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Garage Heroes (In Training)

Garage Heroes (In Training)

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Thompson

GHIT 0124: GHIT Flashback to Thompson 2018 with the 24 Hours of Lemons

Award Winning GHiT Team
We Won (well, at least we got an award)

On this flashback episode, we cover our team’s second ever race at Thompson with the 24 Hours of Lemons series in 2018.  How did the race go?  Well, it was our first ever two car race.  It was the first ever race for half of our team (Alan, Jennifer, Casey, and Pete).  It was our first time on track with the SpiderStang and our friends at Prompt Critical showed Liam and Cassian how to “adjust” the boost on the SpiderStang.  The Capri died and is still dead to this day.  We won the “I Got Screwed” award.  Details of our weekend and what we learned shall be provided.  PS Never show your new to racing teen age team mates how to adjust the boost.  Also, on this episodes Dominating with Dawson, we go over car control and what it means when someone refers to a car “rotating”.

  • SpiderStang Makes its Debut
Capri’s dies while the SpiderStang makes its debit

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)  We quickly gloss over the new raspberry additions that Alan and Bill added to Vicki’s garden area.

2)  We cover from post-race of our first race at NJMP to the conclusion of our second race at Thompson

3)  How our team grew from our first race with 4 drivers to where we had a two-car team with 8 drivers.  Our preparation was not quite up to what it should have been. Especially with 4 additional drivers, two of which that had never driven a manual transmission before.

4)  The advantages and disadvantages of a teen drivers on a racing team

5)  How a perfectly performing a running car from our last race did not stay that way during the trip back from the track, to the great surprise of all involved. Carburetors are not our center of expertise and decided to let us know.

6)  How the SpiderStang theme came to be and what we learned in doing it.  It ended up looking great, but the process was not one we would recommend.  Sometimes you learn what to do and sometimes you learn what not to do.  We also mention how we built “Bondo”, a PVC and spray foam version of a mannequin to be used as Spiderman on our car.

RV Plumbing Fitting
RV Plumbing Fitting, not Automotive Grade, lol.

7)  Vicki’s trials and tribulations for her first time driving to a race with a race car trailer.  It did not go very well.

8)  How our first time trying to stay at the track went.  In a word:  poorly.  We have come up with much better sources for renting RV’s to stay at the track since then.

9)  How our new drivers first time driving went.  Quick checklist, panic attack at being strapped in, panic attack about going on a racetrack in the pit lane, first ever racing in the rain and heavy fog, and how to be a rolling chicane on the track.

10)  Prompt Critical helped us with our cars but gave away a bit too much information to Liam and Cassian.  They now knew how to adjust (read as increase to maximum) the boost of the turbocharger.  After all, more is better, lol.

11)  How to dial in a brake proportioning valve during testing.

12)  Alan’s chipmunk powered internet popped up again, a few times.  Bill had no idea on how to edit this, but it seems pretty funny.

13)  How we became an award-winning racing team at this event.  It all started with Jennifer and her license in driver tech inspection.  Well on our way to minor internet celebrity status.  Still on the way to this day.

14)  Things we learned at our first ever rain race and our first ever fog race, all at the same race.

15)  The story of the death of the Capri and the birth of El Jeffe, The Bad Hombre.

16)  We share the secret concoction to keep fog off your windshield that was shared with us by the Three Pedal Mafia.

17)  Alan treats his body like a temple?  And we finally found the root cause for why Alan doesn’t want to work on the Capri.

18)  Bill tries to avoid sleeping in the bathtub even though we won the coveted “I Got Screwed” award.

19)  Finally, we go over the post-race awards and the trials and tribulations we went through to get home afterwards.

SpiderStang Glows
SpiderStang Glows, Who Knew?

GHIT 0124: GHIT Flashback to Thompson 2018 with the 24 Hours of Lemons

GHIT 0058 Thompson 2019 Race Wrap-Up

New Drivers and a New to Us Car

Alan, Jennifer, and Bill with our “new to us” BMW E36 race car

This Thompson 2019 episode is dedicated to our friend Aaron Leinemann.  He has had some unexpected bad medical news and a GoFundMe page has been started to assist.  Please share whatever you can to assist Aaron and his amazing family.

On this episode, our team reviews the 2019 24 Hours of Lemons race GP du Lac Chargoggagogg(etcetera) at Thompson Speedway in Northeastern Connecticut.  We entered our Race Truck El Jeffe a 2004 Chevy S-10 with many Isuzu Hombre body panels and our new to us 1998 BMW E36 3-series car for our first race with it after buying it about two weeks prior.  El Jeffe was updated from the former Stan Lee livery to and Avengers Endgame livery and the E36 was quickly themed in the paddock to be a Captain America car. 

  • Alan as Spider Man
    Alan as Spidey
  • Bennett Rocketing Deadpool
    Bennett Rocketing Deadpool
  • Connor with a Serious Chin
    Connor with serious chin
Garage Heroes were present and accounted for

We review Friday practice and spend most of the episode covering the race on Saturday and Sunday.

Highlights include:

  • New Drivers, several first timers at Thompson
  • Thompson track walk and review
  • Saturday and Sunday within El Jeffe
  • Saturday and Sunday in the BMW E36
  • El Jeffe brake issues and a potential fix and path forward to alleviate this ongoing problem. 
  • Our 4 black flag debacle and how it impacted our position in the race (HINT not well)
  • Bill got to make two signs with Connor to slow the cars in the pits
  • A minor incident where a car came across the bow of the El Jeffe and removed moist of the front end facia
  • Saturday night’s Potluck Dinner hosted by the Three Pedal Mafia team for Stuntin’ and Explodin’ fest
  • We show our exceptional math skills several times this episode
  • Team awards for the weekend
  • Hella Sweet or Butt Terrible idea of the week
  • To do’s and improvements for our next race
  • Radio and Helmet communication issues
  • Then things devolved from there
  • E36 performed very well
  • El Jeffe was a race truck
Proof we were ahead at least a few times

GHIT 0058: Thompson 2019 Race Wrap-Up

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