Garage Heroes (In Training)

Vicki Fischer- Intro & Update

Deaf Stig and Vicki and Erik makes and appearance

Erik, Lonnie and Vicki — Deaf Stig and Vicki and Erik makes and appearance

GHIT 0210: GHIT Host/Driver Updated Introductions – Vicki Fischer

It has been several years since we did our host/driver introductions and we thought we’d update our newer listeners with a bit of background from each of our hosts. Vicki Fischer started from ground zero as a newbie to racing, driving, and car mechanics and has progressed to become one of our top mechanics and an excellent racing driver. We go over where Vicki is currently in her driving career and what her goals are for the next few years. As a bonus, we included the original introduction we had way back when this all began (after we had only raced twice and had zero HPDE’s etc.). We hope you enjoy getting to know us better and learning where we are (or maybe where we think we are) and where we wish to go in the coming years. If we missed something that you wanted to know, please let us know on our website or social media etc.

In this issue of Dominating with Dawson, we go over the ways that a front wheel drive car and a rear wheel drive car behave differently on a track. This subject resurfaced with the start of work on our Honda Civic race car and Jennifer looking to get a Honda Civic project car. It is not the same, but it is somewhat surprisingly similar. Ben also goes into the first few things you can do to adjust the FWD car to behave more like a rear wheel drive car.

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.

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

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 0210: GHIT Host/Driver Updated Introductions – Vicki

An Introduction to Aero Johnny Cichowski

GHIT 0209 Introduction to Aero with Nine Lives Racing’s Johnny Cichowski Part 1 of hopefully many

Will aerodynamics help your racing car? We begin to explore the field of aerodynamics with Johnny Cichowski from Nine Lives Racing on this episode. As an introductory episode, we start with the fundamentals and work our way towards laying out a plan for adding aero to a race car that will result in actually having a faster race car. We started with the very basics of defining most of the basic individual components and then looked at the factors that affect the performance of the car and then moved on to covering the best approach to adding aero to your car and the best ways to test and dial in the performance and balance of the car. We also thought it would be great to add Tom Suddard from Grass Roots Motorsports onto the episode with zero notice. You have our apologies Tom.

In this issue of Dominating with Dawson, we start with our best intro lead in ever, but then we eventually get into our topic of ways to avoid coasting or lifting while on track. Ben addresses not only the issue, but what leads to it starting and ways to break the habit. Cold turkey. Yes please, with a bit of tomato on sour bread please.

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.

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/NineLivesRacing1

We hope you enjoy this episode!

PS

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) One of the things we like about Nine Lives Racing is their obsession with testing to optimize the design and make sure they design is optimized and effective.

2) Wings, wings vs spoilers, wing mounting structures, end plates, air dams, splitters, canards/dive planes etc. We cover what they are and what they do to make sure we are all on the same page to start before we get into the relative effectiveness and the various interactions between each.

3) Did you ever wonder where to start adding aero to your car? Or how to test to see if it helped? We present several options that can be done before or at the track. Rain may be your friend.

4) If you don’t think aero can help, it has helped several cars with very low horsepower several seconds per lap, including some low power Miatas and one notable GRM VW Fox. (not a typo for a Fox body Mustang)

5) How does effective aero change the way a car behaves, wear on your tires, suspension/drive height, and how it feels to the driver.

6) We also had a great discussion of the proper sequence to add aero to the car and how to decide what is needed and when.

7) Wing position vs wing mounting position vs wing mounting method and the relative effect of each. Some things just don’t matter.

8) Wings for a front wheel drive, up front, out back, both?

9) Common issues, mistakes, and misconceptions related to aero additions.

10) Pilot tubes? Pitot tubes? lol.

