Garage Heroes (In Training)

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

GHIT 0108: Randy Bish is our Guest from the League of Legitimate Nigerian Businessman racing team

Randy Bish and The League
Randy Bish and The League at Their First race.

Randy Bish is a relatively new lemons racer for the League of Legitimate Nigerian Businessmen racing team that is off to a spectacularly good start by making all the best bad decisions possible, including racing their 1972 Ford Pinto.  On this episode, we go over his racing experiences so far and cover the topic that no one ever thought they wanted to know:  what is the best way to race a Pinto in endurance racing.  Jennifer and Vicki particularly enjoyed this since their first car was also a 1972 Pinto.  Randy may be new to Lemons, but he seems to have found his tribe. 

  • Randy et. al.
  • I race a Pinto
First Race, How Hard Can it Be? Lol.

On Dominating with Dawson, Ben covers being on track for the first time, what to do, and what not to do.  It can be intimidating at first thought, but hopefully, this will assuage some of your potential concerns and give a brief guideline if you are going to a track for the first time and what the other drivers would like for you to do.  Short summary, stay on line, stay safe, and be predictable.  They also expect you to be off pace, so don’t worry about them or the F1 and Indy Car scouts in the grandstands. 

We hope you enjoy the episode!  The episode you never asked for.

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)  Design discussion of why the flames go in reverse from the back of his Pinto.  Our more seasoned listeners likely already know.

2)  How he learned all the details of his grandfather while his grandpa was behind the while as Randy was a boy.

3)  A summary of his two races last year at Pitt Race and Gingerman with the 24 Hours of Lemons.

4)  Randy’s very novel and very lemons charity fund raising method on the 24 Hours of Lemons i-Racing events, how this horribly awesome idea came to be and how much money he was able to generate for charity at the cost of some of his liver.  Maybe someday he will remember the race, but we doubt it.

5)  We may actually have convinced Vicki to race this Thursday.  Tune in this Thursday and we shall see.

6)  Matt Ferenchak and Florida Man Donnie get a few mentions, some even complimentary, lol.

7)  Randy Bish tries out for being a spokesmen for the Michelin Ice-X tire for amateur endurance racing.

8)  How a water pump can become a spinning end mill of death.

9)  How the initial “success” at Pitt Race led to his team going all in and winning the Heroic Fix at their next race at Gingerman.

10)  We find out the Randy Bish has a car obsession with big, Detroit luxury boats, the floatier the better.  But that does not seem to explain his having owned 3 SVX’s.

11)  Their team’s experience as the unintentional role as the unofficial Yellow Flag “Pace Car” at Pitt Race.

12)  Randy actually was able to use the term provenance and Pinto in the same sentence.  Admirable.

13)  We go deeper than anyone ever thought possible into the advantages of a racing Pinto. 

14)  “Tires are evil and must be punished”.  Words to live by.  And Jen’s train agrees.

15)  Bill gets an honorary place on Randy’s list of favorite drivers.  But it turns out to be kind of like winning the Heroic Fix award in Lemons.

16)  The El Jeffe makes a surprise appearance in being a desirable race car to swap into, but then again, Randy is used to driving a Pinto race car so….

To follow Randy and his team, you can find their team on Instagram or Facebook as the League of Legitimate Nigerian Businessmen with their official pace car of mediocrity.

GHIT 0108: Randy Bish is our Guest from the League of Legitimate Nigerian Businessman racing team

GHIT 0107: Phil Wurz from BimmerWorld discusses cars, driving, racing, and how to best use your BMW

Phil Wurz
Phil Ready To Go Racing

Phil Wurz, fellow racing driver and the short straw drawing team member at Bimmerworld was kind enough to join us for a discussion on his racing history and add to our Usual Suspects discussion related to racing BMW, especially E36’s and E46’s, including a good amount about Spec E46.   Phil has been with Bimmerworld since 2007 and conducted this interview from in front of his E30 race car, one of the best backgrounds we have had during our podcast.  Bimmerworld supplies a very wide variety of parts and also prepares cars for racing in two national GT4 series.  During this episode we learn a bit about Phil and his driving history as well as his thoughts on racing BMW’s across may types of racing and what can be done to improve performance, handling, and reliability.

To follow along with Phil and the team at BimmerWorld, please like their Facebook page or email them from the website where everyone’s company email is available.

BimmerWorld

On Dominating with Dawson, Ben discusses all of the wide variety of types of racing apexes, and how best to think about approaching a turn and what considerations can affect the desired approach for each turn.

