Garage Heroes In Training

Sam Smith, Editor At Large for Road and Track and Co-host of the NBC Sports Proving Grounds television show joins us for this episode. We try to cover Sam's impressive history with the automotive and mainstream media, as well as his driving and racing history, but we only seem to have scratched the surface of Sam's great stories. You can quickly see his gift for storytelling and ability to recall details and intricacies, as well as his optimism and enviable modesty. It is quickly apparent that Sam truly loves cars and especially those that he finds to be immersive and involving.

Also Ben reviews two videos pertaining to the driving style of the legendary Ayrton Senna on this Dominating with Dawson segment.

Links to the videos:

Senna Throttle Technique is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4kcLyYhThE

Senna Footwork (with accurate audio) is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzLjZWrpzmQ&feature=youtu.be

If you want to contact Sam Smith, he recommends DM'ing him on Twitter or Instagram @ThatSamSmith. Or you can read his articles on Road & Track and don't forget to watch for him on NBC Sports Proving Grounds.

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 for this episode include:

1) How his current Caterham 7 project car progresses from a box to a functioning car 2) His automotive past and how he worked his way through the tangled web of automotive journalism to have a successful professional career in a very tough business area 3) An overall discussion on driving being a skill and a sport, but definitely learnable by many is not all 4) Now Nigel Mansell confirms we are not going to be a pro racing driver anytime soon 5) Sam's racing history is pretty incredible and has some absolutely spectacular cars including a McLaren F1 and F1 GTR, an actual Formula 1 car, and a few great stories of his racing (with Mental) at the 2019 NASA 25 Hours at Thunderhill in the rain and the ever so lovely mud. 6) Bill valiantly tries to sell a Citroen SM, for a friend. Still available for a good home. We know a guy. 7) Bill digs a hole on a comment that will likely lead to issues from some of our friends and soon to be friends who are Porsche fans. 8) How his schedule has been impacted by our current social distancing due to the Covid 19 virus 9) When car technology and societal sanity intersected, perhaps for the worse. 10) Sam's experience with racing the RX-7 Black Betty (rambutan) when it was still set up as a time trial car. He misses the old, scary setup. 11) His thoughts on modern cars in general, are they too fast, too intrusive, and are there any good drivers' cars still available and the potential impact it may have on racing in the future. 12) Sam also lists several of the current cars that are highlights within the available assortment at your local dealer for both on and off-road driving fun. 13) Electric cars and electric car motorsports/racing, and the varying degrees of success for each. 14) Thoughts on autopilot and potential impending issues in the transition to full autonomy (SAE Level 5) 15) His experience with test driving a true Formula 1 car and how he grew to acknowledge the difference between his level and those gifted individuals driving at the level of Formula 1, as well as the actual level of performance of the car itself. The tip of the spear is very, very pointy indeed. 16) Breaking News for one of the first times: Sam's "Ugly" story is one for the books! It involves another one of our original bucket list guests to be (hopefully) Jason Camissa and a Ford GT, but we will go no further.

Sam Smith, Editor At Large for Road & Track and host of the "Proving Grounds" TV show joins us for this episode.  We try to cover Sam's impressive history with the automotive and mainstream media, as well as his driving and racing history, but we only seem to have scratched the surface of Sam's great stories.  You can quickly see his gift for storytelling and ability to recall details and intricacies, as well as his optimism and enviable modesty.

Also we review the driving style of Ayrton Senna with Ben.

With everyone quarantined or at least social distancing, we have had several requests to re-publish this episode on Sim Racing.

On this episode, we had Scott Barton as our guest. Scott is a very accomplished racing driver and very knowledgeable in the area of Sim Racing. We thought we'd learn more about both on this episode. Sim racing can be great way to get cheap track time, especially in the off season or during the work week when you aren't near a track. As with most aspects of racing, you can go as deep as your interest and bank account will allow. We hope you enjoy the episode.

Highlights from this episode include:

1) Scott's racing history and progression to where he is currently racing mostly in the AER series (American Endurance Racing) where he has recorded a very impressive series of results since originally learning at HPDE's in 1999 and racing in 2009.

