Garage Heroes In Training

Latest Episodes:

GHIT 0040: How to Get Better at Racing May 15, 2019

Show notes

If you think you have the driving itch or may have an interest, how can you try racing to find out if its for you? We also cover what is a preferred path towards your personal driving greatness. As always, the biggest key is safety and safely progressing up your individual learning curve.

During this episode, we also cover various ways to get out on track, how to progress with many options given including experience type driving events, one day HPDE's, SCCA Track Night America, SCCA and NASA events, various Mark clubs like BMW, Porsche, Audi, etc. etc. Naturally we also cover low cost endurance racing series, Go carts/carting, autocross, and other low cost methods to race. Racing lemons. Towards the end, we also cover a brief overview of various decisions and interests that may shape your individual progression including whether you want to race vs a clock or wheel to wheel racing (or both), sprint racing vs endurance racing, open wheel vs closed wheel/road cars, buying your own vs renting a race car or just renting a seat. We tried to provide an overview and include an approximate cost where we could to help with budget discussions.

As always, with Mental it always involves great stories and a good bit of digression by both of us across a many subjects.

Always try to remember that the key is remain on the primary tasks of #1 safety and #2 having fun!

Race school recommendations aplenty, but not all inclusive.

Plus we work through Vicki's flat tire excursion while we were taping

PS We did manage to keep it under 3 hours this time, lol.

GHIT 0039 EVO School - Seneca Falls May 13, 2019

Show notes

Jennifer, Liam, Vicki, and Bill attended the EVO School for Autocross this weekend in upstate NY near Seneca Falls. It was Bill's second time and the first time for everyone else. We all agree that the instructing staff was awesome and the structure was excellent. We all learned a ton and would recommend it to anyone interested in trying to push their driving limits in a safe environment for the first time to experienced racers and autocrossers. The course is designed to help everyone progress from whatever level they are currently at. In addition, there are two more levels of courses offered by the EVO School and we can't wait to try those as soon as possible.

GHIT 0038 Prepping for a Race Weekend May 09, 2019

Show notes

On this episode, Vicki, Alan, and Bill discuss race weekend preparation using this week's EVO School race day and our next Lemons race at NJMP as examples. In addition. Alan covers his tool of the week, a Quickjack 5000. No relation to Sunblock 3000.

WOOT 0037 Avengers Endgame Review WITH SPOILERS Apr 30, 2019

Show notes

We tried to get everyone together but it ended up being only Benny and Bill. We may have following episodes reviewing the movie but there is our first one that several of you have been requesting. Thank you for your patience. We did manage to keep it under the running time of the movie. Barely.

WOOT 0036 Preview Avengers Endgame Apr 25, 2019

Show notes

Avengers Infinity War Spoiler Heavy Episode

Alex, Benny, and Bill welcome in the new Avengers Endgame movie that opens tomorrow with a review of the first part Avengers Infinity War with our comments. We also give a few predictions for Endgame. We will return after we all see Endgame this weekend with our review.

WOOT 0034 Shazam Review Apr 17, 2019

Show notes

Another Way Off Our Topic episode featuring Benny, Vicki and Bill Reviewing Shazam. It is a spoiler review, many attempts were made and the episode was somehow lost and not released for unknown reason. Despite rumors to the contrary, I did not mess this one up to avoid releasing it

We initially review some basic Shazam history and then we disagree on the quality of the movie. Bill has a lot of issues with it, but Benny and Vicki are both strong defenders (and wrong).

Vicki agrees with Bill at least once, please alert the media but Benny and Bill go after it for most of the show. We also discuss the upcoming Joker movie, the new Suicide Squad movie and finish with a discussion on the imminent Avengers Endgame movie including speculation and predictions for the aftermath and future MCU movies. Also, Bill gives his tip on how to dress for End Game per Jim Ross. And we apologize in advance, our post credits section is extremely long.

GHiT 0035 Pitt Race Review Apr 16, 2019

Show notes

We reviewed our first race of the year at Pitt Race with the 24 Hours of Lemons series. We had some issues during the weekend that prevented us recording at the track so we went into some detail during this race review. Including:

Tech inspection

Greasing palms with lots of fake money

Virtual Track walk

Practice schedule at the race

The awesome race track at Pitt Race (We will be back)

Brake fires (yes, plural)

Car Spins/Trimming the infield grass with our Aero

Racing in the rain, again

Changing track conditions all weekend

Overview of each racing day

We also tried cover how we ran the race and our thought process, post race diagnosis and plans

and we ended with our segment on The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, along with the highlight of the weekend

Things we learned and changes to continue to improve

GHiT 0033 Pre-Race Prep and How to Get On Track Apr 10, 2019

Show notes

We are midway in prepping for our first race of the season and wanted to review some of the details involved with preparing for a race weekend.

We also cover several of the lower cost options that are available to get anyone (meaning YOU) out on the track if you wanted to try it out. These included high performance driving education/events (HPDE), autocross and autocross education events, driving experience opportunities where you take a few laps in a rented car, or race car, or super car of your choice, racing schools, our predominant choice of low cost endurance racing, various "mark" series like Porsche Car Club, BMW, Audi, etc. etc., national and local events run with NASA and SCCA, drag racing, test and tune nights, drifting, spec series like spec Miata or spec E46 etc., rally courses, cannonballs, One Lap of America, and many others.

We covered what to expect, how much it may cost and what you get from each of the options. We hope at least one of these fits your interest and budget. Once you come up, we are very confident you will find it to be an amazing experience and probably should plan on your second event as soon as possible.

We are sorry to keep Vicki awake for this episode.

GHiT 0032 Ann Deane Apr 08, 2019

Show notes

This week we welcomed Ann Deane to our podcast. We met her at NJMP a few weeks ago when she was participating and also instructing at the Hooked On Driving event.

The discussion covered many topics and areas including:

Racing and learning to race cars, things we could have done and still could do better

Wish list items and plans for the coming season

How to approach a new track and what to do to learn a new track, we used Road Atlanta as an example for our preparation for Pitt Race next weekend

We also go over how the day went when teaching Vicki and Jennifer at NJMP. Items to work on included:

Clutch and input timing for a manual transmission

Breathing is not optional in racing

Cameras/GoPro's, data and video learning

GHiT 0031 Evo School Apr 01, 2019

Show notes

Alan and Bill got a last minute invitation to Evo Performance Driving Event at Giants Stadium in NJ. Vicki acts as the interrogator, lol. We ran it live!

Highlights include Alan going off road, Bill committing several acts of car-on-cone manslaughter, and things we learned in our driver education progression.

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