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

Winning team at the VIR 24 Hour Race with Champ Car

Highlights from the episode include:

1)  His philosophy on replacing and upgrading as you grow and learn with your car

2)  Vicki shockingly brings up the E36 rear wheel bearing removal and then won’t let anyone ask any questions for a bit.  Well, really, much more than a bit.

3)  Alan “compliments” Bill on his skills with using the press on the rear bearing and finally admits his running away from the operation once the slide hammer came into the picture.

4)  Bill impersonates the sound of the control arm breaking in the press.

5)  Alan calls Bill an Axle, by mistake/mispronunciation.

6)  Alan admits to adding a bit more wear and tear, since he is the mechanic.

7)  Alan gets very excited over Phil’s tow vehicle and that leads into the area of an upcoming flat nose school bus “ramp truck”, potentially with a rear airbag suspension.

8)  Our first podcast that is interrupted with the sounds of freedom.  Mental likely scheduled it to mess with us.

9)  We then walk through where the current sweet spot is for BMW’s in terms of value, performance, and parts availability.  We even compare the E36 vs the E46 which seem to be swarming the endurance racing fields.  Yes, we are guilty.

10)  Stunningly, and fir the first time, Alan hears that it’s not necessary to drive at 10 tenths all the time.  We shall see if it helps.

11)  Vicki learns what a money shift is without costing us an engine.  And Alan breaks out the FNG acronym in honor of the Three Pedal Mafia trip to Laguna Seca.

12)  A good review of the growing Spec E46 series and other uses for these cars, as well as some of the advantages of spec classes, especially for people relatively new to racing and setting up of a race car.

13)  Vicki requests a spare Spec E46 car for the team.  Bill is currently searching on Autotempest.

14)  Bill was bored and added some new questions to the Fast and The Furious questions

15)  We are still looking for a good LSD solution for our M240i and Bill Begs for a spare E36 rear control arm, for a friend of course.

16)  In the after credits B roll, Phil mentions a tool to remove the rear wheel bearing from an E36.  Where was that when we needed it.  Well, actually, we still need it.  And Bill begs for some spare E36 rear control arms.  For a friend.

We hope to see Phil at the Charlotte Roval with Lucky Dog on the weekend of August 14-16.

Racing at Daytona

GHIT 0107: Phil Wurz from Bimmerworld discusses cars, driving, racing, and how to best use your BMW

GHiT 0106: Cathy McCause Fuss discusses the 2020 Lucky Dog racing series and a whole lot more

Lucky Dog
Lucky Dog Racing League
Lucky Dog Awards
Lucky Dog Awards

Cathy McCause Fuss of the Lucky Dog racing series returns for the 8th or 9th time.  Unfortunately, only one episode has ever been published due to connection errors and other computer issues.  Why she puts up with us, we don’t know, perhaps it’s because she is one of the best people we have met since we started racing.   During this episode, we go over a lot of the Cathy’s history and her perspective of racing from the Series perspective.  We also get into her thoughts of how racing and endurance racing are progressing and helping to grow our sport.

On this episode’s Dominating with Dawson, Ben goes over what is an “Arrive and Drive” and the details of racing in that situation.  We go over a lot of the options, concerns, and advantages of being an arrive and drive driver, as well as being the team renting to the arrive and driver.

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

  • Erik, Lonnie and Vicki
    Deaf Stig with Vicki and Erik makes and appearance
  • Randy Pobst with Jennifer and Vicki
    Randy Pobst with Two New Friends

Highlights from the episode include:

1)  Bill felt like he was going down the hill into turn 12 at Road Atlanta when Cathy’s connection went robot a few seconds in.

2)  What the impact of the COVID 19 has been so far and speculative hopes and expectations for the rest of the season.

3)  the Lucky Dog i-Racing league and it sponsored, you can even win race entries, and other racing supplies from the Lucky Dog sponsors

4)  We develop the exchange rate between Clairol hair color and Hankook RS4’s.

5)  We go into the process of working with the tracks, rescheduling, and the potential impact of the current COVID 19 related impact and issues on the tracks and the series, and the drivers, as well as some of the amazing steps Cathy and Lucky Dog have done to help the overall racing population, including paying 2021 track rental fees.

6)  Bill shamelessly plugs the upcoming Lucky Dog race at Charlotte in mid-August.

7)  Cathy threatens us with bringing the 196 car out to the race for us.  We much rather like her alternative bonfire idea.

