Garage Heroes (In Training)

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

GHiT 0070: Race Bar – Baby Shark Racing team takeover

We have lost all control

  • Baby Shark at Night
  • Baby Shark
Beware the Baby Shark!

On this week’s episode, we lose all pretenses of control with our guests from the Race Bar/Baby Shark racing team stage a coup of the podcast.  Strap in for one of the most unique episodes that we have ever had with your unofficial hosts for this week James Webb and Jeff Caplan.  Jennifer, Alan, Vicki and Bill were just along for the ride on this one.  With that, here is the Baby Shark episode, just when you thought it was out of your head from NHMS!!!

On this episode, we attempted to cover:

1)  Just who is Ron Mexico and why is Ron Mexico and how is Ron Mexico and a virtual tour of VIR

2)  Bill Breaks the record for horn sound effects needed in one episode to retain our Non-E rated streak

3)  It takes almost 6 minutes to get to our intro, you’ll see why

4)  We did not have the entire team on, but probably couldn’t handle them if we did

5)  The origin of the BMW 7 series race car/bar and our introduction at the last NJMP race

6)  How and why “Baby Shark” came to be and how the “livery” came to be

7)  The differences in Lemons teams and Champ Car teams as well as their response to Race Bar

8)  Our great new race driver Jeff Wright and his NHMS experiences

9)  Deaf Power Racing team impending launch

10)  Alan wants a car stereo upgrade to our cars, yet another bad idea

11)  What PCCA thinks of Race Bar at their HPDE

12)  Their 10-year plan

13)  The GHiT goals and reasons why we are doing this

14)  Several drive by guests came on as well

15)   Vicki explains why we stopped on the way home from NHMS and how the Three Pedal Mafia came to our rescue, again

16)  They share their issues with car growth in their stable as well

17)  Ron Mexico interviews at least twenty people for unknown reasons

18)  The world series even makes a surprise appearance

19)  Story time from the VIR 24 hour race with Ron Mexico and trash can football

20)  Team intervention and exorcism goals for 2020

21)  and we ended with a very entertaining and even useful Good, Bad, and the Ugly

Bill eventually admitted defeat and just went with wherever we wound up

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast and team members in the GHiT 

Our Immature Endurance Racing Team

GHiT 0070: Race Bar – Baby Shark Racing team takeover

GHIT 0069: NHMS Race Weekend Review

NHMS Flag
NHMS 2019 – 24 Hours of Lemons race

Our podcast this week focuses on our race weekend at NHMS with the 24 Hours of Lemons teams.  We had a bit of a struggle getting ready, but the cars eventually cooperated and raced well, at least for a bit.  In the end, we had a great time and caught up with a lot of friends and made several new ones this weekend.+

  • Team at Tech
  • Mia as Death Doctor
  • Brad made it to his first race
  • Passed Tech Inspection
We confused Guitar Heroes with Garage Heroes, oops.

On this episode, Alan, Jennifer, Kate, Vicki and Bill are still recuperating from the race weekend hangover, but did manage to discuss:

  • Vicki learns the alphabet, finally.
  • Pre-race prep and race car struggles.
  • Not going as planned
    Not going as planned
  • Lost but found
    Lost but found
It all started innocently enough
  • We broke the first rule of racing and brought an non-prepped car to the track
  • El Jeffe/The Bad Hombre/The Trophy Truck/Race Truck was finished literally hours before the race.
  • The E36 BMW struggle did not complete until midday Friday afternoon when our great friend Bruce figured out a simple electrical issue that we could not find on our own
  • We had to pick up a windshield, which was in Canada
  • Bill learns to not joke with the border police
  • Normal race induced issues led to a lot of on track repairs and replacement for the race truck, especially related to our steering, power steering, and steering rack.
  • SpiderStang was almost brought into race trim since we had all hands on deck and needed two cars
  • We rolled the dice and brought the E36 to the track and hoped we could fix it with the aide of our friends in the paddock area
  • Friday testing went well with El Jeffe and we were able to get almost all of our new to NHMS drivers
  • Jennifer clears all prior NHMS demons from last year
  • Kate enjoys her first time on this track and then promptly has internet issues in mid story
  • Jennifer is very excited and saw many benefits of the Watkins Glen HPDE we sent to two weeks ago.
  • We may finally have solved our braking issue with the El Jeffe race truck
  • Bill creates a new word for the dictionary
  • Bruce saved our team having to get another engine and perform and engine swap by solving our issue and getting the engine in the E36 to fire.
  • Bill confirms that by fire, they meant to get it running and not that it had caught on fire.
  • Special thanks to the Thunder for Days team in their Folgers E36 BMW for all their assistance as well.  Apparently, they travel with an entire parts store worth of spare parts to each race.  Thankfully.  And Wisely.  We owe you all.
Team Folgers
Thunder for Days saved us
  • Our one time only Guitar Heroes In Training Theme for this race
  • Vicki confuses AC/DC and Kiss somehow
  • Mia tormented Craiggers as the Plague Doctor all weekend
  • Several other teams were theming hard this weekend including appearances by the Three Pedal Mafia’s Ambiguously Gay Duo themed new Pontiac Solstice and the entire gang that represented Baby Shark.
  • Baby Shark
  • New Driver
Baby Shark team and new driver
3PM is not Ambiguous
3PM is not so ambiguous
Solstice NHMS 2019
Their new Solstice race car
  • Jennifer’s costume was very helpful in getting our cars to have no penalty laps
  • Harley Quinn and the harlequin GTI were also a big hit, ad it was quite fast on the track.
  • We had a run on power steering pumps for the race truck this weekend, using three total, and we also lost the steering rack/box
  • We then run through the race for the race truck and then for the E36 race car
  • NHMS this year was the most aggressive race we have been in and there were many incidents, especially Saturday
  • We also had a Guest driver this weekend, Jeff Wright, who we met at our Lucky Dog race in Portland this summer.  We hope he had a great time.
Jeff at Tech
Jeff rocking out awaiting tech inspection
  • Our wheel spacers led to tire tracking issues in the El Jeffe race truck
  • We eventually (think) we lost the steering rack and had some steering difficulty that eventually led to the race truck parking for the last half of Sunday
  • Jennifer gets here first black flag in the race truck
  • Bill ran first in the E36 on Saturday and raced with several of our friends on the track for long periods of time
  • We peaked at 5th place overall, our highest position ever.  Now we need to figure out how to stay there for the whole weekend. 
Proof we can drive
Proof that we can drive a bit (5th overall)
  • We learn that there are two different style safety harnesses/safety belts
  • Saturday night dinner and post-race festivities
  • Vicki finally meets her girl crush, Amanda Tully, in full costume, in the Three Pedal Mafia’s hot tub, built for 4, but somehow managed to squeeze in 9 that evening.   Hopefully, we will have her on as a future guest.
  • The festivities went long into the night.
NHMS at night
NHMS at night
  • Alan eventually gets into a on race CSI investigation that gets edited out a bit.
  • Vicki proves that numbers are hard
  • We end up talking all over each other during the review of Alan’s Sunday stint
  • The Egan’s new car modifications led to a lot of fun but also a lot more gas usage
  • We ended our day in the BMW E36 when we lost either a wheel bearing and/or a hub
  • Team improvements for next year were abundant
  • Radios for each team member if possible
  • Earlier starting prep on race day morning with more people
  • Training matrix will be developed and monitor our progress towards overall team knowledge and skill improvement for next year and the future
  • New Pit Crew Chief election for 2010 season is very likely
  • Spares parts for the BMW for next season
  • On site car alignment verification capability within our team
  • We begin planning our off season and our 2020 season, including re-theming several cars for the 2020
  • NHMS 2019 is Over
    NHMS 2019 and our racing season is over

Thank you to all our friends, we can’t wait to see you again next season!

GHIT 0069: NHMS Race Weekend Review

GHIT 0068: NHMS 2019 Prep Week

Our ineptitude continues

Our plans are unravelling
Our preparation plans are unravelling

NHMS race weekend prep status.

One race, three cars, none working.  The rest is good though.

On one hand we have the BMW E36 3 series from 1998.  Issues, yes.  It won’t start.  It seems to not be getting power to the computer system and won’t turn over.  We found one wiring issue and are tracking down any others, slowly.  One good thing is that the prior owners live very close to our race, so as a last resort, we may ask for some assistance.

New to Us BMW E36

El Jeffe/The Bad Hombre:  Braking issues abound.  Still.  The caliper/pads do not fully release from the rotors, which may be the issue we have been battling this entire season.

It is a race truck

On this episode:

  1. Alan breaks up into a game of boggle with things like DME, EWS2, etc.
  2. Vicki breaks back in and tries to get us to explain what is going on
  3. Bill breaks down the entire battle we have been having with the brakes on the race truck
  4. El Jeffe brake theories, plan, and a review of the current status
  5. An El Jeffe Transit story for the books
  6. Alan talks about flashing ECU’s and seeking additional help to get the E36 running well again.
  7. Alan does his best weatherman impression and forecasts clear skies for the E36
  8. Kate even makes a quick guest appearance towards the end

It seems to be a standard week before the race.  Now will this turn out?  Tune in tomorrow, same bat channel, same bat time.

Or actually when we record at the track this weekend. 

GHIT 0068: NHMS 2019 Prep Week

GHIT 0067: Watkins Glen HPDE Review

Watkins Glen International
Watkins Glen International

Welcome to our latest podcast episode where we review our weekend HPDE with NASA North East at the world famous Watkins Glen International racetrack.  We had a great weekend with 5 of our team showing up and two other friends from the Everyone Racers Podcast and The Three Pedal Mafia racing team, Chris and Chrissy. 

