luckydog

GHIT 0317:  Race Bar Wins at Lucky Dog's Spring Race at CMP

Our review of the Lucky Dog race at CMP continues with our friends at Race Bar.  The tranquilizer dart was apparently very effective and we almost kept control of the podcast, lol.  This was the first ever class win for Race Bar and it was great to share it with them.  Enjoy this episode with Jandy and Richard Freelane. 

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/RaceBarWins

If you would like to help grow our sport and this podcast:

You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc. Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating, that we would appreciate that very much.  Even better, a podcast review, would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving and we would appreciate it.

For instance, leaving an Apple Podcast rating is amazingly easy.  If you go to your podcast library, look under shows.  Then click on this podcast.  Here you can leave a (5?) star rating and enter your review. 

We hope you enjoy this episode!

PS  If you are looking to stream or save your integrated telemetry/racing data with you video, Candelaria Racing Products Sentinel System may be the perfect solution for you.  We are in the midst of installing the system in two of our cars.  If this sounds like something that may help you and your team, please use our discount code "GHIT" for a 10% discount code to all of our listeners during the checkout process.

PS2  Please do not forget that if you are looking to add an Apex Pro to your driving telemetry system, do not forget to use our discount code for all Apex Pro systems you will receive a free Windshield Suction Cup Mount for the system, a savings of $40.  Just enter the code “ghitlikesapex!” when you order.  They are a great system and invaluable to safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross, etc.  The recently released second generation systems and app increases the capability of the system.

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights for this episode include:

1)  A traditional Race Bar opening.

2)  We cover the detailed prep that led to the Race Bar victory.

3)  Dandy brings his own Top Ten list outline for the episode.  A podcast first for us.

4)  How it is to drive with a professional driver as part of the team  and why professional drivers would want to drive with our  amateur field of drivers.

5)  How treating the maintenance of a car like an airplane can help reduce the issues that you may have at the track, even n a 1980's BMW race car.

6)  Ryan Susca gets a big thank you for all the help and his contributions to the Sunday victory.

7)  Some of the greatest words to live by courtesy of our friends at the Track Walking podcast!!!

8)  Who knew, we even go into some driving approaches to improve your times around the CMP track.

9)  An example of classic Race Bar priorities in car repair.  There is wisdom in there somewhere.

10)  The response that you can get in Virginia when driving a Race Bar car home after a race.  Some lessons of things to do and several things not to do.

11)  We end with a bonus discussion of the intellectual property and team of skilled drivers contained by the Race Bar empire.

GHIT 0276:  Mike Kramer Honda Challenge Racing Driver

Mike Kramer has been racing in Honda Challenge and is the two time H2 champion with NASA Southeast.  In addition, he also races in endurance racing with the 24 Hours of Lemons and Lucky Dog.  We have several goals for this episode and one of them is not so subtly aimed at convincing Vicki the our 1993 Honda Civic being a front wheel drive car is not so bad and how much fun we will have in 2022 using it as our primary endurance racing car.  Mike is a great example of how to start out and grow into an accomplished racing driver by simply making the choice to jump into the high performance driving pool and see what types interest you.  It sounds like we will be at several common racing events in 2022 and we can't wait to catch up with him again.

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/MikeKramer

If you would like to help grow our sport and this podcast:

You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc. Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating or even better, a podcast review, we would greatly appreciate it and it would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving.

For instance, leaving an Apple Podcast rating is very easy.  If you go to your podcast library, under shows and click on the podcast you can leave a (5?) star rating and enter your review. 

We hope you enjoy this episode!

PS  Please don’t forget that if you are looking to add an Apex Pro to your driving telemetry system, don’t forget to use our discount code for all Apex Pro systems you will receive a free Windshield Suction Cup Mount for the system, a savings of $40.  Just enter the code “ghitlikesapex!” when you order.  They are a great system and truly invaluable in safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross etc.  The recently released second generation systems and app increases the capability of the system greatly.

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights from this episode include:

1)  Despite having won two NASA SE championships, some of the difficulties Mike has encountered at the recent national championship event, including his overcoming some of the bad experiences at Daytona.

2)  How to get started in high performance driving and what to expect and how to improve most quickly.  We especially break down some of the common misconceptions that may be preventing you from starting.

3)  What we have and should do to our 1993 Honda Civic DX race car that we are rebuilding this winter.  The discussion goes into several options for racing the car in endurance racing and sprint racing, along with possibly using it in HPDE events as well.

4)  How to choose a racing series and what to look for in your area.

5)  Advantages and Disadvantages of a front wheel drive and a rear wheel drive, as well as a few of the primary differences between the two types of cars.

6)  Some of the differences between regional events and national events.  

To follow Mike and his racing exploits, please go to:  

Instagram:  @argylecivic 

Our podcast is trying to encourage people to try high performance driving and racing, so Vicki wanted to start a special series she calls “So You Wanna Racecar”.  On this episode, we have Adam Owens on to talk about his first track events he had last summer.  Adam has a lot of fresh memories from these events and is a good friend of our team (and potentially future team GHiT member).  In talking with Adam, it is even more apparent that the biggest thing stopping anyone from trying to drive at an autocross or a track event is just saying “yes” and doing it.  

Please let us know if we missed anything that you may want discussed in a future episode of our Racing 101 Series. 