2) Scott's latest goal is try to round out his collection of first overall wins in Lucky Dog and WRL to complete his already stellar collection of 24 Hours of Lemons, Champ Car, and AER wins and have recorded overall wins in every major street tire endurance racing series in the US.

3) Scott is also a driving coach and is involved with many teams, students, and racing series and organizations.

4) We then began to cover various software and hardware choices available, make some recommendations (links below) as well as describe some of the many systems and options that are available for a wide range of budgets.

5) The three basic systems we reviewed started with a single monitor, a three-monitor system and a VR based system with a good set of steering wheels and pedals. A sim vibe/butt kicker would be a very nice addition is budget allows.

6) More advanced options mentioned include motion/ full motions simulators, spring loaded harnesses,

7) Computer requirements in general, such as a 4-core processor, i5 or newer, with a video card capable of running a VR headset at 1080p and 90 fps (or better) should be sufficient for your system.

8) We also cover how to deal with motion sickness in VR if that happens to you in the beginning.

9) Scott was even kind enough to entertain us with our traditional Good, Bad, and the Ugly series.

Also, Scott can assist you with defining your system if needed at his website below.

Items and Links discussed within this episode include:

Steering wheel and Pedals:

Logitech G29, G920: https://www.logitechg.com/en-us/products/driving/driving-force-racing-wheel.html

AccuForce Steering wheels

Fanatec Wheel and Pedals: https://fanatec.com/us-en e.g. v3 inverted pedal set, Clubsport base/mount

Heusinkveld: https://heusinkveld.com/products/sim-rigs/sim-rig-gt/?q=%2Fproducts%2Fsim-rigs%2Fsim-rig-gt%2F&v=7516fd43adaa

VR:

Samsung Odyssey Plus Headset: https://heusinkveld.com

Oculus Rift: https://www.oculus.com/rift-s/

Optional Accessories/Upgrades:

Butt Kickers: https://thebuttkicker.com/

Full Motion simulators – Various sources

RaceDepartment.com for cars and tracks

Realteus force feel seat pad: www.Realteus.com

Chassis movers: various sources

Sim Racing choices:

iRacing: https://www.iracing.com/

Assetto Corsa: https://www.assettocorsa.net/home-ac/

R Factor: https://store.steampowered.com/app/365960/rFactor_2/

Project Cars: https://www.projectcarsgame.com/explore/?lang=en-us

Please feel free to contact Scott at:

Website: https://www.facebook.com/ProFormanceCoachingcom

Facebook Group: Sim Racing Deals at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SimRacingDeals/

Thank you again.

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT Immature Endurance Racing Team

With everyone quarantined or at least social distancing, we have had several requests to re-publish this episode on Sim Racing. 

We had Scott Barton as our guest, a very accomplished racing driver & very knowledgeable in the area of Sim Racing.  We thought we’d learn more about both on this episode.  Sim racing can be great way to get cheap track time, especially in the off season or when you aren’t near a track.  As with most aspects of racing, you can go as deep as your interest & funds will al

Rob Krider who is a driver and managing partner of the Double Nickel Nine Motorsports racing team joins us on this episode. Rob has a problem in that he and his team won't let anyone else win, lol. His team is the reigning 4-time national champion in NASA's Honda Challenge series, while also having both team cars on the podium each year. Our discussion covers not only their team history but what they have learned since starting in the 24 Hours of LeMons series and progressing through other racing series and classes. Within this episode, there is useful information that can be applied to any racing series and any racing team can improve your results with little, if any, expense. To see a lot of Rob's team in action folks can watch the documentary film "Double Down" about racing in the 25 Hours of Thunderhill where his team took an ex-24 Hours of LeMons car and beat the factory Mazda racing team. Link to the video at www.team559.com.

In addition, Rob was kind enough to guide us through the latest in our series covering the Usual Suspects of racing car platforms and went into a deep dive about racing Hondas and Acuras, especially in endurance racing.

Finally, Ben covers both Understeer and Oversteer in the latest Dominating with Dawson series. We just couldn't cover them separately, so we went for a double shot.

We hope you enjoy this episode. It will make you faster!

