Driver Education

GHIT 0137: Danielle Tripp: Instructor and Racing Driver

Danielle Tripp is our guest for this episode with special co-host Ben Dawson coming in as well. She is a member of the Winsome Racing team with Ben and has quickly progressed from starting our as a car girl who went on a racing experience event, started driving in HPDE events to become a racing instructor and raced in her first race in 2019. It was great to catch up with Danielle and see how she progressed and where she wants to go. We have no doubt she will get there, and quickly. As a fellow Spec E46 (to be) racer, we appreciate the time and dedication it takes to build one of these on your own.

“Hold On Kids, Mom’s Driving!!!”

In addition, we also cover how to prepare for driving on a new (to you) racetrack. We each have your own personal methods and present several alternatives that you may want to try.

You can follow Danielle on Facebook at: Danielle Tripp or by following Winsome Racing. She is also on Instagram @dtrippnurseracer

Finally, in our Dominating with Dawson we go over how to introduce a new driver into racing, or more properly stated a few ways not to do it. Everything can be an example, some are examples of things to do, some are things not to do.

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 get into her certifications of bad ass-ery, both local and global.

2) How she started and how she first met Ben at the track and learned to be fast from him.

3) Me first hear about Banana Sandwich Mike. Still looking for him.

4) She drives an E46 BMW called “Peaches” (story included) and a Mustang named “Jesse”. How the names came to be is entertaining.

5) How the cheapest of Hot Wheels car has led to the decimation of many family finances on racing cars.

6) How Danielle was the impetus to her husband Jason starting to enjoy racing on track as well as the mechanical aspects of the sport.

7) How the cash flow out for attending a track event may be cheaper than the cost of speed on a public road.

8) Ben foolishly promises to drive with us at the Thunderhill 25 in our Spec E46 if its ever finished. Its recorded for all time.

9) Bill cannot help but make comparison of their Winsome Racing team to our Lose Some racing team. It is really just way too easy.

10) Jennifer and Danielle bond over working on cars and how it compares to working on human bodies. We are even more worried about going to a doctor now, lol, especially since Vicki agreed.

11) Ben does his best impression of Debbie Downer from SNL. Cue the sad trombones.

12) We discuss the potential issues with being a female at a racetrack, which so far has been exacerbated in our experiences.

13) The group discussion on prepping for a new track is helpful in showing several different things that you can do to be ready before you even arrive in the paddock. We also discuss ways to improve once you are on track as well. Many great ways to increase your enjoyment, especially early in the day/weekend.

14) Outdoorsy and RVShare make their usual appearance on the podcast. They should really sponsor us. Or maybe just give a free rental every now and then.

15) Bill over-preps and shares an example below in a link for one track. Please let us know what you do, especially if it is different or better. We are always looking to improve.

16) We do not support nor recommend stealing your parent’s car when you are underage, in spite of the fun we had during this episode.

17) Vicki is introduced to left foot braking for the first time. Mind >>> blown. It apparently has never come up so far. Or maybe it has, lol.

18) Bill recommends the recent Top Gear episode segment with the cars going to the golf driving range. One of the best segments ever.

19) Jennifer starts the South Dakota RV story but valiantly tries to get out without the details. Anyone want to hear more? Please let us know.

20) It looks like Reed will be trading cars with Danielle at an upcoming event.

21) Ben makes it very clear his feeling on new car nannies. Not a fan, especially on the track.

Excel track map link:

Track map Download

GHIT 0137: Danielle Tripp: Instructor and Racing Driver

GHIT 0136: Roland Hahn or as we prefer “Rolling with Roland”

Roland Hahn is our guest for this episode with Ann Moran occasionally chiming in throughout the episode. Roland has been racing since the 80’s and has probably completed more races than we have laps (which is not really that much of an exaggeration). Some fascinating stories and history that will help you and your team in the next race.

Dominating with Dawson

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) What Roland has learned at his last 875 or so races in all types of cars and racing. Yes, 875+ races and counting.

2) How he found his “home” in endurance racing and how endurance racing has changed since he first started at Nelson Ledges in 1987.

3) Race prep, racing practices, and safety equipment have apparently changed dramatically (for the better) since the 80’s.

4) Some team history about how Roland first met Ann and their current team began about two years ago, as well as how Ann began racing and met Roland.

5) Vicki somehow manages to bring Xena into the podcast. Still puzzled by how that fit into the discussion, twice, but it somehow fit, and led to a discussion of Vicki meeting Roland for the first time when he was in drag at NHMS last year.

6) Things Roland has learned to do and perhaps even more importantly things not to do over his racing career.

7) How Roland and Ann found their current BMW E36 and their thoughts about racing it and E36’s in general.

8) Post race “hangovers”, even if you don’t drink, are real. Especially if you race as often as Roland and Ann did last year.

9) We compare our relative “Hot Mess” levels and performance at the recent Charlotte race with Lucky Dog.

