Dialing In

GHIT 0131: All about tires with Danny van Dongen of Hankook Motorsports

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.

GHIT 0131: All about tires with Danny van Dongen of Hankook Motorsports

GHIT 0124: GHIT Flashback to Thompson 2018 with the 24 Hours of Lemons

Award Winning GHiT Team — We Won (well, at least we got an award)

On this flashback episode, we cover our team’s second ever race at Thompson with the 24 Hours of Lemons series in 2018. How did the race go? Well, it was our first ever two car race. It was the first ever race for half of our team (Alan, Jennifer, Casey, and Pete). It was our first time on track with the SpiderStang and our friends at Prompt Critical showed Liam and Cassian how to “adjust” the boost on the SpiderStang. The Capri died and is still dead to this day. We won the “I Got Screwed” award. Details of our weekend and what we learned shall be provided. PS Never show your new to racing teen age team mates how to adjust the boost. Also, on this episodes Dominating with Dawson, we go over car control and what it means when someone refers to a car “rotating”.

**Capri’s dies while the SpiderStang makes its debit**

SpiderStang Makes its Debut — **Capri’s dies while the SpiderStang makes its debit**

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) We quickly gloss over the new raspberry additions that Alan and Bill added to Vicki’s garden area.

2) We cover from post-race of our first race at NJMP to the conclusion of our second race at Thompson

3) How our team grew from our first race with 4 drivers to where we had a two-car team with 8 drivers. Our preparation was not quite up to what it should have been. Especially with 4 additional drivers, two of which that had never driven a manual transmission before.

4) The advantages and disadvantages of a teen drivers on a racing team

5) How a perfectly performing a running car from our last race did not stay that way during the trip back from the track, to the great surprise of all involved. Carburetors are not our center of expertise and decided to let us know.

6) How the SpiderStang theme came to be and what we learned in doing it. It ended up looking great, but the process was not one we would recommend. Sometimes you learn what to do and sometimes you learn what not to do. We also mention how we built “Bondo”, a PVC and spray foam version of a mannequin to be used as Spiderman on our car.

RV Plumbing Fitting, not Automotive Grade, lol.

7) Vicki’s trials and tribulations for her first time driving to a race with a race car trailer. It did not go very well.

8) How our first time trying to stay at the track went. In a word: poorly. We have come up with much better sources for renting RV’s to stay at the track since then.

9) How our new drivers first time driving went. Quick checklist, panic attack at being strapped in, panic attack about going on a racetrack in the pit lane, first ever racing in the rain and heavy fog, and how to be a rolling chicane on the track.

10) Prompt Critical helped us with our cars but gave away a bit too much information to Liam and Cassian. They now knew how to adjust (read as increase to maximum) the boost of the turbocharger. After all, more is better, lol.

11) How to dial in a brake proportioning valve during testing.

12) Alan’s chipmunk powered internet popped up again, a few times. Bill had no idea on how to edit this, but it seems pretty funny.

13) How we became an award-winning racing team at this event. It all started with Jennifer and her license in driver tech inspection. Well on our way to minor internet celebrity status. Still on the way to this day.

14) Things we learned at our first ever rain race and our first ever fog race, all at the same race.

15) The story of the death of the Capri and the birth of El Jeffe, The Bad Hombre.

16) We share the secret concoction to keep fog off your windshield that was shared with us by the Three Pedal Mafia.

17) Alan treats his body like a temple? And we finally found the root cause for why Alan doesn’t want to work on the Capri.

18) Bill tries to avoid sleeping in the bathtub even though we won the coveted “I Got Screwed” award.

19) Finally, we go over the post-race awards and the trials and tribulations we went through to get home afterwards.

GHIT 0124: GHIT Flashback to Thompson 2018 with the 24 Hours of Lemons

GHIT 0118: John Pagel from Evil Genius Racing and the Tech Tyrant from the 24 Hours of Lemons

John Pagel is our guest for this episode. John Pagel is the Tech Tyrant and is the head of tech inspection for the 24 hours of Lemons and has a shop called Evil Genius Racing in Davis, California that serves a wide variety of metal fabrication needs for racing teams. John also teaches how to fabricate roll cages. When he comes east, we will be attending one of these sessions. We thank John for all his efforts and the entire Lemons team for their endless work to keep everyone safe at our races. We did have a few dropped words due to connection issues, but the episode is a must listen.

