Garage Heroes In Training

GHIT 0523:  Our 2024 Gift Ideas for the Driver/Racers and Mechanics in Your Life Here are some of our newer ideas for the gifts for the driver, racer, and mechanic in your life.  We give a few ideas from stocking stuffers and gifts from the kids to pretty much every budget.  If you think of others, please let us know and we can add them to the social media posts.  If you have other gift ideas, ple...

GHiT 0522:   Gary McCormick – Second Lap (or Few) in our B Spec Fit Gary McCormick flew in for our surprise Vicki weekend at NJMP Lightning and explored his first HPDE with NASA Northeast in our 2015 B Spec Honda Fit.   We talk about how the event went, what it is like to HPDE in a super slow car, and compare the event with NASA vs Gary's usual SCCA group.   This episode wraps up our sixth season...

DwD 0521:   Race Starts – Standing and Rolling Starts Ben is all about saving time and passing our fellow drivers and one of the key areas where this can be accomplished quite easily is at a race start or restart.   In this episode, we provide many of the tips that we use to help us save a bit of time and pass a few friends. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/RaceStartTips We hope you e...

GHiT 0520:   Brad Lee – First HPDE - Finally Brad Lee has been with our team for about 5 years but it had never quite worked out to get him on the track.   Luckily, Brad was able to attend the Vicki surprise weekend at NJMP Lightning with us and get out on track.   This is a great example of what its like to get on track for the first time.   Plus a ton of story time.   This may be the first part...

GHiT 0519:   Vicki's Surprise Weekend at the NJMP Lightning HPDE with NASA Northeast Another podcast example that the post race weekend hangover is real, but we wanted to cover the big race weekend.   This is part one of 3 or so and this event wraps up our 2023 season.   As frequent listeners know, we had a big surprise in store for Miss Vicki and now we can go into the event in detail.   As a bac...

DwD 0518:   Planning for an Upcoming HPDE – For Vicki We have a huge event planned for our upcoming HPDE event at NJMP Lightning (Much more on that in an upcoming episode) and we wanted to walk through potential ideas for Miss Vicki to get the most out of the event.   The idea was to demonstrate some of the ideas that you may use to maximize the improvement potential for each event that you attend...

GHiT 0516:   Race Recap – NHMS 2023 with the 24 Hours of Lemons We review our busy race weekend and prepping for next weekend's HPDE at NJMP. (MUCH more to come on the NJMP event next episode) Racing two straight weekends is not the best idea but it is always a ton of fun.   Bill raced in the Slippery Slope BMW E34 5-Series with Max, Audra, and another Bill.   The weather was great, until it wasn'...

DwD 0517:   Pace Laps/Reference Laps Bill continues to ask questions no one understands, but we do get to the topic, eventually.   We discuss the use of reference laps and also the use of comparison laps between our drivers as we are competing.   The question eventually leads us to a good discussion on comparing drivers' laps and one way that we use our Apex Pro live telemetry to improve every dri...

DwD 0515:   Driver Feel:   Seat vs Hands (plus) This one starts off looking like we have nothing to talk about, but eventually Bill asks a question that eventually gets to the topic, lol.   Here we talk about the various "feel" inputs that are available, mostly through the steering wheel and your hands and then through the seat and therefore your "seat", but also audible cluses and other senses.  ...

GHiT 0514:   NASA TREC Racing with Tim Fokine – Plus a Whole Lot More Tim Fokine is the co-Chair of the NASA Great Lakes TREC racing series as well as an instructor and part time driver with our team.   During this episode, we talk about the NASA TREC series and how this past season went.   We then start planning our entry into this years One Lap of America, plus some other fun topics. A link to t...

DwD 0513:   Driver's Meeting We have not talked enough about driver's meetings to this point.   We try to remedy this on this week's Dominating with Dawson.   We cover what is discussed during the meetings.   The two primary aspects of the drivers meetings that make them non-skippable events are in the areas of safety and in the area of competitive advantages.   We don't miss them and hope you do...

GHiT 0512:   Rich Hromin – 2023 SCCA National B Spec Champion Rich Hromin recently won the SCCA national championship at VIR.   In this episode we learn about his progression towards achieving this goal.   He is a great driver and a great person.   Too bad for him that he lives so close to us, lol. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/RichHromin His Youtube channel is:   https://www.youtu...