The outline for the series is:

Part 1:  Building Your First Race Car (and options to not)

Part 2:  Safety and Safety Related Equipment Needed

Part 3:  Best Entry Points To Start Performance Driving

Part 4:  Buying and Selling Cars (With Special Guest Lara Vernon)

Part 5:  Going To and From The Event/Track – What To Expect

Part 6:  Paddock and Pit – Best Practices

Part 7:  Perspective of a New Driver (With Guest Adam Owens)

Part 8:  Tools, Spares, Supplies Needed for a Race Weekend

Part 9:  Common Issues All Drivers Will/May Experience in When On Track For the First Time

Part 10:  Miscellaneous Topics (& Things We Forget to Mention Earlier)

In this episode, we cover the differences between driving at an HPDE or a track day where you are more or less driving as singular cars on track vs driving on track and racing wheel to wheel vs other drivers and cars.  Neither is better or worse, but they are different, and both offer different challenges.  Largely the key difference is increasing the number of factors you need to keep track of and this increase proportionately to the number of cars on the track and the length of the track (overall car density).  In addition, there are often car specific details and peculiarities that will need to be considered.   Ben puts it best don’t worry, “if you are on the track, you are already a winner”.  Start slow with zero pressure, keep to shorter stints until you are comfortable with going longer while maintaining focus.  We are looking for any great stories from your first-time racing on track.  Please let us know for a great future episode.

You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc. 

Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating or even better, a podcast review, we would greatly appreciate it and it would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving.

For instance, leaving an Apple Podcast rating is very easy.  If you go to your podcast library, under shows and click on the podcast you can leave a (5?) star rating and enter your review. 

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/Racing101Part7

We hope you enjoy this episode!

PS  Please don’t forget that if you are looking to add an Apex Pro to your driving telemetry system, don’t forget to use our discount code for all Apex Pro systems you will receive a free Windshield Suction Cup Mount for the system, a savings of $40.  Just enter the code “ghitlikesapex!” when you order.  We have two systems for our team and Bill is looking to add a third for this season, pending CFO approval from Vicki.  They are a great system and truly invaluable in safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross etc.

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights from this episode include:

1)  Adam has done 1 day at a racing school, 1 HPDE, and 1 race to this point and is an enthusiastic racing driver in training.  For his day job he is the host of the local radio morning show and we have significant audio quality envy of his audio quality.  Post Covid, we will be reviewing our techniques with him.

2)  Without any prompting, Adam says one of the issues he had in starting was how and where to get started.  We are a bit biased, but we know of at least one podcast that is specifically aimed at this. 

3)  Adam’s bucket list goal was to drive a car on the race track.  Now he just wants to do it again! And again.  And again.

4)  We discuss with Adam the impacts of Covid on the past racing seasons and the upcoming 2021 season.

5)  How Adam first went on track at NJMP.  It was really as simple as a google search.

6)  We also go into how Adam and Bill first “met” and how small a world it is in that one of the teams Adam has been on track with our good friends at Safety Third Motorsports.

7)  Adam goes into how it felt to be on the track for the first time at an HPDE event and then his first time on track in a wheel to wheel race at a Champ car event.  As always, it was a bit different than he expected.

8)  Adams pro tip to this point:  No Coffee before a stint.

9)  We go into the advantages and disadvantages of renting/arrive and driving a car at the track.  It's not only a fiscal transaction but also a chief concern is the safety aspects.

Additional Information and Links:

Rental Safety Suits:  http://www.racesuitrental.com/

Lucky Dog Seat Rental:  https://tinyurl.com/LuckyMatch 

24 Hours of Lemons Seat Rental:  https://tinyurl.com/LemonsMatch 

ChampCar Seat Rentals:  https://tinyurl.com/ChampMatch 

We are continuing our bonus series on Racing 101 – So You Wanna Racecar with GHIT podcast #182:  Racing 101 Part 3 – The Best Entry Points to Start High Performance Driving or Racing

We are getting back to our podcast roots and wanted to start a special series Vicki calls “So You Wanna Racecar” that Bill can’t seem to say correctly.  This is part 3 of the series (of ~10). On this episode, we try to summarize the easiest ways that we know of to start performance driving and racing your car.  We selected these options by their ease of entry, ability to enter with little to no driving experience, and their safety.  Cost and complexity of entry was also added as a secondary criterion that we discuss throughout that episode.  The best advice we can give is to just pick one that sounds good for you and start.

Please let us know if we missed anything that you may want discussed in a future episode of our Racing 101 Series. 

The outline for the series is:

Part 1:  Building Your First Racecar (and options to not)

Part 2:  Safety and Safety Related Equipment Needed

Part 3:  Best Entry Points To Start Performance Driving

Part 4:  Buying and Selling Cars (With Special Guest Lara Vernon)

Part 5:  Going To and From The Event/Track – What To Expect

Part 6:  Paddock and Pit – Best Practices

Part 7:  Perspective of a New Driver (With Guest Adam Owens)

Part 8:  Tools, Spares, Supplies Needed for a Race Weekend

Part 9:  Common Issues All Drivers Will/May Experience in When On Track For the First Time

Part 10:  Miscellaneous Topics (& Things We Forget to Mention Earlier)

Our next episode of Dominating with Dawson covers the issue some drivers will have that is referred to as the “red mist”.  This is something to be aware of and avoid at all costs.  It does not improve your performance but often increased the risk associated with driving on the track.  Sometimes just knowing it exists is the key to avoiding it or dealing with it if you experience it.  The red mist is almost like having a temporary lobotomy while on track.  Obviously not the best condition to be driving at any point, but especially on track.  We even try to offer a few ideas on how to be cognizant of yourself to hopefully prevent the red mist issue.  Please let us know if you know of any other methods that work, we would love to learn and to share them with everyone.

