Garage Heroes (In Training)

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

HPDE

GHIT 0164: The 2020 DwD Topics

Part 3 of 10 – By popular request

  • A Mor e Aerodynamic Ben Dawson
  • Ben Dawson His Car Flies
A More Aerodynamic Ben Dawson and His Car Literally Flies

The fundamental basis for our podcast has always been to help drivers at all levels improve and while we still have a fun on every episode, we are always trying to improve and help others improve.  One of the best received additions to our podcast has been the Dominating with Dawson topics that Ben Dawson was kind enough to help us with.  Here is the first annual episode that compiles all of the segments for this year.  

If you could let us know what your favorite topic was, we would love to know.  Also, if you have a topic for us to discuss, please let us know and we will make sure it comes out as soon as possible.

On Part 3, we go over:

1) What is an Arrive and Drive and how do they work

2) First time driving on track tips, including the don’t’s

3) What is an Apex and why are there so many talked about for each turn

4) A fun discussion about what is meant by “Two Feet In”

5) Buying a car for racing or HPDE

6) First time driving at a New Track and how to approach it

We hope you enjoy this bonus episode!

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

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

GHIT 0164: The 2020 Dominating With Dawson Topics – Part 3

Earlier Episodes:

GHIT 0160: The 2020 Dominating With Dawson Topics – Part 1

GHIT 0162: The 2020 Dominating With Dawson Topics – Part 2

GHIT 0147: HPDE at NJMP Lightning Wrap Up for 2020

  • Porsche 911
  • Vicki's NB Miata
  • BMW
Some great cars, and some of ours attended this event.

The latest HPDE with NASA Northeast last weekend completes our season of track driving and instruction for 2020.  We try to summarize it as well as how the COVID 19 impacted racing season went.  And Bill can’t wait to start planning 2021.  It was a great weekend on track with fantastic weather, especially for mid-November in NJ.  We came with three cars good to go.  We left with zero.  Seems to be a familiar refrain.  The winter to do list gets longer.

On Dominating with Dawson, we cover driver communication going into and out of the car at the track.  

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 cover our goals going into the event.

2)  How was Bill’s new HPDE car on track for the first time.  If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again or the fourth time is the charm.

3)  We also cover how Vicki and Jennifer applied the things they learned at the Lime Rock skid pad on the track.

4)  Bill gets to see the Lightning track for the first time, even though he/we drove this track for several hours last year.  Hood-Gate.

5)  Jennifer got to drive with and review the data from the Garmin Catalyst for the first time. 

6)  Vicki also started reviewing and using the data from the Apex Pro for the first time ever.

7)  Both Jennifer and Vicki got a lot faster throughout the weekend and seemed to have some of their best driving stints ever.

8)  Bill went on track for the first time ever in the ND Miata. 

9)  What were the areas of greatest improvement for Jennifer and Vicki.  Both made significant gains in both their lines and their car inputs.  Also, now they were both able to take input from the data and video and apply it on their next stint. 

10)  Bill apparently can’t count turns past 5 and gets confused with turn 7.  We will blame this on our post-race weekend hangover. 

11)  Bill really wants to put racing brake pads onto the M3 for the next track event.  The all-season tires were not as big a deal as anticipated but will also need to be improved for our first event next season.

12)  Vicki’s last stint led to an off on turn 5 that has caused some issue with her suspension.  Exact point of failure is still TBD at this point.

13)  We were able to get a lot of good video and hopefully good data.  We cannot wait to analyze further and learn what we can work on and how we are improving.

14)  Jennifer breaks the news that Ross Bentley is coming back as a guest for our 150th episode that is coming very soon!

15)  Vicki went into her off track event late Sunday at turn 5. 

16)  Brief review of some of our off season work and planning for next season.

