Driver Education

GHiT 0033: Pre-Race Prep & Track Options

Several low cost options to get on track

Jennifer going out on track at our recent HPDE

We are midway in prepping for our first race of the season and wanted to review some of the details involved with preparing for a race weekend. If you want more detail, we have an excel file that we made that covers a lot of things you may not need but should at least think about bringing, a great resource to cover all your potential pre-race prep needs. (Located here)

We also cover several of the lower cost options that are available to get anyone (meaning YOU) out on the track if you wanted to try it out. These included high performance driving education/events (HPDE), autocross and autocross education events, driving experience opportunities where you take a few laps in a rented car, or race car, or super car of your choice, racing schools, our predominant choice of low cost endurance racing, various âmarkâ series like Porsche Car Club, BMW, Audi, etc. etc., national and local events run with NASA and SCCA, drag racing, test and tune nights, drifting, spec series like spec Miata or spec E46 etc., rally courses, cannonballs, One Lap of America, and many others.

We covered what to expect, how much it may cost and what you get from each of the options. We hope at least one of these fits your interest and budget. Once you come up, we are very confident you will find it to be an amazing experience and probably should plan on your second event as soon as possible.

We are sorry to keep Vicki awake for this episode.

GHiT 0033: Pre-Race Prep and Cheaper Ways to Get Out on the Track

GHiT 0032 with Ann Deane

Special Guest Racing Driver and Instructor

Race Prepped Porsche Boxter at NJMP — Ann Deane at the Wheel

We first met Ann Deane at our recent HPDE with Hooked On Driving at NJMP a few weeks ago. She was a participant and also an instructor for the weekend. She was Jennifer’s coach for most of the morning and Vicki’s coach for the afternoon sessions.

Vicki going on track with Ann Deane — Vicki and Ann going out on track (as soon as Froggy allows)

In addition, she was kind enough to take both Mia and Jacob out onto the track for each f their first track hot laps in her race prepped Porsche Boxter. Both kids had a blast and the “hook” is firmly set in the next generation of Garage Heroes In Training!

In addition to being and excellent driver for several years, Ann routinely drives competitively herself and has an upcoming rae at Lime Rock in a few weeks.

During the discussion, we talked over a wide variety of topics including:

Racing and learning to race cars
Things we could have done and still could do better
Wish list items and plans for the coming season
How to approach a new track and what to do to learn a new track, we used Road Atlanta as an example for our preparation for Pitt Race next weekend

We also go over how the day went when teaching Vicki and Jennifer at NJMP. Items reviewed included:

Clutch and input timing for a manual transmission during a turn
Heel and Toe
Goals for each stint
Breathing is not optional in racing
Cameras/GoProâs, data and video uses for learning

We hope you enjoy the episode as much as we did and wish her good luck in her upcoming season and beyond.

GHiT 0032: Ann Deane Special Guest Racing Driver and Instructor

GHiT 0031 EVO School NJ

EVO Performance Driving School Review of Event from Met Life/Giants Stadium in NJ

Cone Crushing Trophy — Autocross Racers In Training

From the Garage Heroes Team, only Alan and Bill were able to be late additions to the EVO Performance Driving school event held last week at the new Giants Stadium in New Jersey. This is a school that Sam Strano recommended to us for learning overall car control and trying to learn the skills involved in autocross.

Alan had competed several years ago in autocross but had obviously forgotten a bit as he went off course for two of his first three laps at the event, lol. This strategy allowed him to easily win the most improved driver “award” for the weekend.

Bill drove the Toyota 86 fresh off its weekend at NJMP last week, while Alan was driving his stock BMW Z3 from nearly twenty years ago.

The day started off with decent weather that degraded as the day went on. The temperature dropped from the 50’s to the low thirties throughout the day, the wind went from breezy to 30-40 mph continuously, and the rain came to add more fun to the party.

In spite of mother nature’s efforts, both of our times improved throughout the day and they even looked better in spite of the decreased grip due to weather and track debris and fluids from the cars.

Vicki led the way on this episode trying to dig out any details she could from Alan and Bill who were like clams after the event for fear of “Burning up pod”.

We met some new friends, saw some exceptional cars, and the instructors were all highly decorated and experienced autocross drivers. In this episode you will find out what is currently costing Alan and Bill time on the track and hopefully that can help you to improve as well. We will be going again to the event in Seneca NY in a few weeks.

