Garage Heroes In Training

Andrew Rains joins us for this episode to talk through his racing history and then we went deeply into the Apex Pro telemetry system. We have used our two Apex Pro's many times this season and everyone has liked the simple interface while on track and the data analysis capability off track is simple and fast, yet powerful. We have only scratched the surface to this point, but we wanted to make sure everyone we know was aware of the Apex Pro system and we all learned a great deal more about the system with Andrew. After this episode, we can understand why he is a sought after coach at the track.

Meanwhile, on our Dominating with Dawson segment, we thought it was time to discuss the concept of scrubbing speed, what it means and how to avoid it, as well as how it can be used to assist you on track to lower your lap times.

As always, if you have any questions that you would like us to cover with Ben, please let us know in a (5 star?) podcast review or via email at [email protected] or in a comment on our social media.

We hope you enjoy this episode!

PS Andrew and the Apex Pro team was kind enough to provide our listeners a discount code for a free Phone Mount when you buy an Apex Pro unit on their website. Please add both the unit and the phone mount and then enter the discount code. provided in the episode

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

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

Information about the Apex Pro can be found at: https://apextrackcoach.com/

Andrew and the team can be contacted at: [email protected] or at [email protected]

Also, Andrew is competing well at the recent Grid Life GLTC NOLA event even though his #719 BMW is on treaded tires vs everyone else on racing slicks here:

Race 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7olV427w28

Race 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PufQoz_a7hA

Highlights from this episode include:

1) We learn about Andrew's extensive racing experience, as well as his current E36 M3 WRL and Grid Life GLTC BMW car, past, present, and future.

2) Vicki thinks she is on mute. Then she knows she is on mute. Then it sinks in. The life of a mom. Lol.

3) Andrew really has a great racing philosophy and a way of thinking about being at the track.

4) We discuss several potential issues that people cite that prevents them from starting and a variety of ways to overcome them, including contacting Andrew or us at any point. Every driver we know would love to have more people to share the track with. It is much more fun for everyone.

5) The discussion on the Apex Pro at 19:50 with one of Bill's longest intros ever that Vicki jumped in and made even longer, lol.

6) Andrew provided a great overview of the Apex Pro device and its operation at 23:20

7) We begin to explain the detail of the actual operation and interpretation of the lights when on track and how the patented Apex Pro algorithms work in the background. The best news for most of us is that it works even if you can't even spell algorithm.

8) Vicki and Jennifer relate how the Apex Pro has helped them on track at their current level of driving. Those simple little LED lights can provide so much feedback on track and so quickly, it really is amazing. Especially when a driver may be early on in their learning and can often be overwhelmed with the number and speed of sensory inputs when driving at speed.

9) We then go into the setup (that is super easy and quick) and beginning use of the data within the app that is collected automatically.

10) Andrew even answers some of our "how do we" questions with useful tips and tricks, several that we had thought of to this point.

11) Questions answered include: Options for multiple drivers and endurance races, approximately how long will the battery last, how to save battery during the day if not powered within the car, how to add tracks, especially for autocross use, can I use the Apex Pro without a phone, how the auto-start and auto-stop features work and interact with the phone screen being on, what does the apex score mean and how to interpret it, some of the potential values and options to utilize the power of the notes section.

12) How the Apex Pro light display works, what the light colors mean, and how to interpret the lights and probably most importantly, how you can use them to make driving changes on track during the stint.

13) Andrew also goes into the other data you can get in your car if your phone is visible. Then we go into the full data capabilities that are available post session using the Apex Pro app.

14) Our resident engineer has his usual requests for future features. He just can't help it. Please bear with him, we try, every single day. But it appears that Bill may finally have had a good question.

