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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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GHIT 0124: GHIT Flashback to Thompson 2018 with the 24 Hours of Lemons

Award Winning GHiT Team
We Won (well, at least we got an award)

On this flashback episode, we cover our team’s second ever race at Thompson with the 24 Hours of Lemons series in 2018.  How did the race go?  Well, it was our first ever two car race.  It was the first ever race for half of our team (Alan, Jennifer, Casey, and Pete).  It was our first time on track with the SpiderStang and our friends at Prompt Critical showed Liam and Cassian how to “adjust” the boost on the SpiderStang.  The Capri died and is still dead to this day.  We won the “I Got Screwed” award.  Details of our weekend and what we learned shall be provided.  PS Never show your new to racing teen age team mates how to adjust the boost.  Also, on this episodes Dominating with Dawson, we go over car control and what it means when someone refers to a car “rotating”.

  • SpiderStang Makes its Debut
Capri’s dies while the SpiderStang makes its debit

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, Jennifer, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT

Immature Endurance Racing Team

Highlights from the episode include:

1)  We quickly gloss over the new raspberry additions that Alan and Bill added to Vicki’s garden area.

2)  We cover from post-race of our first race at NJMP to the conclusion of our second race at Thompson

3)  How our team grew from our first race with 4 drivers to where we had a two-car team with 8 drivers.  Our preparation was not quite up to what it should have been. Especially with 4 additional drivers, two of which that had never driven a manual transmission before.

4)  The advantages and disadvantages of a teen drivers on a racing team

5)  How a perfectly performing a running car from our last race did not stay that way during the trip back from the track, to the great surprise of all involved. Carburetors are not our center of expertise and decided to let us know.

6)  How the SpiderStang theme came to be and what we learned in doing it.  It ended up looking great, but the process was not one we would recommend.  Sometimes you learn what to do and sometimes you learn what not to do.  We also mention how we built “Bondo”, a PVC and spray foam version of a mannequin to be used as Spiderman on our car.

RV Plumbing Fitting
RV Plumbing Fitting, not Automotive Grade, lol.

7)  Vicki’s trials and tribulations for her first time driving to a race with a race car trailer.  It did not go very well.

8)  How our first time trying to stay at the track went.  In a word:  poorly.  We have come up with much better sources for renting RV’s to stay at the track since then.

9)  How our new drivers first time driving went.  Quick checklist, panic attack at being strapped in, panic attack about going on a racetrack in the pit lane, first ever racing in the rain and heavy fog, and how to be a rolling chicane on the track.

10)  Prompt Critical helped us with our cars but gave away a bit too much information to Liam and Cassian.  They now knew how to adjust (read as increase to maximum) the boost of the turbocharger.  After all, more is better, lol.

11)  How to dial in a brake proportioning valve during testing.

12)  Alan’s chipmunk powered internet popped up again, a few times.  Bill had no idea on how to edit this, but it seems pretty funny.

13)  How we became an award-winning racing team at this event.  It all started with Jennifer and her license in driver tech inspection.  Well on our way to minor internet celebrity status.  Still on the way to this day.

14)  Things we learned at our first ever rain race and our first ever fog race, all at the same race.

15)  The story of the death of the Capri and the birth of El Jeffe, The Bad Hombre.

16)  We share the secret concoction to keep fog off your windshield that was shared with us by the Three Pedal Mafia.

17)  Alan treats his body like a temple?  And we finally found the root cause for why Alan doesn’t want to work on the Capri.

18)  Bill tries to avoid sleeping in the bathtub even though we won the coveted “I Got Screwed” award.

19)  Finally, we go over the post-race awards and the trials and tribulations we went through to get home afterwards.

SpiderStang Glows
SpiderStang Glows, Who Knew?

GHIT 0124: GHIT Flashback to Thompson 2018 with the 24 Hours of Lemons

GHIT 0122: NASA Great Lakes HPDE at GingerMan – Post HPDE Review

GHiT at the 2020 HPDE at GingerMan
GHiT at the 2020 HPDE at GingerMan

Jennifer, Vicki, and Bill check in to review how the recent HPDE at GingerMan went with NASA Great Lakes.  We are not in our usual location and are recording under a roof in a KOA near Traverse City Michigan so there may be a bit more background noise than normal but we wanted to record while everything was still very fresh, even though we were all pretty exhausted.

Post HPDE
Giddy after the HPDE this weekend at GingerMan

On this week’s Dominating with Dawson, we go into a discussion to clarify apexes and Ben’s approach and how the point of rotation can apply to your driving, including a discussion of Ken Hill s podcast and how we should approach this during he (at that point) upcoming HPDE at GingerMan.

