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Safety

Our First AER Race at PittRace

AKA Bill’s Worst Race Weekend Driving – Ever

Skunk Oil E36
Bill's Head

GHiT 0319: Race Recap: Our First AER Race at PittRace – Part 1 – AKA Bill’s Worst Race Weekend Driving – Ever

In the first part of at least three parts of a series, Bill goes over his first ever race with AER (American Endurance Racing) at PittRace last weekend.  AER is a series that targets more serious racing and the cars on track were quite impressive.  However, the team did well and we actually came in second in class on Saturday. 

Bill on the other hand had his first ever bad track day and probably drove more in his head than on track.  We thought it would be useful to do a quick race recap covering what happened on track and in his head, as well as what we are going to do and change going forward.

This episode deals only with Bill’s perspective and his internal issues.  While he is still processing the weekend, 

Also, Ben calls in for an emergency DwD episode to talk Bill off the cliff.

On an upcoming Part 2, we have another episode coming that will cover the race from the perspective of a friend who was working with AER this weekend.

On an upcoming Part 3, we will have the entire team from the weekend if schedules allow.

We also look forward to a future AER specific episode as well.

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 we would appreciate that very much.  Even better, a podcast review, would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving and we would appreciate it.

For instance, leaving an Apple Podcast rating is amazingly 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  If you are looking to stream or save your integrated telemetry/racing data with you video, Candelaria Racing Products Sentinel System may be the perfect solution for you.  We are in the midst of installing the system in two of our cars.  If this sounds like something that may help you and your team, please use our discount code “GHIT” for a 10% discount code to all our listeners during the checkout process.

PS2  Please do not forget that if you are looking to add an Apex Pro to your driving telemetry system, do not 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 invaluable to safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross, etc.  The recently released second generation systems and app increases the capability of the system.

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

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

GHiT 0319: Race Recap: Our First AER Race at PittRace – Part 1 – AKA Bill’s Worst Race Weekend Driving – Ever

Cage and Safety Inspection

– Especially for an Arrive and Drive

Cage inspection

DwD 0318:  Cage and Safety Inspection – Especially for an Arrive and Drive

Arrive and drives can be a great way to go racing.  In this episode, Ben and Bill go into some of the things that you should look for when driving a new to you race car on track.  This includes general mechanical and safety inspections with a significant discussion of the cage inspection.  We also go into some of the things that you as a driver should do in every car prior to each race to be able to respond quickly in case of emergency.

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 we would appreciate that very much.  Even better, a podcast review, would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving and we would appreciate it.

For instance, leaving an Apple Podcast rating is amazingly 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  If you are looking to stream or save your integrated telemetry/racing data with you video, Candelaria Racing Products Sentinel System may be the perfect solution for you.  We are in the midst of installing the system in two of our cars.  If this sounds like something that may help you and your team, please use our discount code “GHIT” for a 10% discount code to all our listeners during the checkout process.

PS2  Please do not forget that if you are looking to add an Apex Pro to your driving telemetry system, do not 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 invaluable to safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross, etc.  The recently released second generation systems and app increases the capability of the system.

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

DwD 0318:  Cage and Safety Inspection – Especially for an Arrive and Drive

Mirror Positioning and Our Philosophy

Mirror Positioning

DwD 0309:  Mirror Positioning and Our Philosophy

On this episode of Dominating with Dawson, we go back to a fundamental of driving on track and the street.  Where to position your side mirror and rearview mirrors for optimal vision, information, and safety.  We also go into several mirror options and our preferred placement of our rearview mirror within our race car.  It is a bit unconventional but offers significant benefits to the normal center of the window position.  Towards the and we also go with a drill and practice suitable to the street to improve your driving proficiency if the mirrors aren’t adjusted properly or are “adjusted” on track by another car.  This may sound trivial, but we are quite confident that everyone can learn at least one thing on this episode that will help them on street and on track.

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 we would appreciate that very much.  Even better, a podcast review, would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving and we would appreciate it.

For instance, leaving an Apple Podcast rating is amazingly 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  If you are looking to stream or save your integrated telemetry/racing data with you video, Candelaria Racing Products Sentinel System may be the perfect solution for you.  We are in the midst of installing the system in two of our cars.  If this sounds like something that may help you and your team, please use our discount code “GHIT” for a 10% discount code to all our listeners during the checkout process.

PS2  Please do not forget that if you are looking to add an Apex Pro to your driving telemetry system, do not 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 invaluable to safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross, etc.  The recently released second generation systems and app increases the capability of the system.

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

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

DwD 0309:  Mirror Positioning and Philosophy

The Team From LDRL at CMP March 2022

the team

GHIT 307:  Race Weekend Recap:  The Entire Team From Lucky Dog Racing at CMP March 2022

You have only heard a few of the stories from our Lucky Dog race at Carolina Motorsports Park a few weeks ago.  Now we unveil the entire team that went to the race.  Car owner David as well as the rest of the team including Alex, Ryan, and Matt.  We think we have determined the root cause of the problem we had at the race and a path forward.  As always, we all had a great time at the Lucky Dog CMP March 2022 event and cannot wait to return.  There was a bit of feedback initially that sounds like a duck quacking but it ends fairly quickly and we are blaming Alex, lol.