15) Andrew then moved into the beginning level of looking at data, almost a 101 review. Once you have used the unit, or any telemetry unit that offers data, this discussion would form a very good foundation for looking at your data the first time and how to correlate the data to your track feel/impression. Intro at ~51:20

16) Simple 101 process outline: 1) Think about where you did not feel comfortable or where you think you may have left the most opportunity to improve, 2) Look at those areas on the track map overview screen, 3) Speed vs distance plot and check if the top of the speed trace is rounded (coast or slow transition) or is it sharp and you moved from full throttle to brake quickly, 4) Look at your minimum speed in corners and if a fast corner you would like a u-shape and in slow corners, you would like a V-shape (fast is above ~60 mph or 100 kph)

17) Options for exporting the data to larger visual areas, like an iPad or a computer as well as additional options, like Track Attack, to compare with other drivers who may use other data collection systems.

18) Bill resumes his friction circle soap box discussion. Andrew graciously tolerates it. Is there any foundation to Bill's theory? Still tbd.

19) We even had a chance to go into the Apex Pro Crew View feature and how it can be used. Bill is getting more and more excited. And then we started to discuss the ability to add in OBDII data.

20) Options for integrating into other data systems and video options including Race Render. ~1:13:45

21) Our team has been working on a comprehensive survey of all the data systems, but we have only completed the systems we have personally tested to this point. If interested in the results or helping us try some of the missing systems, please let us know.

22) How best to analyze multiple drivers and/or multiple laps within the Apex Pro system as well as external software systems.

23) We end our discussion of Apex Pro discussion is at ~1:29 and begin our F&F Storytime questions

As the year wraps up, we review how our 2020 racing season went and what we would like to do and accomplish in 2021. Obviously, the year did not go as we had hoped or planned with the COVID pandemic impacting all aspects of normal life and routine, but we did make some significant growth and made the best out of a horrible situation. Goal making is one thing that is very easy to do, but also very easy to skip, however, we have found it to be very beneficial to our growth as racers as well as is our personal and professional lives.

On our Dominating with Dawson segment, we go over what it means to be driving at the limit, what is the limit, and how to get closer and closer to the limit safely and effectively.

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 start of looking at what our goals were for 2020 and how we did

2) The next segment covers what we want to accomplish going into 2021, including items that we would like to improve about our driving and our team.

3) We then begin to look at things that went well this year and things we could have done better.

4) It probably wouldn't be a podcast without our doing a Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, so we did.

5) The final step was we tried to grade our year and then determine a few things that would, if completed, would define a successful year for ourselves and the team.

6) We did forget to go into The Mirror that we added to aid us in getting in better shape for racing, so we added it as a bonus section after the credits.

John Lavin and Dean Hesser join us to discuss improvements to our car preparation processes. This includes before leaving for the racetrack, as well as at the racetrack and after the race. We learned a ton of things that we should have been doing but weren't simply because we didn't know or hadn't thought of it yet. We hope that this episode will save you at least one headache at the track or eliminate one breakdown or even better prevent an issue on track that causes damage to you or your car. We don't have a lot of can't miss episodes, but this is one of them for sure.

In addition, Dominating with Dawson we discuss some of the goal options for endurance racing. It is not simply a situation where you are either first or last, but really it is a race where you and your team are trying to work together and perform at the highest level internally and the final position is a relative measure of the team's performance versus the current bar that weekend. While winning overall, or even your class, is a great accomplishment, it is not the only measurement available each weekend, especially early in your racing career.

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) Bill makes up a new word, "ThankYouNess", well you know what we mean.

2) How Dean has "capitalized" on being target fixated during a race. Your results may vary.

3) Then we go into a "Weekend At Bernie's" worthy moment. For those under 40, it's a movie.

4) A brief summary of why many of the Safety Third Motorsports team members have ended up using BMW's as their weapon of choice on track.

5) Bill cannot help but to make fun of the test drive at John's shop where the GHIT M3 HPDE hit a deer. Sometimes you can't make this stuff up.

6) A discussion of their team's racing plans for 2021 and how both teams generally decide where to race.

7) How their team has progressed and grown over the years. It appears that our team is actually following their progression, both in how our team is organized and how our drivers are individually progressing. Perhaps there is hope for us. Who knew? Lol.

8) How Dean and Jen both ended up learning and growing as racing drivers as a result of their track incidents.

9) What is prepping a car? What is involved? What do you do before the race, during/at the race, and after the race to prepare and preserve your car and make sure that it has a higher likelihood of performing well.

