Garage Heroes (In Training)

Learning as we go. Come along with us and Enjoy the Ride!

GHIT 0085: Amanda and Adrian from the Faster Farms Racing Team

Faster Farms Racing Team

On this week’s podcast, we had the pleasure of interviewing Amanda Baak of the Faster Farms team who we met at last week’s Lucky Dog race at Laguna Seca.  Vicki and Amanda had some very exciting racing for a dozen laps or so until things ended poorly on our end.  Their team races a Plymouth Belvedere, as everyone should.  After repeatedly racing with them Saturday and Sunday, we had to have them on to find out more about the team, Amanda, and Adrian who made an impromptu appearance.  We enjoyed our conversation and hope you will too.  We can’t wait to see them again, hopefully at the track. 

Chicken Car
Are You Scared!

Some highlights include: 

1)  How and why a Plymouth Belvedere came to be a race car for the past twelve years
2)  Faster Farms team history and its ties to a real chicken ranch/pick and pull
3)  We compare the different racing areas, like California, Colorado and the east coast race crowds
4)  How they installed their crystal auto-break system to make other cars break before passing them

Crystal Shifter
Crystal Shifter (With Auto-Brake Function) at least on our cars

5) Bill has a(nother) bad plan for west coast racing
6)  We also begin to make a plan for an upcoming Thompson race
7)  Seeking revenge on Willow Springs
8)  The upcoming Alameda parade
9)  Probably the best “Good” story we have ever had with our Good, Bad, and the Ugly segment.  We are pretty sure Adrian isn’t familiar with the word “good”, lol. 
10)  Shout out to our many Belgium and Australian listeners
11)  Differences between the Lucky Dog Series and the Lemons series

Goodbye
Sad to Say Goodbye

Hopefully, we can be a bad influence and get them out to Thompson for a race at some point, maybe even getting our all-female driven car team goal accomplished. 

You can follow them at FasterFarmsFacing.com

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, and Alan

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

GHIT 0085: Amanda and Adrian from the Faster Farms Racing Team

Real Racing!
Waiting for AAA?

GHIT 0084: Our Sunday Race at Laguna Seca with Lucky Dog

Sunrise at the Corkscrew
Our last racing day at Laguna Seca for 2020, unless…..

We conclude our wrap up of our racing at Laguna Seca with the Lucky Dog racing series by summarizing our Sunday race and our overall thoughts and experiences.  We had a great trip out to Laguna Seca and the track is wonderful.  Did our Saturday continue into Sunday.  Yes.  Did our car give it everything it had?  Yes.  Did we finally break the podcast curse and finish a Lucky Dog race?  Well……listen and find out. 

Riding into the sunset
Thank you to Lucky Dog and Laguna Seca

Highlights of our review include:

  • Race car status and prep review
  • Mental’s first rolling start in a race and our thoughts on tire warming of street tires
  • Mental’s Stint to start Sunday race day
  • The setup of our race car and how to drive it optimally
  • Many of the differences between the Lucky Dog series and Lemons
  • Vicki’s technique to remove some of the oil leaking into the cabin of the car
  • A discussion on window nets
  • Mental seems to have a “new” Miata attraction developing
  • Performance variability between the series and within some of the car’s by different drivers
  • Our goals for the weekend and goals for our day/stints
  • Our primary issue turns were #6, #9 and #1 (and late Sunday any straightway, lol)
  • Vicki’s thoughts on going through the Andretti Hairpin 3 wide and the aftermath
  • Our repair efforts, several of them
  • Erik won an award from the race, with a bit of our help
  • The joys of a random steering direction on center
  • Our end of day exploits
  • Favorite cars we were able to have several great laps of back and forth racing with
  • Mental completes his full set of competing in all amateur endurance series that use production-based cars
  • Track thoughts about Laguna Seca
  • The upcoming Champ Car race at Watkins Glen
  • Mental takes over hosting and we review our goals going into the race
  • Bill shockingly overthinks things and wanders down a path away from racing
  • Bill befuddles Mental enough that he is left without words
  • We question our training and preparation and Mental
  • Bill points out a gift that Mental received but wasn’t even aware
  • Vicki and Mental bond over Veggie/Vegan and Bill will have none of it
  • Front wheel drive thoughts and the difference between it and the way a car is prepared/set up
  • Best/Favorite cars of the weekend
  • Our usual Good, Bad, and the Ugly
  • Overall trip takeaways

For those who care:

Mental was able to get down to a 1:54 on Sunday
Vicki was able to get to a 2:06 on Sunday
Bill was only able to get to 1:59 on Saturday

The overall fastest lap of the weekend was 1:41 on Saturday and 1:40 on Sunday by the red #97 Miata

Southworst MX-5
Fastest Car of the Weekend title goes to

Overall, we loved our time with Lucky Dog and their team.  Please try to race with them if they are ever near you. 