Jen coming into turn 2 at GingerMan
Jen going into Turn 2

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, Jennifer, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast and team members in the GHiT Immature Endurance Racing Team

Highlights from the episode include:

1)  We compare the structure of this HPDE which focuses on drills and with the COVID 19 separation not allowing for in car instruction at this point.

2)  The advantages and disadvantages of a lead follow, especially if it was a group of three this became more of an issue.

3)  How quickly NASA Great Lakes is responding to the new rules and conditions on track in a rapidly evolving climate and imposed rules by each state and track.

4)  What aspects of racing Vicki and Jen learned at this HPDE and what skills they refined during the weekend.

5)  How HPDE track days allow for focusing on the correct and repeatable line vs our racing where we rarely use the line and handle traffic while driving both on and offline.

6)  The drills we used during the weekend, including running the track in reverse.

7)  How a great track walk with a very large group led to great discussion and options for approaching several sections of the track that even some national champion drivers learned more about racing options at GingerMan.

8)  Ways to practice on your daily drive to help improve your track driving.

9)  Apex everything!

10)  The comparative differences between the HPDE 2 and HPDE 1

11)  The skid pad – Winter driving event we had scheduled for earlier this year is again one of the negative highlights for our season

12)  Vicki and Jen both had issue with getting their vision farther down the track, especially in the lead follow used during their HPDE 1 group.

13)  Both Vicki and Jen both felt their speed progressively increased on the track throughout the weekend.  It really was almost as if we needed a 1.5 level for these COVID impacted events.

14)  In car video issues during the weekend impacted our results but we discuss what we think the video will show of our driving through the weekend.  We shall see once we download our videos later this week.

15)  There were some pretty spectacular cars at GingerMan this weekend and we could not help but pick a few of our favorites that came to mind in our racing hangover induced state.

16)  Bill tries to work through Jennifer’s acceleration issues during the weekend and hos hypothesis is that she isn’t fully revving

17)  Bill inserts his foot fully into his mouth.  He will likely be sleeping in the bathtub for the rest of the week.

18)  Vicki almost got arrested for stealing as one night by mistake.

19)  Somehow, Vicki and Jennifer were introduced to the term Camber during our track walk for the first time.  Not sure how we missed it up to this point but apparently we did.

20)   We also went through our thoughts on the track and several of our favorite and more difficult turns for each of us.

21)  Vicki’s favorite track of the weekend was NamregNig (GingerMan backwards)

22)  Bill tries to get out of the hole he dug with John Pagel.

A few hopefully helpful suggestions for NASA we think are:

1)  Groups of two students with each instructor max

2)  Group cars and instructors by style, i.e. low HP cars with low HP instructor cars etc.

3)  Perhaps a 1.5 level with less lead follow and more with the instructor in the position watching the student from behind.

GHIT 0122: NASA Great Lakes HPDE at GingerMan – Post HPDE Review

GHIT 0121: GingerMan HPDE with NASA Great Lakes – Our Goals Going In

Bill Going to GingerMan HPDE

Jennifer, Vicki, and Bill are going to be attending the NASA Great Lakes HPDE at GingerMan, a new track for our team.  This is a short episode where we cover our preparation for the HPDE and our goals and areas of focus going into the HPDE event.  In addition, we cover coasting on a race track (Hint:  Don’t) and how to avoid it in this episode’s Dominating with Dawson segment. 

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, Jennifer, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT

Immature Endurance Racing Team

GHIT 0121: GingerMan HPDE with NASA Great Lakes – Our Goals Going In

GHIT 0114: Time Travel – Our First team race at NJMP

We used our time machine to before we had a podcast and have a post-race review of the first every Garage Heroes In Training team racing event at NJMP.  We had a blast!  It was so easy that we doubled our team size and started racing two cars at each race.  All you need to do is prep the car, race the car, and then drive home.  Why was everyone saying this was hard?  We didn’t understand.  Yet.

On “Dominating with Dawson” we go over dive bombing, what it is, what it means, and how to avoid it, both from the passing and being passed perspective.

We thought we would have a post-race episode; it has been so very, very long.  We hope you enjoy the episode!

Part 2 with our Thompson race will follow shortly.  Hint:  It did not go nearly as smoothly.

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, Jennifer, and Alan
Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast
and team members in the GHiT Immature Endurance Racing Team

Highlights from the episode include:

1)  How our team came to be and how our first 2 (well really three, oops) cars started

2)  Alan fidgets in the background.  Must have been shiny.  He later goes for a walk in the bird sanctuary?

3)  Liam and Cassian’s teenage humility, mechanical talent, and dominant driving skills coming into the their first race.  The only question was who would get the fastest time of the weekend and who would finish second.  The rest of the field was inconsequential relative to their skills.  Lol.

4)  Chris bashes Liam and Cassian’s domination dreams for the weekend at the Friday practice.

