Guests & Interviews

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:

Pitt Race
Charlotte Roval
Gingerman
NJMP – Thunderbolt
Road Atlanta
Watkins Glen
Laguna Seca
Mid-Ohio
Thompson
Monticello
New Hampshire
NJMP – Lightning
Pocono

GHIT 0135: Ben Dawson Dominates on This Episode

GHIT 0134: RaceBar is Back to talk about the Charlotte Roval Race with Lucky Dog

Race Bar on Track at the Charlotte Roval — **Race Bar Invaded the Lucky Dog Race at the Charlotte Roval**

Race Bar on Pit Lane — **Race Bar Invaded the Lucky Dog Race at the Charlotte Roval**

At our recent Lucky Dog race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, we were lucky enough to be in the paddock next to RaceBar. Yes, they are back. Jeff/Ron even took a stint in our race truck. On this episode we go over the entire event from their perspective and how Race Bar helped us throughout the weekend. As we covered in our earlier race review episode, the entire event was a blast and Race Bar was a large part of the fun. Jeff Caplan/Ron Mexico, Jandy/Daddy, Patrick McHugh/Richard “Dick” Freelane, and Kaitlyn “Pineapples” Morgan joined us for this episode. We were greatly outnumbered.

We deal with hydration at track days, races and on the track in our Dominating with Dawson segment for this episode. We cover various options and what we have found to be effective at the track and in some of the highest temperature and humidity days we have seen both at the track, in the paddock and especially in the car which is usually much hotter than the local environment, especially when dressed in your safety and fire rated gear.

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) Apparently, we have been abducted by RaceBar. Who knew.

2) It took less than four minutes for us to absolutely lose control of the episode. Did we ever get it back. Still tbd.

3) Was Charlotte Intimidating? Nope. Was racing on a big oval intimidating? Nope. Was racing with Lucky Dog intimidating? Nope. Was RaceBar being next to us in the paddock intimidating? Oh yes, yes it was.

4) We had a great time hanging with Race Bar but, we really had to tag out around 10 or 11 in order to function. Not sure how they do it.

5) RaceBar strongly endorses the Lucky Dog series and it balance of good racing and lots of fun. This was the best race ever for RaceBar. Ever.

6) We talk about the great highs and lows of endurance racing, sometimes at the same event in the same hour.

7) The pleasures of being serenaded over the radio by Dick Freelane as he drove around the high banks at Charlotte during the race. Ron Mexico has a book recommendation that you may choose to ignore.

8) I think we made an impression on RaceBar with our track food skills. It made their top list. Twice. We may be drafted to be on site food services. we know Jeff will bring his own fork if needed. Lol.

9) We talk a bit about how our team tries to deal with issues and our occasional setbacks. The priority should always be the driver and the team. We can build more cars.

10) There appears to be a plan for the race truck/The Bad Hombre/El Jeffe. Not sure we know what it is or if we have a vote. I think we lost all voting rights once Ron Mexico got into the race truck and drove it around the Roval.

11) We cover our race team theory and philosophy at the current point in our learning curve.

12) Race Bar has a list of he top 47 highlights from the race. It is quite a list. Quite the list indeed.

13) Tips for ways to help and get started at a race if you are ever interested.

14) Why track security woke Cathy up in her Hello Kitty PJ’s around 2 AM one evening. What happens at Race Bar, stays at Race Bar.

15) Why you should always say no to a story that starts with “Do you want to see a man in a van by a river…”

16) Confirmation of who took the “L” off of our “Mr. Pool” E36. Unfortunately, it does fit the car, even more now.

17) Stories of driving the Citrus Race Truck without power steering trying to catch another Race Bar vehicle.

18) Slap cup drinking games and rule interpretation seemed to vary and why Lonnie may have had a slow start one morning.

19) How Deaf Power Racing came to race with us at Charlotte. There are certain advantages to not being able to hear “Baby Shark” all weekend. Potential options for adopting them into a Race Bar west.

20) Apparently there is a plan. We are now aware that there is a plan. We still don’t know the plan, but we think we probably should at some point.