PS If you are interested in watching or reading more of Rob and his teams exploits, please go to:

KriderRacing on Instagram

www.RobKrider.com

www.Team559.com

www.DoubleNickelNineMotorsports.com

And don't forget to get a copy of Rob's book "Cadet Blues", a humorous look at one of his most fun driving training events at www.cadetblues.com

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) Some of his team's best learnings since starting in LeMons several years ago 2) Rob and Bill commiserate about putting together team communication emails and texts that are summarily ignored 3) How Double Nickel Nine Racing team has "added" to the various series rule books through creative race car engineering 4) Jennifer asks the dirtiest of the dirty question that you can ask a race car driver 5) The value of a spare/donor parts car and Vicki tells Bill to go buy another car. He left the podcast to search CraigsList 6) Team structure and organization techniques to maximize performance across all levels of racing, even a two-car team of 60 people for the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill 7) Their scouting trip preparation for national races 8) What is the Double Nickel Nine garage involved in 9) A comparison of large LeMons fields to some smaller or shorter or higher performance fields 10) How they communicate within their team, especially on track with their spotters 11) Storytime of Alan's stint at Thompson last year where he would not come in for a driver change. Rob fully approves. 12) Rob gives the advantages "keys to success" in Honda and Acura racing 13) Diapers win races, well they used to anyway 14) Rob shared some endurance racing wisdom, like pit stops practice and it's not about top lap times but it is about endurance 15) What is a Honda Taco and how it is to drive one 16) We finally find a way to compare ourselves to Roger Penske 17) We go over several tips and tricks from several of Rob's helpful articles, many are linked below 18) Be a Racing team or Beer racing team? Correct answer is: Yes 19) You can hear an alert for every time Bill's computer went blue screen of death if you listen closely. It happened often 20) Bleed brakes after every endurance session 21) Rob and Alan bond over tire balancing. In the end, it comes down to the preparation done before coming to the track 22) Get things done as soon as possible. Don't start when you have just enough time left to get it done. 23) Internal competition for fastest lap is detrimental to team performance and overall team success. 24) Rob's team has learned that for endurance races, lap timers are not allowed within the car. 25) EJ2 Track Rat has a fashion suggestion for next year's nationals 26) How to choose an engine machine shop to work with 27) Rob's documentary film about endurance racing, titled "Double Down" is available free on YouTube, 1 hour 15 minute run time on the Krider Racing YouTube channel. 28) Tactical Ops Brewing's Double Nickel Nine IPA named after the race team with an image of their Honda Challenge car on the bottle. This stuff is high test at 10.9% ABV!

And here are some of our favorite articles that we discussed on this episode:

• How to Create A White Board Track Map
• How To Design and Build RaceDeck Flooring For the Paddock
• Portable Tool Cart
• Jack Stand Stripes
• Documentary Film "Double Down" Available Free on YouTube
• Vehicle Scales, Level Garages and Corner Weighting
• Five Pro Tips For Effective Brake Bleeding For Reliable Track Use
• Tire Preparation Basics
• Tablet Dashboard
• Balancing Marriage and Racing
• Vehicle Scales, Level Garages and Corner Weighting
• The No-Flex, No-Nonsense Advantage of Spherical Bearings
• Get The Flex Out: How Spherical Bearings Improve Handling & Speed
• Simple Ways to Clean Up and Protect Your Racecar's Wiring
• Strength and Lightness: Installing ARP Studs and Skunk2 Racing Lugs
• Nothing To Fear: Simple Steps To Replacing A CV Boot
• Easy, Accurate, Inexpensive, Do-It-Yourself Vehicle Alignment

Rob Krider of the Double Nickel Nine racing team joins us on this episode.  Rob and his team are the reigning 4-time national champion in NASA's Honda Challenge, with both team cars on the podium each year.  Our discussion covers not only their team history but what they have learned since starting in Lemons and progressing through other racing series and classes. 

We hope you enjoy this episode. it will make you faster!