10) Basic assumption: Assume everything is broken after a race and then verify before you take it to your next event.

11) Develop a wear rate of consumables and moving parts and then develop a preventative maintenance plan to replace before they fail at the track.

12) Overview: Repair things as they break or replace them ahead of time at a certain interval. Determine your team's philosophy and plan appropriately.

13) A standard rule of thumb is to use a margin for wear, it can range from 75% to 80% to 90% of the experienced failure rate before replacing a still good part. This does not address issues due to abuse or an accident etc. As an example, if your front wheel bearing fails after 100 hours or racing, you may want to replace them all before they break at 75 or 80 or 90 hours. The balance of costs and/or effort vs your acceptable safety/failure factor is a personal/team decision.

14) Several available options range from paint marking nuts and bolts to adding safety wires.

15) What should you do when at the track and prepping for the race in the morning.

16) What to do the night after are race while racing the next day.

17) What to do post-race weekend while packing up to leave the track.

18) Why checklists are so very important and how your team will need to develop it from your own experiences and particular car.

19) It was good to hear that we aren't the only team to have had radio communication issues at the track. They have come to the same solution as we have. Painfully.

20) The key is really to minimize the number and potential for errors.

21) We finish up this segment with the post-race recovery process for your race car. Don't just put it away to wait for the next track event.

22) We wrap up with a post episode discussion of the skid pad and the value that it has had to our driving, as well as Dean's.

We found several of the original sound files and decided to put this together for a bonus Christmas gift to everyone. This is the podcast recording sessions that started everything. We originally intended this to fill in a week gap that the Everyone Racers podcast took for Chris and Chrissy's wedding. However, it took almost thirty tries for us to get to this point.

In addition, we added an early snippet of our first GHiT podcast introductions. I guess we did get better over time, but honestly, we really had to, there was nowhere else to go.

We were such newbies back then. Hopefully, we can look back three years from now and feel the same ways about our team now vs then.

We hope you enjoy this episode!

PS Don't blame us. Bill's editing skills have improved to where this was possible and almost sounds decent.

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 few of our best E1R intros followed with our own feeble attempt to follow their episode guideline at the time.

2) A very brief wrap up of our recent race at Thompson with the 24 Hours of Lemons, our teams second overall race, and Alan and Jen's first ever race. The race weekend was very hot Friday and then very wet and humid for the rest of the weekend.

3) One of our first jokes came at the expense of Jeff. Very fitting.

4) The announcement of the team's newest puppy, a Bernese Mountain dog named Zoe Lemons Fischer.

5) Even back then, we had prep issues. Still a focus of our improvement.

6) Alan had bad internet at the time and was using the local Starbucks internet since it was much faster. Lol.

7) When 4-5 psi is an issue on your SpiderStang, a 1984 Mustang GT Turbo, obviously you turn it up to 15 psi or so.

8) The end of the Capri at Thompson is reviewed a bit. The project is still ongoing.

9) Special shout out to Bruce and all his help with fixing the Capri until late in the morning, only to find out our issue was a broken cam shaft.

10) Our first ever racing trophy was received at the Thompson race. Unfortunately, it was the I Got Screwed" award and even more unfortunately, it is still our only reward, but at least we have one, lol.

11) Alan's first black flag came this weekend. But not his last.

12) Our first ever attempt to help the E1R podcast with a sponsor reading. It did not go well

13) Vicki provides just the tip. It was on the help of Friday practice. We would add pre-race prep to this as well. A lot of this can be done ahead of time with YouTube and various track guides and track walks available, especially our favorites from Ross Bentley and Racers360.

14) We even discuss our plans for the Capri after the transmission and engine issues at Thompson. The plan is still the same. Our skills just haven't allowed us to get it to the finish line. Yet. Stay tuned.

15) Proof we can have an episode last less than one hour.

Trey Shannon returns to discuss several options to get in better shape for racing and life that can be done with or without a gym. We talk through a wide variety of ways to shave pounds off each car you drive by carrying fewer (extra) pounds in the driver seat. Trey usually works with several pro level drivers and many with professional aspirations. Podium Performance not only deals with physical preparation, but mental, visual, and many other related areas that can impact your driving performance, especially in long races or races with challenging conditions like heat etc. If you happen to live in the Charlotte NC area, Trey is local to you and he works out of Podium Performance Fitness at www.podiumperformancefitness.com or 540-815-2737.