Also, as a bonus since we missed one last episode, we have a double shot of Dominating with Dawson.  On the second segment, we go into things that you can do and should do on that straightaways as you progress.  While not only illustrative of how many things there are to do on the straightaway, but we also hope we show that there is a near limitless number of things that need to be reviewed on the track and while on a straight you usually have a bit more time and can collect yourself and collect some information that is vital to keeping your car in order and improve your racing.  As a new or first time racer, you will likely be overwhelmed, but as you progress, you will have more and more time to do some of the things we discuss here.  With proactive, the racetrack will seem to slow down in your mind even though your lap times will likely be significantly faster than your first time on track, even in the same car.  Racing on a track is surprisingly active even when it appears you aren't really doing anything, like driving straight.

You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc. 

Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating or even better, a podcast review, we would greatly appreciate it and it would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving.

For instance, leaving an Apple Podcast rating is very easy.  If you go to your podcast library, under shows and click on the podcast you can leave a (5?) star rating and enter your review. 

A link to the episode is:  https://tinyurl.com/Racing101Part-2

We hope you enjoy this episode!

PS  Please don’t forget that if you are looking to add an Apex Pro to your driving telemetry system, don’t forget to use our discount code for all Apex Pro systems you will receive a free Windshield Suction Cup Mount for the system, a savings of $40.  Just enter the code “ghitlikesapex!” when you order.  We have two systems for our team and Bill is looking to add a third for this season, pending CFO approval from Vicki.  They are a great system and truly invaluable in safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross etc.

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights from this episode include:

1)  Attending an amateur race, particularly if it’s one you may eb interested in trying is a great way to “audit” the process and see what you may need to do and prepare for.  Talking to others in attendance is a great way to learn and make your first racing friends.  Cost estimate :  Free to $10-30 or so

2)  Autocross is often jokingly referred to as the gateway drug for performance riving.  It is quick, relatively cheap, easily prepared for, and not too much preparation or safety requirements to start in most cars (Helmet, good working condition car, and good to go, in many cases there can be rental helmets on site).  Cost estimate :  $20-100 or so for entry

3)  SCCA’s Track Night in America is a weeknight track event at a local track where you are welcome to go race your car on the track and see how it goes.  There can be some instruction there and all drivers and street cars are readily accepted.  A relatively cheap way to try your hand at a local track.  Cost estimate :  $100 or so to enter

4)  HPDE’s and Track Days are closely related and on a spectrum of the amount of instruction being offered.  It can be a single day event or the entire weekend.  HPDE’s offer a higher fraction of your day with an instructor and may involve classroom sessions and potentially on track drills which are usually a ton of fun.  Track days often have instructors available to set up or just ask to drive with you but are usually a bit less formal and structured.  There is a wide range of events that go from one end to the other and finding the one that fits your personality and interests is as easy as signing up and trying one out, or all of them, lol.  Requirements are usually a helmet and a safely running car.  Again, rental helmets can usually be reserved ahead of time for the event.  Cost estimate :  $200-500 or so per day to enter

5)  Rally events are not usually speed based events but are a great way of getting into the driving culture.  There are several types, and each has a varying set up and goal structure.  The cost can be quite low, and they are often used as a charity fundraiser or to support local community interests and needs.  Cost estimate :  $50-500+ or so to enter

6)  There are several types of racing that are set for you to enter a race as your first step, things like Lucky Dog, the 24 Hours of Lemons and ChampCar are geared to accept and help first time racers.  We did this.  It may be a better plan to attend and HPDE event before trying this, but it is a very viable path if you wish to try your hand at racing as a first step.  We did discuss several other types of racing, but they are not typically open to a first time driver and are more of a goal to work towards.  Identifying a potential series of interest is a good way to focus on the car or cars that you look to get for racing.  Cost estimate :  varies pretty widely but $100 or so up to ~$750 or more per day (for the team) to enter plus significant car and safety equipment expenses etc.  More advanced races can be significantly higher cost to enter and prepare for.  There are rental options for an entire car or just for a “seat” to share the race with others.

7)  Also, don’t ignore (go) karting.  It can be indoor or outdoor and electric or gas powered karts.  It is a great way to whet your appetite without having a car or even if you aren't old enough to drive a car on the street.  A lot of the skills and approach crosses over to whatever type of racing you may wish to try.

We’ve got breaking “I Love Lucy” movie news; a “Home Alone” themed AirBnB you can rent; Denmark launches a kid’s program about a man with the world’s biggest penis; will Disney 86 Trump from The Hall of Presidents?; Martha Stewart forgot to pick her pears; television’s most iconic vehicles; CBS ditches “Lucky Dog” host Brandon McMillan for bucks; more “Sex and the City” is coming; Roku buys Quibi’s content; we have a new movie giveaway; and, so much more pop culture news and views. 

We have had a few guests requested and here is one of them, Johan Samanta is a driver that started endurance racing over a decade ago.  In his real life, he is a Neurologist and at the track, he may need one, lol.  Johan travels across US to races from his home in Phoenix.  We last raced with him at the Lucky Dog race Charlotte Roval August 2020 and a great time was had by all.  Johan also shared many of the things he has learned in his racing career and we discuss many of the reasons to race beyond “winning”.  You can save a ton of money by learning from others.  In addition, we have a special F&F Storytime question guest for this episode:  The GD Yo Man!

On our Dominating with Dawson, we go into dealing with the marbles around the track (as well as what the marbles are).  We also provide a tremendous method to learn or teach where the flag stations are at a new to you track.  Special thanks to Robin Burnett for showing us how. 

