Garage Heroes (In Training)

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

Shifting Points

Jess Stratton

From the Shifting Points podcast’s- Her First Track Day

A Motley crew
Jess Stratton on track

GHIT 0338:  Jess Stratton From the Shifting Points podcast’s First Track Day

We have an upcoming race at NJMP’s Thunderbolt track next weekend, so we took advantage of the NASA Northeast’s HPDE event this weekend to get a bit of track time for our friends from the Shifting Points podcast who will be racing with us.  This will be Jess Stratton’s first ever race and today was her first ever track day and great preparation for the race.  Vicki was going to explode if we made her wait any longer for a review of the day, so here is an unedited episode with Vicki and Jeremy asking Jess Stratton about her first time on track.  Oh, Bill was there too.

Audra and Lisa will be arriving tonight for Sunday’s events.  We will obviously be talking more about this weekend in upcoming episodes of our podcast and perhaps even on the Shifting Points podcast.

NJMP HPDE June 2022
Jess Stratton going 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 would be a podcast review. This helps us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving and we would appreciate it.

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 amid 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. Entering “GHIT” at check out for a 10% discount at https://candelaria-racing.com/

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, a savings of $40.  Just enter the code “ghitlikesapex!” when you order from https://apextrackcoach.com/

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Ben, Jeremy, Alan, and Bill

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

GHIT 0338:  Jess From the Shifting Points podcast’s First Track Day

Jess and Audra

Our Ladies HPDE Event

with the Shifting Points podcast –

A True Good, Bad, and the Ugly

Canaan Motorsports Part

GHIT 0238:  Our Upcoming Ladies HPDE Event with the Shifting Points podcast – A True Good, Bad, and the Ugly

It all started with a great idea, let’s go to an HPDE event with the hosts of the Shifting Points podcast. Audra had raced with us at the Thompson race in August and Jess & Kathy had visited for moral support and wanted to try track driving.  There was a ladies event with MassTuning set for mid September.  Sounds like a blast.  Until it wasn’t.

In what was supposed to be a two episode celebration of this event, we go into the prep and excitement of going into a track event and how things ended up.  We hope Jess and Kathy can look beyond this event and potentially come with us to another event, maybe even this season.

Strap in, this one gets a bit wild towards the end.

If you would like to help the podcast,

You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice. This includes the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc. Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating. 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. There 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

GHIT 0238:  Our Upcoming Ladies HPDE Event with the Shifting Points podcast – A True Good, Bad, and the Ugly

Race Review of the Thompson 2021

Part Duex

  • Audra and Vicki
  • Jennifer
  • Audra
  • Vicki
  • Strapping In

GHIT 0227:  Our Race Review of the Thompson 2021 – Part Deux

We finally have the whole El Jeffe team together to discuss the Race Review Thompson 2021 with all the ladies drivers.  Elizabeth and Audra joined Jennifer and Vicki to talk about the race, how things went over the weekend and if/when the ladies will be returning to the track together.  The results of the race were exceptional.  The only issues we had that were racing related were due to the initial issue we fixed on Saturday.  Considering that this was Audra’s first ever wheel to wheel race and Elizabeth had only entered two prior events, we are viewing this as a great win for the team.  Hear all the details, even some of the super secret ones.  All in all, each of them grew as drivers and learned a ton this weekend!  

Still waiting for Alan’s SpiderStang update but there was something shiny near his house so, …….

Still Shiny Squirrel Free Unfortunately

PS  If you can’t tell, Vicki was very excited to have the team back together to discuss the race.

If you would like to help the podcast,

You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice. This includes the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc. Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating. 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. There 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 from this Race Review Thompson 2021 episode include:

1)  Some of the shocking differences that Audra experienced in her first wheel to wheel race.

2)  Elizabeth and the team discuss some of the unforeseen benefits of having the seat adjusted for their size and not making due.

3)  Audra goes over our race strategy for her first stint on Saturday, as well as getting to practice on Friday before the event started with a much lower car count on the track. 

4)  Elizabeth (and everyone) also found the practice helpful but really got a lot out of the (amazing) track walk with our friends at the Three Pedal Mafia.

5)  Find out if we have grabbed Audra from autocross?  We hope not.  We love both.

6)  The ladies discuss how important vision and spatial awareness is, especially as the speed increases or the traffic increases.