We discuss the relative importance of driving perfect lines versus driving with full commitment on our Dominating with Dawson. This philosophy was brought up to Bill at a recent HPDE last summer and had a dramatic improvement on his lap times at the event. Maybe Bill was too smooth (for the first time in his life).

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) The podcast starts with a reference that won't make sense unless you listen to the post credits. Is it worth it to make it all that way? TBD, but we hope so.

2) What would a good starting point program look like to get into shape or back into shape.

3) Trey also offers many suggestions for activities that can be done with body weight only or minimal equipment that you may have at home already.

4) Leopard crawls: what Bill usually has to do to get a new race car.

5) RPPWFB. Familiar? Its an oldie, but a goodie around here.

6) How often to work out and how long can be very dependent on your starting condition, but something is always better than zero.

7) Remember, getting into better shape does not mean becoming a better circle or more round.

8) How has exercise and people's dietary habits been affected by the COVID induced isolation? Trey also goes into several online options to look for guidance at home, many of which are available for free on YouTube etc.

9) Trey also goes into the additional intensity that tempo can offer if you have limited weight at home. Bill dates himself with a Billy Squire reference. Trey being much cooler (and much younger) makes Flower by Moby reference. Both are tremendously effective ways to raise your pulse and intensity, even with light or very light weights.

10) Basic, fundamental diet discussion that leads to portion size control as a great place to start and work from, as well as the benefits of establishing an eating schedule.

11) Trey expands upon the one key principle that everyone needs to keep in mind, you cannot out work a bad diet, but you can easily out eat any workout program.

12) Vicki finds that the Noom app is very helpful for her to help control her diet and food consumption.

13) If you are very interested in the aspects of nutrition and diet, please look to working with a nutritionist to determine your exact needs and perhaps any food allergies etc. Even Trey's team works with a nutritionist with several of his clients.

14) Why does it always come back to Slurpee's with Bill? Trey tolerates it a bit and then they come up with a potential plan for controlling the craving for something while retaining control of your dietary inputs.

15) How to start with small steps and changes to begin a path towards huge results. Trey also goes into a planning approach to be ready for next season.

16) Slurpee substitute smoothie is included below.

17) Several gift tips for holiday gifts to help get in shape this year.

18) Vicki looks for tips from Trey on how to ease into a fitness and diet program, while secretly just trying to control Bill.

19) Hard Hog makes its first appearance in the fitness lexicon. We shall see if it catches on. Also, this proves that Vicki doesn't just make up terms in racing.

20) Approaches for working with and around any prior injuries, pain, or joint issues.

Some of the online or at home programs we discussed include: Tone It Up, several Beach Body programs, The Mirror, Peloton, among a near limitless number of potential alternatives.

Bill makes a commitment to Trey that the next time he is on there with be 25 pounds less of Bill. We really hope we see Trey again. Lol.

Anyone interested in joining Bill in the contest, please let us know. We all know he loves a competition and is more than willing to bet many stickers etc.

And Trey's smoothie recipe is as follows: you can put in pretty much whatever you want, but I usually make mine two at a time, and I include the below ingredients.

• 1 Banana
• 1 Cup Strawberries
• 1/2 Cup Blueberries
• 1/2 Avocado
• 1/2 Cup Spinach
• 1 Multivitamin
• Dash of Cinnamon
• Dash of Turmeric
• 1/2 Serving BCAA Powder (Amino Acids - this is where the Slurpee flavor comes from)
• 1/2 Serving Protein Powder - Vanilla
• Water (maybe a little bit of nut milk in there too)

For the strawberries and blueberries, I buy frozen bags. This makes things much easier, plus fruit that has been picked and almost immediately frozen tends to be slightly more nutrient rich than the "fresh" counterpart. I'll freeze my own bananas, as I have yet to find pre-frozen bags of those.

