Garage Heroes In Training

We conclude our wrap up of our racing at Laguna Seca with the Lucky Dog racing series by summarizing our Sunday race and our overall thoughts and experiences. We had a great trip out to Laguna Seca and the track is wonderful. Did our Saturday continue into Sunday. Yes. Did our car give it everything it had? Yes. Did we finally break the podcast curse and finish a Lucky Dog race? Well……listen and find out.

Highlights of our review include:

1) Race car status and prep review

2) Mental's first rolling start in a race and our thoughts on tire warming of street tires

3) Mental's Stint to start Sunday race day

4) The setup of our race car and how to drive it optimally

5) Many of the differences between the Lucky Dog series and Lemons

6) Vicki's technique to remove some of the oil leaking into the cabin of the car

7) A discussion on window nets

8) Mental seems to have a "new" Miata attraction developing

9) Performance variability between the series and within some of the car's by different drivers

10) Our goals for the weekend and goals for our day/stints

11) Our primary issue turns were #6, #9 and #1 (and late Sunday any straightway, lol)

12) Vicki's thoughts on going through the Andretti Hairpin 3 wide and the aftermath

13) Our repair efforts, several of them

14) Erik won an award from the race, with a bit of our help

15) The joys of a random steering direction on center

16) Our end of day exploits

17) Favorite cars we were able to have several great laps of back and forth racing with

18) Mental completes his full set of competing in all amateur endurance series that use production-based cars

19) Track thoughts about Laguna Seca

20) The upcoming Champ Car race at Watkins Glen

21) Mental takes over hosting and we review our goals going into the race

22) Bill shockingly overthinks things and wanders down a path away from racing

23) Bill befuddles Mental enough that he is left without words

24) We question our training and preparation and Mental

25) Bill points out a gift that Mental received but wasn't even aware

26) Vicki and Mental bond over Veggie/Vegan and Bill will have none of it

27) Front wheel drive thoughts and the difference between it and the way a car is prepared/set up

28) Best/Favorite cars of the weekend

29) Our usual Good, Bad, and the Ugly

30) Overall trip takeaways

Mental was able to get down to a 1:54 on Sunday

Vicki was able to get to a 2:06 on Sunday

Bill was only able to get to 1:59 on Saturday

Fastest lap of the weekend was 1:41 on Saturday and 1:40 on Sunday by the red #97 Miata

Overall, we loved our time with Lucky Dog and their team. Please try to race with them if they are ever near you.

Also, we really want to thank Erik for allowing us to use his car and experience this great track.

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, and Alan Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast and team members in the GHiT Immature Endurance Racing Team

#racelucky #raceluckydog #garageheroesintraining #garageheroesintrainingpodcast #fasterfarms #deafstig #deafstigsbodyshop #ThankYouCathy #becauseracecar

We conclude our wrap up of our racing at Laguna Seca with the Lucky Dog racing series by summarizing our Sunday race and our overall thoughts and experiences during our trip out to Laguna Seca. The track is wonderful. 

Did our Saturday continue into Sunday.  Yes.  Did our car give it everything it had?  Yes.  Did we finally break the podcast curse and finish a Lucky Dog race?  Please listen to find out. 

Also, we want to thank Erik for allowing us to use his car and experience this great trac

On this episode, Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, Kate and Bill went over our 2019 season and our 2020 goals. Are we on the same page? Do we even belong in the same book? Listen in and find out. Some of it was news to us, lol.

Areas covered included:

2019 Review:

1) How did our Team's 2019 go in your opinion, Highlight and Lowlight

2) How did your personal season go? Highlight and Lowlight

3) Things you want to keep the same/similar and Things we need to change or improve

4) Biggest team weakness or missing need

5) Best Race or HPDE and Worst Race or HPDE

6) Our traditional Good, Bad, and the Ugly

2020 Goals:

1) What race goals do you have For you, For the team, For cars

2) Personal, Non-driving/racing goals

3) What driving/HPDE goals do you have, Any tracks or races interested in for 2020

4) Any additions to our team in terms of People, Tools, Training, Paddock, Cars,

5) Roles/Responsibilities, and Team talents missing/needed

6) What would define a successful year? For you and for our team

7) What would you say to the other members of our team

We try to do this every year and would recommend it to you and your team. Bill's inner planner sometimes takes over.

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, Jen, Kate, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT

Immature Endurance Racing Team

On this episode, Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, Kate and Bill went over our 2019 season and our 2020 goals.  Are we on the same page?  Do we even belong in the same book?  Listen in and find out.  Some of it was news to us, lol. 

We try to do this every year and would recommend it to you and your team.  Bill’s inner planner sometimes takes over. 

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, Jen, Kate, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT

Immature Endurance Racing T

This was a very quickly done episode by a bunch of very tired hosts and is recorded and unedited live from Laguna Seca after our first day of racing. Recording levels varied a bit more than normal but we all ended up with one of our sillier episodes. Hopefully, you will enjoy it as much as we did.

