Garage Heroes (In Training)

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

Races

Jaime Garcia’s Sonoma Endurance Race Review

Starting Line
hardware

GHIT 0270:  Jaime Garcia from the Race FF Podcast Reviews their Sonoma Endurance Race

Jaime Garcia from the Race FF podcast returns to review his recent endurance race at Sonoma with the 24 Hours of Lemons.  His team prepped their Toyota Corolla for the race for the last several weeks and had a great time at the event.  They had a series of good and bad events during the race but ended up bringing home some well earned hardware.  Was it a perfect race?  Of course not.  We aren’t even sure that is possible, but each race you learn a bit more and how to solve a few more problems.  The Sonoma race was no exception.  Please download and learn what Jaime’s team battled through and learned.  They were a great group and really exemplified the true spirit of an endurance racing team.  We hope to see them on the track at an upcoming event.

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!

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 from this Sonoma Endurance Review episode include:

1)  How did the prep go for Jaime’s team

2)  Jaime learns the joy of actually having to travel to a race track as opposed to his normal local tracks. 

3)  How did check in, tech inspection, and BS inspection go 

4)  Why you should listen to the announcements and attend the rookie and drivers meetings.

5)   How Saturday go and what did the team have to do after their first racing day.

6)  Overall thoughts on the Sonoma track

7)  What their team learned and what they are looking to improve.

8)  Our traditional Good, Bad, and the Ugly

To follow Jaime and his team, please go to:  

Instagram:  @raceffpod

His podcast is:  Race FF Pod

The teams Vlog is on Kelvin’s YouTube channel at:  

https://www.youtube.com/user/driftmonsterr

GHIT 0270:  Jaime Garcia from the Race FF Podcast Reviews their Sonoma Endurance Race

Jaime Garcia Races Wheel to Wheel

Jaime
Race FF Pod
Jaime Dominating
But its not front wheel drive

GHIT 0262:  Jaime Garcia from the RaceFF podcast returns to Talk about his 1st wheel-to-wheel race and upcoming Endurance Racing Prep

Jaime Garcia returns to discuss his first Honda Challenge H2 race which was his first ever wheel to wheel race and satisfied his lifelong goal.  We also talk through his upcoming preparation for his new 24 Hours of Lemons endurance race.  In Jaime’s last episode he was driving back his car after getting the cage installed so we had to see how his event went.  Now we need to figure out how to get a photo of his (short) cross country exploits during the event.  (Jaimie, please send us a shot or a link to where it is)(Christmas is coming you know, lol). 

We also start discussing some of the differences in racing a front wheel drive car vs a rear wheel drive platform.  Vicki is still going through some PTSD from her last race at Laguna Seca with Lucky Dog Racing League.  We also discuss Jaime’s upcoming preparation project for his endurance race. 

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. This includes the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc. Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating, that would be great. Even better is 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, simply under shows. Then 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.  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 from this episode include:

1)  Jaime discusses his recent H4 Honda Challenge race, how it went and what he can improve.  He also goes into some of the car improvement projects that he has upcoming. the goal is to improve his car’s capability and hopefully improve his competitiveness within class.

2)  We discuss potential things we have learned about towing vehicles to the race track and a story of poor dealer service that led to our switching in tow vehicle (and Bill crossing off our local Ford Dealership, even though he is still eyeing a GT 350R longingly)

3)  Tips we learned about renting car trailers from U-Haul.

4)  We walk through Jaime’s endurance race car plans and provide some tips and things we have learned, most the hard way, lol.

5)  Jaime has an experience with the local carp parts store brake pads from his last endurance race.  We try to appeal to his budget consciousness to upgrade to our brake pad of choice.

6)  Our introduction to the anime show “Initial D”.  Time to do some homework.

7)  We discuss the aspects of theming, tech inspection, and bribing the judges to help make up for experience and potential black flags.

8)  Several tips on racing seat installation and making accommodations for a team of different sizes, heights and lengths.

9)  In the past, we have had three drivers have claustrophobic experiences/panic attacks when getting strapped into the car.  We discuss several things we have found to help if this happens.

10)  Critical spares and parts to bring tot he track with you and how to decide what to bring and what not to bring.  We have a bit of a philosophy for each of our cars that dictates what we bring to an event.

11)  Bunches of little tips and tricks for detailing the last few percent of your car.

12)  We start planning a 2022 meetup and race.  Perhaps a honeymoon race?

GHIT 0262:  Jaime Garcia Returns – Wheel to Wheel

GHiT Garage, Podcast, and Team Update

GHiT Logo Faded

GHIT 0235: GHiT Garage, Podcast, and Team Update

The Garage Heroes In Training team has had quite a summer on the track so far and with our racing season beginning to wind down, but far from done on the track, we thought we would bring everyone up to speed with where we are with the podcast, how our driving and racing is progressing, and what our car related projects are going into the fall and winter repair and build programs.  This is a quick update episode, but we have so many moving balls (people and cars) it may appear random or confusing at points.  However, there is a plan, and as always a spreadsheet or two. 

In case you missed it, our podcast format has changed recently due to popular demand.  Monday is our normal podcast release day for the week.  On Tuesday our Dominating with Dawson segment for the week will be released as its own stand alone episode.  Wednesday may or may not have a bonus episode as needed.  This could be a Way Off Our Topic episode (WOOT), a race review from the weekend, team updates, garage updates etc.  We hope you enjoy the new release format.  Thanks again.  Special thanks to Chris and Chrissie from the Everyone Racers podcast and Three Pedal Mafia for stopping by last weekend to advise us on the 1993 Honda build and our path forward for the next few months.  