Dominating with Dawson covers some of the aspects of sway bars this week and the potential uses and adjustments they make possible. +

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) John explains how he was originally banned for life from racing in Lemons after his team’s car hit Jay at an early Lemons race and the unlikely path that this actually led to him being hired as the head of tech inspection.

2) We go into his work with the 24 Hours of Lemons as well as what he does from within his shop at Evil Genius Racing in Davis, California

3) How he got his start racing showroom stock in a Ford Fiesta

4) We recorded the episode a few weeks ago and speculate on when the racing series will resume.

5) John also has custom designed universal seat mounts to better fit seats into all cars, but are especially useful for the smaller cars. We will be ordering at least one set to try to get Bill to fit into his ND Miata with a helmet.

6) Everyone should be very proud of the exemplary safety record of the series so far and what the future improvements may be to continue to improve the safety of Lemons racing.

7) We go into the many common issues new teams (and old teams) will have with passing tech and the very simple ways to avoid issues.

8) John was even kind enough to offer his thoughts on what a new to racing team should do to get their feet wet in racing, providing some of the best tips we have heard.

9) A truly memorable discussion of the “Line” and the unrealistic expectation of using it in a race with 150 cars or more.

10) Some of the car cages that has built in the past are quite impressive like a Lancia Scorpion, Borgward Isabella, or a Humber Super Snipe.

11) How one team painted their cage to look like PVC, complete with barcodes and the purple adhesive at the joints.

12) We will have at least three attendees when John teaches cage building on the east coast.

13) John also went into some welding tips, especially related to the settings of the helmet darkness.

14) The differences between a halo and a down bar style cage.

15) What a back bend is and why they are an issue in roll cages and should be avoided for structural reasons.

16) A general discussion of the advantages of a custom cage vs a kit and also why bolt in cages are not suitable for most track racing (usually bolt in cages are only permitted for drag racing and circle track racing).

17) Typical tech failure areas

18) Bill tries to ask a question about our Splash Gate fuel spill incident but words the intent of the question poorly. This did not go well.

19) What are good expectations to be able to get out of a car if it’s on fire (<15 seconds or less) and what to do first after a wreck (Put your hand up in case you are upside down before releasing your harness belts)

20) Some of the most entertaining and surprising Fast and Furious answers we have ever had.

GHIT 0118: John Pagel from Evil Genius Racing and the Tech Tyrant from the 24 Hours of Lemons

GHIT 0117: Race Bar Returns – A Discussion of How Many Teams are Helping with the COVID 19 Pandemic

Jim “Daddy Earth” Webb, Pat “Richard Freelane” McHugh take over another episode of the podcast (lol), but it was for a great cause and contribution to our society during this COVID 19 pandemic. Jim and Pat have been working with James Ballenger from Ballenger Motorsports to raise funds and to fabricate and distribute face masks, face shields, and all kinds of assorted PPE for the Richmond region and anyone in need across the country. Hopefully, you can add to the relief effort in some small way. To bring it back to racing, we did get into a good discussion on the details and decisions related to converting your car from an OEM fuel system to using a fuel cell. This is a truly inspiring story of what a bunch of race drivers and James Ballenger’s team and Ballenger Motorsports were able to accomplish in a short amount of time.

As we always say, racers are some of the best and most generous people we have met. This crisis has still not passed, so if you or anyone can help, it could literally be lifesaving and I am also sure we would like to be in a better position if there is ever a bounce back in the infection rate. It took a bit to get the editing done, but the message and need remains the same. Even if you can’t be of assistance in fabricating or assembly, there is always something that needs to be done that would assist.

The Dominating with Dawson segment deals with what to do and what not to do when going on track for the first time.

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) Working to make a difference in trying to contain and protect people from the COVID 19 virus

2) Some of the unexpected challenges of helping deliver PPE to those in need

3) How even little steps are significant, especially if we compound upon each other

4) Karen makes an appearance for the first time on the podcast, lol.