GHiT 0031: EVO Performance Driving School Teaches Bill and Alan how to Autocross

GHiT 0030 Hooked On Driving

HPDE Track Day at NJMP

Greetings from our track days with Hooked On Driving high performance driving education event this weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP). NJMP was the site of our first ever race as a team and we hoped that the experience would help most of us during the HPDE event that starts our 2019 driving season.

Heading to NJMP for Hooked on Driving HPDE

It all started with a bang as Liam and Bill were the first drivers on Saturday. Bill provided an overview of the entire day from the hotel. The Hooked On Driving team and their coaches were excellent, both days.

NJMP Liam and Bob Z — Liam and our friend Bob Z battling down the front straight

Jennifer and Vicki went out for our team on Sunday and we were able to have a session by session review after each segment on Sunday. During these interviews, you can listen to how the day is going, how their driving is improving and what they are going to work on during the next session.

Vicki going out
Jennifer going out
Vicki coming back in

Especially exciting was that our youngest members, Jacob and Mia were able to get out on the track for a few laps in the right seat of a Porsche with one of the instructors. I think we were able to successfully “set the hook”, lol.

Jacob’s First Hot Lap
Mia’s First Hot Lap

We had a blast at the track and finally 2019 season has started. We each learned a lot about driving, racing lines versus teaching lines, checking oil while the car is running, etc, lol. We hope you enjoy the episode. We think it is one of our best so far.

And thanks again to everyone from Hooked On Driving, NJMP, and everyone in attendance for a great weekend.

GHiT 0030: Hooked on Driving HPDE at NJMP

GHiT 0029: HPDE Preparation

Or For Your First Track Day

Hooked On Driving with a Mini — We will be learning with the Hooked On Driving team this weekend!

Vicki and Bill go over what goes on at a high performance driving event (HPDE), how to prepare for the event, and what to bring etc.

Our season kicks off with a weekend of HPDE at New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP) in Millville New Jersey this weekend. We took a page from our friends at Everyone Racers podcast and “ran it live”. We will likely have an update episode from the track this weekend. If you are in the area, please stop by and say hello. We would love to hear from you.

Cars for the Weekend

We will be bringing 4 of our cars to the weekend. Our first choice is the Mazda MX-5 Miata that we have with a turbo and some other performance mods, mostly from Flyin’ Miata

Our second car will be the Toyota 86 with TRD equipment from the dealer and otherwise stock

Liam at his First Track Day with the Toyota 86 TRD

Just in case the MX-5 has an issue with it being a convertible, we will also be bringing our John Cooper Works Mini Cooper as our first back up vehicle for the weekend.

Mini JCW with Mia — Our Mini JCW with our mini driver to be Mia

If things go really poorly and we have any unexpected issues, our final choice for the weekend with be our BMW M240i.

Car Selection Philosophy

Some of you may be asking why we have this as our preferred order and why we selected these cars instead of some of our purpose built cars we use with Lemons, AER, Lucky Dog, etc.

Lets discuss the race car question first. It comes down to reliability and current capability. We want to maximize our time on track and the instruction we can get while there. We have asked for coached to ride with us for the entire time on track. Most of our race cars only have one seat, so that isn’t the most comfortable idea for our coach. Its often referred to as right seat driving and most of our cars don’t have a right seat. Second, the race cars are either not ready to race yet or aren’t as reliable as we would expect from our road cars.

As far as the priority list above, well it all really comes down to our drivers levels and our team philosophy. We are more concerned with our driving ability improving than our actual lap times. (It is practice, not a race after all) So we would prefer int he following order:

Manual Transmission
Rear Wheel Drive
Handling & Braking
Acceleration
Top Speed

Since all of our current racing cars and trucks are rear wheel drive with manual transmissions, the first two items allow us to most closely simulate racing conditions during our HPDE. We equally rate handling and braking as our top considerations for maximizing both learning and fun at the track. Much lower on our list is acceleration, but next to turns where you feel g-forces side to side, we do admit to liking the feel of the g-forces pushing us back into the seat.

The last/least important item on our list is the top speed. Think of it this way, is you are driving on a highway at 60 or 70 mph or in a commercial plane at 400-500 mph, it really doesn’t feel a whole lot different. Second, especially in a learning situation, all that the higher speed does is make things happen faster and therefore less time to adjust, react, and learn the differences during a turn or other maneuver. It is our thought that allowing for more time to learn, we will learn more, or at least have the possibility.

We hope Alan comes back to join us on the podcast soon. But to be honest, we would rather have the Capri ready for our upcoming race, lol.

Thanks again from the Garage Heroes In Training!

Here is a direct link to the show:

GHiT 0029: Prepping for an HPDE or Your First Track Day

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