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and

Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights from this episode include:

1)  How does a Neurologist end up needing one, oops, we mean how did Johan get started in racing and a lot of his racing history to this point and how he has changed his racing over the years.

2)  We go over Johan’s first ever race with Lucky Dog at the Charlotte Roval where we were literally sharing the garage with their team, and tools, and parts, and shave ice, and….  Cathy and the Lucky Dog team get two more thumbs up!

3)  Bill simply cannot rests making a Ricky Bobby quote.  Honestly, we are surprised it took this long.

4)  The places to save money, as well as the places not to, like safety equipment.  We also provide several cautionary tales regarding poor or counterfeit safety equipment.

5)  Johan also goes into several other “bad” ideas that are so bad that they are good ideas for a Lemons race.  Some of them are things like eastern European racing cars, adding turbos, and several others.  How hard could it be?  Actually, these will likely make endurance racing even a bit harder.

6)  Pit strategy, tips, best practices, and goals and other “free” ways to save time on the track.

7)  We then go into a prioritization of ways to improve your driver and, if you must, your car.

8)  This is the episode if you ever wanted to learn how to endurance race a Super Beetle.  Boy, that search string is not going to increase our Google search results for this episode, lol.

9)  Our second guest comes in at around 59 minutes.  Vicki and Jen were less than prepared for THE GD Yo Man!!!!!  That is Mr. Yo Man to you.  After this, you will know the Yo Man much better, probably better than you ever wanted.  Lol.

10)  I think Jennifer is still broken from this interview.

At our recent Lucky Dog race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, we were lucky enough to be in the paddock next to Race Bar.  Yes, they are back.  Jeff/Ron even took a stint in our race truck.  On this episode we go over the entire event from their perspective and how Race Bar helped us throughout the weekend.  As we covered in our earlier race review episode, the entire event was a blast and Race Bar was a large part of the fun.  Jeff Caplan/Ron Mexico, Jandy/Daddy, Patrick McHugh/Richard "Dick" Freelane, and Kaitlyn "Pineapples" Morgan joined us for this episode.  We were greatly outnumbered.

We deal with hydration at track days, races and on the track in our Dominating with Dawson segment for this episode.  We cover various options and what we have found to be effective at the track and in some of the highest temperature and humidity days we have seen both at the track, in the paddock and especially in the car which is usually much hotter than the local environment, especially when dressed in your safety and fire rated gear.

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights from this episode include:

1)  Apparently, we have been abducted by Race Bar.  Who knew.

2)  It took less than four minutes for us to absolutely lose control of the episode.  Did we ever get it back.  Still tbd.

3)  Was Charlotte Intimidating?  Nope.  Was racing on a big oval intimidating?  Nope.  Was racing with Lucky Dog intimidating?  Nope.  Was Race Bar being next to us in the paddock intimidating?  Oh yes, yes it was.

4)  We had a great time hanging with Race Bar but, we really had to tag out around 10 or 11 in order to function.  Not sure how they do it.

5)  Race Bar strongly endorses the Lucky Dog series and it balance of good racing and lots of fun.  This was the best race ever for Race Bar.  Ever.

6)  We talk about the great highs and lows of endurance racing, sometimes at the same event in the same hour.

7)  The pleasures of being serenaded over the radio by Dick Freelane as he drove around the high banks at Charlotte during the race.  Ron Mexico has a book recommendation that you may choose to ignore.

8)  I think we made an impression on Race Bar with our track food skills.  It made their top list.  Twice.  We may be drafted to be on site food services.  we know Jeff will bring his own fork if needed.  Lol.

9)  We talk a bit about how our team tries to deal with issues and our occasional setbacks.  The priority should always be the driver and the team.  We can build more cars.

10)  There appears to be a plan for the race truck/The Bad Hombre/El Jeffe.  Not sure we know what it is or if we have a vote.  I think we lost all voting rights once Ron Mexico got into the race truck and drove it around the Roval.

11)  We cover our race team theory and philosophy at the current point in our learning curve.

12)  Race Bar has a list of he top 47 highlights from the race.  It is quite a list.  Quite the list indeed.

13)  Tips for ways to help and get started at a race if you are ever interested.

14)  Why track security woke Cathy up in her Hello Kitty PJ's around 2 AM one evening.  What happens at Race Bar, stays at Race Bar.

15)  Why you should always say no to a story that starts with "Do you want to see a man in a van by a river..."

16)  Confirmation of who took the "L" off of our "Mr. Pool" E36.  Unfortunately, it does fit the car, even more now.

17)  Stories of driving the Citrus Race Truck without power steering trying to catch another Race Bar vehicle.

18)  Slap cup drinking games and rule interpretation seemed to vary and why Lonnie may have had a slow start one morning.

19)  How Deaf Power Racing came to race with us at Charlotte.  There are certain advantages to not being able to hear "Baby Shark" all weekend.  Potential options for adopting them into a Race Bar west.

20)  Apparently there is a plan.  We are now aware that there is a plan.  We still don't know the plan, but we think we probably should at some point.

21)  We reveal the story of the arrival and unloading of El Jeffe at the garage when we returned.  I'm not mentioning any names since I don't want to have to sleep in the bathtub.  Worth a listen.  And thank you to the listener who suggested we change our name to "Garage Heroes In Traction".  Thank you Blake.

22)  We may have plans for a Summit Point track event.

