Guests & Interviews

Perspective from a New Track Driver with Guest Adam Owens

GHIT Podcast episode #0187: From our Racing 101 series Part 7 with Adam Owens

Adam Owens with his first racing team — **Adam Owens at his First Race at PittRace with the Boston Whiners**

Adam Owens Racing Driver — **Adam Owens at his First Race at PittRace with the Boston Whiners**

Our podcast is trying to encourage people to try high performance driving and racing, so Vicki wanted to start a special series she calls “So You Wanna Racecar”. On this episode, we have Adam Owens on to talk about his first track events he had last summer. Adam has a lot of fresh memories from these events and is a good friend of our team (and potentially future team GHiT member). In talking with Adam, it is even more apparent that the biggest thing stopping anyone from trying to drive at an autocross or a track event is just saying “yes” and doing it.

Please let us know if we missed anything that you may want discussed in a future episode of our Racing 101 Series.

The outline for the series is:

Part 1: Building Your First Race Car (and options to not)

Part 2: Safety and Safety Related Equipment Needed

Part 3: Best Entry Points To Start Performance Driving

Part 4: Buying and Selling Cars (With Special Guest Lara Vernon)

Part 5: Going To and From The Event/Track – What To Expect

Part 6: Paddock and Pit – Best Practices

Part 7: Perspective of a New Driver (With Guest Adam Owens)

Part 8: Tools, Spares, Supplies Needed for a Race Weekend

Part 9: Common Issues All Drivers Will/May Experience in When On Track For the First Time

Part 10: Miscellaneous Topics (& Things We Forget to Mention Earlier)

In this episode, we cover the differences between driving at an HPDE or a track day where you are more or less driving as singular cars on track vs driving on track and racing wheel to wheel vs other drivers and cars. Neither is better or worse, but they are different, and both offer different challenges. Largely the key difference is increasing the number of factors you need to keep track of and this increase proportionately to the number of cars on the track and the length of the track (overall car density). In addition, there are often car specific details and peculiarities that will need to be considered. Ben puts it best don’t worry, “if you are on the track, you are already a winner”. Start slow with zero pressure, keep to shorter stints until you are comfortable with going longer while maintaining focus. We are looking for any great stories from your first-time racing on track. Please let us know for a great future episode.

You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc.

Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating or even better, a podcast review, we would greatly appreciate it and it would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving.

For instance, leaving an Apple Podcast rating is very easy. If you go to your podcast library, under shows and click on the podcast you can leave a (5?) star rating and enter your review.

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/Racing101Part7

We hope you enjoy this episode!

PS Please don’t forget that if you are looking to add an Apex Pro to your driving telemetry system, don’t forget to use our discount code for all Apex Pro systems you will receive a free Windshield Suction Cup Mount for the system, a savings of $40. Just enter the code “ghitlikesapex!” when you order. We have two systems for our team and Bill is looking to add a third for this season, pending CFO approval from Vicki. They are a great system and truly invaluable in safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross etc.

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) Adam has done 1 day at a racing school, 1 HPDE, and 1 race to this point and is an enthusiastic racing driver in training. For his day job he is the host of the local radio morning show and we have significant audio quality envy of his audio quality. Post Covid, we will be reviewing our techniques with him.

2) Without any prompting, Adam says one of the issues he had in starting was how and where to get started. We are a bit biased, but we know of at least one podcast that is specifically aimed at this.

3) Adam’s bucket list goal was to drive a car on the race track. Now he just wants to do it again! And again. And again.

4) We discuss with Adam the impacts of Covid on the past racing seasons and the upcoming 2021 season.

5) How Adam first went on track at NJMP. It was really as simple as a google search.

6) We also go into how Adam and Bill first “met” and how small a world it is in that one of the teams Adam has been on track with our good friends at Safety Third Motorsports.

7) Adam goes into how it felt to be on the track for the first time at an HPDE event and then his first time on track in a wheel to wheel race at a Champ car event. As always, it was a bit different than he expected.