21) We reveal the story of the arrival and unloading of El Jeffe at the garage when we returned. I’m not mentioning any names since I don’t want to have to sleep in the bathtub. Worth a listen. And thank you to the listener who suggested we change our name to “Garage Heroes In Traction”. Thank you Blake.

22) We may have plans for a Summit Point track event.

23) We attempt to CSI the potential reasons behind our Chevy S10 keeps eating Steering Pumps like Seymour from “The Little Shop of Horrors”

24) How the Oooga Booga method for fixing the Fuel Pump worked and gave us a few more hours on the track before we needed to replace it the next morning.

25) How the speaker flew off during the race and how much of a fan some of the corner workers were of their music selections during the race. Also, we go into the joys of having a 120 dB stereo system in your race car that is remote controlled by people that are several hundred miles away from the track.

26) A Good, the Bad, and the Ugly to be remembered.

27) Ah Hah moments we all learned from the Charlotte race.

28) A good discussion of Jennifer’s accident and how it feels after a bit o reflection. A good thing for all potential racers and racing teams to hear.

29) Potential next steps for our team to grow.

30) VIR sweeps the best track ever for Race Bar. And we get a bit of history of how VIR came to be.

GHIT 0134: Race Bar is Back to talk about the Charlotte Roval Race with Lucky Dog

GHIT 0133: Lucky Dog Reviews Their First Ever East Coast Race at the Charlotte Roval

We were lucky enough to get four of the Lucky Dog team to discuss with us the Lucky Dog series and how their first ever east coast race went at the Charlotte Motor Speedway on the Roval. Jason Miles, Briana Miles, Chris Wilhelm, and Justin Parcher were our guests for this episode. Please snug up your racing harness, this one is pretty fun but actually has some good content to learn from and may improve your team.

On this episode of Dominating with Dawson we cover braking speed and how to manage your speed and adjust to different types of brake application and brake capability of different cars and especially when at a new to you track. Vicki and Jen excel at terminology and jargon, as always, lol. Then we get into the way to approach new tracks and turns, as well as a warning to be careful at our then upcoming race at Charlotte. Unfortunately, we ended up proving Ben to be prophetic.

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) Jason works in the pits for IMSA and was obviously less than impressed with the GHiT team’s mechanical skills and performance in the garage.

2) How the Charlotte race went and the impact that the COVID 19 pandemic had on the plans and the race itself.

3) What its like inside the huge Charlotte oval/roval vs the more normal road courses that Lucky Dog typically runs on the west coast and how it was for a Lucky Dog track.

4) Differences between what Lucky Dog typically sees on the west coast vs this east coast event.

5) The tracks impressions of Race Bar and some of their music selections. They are still puzzled by how the car can run for so long with the music at their typical volume.

6) How the Flying Moose sounded going through the pits towards the end of the race. What Randy Pobst and his team were able to do and the speeds they could get out of that car were amazing.

7) Special shout out to all the tow crews at Lucky Dog. It even carried over to the event at Charlotte.

8) Bill makes a joke about finally not having Eric at an event. It’s kind of went over a lot like our cars. Maybe we should change our name to “Led Garage Heroes In Training”. Maybe not.

9) How our Lucky Dog race coincidentally crashed into the background of the NASCAR race program broadcast in the background.

10) How Jason almost reenacted the lightning scene from Caddyshack at CMP.

11) What works and what doesn’t seem to work in a Lucky Dog race.

12) The Deadpool E36 is still not fully regenerated. Fingers crossed.

13) we have a challenge in finding Chris’ Nova (and bringing it to a Lucky Dog race) that he had purchased three times, so far. It had Oregon Plate QRL-231 to aid in your search. Let’s bring it to a Lucky Dog race so he has to tech inspect it, again.

14) Jason demonstrates why females are often referred to as the smarter half of a relationship.

15) Jason missed out on a Porsche opportunity, perhaps he might want our 2 and three-quarters 944. Still available. Just let us know.

16) If we want to torment Justin, please locate Oregon license plate 910-AFC and get it ready for a Lucky Dog race. Last he saw the car, it was likely halfway towards passing safety inspection.

17) Vicki dropped a Star Trek reference. Perhaps she is a Trekkie or a Trekker or whatever the politically correct term is now.

18) Jason’s story got Bill very concerned when he thought Jason said that the fastest he ever drove was on a Ferry.