23)  We attempt to CSI the potential reasons behind our Chevy S10 keeps eating Steering Pumps like Seymour from "The Little Shop of Horrors"

24)  How the Oooga Booga method for fixing the Fuel Pump worked and gave us a few more hours on the track before we needed to replace it the next morning.

25)  How the speaker flew off during the race and how much of a fan some of the corner workers were of their music selections during the race.  Also, we go into the joys of having a 120 dB stereo system in your race car that is remote controlled by people that are several hundred miles away from the track.

26)  A Good, the Bad, and the Ugly to be remembered.

27)  Ah Hah moments we all learned from the Charlotte race.

28)  A good discussion of Jennifer's accident and how it feels after a bit o reflection.  A good thing for all potential racers and racing teams to hear.

29)  Potential next steps for our team to grow.

30)  VIR sweeps the best track ever for Race Bar.  And we get a bit of history of how VIR came to be.

We were lucky enough to get four of the Lucky Dog team to discuss with us the Lucky Dog series and how their first ever east coast race went at the Charlotte Motor Speedway on the Roval.  Jason Miles, Briana Miles, Chris Wilhelm, and Justin Parcher were our guests for this episode.  Please snug up your racing harness, this one is pretty fun but actually has some good content to learn from and may improve your team.

On this episode of Dominating with Dawson we cover braking speed and how to manage your speed and adjust to different types of brake application and brake capability of different cars and especially when at a new to you track.  Vicki and Jen excel at terminology and jargon, as always, lol.  Then we get into the way to approach new tracks and turns, as well as a warning to be careful at our then upcoming race at Charlotte.  Unfortunately, we ended up proving Ben to be prophetic.

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights from this episode include:

1)  Jason works in the pits for IMSA and was obviously less than impressed with the GHiT team's mechanical skills and performance in the garage.

2)  How the Charlotte race went and the impact that the COVID 19 pandemic had on the plans and the race itself.

3)  What its like inside the huge Charlotte oval/roval vs the more normal road courses that Lucky Dog typically runs on the west coast and how it was for a Lucky Dog track.

4)  Differences between what Lucky Dog typically sees on the west coast vs this east coast event.

5)  The tracks impressions of Race Bar and some of their music selections.  They are still puzzled by how the car can run for so long with the music at their typical volume.

6)  How the Flying Moose sounded going through the pits towards the end of the race.  What Randy Pobst and his team were able to do and the speeds they could get out of that car were amazing.

7)  Special shout out to all the tow crews at Lucky Dog.  It even carried over to the event at Charlotte.

8)  Bill makes a joke about finally not having Eric at an event.  It's kind of went over a lot like our cars.  Maybe we should change our name to "Led Garage Heroes In Training".  Maybe not.

9)  How our Lucky Dog race coincidentally crashed into the background of the NASCAR race program broadcast in the background.

10)  How Jason almost reenacted the lightning scene from Caddyshack at CMP.

11)  What works and what doesn't seem to work in a Lucky Dog race.

12)  The Deadpool E36 is still not fully regenerated.  Fingers crossed.

13)  we have a challenge in finding Chris' Nova (and bringing it to a Lucky Dog race) that he had purchased three times, so far.  It had Oregon Plate QRL-231 to aid in your search.  Let's bring it to a Lucky Dog race so he has to tech inspect it, again.

14)  Jason demonstrates why females are often referred to as the smarter half of a relationship.

15)  Jason missed out on a Porsche opportunity, perhaps he might want our 2 and three-quarters 944.  Still available.  Just let us know.

16)  If we want to torment Justin, please locate Oregon license plate 910-AFC and get it ready for a Lucky Dog race.  Last he saw the car, it was likely halfway towards passing safety inspection.

17)  Vicki dropped a Star Trek reference.  Perhaps she is a Trekkie or a Trekker or whatever the politically correct term is now.

18)  Jason's story got Bill very concerned when he thought Jason said that the fastest he ever drove was on a Ferry.

19)  Justin may have the biggest boat for his highest ever speed we have ever heard so far.

20)  Vicki and Jen now want to race a taco truck.  Don't ask.

On this episode, we review the entire race weekend at the Charlotte Roval for our Lucky Dog endurance race.  The first race started Friday night and ended Saturday morning.  The second race was a 10-hour enduro that started at noon Sunday.  It was our first time at Charlotte Motor Speedway, our first time at a big oval track, and our first race of the year.  How hard could it be?  What could go wrong?  We found a few things.  Luckily, we had several friends and new friends at the track to help us work through the problems and we all had a great racing weekend.

On our Dominating with Dawson segment, we start to discuss the progression of driving skill and driving styles as you improve, moving from the introductory stages where you try to limit your inputs to one at a time and how to progress safely to where you begin to use and work towards mastering multiple inputs and more advanced techniques like trail braking etc.  There is a lot to discuss and we are sure to add more to this area in future segments.

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights from this episode include:

1)  The two new car themes/liveries for our E36 "Deadpool" race car and our "'Dat Tang Truck" citrus racing truck.  Several pictures will be on our website.

2)  Mechanical car prep saga for the race.

3)  Vicki and Jen drove the E36 BMW 3 series race car for the first time on track.  we cover their first impressions from Friday's practice and the races.

4)  Our issues with both cars.  In summary, our race truck had issues with the power steering pump and hit a cone that tore off the oil line and also had issue with the mass air flow sensor.  Our E36 had an intermittent problem with the fuel pump and then tried to converse with one of the walls ending its weekend.

5)   Our thoughts on the Charlotte Roval and driving on the high banked turns, the chicanes, and the infield "mushroom" track of the Roval.