8) Adams pro tip to this point: No Coffee before a stint.

9) We go into the advantages and disadvantages of renting/arrive and driving a car at the track. It’s not only a fiscal transaction but also a chief concern is the safety aspects.

Additional Information and Links:

Rental Safety Suits: http://www.racesuitrental.com/

Lucky Dog Seat Rental: https://tinyurl.com/LuckyMatch

24 Hours of Lemons Seat Rental: https://tinyurl.com/LemonsMatch

ChampCar Seat Rentals: https://tinyurl.com/ChampMatch

Adam Owens at Spec Miata School — **Adam Owens at the Spec Miata School**

GHIT 0187: Racing 101 Part 7: Perspective from a New Track Driver with Guest Adam Owens

GHIT 0184: A Race Bar Farewell to Jandy

After a very long delay in editing, here is the episode we recorded several weeks ago (pre-Christmas) as a farewell wish to Jandy before he went on a long-term deployment. We did not expect to take as long editing, but we easily had triple the number of guests we have ever had and that made things a bit complicated. This is a fun episode with a good bit of Storytime from past racing events. Good luck to Jim on your deployment. We hope to see you back soon. And thank you so much for your service!

In this episode of Dominating with Dawson, we give and introduction to the basic braking techniques and when you should use them on a track. The typical braking technique that you use nearly every time on a public road is never the proper technique when you are driving on a track and concerned about your lap time. But here we describe the main types of braking that you will work to use on track as your experience grows. We even go into a few techniques that you may not want to use initially, but we think you should be aware of, even on day 1. The main technique that you will want to use at first is threshold braking. Then there will also be a few turns where you only want to brush brake or even just lift off the gas pedal or throttle. In addition, we introduce the concept of trail braking. We do not recommend working on trail braking on day one for most drivers, but at the same time, we also don’t feel it is beneficial to be closed minded on only braking in a straight line. Especially if you have a more well developed braking proactive where you apply trail braking naturally. The key aspects to remember is to apply pressure quickly but not just stomp on the pedal to avoid upsetting the car or locking up the tires. Just as important is the concept of gradually releasing the brake pedal to help keep the car stable throughout the turn. Stomping on or popping off the brake pedal, as well as any of the pedals, is to be avoided.

As always, if you have any questions that you would like us to cover with Ben, please let us know in a (5 star?) podcast review or via email at [email protected] or in a comment on our social media.

You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc.

Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating or even better, a podcast review, we would greatly appreciate it and it would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving. For instance, leaving an Apple Podcast rating is very easy. If you go to your podcast library, under shows and click on the podcast you can leave a (5?) star rating and enter your review.

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/FarewellToJandy

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) It took almost 15 minutes just to herd the cats, so we put that as a “bonus” after the credits rolled

2) Guest roll: Jeff Caplan/Ron Mexico, Ann Moran/Giggles, Ruth Bates/Master Bates, Patrick Mchugh/Richard “Dick” Freelane, two secret commando guests who will go by Pat and Chris, Matty/Opah, Taylor Purcell/The Droner Boner, Estaban/El Banos, Lara Vernon, and our guest of honor Jim Andy Jandy Webb.

3) Story time upon story time ensues. Most are examples of what not to do, so we aren’t sure this episode will make you faster but it should make you laugh a few times. Always remmerbe: The Jandy Man can! and usually does.

GHIT 0184: Wishing a Fond Farewell to Jandy – With Race Bar

GHIT 0181: Sponsorship with Brian Bohlander

Returns to the Podcast to Discuss Seeking and Working with Sponsors and Sponsorships

Brian Bohlander with John Force Racing — This group knows a bit about sponsorships

When Brian was on with us last year, we started talking about identifying sponsors, working with potential sponsors, and how to get and treat sponsors to assist with the expenses related to racing. Since then, Brian has given several talks on this topic, as well as appearances on several podcasts. As always, our goal was to provide a complete summary of the area of sponsorship and allow you to be able to identify potential sponsors and find a way to help their business and your racing. If you use the strategies Brian covers and understand that it is not all about you, your speed, and your race wins, you should be able to start or grow your current driver/team/car sponsorship program. So technically, our podcast is not only free to you but may actually make or save you some money.

