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Garage Heroes (In Training)

Garage Heroes (In Training)

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

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Guests & Interviews

GHIT 0178: Randy Pobst Returns for a Second Lap

  • Randy Pobst Pro Racing Driver
  • Randy Pobst in another Volvo

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.

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.

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 0175: Talking NaZCAR

with Jacob Simonsen

NaZCAR

Jacob Simonsen joined us to talk all things NaZCAR which is leading the way in New Zealand for opening up racing to everyone with their entry-level low-cost endurance racing series and he is also starting a series to graduate to for the more serious and faster cars and drivers called NaZCAR Pro.  NaZCAR was formerly the New Zealand affiliate of the 24 Hours of Lemons. Recently. it has split off to form its own brand, two racing series, and a licensing/sanctioning body for racing in New Zealand.  We would love to get to a race, or two, or three, with their series and hopefully we can put this together for 2022, but we aren’t sure exactly the route for our race car and trailer at this point, but we have time to make a plan.  We would love to help grow their series, it sounds like a blast.

  • NAZCAR where the cones strike back
    Revenge of the Cones
  • NAZCAR JAAAAGGGG
    NaZCAR Jaaaagggg
  • NAZCAR hampton downs finish
  • NAZCAR Community
  • NAZCAR entrant
  • NaZCAR team
  • NAZCAR raising money for charity
    NaZCAR: Raising Money for Local Charities

On this episode’s Dominating with Dawson, we go over one of the techniques that can be used to catch your car if things are getting out of control.  The technique involves inputting the correcting input, pausing for the brief time to where the car accepts the input and is near neutral and balanced and being ready to recover as soon as that point is reached.  It is sometimes called CPR or Correct, Pause, and Recover. 

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.

NaZCAR Racing Under The Lights

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. During the podcast Jacob is sitting in a beautiful area of the country, the sun is shining brightly, he is tan and warm. And the New Zealand race season is just starting up while we are in the midst of a big snowstorm.  We are so jealous.
  2. Jacob and his team are committed to making sure that there is a place for entry level, low-cost endurance racing. They also giving people a place to move to if they are faster, more serious, and possibly a bit higher/more midrange budget that has recently become a sanctioned National Championship Series.
  3. We go into the challenges and opportunities of racing in an area that is somewhat a remote “island”. A lot of ingenuity can be required to make and keep a race car running well, especially for endurance racing.
  4. Jacob shared a ton of great stories from past races in the New Zealand series.  Now we really have to get to one of their races.
  5. A great history of how racing in New Zealand has developed over the years and some of the things Jacob is looking at doing to help grow the sport by increasing inclusivity.
  6. The advantages of also being a licensing agency for racing in New Zealand.
  7. How the two-racing series will interact and complement each other.
  8. Jacob covers several of the tracks and events that they hold within the two series.  Somehow Bill asks about the logistics of racing so far away.  What could he be planning?
  9. We go through some of the highlight cars from the series and few wishes for future car entries.  Time to start building.
  10. Perhaps the best solution is to do an arrive and drive swap.  Now if we can only get a sister team in New Zealand. Oh, and it would be helpful to be allowed to travel again. Hopefully, they won’t expect us to drive like the Speedy Cop team.
  11. Vicki goes into the logistics of staying at or near the track. And also, how to set up the paddock for a race in NZ.
  12. Bill goes car shopping for cars to race in NaZCAR or to bring back and race in the US.  And no one is surprised.

If you want to follow the series

Facebook at NaZCAR

Website is Nazcar.nz

GHIT 0175: Talking NaZCAR with Jacob Simonsen

We had an earlier epsidoe with a team from the series here:

GHIT 0097: Nathan and Mike Howe from the Lemons New Zealand racing team Hooncorp

GHIT 0172: The Shifting Points Podcast Hosts

  • Shifting Points Podcast Hosts
  • Shifting Points Podcast

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

GHIT 0169: Brad Brownell about Radwood

Autopia 2099, and all things car related

  • Brad Brownell Like Fried egg (headlights)
  • Brad Brownell and a Porsche 911
  • Brad's Brownell Rocking the brightest car

Brad Brownell is an automotive journalist and is also well known for his involvement with starting Radwood and their newest car festival that is for electrified cars entitled Autopia 2099.  His passion for cars and the people who love them is evident throughout the episode, especially by the excitement he displays when talking about the cars that have come to events in the past and will hopefully come to festivals in the future. 