8)  How several members of the Lucky Dog racing community, and the overall low cost endurance racing community, have helped in dealing with the COVID 19 pandemic.

9)  We brainstorm a bit, well really a mild drizzle, on what options we can come up with to help save the 2020 racing season

10)  Bill apologizes for his black flag digression earlier this year at the Lucky Dog race at Laguna Seca in January

11)  Cathy even was kind enough to go through our “Usual Suspects” but this time from a race series perspective and how her series has progressed through Miatas, into BMWs, and recently into Hondas and several Fords.

12)  Self ejecting starters as a way to save weight

13)  Speed creep and its concern as we progress to including more modern cars where horsepower increases seem easier and easier, especially with all the recent time people may have had with the stay at home orders.

14)  Cathy’s strategy for classing cars in Lucky Dog and addressing the variability in car and even individual driver capability.

15)  As expected, we eventually reviewed or last race at Laguna Seca and our other Lucky Dog race in Portland.

16)  Brakes and brake pads were a big discussion point.  One way to get to a faster lap is to be able to slow down even faster.  Hopefully, we have an upcoming guest from Hawk on the show.

17)  Hilarity ensued when we started talking about the spares being brought to the track.

18)  Rally Dogs?  And yes, we had an East coast rally dog volunteer.

19)  Also, a rookie time attack challenge option came into being.

20)  How Lucky Dog is working to partner with the local Club racing, especially for the HPDE and learning aspects, hopefully raising the tide for all.

21)  How our team has been invaded by two of the drivers we know from Lucky Dog

22)  Opportunities for arrive and drives at the Charlotte race abound with teams and drivers looking to come east for the race.

23)  How the Lucky Dog racing series came to be.

24)  Cathy fears answering what car she would love to start with as a race car.

25)  How Lucky Dog’s i-Racing league is helping racers scratch their itch.

26)  She is still looking for the known unknown E46 Greg has hidden.  Somewhere.

27)  There seems to be a potential for an east coast west coast race car exchange program.  Greg, Call us!

GHiT 0106: Cathy McCause Fuss discusses the 2020 Lucky Dog racing series and a whole lot more

GHIT 0105: Julian Cordle is our Special Guest Driver to help us celebrate Blursday

Julian Cordle and Friends

Julian Cordle is our guest for this episode and celebrate Blursday!  Julian races with the Snow Speeder Pilots Association racing team that races on the west coast, one of the original Lemons teams from the inaugural Altamont race.  The episode starts off with all of our usual professionalism and then, well really, who are we kidding.  The alphabet is apparently still a challenge for us.  Julian started with Lemons in 2012 after he first heard about the 24 Hours of Lemons on Jalopnik.  He met his team on his driveway and immediately left for his first race two states away.  We reminisce about his early days, setting Guinness Book of World Records records, and through to his latest Chrysler 300 race car build.

  • Carting Makes You Faster
  • MR2 Driving in Anger
    MR2 Driving in Anger

Dominating with Dawson covers what happens when you have a mistake on track and how to minimize the potential outcome.  Ben also cites taking a peak at the professional racing driver Sandro Espinosa as a potential reference for how someone preemptively catches a car pre-slipping to avoid an issue.  Also, Danica Patrick on how to prepare for a big hit when you can no longer avoid it.

Sample links discussed:

Sandro Espinosa at Road Atlanta

Danica Patrick Crash Prep

We really 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 include:

1)  His battery powered recliner that is faster than some of our race cars
2)  How a man from Alaska grew into a low-cost endurance racer
3)  Our first XR4TI makes an appearance on our podcast
4)  Jen chimes in with her opinion on our teaching her how to drive a stick.  Julian tops to with learning with a vehicle that “offered” electrical shock incentives.
5)  How the 25 Hour at Thunderhill led into Race Cast
6)  How he helped with organizing the world record that was set at a Lemons event in Thunderhill
7)  What the overall process is of setting and getting recognized as a world record
8)  Vicki starts off with “since you seem to be a person”, lol.
9)  Several tips and tricks to help teams and drivers compete at the track, besides behind the wheel
10)  White boards for at the track organization and how to use them to plan your race strategy
11)  A BIG shout out to Randall Pinney and we all hope you are feeling better
12)  Sonoma Raceway makes an appearance in the Good, Bad, and the Ugly segment.
13)  1989 Camero, ‘Nuff Said
14)  We develop a new Lemons penalty, well sort of.

GHIT 0105: Julian Cordle is our Special Guest Driver to help us celebrate

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