Garage Heroes In Training

GHiT 0425:  Retreat From Moscow 2023 - Day 2 and 3 We join Rally Master Jeff from the end of Day 3 of the 2023 Retreat From Moscow Lemons Rally.  Rally Master Jeff was a bit under the weather but the rally must go on.  Also, we will need a short moment of silence for last rally review guests red Thunderbird. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/RetreatFromMoscow2023Day2and3 If you would l...

WOOT 0424:  Our Hero Related Preview of 2023 In our latest Way Off Our Topic episode, we successfully avoided talking about racing for most of the episode and focused on the upcoming hero related movies and tv shows for 2023 and even some further out.  Unfortunately, we recorded this prior to updated plans for the DC universe shows and movies by James Gunn so that will have to be in a future show....

GHiT 0423:  Retreat From Moscow 2023 - Day 1 We join Rally Master Jeff from the end of Day 1 of the 2023 Retreat From Moscow Lemons Rally.  Vicki and Bill were able to meet the rally kickoff meetup last night and were assisting with pre-rally inspections this morning.  We reviewed todays festivities and were joined by Mike and Ed, two friends from the Rally who are driving in their early 2000's T-...

DwD 0422:  Defending a Pass Attempt We have a passing series that we started last year and will resume soon, but we have not talked a great deal about defending a pass.  In this part one episode, we go over a few ideas of what to do and what not to do.  It is very obvious that there are significant differences in our hosts approach that is reflected by their relative racing skill progression.  The...

GHIT 0421:  Dillon "EJ2 Track Rat" Brennan Returns for a Second Lap We are long overdue in having Dillon back onto the podcast.  Dillon was one of our early guests and is a staple at the local NASA Northeast events in Honda Challenge and as an instructor.  Don't forget to tune into Dillon's YouTube channel and watch and learn how to prep a race car very well, yet quite frugally.  During this episo...

DwD 0420:  What Have We Learned Since DwD's Started The scariest question Bill has ever attempted.  We ask Jennifer, Vicki, and Ben what they have learned since we started the Dominating with Dawson series.  Do we hear crickets?  Did we help any of us?  And the biggest concern, did Ben learn anything?  This could be the shortest episode ever.  Is it? What is the biggest thing that you have learned...

GHIT 0419:  WindShadow Studios Mike Woeller Want to take some better pictures of you or your team at the track?  We do, so we asked for a few tips and tricks from Mike Woeller.  Mike started as a journalist and then taught photography.  He then gradually shifted his focus to motorsports photography and started WindShadow Studios.  Mike can be seen at a variety of tracks in the northeast and is one...

DwD 0418:  Jargon 101:  What is Race Craft and Favorite Examples Ben, Jeremy, and Bill are unsupervised again this week, so why not end this session with a clean and simple Jargon episode.  Ever wonder what race craft is?  Much like defining "time", race craft is often understood but difficult to describe.  If you want to listen to us struggle, this may be the episode for you. Did we get it right?...

GHIT 0417:  GHiT Goal Review – We Review 2022 and or Goals for 2023 Pre-Podcast Question:  How was your 2022 season? Our team goes over our racing season for 2022 and how we did compared to our goals for the year.  In this annual review, we often find out we did well in many areas and totally blew it in others.  This year was no exception, lol.  We had Alan, Jennifer, Vicki, and Bill, as always, b...

DwD 0416:  Traveling to a Race - What to Bring, Especially if Flying While Jeremy was with us, Ben and Bill took advantage of his extensive travelling schedule to race and we discuss the best way to travel and pack for racing, especially if an airplane is involved.  We get into what to bring and what not to bring, as well as how to bring the items.  We also give a few options that may make things...

GHIT 0415:  Ken Hill on The Fundamentals of Racing Pre-Pod Question of the episode:  What is the fastest way around a race track? A second lap with Ken Hill.  We return to Ken's concepts of what are the 6 fundamentals of driving on track.  Not only do we review what the fundamentals are, but we also go into the significance of the ordering of the fundamentals.  This was initially based on the work...

DwD 0414:  The Best Track Car On this episode, the first Dominating with Dawson of the new year, we try to start of with an easy one and not stir up the internet in any way.  Naturally, we chose to define what is the best track car.  We approach this from the perspective of a first timers' ideal track car to an intermediate level track car.  We also cover many of the more important considerations...