DwD 0511:   Post Race Hangover One of the things that may surprise you about racing occurs after a great race weekend.   Many of us are hit with a post race hangover that can occur in the days following a race.   Are they real?   What can you do to minimize them? Any tips that you may know of to help reduce the post race hangover? A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/PostRaceHangover If y...

GHiT 0510:   Chris Losiniecki Chris Losiniecki is a racer and instructor that we met several years ago at a NASA Great Lakes event.   She is also currently the only full-time female instructor at NASA Great Lakes.   We talk all things racing, instructing, and hypothesize on several reasons why there is a lower number of females represented at the higher levels of racing and instructing than would...

GHiT 0508:   Judge Series with Mental Ward  We have had Mental on several times before and if we can get him to commit podultery with us again, we take advantage of every opportunity.   Mental is not only a Lemons Judge, but also a racer and co-host of the Everyone Racers podcast.   We usually try to summarize the episode, but with Mental, we went in so many directions, its easier to just say, its...

DwD 509:   Gauges for your Race Car and How to Use Them We discuss our thoughts related to the priority of the gauges in a race car.   We differ in the relative priority but are fairly consistent in the proper use and frequency of reviewing the gauges.   What do you think?   Did we leave something out?   Please let us know. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/ProperGaugesAndUse If you wo...

DwD 0507:   Racing the Track vs Racing the Other Cars One of the issues that several of our teams' drivers have had, especially when they first started was racing vs the other cars vs racing the track (or themselves).   We talked with Ben about why each of these can be correct and how to minimize mistakes in going too far in one direction or the other.   The ratio likely changes as you progress as...

GHiT 0506:   Eric Dewey DeWitt We met Dewey for the first time at last year's GridLife event at NJMP and then again this year where he won the Street Mod class in Time Attack.   We talk about Subarus and Time Attack, two things we haven't talked about much on the podcast to this point.   If you've never been at a track and seen Dewey's post event celebrations, you really need to come to an upcomin...

GHiT 0505:   Fall Failage Rally Review 2023 We talk again with Rally Master Jeff about the Fall Failage rally.  This time, Vicki entered the rally with Jennifer and their Mom.  They travelled with Audra and Max, as well as Ryan and Matt.  Much fun was had by all. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/FallFailage2023 If you would like to help grow our podcast and high-performance driving an...

DwD 0504:   The Mythology of Late Apex and Braking in a Straight Line In this episode of Dominating with Dawson, we go over the often heard mantra of always use a late apex and always brake in a straight line.   While these may be useful in some turns, they should not be construed as applicable to 100% of your laps.   We go into why these methodologies are often taught early in a driver's educatio...

GHiT 0503:   Glenn Robinson We first met Glenn Robinson at Mid-Ohio and then he and Bill worked their way up to comp school and instructor school.   In spite of this, he agreed to come on to our podcast, lol.   Glenn currently races primarily with NASA Great lakes and is one of the two co-leaders of the TREC endurance racing series there as well.   In his spare time, he is the Director of Operatio...

GHiT 0502:   Fail Failage Rally 2023 – Pre-Rally Update The ladies are preparing for another rally in two cars.   Vicki, Jennifer, and their mom will be running in our Fit and Audra will be entering this year in another BMW with Max.   We talk about some of our preparation for the rally as well as some of the future plans for Audra's race car, perhaps even cars?!?!?!?!?!   The hook is sunk and sun...

  DwD 0501:   Pit Stops Tips As we all know, Ben is obsessed with saving time on track.   Equally important though is the ability to save time in the pits.   We talk through several things that we have found to save time and remain safe in the pit area.   In several series, this can easily be the key to victory.   Do you have any other ideas to save time during pit stops or to help avoid errors? A...

GHiT 0500:   Ross Bentley Takes Over Episode 500 Ross Bentley takes over our podcast to commemorate our 500 th episode.   If you miss the classic Speed Secrets episodes, this is pretty close.   The only downside is that we are the guests, lol.   A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/RossBentley500 If you would like to help grow our podcast and high-performance driving and racing: You can s...

GHiT 0499:  The Rust Belt Ramble  Rally Wrap Up Rally Master Jeff Stobbs joins us again to review the recent Lemons rally that toured the central US. As always, it was quite a trip with tons of stories   Tune in and find out.   Same Bat Time.   Same Bat Channel. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/RustBeltRamble2023 If you would like to help grow our podcast and high-performance driving...