#hardhog #garageheroesintraining #garageheroesintrainingpodcast #treyshannon #podiumperformancefitness

Adam Jabaay is a co-founder of the GridLife series and was kind enough to come onto our program to talk about GridLife and his driving and racing history. We were told by several people at the track that we needed to attend a GridLife event and after doing some homework and talking with Adam, we agree. The series is a mix of high level racing, HPDE, drifting, and a huge social aspect in the paddock. We may need to take a vacation after the event to recuperate, lol. You can find more info on GridLife at the website: https://www.grid.life/ and we are anxiously waiting for the 2021 schedule to finalize our plans. Also, please follow Adam on his podcast that is nearing 400 episodes, we are way behind.

We cover all the apexes on this episode of Dominating with Dawson. If you were ever curious, we not only go into the different jargon/labels for apexes but what they mean and why they are where they are. No mathematical geometry, nor proofs required.

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) Norm Abrams reference number one for our podcast, but that would be a WOOT episode.

2) We recorded post the GridLife event at NOLA and Adam was still recovering, unpacking, and finding what he left at the track. His phone battery did make it all the way through the episode though.

3) How the Slip Angle podcast is the platform for communicating to the GridLife paddock and future paddock.

4) Adam also covers a lot of the history of GridLife and the eternal question: What is GridLife and what happens on a GridLife weekend. Remember the first rule: it stays at GridLife. We are hoping to attend the Gingerman event if it is during the summer when school is out.

5) Sprint Races? Check. HPDE? Check. Time Attack? Yep. Drifting? Check. Concerts? You bet. Post-race weekend hangover included free of charge.

6) What is GLTC? How it became what it is? How to build a car for it? It's all in here. Once class to rule them all.

7) What is the Time Attack event? What cars and levels/classes are available? Where would your car fit? A summary is here, but likely you should review the rule book for final classing determination.

8) What is a festival event vs a normal weekend?

9) How does drifting fit into the weekend? What types of drifting events do they hold?

10) How GridLife can have several thousand spectators at these events.

11) How the first ever tandem drifting competition went at NOLA? How someone can drift through turn 12 at Road Atlanta or even through the esses?

12) Can we hope to see an endurance type event at GridLife? Asking for a friend.

13) GridLife iRacing? Yep. Also, GridLife has been on Forza. Adam and the team are even working on a festival type event, perhaps even for this off season.

14) Tips and tricks for attending a GridLife event. Stay at the track. Come with a car already prepared. Sleep the week before.

15) You can't have Adam Jabaay on a not discuss RV's. So, we did. And his latest exploits going down to NOLA. Trailer hub maintenance is a real thing.

16) The weirdest recommendation to buy Koni shocks ever.

On this Way Off Our Topic (WOOT) episode, we overdo our review of The Mandalorian prior to the season 2 finale and predictions for what we think and/or want to happen in the finale. We then move into the recent announcements of upcoming movies and television series. Since we haven't had a WOOT episode in a long while, we went really long with this one. Our hosts for this episode are Jeff, Josh, Benny, Vicki, and Bill.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Craig Watkins joins us for this episode to discuss his driving history, as well as his time spent as an engineer for Flying Lizard Motorsports, among others. Craig concentrates now being an amateur racing driver and feels the pain of being a single person team. We also go into his business that started as a tool he needed to help him as a race car engineer and grew into what we know as Smart Racing Products that offers several solutions that are easy to use to set your car alignment up, even if your car is a truck or a bus. We hope to have Craig on again to go into the area more deeply in the future. We had recording issues so the episode is a mix of two parts, and you may be able to tell a difference in recording almost halfway through. We cannot express how happy we were when Craig said he would come on again to cover the first section that we could not edit well enough to use.

Our Dominating with Dawson segment goes over how to get more out of an HPDE event or a track day by setting goals. It has helped our team to maximize the benefit of each event and get the most bang for the buck/minute of track time. This process will help you to improve as well.

We hope you enjoy this episode!

You can get your Smart Strings, Smart Camber etc. from Smart Racing products at: https://www.smartracingproducts.com/

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) Bill's longest intro to date. Vicki had very little patience for it.

