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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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Garage Heroes In Training

Loki, Black Widow, Falcon & the Winter Soldier, and WandaVision

WOOT 0212: Our Thoughts on Loki, Black Widow, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and WandaVision

It has been several months since we did a WOOT episode where we go Way Off Our Topic of racing and go into another are of our lives, our fandom of virtually all things superheroes.  In this episode , we go over our thoughts about the three recent Disney+ MCU related shows:  WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki, as well as the most recent Black Widow movie.  This recording was prior to the season finale of Loki, so our predictions may prove accurate, insightful, or down right stupid, still TBD, lol.  

We tried to cover a lot during a single episode, but if you want more details, let us know. There is easily a ton more detail one every single one of these shows.

We hope you enjoy this bonus WOOT episode!!! We are Garage Heroes In Training after all. 

Thankfully we are not training in the Red Room.

If you make it to the end, we cover the HPDE planning for both of our teams at the upcoming PittRace event hosted by NASA Great Lakes.

Link to this episode:  https://tinyurl.com/WOOT2021July 

PS please don’t forget our discount code for all ApexPro’s. 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 update increases the capability of the system greatly. Especially if you have a team or friends that race.

WOOT 0212: Our Thoughts on Loki, Black Widow, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and WandaVision

Jennifer Skripchuk – Intro & Update

  • Jennifer in the Turbo NB Miata
  • Jennifer with Vicki at our first race
  • Our Captain Marvel
  • Jennifer and Vicki with Randy Pobst

GHIT 0211:  GHIT Host/Driver Updated Introductions – Jennifer

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.  

Jennifer was a self proclaimed driver that started racing at less than zero.  She attended our first race and joined the team as a driver at our second race.  She has probably improved the most of any of our drivers to this point and is now a solid race driver and continuing to improve quickly.  On this episode, we go over where Jennifer 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 to episode #14, long before Jennifer was “coerced” into becoming a podcast host,  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 back into the racing jargon bin and find out what shaving tires means, why you would do it, and what it might gain you on the track.  We haven’t ever done this and don’t see it coming to our team anytime soon, but maybe it will help you or your team.  Perhaps it is more prevalent in a sprint race than our more normal endurance racing events.

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/JenniferReIntroduction

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 0211:  GHIT Host/Driver Updated Introductions – Jennifer

Vicki Fischer- Intro & Update

  • Erik, Lonnie and Vicki
    Deaf Stig and Vicki and Erik makes and appearance
  • Not Just For Guys!!!

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

  • Nine Lives Racing Test Mule
  • Miata with Nine Lives Racing Wing
  • Johnny can weld
  • Nine Lives Racing
  • Nine Lives Racing wing on a P car

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 

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)  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

PGR OLOA race car

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.

PGR Race Car

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 

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 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

PGR Race car at sunset
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