pittrace

GHiT 0503:  Glenn Robinson

We first met Glenn Robinson at Mid-Ohio and then he and Bill worked their way up to comp school and instructor school.  In spite of this, he agreed to come on to our podcast, lol.  Glenn currently races primarily with NASA Great lakes and is one of the two co-leaders of the TREC endurance racing series there as well.  In his spare time, he is the Director of Operations at PittRace International.  We were lucky enough to talk to Glenn right after a very successful event where they held the NASA National Championship.

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

If you would like to help grow our podcast and high-performance driving and racing:

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

Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating, that we would appreciate 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.

We hope you enjoy this episode!

PS  Are you looking to stream or integrate your telemetry/racing data with video?  Candelaria Racing Products Sentinel System may be the perfect solution for you.  We are 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 our listeners during the checkout process at https://candelaria-racing.com/

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 from https://apextrackcoach.com/

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Audra, Ben, Alan, Jeremy, and Bill

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

GHIT 0411:  Adam Owens Rejoins Us For Another Lap

Adam Owens is a friend we met a while back and he came on as a relatively newbie racer in our World Famous Racing 101 series two years ago.  We catch up with how his racing has been going since then and especially how 2022 has progressed into at least Racing 201 or probably more.  Adam has been consistently renting seats in endurance racing with the Boston Whiners and has been getting faster at every race.  While most of his racing seat time is in wheel-to-wheel racing, he has also been to several high performance driving events to further refine his driving skill.  During this episode, we talk about what he has found to work for him and several of the skills he sees as having helped him on track and several that could be further improved.  We also compare some of the differences between the different racing organizations and tracks that we have attended.

Some great discussion and great tips to improve everyone's on track performance.

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/AdamOwens2022

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.

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 amid 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 our listeners during the checkout process at https://candelaria-racing.com/

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 from https://apextrackcoach.com/

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Ben, Alan, Jeremy, and Bill

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

GHIT 0339:  Late to Grid Podcast Host Bill Snow

Our paths have crossed seemingly many times, but we have never met until now.  The Late to Grid podcast is aimed at covering amateur racing and helping grow our sport.  Since our podcast goals are almost identically aligned, we thought it would be great to have Bill on and share some stories and maybe we could learn from him some of his vast mechanical skills.  We talk about all things racing, his home tracks of Mid O, PittRace, and Nelson Ledges.  We also go into his podcast, how and why it started, and what he envisions for the future.  Then we try to find out what led to his current RX7 racing and if it is potentially curable. 

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

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.

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 amid 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 during the checkout process at https://candelaria-racing.com/

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, a savings of $40.  Just enter the code “ghitlikesapex!” when you order from https://apextrackcoach.com/

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Ben, 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)  We start out trying to find out how we have not met in person yet since we seem to go to the same tracks repeatedly.  We then make plans to meet at a then upcoming event with NASA Great Lakes at Mid-Ohio, but car issue son our end prevented that from occurring.

2)  We talk about Bill’s home track Nelson Ledges, PittRace, and Mid-Ohio for a bit and the first SCCA Enduro event that they held and we discussed in an earlier podcast with Jon Krolewicz from the SCCA (podcast # 331).

3)  We also take advantage of his Mini experience and look for likely areas to work on with the ladies from Shifting Points podcast this summer.

 

To follow Bill, you can go to:

@latetogrid on Instagram

Or at the website  https://latetogrid.buzzsprout.com/

 

GHIT 0325:  Race Review – Alex on Our Back to Back Race Weekends at PittRace with AER and Lemons

Alex Levinson drove both weekends for the team from the Skunk Oil Racing/Garage Heroes In Training team and missed our earlier reviews, so he gets to go over both weekends’ trials and tribulations.  At the AER event, the team performed well on Saturday and finished P2 in our class and P4 on Sunday.  The next weekend at PittRace was a 24 Hours of Lemons race and Alex drove with Dave and Jeremy for the weekend.  It all started out well enough, but there were a couple of issues during the Lemons weekend, some minor and some major.  Everyone came out safe and sound though. 

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/2022PittRaceAERandLemons

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.

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 our listeners during the checkout process at https://candelaria-racing.com/

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 from https://apextrackcoach.com/

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)  On this episode, Alex compares Bill to Odysseus.  No seriously.  We are still wondering why.