2) Craig covers most of his racing history, off road and on track driving, to becoming a race car engineer, to how he arrived at the present day as an amateur racing driver.

3) How professional racing is different but fundamentally the same as amateur racing.

4) What are some of the functions of a chief race car engineer and how he used several key pieces of data and the driver feedback to get the car as fast as possible.

5) Bad physics/chemistry flashbacks abound. Ideal gas law is fundamentally a relationship that says the Pressure X Volume is proportional to the Temperature. PV = nRT for those playing at home.

6) How the tires are really the critical control point to focus on to get your car to be fast and drive most easily.

7) What is the #1 most critical measurement tool to have in your racing tool belt, how to use it, and how to make sure you minimize variability by using a one individual gauge for all your measurements.

8) And then we also look to what the next few items and measurements are to further refine and improve your car's performance and "dialing it in".

9) A great summary of what the 24 Hours of Lemans – Lemans Classic event is and why you may want to add it as a bucket list item for you and your team.

10) Tire pressure at target. Then tire temperature uniformity across the tire surface and across the four tires +/- 30 degrees F or C?. If you aren't sure of your exact tire temperature range, around 150 degrees is a good first level estimate to where you enter your tire's performance window.

11) What are the three primary aspects of your tire alignment, Camber, Caster, and Toe, what they represent, what order to adjust them in, which ones are more critical to performance, and rough starting points for you to begin to optimize from further. As expected, we also get into some of the ways to set up the car to measure and adjust these parameters. We also discuss the other terms that are sometimes referred to including thrust angle.

12) The two ways that tire grip is generated. And there really are only two.

13) While each of the settings are car dependent, we attempt to give some broad based approximate starting ranges that will aid you in establishing a baseline point to begin from to set up your race car. We also try to explain how each parameter, and direction of change, affects the car's performance.

14) As with several of our prior episodes, Craig explains how the best teams are better by simply being better at the several fundamental aspects of car prep and team operation during a race. And if you sprinkle in a bit of luck, they will compete well and have a better than average chance to win.

15) Craig teases us with his excel list of adjustments and effects that came from his experience as a race engineer. Next time we see him, we are going to get a copy. We have a chance at getting at least the format of the list, without the exact content. tbd.

16) Craig also brings up the very valuable point to remember that you are the one to define how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go and that should be the primary determinant in how deeply you get into the car and its set up.

17) Bill finally gets to make a String Theory joke, but it wasn't very funny. Situation normal. But it was way better than his tuna joke.

18) We also go into the way to use Smart Strings and Smart Camber to measure and adjust your cars alignment before and even at the racetrack.

PS Did anyone catch the semi-subtle Three Pedal Mafia reference in this episode? GHiT decals can be sent out to you if you let us know.

You may know Chance Hales from his work with the Everyday Driver TV Show, Podcast, and YouTube channel, or from his excellent Instagram follow @phattyhales for a ton of great photos of spectacular cars in amazing locales. With our team finally starting to get things together, we wanted to improve our non-driving related knowledge and skills as well and realized that as much as we like taking pictures and videos at the track and on the road, we have not kept up with recent advances that may improve our images. It is also an excellent gift idea for those who may want to improve their equipment with a seasonal gift or three and is an excellent way to get a non-driving CFO to enjoy the track a bit more and feel included in your driving passion.

I think we broke Ben on this Dominating with Dawson episode where we cover the concept of "two feet in" and make sure everyone is clear with what it means and how this technique can dramatically minimize the deleterious impact of an error that may momentarily exceed your current skill level on 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 start of with a quick introduction including an overview of Chance's 1967 Mustang resto-mod and 2000 Porsche 911, his recent promotion to NASA HPDE 4, and how he grew into his current photography and videography profession, as well as Everyday Driver.

2) Bill mentions the story of how we first met each other online and how many of you can blame the Everyday Driver team for us starting racing and this podcast. They do apologize profusely.

3) Vicki learns what a "cars and coffee" is for the first time. Bill, I thought you raised her better than that.

4) Chance and Vicki go into what camera and accessories are needed as an upgrade to using your phone or a point and shoot type camera.