Threshold braking is often the braking method of choice on track, with there are many areas of a track that this may not be the best braking method to employ.  On this episode’s Dominating with Dawson, we try to go into examples where threshold braking is best used and several areas where there may be better options.

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 Brad’s Episode about Radwood etc. include:

1)  While talking about Autopia 2099, Brad confuses Roy Rogers with Buck Rogers.  (See it’s not just us, lol.)  It’s probably a result of talking with Jay Lamm too much about EV’s, lol.

2)  Brad is a car guy through and through who metaphorically devoured any car magazine he could when studying abroad in Spain.

3)  We think Brad has taken care of all of his spare time, yet he is looking for more things to do.  

4)  Brad finally brings a Bill & Ted reference to the podcast.  Long overdue.

5)  Brad goes into a full description of a Radwood event and the new Autopia 2099 festivals.

6)  We go over some of the highlight cars that come to mind and then ask the question everyone is wondering.  What is the white whale for Radwood that hasn’t come to the event yet?

7)  We tried to get the Radwood schedule for 2021.  Brad put up a good fight, but he wisely avoided getting too specific with the uncertain nature of the upcoming season.

8)  The trials of starting a virtual Radwood event.  It went well at first, but lost momentum after cars and coffees resumed. 

9)  Rad For Sale is a great resource that is coming soon where you can find and purchase various cars from the Radwood area of the 80’s and 90’s cars.

10)  Fake cocaine stories?  Yep, they are in here.  It was the 80’s after all.

11)  Radwood is threatening to export to several areas around the world.  We lobbied for many of our listeners favorites.  There are signs of life.  We even offered a sponsor to Brad to help with the costs.

12)  Potential partnering and sponsorship opportunities were suggested, and some may even come to fruition.  Pit Viper sunglasses was suggested more than once by our listeners.

13)  Bill misheard that Brad’s family had driven 300,000 miles on a lease.  Luckily, that was not the case.

14)  Brad has some of the most entertaining car history stories we have ever heard.

15)  Jennifer’s method of learning how to drive a manual transmission may have been exceeded by our guest.  It wasn’t on track, but it may be the winner.

16)  We may have the most surprising answer for the car decade driven for the rest of your life ever.  Hint, it’s not within the Radwood era.  Brad even avoided the Radwood era for his top 5, almost.

17)  If in Scotland, you may find Brad on his dream drive.  We are still looking for the exact road, but we will let you know when we find it.

GHIT 0169: Brad Brownell about Radwood, Autopia 2099, and all things cars

GHIT 0167: The Saabs of Anarchy

Endurance Racing Team

aka Aaron finally surrenders and agrees to come on

Anarchists? Maybe, but really good racing drivers.

We finally broke Aaron down and he agreed to come onto the podcast with the rest of the Saabs of Anarchy team that we race with in many of our endurance races.  They started racing in Lemons many years ago and each have had several Saabs for street use and for some reason they all thought it would be a good vehicle to endurance race.  Stephen and Ryan recently started a podcast called The Autoholic Podcast.  They are a great group of guys who enjoy racing and seeing what they can make a Saab survive (an impressive 8,000 racing miles and still counting).  They also theme pretty hard.  The team consists of the brothers Aaron and Stephen Diamond, Josh Tamarkin, Ryan Abranovic, and Don “The Saab Wizard” Rowe. 

The podcast and blog can be found at:   https://www.the-autoholic.com/

On this episode of Dominating with Dawson, we discuss the concept of leaving escape routes which is useful on the track and possibly even more so on public roads.

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 cover how the team originated and how they came to race Saabs and continue to add to the race car fleet, all still Saabs.

2)  In this episode, you also get a peak behind the counter on how we “make the sausage”. When Vicki reads a note on the Google Doc as a question to our guests.  Yes, it is official, we are still in training, lol.

3)  How the team developed the “Saabs of Anarchy” moniker (without ever watching the show). And how their themes have continued to develop over the intervening years.

4)  Vicki exercises her inner bulldozer, again.

5)  Some great stories from their teams first race and several other notable races, including a recent true 24-hour race in Houston with Travis Pastrana in the field.

6)  A 1993 car is referred to as a vintage car.  We are officially old.  Lol.

7)  Prepare to be besieged by the various Saab models through the years.  Your Google Fu may need to be put to the test in this episode if you aren’t already indoctrinated into the  Saab family of vehicles.

8)  We can’t help but pick on The Autoholic podcast for not being on iTunes Podcast network, but it is now so you can subscribe at almost everywhere podcasts are available. 

GHIT 0167: The Saabs of Anarchy Endurance Racing Team

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