have a natural talent in racing because I started so late in life. I often wonder what would have happened had I started earlier.”
He may have started behind the pack in terms of age, but now that he’s a driver on the 4 x 4 circuit, he’s not about to relinquish the steering wheel.
“I’m not sure if I’m the kind that can build a car and let somebody else race it,” he said. “I don’t build model airplanes and fly them--I want to get in myself and do it.”