6)  Vicki finally experienced her first use of controlled slip angle during her stint as she progressively got faster and more comfortable with the E36 race car Friday night.

7)  The Bad Hombre/El Jeffe race truck experienced a brake fade issue, again, and was down on power until the issue with the mass air flow sensor was addressed (on Sunday)

8)  How the weekend went for our two guest drivers from the west coast from Deaf Power Racing, Jeff Wright and Lonnie Tanenburg.

9)  Jen's accident going into turn 8.  We are waiting for Deadpool to regenerate.  Video on our YouTube channel and on our website on the post for this episode.

10)  How Jen is feeling after her accident and what the prognosis is for the rest of her season.

11)  We had a little fun picking on the vultures next to us picking the bones off the E36 carcass.  Lol.

12)  What we should do about replacing the E36.

13)  How we are going to treat the video like the Zapruder film and figure out what happened and what we can learn from the incident.

14)  We invent a new drinking game for this episode where you drink once for every time Race Bar is referred to as brilliant and/or somehow helps us get back out onto the track.  Try it.  Our podcast only gets better with drinking.

15)  Jeff Caplan from Race Bar took a run for an hour in our race truck and even with power steering issues and being at less than full power, he seemed to really enjoy the race truck.

16)  We came.  We saw.  We were conquered.

17)  Bill is still working on getting all the names straight on the Race Bar team, since each of them seems to have at least three names.  Lol.

18)  Racing at night and on the high banks, we looked just like NASCAR, just at half speed, lol.

19)  Our racing and HPDE plans for the rest of 2020.

20)  Our traditional Good, Bad, and the Ugly for the weekend, as well as what we learned and several changes we may need to make going forward to improve.

21)  Cue the Kenny Loggins....

22)  Jennifer may have the best and shortest responses to her Bad and Ugly ever.

What are our plans going forward to replace the E36?  What do you think we should do?  Please let us know what you think we should do in a comment or ideally in a podcast review or email us at GarageHeroesInTraining@gmail.com

Danny van Dongen is an accomplished racing driver and has started several businesses in Europe and the US, including a racing school, a racing series, as well as successfully starting up Hankook Motorsports that offers tires for racing in the US to nearly all forms of both amateur and professional racing series.  We would like to thank Danny and the team for their RS4's our tire of choice for endurance racing and the official tire of both Lucky Dog and WRL endurance racing series.  We try to summarize some of Danny's racing career initially and then we move into the area of tires, their construction, and their proper use in racing.  This is hoped to be a good introduction to tire technology, hopefully we can have Danny back for a 201 level discussion.

On this Dominating with Dawson episode, we talk about the monster under the bed that many do not acknowledge, fear as a factor in going fast and going faster.  Fear is literally a totally natural thing and affects everyone at some point.  We talk about it, where it may arise, and several ways of dealing with it.  This may be a first of several parts in this area.

You can follow Danny on Instagram at @DannyvanDongen

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights from this episode include:

1)  How his racing experience has helped with both car testing and development as well as tire testing, also complimenting his business development in both areas.

2)  How his race at the 25 Hours at Thunderhill went last year and the pleasure of a mostly night race on a very muddy track.  His skid school training was really pushed to the limit.

3)  How the different Hankook Motorsports tires are designed and manufactured to be longer lasting and more stable, perfect for endurance racing.

4)  A discussion of the benefits and challenges in designing a tire, both slicks/racing tires as well as the 180 tread wear tires we race.

5)  The basics of tire designations and understanding the letters and numbers typically on a tire such as 245/40 ZR17 vs 225/50 VR16 etc.

6)  Tips on tire and rim selection and the importance of the interaction of the rim width and the tire tread width.

7)  Important considerations like rim width to tire width, tire profile, tire loading, tire circumference interaction with the car gearing, etc.

8)  How the mass of a tire affects the heating up of the tire and affects the endurance/stability of the tires.

9)  Whether you need to break in a tire, how to break it in, and why the cars are always swerving back and forth at the beginning of a race.

10)  How best to pre-heat your tires on pace laps.  Also, please avoid the marbles, nothing good can come from them.

11)  Heat cycling, proper tire break in, and storage of tires for racing slicks and possibly RS4's.  Sunlight is not your tire's friend.

12)  Optimum tire temperatures and hot tire pressures for the RS4's and similar tires.

13)  Whether heat cycles are an issue on RS4's, as well as racing tires and slicks.

14)  Bill reminisces about his bad Armor All experience when he was much younger.

15)  The importance of tire temperature and pressure and general windows for the Hankook tires.  Including how to measure and interpret the tire temperatures when testing at the track, as well as suggested car or tire changes to respond to tire temperature variation across a tire or from side to side and/or front to back.

16)  Temperature ranges and pressure ranges for slicks and R comps tires and how it varies by the compound you select.

17)  Autocross users may need to look at using tire warmers to alleviate the problem of thermal transients and never reaching a true steady state temperature or pressure.

18)  Jason from Lucky Dog has been keeping a secret from us related to using RS4's in the rain on a track.  We will have to talk with him at Charlotte, lol.

19)  A good discussion of filling the tires with air vs nitrogen vs carbon dioxide.  The key is keeping the water out so that it wont boil in the tire affecting the stability of the air pressure during a race.

20)  What is involved in keeping tire records and how to actually use the information.  Sounds like Bill will be making another excel spreadsheet immediately.

21)  We tried to get some breaking news on the new RS5's but we did find two new size additions that are coming soon.  All NDA's stayed intact during the episode.