10) Roland does his best Karnac impression over a brake light switch at the Charlotte race.

11) The Dip Stick disaster that was Charlotte Roval and a really good title to a TV show episode.

12) How the two races at Charlotte went for their team. It was a bit of a battle for a long time, but in the end, it seems to have worked out well in the 10-hour race. This illustrates a series of the type of things that an endurance team can run into any weekend. The impossible is not impossible, but merely unlikely. The more laps raced, the more probably it becomes.

13) How Roland employed his experience and knowledge to survive a bit better than most on Sunday. 17 hours of racing at the Charlotte Roval was pretty hard on all the cars that were there, especially with the heavy breaking required for the Roval.

14) Jen does not share Roland’s preference for concrete canyon race tracks. Maybe with time, but definitely not at the moment.

15) Roland was very impressed with racing with Lucky Dog and with his level of experience, impressing him is not the easiest thing to do. Especially impressive considering the COVID related conditions and the team not having its full team at the event. More grown up but still playful is a great way to put it.

16) Roland was kind enough to go into some of the race prep areas and philosophy he tries to employ for every race. He may write a book someday. We can’t wait. Roland, do you need an editor or a co-writer? We know a guy.

17) ALWAYS learn something at every single race or you aren’t really paying attention.

18) Succinctly put, we need a Roland. Every team does. We will be asking questions of him, often. Since he listens to our podcast, we are sure we have caused him to laugh out loud many times. Lol.

19) Tips to improve as a driver abound throughout this episode.

20) Roland provides the definitive answer to the long fought over question that torments the internet on a daily basis. Where do you put the transponder on the car to get the faster lap or to win at the finish line. You are welcome. (and we are sure the arguments will continue long into the future anyway)

Roland: Do you have a prep checklist or frequency etc. that we could share? Or references we could find/get?

PS our offer to help in #16 above is rea if you are ever interested.

GHIT 0136: Roland Hahn or as we prefer “Rolling with Roland”

GHIT 0135: Ben Dawson Dominates on This Episode

Ben Dawson is our guest for this episode where we go over some of his racing history and a lot of how he has progressed to his current level and what he is looking to get into going forward. It was great to catch up with him and learn a bunch more about him and his driving.

It is also the easiest episode ever to put in our Dominating with Dawson segment where we go over several methods for a driver to determine their speed and adjust accordingly on a track. This is especially important when you are learning and improving since your speeds will generally be increasing, as you wish it would, but that does impact your speed going into the subsequent turn or turns.

Ben is tremendous driver, but not a hard core car guy and he treats the cars well, but more as a tool to use and get the most out of, as opposed to a piece of art or something to attribute more respect and awe to than deserved. There are definitely a few people we know who could enjoy their cars and driving more if they shifted a bit towards Ben’s more pragmatic car philosophy.

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) Everything you ever/never wanted to know about Ben and Ben’s driving history. Driving really does seem to run in the family.

2) Ben is unhappy we aren’t familiar with his 1986 Taurus MT-5. We were quite happy not knowing about it, lol.

3) Ben is in the midst on balancing his family and his current Spec E46 track car build. we also go over some of the steps that Ben has progressed through and led to his current racing interest, including getting a bit sideways on the dirt roads in Alabama growing up, competitive carting, autocross, and endurance racing across the US.

4) How Ben’s racing philosophy has matured into a very simple mantra, if its not fun, I’m out.

5) We also discover how Ben got DQ’ed from a win at his pine wood derby car but did end up with a large “Bodacious Big Bear” bear (that he still has). I see a T-Shirt in the making, maybe even a Race Bar theme.

6) Tips for getting out there and trying to do some high performance driving or a track day etc.

7) A Good, Bad, and the Ugly for what to do and not do when looking to get started in high performance driving or racing.

8) A great bunch of stories and examples of how a team and a driver progresses through beginning stages and gradually moves towards a more seasoned racing driver.

9) Bill’s latest HPDE with NASA Great Lakes at Mid-Ohio last weekend in the Toyota 86.

10) Bill’s rather intimidating trip into the Keyhole turn with a McLaren 720S and a Shelby 350R and a race prepped Corvette in the rear view.

11) We also start discussing some of the turns at Mid-Ohio, as well as how to approach decreasing radius turns in general.

12) How much fun it was to take his driving test in the same session as one of the passing drills.

13) We get a question from Chrissy M that became an impromptu review of Mid-Ohio track itself, both the Club and Pro layouts that we ran over the weekend. AND we cannot help but take the opportunity pass on our compliments to their recent episode related to racing and burnout. It was fantastic, as always.

14) Ben says “mecca” and Jennifer and Vicki hear “naked, you can guess how the rest went.

15) A hilarious story about muscle relaxers and eating a tomato before going on track. Don’t try this at home.