Lucky Dog
Lucky Dog Racing League

Also, we really want to thank Erik for allowing us to use his car and experience this great track. 

Best regards,

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

#racelucky #raceluckydog #garageheroesintraining #garageheroesintrainingpodcast #fasterfarms #deafstig #deafstigsbodyshop #ThankYouCathy #becauseracecar

Some of our Favorites from the weekend

Two of the biggest big boys. Small stature but big time speed!
Tiny but Mighty. AND AWESOME!
350 TR
Mustang 350 TR
Erik, Lonnie and Vicki
Deaf Stig (Lonnie) and Vicki
and Erik makes and appearance
Area 51 was one of the more unique cars we saw
It was a race with constant challenges, mostly internal

GHIT 0084: Our Sunday Race at Laguna Seca with Lucky Dog

GHIT 0083: Our 2019 Review and 2020 Goals Episode

On this episode, Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, Kate and Bill went over our 2019 season and our 2020 goals.  Are we on the same page?  Do we even belong in the same book?  Listen in and find out.  Some of it was news to us, lol. 

Areas covered included:

2019 Review:

1)  How did our Team’s 2019 go in your opinion, Highlight and Low-light
2)  How did your personal season go?  Highlight and Low-light
3)  Things you want to keep the same/similar and Things we need to change or improve
4)  Biggest team weakness or missing need
5) Best Race or HPDE and Worst Race or HPDE
6)  Our traditional Good, Bad, and the Ugly

2020 Goals:

1)  What race goals do you have For you, For the team, For cars
2)  Personal, Non-driving/racing goals
3)  What driving/HPDE goals do you have, Any tracks or races interested in for 2020
4)  Any additions to our team in terms of People, Tools, Training, Paddock, Cars,
5)  Roles/Responsibilities, and Team talents missing/needed
6)  What would define a successful year? For you and for our team
7)  What would you say to the other members of our team

We try to do this every year and would recommend it to you and your team. 

Bill’s inner planner sometimes takes over. 

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, Jen, Kate, and Alan

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

GHIT 0083: Our 2019 Review and 2020 Goals Episode

GHIT 0082: Laguna Seca With Lucky Dog and Mental

Planning and Repairing
Planning and Repairing

Unedited live episode from Laguna Seca after Day 1 of racing with Lucky Dog. We had a long day or racing and repairing. It was our first day ever on the Laguna Seca and Vicki’s first ever day racing a front wheel drive car.

We made a few mistakes, learned a ton, and loved every second. Most importantly, we think we made a whole bunch of new friends and we were able to catch up with many we already knew.

Lucky Dog is a great series, with great people, and some spectacular cars. Some are spectacularly good, some are spectacularly fast, and some are spectacular in their own way.

A tired crew describes our first ever race day at Laguna Seca with our friends at the Lucky Dog racing series, silliness ensues.

With Vicki, Bill and special guest Mental Ward

GHIT 0082: Laguna Seca With Lucky Dog and Mental

GHIT 0081: Kate and Bennett Danvers of our GHiT Team

Kate and Bennett
Kate and Bennett Danvers: Race Car Drivers for our team

On this week’s podcast, we were finally able to interview Kate and Bennett Danvers and share with you a bit of their background and experiences with our team.  Kate shared many words, Bennett, few.  We hope you enjoy the week’s episode at: 

Highlights from this episode include:

1)  Overall background of each, including driving, racing, and car history of each and the family
2)  How to power oversteer a John Deere tractor and the impact on the grass cut, as well as life with a Mark VI GTI first car
3)  Team areas of responsibility during race weekend and upcoming changes to our team for 2020
4)  Bennett’s amazing tracking abilities and what kept Kate from coming to her first race so long
5)  Bennett’s claim on the fireproof one-sie and our plan to get Quinn into our insanity
6)  What cars are their dream cars, especially fellow lemons paddock cars
7)  Wildest racing memories, so far with Lucky Dog and the 24 Hours of Lemons
8)  What we have done well so far, including the Good, Bad, and the Ugly, and some upcoming improvements we can work on.  Bennett can only find good in our food, lol.
9)  Bennett offers words of optimism/prediction for our 2020 season
10)  Heat upgrade for our winter garage is announced, so if anyone wants to come and visit, it should be warm this winter

Bennett Battery Assassin
Bennett Danvers: Battery Assassin

Best regards,

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

GHIT 0081: Kate and Bennett Danvers of our GHiT Team