There is no Dominating with Dawson on this episode, but we will double up next Monday.

You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc.

Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating or even better, a podcast review, we would greatly appreciate it and it would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving.

For instance, leaving an Apple Podcast rating is very easy. If you go to your podcast library, under shows and click on the podcast you can leave a (5?) star rating and enter your review.

We hope you enjoy this episode!

PS Please don’t forget that if you are looking to add an Apex Pro to your driving telemetry system, don’t forget to use our discount code for all Apex Pro systems you will receive a free Windshield Suction Cup Mount for the system, a savings of $40. Just enter the code “ghitlikesapex!” when you order. We have two systems for our team and Bill is looking to add a third for this season, pending CFO approval from Vicki. They are a great system and truly invaluable in safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross etc.

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 on Sponsorship include:

1) Bill establishes his wish list for a dream sponsor and Brian quickly dashes it against the rocks and we move to the reality of the current sponsorship and business climate.

2) Brian defines exactly what should be considered to be sponsorship and provides several examples of how these relationships start and develop.

3) Sponsorships are sometimes monetary but can also be discounted goods or services.

4) When approaching a sponsor, the key is to try to determine what the sponsor is looking for and how you can help them grow their business. Try to look at it from their perspective before thinking of what you can give or what you want from them.

5) Advertising and media exposure should not be the focus of your pitch.

6) What are the three components that make the strongest proposal to a potential sponsor.

7) What is a potential sponsorship program, how to prepare one, and how to increase your likelihood of success. We also go into the importance of having an internal champion is getting the traction needed to start the relationship even before you have a sponsorship program.

8) We even go into an area that is often overlooked by our racing friends: what does the business want in return from the sponsorship.

9) We even go through a scenario using an example business and product with an amateur endurance racing team as a worked example. Just for instance. Hey, it’s our podcast, lol.

10) Tips and guidance on how to approach your first sponsor that you probably already know within your personal social network.

11) Getting, maintaining, and growing a sponsorship relationship is a significant investment of time and effort by your team or at least one team member and can really be a near full time job.

12) Brian also goes into several examples of sponsorship deals that he has witnessed during his professional life.

13) How to present you and your team to the sponsor and what you should do before even sending them any information.

14) As many would have guessed, Bill tries to get Brian’s help with his dream Slurpee sponsorship. And then we walkthrough a potential path to Vicki’s dream sponsor of Flyin’ Miata for her baby. The thought behind these would be to show a worked example and what factors and approaches that may be helpful with trying to prepare for and start the conversation.

15) How and where to start your first steps towards working with a sponsor.

16) UPOD – Under Promise and Over Deliver. Words to live by in racing and in the real world. (Meat Space). Its right up there with “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing”

17) Brian was also kind enough to offer several additional potential models that can be pursued instead of, or in addition to, seeking sponsorship.

18) Vicki goes off program and starts talking racing EV’s in endurance racing from out of nowhere. It is kind of like the line from the Talking Heads “Well, How Did I Get Here”

GHIT 0181: Brian Bohlander Returns to the Podcast to Discuss Seeking and Working with Sponsors

GHIT 0178: Randy Pobst Returns for a Second Lap

When we started this podcast, we had a list of guests that would compose our school of white whales that we dreamed of getting. One of the top was Randy Pobst. He is an excellent driver, instructor and television personality and has seemingly won every race event he has entered, sometimes multiple times. As good as a driver as he is, he is an even better person. He routinely attends amateur races, many times bringing his own “Flying Moose” team Volvo and walks the paddock and talks to everyone there and is always willing to help with friendly advice or to answer a question. To this point, our biggest regret for the podcast was the microphone issues we had early in the first episode with Randy as a guest at the Lucky Dog race in Portland at PIR. This time, we triple checked and we were able to have Randy on without any technical issues on our end. Please welcome Randy Pobst back to our podcast to talk all about cars and racing, and even a bit about motorcycles. We still miss his “Racing Line” series, and the “Head-To-Head” show is greatly missed. (It was hosted by two of our original white whales guests Jason Cammisa and Jonny Lieberman. Maybe we can trade a seat for an intro, lol.) Randy is so busy with so many projects, it is truly amazing that he takes the time to come onto our podcast.