2) 

3) 

4) 

5)  Axle Gate on the BMW and Seat Gate jokes abound

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10) 

GHIT 0324:  Race Review – AER at PittRace Team Review

The team from the Skunk Oil Racing team finally convenes to review our recent AER race at PittRace.  It was many of our teams first ever AER event.  The team performed well on Saturday and finished P2 in our class.  Sunday, we performed similarly but our fellow racers had a bit more good fortune, and we ended the day in P4, almost a two-podium weekend.  This was recorded right after we all returned from the race and the post-race hangover was clear.  Even our internet connection was taken down by a power outage so there is a discussion discontinuity about 20 minutes into the episode.  It was a great weekend with all the teams at the event and we want to thank AER and everyone at PittRace for another great event.  This is a relatively new team and the E36 BMW 3 series that we are still shaking down after our less than stellar start with Lucky Dog about 4-5 weeks ago.

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/2022PittRaceAERpart3

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.

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 our listeners during the checkout process at https://candelaria-racing.com/

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 from https://apextrackcoach.com/

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)  The prepping of the car for the race after our last one with Lucky Dog at CMP.  What we did well, what we forgot to bring, and a whole lot more.

2)  The team’s impression of AER and how our car fit into the field overall and our class.  We would love to have a few of the teams that normally run in the AER series on the podcast and discuss their experience within the series.

3)  How our pit lane “strategies” diverged from several of the neighboring teams on pit road.  Think Formula 1/Indy car/IMSA levels vs our loving version of the Benny Hill show.

4)  What we are doing to try to do to run the same car the next weekend again at PittRace.

5)  Axle Gate (both the BMW and the enclosed trailer) and Seat Gate jokes abound

6)  Much like the following weekend, it snowed again on Sunday.  We are beginning to think that we did something to the PittRace area.

7)  Vicki has a bad series of defenses of the met half way plan.  The pre-race hangover is apparently a new thing.

8)  While it sounds like we were a total circus all weekend, we actually did fairly well.  Further evidence that “You too can go racing”

9)  Don’t miss Ryan singing.  It is worth the wait.

10)  Don’t worry about the police sirens at about 1hour 15 minutes in, they weren’t for us.  No seriously, not us this time.

GHIT 0322:  Race Review of our 2022 Lemons PittRace Event

Tim, Vicki, and Bill are excited to review our latest race at PittRace with the 24 Hours of Lemons series.  It was a great weekend and we were joined by Ben after a bit of intro discussion.  This was Tim’s first Lemons experience but he is an accomplished driver, racer and instructor of instructors.  We talked about Tim’s thoughts and critiques of the Lemons series and the field of cars and drivers at PittRace.  This was our initial shakedown trial for our new to us 1993 Honda Civic race car.

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/2022PittRaceLemons

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.

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.

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)  Tim’s response to the three primary (false) criticisms of racing in the 24 Hours of Lemons series:  safety culture, driver skill, and the quality of cars.  The cars are usually criticized for both being junk and for being too racey, a difficult thing to do at the same time, lol.

2)  The weather was a series of just about everything except hot.  Tim was also exposed to 110 cars on track Saturday during a snowstorm, sleet, rain, muddy track, etc.  A true trial by fire in all the best ways.

3)  Vicki was out for a quick Friday practice to acclimate to the front wheel drive car and shake off some winter cobwebs.  Mother nature thought she was doing so well that she decided to bequeath unto Vicki almost an inch of sloppy snow/hail during her lap.  Vicki returned the favor and trimmed some of the grass for her as well.

4)  Tim was also able to cross off almost every type of weather during his Saturday stint.  However, we still give him a little good natured ribbing about his two black flags.

5)  The rest of the weekend was something you needed to be there to truly understand.

 

PS  Tim is desperately looking for a recipe from the pot luck

GHiT 0319: Race Recap: Our First AER Race at PittRace - Part 1

AKA Bill's Worst Race Weekend Driving - Ever

In the first part of at least three parts of a series, Bill goes over his first ever race with AER (American Endurance Racing) at PittRace last weekend.  AER is a series that targets more serious racing and the cars on track were quite impressive.  However, the team did well and we actually came in second in class on Saturday. 

Bill on the other hand had his first ever bad track day and probably drove more in his head than on track.  We thought it would be useful to do a quick race recap covering what happened on track and in his head, as well as what we are going to do and change going forward.

This episode deals only with Bill's perspective and his internal issues.  While he is still processing the weekend, 

Also, Ben calls in for an emergency DwD episode to talk Bill off the cliff.

On an upcoming Part 2, we have another episode coming that will cover the race from the perspective of a friend who was working with AER this weekend.

On an upcoming Part 3, we will have the entire team from the weekend if schedules allow.

We also look forward to a future AER specific episode as well.

