Garage Heroes (In Training) - Learning as we go. Come along with us and Enjoy the Ride!

Perspective from a New Track Driver with Guest Adam Owens

GHIT Podcast episode #0187: From our Racing 101 series Part 7 with Adam Owens

Adam Owens with his first racing team — **Adam Owens at his First Race at PittRace with the Boston Whiners**

Adam Owens Racing Driver — **Adam Owens at his First Race at PittRace with the Boston Whiners**

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

Adam Owens at Spec Miata School — **Adam Owens at the Spec Miata School**

GHIT 0187: Racing 101 Part 7: Perspective from a New Track Driver with Guest Adam Owens

Paddock and Pit Area – Prep and Tips

GHIT Podcast Episode #0186 on our Paddock Prep

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”. For this episode, A lot of our fellow teams recognize that our paddock game is often better than our on track game so we could not escape our Racing 101 series without covering our paddock prep and processes at a race weekend.

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 of Dominating with Dawson, we discuss the idea of racing in the rain or on a wet track. We strongly feel that this is a great opportunity to learn since you will have less grip and go at lower speeds. It also reduces the amount of wear to your brake pads and tires. Try to view this as a great thing for everything related to learning except for taking pictures of you driving on the track. The central trick is to mentally approach it from a positive perspective.

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/Racing101Part4

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) Bill ends up sleeping in the bathtub right from the start

2) We start off with several of the more popular options for where to stay at or near the track, hotels, RV’s, rental RVs’, local campgrounds, etc. We go over some of our experiences and preferences, as well as several of th factors to think about for each potential option.

3) There are also options for where to set up you paddock area at the track. Many tracks have enclosed garages that are available for rent. Almost all have electrical hookups as well.

4) Paddock prep and organization strategies we have found to work for our team, as well as when we have had shared paddocks with several other teams and friends. As with the pit area and track area, we find it helpful to have a Paddock King/Queen to lead everyone, as well as several other jobs within the team.

5) If you have ever wondered about what supplies you should or could bring, we have what we have found to work best. Your mileage may vary and you can add or remove as fits your team. We tend to have a large number of team members at our races, so we may have a lot of things that your team may not need every time, but we wanted to be inclusive.

6) Vicki and Jennifer sprinkle in several paddock prep tips and tricks that we have learned, developed, and stolen from other teams and paddocks.

7) Water, drinks, food, plates, cuttletry, masseuses, seating, tents, etc are all discussed. Add in seerla great tips of things to bring with you and things that are easier to pick up at or near the track.

8) Since at most tracks if you are staying on site you are essentially dry camping, there are a ton of tips and tricks that have been used by campers for years.

9) If there was one key word for this it would be to pre-prep whenever possible.

10) Breakfast tips, Lunch tips, and Dinner tips, including crock pots and crock pot liners, as well as snacks and things you can easily grab on the go.

11) We have also found that having a few white boards to be invaluable for communicating within our team. Each one will cover an individual area. The three we use routinely are our on track related schedule (planned and updated), any tools/parts/supplies needed, and Car Issues/Upgrades that need to be addressed at or after the race. The big thing is to communicate as well as you can as a team, under stress, and often scattered across the race track, paddock area, and local towns/parts stores, lol.

12) Totes and kitting your tools, parts, and supplies are critical to being able to quickly perform many of the more common jobs without having to scramble and look for various items and supplies, wasting time. An added step that should not be skipped is labelling the totes and kits with labels from a label maker or on a post it that have been taped over to make them waterproof.

13) Tools and parts are a critical aspect that we cover quickly in this episode. We have an entire episode dedicated to this area or paddock prep in an upcoming Racing 101 episode.

14) We are still looking for a good solution for keeping our hands warm while racing in the rain, especially when its cold and rainy.

Additional Information and Links:

Our recommended and prioritized checklists are available on our website at: https://garageheroesintraining.com/racing-checklists/

Several of our favorite recipes can be found on our website: www.GarageHeroesInTraining.com

Homemade Meatballs and sauce (for sandwiches etc):

Chicken Fajita

Steak Fajita

Hawaiian/Kalua Pulled Pork

Pancakes

Smores

Track Map

Tool Lists:

Little Tikes Chairs:

GHIT 0186: Paddock and Pit Area – Prep and Tips

GHIT 0185 Racing 101 Part 5: What to Expect At Your First Track Day

or What To Expect When You Are Expecting To Drive On Track For the First Time

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 go over a typical track visit from arriving at the gate to departing at the conclusion of the event. It’s like you get to experience everything about racing on a track without the thrill of driving, and without the post-race hangover from your adrenaline crash. The goal of this episode is to help you to be prepared for what usually happens when you visit a track for the first time and hopefully reduce some of the anxiety of going into the “unknown”.