Keith Tanner who has literally written the book on improving the performance of a Miata, actually three books, and works with the team at Flyin' Miata joined us for this episode to discuss his driving history and he was also willing to add to our recent series on the "Usual Suspects" and addresses many aspects of the use and optimization of all four generations of Miata's/MX-5's. Since we have two MX-5's on our team already and we are routinely passed by them at every race and HPDE event we have been to, we could not have this series without going over them. The MX-5/Miata is one of the more flexible racing vehicles available and with little modification, it can be competitive in many types of racing, as well as being a perfect choice for HPDE and track days. Additionally, the cost for wear and maintenance is quite low in terms of both cost and frequency, due to its light weight and the wide availability of parts.

Our Dominating with Dawson segment goes over the term Trail Braking, what it is and how it can be used on a track as you increase your skill and experience.

We hope you enjoy this episode.

Please subscribe to our podcast on iOS most use the Podcast app or Android users may use the Android App, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher etc. We have also added this to our YouTube channel, especially useful with subtitles if you are hearing impaired, as several of our drivers are.

If you could leave a review, that would help us greatly and you can also add any questions or topics you may want us to cover.

Thank you again and 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 include:

1) How to choose which version of Miata depending on what your interests are and/or how your personal geometry needs may require, including potential to LS swap

2) History of the Miata, how it came to be and how its racing pedigree arose and developed throughout the 30 plus years of production

3) We mention Long Road Racing during the episode, but they have been recently replaced by Flis Performance for ND prepped cars for the Global MX-5 Cup Series

4) How did Keith originally get into Miatas, including his gateway drug called Autocross and how he has expanded his interests and testing though the years

5) How Flyin' Miata develops and designs its parts internally and with its suppliers to serve a wide variety of needs and performance interests

6) Can you say LS Swap? Flyin' Miata can!!! And it fits into a Miata as well, lol.

7) Bill reviews how he came to have and lose the NB Miata to Vicki in a single day

8) Overall advantages are lightweight, relatively cheap to operate and maintain, great driver feel, excellent handling and grip in turns, a great car to learn and develop your driving skill, and relatively bullet proof. Disadvantages are relatively low power and acceleration (true momentum cars) and straight-line speed.

9) NC Miatas (2006-2015) are in a sweet spot for depreciation and a bit larger than the other models. It is also a bit difficult to install a full cage.

10) NA and NB Miatas are a bit smaller, lighter, and "fun" to drive. Downsides, they are getting pretty old.

11) ND Miatas are smaller and lighter than NC, similar to the NA/NB's and the power is increased above the others, especially the NA's and NB's. Also it has the only adjustable steering wheel in the Miata family. Weaknesses may be in the transmission area and you may want to augment the cooling.

12) Recommends looking at used spec Miata for value, especially the 1.6-liter versions that are not as competitive in the series as the 1.8-liter cars.

13) How to inspect and maintain your Miata, especially as the NA and NB's are getting close to 30 years old or more. Hint look at your cooling systems effectiveness, including the transmission and differential.

14) Pluses and minuses of our Flyin' Miata Stage II NB Miata, cooling and transmission etc.

15) Advantages and disadvantages of the 5-speed vs the 6-speed transmission in the older Miatas

16) Keith's thoughts on gauges vs ECU control and how to tell if there is an issue without additional gauges and which gauges may be helpful in general

17) Some of the potential issues involved with a LS Swapped Miata and some of the many issue that had to be addressed during their development to be able to have a system they could offer to their clients.

18) We even get into the new ND and ND.2 models

19) Keith discussed some stories about his past experiences in the Targa Newfoundland

20) Bill and Keith compare stories when they both lost a wheel while driving and other lessons Keith learned while racing and testing over the years

21) In the end, Keith even tolerated some of our more off the wall inquiries and concerns

22) Alan valiantly tries to help a listeners with what gear to use when doing burnouts in a turbo NB Miata.

Keith Tanner who has literally written the book on improving the performance of a Miata, actually three books, and works with the team at Flyin’ Miata joined us for this episode to discuss his driving history and he was also willing to add to our series on the “Usual Suspects” and addresses all four generations of Miata’s/MX-5’s.

Our Dominating with Dawson segment goes over Trail Braking, what it is and how it can be used on a track as you increase your skill and experience.