7)  We also address how each driver is a member of the team and how each car is really also part of the team and (usually) work together on track.

8)  The entire team began to see the benefits of having spotters on the track for each other, as well as the race craft.

9)  Audra tries to convey the chaos of a race weekend.  We have done so many events that we don’t even notice anymore.

10)  The team discusses several ways of managing traffic, as well as passing and being passed on a fairly crowded track.

11)  How the ladies did in the paddock and garage prep by the team.  We were a bit out of our normal groove with all the unintended changes to our team pre-race, but everything went really well even though we had 3-4 different issues this weekend, one was for the last 5 or so races.

12)  Audra and Elizabeth also pointed out hat we missed a few opportunities to refine our tire pressures through the weekend.  Added to our list.  Along with a few other items we learned or noticed this race.

13)  Pit Stops.  We did a few, lol.  Black flags, not so much.

14)  Apparently, Audra is also part of the Connecticut tourism board and they were having a meeting in our paddock.  Who knew?

15)  It looks like Bill is going to have to find someone to drive with him (if the ladies have anything to say about it).

Don’t forget that you can follow Audra and her co-hosts on the Shifting Points Podcast.

GHIT 0227:  Our Race Review of the Thompson 2021 – Part Deux

Race Review Thompson 2021 Farewell
Puny God

Elizabeth Jolly – Racing Driver

  • Elizabeth Jolly Race Control
  • Elizabeth Jolly
  • Elizabeth Jolly Mechanic

GHIT Podcast Episode #195 with our guest  Elizabeth Jolly

We initially met Elizabeth Jolly at our second ever race at the 2018 24 Hours of Lemons race in Thompson CT.  We then listened to her on the first few Shifting Points podcast.  Then we met her at our recent skid pad and autocross event at Lime Rock Park with the SCDA group.  It was at this point, we realized that these three ladies were all the same person.  We could say we were overwhelmed at our second race; we could also say that we didn’t recognize her since she was in her “Flo” costume, but it was great to meet her in person for the second time.  On this episode, we catch up with Elizabeth on her thoughts about the SCDA event, her new E30 race car and then we talk through how to learn to work on a car from a starting point of near zero skills, experience, and tools.  Both Elizabeth and Vicki have both progressed far in the past few years and maybe someday Bill will as well.  Lol.   

On this episode’s Dominating with Dawson, we

go into Ben’s extensive karting experience and discuss the various types of karts and kart racing available.  Karting can definitely help your driving and racing, most things translate, and it is a great way to practice for relatively low cost.  We do try to go into the parts of karting that translate and what doesn’t translate directly due to the difference in car geometry and suspension.  While Ben is pulled away for his daddy duties, we take a slight detour into cake baking and decorating from our resident cake decorating expert, Miss Jen.  Our first ever partial WOOT DwD episode.  Even Ben came to the table with a Coca Cola cake, recipe tbd, lol.

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/ElizabethJolly

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.  We have two systems for our team and Bill is looking to add a third for this season, pending CFO approval from Vicki.  They are a great system and truly invaluable in safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross etc.

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

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

  • Elizabeth Jolly Racer
  • Elizabeth Jolly Ready

Highlights from this episode include:

1)  Bill herds/hosts this episode.  Vicki and Jen, as always, are so excited to have a fellow lady racing driver.  

2)  Elizabeth Jolly races autocross and endurance racing and almost all other forms of driving she can try.  She started with a quick purchase of a 944 that then several other soon to be race cars.  Her latest purchase is her new BMW E30 prepped race car.  It even has a bit of history and we are sure Elizabeth will add to it as well.

3)  Elizabeth and Jen commiserate about the wonderful weather at their first Lemons event.  It was a downpour and the humidity hit a point where nearly all glass surfaces fogged making visibility even worse.  We then go into the importance of seating position and the effect it can have on the driver’s ability to see as well.

4)  Bill starts a plan.  Nothing good can come of this.  It’s looking like a girls race weekend is upcoming.  Bill is bringing palm fronds and a butler outfit for the ladies.

5)  The discussion on beginning to learn about working on cars from scratch begins around 28:30 or so.  Some great information that should help others go from garage zero to Garage Hero.  See what we did there, lol.  It was too easy to resist.

6)  To the surprise of no one, Vicki relates the car to her past arts and crafts projects.  The analogy does hold some merit from a material perspective.  Elizabeth has even gone into the area of the electrical system and wiring of her 944’s.