5)  The rules do not preclude you from looking at a track map, nor looking at racing laps on the track before you go there.

6)  We proved yet again the age old adage that it is better to look good than to be good and we looked Marvelous!  Just ask Billy Crystal.

7)  Our plan for 30-45 minute stints was tremendous (to start our weekend) but we probably should have extended them after the first set for everyone.  It is still a great idea to start short on your first stint the first time out on track.

8)  A podcast first, Vicki said track out correctly for the first time ever.  Training is working!!!!!

9)  We talk about our first ever track walk and the value of it.

10)  All that we learned along the way.

11)  “We found our idiots!”

12)  What is a post-race weekend hangover and how to get tiger stripes on your left arm.

13)  I think Alan started wither sorting nuts and bolts or washing dishes.  Still tbd.

14)  We learned so much during our first race.  We were such newbies.

15)  All newbies can go racing too!

16)  A very good discussion of driver stints and optimizing for each driver and their experience level and preferences.

17)  Alan proclaims his love (and slight stalker tendencies) towards watching the in car video from Futility Motorsports.  Alan would appreciate a hand signal at the next race to say hi, if you could.

18)  We go over our bad initial training of Jen with driving an manual transmission.

GHIT 0114: Time Travel – Our First team race at NJMP

GHIT 0104: Liam Fischer’s Hot Ones Style Tribute Interview

Liam Fischer with Snowboard

On this episode we finally talked Liam into coming on the podcast by making it in the style of one of his favorite shows on YouTube, Hot Ones.  Since Bill has almost zero tolerance for spicy food, Vicki tagged in to assist with the interview and we also took advantage of the opportunity and covered several aspects of teenage driving, driver training, and racing.  If you prefer, there is a live video recording on our YouTube channel, creatively named Garage Heroes In Training.

YouTube Link

B.R.A.K.E.S. Logo

B.R.A.K.E.S. website:  https://putonthebrakes.org/

Our Dominating with Dawson segment for this episode add Heel-toe Downshifting to our jargon repertoire.

  • Vicki and Liam Fischer
Vicki and Liam Fischer

We hope you enjoy it. The episode is still going for Liam and Vicki, lol.

Also, we would like to the thank the team over at Hot Ones for their great YouTube episodes and wish them the best of luck.  They can be found on their channel at “First We Feast” or by searching for “Hot Ones” on YouTube.

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, Jennifer, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast
and team members in the GHiT
Immature Endurance Racing Team

Highlights from this episode include:

1)  Liam’s history of learning how to drive and eventually race cars, he is still relatively young at 19 years old.
2)  Some thoughts and suggestions on training a young driver in general and how it has been helped by racing and race training events
3)  We go into a fair bit of detail related to one of the best training events Liam has gone to with the B.R.A.K.E.S. program.
4)  Vicki breaks out into her “it’s like trying to nail jello to a wall” when talking about racing with teens on our team.
5)  Angry Goat Peppers “Hippy Dippy Green” sauce was very well received.  Two Thumbs Up.
6)  Why Bill gets father of the year a few years back
7)  We try to provide help and suggestions to new racers or soon to be racers throughout the episode.  Please remember to ask before hopping into the hot tub.
8)  Liam tries to compare the 2017 Toyota 86 to a stock ND2 Miata and a Stage 2 Flyin’ Miata turbo NB Miata, however the wings inhibited some of his brain processing capability and the virtues of learning to drive and daily driving a +/- 200 HP car.
9)  Vicki tries to come up with three good things about her first car.  And fails.  3 bad things were way easier.
10)  You start to see the affect of the hot sauces about 25-30 minutes into the episode
11)  Liam takes a walk about at 40 minutes in and can barely think to answer from then on.
12)  What car or cars got away for each of us.
13)  Liam reveals his love for the SpiderStang and Capri
14)  Da Bomb hot sauce lives up to it’s reputation
15)  “I feel like I met the devil” and “Why is it the tongue”
16)  Liam can’t speak and tries to use sign language, not the best for an audio podcast
17)  Liam wants a shot at the Datsun Z and Vicki surprises Bill with saying she wants to drive Black Betty
18)  The hot sauces apparently make Liam delirious when he comes up with his dream car to build into a race car.
19)  Vicki and Liam’s favorite and least favorite tracks so far.  NJMP makes both lists for Vicki.
20)   Liam calls Brad out for a round 2.  Silly boy.
21)  Liam’s brain left the building, several times during this episode
22)  Mental sort of gets a shout out, not really, but it was funny
23)  An endorphin infused discussion on endurance race craft approaches and ways to compete successfully, especially with longer stints.
24)  We end with Bill attempting to herd the two cats for a final question and then a delirious ranking of the sauces.

GHIT 0104: Liam Fischer’s Hot Ones Style Tribute Interview

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