Ross Bentley was kind enough to come on as our guest and help celebrate our 100th episode. Ross is known throughout the racing world as a great driver, author, and coach about high performance driving and racing, where his racing experience at the highest levels is augmented by his passion for learning and sharing to help raise the knowledge base as a whole for the good of our sport. This discussion was aimed at learning more about Ross and his history, but when you have a chance to ask him a question about racing, you take advantage. We are hoping we can get him on again in the future. Maybe every 100 episodes, but we would hate to have to wait that long.

PS We rarely request anything, but during our discussion, Ross seemed to be unaware of the impact his books have had. If you have a moment, please post a picture of you with his book/books on Instagram with the hashtag #ThankYouRoss to show him the impact he has had. Thank you.

On this week's Dominating With Dawson, we go into the first of an ongoing series where ewe get into some of the jargon involved with racing. This week we review Rotation, what it means, and how to use and control it.

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

This episode's highlights include:

* How Ross fascination in cars and racing started and his history in racing

* His thoughts on the impacts of current amateur and amateur endurance racing on our sport

* With racing, what is not enough. Go for the Why!

* Skid pad use and discussion

* Alan admits to an issue with Turn 1, all of them

* Tire grip and how to control/manage the grip on individual tires while on track

* Why and how at the limit driving can be different for different drivers, even in the same car

* The equal, if not even more, importance of knowing what you do "right" as well as what you did "wrong" and by how filling your lap with doing things right will remove the time to do something wrong, leading to improvement.

* Areas where drivers typically could improve at various levels in their learning career processes and various habits and processes to build upon

* How to improve you driving through cross training

* His prescription for moving from a novice driver to a very successfully, advanced amateur racing driver

* He clarifies the difference between driver training, driver education, and driver training.

* Vicki picks Ross's brain on front wheel drive vs rear wheel drive to absolutely no one's surprise

* The best description of the importance of how you release the brake we have ever heard, and BOB vs EOB based drivers

* It looks like Ross's podcast is coming back and we cannot wait!

Ross Bentley was kind enough to come on as our guest and help celebrate our 100th episode.   Ross is known throughout the racing world as a great driver, author, and coach about high performance driving and racing, where his racing experience at the highest levels is augmented by his passion for learning and sharing to help raise the knowledge base as a whole for the good of our sport.  This discussion was aimed at learning more about Ross and his history, but when you have a chance to ask him a question about racing, you take advantage.  We are hoping we can get him on again in the future.  Maybe every 100 episodes, but we would hate to have to wait that long.  

 

PS We rarely request anything, but during our discussion, Ross seemed to be unaware of the impact his books have had.  If you have a moment, please post a picture of you with his book/books on Instagram with the hashtag #ThankYouRoss to show him the impact he has had.  Thank you.  

 

On this week’s Dominating With Dawson, we go into the first of an ongoing series where ewe get into some of the jargon involved with racing.  This week we review Rotation, what it means, and how to use and control it.  

  

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

 

 

This episode’s highlights include:

* How Ross fascination in cars and racing started and his history in racing

* His thoughts on the impacts of current amateur and amateur endurance racing on our sport

* With racing, what is not enough.  Go for the Why!

* Skid pad use and discussion

* Alan admits to an issue with Turn 1, all of them

* Tire grip and how to control/manage the grip on individual tires while on track

* Why and how at the limit driving can be different for different drivers, even in the same car

* The equal, if not even more, importance of knowing what you do “right” as well as what you did “wrong” and by how filling your lap with doing things right will remove the time to do something wrong, leading to improvement.  

* Areas where drivers typically could improve at various levels in their learning career processes and various habits and processes to build upon

* How to improve you driving through cross training

* His prescription for moving from a novice driver to a very successfully, advanced amateur racing driver

* He clarifies the difference between driver training, driver education, and driver training.

* Vicki picks Ross’s brain on front wheel drive vs rear wheel drive to absolutely no one’s surprise

* The best description of the importance of how you release the brake we have ever heard, and BOB vs EOB based drivers

* It looks like Ross’s podcast is coming back and we cannot wait!