Vicki is looking into what she could/should do with her currently turbo’ed 1999 NB Miata.  Any suggestions?

If you would like to help the podcast,

You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice. This includes the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc. Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating. 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. There you can leave a (5?) star rating and enter your review. 

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/ThompsonPart1  

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

GHIT 0235: GHiT Garage, Podcast, and Team Update

Race Review of the Thompson 2021

Part Duex

  • Audra and Vicki
  • Jennifer
  • Audra
  • Vicki
  • Strapping In

GHIT 0227:  Our Race Review of the Thompson 2021 – Part Deux

We finally have the whole El Jeffe team together to discuss the Race Review Thompson 2021 with all the ladies drivers.  Elizabeth and Audra joined Jennifer and Vicki to talk about the race, how things went over the weekend and if/when the ladies will be returning to the track together.  The results of the race were exceptional.  The only issues we had that were racing related were due to the initial issue we fixed on Saturday.  Considering that this was Audra’s first ever wheel to wheel race and Elizabeth had only entered two prior events, we are viewing this as a great win for the team.  Hear all the details, even some of the super secret ones.  All in all, each of them grew as drivers and learned a ton this weekend!  

Still waiting for Alan’s SpiderStang update but there was something shiny near his house so, …….

Still Shiny Squirrel Free Unfortunately

PS  If you can’t tell, Vicki was very excited to have the team back together to discuss the race.

If you would like to help the podcast,

You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice. This includes the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc. Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating. 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. There 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 from this Race Review Thompson 2021 episode include:

1)  Some of the shocking differences that Audra experienced in her first wheel to wheel race.

2)  Elizabeth and the team discuss some of the unforeseen benefits of having the seat adjusted for their size and not making due.

3)  Audra goes over our race strategy for her first stint on Saturday, as well as getting to practice on Friday before the event started with a much lower car count on the track. 

4)  Elizabeth (and everyone) also found the practice helpful but really got a lot out of the (amazing) track walk with our friends at the Three Pedal Mafia.

5)  Find out if we have grabbed Audra from autocross?  We hope not.  We love both.

6)  The ladies discuss how important vision and spatial awareness is, especially as the speed increases or the traffic increases.

7)  We also address how each driver is a member of the team and how each car is really also part of the team and (usually) work together on track.

8)  The entire team began to see the benefits of having spotters on the track for each other, as well as the race craft.

9)  Audra tries to convey the chaos of a race weekend.  We have done so many events that we don’t even notice anymore.

10)  The team discusses several ways of managing traffic, as well as passing and being passed on a fairly crowded track.

11)  How the ladies did in the paddock and garage prep by the team.  We were a bit out of our normal groove with all the unintended changes to our team pre-race, but everything went really well even though we had 3-4 different issues this weekend, one was for the last 5 or so races.

12)  Audra and Elizabeth also pointed out hat we missed a few opportunities to refine our tire pressures through the weekend.  Added to our list.  Along with a few other items we learned or noticed this race.

13)  Pit Stops.  We did a few, lol.  Black flags, not so much.

14)  Apparently, Audra is also part of the Connecticut tourism board and they were having a meeting in our paddock.  Who knew?

15)  It looks like Bill is going to have to find someone to drive with him (if the ladies have anything to say about it).

Don’t forget that you can follow Audra and her co-hosts on the Shifting Points Podcast.

GHIT 0227:  Our Race Review of the Thompson 2021 – Part Deux

Race Review Thompson 2021 Farewell
Puny God

Our Race Review of Thompson 2021

Part 1

  • Elizabeth Jolly Prepped and Ready
  • Vicki Prepped and Ready
  • All Ladies GHIT Team

GHIT 0224:  Our Race Review of Thompson 2021 – Part 1

Our ladies team came to Thompson and even though the entire prep week blew up in our face, the weekend as a whole went fantastically.  Vicki and Jen go over some of the highs and lows of the race on this episode.  We are hopeful for a part 2 with Audra and Elizabeth, and perhaps even Alan, to go over their thoughts on the weekend.  The El Jeffe race truck stumbled a bit at the beginning of the weekend, but we were able to work through the problem eventually with a bit of help from our friends in the paddock and we may have solved the intermittent electrical problems that have popped up over this entire season.  More to follow next week.

If you would like to help the podcast,

You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice. This includes the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc. Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating. 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. There you can leave a (5?) star rating and enter your review. 

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/ThompsonPart1  

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 from Thompson 2021 Episode include:

1)  We started with several of the prep debacles, for once they did not involve prepping the car, but unfortunately it involved just about everything else.  

2)  Since it was Audra’s first time racing wheel to wheel and Elizabeth’s first time in the truck, they thought it would be a good idea to get acclimated on the Friday practice.

3)  Thankfully, this allowed us to start to work on the engine bogging issue.  We go through the symptoms and what we tried to solve the issue.  We may actually have found the true problem and we also ended up with a lot of spare parts.

4)  Our generator issue continues and we aren’t sure if it is us or the rental RV’s.  Do electrical problems only occur to teams that aren’t electrically literate?  Asking for a friend.

5)  We try to cover how the SpiderStang team of Alan, Bennet, Quinn, and Elazar went, but left a lot of the details out for a future episode with them.

6)  Thoughts on the track walk and the track in general.  The data shows that both Vicki and Jennifer made great strides during the race, each setting personal bests by several seconds.  Jennifer may have even conquered her issues on the long straights.  We will confirm at our next event.

7)  Any guesses on how many black flags for the ladies?

GHIT 0224:  Our Race Review of Thompson 2021 – Part 1