You can envy Johnny’s welds and wings on Instagram at: @ninelivesjohnny or @ninelivesracing

Nine Lives Racing: https://9livesracing.com

Grassroots Motorsports: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com

GRM’s Instagram: https://instagram.com/grassroots_motorsports

GHIT 0209 Introduction to Aero with Nine Lives Racing’s Johnny Cichowski Part 1 of hopefully many

PGR Racing: An EV in the 2021 OLOA

GHIT 0208: PGR Racing – Racing In an EV in the 2021 One Lap of America EV Race Car: Ready or Not

“Tony Stark” was the obvious lead in to this episode with PGR Racing and their EV racing car that recently competed in the 2021 One Lap of America. On this episode, Andrew DeKoning and Chad Martin go into the pluses and minuses of racing an electric vehicle in the One Lap of America and racing an EV in general. We really had no reference to racing an EV, except for those unfounded rumors on several golf courses. Bill was stuck late at work so he sounds a bit “tinny” for most of this episode. We learned a ton during the episode about racing EV’s and we even know what PGR stands for now.

In this episode of Dominating with Dawson,

we go over what a contact patch is and how it is the key to driving and racing. The contact patch is the portion of a tire that is in contact with the track surface, and the contact patch is influenced by the weight transfer during the driving. The control of the contact patch through the control of the weight transfer is the key to maximizing your traction and use of traction during driving and is a direct measure of the potential speed and track time that you can achieve. And we may have ended up planning a race with Ben Dawson.

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.

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

We hope you enjoy this episode!

PS

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 the PGR Racing episode include:

1) We have never driven an EV on track so Andrew and Chad review some of the differences that they feel, hear, and the driving changes that are required related to changing from an internal combustion engine (ICE) when transitioning to an electric vehicle (EV). Regenerative braking is also another significant difference between the two, along with the weight associated with the batteries.

2) Where an EV excels currently and where there are still limitations and challenges to racing EV’s.

3) What PGR Racing modified on their Tesla Model 3 to help with the challenges of the One Lap of America and why they chose the Model 3 vs the other available EV options.

4) Details on the upcoming test of autocross’ing a Tesla in Autopilot. No back seat driving though, thankfully, lol.

5) Bill fights not to make the Tesla model name joke. He may even have succeeded. (Hint: the model names are S, 3, X, and Y)

6) A recent market change is the availability of several options for making the car suitable for track use and there are several more expected to be coming in the future.

7) The downside of changing tires right before the start of the first event on the One Lap of America. Key word: mold release.

8) Everything you ever wanted to know about charging for the transits and at the track.

9) Did the Tesla have any mechanical issues and what the PGR team did to prepare the car for the event.

10) Tips that they have learned from their One Lap of America experiences in an EV.

GHIT 0208: PGR Racing – Racing In an EV in the One Lap of America EV Race Car: Ready or Not

GHIT’s Race at NJMP 2021

GHIT 0207: Our race at NJMP – June 2021 Our 24 Hours of Lemons Race at NJMP Thunderbolt for 2021

We are all suffering from a serious sleep deprived, post-race weekend hangover, and we are all calling in from across the US with varying internet speed and connections. It starts with the somewhat normal Race Bar takeover and then we go into the NJMP 2021 race. For this event, our drivers consisted of Vicki, Alan, and Jennifer and our two adopted teammates Aaron Diamond from the Saabs of Anarchy racing team and Elazar Mann from Race Bar. It was a great weekend with many, many highs, and a few notable lows. It was almost back to normal, well as normal as a Lemons race can be, and it was great to see everyone again.

In this issue of Dominating with Dawson,

we start off with our latest GHIT swag t-shirt that we made for the Dominating with Dawson and how we surprised Ben with it a few weeks back. We then try to get back into our topic for this episode where we go into several things that you can practice on the public roads and during your normal driving that will improve your track driving or refine skills that you may want to start to employ on the track. It is a great time to practice driving with left foot braking, heel-toe downshifting, as well as other less obvious areas of high performance driving. Luckily for Bill, Vicki missed his joke, so he did not have to sleep in the tub after this episode, leaving a bit more room for Bill, lol.

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.

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/LemonsNJMP2021

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) The Trophy truck/El Jeffe/Bad Hombre/Loki truck made its way to the track a bit late, but the theming of the truck and our drivers was a big hit in the paddock and with several of the young fans at the track.