Just some of the cars in attendance

We summarize the prepping of the many cars we brought and the debacle it became for almost every car we brought.

Cars we prepped included:

  1. BMW E36 1998 race car
    1. Roll bar prep and Passenger racing seat installation
    2. Issue:  Won’t start as we were prepping to leave.  Issue still TBD
    1. Roll bar padding and switch to racing seats and racing harness from OEM
    2. Issue:  4-point belts aren’t acceptable so hot swap at Watkins Glen to install two new 6-point harness sets
  3. 1999 Mazda MX-5 Turbo Miata with Flyin’ Miata Turbo
    1. Installed new roll bar
    2. Issue:  did not finish roll bar installation and did not remember to reconnect the battery before giving it to Jennifer
  4. 2019 Mazda MX-5
    1. Mostly no issue, except cleaning
  5. 2017 Toyota GT TRD
    1. Bad Lug bolts and Missing Lug bolts
    2. Waited until day before to get parts, ended up with bad hub threads and missing bolts, and doesn’t know how to click the pay button after registering for the HPDE
    3. Cue the sad trombone please
  6. 2013 Dodge Dart
    1. Did not have time to change to race seats, nor brake pads and fluid, nor tires from standard OEM
  7. 2017 BMW M240i
    1. No issues since Chris and Chrissy are always prepared, unlike us.
  8. Race Prepped Honda Civic

Brad was an excellent test passenger for three different cars on the track.  He reviews his first ever race laps in the Turbo NB MX-5 versus the race prepped Honda Civic vs a new Acura NSX. 

Team photo WGI 2019
Our team for the weekend

Vicki, Jennifer, and Bill covered our in car instructors and areas we worked on and improved over the weekend. 

These areas included:

  1. Track vision
  2. Racing lines in general
  3. Braking points and braking pressure and the proper application and removal of the braking pressure
  4. Turn in Points
  5. Input sequencing
  6. Several drills, including vision and non-shifting the entire lap or session
  7. Car control
  8. Learning and feeling what is correct and what isn’t with immediate feedback
  9. Late apexing vs early apexing and turn in
  10. Prep is key to racing

In addition, we also reviewed our thoughts of the track and the NASA North East HPDE event in general. 

We also reviewed the relative performance of the Turbo 1999 NB MX-5 to the newly updated 2019 MX-5 ND.

GHIT 0067: Watkins Glen HPDE Review

GHIT: Physical Fitness for Faster and Safer Racing

Special Guest Trey Shannon of Performance Podium Fitness

Trey Shannon

Racing is both physically and mentally challenging, even at the beginner and intermediate levels.  For this week’s episode, we were very proud to have Trey Shannon as a guest.  Trey is located near Charlotte NC and is helping many high level drivers and teams with their off track preparation both physically and mentally.  The discussion will go over many areas that you can focus on and improve not only your best lap time, but also improve your consistency over many laps.  The degradation due to fatigue can lead to not only slower laps, but also the demands can lead to loss of focus and increase the likelihood of driver errors and potential damage to the car and driver(s).  

During this episode we discuss:

  1. Physical preparation
    1. Anaerobic and Aerobics
  2. Mental Preparation and acuity
  3. Cardiovascular fitness
    1. Diaphragm vs chest/shoulder breathing
  4. Breathing exercises and breathe control
  5. On track relaxation strategies and techniques
  6. Neck, Shoulders, Hands and Core Stability
  7. Eye exercises and hand eye coordination
  8. Sleep
  9. Diet and Nutrition, especially on race day and race weekend
  10. Hydration
  11. Off season preparation, Pre-race, at the race, during the race, and post-race options
  12. Training periodization and improving well rounded fitness for all aspects of life
  13. Cramping and cramp prevention
  14. Heat and Cold management strategies
  15. Outdoor training ideas and options
  16. Improving proprioception and other driver “feel” capabilities during the race
  17. Pre-race warmup techniques to get you in the zone in the first few seconds behind the wheel
  18. Cognitive ability degradation with fatigue is easily quantifiable and very significant

This is critical when you are looking to compete in an endurance type of racing where the ability to be at or near your fastest consistently could dramatically improve your overall performance by many TEN’s (10’s) of seconds, not just the usual TENTH’s (0.1’s) everyone pursues.  It not only affects your overall speed, but the quality of the decisions and skills on the track, especially over time. 

If you are interested in improving in this area of your driving, please feel free to contact Trey at: 

Podium Performance Fitness

Podium Performance Fitness in Cornelius North Carolina (near Charlotte) or on the website at PodiumPerformanceFitness.com and follow them on Instagram and Twitter.

GHIT: Physical Fitness for Faster and Safer Racing