22)  Vicki brings up the time when Bill lost a tire, again.  She just can't help it whenever an opportunity arises.

23)  Vicki is jealous of the Lucky Dog RS4 tires having a Lucky Dog sticker and is trying to figure out how to do it with our logo.  Still tbd but she is all over it.

Blake Field and Ben Dawson have raced many times with each other and now are on our podcast together.  While it started off as if another Race Bar takeover, we actually did provide several useful pieces of information and tips that will help you and your team at and on the track.  That is not to say the episode is without our usual banter and attempts at humor, but there may be a nugget or two in this one.  Also, Ben pulls double duty on this episode and we discuss general guidelines for tire alignment for track use on front wheel, four wheel and rear wheel drive cars, including a discussion on tire pressure and temperature measurement and use to refine your car’s set up. 

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Webpage is at: 

Podcast Episode can be found at: 

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, Jennifer, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT

Immature Endurance Racing Team

Highlights from the episode include:

1)  Alan can’t tell time and Bill blows the intro and Ben has questions for Alan that will go unanswered (for this episode).

2)  Blake reveals his predilection for racing in cars that are embarrassing to be passed by.

3)  Ben admits that he far outkicked his coverage with his beautiful bride.  Bill and Alan both agree with and have followed Ben with this philosophy.

4)  Ben endorses i-Racing and sim racing as a path to improve your driving skills, just not in the way he did it.

5)  Blake illustrates the advantages of pre-race practice, especially at the track on Friday if possible.

6)  John Pagel gets along and enthusiastic shout out for all he has done to help us and everyone with their safety.

7)  Blake surprises us with his team racing another Chevy S-10.  Vicki’s eyes got really, really wide when he mentioned it.  Blake also gave a quick run through on several easy and effective upgrades to it. 

8)  We discuss our plans and how many cars we may bring to the Lucky Dog race on the Charlotte Roval.

9)  We finally have a brief discussion on the Bondurant High Performance Driving School.  Long overdue.

10)  A very good discussion of what you can learn from a large, lemons-type field, with the widely varied driver skill and experience of the field, and how you should approach each passing opportunity.  Each field and each series, and even each race, has a different set of challenges, each of which can help you grow as a driver.

11)  Blake and Ben discuss some of the off-track actions, including before going to the track, that can really help improve your performance on the track.  It sounds much less impactful than it really turns out to be, so please don’t disregard these activities.

12)  We go over some of the ideas and checklists that we use.  The link to our updated checklist if below if you want to review or use or better, incorporate into your own.

13)  Candle Wax dripping?  Check.  Covered it.  Lol.

14)  Mark Blundell’s qualifying effort at Le Mans.  Video link below

15)  We continue to plan our Lucky Dog Series race at the Charlotte Roval.  Two cars are in, three is possible.  TBD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lMItc4cy8U

Phil Wurz, fellow racing driver and the short straw drawing team member at BimmerWorld was kind enough to join us for a discussion on his racing history and add to our Usual Suspects discussion related to racing BMW, especially E36's and E46's, including a good amount about Spec E46.   Phil has been with BimmerWorld since 2007 and conducted this interview from in front of his E30 race car, one of the best backgrounds we have had during our podcast.  BimmerWorld supplies a very wide variety of parts and also prepares cars for racing in two national GT4 series.  During this episode we learn a bit about Phil and his driving history as well as his thoughts on racing BMW's across may types of racing and what can be done to improve performance, handling, and reliability.

To follow along with Phil and the team at BimmerWorld, please like their Facebook page or email them from the website where everyone's company email is available.

On Dominating with Dawson, Ben discusses all of the wide variety of types of racing apexes, and how best to think about approaching a turn and what considerations can affect the desired approach for each turn.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, Jennifer, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT

Immature Endurance Racing Team

Highlights from the episode include:

1)  His philosophy on replacing and upgrading as you grow and learn with your car

2)  Vicki shockingly brings up the E36 rear wheel bearing removal and then won't let anyone ask any questions for a bit.  Well, really, much more than a bit.

3)  Alan "compliments" Bill on his skills with using the press on the rear bearing and finally admits his running away from the operation once the slide hammer came into the picture.

4)  Bill impersonates the sound of the control arm breaking in the press.

5)  Alan calls Bill an Axle, by mistake/mispronunciation.

6)  Alan admits to adding a bit more wear and tear, since he is the mechanic.

7)  Alan gets very excited over Phil's tow vehicle and that leads into the area of an upcoming flat nose school bus "ramp truck", potentially with a rear airbag suspension.

8)  Our first podcast that is interrupted with the sounds of freedom.  Mental likely scheduled it to mess with us.

9)  We then walk through where the current sweet spot is for BMW's in terms of value, performance, and parts availability.  We even compare the E36 vs the E46 which seem to be swarming the endurance racing fields.  Yes, we are guilty.

10)  Stunningly, and fir the first time, Alan hears that it's not necessary to drive at 10 tenths all the time.  We shall see if it helps.

11)  Vicki learns what a money shift is without costing us an engine.  And Alan breaks out the FNG acronym in honor of the Three Pedal Mafia trip to Laguna Seca.

12)  A good review of the growing Spec E46 series and other uses for these cars, as well as some of the advantages of spec classes, especially for people relatively new to racing and setting up of a race car.

13)  Vicki requests a spare Spec E46 car for the team.  Bill is currently searching on Autotempest.

14)  Bill was bored and added some new questions to the Fast and The Furious questions

15)  We are still looking for a good LSD solution for our M240i and Bill Begs for a spare E36 rear control arm, for a friend of course.