Our Slow Leak

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  If you are looking to stream or save your integrated telemetry/racing data with you video, Candelaria Racing Products Sentinel System may be the perfect solution for you.  We are in the midst of installing the system in two of our cars.  If this sounds like something that may help you and your team, please use our discount code “GHIT” for a 10% discount code to all of our listeners during the checkout process.

PS2  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:

Lara and Randy
Our Winning Friends Lara Vernon and Randy Pobst

1)  We start with the important stuff:  who wins the snoring award for the Lucky Dog CMP March 2022 weekend?

2)  What we did, what we brought, what happened, and how we ended up.

3)  What it is like to assemble a new team from several other teams and how the weekend went, what we learned and what we can learn from this weekend.

4)  Our individual thoughts on how the “new to us” car behaved on its maiden voyage to endurance racing and what we each thought of the E36 BMW.  Ryan and Alex are long time endurance racers, primarily in the Miata platform.  Bill has driven the E36 platform many times but had not been to the CMP track until this weekend.  David had also not been on CMP as well.

5)  We spend way more time discussing the teams qualifying session than the session actually took.  This is called foreshadowing.

6)  We then have a recovery/repair plan and get started the race Saturday.  Then we go into detail of the entire 8 hour race Saturday.  

7)  Now the fun begins, as well as the work project for the weekend.  Ryan got a ton of really solid shoulder work welding above his head.  The post incident CSI that we conduct and summarize also takes more time than our racing laps did in total.  Perhaps the first reference of a brake caliper making sweet, sweet love to the rear suspension.

8)  We did allow him to rest a bit by welding a friends team shifter that had failed (again).  It should be problem solved from here. 

9)  The details of our parts search and repair program to get the car back on track for Sunday.

10)  We also have a short example of Podcast In Training that couldn’t be edited out for your personal enjoyment.

And more

11)  Even with a combination of team members with decades of racing experience, there is growing pains in coming together.

12)  With everything going on at a race weekend, we each learned several details of how the race weekend went 

13)  After a brief trip off the rails, we eventually get to “Oh God, it sings”. We eventually get back to our story.  Herding kittens.

14)  We have the beginnings of a recovery plan and then cover our roles within the team.  The importance of roles and areas of responsibilities is key to the performance of a racing team and cannot be overstated.

15)  Apparently there will be a Cubano vs Meatball cook off.  Book your spots early if you want to be a judge.  Spots are limited.

16)  Ryan shares his parts transport system and Vicki is dumbfounded.  Bill has a new project.

17)  An accounting of what we did vs what we should have done and what we will do at the next race.

Special thanks again to Kyle Lockrow and Giggles for their help in making the results of this debacle a bit better.   

GHIT 307:  Race Weekend Recap:  The Entire Team From Lucky Dog Racing at CMP

James Candelaria

James Candeleria
James and Corvette
Winning racer
WRL Nola 2022

GHiT 0299: James Candelaria from Candelaria Racing Products (makers of the Sentinel System) and Hagerty’s The Drive Within with Round 3 Racing

We continue our introduction to Round 3 Racing (R3R) and Hagerty’s  “The Drive Within” with another team member James Candelaria.  James races with the R3R team in the WRL endurance racing series.  Last season James was racing in the #601 Porsche Boxster and this season he will be in their new #609 M4 GT4 BMW.  If you watch the series, James was present but his on screen role was slightly diminished a bit as a result of a racing incident which we also discuss during this episode.   

In addition, James races in a variety of cars and series, and in his “spare” time he started up Candelaria Racing Products.  The lead offering is the Sentinel Streaming System that solves one of our teams issues and allows us to combine the race car data with our in car video and race standings in one simple package.  In addition, all of this information is available live through streaming.  We are in the midst of installing the system in two of our cars and will cover the installation and use of the Sentinel system in future episodes.  If this sounds like something that may help you and your team, James was kind enough to offer a 10% discount code to all of our listeners.  Please enter “GHIT” during the checkout process.

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)  What do you do when you find our you are about to have your first child?  Well, James goes out and buys a Corvette.  We knew we would get along immediately.

2)  The story that illustrates what to do on track with a bad “feeling” brake pedal. And also the importance of pre-planning your reactions as a driver ahead of time for as many potential situations as possible.

3)  If you want to hear the sound of Vicki’s brain bending, Its here. When James goes into a description of driving a car with aero.  

4)  A bit more behind the scenes stories of R3R and the Drive Within show.

5)  We go into some depth on the Sentinel System. The Sentinel integrates your car’s telemetry data with the current racing results. It also combines this with any in car video and can be streamed live and recorded.  

6)   Bill and James bond over being robots.  And it dawns on Vicki that the data and video she wants may not be exactly what she wants, lol.

7)  James has been into Vette’s for a long time, even the super rare 1983 model he had at a young age.

To follow James further: 

Candelaria Racing:  https://candelaria-racing.com/ 

Instagram: @CandelariaRacingProducts

The Drive Within:  https://www.hagerty.com/media/series/drive-within/ 

Round Three Racing:  https://www.round3racing.com/ 

GHiT 0299: James Candelaria from Candelaria Racing Products (makers of the Sentinel System) and Hagerty’s The Drive Within with Round 3 Racing

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