Where Are They Now: Dave Castillo

As a privateer racer, you were actually pretty good and managed to qualify for a 250SX main event. That is a significant accomplishment!
I don’t know if you’d call that a good career, but it was fun. I was always close to qualifying every weekend, but for whatever reasons, I never qualified. I tried. I trained a little bit and stuff, but everyone was just fast back then. I think I got lucky that night and unfortunately for Damon Huffman, I think he crashed and that was the spot I needed to get in in that semi, and that’s what I did. It was great. A lot of people were really happy for me. I rolled around for 20 laps but I do think I finished the main.

How long did you race as a professional?
It was sporadic because I immediately turned pro on a 125 from Loretta’s. Raced a few nationals. I don’t remember how I did, but it was okay. Well, actually it probably wasn’t as good as I think, but that’s cool. Then I did supercross next year. My very first supercross, I think it was the Coliseum that year. I blew my knee out for the first time. So then I didn’t race again that supercross season, which was ’91. Then again in ’92 I raced. I did alright. I made main events in the 125 class. Nothing to speak of really though, as far as finishes. In ’93, well, it was the same thing. I blew my knee out again and it was another six to eight months off. No supercross.

It’s kind of blurry at that point. I don’t remember exactly what I did, but I know I wasn’t racing again until ’95. I decided I’m too big for a 125, I’m going to try 250, and raced the ’95 nationals. That’s where I had a lot of fun. I wasn’t top 20 racing supercross and nationals, so that’s where we decided to put together the Great Western Bank team for ’96. That’s where that all came about. So then I did that 1996 season, and then decided to quit. Despite making that one main, I wasn’t doing well. I wasn’t making any money or anything. So 2000 came around and I was just bored, and I decided to make a comeback. I think I was working with Innovation Sports and was riding still. I think somebody dared me to race, is what I think happened. So I said fine. I’ll go race. Then I raced again, sporadically, supercross and the nationals for three more years.

Switching gears, your family’s ranch, this place is pretty famous. A lot of stuff has happened here, be it Jeremy McGrath riding in the Terrafirma days or Ken Roczen or Chad Reed training here or even photo shoots for the new apparel or video shoots for the Crusty Demons of Dirt guys. You’ve been here for all of it, and its been nearly 25 years or so. What are some of the personal highlights of this place and for you?
The highlights, funny enough, come from before anybody knew about it. When my dad first bought this place, there was nothing here. Myself and “Ryno” [Ryan Hughes], we were inseparable at the time. Some other friends would come up. Where the outdoor track is now, we built an outdoor track, but it was just like you would do it old school. You would just burn it in with the bikes. So we would burn in this track here. We built ourselves a supercross track. Learned how to drive tractors doing that. We terrorized this place before anyone even knew what it was, where it was, or anything. So that to me is kind of the greatest memory of this place. But then what really cracked it open was Fox doing their first Terrafirma video here with Doug Henry. It was like an Alice in Chains song with Doug Henry, all slow motion, just in the hills. People were like, what is that? Then they did a Dream On ad with that as the backdrop on the supercross track with Doug Henry. Gave it a little more notoriety. Then what really cracked it wide open was the Terrafirma 2 with Jeremy McGrath. That made it sort of everyone’s wet dream.

So what is going on with the ranch today? You guys have sort of opened it up for the locals?
Well, yeah, sort of. From the Terrafirma videos, as well as countless other ones, and to Travis [Pastrana] training here, Chad Reed training here, Roczen… all that stuff happens. But nobody gets to ride here, ever. It’s always been very private. So, fast forward to now, everyone on the central coast had Zaca Station to ride at. It unfortunately closed down last summer, as the owners didn’t want the liability. At the same time, we have a track, and people really wanted to ride it. So although we’re still private, we’ve started to allow people, friends, and family, friends of friends who we sort of vet through looking through Instagram and making sure they can actually ride and stuff. In moto, we’re all a family and a community. We have a few days a week where we get a list together and we have private ride days.

Tell me a little bit about the moto scene up here in the valley. I know Carey Hart is up here, the Enticknap brothers have a track. You’ve got your place. It is still California, but it’s kind of different than what’s down South?
Yeah, the central coast moto scene is sort of underground because everyone lives in Southern California or Northern California and they don’t really realize right in the middle there’s this beautiful area. We have a handful of riders. Carey Hart lives up here. He moved up here not too many years ago. The Enticknap brothers, [Adam] “The 722,” and his brother, Tyler. There’s a handful of guys I don’t even really know their names, but they all ride the 250 class and they all ride our supercross track. I see them. I don’t necessarily know them. I just go by and there’s people riding our supercross track. Then there’s a ton of people who just grew up riding, racing. They moved up here. They ride really well. Those are the people that frequented Zaca a lot. They all just want a place to ride, and we thought we would give it a try, and try to give something back to the sport.