Nomination letter for Rock MotorSports HOF- Kevin Yoder
Rock Motorsports has more than it’s share of unsung heroes that quietly shaped the unpaved road for those enjoying the sport today. It’s time to bring one of those heroes to light and let the community get to know him like a few of us do.
Kevin Yoder has been innovating, building and competing since the ‘80s from his home barn in Grass Valley CA. If you were a “Jeeper” (before they called it rockcrawling) on the Rubicon, Fordyce or other trials of Northern California back in the day you knew who Yoder was. The guy on 40” Boggers in a home built CJ-7, we all looked up to Yoder. You heard the rumble of a big block and looked to see the first tube fenders anyone ever saw come around the corner. He was ahead of his time then and now in a many ways.
Kevin ran his Jeep hard on the trails and at local competitions racking up trophies that fill entire walls in his barn today. If Yoder was around you knew it, and when the first ever rockcrawling competition was established in 1998 Yoder made the invitation list and went to Las Cruses NM for the Warn Nationals, he made the Dirty Dozen every year at the Warn Nationals and myself and Larry McRea recall him subtly teaching us how to twin stick in 1999. Literally we caught the first guy to do a front dig in competition and Yoder had been doing it for years. Other invitees back then were known in the magazines from large events like Top Truck Challenge, Big Meats runs and Chili Challenge but Yoder was just known. Known for …well being Yoder. He and Shannon Campbell are the only two guys that competed in that first rockcrawl and stayed in competition through today, both have competed in every King of the Hammers since the first official year in 2008.
Besides being a general badass and having dozens of competition wins under his belt Yoder embodies the heart of something rock sports is famous for, true grit. How do I describe true grit? The determination, tenacity and willingness to design and built whole cars and parts late into a cold night in a barn with only two walls. Then to take these DIY ideas out into the middle of nowhere and be able to get yourself back home even when it seems impossible. Yoder wins this one hands down and hands dirty. He doesn’t just build a chassis and assemble the rest. He builds his own axle housings, he makes his own adapters, he innovates solutions in a pole barn that most engineers couldn’t CNC in a fab shop. I swear the next step would be making a mold and making his own tires. I’ve been in his shop helping him prep for KOH operating a flat belt drill press that looks like it should be attached to a water wheel while Yoder is under his car tig welding a repair with chickens and goats walking through to their side of the barn. It’s surreal. I hope you agree with me that one of the OG godfathers of what we do should be honored for his representation, his innovation and his longevity in Rocksports. If you do contact him early for pictures and videos some of them are going to be on VHS.
Sincerely nominated by,
Jeff Mello
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