16) Our first discussion of land speed records and record setting

17) The Cerveza race team makes another appearance. Still need to get them on the podcast. Anyone know them? We would love an intro.

Our upcoming schedule is a NASA Great Lakes HPDE at Autobahn (for the first time), a NASA Great Lakes HPDE at Autobahn NCM (for the first time), and a HPDE/Skid Pad/autocross event at Lime Rock. Potentially, we may be going to Summit Point for a skip pad event in October or November. Please let us know if you are coming or stop by anytime if you see us.

Links:

Mid-Ohio Track Map: https://speedsecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Mid-Ohio.pdf

Bill’s current track rankings are as follows:

Pitt Race
Charlotte Roval
Gingerman
NJMP – Thunderbolt
Road Atlanta
Watkins Glen
Laguna Seca
Mid-Ohio
Thompson
Monticello
New Hampshire
NJMP – Lightning
Pocono

GHIT 0135: Ben Dawson Dominates on This Episode

GHIT 0130: Nate Tennis from DirtFish Rally School about all things rally

After this podcast, you too may need to become a rally driver

Just another ride in the countryside — Not just another ride in the countryside

Nate Tennis from DirtFish Rally school joins us on this episode to discuss rally driving, racing, and training. Nate reviews his background (since essentially his birth) and how his school approaches teaching the principles of rally driving to their students. His extensive background in rally and off road racing for over two decades and counting helps tremendously in teaching their students since 2010. DirtFish’s original vision was to become the premier rally school in the United States. Moreover, DirtFish has evolved into one of the most prestigious professional rally school in all of North America, and earning a reputation in all forms of performance driving, specialized training, education and all-out commitment to rally.

Beyond rally, DirtFish is a frontier for speed, agility and skill, with a profound enthusiasm for the dirt and gravel driving derived car control from its rallying roots. If your car control skills could use some sharpening and especially if you are not 100% comfortable with you car getting unstable or sliding in a turn, this may be the best investment in improving your driving skills.

Dominating with Dawson Factors that affect a turn and how your car will behave

Make sure to mention “Garage Heroes In Training” to get your coveted zero dollar discount when you register for a class at DirtFish.

You can follow Nate and the adventures at DirtFish Rally School at:

@Nate_Tennis on Instagram

Or at www.dirtfish.com

Or to email Nate use: [email protected]

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 gets pronunciation help with eh town name where DirtFish is located in the Cascade Mountains area of Washington (Snoqualmie, its actually a bit easier than it first appeared, its all about where the syllables break)

2) Special hello to Nate’s parents, our two newest listeners, lol.

3) An intro to what rally is and how it works, just in case you may not be fully fluent in it.

4) How accessible the rally cars and drivers are if you attend an event.

5) Types of rallies include sprints and range up to several hundred miles over multiple days and how the transits work. PS It is not necessarily a Ford van.

6) Types of cars, types of tracks, types of surfaces, safety equipment requirements, and how to begin to set up a car for rallying, as well as where to find a rally event across North America.

7) What DirtFish is and what they specialize in at the school and how the school curriculum is structured for the different class sessions that range from a few hours to several days to account for almost any budget and schedule.

8) How the driver and navigator work together and communicate prior and during the rally stages.

9) Bill proposes a tremendous plan for rally events when Nate is racing against the Subaru factory team.

10) Nate walks us through what the differences and commonalities between rally and track racing and how the skills of rally can augment and improve your track driving.

11) DirtFish may be able to help us with our ice racing goal for the weekend, provided the ability to travel and race remains possible.

12) Vicki misinterprets what “BYOS” means as related to our ice racing future.

13) We workshop a new T-Shirt design for the DirtFish school.

14) We have found a way for anyone to learn how to controllably slide their car, even Vicki.

15) Bill has a terribly awesome idea for a cross platform race where part is rally is on the track at the Ridge. Cathy/Lucky Dogs, are you in? We would love to help if we can.

16) Rally training may also be a tremendous way to help any new driver from avoiding an accident by greatly improved car control and situational awareness.

17) How to get comfortable with the instability of driving at the limit.

18) How the principles of rally driving can compliment any f your driving kills you may have already learned on track or autocross’ing etc.

19) Zoe Lemons Fischer, our Bernese Mountain dog, makes another appearance during the podcast.

20) What happens if you lose track of what page of the trail notes you are on and how to give feedback from the drivers position.

For all your rally driving learning or to find a race in any area, please go to www.dirtfish.com<http://www.dirtfish.com> on their events calendar which covers any event that they are aware of at: https://dirtfish.com/calendar.

Or alternatively at the America Rally Association at:

https://www.americanrallyassociation.org

GHIT 0130: Nate Tennis from DirtFish Rally School about all things rally

GHIT 0129: Review of Our NASA Great Lakes HPDE at PittRace 2020

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.

GHIT 0129: Review of Our NASA Great Lakes HPDE at PittRace 2020