Guests & Interviews

Aaron Jongbloedt

GHIT 0292: Aaron Jongbloedt – Starting in and Comparing Various Racing Types

Aaron Jongbloedt from Jungle Motorsports joins us for this episode and we discuss all things racing, even ice boating. Aaron seems to race in all series and all types of racing, we may even be able to make it to an ice racing event with him post plague. Since he has such a wide range of experiences, we try to cover many of them as possible to show how each series and club can vary and each offers a different blend of driving and racing flavor. The best thing you can do to start is try as many as you can and you will undoubtedly find one that matches your interests and maximizes the fun. Plus an impromptu race car intervention, lol. We also review the potential path of volunteering as an avenue to start getting into racing and saving on the amount of money needed.

If you would like to help grow our sport and this 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 our podcast a (5-star?) rating, that would be greatly appreciated. Even better, a podcast review, would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving and we would greatly appreciate it.

For instance, leaving an Apple Podcast rating is very easy. If you go to your podcast library, look under shows. Then click on this podcast. Here 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. They are a great system and truly invaluable in safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross etc. The recently released second generation systems and app increases the capability of the system greatly.

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights for this episode include:

1) Why he selected Spec Miata as a primary racing class and why he also includes and enjoys other types of racing.

2) Aaron opens up the trap door to a quick summary of our racing cars and HPDE cars. We need to get a bit more focus. Time for a garage sale. We may have a race car (or truck) for you, lol

3) Vicki is not familiar with the track at Brainerd, but after our discussion it sounds like we will be soon, lol. Top tip: Also obey the team CFO.

4) Some of the plusses and minuses of racing Spec Miata and how it has influenced hos racing approach and philosophy.

5) Are there significant differences between instructing in autocross and instructing on a race track? Also a discussion of the potential benefits of autocross before driving on track. The skills are complimentary but the approach can be quite different in some ways.

6) Aaron discusses his experience with almost all of the amateur endurance racing series and some of the new ones starting this season.

7) As expected, we also discuss Spec Miata and Vicki is still intimidated with the concept of bump drafting. This will likely change with time. We have a NB Spec Miata car that needs a bit of love to race this season, but we are hopeful. Bilstein shocks may be in our future.

8) Why does Aaron seem to prefer arrive and drive (Seat Rentals) for endurance racing events. Bill has always had concerns and questions that has prevented him from doing many arrive and drives. We discuss several of them.

9) Money saving tips and insight into what is required and what is avoidable to be competitive in the series, locally and nationally.

10) Somehow we return to the topic of our cars. It appears we are in the midst of an informal race car intervention. lol. (Probably long overdue)

11) We also have a discussion of the storage required for a racing car and team. Aaron is curious about the hangar that we use as our teams primary hub.

12) How volunteering at events can minimize or potentially eliminate the cost of racing.

13) How our “press” claim was received by a racing series. (as you would expect)

14) Just when you thought it was over, we get into a discussion of some of the local midwestern tracks that Aaron suggest we try. As always, the answer is “yes”

To follow Aaron further:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aaron.jongbloedt

His blog: https://junglemotorsports.blogspot.com

GHIT 0292: Aaron Jongbloedt – Starting in and Comparing Various Racing Types

GHIT 0291: Mark Petronis – Answers of F&F Story Time Questions – Part 2

GHIT 0291: Mark Petronis – Answers of F&F Story Time Questions – Part 2

Mark Petronis has set track many records and won more than his share of races but recently had a very serious on track incident and thankfully it looks like he is in the process winning his recovery battle as well. We talk with Mark about all things racing and how he is a great example for the importance and effectiveness of the current safety equipment that is available to every driver. In Part 1, we go over Mark’s history as a driver, his accident and the safety equipment that literally saved his life. Part 2 will largely be Mark indulging us and answering our fast and furious story time questions.

Mark’s story is another great example of the great people involved in racing

If you would like to help grow our sport and this podcast:

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

To follow Mark Petronis further:

AMT Motorsport: https://amtmotorsport.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.petronis

GHIT 0291: Mark Petronis – Answers of F&F Story Time Questions – Part 2

Adam Jabaay Talks GRIDLIFE

GHIT 0289: Adam Jabaay Returns to Talk All Things GRIDLIFE

GLTC, Sundae Cup, and their HPDE Program

Adam Jabaay returns to talk all things GRIDLIFE. Adam is the co-founder of the GRIDLIFE event series and the series is designed to be the track events that the GRIDLIFE team would want to attend. We had a series on last year that covered several of the wheel to wheel GLTC (Grid Life Touring Cup) series. During this episode, we go over the 2022 series and several of the other events in the series including their time attack (fast lap counts) racing series and the GRIDLIFE HPDE program. We have a plan to attend our first GRIDLIFE event this year and will be participating in the event at Lime Rock. If you haven’t heard of GRIDLIFE, it is definitely not a typical track event and in many ways, the track events are only the beginning of the festivities.

If you would like to help grow our sport and this podcast:

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 for this episode are:

1) We introduce our favorite master carpenter and the Norm Abrams of racing.

2) Bill gives away one of our upcoming 300 episode listener quiz questions.

3) Adam and Bill share some podcast anecdotes. There is more post episode if you are in need of curing your insomnia.

4) Bill is very jealous of Adam’s upcoming Ice Battle racing event. Where we has been very cold enough but it does not seem to be an option anywhere nearby. Ice racing remains on our post plague bucket list.

5) Ever wonder what is GRIDLIFE? Adam does a great review if you are not already familiar.

6) We had a chance to talk with ADAM about the history that led to the creation of GRIDLIFE and has allowed them to become a very popular sprint racing series that has live streaming viewer numbers that would make many professional series jealous.