5) Chance also goes into the different types of cameras and some of the extensive jargon in a way that even Bill understood.

6) We also go into what are some of the options and features associated with a next level but still non-professional camera set up.

7) We go into the lenses most likely needed for shooting at a track, as well as some lenses that are awesome but cost more that most of our cars.

8) Chance is also an excellent videographer for both the Everyday Driver TV show on the Velocity channel, their feature length movies/DVDs, as well as their YouTube channel and goes into the various choices and alternatives, including GoPro's and several options that provide even higher quality.

9) We did go into the details of shutter speeds and aperture settings, but in a way that most non-photographers will finally be able to understand. The good news is that most of the cameras have an automatic setting or a simple semi-automatic setting that will work for most shots of interest at a track.

10) Chance also gives a few resources to find the both equipment and several that have a resource that can advise you for the best options to fit what you are trying to capture.

11) Key settings and what their approximate ranges should be include aperture, exposure, and the number of frames per second.

13) Vicki and Chance also had several cheap and simple tips, tricks, settings, and add-ons to help protect your equipment and simplify the process by narrowing the need for manual settings and adjustments.

14) Our first Space Balls reference ever was made by Chance and it was long overdue.

15) Chance also helps us with several great resources for editing photos and videos.

16) Vicki misunderstands Chance saying "raw" and thinks it's a type of graphic file. Bill makes a bad He Man joke.

17) Bill has a bad flashback to when everyone used something known as "film". Things ae so much easier now.

18) Chance even offers a set of standard "shots" that you should pursue at each event. We also go into the best way to compose a shot to at least appear to be a better photographer than you really may be.

19) Tips and tricks to shooting in the weather to protect yourself, the camera equipment, as well as some tips to getting better shots that take advantage of the conditions.

20) Bill asks about a Leica camera, but meant to say Lytro. Worth a look? TBD. We will have to ask Chance next time.

21) Depending on your goals and budget, we are sure to have given you a few options that will improve your team's photos.

22) Bill and Cahcne alsoi discuss their annual "Pilgrimage Trip" to Spa and the Nürburgring. Vicki wants a camera so Bill thought, just in case…..

You can view Chance's portfolio work at: https://www.chancehalesphotography.com/

The Everyday Driver home page is at: https://www.everydaydriver.com/

Bob Chapman's work can be found at: http://www.autosportimage.com/

Ross Bentley, world class racing coach and author, was kind enough to join us to help celebrate our 150th episode! Since Ross has literally written THE book on racing and high performance driving, we always look forward to talking with him any chance we get. Our team has improved in the almost year since Ross came on episode 100, but have our questions? You will have to be the judge of that. As always, Ross is able to answer everything we are curious about and even provide some insight into the area that we had not even thought of to this point. If you want an episode that will help you drive faster, Ross is the perfect guest. We have already started our new list of questions in case we can talk him into episode 200. If you have any, please let us know. Also, Ross has resumed his weekly podcast and if anything, it is better than ever. You can subscribe to it on any of the podcasting platform of your choice. Also, his book Speed Secrets is the most essential resource we know of to learn to be a better driver and race driver. The great thing about Ross is he can answer every single question we can think of. The bad thing about Ross is he makes you think about it in another way. This ends up with many more questions and usually Bill goes off and overthinks it, again. Vicki missed a really good one this time (she was fixing her broken MX5 suspension in the hotel parking lot.

How to get better at the turns is the (potentially) surprising subject of this Dominating with Dawson, but we attempt to discuss how to approach a fast corner and a slow corner. Depending in the specific track, one or two of the turns will be most critical to a fast lap time and it can often be one of these two types of corners. This will be the first part of this area that we discuss as there is a lot of detail and discussion to be had in this area. We did use several specific turns at Road Atlanta, Laguna Seca, Monte Carlo, and Mid-Ohio to describe these types of turns explicitly. We are also sure, Ben slipped in a VIR reference at least once or twice. For this discussion, the term fast is usually referring to a turn with a minimum speed of over ~60 mph or ~100 kph.