16)  In the after credits B roll, Phil mentions a tool to remove the rear wheel bearing from an E36.  Where was that when we needed it.  Well, actually, we still need it.  And Bill begs for some spare E36 rear control arms.  For a friend.

We hope to see Phil at the Charlotte Roval with Lucky Dog on the weekend of August 14-16.

Cathy McCause Fuss of the Lucky Dog racing series returns for the 8th or 9th time.  Unfortunately, only one episode has ever been published due to connection errors and other computer issues.  Why she puts up with us, we don't know, perhaps it's because she is one of the best people we have met since we started racing.   During this episode, we go over a lot of the Cathy's history and her perspective of racing from the Series perspective.  We also get into her thoughts of how racing and endurance racing are progressing and helping to grow our sport.

On this episode's Dominating with Dawson, Ben goes over what is an "Arrive and Drive" and the details of racing in that situation.  We go over a lot of the options, concerns, and advantages of being an arrive and drive driver, as well as being the team renting to the arrive and driver.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, Jennifer, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast and team members in the GHiT Immature Endurance Racing Team

Highlights from the episode include:

1)  Bill felt like he was going down the hill into turn 12 at Road Atlanta when Cathy's connection went robot a few seconds in.

2)  What the impact of the COVID 19 has been so far and speculative hopes and expectations for the rest of the season.

3)  the Lucky Dog i-Racing league and it sponsored, you can even win race entries, and other racing supplies from the Lucky Dog sponsors

4)  We develop the exchange rate between Clairol hair color and Hankook RS4's.

5)  We go into the process of working with the tracks, rescheduling, and the potential impact of the current COVID 19 related impact and issues on the tracks and the series, and the drivers, as well as some of the amazing steps Cathy and Lucky Dog have done to help the overall racing population, including paying 2021 track rental fees.

6)  Bill shamelessly plugs the upcoming Lucky Dog race at Charlotte in mid-August.

7)  Cathy threatens us with bringing the 196 car out to the race for us.  We much rather like her alternative bonfire idea.

8)  How several members of the Lucky Dog racing community, and the overall low cost endurance racing community, have helped in dealing with the COVID 19 pandemic.

9)  We brainstorm a bit, well really a mild drizzle, on what options we can come up with to help save the 2020 racing season

10)  Bill apologizes for his black flag digression earlier this year at the Lucky Dog race at Laguna Seca in January

11)  Cathy even was kind enough to go through our "Usual Suspects" but this time from a race series perspective and how her series has progressed through Miatas, into BMWs, and recently into Hondas and several Fords.

12)  Self ejecting starters as a way to save weight

13)  Speed creep and its concern as we progress to including more modern cars where horsepower increases seem easier and easier, especially with all the recent time people may have had with the stay at home orders.

14)  Cathy's strategy for classing cars in Lucky Dog and addressing the variability in car and even individual driver capability.

15)  As expected, we eventually reviewed or last race at Laguna Seca and our other Lucky Dog race in Portland.

16)  Brakes and brake pads were a big discussion point.  One way to get to a faster lap is to be able to slow down even faster.  Hopefully, we have an upcoming guest from Hawk on the show.

17)  Hilarity ensued when we started talking about the spares being brought to the track.

18)  Rally Dogs?  And yes, we had an East coast rally dog volunteer.

19)  Also, a rookie time attack challenge option came into being.

20)  How Lucky Dog is working to partner with the local Club racing, especially for the HPDE and learning aspects, hopefully raising the tide for all.

21)  How our team has been invaded by two of the drivers we know from Lucky Dog

22)  Opportunities for arrive and drives at the Charlotte race abound with teams and drivers looking to come east for the race.

23)  How the Lucky Dog racing series came to be.

24)  Cathy fears answering what car she would love to start with as a race car.

25)  How Lucky Dog's i-Racing league is helping racers scratch their itch.

26)  She is still looking for the known unknown E46 Greg has hidden.  Somewhere.

27)  There seems to be a potential for an east coast west coast race car exchange program.  Greg, Call us!

We are very happy to welcome the Hydrocephalus Racing Team to our podcast this week.  They are a great team of friends and family that we first initially met at their first ever Lemons race in Thompson CT.  Unfortunately, Vicki and Bill apparently recorded in the Tube of Mockery we borrowed from Mental, so it sounds like we are huddled up in a cave somewhere. 

 If you are interested in supporting research in the area of Hydrocephalus, please go to their website to learn more about it and what we can do to support their efforts at:  http://hydrocephalusracingteam.com/ for all kinds of information and links. 

• When and how to use the term “Scrutineer”
• How (and Why) to race a prepped minivan in Lemons
• The art of “subtle” racing in a minivan
• How not to prep for your first time racing
• We begin to hatch a plan to get their team CFO onto the track
• Vicki can’t keep a secret to save her life (about the GHiT posters)
• How to learn about cars when growing up and working in a local junkyard
• Our Race Truck Progress – Its ready for Pitt Race
• Math and racing sometimes don’t apply to radiator leaks
• Two or three potential lemons car stashes in the upper Midwest and Alaska, one with hang time experience
• Effectiveness of our roll cages and safety equipment in an accident
• Fog is not your friend on the track, especially on your windshield
• Gentlemen driver documentary on Netflix right now
• and eventually listen to them ponder why they can't hear through their microphone, hint, it’s not a speaker, lol.  

We hope you enjoy the episode and please subscribe to our podcast using your podcast network provider of choice, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Music, etc.