Dick
Cepek is best known for beginning one of the first off-road
enterprises, Dick Cepek Tires- “Baja Proven.” Through his
business he also made notable contributions to off-roading
through product development and through his support of
off-road racing.
Cepek was born in Hillsboro, Wisconsin in 1930 to Lena and
Joe Cepek. His family soon moved to Columbus, Ohio where his
father Joe worked in the maintenance department for a
trucking company. Dick Cepek served in the U.S Navy in the
early 1950’s. When he returned to Columbus he met his future
wife at the drive in movie-theater where she worked. Cepek
married Dorothy Mudd in 1954. Cepek had been working as a
salesman for Westinghouse Electrical and soon after the
wedding the company transferred him to South Gate,
California.
In 1958 Cepek purchased his first Land Cruiser. He now had
the means to travel into the desert and to explore the Baja
California coast. He and his wife along with their small
son, Tom would spend weeks in Mexico fishing and camping.
Cepek also started participating in group drives into the
California desert. On these rides he saw the need for wider
more durable tires for the off-road vehicles and began
utilizing tires marketed for farm use. He had Armstrong
Rubber make him tires which he outfitted his own Land
Cruiser with. Soon his fellow club members wanted some of
the new tires too. Cepek supplied tires to his friends and
foresaw the demands for the tires among the larger off-road
community as well.
He took out and advertisement in Sunset Magazine and stocked
his one and a half car garage at home full tires Armstrong
made for him especially for off-roading. In 1960 he took
Dorothy by a barber shop for sale in South Gate and asked if
she would mind if he started an off-road tire shop in the
space. She told him to take a go at it and soon he out grew
the space, just as he had his garage. In two years time he
was able to leave his job at Westinghouse and he moved the
business to an old fire hall down the street. In addition to
the tires he began selling all manner of off-road equipment
from after market products such as shocks and suspension
systems to camping gear. People would come from as far as
the East Coast to purchase their off-road supplies from
Cepek. The business eventually grew to 15 stores and three
warehouses, as well as a flourishing catalog business.
Through the successful growth of his business and as an
active participant Cepek became involved in the organized
growth of off-roading as a sport. In 1966 Cepek joined Ed
Pearlman and two other teams to try their hand at setting a
new four wheeled record racing across Baja. Pearlman and
Cepek drove a Toyota Land Cruiser with a Chevy engine as did
Claude Dozier and Ed Orr. Bruce Myers donated a Myers Maxx
buggy for the press vehicle, driven by Drino Miller and John
Lawlor a journalist. The men faced a multitude of technical
difficulties yet all completed the course. Orr and Dozier
crossed the line into La Paz first with a time of 41 hours
and 45 minutes. Pearlman and Cepek came across the line in
56 hours. It took Miller and Lawlor an additional 10 hours
to finish with a time of 66 hours. During the course of the
race and conversations with Cepek, Pearlman came to the
conclusion that there needed to be a more organized form of
off-road racing. Once back in California Pearlman invited a
group of friends to his home to discuss the formation of an
organized racing association. There Pete Condos came up with
the name National Off-Road Racing Association (NORRA).
NORRA organized the original Baja 1000 races. Cepek raced in
the first three events himself. He also became involved with
sponsoring other racers in whom he saw potential talent.
Some of his sponsored drivers included fellow Hall of Fame
inductees Larry Minor, Rod Hall and Drino Miller. He also
sponsored Carl Jackson who raced his jeep with great success
at the Riverside, California track.
Cepek passed away in 1983. His son Tom ran Cepek Tires until
2000.
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