Sal Fish The Godfather of Off-Road Racing

Slow Baja

Sal Fish is the beloved Godfather of Off-road Racing and former President of SCORE International. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, the son of a humble and kind auto mechanic, a loving mother, with a Sicilian Grandmother at home who only spoke Italian. His parents scrimped, saved, and sent Fish and his three brothers to the Roman Catholic, college-preparatory Loyola High School for boys. Sal was class President but freely admits he was not a very good student. The Jesuit education system served him well, and he was accepted “under probation” at the University of San Francisco.

At USF, his charm and drive carried the day. He excelled in making connections. Soon, Sal was on the basketball team’s coaching staff, eating and drinking for free in North Beach, and had an apartment above the embalming room of a prestigious neighborhood mortuary. He even had a “no-show athletes job” at a brewery, where he punched in at the beginning of the week and returned at the end of the week to collect a paycheck and two cases of beer. With all the fun he was having --by his own admission, he barely managed to graduate.

After surprisingly being declared 4F by the Army, Sal returned to Los Angeles to work with his father in his auto repair business. He attended carburetor, brake, and transmission school and did his best to give his father a rest while he ran the shop. A body surfing buddy saw Sal’s secret strength and offered him a job selling advertising for Car Craft Magazine. His father was thrilled to get him out of the shop. Sal was a natural salesman, rapidly rising through the ranks of Petersen Publishing, and soon became the Publisher.

Through his travels with Hot Rod magazine, Sal and ad salesman Bob Weggeland landed a VW Beetle and an entry into the 1969 NORRA Mexican 1000. In our conversation, Sal recounts the experience --a hilarious story of ignorance, perseverance, survival, and a heaping dose of luck. After breaking their transmission, Sal and Bob flagged down the crew of actor and racer James Garner and got a tow to the checkpoint at Lake Chapala. --“We went faster on a tow rope than we had been going in the race.”

Racer and entrepreneur Mickey Thompson recruited Sal as a partner soon after he created SCORE International in 1973. By 1974 Sal and Mickey were hosting the Baja 1000. He used his people and publishing skills to grow the organization rapidly. Eventually, he took over SCORE and bought Thompson out. In the process, Sal realized Thompson’s vision to make off-road racing as big as NASCAR. Sal sold SCORE in 2012. Active and fit, he enjoys living in Malibu and spending time with his wife of nearly 50 years, Barbara. The couple has a second home in La Paz, where Sal enjoys kayaking and entertaining his many Baja friends.

A special thanks to Lyman Scherer for connecting me to Sal.