Garage Heroes (In Training)

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

Driver Education

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:

  1. Pitt Race
  2. Charlotte Roval
  3. Gingerman
  4. NJMP – Thunderbolt
  5. Road Atlanta
  6. Watkins Glen
  7. Laguna Seca
  8. Mid-Ohio
  9. Thompson
  10. Monticello
  11. New Hampshire
  12. NJMP – Lightning
  13. 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.

Nate Tennis
This man needs stock in a car wash

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

GHIT 0126: Breaking “Barriers” That Are Keeping You Off Track or From High Performance Driving

Strap in, its a long one

Christian “Mental” Ward joins us for a very special episode where we try to break down any barriers that are keeping you from getting started and trying high performance driving or going out to a track or autocrossing etc.  As with every Mental episode, we have tons of stories and go very, very long.

So strap in for a great episode where we show various ways for you, YES YOU, to start TODAY!  PS this will also apply to getting some improved training opportunities for the new drivers in the family.  Avoiding an accident is the best safety system.  If you enjoy taking the fun way home from work/school, if you enjoy going around exit ramps, but you haven’t tried anything further, this episode should show you how to break through any barrier that prevented you from REALLY enjoying your car.

“That guy can sure spin a yarn”  –  Jeff Wakeman

Barriers Broken during this episode:

1)  I don’t have a racing license

2)  I don’t have a car to race with

3)  My car isn’t ready

4)  It’s too far away

5)  I am too intimidated by the people or the other cars/may car, or the track

6)  I don’t know how to get started (Hint you can contact us or E1R etc.)

7)  I’m a ______ e.g. Girl, too young, too old, out of shape, the wrong shape etc. etc. etc.

8)  I will one I _____ (insert any number of wonderful wish list items)

9)  It costs too much

10)  I don’t have time

11)  Ego issues

12)  Where can I find where I can ______

Our Dominating with Dawson segment for this episode goes into the often overlooked art involved with downshifting, how and when to do it properly, how to practice during your daily driving, and how it can help your car last quite a bit longer during a race.

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)  References to Hamsa and Matt

2)  Hot tub rule #1 at the track

3)  Details of the Deer Incident/Inside Joke can be found at

4)  Your race car is never, ever finished.  Ever.

5)  Waiting to get your car faster or a faster car will actually impede your learning progress.  Counterintuitive but absolutely true.

6)  Teen driving training discussion and resources (a few links below)

7)  This episode may contain some tough love, but it’s all with love.

8)  We take advantage of the opportunity and hit Mental with the Fast and Furious questions, finally

Descriptions:

Autocross:  Racing usually in a large area around a temporary course usually composed of orange cones

HPDE:  High performance driving education – Where you can learn to drive better, usually on a race track Track Night in America:  an event held at a local track where you can drive your car around a race track and dip your toe into the pool

iRacing:  a brand of sim racing on a computer that the focus is on more realistic racing than a traditional racing game.

Lots of links:

SCCA:  https://www.scca.com/

NASA:  https://www.nasaproracing.com/

Track Night in America:  https://www.tracknightinamerica.com/

Go Carting:  Lots, use Google

24 Hours of Lemons:  https://24hoursoflemons.com/ Lucky Dog:

Home

AER:  http://americanenduranceracing.com/

Champ Car:  https://champcar.org/

WRL:  https://www.worldracingleague.org/

Race Seats for Rent:  Lots (Google) including The Dog Pound for Lucky Dog and OK Stupid for Lemons seats and Kingpin Motorsports.

Driving Experiences:  Lots, use Google

Grass Roots Motorsports magazine Link:  https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/guest-blog-open-letter-lgbtq-car-enthusiasts 

No Money Motorsports:  https://nomoneymotorsports.com/2020/06/09/the-14-most-effective-tips-to-spend-less-on-track-days-and-racing-maximize-your-track-time/

Motorsports Reg:  https://www.motorsportreg.com/

Teen driving Training near Atlanta:  https://atlantamotorsportspark.com/teen-driving/

B.R.A.K.E.S:  https://putonthebrakes.org/

Race Image:  http://www.raceimage.com/

Racers Parts Wholesale:  https://racerpartswholesale.com/

GHiT Handy Links:  https://garageheroesintraining.com/racing-resources/

EVO School:  http://evoschool.com/

Team O’Neil Rally School:  https://www.teamoneil.com/

Skip Barber Racing School:  https://www.skipbarber.com/

DirtFish Rally School:  https://dirtfish.com/

Bondurant:  https://bondurant.com/

The “Marks” clubs, e.g.