'Nuff Said

With Vicki, Bill and special guest Mental Ward

Unedited live from Laguna Seca after day 1.  

With Vicki, Bill and special guest Mental Ward

On this week's podcast, we were finally able to interview Kate and Bennett Danvers and share with you a bit of their background and experiences with our team. Kate shared many words, Bennett, few. We hope you enjoy the weeks episode.

Highlights from this episode include:

1) Overall background of each, including driving, racing, and car history of each and the family

2) How to power oversteer a John Deere tractor and the impact on the grass cut, as well as life with a Mark VI GTI first car

3) Team areas of responsibility during race weekend and upcoming changes to our team for 2020

4) Bennett's amazing tracking abilities and what kept Kate from coming to her first race so long

5) Bennett's claim on the fireproof onesie and our plan to get Quinn into our insanity

6) What cars are their dream cars, especially fellow lemons paddock cars

7) Wildest racing memories, so far with Lucky Dog and the 24 Hours of Lemons

8) What we have done well so far, including the Good, Bad, and the Ugly, and some upcoming improvements we can work on. Bennett can only find good in our food, lol.

9) Bennett offers words of optimism/prediction for our 2020 season

10) Heat upgrade for our winter garage is announced, so if anyone wants to come and visit, it should be warm this winter

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT

Immature Endurance Racing Team

#OversteerJohnDeere #MarkVIGTI #Mark6GTI #Lemontarians #LemontariansCaddy #SavetheTatas #SavetheTatasCaddy #LemonsCaddy #24hoursoflemons #lemonsworld #lemonsmemories #NJMP #NHMS #LuckyDog #RaceLucky #PortlandInternationalRaceway #PittRace #NASAGL #NASAGLHPDE #RoadAtlanta

On this week’s podcast, we were finally able to interview Kate and Bennett Danvers and share with you a bit of their background and experiences with our team. Kate shared many words, Bennett, few. We hope you enjoy the weeks episode.

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT

Immature Endurance Racing Team

SPOILER FILLED EPISODE: On this week's Way Off Our Topic (WOOT) episode, we try to review the most recent Star Wars movie, "The Rise of Skywalker". We try to get a broad range of opinions from relatively hard core Star Wars fans to fans who have seen the movies and we also range from 11 years old to over 50. In general, we all liked the movie. We had issues with some parts, but in general, the internet backlash is much stronger than any of us felt it should be. With us this week, we had returning Guest Jeff with his son Josh (11), returning guest Craiggers with his son Noah (18), along with Vicki and Bill.

Highlights and Discussion centers on the following points:

1) Our individual Star Wars history and fandom

2) An in-depth review of most of the major points of "The Rise of Skywalker" along with several discussions along the way, as well as our usual trivia bits

3) Jeff discusses Roger Bannister's breaking of the 4-minute mile

4) New canon and force capabilities expansion

5) The very full nature of this movie plot and Craig's very likely theory

6) Potential editing choices/options to simplify the movie and add more to sections and/or stakes to the movie

7) Is Hux really Biff

8) Force users: anyone vs by birthright/family lineage

9) Acting comparison between prequels and sequels

10) The Han Solo cameo and would it have happened is Carrie Fisher had not passed away

11) Luke's change in tone vs Episode 8

12) Overall thoughts and rating of the movie

13) Impact of Carrie Fisher's death on the movie and plot points

14) Star Wars: Disney vs Lucas films, Closer than you would think

15) Retcon of The Last Jedi/Episode 8

16) Favorite characters, both lead and supporting

17) Coolest Light Saber of the entire series

18) The Star Wars family tree discussion and significant Naboo commonality

19) The original sequel trilogy layout vs what we saw

Our Final Ratings:

Jeff: Wanted to shift focus and expand upon certain other areas 8.0

Josh: Too Complex, 8.0

Craig: Sith level avoidance, as would be expected, but 8.0

Noah: Avoided, rather similarly, Sith in training? 7.0

Vicki: Still shipping Ben and Rey to a 8.0

Bill: 8.5, not quite a 9 as was thought upon first viewing

And finally a check in on The Mandalorian through episode 7 and a bit about The Witcher

Did we cover everything? If not, let us know in the comments and we may have a part 2.

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT

Immature Endurance Racing Team

SPOILER FILLED EPISODE: Way Off Our Topic (WOOT) episode, we review “The Rise of Skywalker”.  We have hard core to moderate Star Wars fans from 11 years old to over 50.  In general, we all liked the movie.  With us this week, we had returning Guest Jeff with his son Josh (11), returning guest Craiggers with his son Noah (18), along with Vicki and Bill. 

Ratings:

Jeff:  8

Josh:  8

Craig:  8

Noah:  7

Vicki:  8

Bill:  8.5