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) Ross quickly gives away why he is back on the podcast with us. Lol.

2) We talk with Ross about our (then) upcoming skid pad event at Lime Rock Park and he was kind enough to go into what we could do to maximize the learning at the skid pad. It turned out that this was almost exactly what our friends at Safety Third Motorsports had already arranged for the event. Even after the event, we still have a long way to go to be able to catch up to Ross's friend Johan Schwartz who was able to hold a drift for 232.5 miles, with live refueling while drifting.

3) Ross goes on to explain a way to have a car turn more when understeering by reducing the steering input you are asking from the car. Its counterintuitive but exceedingly helpful.

4) How does practicing on a skid pad help your street driving, as well as your driving on a track.

5) When to use slow hands and when to use quick hands.

6) Bill even asked the questions that he is over thinking, again. Things like is there a relationship between the apex and the resumption of throttle during a turn. Bill's pursuit of foundational axioms continues, lol. And why is he talking about thermodynamics on a podcast about racing?

7) A great discussion of what sometimes can fool you on track. For instance, sometimes as lap of a turn may have felt "good" but ended up slower.

8) Ben comes up with a truly new question to Ross! Nicely done.

9) The importance of focusing on what to do and not solely on what not to do, especially in racing.

10) Jennifer asks a great question: what can she do to improve during the off season?

11) Ross goes in depth on mental imagery techniques and actually gives Jennifer (and everyone) an exercise program that has shown to significantly improve your driving outside of being on track. Summary: Relax body and slow breathing to slow your mind down

11a) Monday night: entering and setting up to drive the track at speed, and push pace a bit with actually mimicking the physical movements. Focus on the technique of driving Pitt race. Refresh the same for 10-15 minutes the following morning. Mantra: Pitt Race etc.

11b) Tuesday night: Close eyes and focus on personal driving confidence improvements and then drive the track again. Follow with a Wednesday morning refresh. Mantra: Confidence or I'm here etc. (in driving)

11c) Wednesday night: focus on ultra-sensory perception and expansion of details. Follow up Thursday morning. Mantra: Sensitive

11d) Thursday night: Focus on race craft and starting scenarios and racing scenarios and try to envision ways to gain position. Repeat refresh next morning. Mantra: I'm ready or I'm going to the front

11e) Friday night: Focus on adaptability of dealing with a car that isn't quite correct. i.e. left turns aren't same as right, you lost a gear, brakes are an issue, shock going away, etc. etc. Mantra: Adapt

11f) Saturday: Focus on a specific driving technique you are working on, like brake pedal release etc. Mantra: on the technique

11g) Sunday night: Focus on the thrill of driving at the limit and just driving without conscious thought. Mantra: TBD by you

12) Ross and his students have all found the value of the using mental imagery and seen large benefits, especially when expanding the practice beyond the physical driving as we described above.

13) We also went over several other off season, off track practice topics that anyone can do while in the off season.

14) Bill also brought up the relatively recent release of the Garmin Catalyst, how it works, and how it can help most if not all drivers at the track. It does not replace a coach, but can definitely help anyone to be faster and try new techniques on the track by looking at what you are doing and helping you to optimize from what you are doing to a better approach. Most of us would be surprised by how it can help you break a plateau. (We are still working to get a guest on the show to diver deeper into the Catalyst. We have not given up.) Ross coincidentally has helped in the development of the Catalyst and it really shows. The Catalyst even helped Ross improve his personal lap times and we are sure it will help you as well.

15) Ross covers what areas are typically key to focus on at various driving levels of proficiency. Several of the habits are similar across the driving levels, sometimes even to the highest professional ranks.

16) We go into the relative importance of driving at the limit vs driving the perfect line. It looks likes Robin for NASA Great Lakes was correct with his tip to Bill at Autobahn CC this summer.

17) A few brake light stories that Ross has "heard" about, as well as a great story about Ross driving the most "evil" car he ever drove at Nazareth.

18) Ross was even willing to entertain us with the fast and furious story time questions that we haven't asked him already. Some will surprise you, but all were very entertaining. We were especially looking forward to Ross's answers to his favorite corner of a track.