Best known as one of the main buyers of the longtime reality show, “Storage Wars,” Jarrod Schulz recently took time out from his regular gig to compete in the ongoing second season of “Celebrity Car Wars.”
Hosted by Bobby Tonelli, the show which airs every Monday at 9:55PM on the History Channel, puts the driving skills of six popular celebrities as they try to figure out a bunch of off-beat road challenges.
Competing with Jarrod this season are Harith Iskander from Malaysia, Aerin Yuktadatta and Guy Ratchanont from Thailand, Dominic Lau from Hong Kong, and the Philippines’ own Phoemela Baranda who hopes to follow compatriot KC Montero as the second straight “Celebrity Car Wars” champion.
Jarrod, however, is a pretty competitive guy himself. “There was a lot of obstacles for me to get over, but I felt pretty confident about it, because it’s something that I like to do. I like to drive cars, and I like to drive fast, and I like to take chances. I felt like it [the show] was a good fit for me,” he told InterAksyon in a recent interview.
The American reality television star said that it certainly helped that he was also into vehicles and enjoyed driving cars and riding motorcycles. He was also able to incorporate some of his experience from “Storage Wars” into “Celebrity Car Wars.”
“There were definitely some challenges that my being a storage buyer and my ability to repair things or modify things or look for solutions to problems definitely helped me out on ‘Celebrity Car Wars,’ because I could do things other people maybe don’t do all the time,” he pointed out.
“I mean some of the challenges were basically manual—like regular labor kind of challenges. That’s what I do every day. That’s really easy for me. I’m not a race car driver, but I could definitely work hard.”
As in the show’s first season, all the contestants were mentored by accomplished racers which this season consisted of the Philippines’ Michelle Bumgarner and Gaby dela Merced and guest expert Alex Yoong from Malaysia.
Jarrod said he was very impressed with the three mentors.
“They were all really nice people. They all had a lot of different insights to give. I’m not really familiar with them as go kart drivers or race car drivers. They all have their different classes and strengths, but they all knew how to drive a car around a race track. I always thought I did, too, until I got out there, and realized I didn’t know as much as I think I did,” he admitted.
As for his fellow competitors, Jarrod observed that like him, everyone else was in it to win it. He was, however, impressed with how Phoemela performed.
“Phoemela was stronger in some competitions. She had some race care driving experience, and she has definitely been on a race track before. It definitely showed through competitions.”
Asked how he assessed his own performance in “Celebrity Car Wars,” Jarrod said that like the others, he also had his own strengths and advantages.
“All of the challenges were challenging and fun, and I enjoyed almost every one of them. They were all something that if I hadn’t already done before, I would’ve definitely wanted to try. But I did better in the dirt. When we’re in the dirt is probably some of the more, it was more fun for me,” he admitted.
But the best thing about competing in “Celebrity Car Wars” was that it was literally a liberating experience for Jarrod.
“They basically put me in some different vehicles, and just told me to go. I got to pretty much do whatever I wanted. There’s nobody there saying don’t do this or don’t do that. I got to try a lot of things that you can’t really do on city streets here in Orange County. So it was nice to have the freedom.”