GHIT 0413:  Jackie Andrews - Lo_Buk_Motorsports We start the year off with a guest Jackie Andrews.  Jackie is not only a driver and a racing coach but also is the Motorsports Director for NASA Northeast Honda Challenge.  Some of you may know them better as Lo_Buk_Motorsports on Instagram.  During this episode we go into a great discussion of many things related to racing and setup optimization.  T...

DwD 412:  Jargon 101:  What is a "Real Racer" of a "Try Hard" driver/racer Listener Warning:  They left Bill and Ben unattended again.  When in a paddock, you will often hear people talking about real racers or try hards on the track.  While this is something most will look admirably towards being or becoming, in most cases this discussion is 100% facetious and derogatory.  We discuss what brings...

GHIT 0411:  Adam Owens Rejoins Us For Another Lap Adam Owens is a friend we met a while back and he came on as a relatively newbie racer in our World Famous Racing 101 series two years ago.  We catch up with how his racing has been going since then and especially how 2022 has progressed into at least Racing 201 or probably more.  Adam has been consistently renting seats in endurance racing with th...

GHIT 0410:  Last Minute Gift Ideas for the Driver/Racers and Mechanics in Your Life We are so very late, but here are some of our ideas for the last minute 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. ...

DwD 0409:  Tire Pressure Optimization to Track Conditions On this Dominating with Dawson, we try to go over how to adjust the pressure of your tires when on track and the conditions change.  We also get into several of the factors that can impact the absolute tire pressure as well as the relative tire pressure.  This is likely another subject that will require several visits, but we hope this woul...

GHIT 0408:  Frank Schwartz – All About B Spec Racing and More Frank Schwartz is a racer and owner of Grass Paddock Motorsports that rents B Spec Honda Fits and Mini Coopers.  He is also known online as the stepfather of B Spec racing and seems to be a proud father to be of a potential new class of C Spec racing for the SCCA.  Frank seems to always be involved with getting people into the sport of...

GHIT 0407:  Kyle Heyer The Voice of GridLife In our totally biased opinions, the GridLife live stream is the best motorsports events on TV/YouTube, and we lose so much time in the garage when they are on for the weekend.  Kyle Heyer is the lead presenter and commentator for the GridLife series and has worked hosting other series including SRO on live streams and broadcast television.  In addition,...

DwD 0406:  Street Driving Practice and Bad Habits to Be Aware of for Track Driving Most of us are unfortunately unable to be on track as much as we would like and end up with a majority of our driving being on the streets and highways.  During this episode, we try to talk about several things that you can do to legally improve your track driving, especially in the off season.  We also go into a fe...

GHIT 0405:  Adam Jabaay Reviews GridLife 2022 and Previews 2023   Adam Jabaay comes on the podcast before the 2023 announcements and talks about how 2022 went for GridLife and what he is looking forward to for 2023.  We were finally able to get to our first GridLife events at NJMP this summer and  short visit to the Lime Rock event.  We also talk a good bit about the Lime Rock and several stories...

GHIT 0404:  Race Review – NHMS 2022 Part 2:  El Jeffe   Long delayed due to schedule and sickness, here is part 2 of our teams 24 Hours of Lemons race at New Hampshire Motor Sports track in late October.  We had planned to go over the race and how it went for the flying MooStang and the trophy truck El Jeffe/the Bad Hombre but we have now broken this up into two separate episodes.  In this episode...

DwD 0403:  Better Race Starts One of Ben's favorite things to do is pass people and one of his favorite ways to accomplish this is at a race start or at a race restart from a yellow.  In this DwD, Ben is very excited to talk about many of his tips and tricks that he has learned over his years of racing.  A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/RaceStartsAndRestarts If you would like to help...

GHIT 0402:  Race Review – NHMS 2022 Part 1:  The MooStang Long delayed due to schedule and sickness, here is part 1 of our teams 24 Hours of Lemons race at New Hampshire Motor Sports track in late October.  We had planned to go over the race and how it went for the flying MooStang and the trophy truck El Jeffe/the Bad Hombre but we have now broken this up into two separate episodes.  Part two will...

DwD 0401:  How to Install Harness Straps On this Dominating with Dawson, we try to go over how to install and wrap harnesses in a race car.  It turns out to be quite a challenge to describe this process without the help of any visuals.   We start off with discussing the purchase of the racing harness and then proceed towards the installation of the racing harness into a car.  We include things to...