2) The race weekend started off with some small issues with the El Jeffe that we worked through the entire weekend. Then we had a few other issues as the weekend progressed. In other words, a normal endurance racing weekend.

3) Aaron does his best robot impressions, but the connection improves after a few minutes.

4) We had an issue with the engine losing power and having difficulty starting. Unfortunately, we were not able to diagnose and fix the issue at the track, but let us know if you have any suggestions.

5) Our two guest drivers describe the glory involved with driving the El Jeffe Trophy truck. Since Aaron usually races a front wheel drive (Saab) and Elazar is usually in a mid engine car (Toyota MR-2), the truck is a bit different. It is not what anyone expects. We think Aaron and Elazar are both hooked.

6) In addition to our power/electrical issue, we also had a continuing issue with our new exhaust design. We fixed it Lemons style to keep racing and then we made a plan to fix it permanently, of course this was after sending Jennifer out for her stint.

7) Bill makes a terrible American Pie joke. He says he was really tired.

8) Aaron has raced in Lemons for almost 5+ years and had only two black flags in the entire endurance racing career. However, in true GHiT fashion, he managed to get two more in a single stint on Saturday. As Mars Blackman said, “Its got to be the shoes.”

9) Elazar describes how he dealt with a total brake failure going into the high speed turn 1, truly an example of dealing with a brake issue in one of the best ways possible. To add a bit to the weekend, Elazar was again subjected to a loss of the mounting bolt on the upper front control arm on the passenger side.

10) Alan goes for donuts, well just one donut, on our door. He may also have to adjust the HANS device or seek another design.

11) So in the end, we missed the checkered flag on Saturday by about twenty minutes and we missed it by again by about the same amount. Cue the sad trombone.

We had a great time, we learned some more, and we were able to spend some time with our old friends, our new friends and our soon to be friends.

A special shout out to our sister Jennifer who came to her first ever Lemons race and saw how much fun this can be. We hope you come back again soon.

GHIT 0207: Our race at NJMP – June 2021

Budget Endurance Racing in Australia

GHIT 0206: Budget Endurance Racing in Australia with Paul Calder, David Nelson, and Ben McGuire of Motor Events Racing

Budget endurance auto racing is a worldwide passion and Motor Events Racing is leading the way across Australia and looking to grow the sport and share high performance driving with everyone interested or soon to be interested. The group sponsors two different series for those with different driving skill levels, budgets, and interests. For those not familiar with the details of the tracks available in Australia, we go into the different venues, types of racing, and future plans to open up endurance racing to everyone. We also go into the potential of a worldwide budget championship which sounds like a tremendous idea to us. Perhaps we can start with a home and home series once travel restrictions and budget allows.

In this episode of Dominating with Dawson, Ben and the gang go into the details of trail braking, what it is and how you would physically sequence your inputs to capitalize on the benefits of this braking technique. We also get into when you would use this technique and why.

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.

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

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 go into the way the series are categorized, what the HP to Weight ratio and budget restrictions are for the various levels.

2) How the series raises serious money for cancer research, especially for rare types of cancer. One recent contribution was over $10,000.

3) If you are looking to travel to a race in Australia, we go into the various tracks and events, including the can’t miss events and venues. Bill is already planning.

4) Motor Events Racing runs a wide variety of event types, durations, and performance levels that should satisfy just about every aspiring racer.

5) How the team has learned from other races and race organizations and how they have modified the events to exceed the participating team’s expectations.

6) How the series is dealing with overly aggressive drivers and speed creep within the series.

7) Bill couldn’t resist going into some of the favorite penalties that they have employed at races. Some great ideas for future judging opportunities.

8) We start laying the groundwork for the international exchange series and potential global budget endurance racing series.

For more info on the series and the events: motorevents.com.au or on Facebook at the Motor Events Racing pages.

GHIT 0206: Budget Endurance Racing in Australia with Paul Calder, David Nelson, and Ben McGuire of Motor Events Racing

« Previous Page