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)

On this episode of Dominating with Dawson, we go into the seeming obsession in the paddock with late braking for turns. If it is your first time on track, please don’t try to push your brake points to the very last minute. Leave some room and focus more on your corner apex and exit. It is much faster and much safer, especially early on in your career of driving a track.

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/Racing101Part5

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) Our goal is to reduce some of the flood of information that occurs when you first go to the track for your first event.

2) Bill provides a tip to answering the dreaded question of “Do I look fat in this dress” and also goes into potentially what may be the worst response to the question.

3) Our team is founded on checklists and we provide several examples of what we use on our website at: www.GarageHeroesInTraining.com. Hot tip though, having a checklist that you don’t bring with you or use won’t help you at all.

4) One of the tried and true sayings from our Lemons races “Numbers are hard”. Here are several tips that try to make them a bit easier.

5) Tips on garage and paddock layouts at the track.

6) We try to walk you through the point where you arrive at the track and all the way through the event. Many tracks and series have slightly different details and procedures, but we try to give an overview of many of the most common procedures.

7) We go through the tech inspection process of both the driver’s safety equipment and the car’s mechanical and safety tech inspection.

8) Tracks also will have varying ways that they hold their practice schedule and we try to give a couple of examples that are most common. It is important to make sure you know what the schedule is and make sure you can get the value for the expense. If it does work for you, especially if you are a new driver or new to the track, we recommend signing up and getting some laps on the track, often with only a few other cars on the track.

9) If you aren’t familiar with them, track walks are a great way to learn the track, especially if you can tag along with a group who is familiar with the track. If you see us taking a track walk, please feel free to join us.

10) Our endurance races usually start Saturday morning until Saturday evening, pause, and then resume Sunday morning and finish Sunday evening. As such, Saturday mornings and Sunday mornings are very similar. Also, Friday evening and Saturday evening are usually similar, but often if things are going well, Saturday has a lot more social “opportunities” (read as parties) in the paddock.

11) Organizing the paddock and pilot area are key to getting the car prepped quickly and efficiently. Tips abound.

12) Most races end Sunday evening and the track closes in a few hours after that, so there are a few tips on prepping the paddock and pit area for departure to make this possible.

13) Try to get everything done as early as possible since there are often unforeseen issues and problems that arise unexpectedly. We give a few hypothetical examples we have “heard” about.

14) How did Bill get the nickname “toddler”

15) Some factors that may need to be considered when thinking about and setting up your driver line up, especially for the first stint.

16) There are also a few of the racing etiquette details sprinkled throughout the episode.

17) Bill gets several homework assignments for providing some lists on our website. It may take a bit, but they are coming and will be updated shortly. (ish)

GHIT 0185 Racing 101 Part 5: What to Expect At Your First Track Day

GHIT 0184: A Race Bar Farewell to Jandy

After a very long delay in editing, here is the episode we recorded several weeks ago (pre-Christmas) as a farewell wish to Jandy before he went on a long-term deployment. We did not expect to take as long editing, but we easily had triple the number of guests we have ever had and that made things a bit complicated. This is a fun episode with a good bit of Storytime from past racing events. Good luck to Jim on your deployment. We hope to see you back soon. And thank you so much for your service!

In this episode of Dominating with Dawson, we give and introduction to the basic braking techniques and when you should use them on a track. The typical braking technique that you use nearly every time on a public road is never the proper technique when you are driving on a track and concerned about your lap time. But here we describe the main types of braking that you will work to use on track as your experience grows. We even go into a few techniques that you may not want to use initially, but we think you should be aware of, even on day 1. The main technique that you will want to use at first is threshold braking. Then there will also be a few turns where you only want to brush brake or even just lift off the gas pedal or throttle. In addition, we introduce the concept of trail braking. We do not recommend working on trail braking on day one for most drivers, but at the same time, we also don’t feel it is beneficial to be closed minded on only braking in a straight line. Especially if you have a more well developed braking proactive where you apply trail braking naturally. The key aspects to remember is to apply pressure quickly but not just stomp on the pedal to avoid upsetting the car or locking up the tires. Just as important is the concept of gradually releasing the brake pedal to help keep the car stable throughout the turn. Stomping on or popping off the brake pedal, as well as any of the pedals, is to be avoided.

As always, if you have any questions that you would like us to cover with Ben, please let us know in a (5 star?) podcast review or via email at [email protected] or in a comment on our social media.