GHIT 0147: HPDE at NJMP Lightning Wrap Up for 2020

GHIT 0146: Live from NJMP Lightning with NASA NE

We thought we would get a short podcast out to update how the day has gone and what we have been doing today.  Jennifer is in the Soul Red 2019 Mazda MX5 (Miata) ND2 and is in HPDE 1 this weekend.  Vicki is in her first HPDE 2 and, as always is driving her 1999 Mazda Miata with the Flyin’ Miata turbo.  Bill finally found an HPDE car that he can fit into that wasn’t stolen (yet) by the girls, a 2004 BMW E46 M3.  The day went very well and we all learned from the time on track.  We cover highs and lows and end with a short story time from Bill about the last stint of the day.  This will cover Saturday and we will likely have a longer episode covering the whole event in the future.  

If you are here, please say hi.  Jennifer actually ran into a listener in her HPDE class.  

Also, if you happen to have some race pads for an E46 M3, Bill has cash money.  

GHIT 0146: Live from NJMP Lightning with NASA NE

GHIT 0140: Autobahn Country Club HPDE With NASA Great Lakes

Autobahn Country Club

We cover Bill’s first HPDE 3 with NASA Great Lakes at the Autobahn Country Club South Course layout that is near Chicago.  It was our teams first HPDE 3 and it was fantastic.  NASA Great Lakes really shines with their HPDE curriculum.  In addition, we had the opportunity to try the teams new Garmin Catalyst on track for the first time and we were very impressed.  Several notable driving improvements were during the event and perhaps even a few Ahh Hah Moments.  In addition, we discuss the “perfect” race car in the Dominating with Dawson segment for this episode.

We hope you enjoy this episode half as much as Bill enjoyed the NASA Great Lakes event!

Special thanks again to the entire Great Lakes team for funning another top notch event, as always.

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)  A short track review of the South track at Autobahn.  In addition, it was our first time on track with electronic flags.

2)  We compare the relative costs of a track day weekend vs a divorce etc.

3)  Differences between NASA Great Lakes HPDE 1, 2, and 3.

4)  We cover some of the tremendous drills that start of most of the track sessions.  They are very valuable to improve your driving skills and racing experience in a controlled and safe manner.

5)  How NASA GL has altered the different HPDE levels and improved as they learn to account for COVID induced changes and still improve the quality of the instruction for each of their students in a very quick reaction, demonstrating their ability to respond nimbly to their students feedback.

6)  Garmin Catalyst first impressions and review after using it to review our track driving for the first time this weekend.  The in-car coaching was a very good addition to the weekend while we were in the car without an instructor.  We hope to have a full episode with a guest in the next few weeks.  We posted a few videos on our YouTube channel that has some of the Garmin instructions included if you are curious. 

7)  Bill is a big fan of the opportunities options that prioritize areas for potential improvement/low hanging fruit along with the potential quantified time improvement potential.

8)  Jen asks the question Bill never wants to discuss with Vicki in earshot:  How much is it?  Vicki, close he webpage, just close the page.

9)  Just remember, these are only $500 cars………

10)  Why does Bill always confuse Buddy Rich and Buddy Guy.  No idea, but the model/example still applies. 

11)  Mork from Ork shows up for a small guest slot, some of you will see it.

12)  Bad news on two of our GoPro’s.  They may not be useful for our in-car video due to the dynamic range of brightness or contrast from within the car vs the outside. 

13)  The anniversary that never seems to end. 

14)  A very good discussion of focus and being fresh on track, as well as a probably wise decision to use good discretion and skip the last session at the end of Saturday.

15)  Bill’s prep for a new track is getting better and almost where we would like it to be.  The process we use during an HPDE is really getting dialed in and allowing us to get the most out of each stint and maximize the benefit for each HPDE we attend.

16)  We cover some of the most significant improvements and a few Ahh Hah’s from the event.

17)  The goal of HPDE 3 to push beyond your comfort level and look for more speed was very good and appropriate after the training received in HPDE 1 and 2 with NASA GL.

18)  The go kart track looked amazing, although we did not have a chance to try.

19)  Bill makes a play at adding another HPDE/track day for NJMP.  Schedule tbd.  Details to follow.  He would really love to get Jennifer and Vicki out once more with the Catalyst.  It should help them both greatly.  Some planning details still to be resolved. 