On this episode’s Dominating with Dawson, Bill wanted to talk about what a dead pedal is and how it is used on track. We aren’t sure why he thought this was a good segment topic, but it really did turn out well.

You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc.

Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating or even better, a podcast review, we would greatly appreciate it and it would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving.

For instance, leaving an Apple Podcast rating is very easy. If you go to your podcast library, under shows and click on the podcast you can leave a (5?) star rating and enter your review.

Randy Pobst and Cathy Fuss — Randy Pobst with Cathy from Lucky Dog

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) Autocorrect strikes again on Randy’s earlier email in a most hilarious way. Perhaps a future theme option. And then Bill breaks out into a “Love Boat” reference. Most of our listeners may need to use Google. And then we break out into bad college food habits. We do eventually return to cars at some point. Promise.

2) The endurance racing talk begins, and we are talking before the Champ Car race where Randy has already posted a video or two from the race on his YouTube channel. Great video to watch.

3) Randy has a teleporter. It is the only way he can be at so many track events. We saw him in Charlotte and the next thing we know, he is posting from Laguna Seca and then the next day he is back at Charlotte in the Flying Moose.

Randy Pobst in the Flying Moose — Randy in The Flying Moose

4) It is story time about the time we shared a race car with Randy at Portland. It was our first time doing an engine change. Why is the Capri taking so long? We did it in less than one day there.

5) It appears that Randy has even more race car projects going than we do. That is equally comforting and troubling at the same time, lol.

6) Randy goes into several stories about driving, racing, and learning to work with cars, both mechanically and driving. If you don’t get faster from this episode, you should listen to It again. Randy is a firm believer in constantly learning ad fully admits he is always “In Training”.

7) One of our favorite quotes ever, – When you are in trouble, why would you want to crash faster.

8) We discuss what you should be looking at and Randy’s preference for saying “Eyes In” vs that more standard “Eyes Up”, same meaning but a different reaction or perception by the student driver.

9) How karting can help you with your driving but can also hinder your progression if you do not take into account the differences inherent in the different suspension and drivetrain variables in each.

10) The difference Randy sees between racing for a team and leading a race team at an event.

11) We eventually worked our way back to where we discussed tires and their importance in racing and your car’s performance.

12) Randy is an adopter of our proposed racing series with 500 treadwear tires from Walmart as the spec tire for the series. We wonder if Douglas would be interested in a partnering sponsorship.

13) A story about a lemons race car with a stripper pole? Yep, it’s in here and it wasn’t just a decoration.

14) How to become a sponsored race driver? Randy goes through how he did it and what may work for you.

15) Randy shares several of his thoughts on getting a car to be faster and handle better. This is one episode where if you apply what we discuss with Randy, you will be faster.

16) Our questions are like apexes for Randy, he gets really close to them, sometimes touches on them, while he drives by at high speed, lol.

17) Randy discusses modern cars and the plusses and minuses of the increasing horsepower and the maturation of the many driver aides.

18) He even puts up with us and our Fast and Furious Storytime Questions.

19) Vicki starts to discuss front wheel vs rear wheel drive cars with Randy. She is still not a fan but maybe she will listen to Randy.

20) Randy was also kind enough to share a secret approach he uses at Watkins Glen.

Randy Pobst with Vicki and Jen from Garage Heroes In Training — Randy Pobst with Jen and Vicki

Special Post Game Bonus: Vicki and Randy talking about their ADD’s impact on their racing and about skid pad training.