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/FarewellToJandy

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) It took almost 15 minutes just to herd the cats, so we put that as a “bonus” after the credits rolled

2) Guest roll: Jeff Caplan/Ron Mexico, Ann Moran/Giggles, Ruth Bates/Master Bates, Patrick Mchugh/Richard “Dick” Freelane, two secret commando guests who will go by Pat and Chris, Matty/Opah, Taylor Purcell/The Droner Boner, Estaban/El Banos, Lara Vernon, and our guest of honor Jim Andy Jandy Webb.

3) Story time upon story time ensues. Most are examples of what not to do, so we aren’t sure this episode will make you faster but it should make you laugh a few times. Always remmerbe: The Jandy Man can! and usually does.

GHIT 0184: Wishing a Fond Farewell to Jandy – With Race Bar

GHIT 0183: Racing 101 Part 4: Buying and Selling a Race Car or a Soon to be Race Car

Are there any other types?

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 4 of the series (of ~10). On this episode, we try to summarize the process involved with finding and buying a “new to you” car, or for those with a problem (Like Bill) how to best prepare to sell your car. Lara Vernon is on as our guest for a second time and is involved with buying and selling cars in her real life where she owns a boutique exotic car dealership called “Rare Exotic Vehicles” in Asheville NC that deals with very cool vintage cars and hot rods from the 1930’s on. The discussion deals with all types of cars, from a daily driver to a race car to a future race car to a parts car for the race car. Lara’s advice will save you time and money and get you further towards your goal. You may even find that flipping cars or parting out cars can help support your racing. This is one of the rare cases where the magician gives away a few of the secrets.

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)

On this episode of Dominating with Dawson we go into how high performance driving education (HPDE) helps everyone on public roads, whether you have driven for decades or even if you are a new or soon to be new driver. It helps in all areas including the use of controls within the car as well as increasing the ability for the driver to anticipate and read the road and other drivers. We know of nothing that can be more effective in improving your driving as well as reducing the likelihood of an incident on public roads and everyday driving situations. Our three hosts all agree but each has a different number one improvement area that they feel has been improved through our driving education events and driving on track. We then wander into the relative safety of being on a track vs off track/on public roads. For those keeping score at home, the track is way safer than driving on public streets, even if you don’t count the safety equipment improvements involved with a prepared race car.

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!

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) We start off with a review of Lara’s recent win with her team on the 24 Hours of Daytona on iRacing where she will be getting her iRolex.

2) Critical aspects of the car searching process, what to avoid, what to look for, and how to look for things that will indicate a well taken care of car.

3) How the discussion of the car can lead to even better deals, both on the phone and eventually in person when possible.

4) Several of her favorite sites to look for cars online. Bill shares the Auto Tempest addiction and has a large set of open searches that he is always looking at, much to the irritation of Vicki.

5) Two words to try to avoid in most cases are accident and rust without a lot of further detail and investigation, rust being at the top of the list.

6) Lara also goes into the current market pricing and demand that she is seeing and how things are changing, even during our current COVID situation. It seems to be a seller’s market currently.

7) We also cover the transaction from the perspective of the seller. Yes Bill, you can sell cars as well. Try it. You might make Vicki happier.

8) Tips on how to inspect a car, what to look for, and where to get background on the particular model. Body, engine, fluids (level and color/smell), paint, with plenty of tips and tricks. Note to self: Do not let Lara near our race cars, they may not inspect well, lol.

9) Somehow, we ended up talking about our award winning race at the 24 Hours of Lemons race in Thompson Connecticut during our second ever race. Granted it was the “I Got Screwed Award”, but hey, it is an award, lol.

10) We also go into a bit about her iRacing results and what is involved in some of her endurance races. Now if we could just get Jen and Vicki to not get motion sickness.

PS If you are preparing to sell a car, another former podcast guest, Jim Tramontano from “No Money Motorsports”, has a great article on things to do or avoid when listing your car to maximize your selling price and minimize the time on the market. https://tinyurl.com/SellingRaceCars

(Jim, you are way overdue for another episode)

Lara’s Contact information is:

Her business is are: www.RareExoticVehicles.com

@Lara.is.racing on Instagram

10) We also go into a bit about her iRacing results and what is involved in some of her endurance races. Now if we could just get Jen and Vicki to not get motion sickness.

(Jim, you are way overdue for another episode)

Lara’s Contact information is:

Her business is are: www.RareExoticVehicles.com

@Lara.is.racing on Instagram

GHIT 0183: Racing 101 Part 4: Buying and Selling a Race Car or a Soon to be Race Car