7) Adam goes into the recent changes to the GLTS series to a 200 treadwear tire series including the thought process that led to the change.

8) What did Skip Barber think of GRIDLIFE and what will be going on at the Lime Rock event.

9) How GRIDLIFE has grown and how you can participate in the event.

10) How GRIDLIFE organizes their HPDE groups, events, and instructors.

11) Bill cannot wait anymore and we get into the GRIDLIFE Sundae Cup series. Our car is being prepped for the Lime Rock event and several HPDE’s this year.

12) What is coming for GRIDLIFE and how the east and west coast can expect to see events in the 2022 and more in 2023.

13) Bill launches his appeal for a wheel to wheel Sundae Cup race. Logistics are always a concern, but we would be there. Even better for an enduro.

14) We almost got off without going into RV life, but as expected we did not try terribly hard.

To follow Adam and GRIDLIFE further:

GRIDLIFE website: https://www.grid.life/

Slip Angle Podcast: http://www.tracktuned.com/slipangle

Instagram: @gridlifeofficial or @slipangleshow

Facebook: @GRIDLIFEOfficial or @SlipAngleShow

GHIT 0289: Adam Jabaay Returns to Talk All Things GRIDLIFE

Mark Petronis – On Safety – Part 1

GHIT 0288: Mark Petronis – On Driver and Car Safety and Recovering from an On Track Incident – Part 1

Mark Petronis has set track many records and won more than his share of races. But recently he had a very serious on track incident and thankfully it looks like he is in the process winning his recovery battle. We talk with Mark about all things racing. He is a great example for the importance and effectiveness of the current safety equipment available to every driver. In Part 1, we go over Mark’s history as a driver. Then we review his accident and the safety equipment that literally saved his life. Part 2 will largely be Mark indulging us and answering our fast and furious story time questions.

Mark’s story is another great example of the great people involved in racing

If you would like to help grow our sport and this podcast:

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. When purchasing any Apex Pro system, you will receive a free Windshield Suction Cup Mount for the system. This is a savings of $40. Just enter the code “ghitlikesapex!” when you order. They are a great system and truly invaluable in safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross etc. The recently released second generation systems and app increases the capability of the system greatly.

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights for this episode are:

1) We cover Mark’s impressive driving and racing history. We then review some of the details of the accident last May at NJMP.

2) A great discussion on the often overlooked risk and racing responsibilities of the driver and car owner.

3) How Mark’s recovery is going and the future prognosis for him going forward, both his health and his racing future. Hint, his return to the track is coming up in March.

4) Lessons learned from the accident and how Mark is using this to help prevent something similar to anyone else in a high performance driving event.

5) A deep review of some of the safety options that are available and how many of them should not be viewed as optional to your driving and racing on track.

6) Fire suppression systems and the option of having them be self deploying if needed. Many older systems can be modified to add this capability through an addition to the system. We will be doing this in all our cars and replacing those systems that cannot be upgraded.

7) Why you should always keep your helmet visor down. In addition, we review some of the details of racing suits, boots, gloves, and balaclavas. It is amazing the protection they are designed to provide..

8) Jennifer and Mark talk about the personal recovery. Each has some of the various internal affects that a person has after a racing incident.

9) We also go into some of the improvements Mark and his team have made for many of the modern Corvette platforms.

10) Why the C5 or C6 Corvette may be the best performance value for the dollar available today. We even try measuring the relative smiles per dollar of a Corvette and a Miata.

11) Mark’s dedication to the importance of safety has led to his industry leading incentive he offers on all their performance and safety products. We will be heading up for a new suit as soon as the Survive the 25 Challenge is successfully completed.

To follow Mark further:

AMT Motorsport: https://amtmotorsport.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.petronis

GHIT 0288: Mark Petronis – On Driver and Car Safety and Recovering from an On Track Incident – Part 1

Caroline Yun on Driver Progression

GHIT 0286: Caroline Yun – Driver Progression

Caroline Yun is an avid high performance driving enthusiast who has recently worked her way up through the Southern California NASA HPDE ladder system and has begun her wheel to wheel and time trial (TT) racing career in Honda Challenge. She recently completed here first ever endurance race at Sonoma with the award winning Initial Dingus team. As Caroline is a relatively new driver and racer, we thought we would discuss with her the experiences that she has had with working her way through her very common car progression/growth scenario, some of the plusses and minuses of racing with your partner, how it has been to be a female driver and the first driver in her family’s perceptions of a lady race driver.

If you would like to help grow our sport and this 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 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!

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights for this episode are:

1) It all started with a haunting….

2) We get a second opinion on the recent 24 Hours of Lemons race at Sonoma and since this was Caroline’s first ever wheel to wheel racing, it is always exciting and surprising, especially when most of your experience is in HPDE events. Caroline and her team even took home some hardware from the event.

3) Caroline gives a great description of what she learned and how her fellow drivers were at the event.

4) We go into the differences in front wheel drive and rear wheel drive vehicles and the pleasure of driving a variety of configurations.

5) It is surprise time for Jaime and we end up making decisions for him for this season. Where we end up was exciting and perhaps even more surprising.

6) We learn how Caroline learned about track driving and several stories of her first impressions and tips for others looking to try their first event.

7) Caroline’s story of how important physical fitness is to driving in general and specifically for Caroline. It even directly led to a new Mazda Miata MX-5.

8) We share the plusses and minuses of racing with your significant other.

9) Some of the potential complications of explaining that you are racing to your family and friend circle.

10) We have a ton of fun (at Jamie’s expense) talking brake pads.

11) Caroline and Bill make plans for another racing event. We love plans.

To follow Caroline on Instagram: @msawsmr

GHIT 0286: Caroline Yun – Driver Progression

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