19) Justin may have the biggest boat for his highest ever speed we have ever heard so far.

20) Vicki and Jen now want to race a taco truck. Don’t ask.

GHIT 0133: Lucky Dog Reviews Their First Ever East Coast Race at the Charlotte Roval

GHIT 0131: All about tires with Danny van Dongen of Hankook Motorsports

Danny van Dongen is an accomplished racing driver and has started several businesses in Europe and the US, including a racing school, a racing series, as well as successfully starting up Hankook Motorsports that offers tires for racing in the US to nearly all forms of both amateur and professional racing series. We would like to thank Danny and the team for their RS4’s our tire of choice for endurance racing and the official tire of both Lucky Dog and WRL endurance racing series. We try to summarize some of Danny’s racing career initially and then we move into the area of tires, their construction, and their proper use in racing. This is hoped to be a good introduction to tire technology, hopefully we can have Danny back for a 201 level discussion.

On this Dominating with Dawson episode, we talk about the monster under the bed that many do not acknowledge, fear as a factor in going fast and going faster. Fear is literally a totally natural thing and affects everyone at some point. We talk about it, where it may arise, and several ways of dealing with it. This may be a first of several parts in this area.

You can follow Danny on Instagram at @DannyvanDongen

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) How his racing experience has helped with both car testing and development as well as tire testing, also complimenting his business development in both areas.

2) How his race at the 25 Hours at Thunderhill went last year and the pleasure of a mostly night race on a very muddy track. His skid school training was really pushed to the limit.

3) How the different Hankook Motorsports tires are designed and manufactured to be longer lasting and more stable, perfect for endurance racing.

4) A discussion of the benefits and challenges in designing a tire, both slicks/racing tires as well as the 180 tread wear tires we race.

5) The basics of tire designations and understanding the letters and numbers typically on a tire such as 245/40 ZR17 vs 225/50 VR16 etc.

6) Tips on tire and rim selection and the importance of the interaction of the rim width and the tire tread width.

7) Important considerations like rim width to tire width, tire profile, tire loading, tire circumference interaction with the car gearing, etc.

8) How the mass of a tire affects the heating up of the tire and affects the endurance/stability of the tires.

9) Whether you need to break in a tire, how to break it in, and why the cars are always swerving back and forth at the beginning of a race.

10) How best to pre-heat your tires on pace laps. Also, please avoid the marbles, nothing good can come from them.

11) Heat cycling, proper tire break in, and storage of tires for racing slicks and possibly RS4’s. Sunlight is not your tire’s friend.

12) Optimum tire temperatures and hot tire pressures for the RS4’s and similar tires.

13) Whether heat cycles are an issue on RS4’s, as well as racing tires and slicks.

14) Bill reminisces about his bad Armor All experience when he was much younger.

15) The importance of tire temperature and pressure and general windows for the Hankook tires. Including how to measure and interpret the tire temperatures when testing at the track, as well as suggested car or tire changes to respond to tire temperature variation across a tire or from side to side and/or front to back.

16) Temperature ranges and pressure ranges for slicks and R comps tires and how it varies by the compound you select.

17) Autocross users may need to look at using tire warmers to alleviate the problem of thermal transients and never reaching a true steady state temperature or pressure.

18) Jason from Lucky Dog has been keeping a secret from us related to using RS4’s in the rain on a track. We will have to talk with him at Charlotte, lol.

19) A good discussion of filling the tires with air vs nitrogen vs carbon dioxide. The key is keeping the water out so that it wont boil in the tire affecting the stability of the air pressure during a race.

20) What is involved in keeping tire records and how to actually use the information. Sounds like Bill will be making another excel spreadsheet immediately.

21) We tried to get some breaking news on the new RS5’s but we did find two new size additions that are coming soon. All NDA’s stayed intact during the episode.

22) Vicki brings up the time when Bill lost a tire, again. She just can’t help it whenever an opportunity arises.

23) Vicki is jealous of the Lucky Dog RS4 tires having a Lucky Dog sticker and is trying to figure out how to do it with our logo. Still tbd but she is all over it.

GHIT 0131: All about tires with Danny van Dongen of Hankook Motorsports

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.

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