BMW CCA:   https://www.bmwcca.org/

PCCA:  https://www.pca.org/

Audi:  https://audiclubna.org/

No Man’s Land Trailer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c0dj11dn98

The Wraith Trailer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC1DRl26Guo

GHIT 0126: Breaking “Barriers” That Are Keeping You Off Track or From High Performance Driving

GHIT 0123: Bill Griffin NASA Racing Driver and Jennifer’s HPDE Instructor from GingerMan

Bill Griffin

Bill Griffin has worked his way up to through the HPDE ranks to where he is a racing driver as well as an instructor, actually Jennifer’s instructor from GingerMan a few weeks back.  We talk with him about his history and progression from having zero experience in performance driving to where he competes regularly with NASA and Grid Life as well as instructing when he can.  Bill grew up liking racing as many people who grew up near Indianapolis did and eventually began driving himself when his work and family life allowed, proving again that it is never too late to start to enjoy performance driving and even racing.  He is a very relaxed and knowledgeable driver and Jennifer loved having him as an instructor.  We cover how the NASA Great Lake GingerMan HPDE classes went without being able to have in car instruction and offer several options that may be ways to improve the teaching methods without right seat instruction as an option due to COVID 19.  The event was awesome, but as with everything else, you can always improve, in everything.  You can follow him on Instagram at Bill Griffin.

Bill Griffin on Track
Bill Griffin on Track

On one of our simplest episodes of Dominating with Dawson we review crabbing or cheating into a corner.

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 cover Bill’s progressions from newbie track driver and not terribly mechanical to a regular racing driver and instructor (who has been to the track 5 weeks straight and counting) (Very jealous)

2)  What is a competition (or race) license, as well as several methods and paths towards getting one.

3)  Bill seeks guidance to how to schedule a season of racing with the rest of our team.  Perhaps an appointment for hearing testing is in order.

4)  Bill also goes into a quick review of some of the exotic sports cars he gets to drive with Extreme Experience and their clients.  This is especially useful if you are taller, like Bill who is 6′ 4″.

5)  Bill (the other) also goes over the potential limits in size for a driver in a Mazda Miata MX-5.  We have seen one with a cage that fits the owner that was 6′ 8″ and swallowed Bill up quite easily.

6)  Bill even goes over why he chooses to remain instructing the HPDE 1 group of students.

7)  We cover how the NASA Great Lake GingerMan HPDE classes went without being able to have in car instructional and offer several options that may be ways to improve the teaching methods without right seat instruction as an option due to COVID 19.  The event was awesome, but as with everything else, you can always improve, in everything.

Bill Griffin with his pupils
Post HPDE Team Photo

8)  Suggestions included 1) potentially using in car radios to communicate to the students, 2) lead follow groups of only two students, 3) only using partial lead follow (allowing students to assume lead position and instructor to follow), 4) perhaps grouping the instructors and cars to match performance, 5) using better/more universally defined hand signals, 6) more use of different cones for initial track learning, 7)  perhaps adopting an unofficial “HPDE 1.5” level/group within the HPDE 1 population, 8) incorporating the use of in car video, 9) positioning instructors with notebooks around the track to view at significant turns or areas of the track to provide feedback to the classroom or debrief sessions, 10) potential pathways to getting increased options for right seat/in car instruction.

9)  The tricks and differences in being an instructor in a lead follow environment versus being in the right seat and the potential for lead follow groups to become longer groups, which can make some of the instruction into a bad game of telephone.

10)  Riding a bike vs walking the track during a track walk.

11)  Several tips for new to track or high performance drivers.

12)  Bill unprompted supports Bill with the prep required before coming to the track as well as using 2-3 max goals and a few comments for each track session, especially during an HPDE event.  Now if we could only get the Wilson sisters to agree, lol.

13)  How your first few HPDE events can feel like your brain is drinking from a fire hose and how to potentially reduce this effect (like following the ideas from #12 above)

14)  Bill F. tries to sneak in a Good, The Bad, and the Ugly segment on how Jennifer did during here HPDE event.  Bill G. is much too nice to comply, but we will keep trying.

15)  How driving in a lead follow instruction environment make lengthening your vision particularly difficult.

16)  Tips for everyone (and us) on their next HPDE event.  Ours will be at Pitt Race in late July with NASA Great Lakes.

17)  The importance of focusing on consistently hitting your track marks and letting the speed build naturally.  Because it will.

18)  How teaching and instructing has helped Bill’s racing and how Racing has helped him as an instructor.  Hopefully, it will help our Bill when he gets there, lol.

GHIT 0123: Bill Griffin NASA Racing Driver and Jennifer’s HPDE Instructor from GingerMan