5) You can learn more at [email protected] or contact them through email

6) The parallels between this program and what happens in an endurance race are amazing.

7) This effort will continue into the future as the economy starts to resume and a larger population of people can use shields and masks.

8) If you want to donate to the effort, you can go to GoFundMe.com under Virginia Needs PPE

9) Bill volunteers to let James and the team pass us during our next race. It is the least we can do, lol.

10) Even the next generation of Race Bar, Oliver, comes in for a brief podcast experience.

11) A short Race Bars race car fleet review and its recent new addition with a super-secret theme

12) Fuel cell discussion on details, locations, options, and aspects of the conversion and installation including some of the best options for venting the fuel cell.

13) Ben is still sorting his nuts and bolts. We hope he finished soon.

14) Jim’s latest deep dive is in the area of fuel discriminator valves. Because Race Car.

15) Rob Krider’s magnetic towels for catching fuel as you fill gets another shout out.

16) Some good discussion points on the morals of resuming racing events at this point.

GHIT 0117: Race Bar Returns – A Discussion of How Many Teams are Helping with the COVID 19 Pandemic

GHIT 0112: John Lavin from Safety 3rd Motorsports

Safety Third Motorpsorts — **John Lavin points the way for the Safety 3rd Motorsports team**

John Lavin joined us from the Safety 3rd Motorsports racing team for a great discussion of his racing and team history, including how his background in racing snowmobiles, motorcycles, and snowboarding has led to and helped with his racing cars. His team started with an initial car that was intended for Lemons but ended up being a second gen Supra that was better fitting into an episode of “Better Call Saul” and ended up in ChampCar and started with the usual issues and tremendous stories as his team grew. The team is currently running in several ChampCar events each year, as well as several other organizations in multiple divisions.

We are hoping to talk John into letting us attend one of their upcoming races to learn more, if they will have us. Please follow them on Instagram at Safety3rdMotorsports.

In our Dominating with Dawson segment, we go into racing in the rain and while some complain, it’s really actually better in many ways for learning and definitely should not be skipped or avoided.

Safety Third Motorsports E36 Racecar — **Safety 3rd Motorsports E36 Racecar**

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) Sharing the pain of herding cats as the team manager’s primary role.

2) It appears John’s path is similar to Bill’s, just executed much better.

3) VIR gets another big endorsement, and it wasn’t from Ben this time.

4) First race stories for the team, a true 24-hour race at VIR.

5) Why they eventually switched from a Supra to a BMW to the annoyance of all the Fast and Furious fans.

6) Racing is really a situation of management by crisis, we agree and couldn’t have said it any better.

7) Several discussions on the differences and benefits of a racing school, as compared to HPDE’s and track days.

8) A comparison of ChampCar and the Lemons series, with a bit about AER as well.

9) How the teams racing philosophy has changed as they have become faster and a bit more competitive.

10) A very good discussion on transitioning a team from having run racing a car to racing to compete. A challenge our team is likely approaching.

11) We offer our excellent BBQ rub and BBQ sauce for some of their secret sauce, so far to no avail, lol.

12) Practicing at track days vs learning from an instructor and several other benefits of instruction.

13) A discussion on the various aspects of car control, what it is and several techniques that can be used to improve it.

14) The everlasting rumor of Lime Rock closing has reached Vicki for the first time.

15) John even sneaks in a discussion of the modern style racing line for Lime Rock.

16) Since John’s team races an E36, we can’t help but discuss some of his thoughts on the E36 setups and even more importantly how to evaluate and develop them for yourself or when using a shop to assist.

17) We even went into more depth around tire temperature and tire pressure and tire selection.

18) A dual team meetup is preliminarily in the works and sounds like it will be great fun! Still working on the Baja road trip invitation though. Lol.

19) Bill tries to talk John into lowering his standards and joining us for a race or for weekend racing fun. Still TBD to see if John is capable of making a decision that bad.

20) John was even gracious in acknowledging our difficulty with the rear hub bearing a few weeks back. We may even be able to replace the control arm Bill broke after our quarantine ends.

21) Towards the end, we even went into team HPDE and team bonding ideology that are helpful to all levels of teams.

GHIT 0112: John Lavin from Safety 3rd Motorsports