20)  What is left to get Brad safely out the door and what is left to start the process of GHIT Colorado.  Look for us to come out to High Plains raceway and other tracks in the area as soon as Brad is set up and ready for us.  Also one last chance for Bill to pick on Brad for signing up for several HPDE’s and not

GHIT 0140: Autobahn Country Club HPDE With NASA Great Lakes

GHIT 0129: Review of Our NASA Great Lakes HPDE at PittRace 2020

Jen, Vicki, and Bill review how the NASA Great Lakes HPDE event at PittRace went last weekend.  It is our team’s most anticipated HPDE event of the year and we were not disappointed.  Jennifer had our friend Chris as her instructor for the entire weekend and it showed as she progressed dramatically through the event in her ND Miata.  Vicki was also in HPDE 1 with another friend Jim as her student partner and also learned a ton, especially related to weight transfer in her NB Miata.  Bill was in the HPDE 2 group with both Chrissy and Jeff in the E36 race car and the stock Toyota 86 for this weekend.  With COVID 19 controls in place, there was no right seat driving instruction option, but NASA Great Lakes is continually learning, adapting, and responding with improvements that allow for a great amount of instruction for every student.

The Dominating with Dawson segment for this episode was initially in the area of coasting but we quickly wandered off into proper use and application of the throttle and aspects of controlled or over controlled track driving as opposed to pushing the limit and getting out of a comfort zone.

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

Highlights from the episode include:

1)  Our group of 7 brought 7 cars with us and Chris did his best Randy Pobst impersonation by driving almost every one of them during the weekend.

2)  Our teams struggle with car preparation and timing continued and we agree they must be addressed going forward.

3)  Jen, Vicki, and Bill all had goals going into the event, largely as we discussed after our last HPDE at GingerMan several weeks ago.

4)  Track learning/prep is very important to allow us to focus on our driving and not be distracted by “learning” the track at the same time for a new to us track

5)  We discuss the Saturday event and the Sunday event and how we did not prepare our meals as well as normally because we were way behind.  Sorry to our camp sharing friends.

6)  Vicki converts Jen’s RV sink into a disposal, for a short time.

7)  We compare and contrast HPDE 1 and HPDE 2 from this event.

8)  We individually cover the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from the event

9)  Vicki “surveyed” the track extensively after turn 10 during her spin on Saturday.  Vicki did get to wave to Jennifer as she drove by a bit later.

10)  Chrissy, Vicki, and Chris encountered a handling issue on the NB Miata that was easily fixed by adjusting the adjustable shocks in the rear.  Who knew?  PS We are sorry for not listening to you earlier Chrissy.

11)  Jen solved her downshifting issue going into a turn that has plagued her to this point.  This was solved by slowing down by letting out the clutch, especially on track.  The best part is that Jennifer can also practice this on the street during her daily driving.

12)  Jennifer failed miserably by not getting her training partner over to our podcast.  Lol.

13)  We learned a lot from this event both about our prep and our driving.

14)  Bill admits we have too many cars and need to downsize significantly.

15)  Vicki summarizes our teams learning and progress to this point.

16)  Vicki’s “ah ha” moment included understanding weight transfer and improving her down shifting/sequencing going into turns.  Hopefully, this will help when she races a front wheel drive car again.

17)  Jennifer’s “ah ha” moment included shifting and especially downshifting and actually her hearing tires “sing” through the turns for the first time ever on track.

18)  Bill’s “ah ha” moments included 1) Bringing Lemons “skills” and HPDE “skills” together into a complimentary driving style utilizing both, 2) Comparison and E36 race car and the Toyota 86 street car, and 3) How significant the difference between sticker tires and scuffed tires.  We won’t be sending any of our newer drivers out on track with sticker tires ever.

19)  Vicki did not get out onto the track in the E36 BMW race car due to an accident in the prior session closing the track on Sunday prematurely.

20)  Some of the advantages of lead follow and some of the difficulties we saw.  NASA Great Lakes addressed these by actually switching the lead follow to what is essentially a switch of the cars into a “follow – Lead”

where the student is in front of the instructor at several points.

21)  Goals for our next HPDE event for each of us.

GHIT 0129: Review of Our NASA Great Lakes HPDE at PittRace 2020