GHIT 0178: Randy Pobst Returns for a Second Lap

GHIT 0172: The Shifting Points Podcast Hosts

All About the Shifting Points Podcast and Hosts

We are enthusiastic podcast listeners and found a podcast hosted by our guests called Shifting Points. Their podcast is also aimed at helping people get started in our sport. Luckily, they approach it from the perspective of autocross, so we haven’t lost our entire audience to them, yet. Since we all share the same passion, we had to invite them onto our podcast and talk all things cars and driving. They are a great group of ladies and we will be going up to an autocross event with them this season and plan on doing our best to get them into endurance racing. Why should it be an « or » when it can be an « and ». “And” is so much more fun. Please welcome Kathy, Jess, and Audra to the podcast.

You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc.

Also, if you could give us a 5-star rating or a podcast review, we would greatly appreciate it and it would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving.

For instance, leaving an Apple Podcast rating is very easy. If you go to your podcast library, under shows and click on the podcast you can leave a (5?) star rating and enter your review.

On this episode’s Dominating with Dawson

We go into two types of drivers that we see, those that tend towards overdriving their car and those that tend to underdrive their car. If you are learning or instructing a driver, it is useful to see how to best approach driving improvement by understanding the differences between these two personality approaches to high performance driving. It is also useful to see how the other half lives and learns. Neither is right or wrong and both approaches can learn to be really fast. The only difference is in the path that they tend to follow and the way they increase their speed.

We hope you enjoy this episode!

PS Please don’t forget that if you are looking to add an Apex Pro to your driving telemetry system, don’t forget to use our discount code for all Apex Pro systems you will receive a free Windshield Suction Cup Mount for the system, a savings of $40. Just enter the code “ghitlikesapex!” when you order. We have two systems for our team and Bill is looking to add a third for this season, pending CFO approval from Vicki. They are a great system and truly invaluable in safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross etc.

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) It seems our two podcasts have almost the exact same taste in cars. Seems like a future autocross battle in the making. Hopefully, this summer. Probably wise to place your bets on the Shifting Points podcast team for a clean sweep victory.
2) We go through the history of how our ladies started autocross driving, met each other and how this eventually ended up with them starting a podcast together.
3) Both podcasts started out knowing little about fixing and working on a car and have progressed rapidly with help from car friends and YouTube.
4) We review how to enter an autocross local to you, where to find them, and what is involved. The barrier to entry is as close to zero as any type of driving event. Autocross is a great way to get a taste for high performance driving with almost any car and very little risk, cost, and prep required.
5) Tons of Mini stories. Apparently, Mini’s have feelings. Lol.
6) Both groups go into why we started podcasting and some of the benefits and growing pains involved.
7) It took a bit of time, but we eventually did make our move to convince them to try endurance racing. Vicki was less than subtle, but did you really expect anything else from us by now? It may end up with an all-female driver GHiT team this year. Bill will have to be relegated to sous chef for the weekend and let the talented drivers show their stuff.
8) We mined for a few tips and tricks from the Shifting Points podcast team to starting up and entering your first autocross event. Autocross is truly accessible to everyone interested in having fun in a car. Most of the prep is for the driver’s comfort with the weather and food. Your car is probably already good to go as it is, but getting it checked over may be a good idea. Well, you will likely have to clean out your car, but that is usually a good thing, especially for our cars. Lol.
9) Kathy and Bill share a certain talent related to torquing lug nuts. Stories were shared. Hopefully, they will both grow out of it soon. Lol.
10) Tips on how to find any autocross events within the area you live or may be visiting. Also, if concerned, the autocross events are classed by car and many times there are classes for first time/new drivers.
11) Audra’s tap root car story broke Kathy
12) Jess just released an album with her band. It would be great to hit the top hundred list with the latest release from The Strattones! It might even pay for her next autocross event.
13) Jen asks her next question while on mute. Eventually she figured it out, lol.
14) Kathy may have discovered a way to get red wine out of cloth seats with a combination of red wine and Diet Coke. Try at your own discretion.

GHIT 0172: The Shifting Points Podcast Hosts