7)  The ladies provide a ton of tips and tricks that they have learned along the way.  Some are very basic, but each one has been found to help us out.

8)  Two words:  parts car.  (Does this mean Bill can buy another car?  Sounds like it to him.)

9)  Jen and Bill are next in line on learning to work on the race cars.  

10)  Vicki almost blows the super secret theme that we were working on and debuted at the Lemons race last weekend at PittRace.  Photos

11)  We then go into the favorite tools and tool highlights that Elizabeth and Vicki have at this point.

GHIT 0195:  Elizabeth Jolly

GHIT 0172: The Shifting Points Podcast Hosts

  • Shifting Points Podcast Hosts
  • Shifting Points Podcast

All About the Shifting Points Podcast and Hosts

We are enthusiastic podcast listeners and found a podcast hosted by our guests called Shifting Points.  Their podcast is also aimed at helping people get started in our sport.  Luckily, they approach it from the perspective of autocross, so we haven’t lost our entire audience to them, yet.  Since we all share the same passion, we had to invite them onto our podcast and talk all things cars and driving.  They are a great group of ladies and we will be going up to an autocross event with them this season and plan on doing our best to get them into endurance racing.  Why should it be an « or » when it can be an « and ».  “And” is so much more fun.  Please welcome Kathy, Jess, and Audra to the 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 us a 5-star rating or 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. 

On this episode’s Dominating with Dawson

We go into two types of drivers that we see, those that tend towards overdriving their car and those that tend to underdrive their car.  If you are learning or instructing a driver, it is useful to see how to best approach driving improvement by understanding the differences between these two personality approaches to high performance driving.  It is also useful to see how the other half lives and learns.  Neither is right or wrong and both approaches can learn to be really fast.  The only difference is in the path that they tend to follow and the way they increase their speed.

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.  We have two systems for our team and Bill is looking to add a third for this season, pending CFO approval from Vicki.  They are a great system and truly invaluable in safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross etc.

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)  It seems our two podcasts have almost the exact same taste in cars.  Seems like a future autocross battle in the making.  Hopefully, this summer.  Probably wise to place your bets on the Shifting Points podcast team for a clean sweep victory.
  • 2)  We go through the history of how our ladies started autocross driving, met each other and how this eventually ended up with them starting a podcast together.
  • 3)  Both podcasts started out knowing little about fixing and working on a car and have progressed rapidly with help from car friends and YouTube.
  • 4)  We review how to enter an autocross local to you, where to find them, and what is involved.  The barrier to entry is as close to zero as any type of driving event. Autocross is a great way to get a taste for high performance driving with almost any car and very little risk, cost, and prep required.
  • 5)  Tons of Mini stories.  Apparently, Mini’s have feelings.  Lol. 
  • 6)  Both groups go into why we started podcasting and some of the benefits and growing pains involved.
  • 7)  It took a bit of time, but we eventually did make our move to convince them to try endurance racing.  Vicki was less than subtle, but did you really expect anything else from us by now?  It may end up with an all-female driver GHiT team this year.  Bill will have to be relegated to sous chef for the weekend and let the talented drivers show their stuff.
  • 8)  We mined for a few tips and tricks from the Shifting Points podcast team to starting up and entering your first autocross event.  Autocross is truly accessible to everyone interested in having fun in a car.  Most of the prep is for the driver’s comfort with the weather and food.  Your car is probably already good to go as it is, but getting it checked over may be a good idea.  Well, you will likely have to clean out your car, but that is usually a good thing, especially for our cars.  Lol.
  • 9)  Kathy and Bill share a certain talent related to torquing lug nuts.  Stories were shared.  Hopefully, they will both grow out of it soon.  Lol.
  • 10)  Tips on how to find any autocross events within the area you live or may be visiting.  Also, if concerned, the autocross events are classed by car and many times there are classes for first time/new drivers.
  • 11)  Audra’s tap root car story broke Kathy
  • 12)  Jess just released an album with her band.  It would be great to hit the top hundred list with the latest release from The Strattones!  It might even pay for her next autocross event.
  • 13)  Jen asks her next question while on mute.  Eventually she figured it out, lol. 
  • 14)  Kathy may have discovered a way to get red wine out of cloth seats with a combination of red wine and Diet Coke.  Try at your own discretion.

GHIT 0172: The Shifting Points Podcast Hosts