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

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 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:

 

Our season highlight is the NASA Great Lakes HPDE event at PittRace and this year was no exception.  Our team attendees consisted of Jennifer, Vicki, and Liam in the HPDE 2 sessions, and Bill was in the HPDE 4 group, as well as auditing several of the HPDE 1 and 2 classrooms and track sessions.  As always, we were joined by our Three Pedal Mafia/Everyone racers podcast friend Chris, Chrissy, Jeff, and Jim.  In total, we had 8 drivers in our paddock area in the HPDE classes and 6 cars for this event.  In addition, our next gen trainees were all over the go karting track there and even raced a friend from the Penn State Formula SAE team from our Lemons races in NJMP and PittRace this year, Eric Junker.  As a super special addition to the event, Ross Bentley was also an attendee and was helping out in all areas and levels of the event.  We are very sure he is tired from this weekend, but it was great to finally meet him in person.

PS  Sorry for Bill’s audio, apparently his microphone did not work during this 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/PittRaceHPDE2021

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

This is our Post Race hangover Episode Notes.  We will replace later with a normal review when coherent, likely later this week.  

In this episode, we go over how our first race weekend went for 2021.  We had a great time racing and meeting all our friends.  

Oh yeah, we WON our first race ever in the S10 El Jeffe Trophy Truck in Class C!!!!

Further proof that anyone really can do this.  Why not start today?  We'd love to see you on track with us.

Jen, Vicki, and Bill review how the NASA Great Lakes HPDE event at PittRace went last weekend.  It is our team's most anticipated HPDE event of the year and we were not disappointed.  Jennifer had our friend Chris as her instructor for the entire weekend and it showed as she progressed dramatically through the event in her ND Miata.  Vicki was also in HPDE 1 with another friend Jim as her student partner and also learned a ton, especially related to weight transfer in her NB Miata.  Bill was in the HPDE

2 group with both Chrissy and Jeff in the E36 race car and the stock Toyota

86 for this weekend.  With COVID 19 controls in place, there was no right seat driving instruction option, but NASA Great Lakes is continually learning, adapting, and responding with improvements that allow for a great amount of instruction for every student.

 

The Dominating with Dawson segment for this episode was initially in the area of coasting but we quickly wandered off into proper use and application of the throttle and aspects of controlled or over controlled track driving as opposed to pushing the limit and getting out of a comfort zone.

 

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)  Our group of 7 brought 7 cars with us and Chris did his best Randy Pobst impersonation by driving almost every one of them during the weekend.

2)  Our teams struggle with car preparation and timing continued and we agree they must be addressed going forward.

3)  Jen, Vicki, and Bill all had goals going into the event, largely as we discussed after our last HPDE at GingerMan several weeks ago.

4)  Track learning/prep is very important to allow us to focus on our driving and not be distracted by "learning" the track at the same time for a new to us track

5)  We discuss the Saturday event and the Sunday event and how we did not prepare our meals as well as normally because we were way behind.  Sorry to our camp sharing friends.

6)  Vicki converts Jen's RV sink into a disposal, for a short time.

7)  We compare and contrast HPDE 1 and HPDE 2 from this event.

8)  We individually cover the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from the event

9)  Vicki "surveyed" the track extensively after turn 10 during her spin on Saturday.  Vicki did get to wave to Jennifer as she drove by a bit later.

10)  Chrissy, Vicki, and Chris encountered a handling issue on the NB Miata that was easily fixed by adjusting the adjustable shocks in the rear.  Who knew?  PS We are sorry for not listening to you earlier Chrissy.

11)  Jen solved her downshifting issue going into a turn that has plagued her to this point.  This was solved by slowing down by letting out the clutch, especially on track.  The best part is that Jennifer can also practice this on the street during her daily driving.

12)  Jennifer failed miserably by not getting her training partner over to our podcast.  Lol.

13)  We learned a lot from this event both about our prep and our driving.

14)  Bill admits we have too many cars and need to downsize significantly.

15)  Vicki summarizes our teams learning and progress to this point.

16)  Vicki's "ah ha" moment included understanding weight transfer and improving her down shifting/sequencing going into turns.  Hopefully, this will help when she races a front wheel drive car again.

17)  Jennifer's "ah ha" moment included shifting and especially downshifting and actually her hearing tires "sing" through the turns for the first time ever on track.

18)  Bill's "ah ha" moments included 1) Bringing Lemons "skills" and HPDE "skills" together into a complimentary driving style utilizing both, 2) Comparison and E36 race car and the Toyota 86 street car, and 3) How significant the difference between sticker tires and scuffed tires.  We won't be sending any of our newer drivers out on track with sticker tires ever.

19)  Vicki did not get out onto the track in the E36 BMW race car due to an accident in the prior session closing the track on Sunday prematurely.

20)  Some of the advantages of lead follow and some of the difficulties we saw.  NASA Great Lakes addressed these by actually switching the lead follow to what is essentially a switch of the cars into a "follow - Lead" where the student is in front of the instructor at several points.

21)  Goals for our next HPDE event for each of us.