Garage Heroes In Training

GHIT 0325:  Race Review – Alex on Our Back to Back Race Weekends at PittRace with AER and Lemons Alex Levinson drove both weekends for the team from the Skunk Oil Racing/Garage Heroes In Training team and missed our earlier reviews, so he gets to go over both weekends' trials and tribulations.  At the AER event, the team performed well on Saturday and finished P2 in our class and P4 on Sunday.  Th...

DwD 0323:  The Return of Two Feet In We return to the topic of two feet in to make sure everyone is on the same page and why we would be strong supporters of knowing when it is time to employ this technique.  The key aspect of this is to get your feet off of the throttle or gas pedal and press down hard on the clutch and brake if there are three pedals or just jump on the brake pedal if it is a tw...

GHIT 0324:  Race Review – AER at PittRace Team Review The team from the Skunk Oil Racing team finally convenes to review our recent AER race at PittRace.  It was many of our teams first ever AER event.  The team performed well on Saturday and finished P2 in our class.  Sunday, we performed similarly but our fellow racers had a bit more good fortune, and we ended the day in P4, almost a two-podium...

GHIT 0322:  Race Review of our 2022 Lemons PittRace Event Tim, Vicki, and Bill are excited to review our latest race at PittRace with the 24 Hours of Lemons series.  It was a great weekend and we were joined by Ben after a bit of intro discussion.  This was Tim's first Lemons experience but he is an accomplished driver, racer and instructor of instructors.  We talked about Tim's thoughts and criti...

GHIT 0321:  Dave Mills Post our AER Race at PittRace Long sought after guest Dave Mills is finally on the podcast that you may know from his online presence as the Caddy Wrecker.  Dave is a long-time racer, rallyist, and was working with the AER team at our race last weekend at PittRace.  With so many things to talk about, we try to get a review of Dave's rally and racing exploits as well as how h...

DwD 0320:  Error Corrections – Good Ideas and Bad Ones Due to back to back race weekends, we were not able to get our usual Monday episode edited in time, so we are switching this week's Dominating with Dawson to one day early and editing the regular episode for tomorrow.  With that, here is the latest DwD. Not having ever made a mistake on track (lol), we ask Ben what to do when an error occurs o...

GHiT 0319: Race Recap: Our First AER Race at PittRace - Part 1 AKA Bill's Worst Race Weekend Driving - Ever In the first part of at least three parts of a series, Bill goes over his first ever race with AER (American Endurance Racing) at PittRace last weekend.  AER is a series that targets more serious racing and the cars on track were quite impressive.  However, the team did well and we actually...

DwD 0318:  Cage and Safety Inspection – Especially for an Arrive and Drive Arrive and drives can be a great way to go racing.  In this episode, Ben and Bill go into some of the things that you should look for when driving a new to you race car on track.  This includes general mechanical and safety inspections with a significant discussion of the cage inspection.  We also go into some of the things...

GHIT 0317:  Race Bar Wins at Lucky Dog's Spring Race at CMP Our review of the Lucky Dog race at CMP continues with our friends at Race Bar.  The tranquilizer dart was apparently very effective and we almost kept control of the podcast, lol.  This was the first ever class win for Race Bar and it was great to share it with them.  Enjoy this episode with Jandy and Richard Freelane.  A link to the epi...

GHiT 0316:  Kyle Lockrow's Second Lap with GHiT - On Winning the Lucky Dog Sunday Race, His Coaching, and a Big Sponsor Reveal Announcement We raced with Kyle Lockrow at the recent Lucky Dog event at Carolina Motorsports Park.  Kyle helped our team get the BMW E36 back on track Sunday by doing an overnight parts run for us and also helped his teammates at Race Bar collect the victory in the race S...

GHiT 0316:  Kyle Lockrow's Second Lap with GHiT - On Winning the Lucky Dog Sunday Race, His Coaching, and a Big Sponsor Reveal Announcement We raced with Kyle Lockrow at the recent Lucky Dog event at Carolina Motorsports Park.  Kyle helped our team get the BMW E36 back on track Sunday by doing an overnight parts run for us and also helped his teammates at Race Bar collect the victory in the race S...

DwD 0315:  Driving in the Spring and Cold In an effort to be timely, driving in the early seasons can often be tricky since the temperature can often be lower than desired.  We start off covering what to do to account for the decreased temperatures and then we wander off into other areas that are affected by the temperature and humidity.  We start to cover taking care of your hands in the cold and...

GHIT 0314:  Audra Tella on Autocross and a Pre-Intervention It was almost spring, and we were thinking about ways to get out and start having fun with our cars again.  We thought it may be great to go autocross'ing, especially to start the season.  Since we were thinking autocross, we thought we'd invite Audra back to the podcast to talk all things autocross.  Audra is one of the hosts of the Shif...

GHIT 0313:  Track Day Recap from our HPDE Event with NASA Northeast at NJMP's Lightning Track Jennifer and Vicki had their first trip the track this year at the NASA Northeast HPDE event at NJMP's Lightning track.  Our event prep had a few issues with our Honda Civic inaugural shake down.  The issue is still TBD at this point.  Jennifer was in the HPDE 2 group and Vicki was in the HPDE3/4 group. ...

DwD 0312:  Jargon:  Tank Slappers – What They Are and What to Do – Probably Part 1 of a few, lol We ask Ben about what a tank slapper is.  Then we go into what is a typical cause for this phenomenon and most importantly, what to do about it when it occurs.  There are several strategies mentioned and probably a few more that would work as well.  We hope this helps you if you are driving in a situat...

GHIT 0311:  Samir Abid Returns for a Second lap Samir Abid hosts the Your Data Driven podcast returns for his second lap with us.  We take advantage of his history in suspension systems and as a vehicle dynamics race engineer by asking the key question related to tracking data of "what should I keep track of" and how best to do this, especially if you are solo for the weekend as many of us are.  W...

GHIT 0310 Our 300th Episode Trivia Quiz – Review After three hundred episodes, we wanted to give our resolute listeners a chance to show off with a Top 10 list of trivia questions about the podcast.  In our time honored tradition, we thought part of the fun would involve bribing/awarding prizes to those that answered the call.  At this time of release, we have not determined who had answered the q...

DwD 0309:  Mirror Positioning and Philosophy On this episode of Dominating with Dawson, we go back to a fundamental of driving on track and the street.  Where to position your side mirror and rearview mirrors for optimal vision, information, and safety.  We also go into several mirror options and our preferred placement of our rearview mirror within our race car.  It is a bit unconventional but of...

GHIT 03 08:  Marlon Sumlin - Racing for Cancer Research (and Fun) Marlon Sumlin joins us to discuss his racing history and how much fun he has racing and instructing.  Marlon is a perfect example of how much fun it can be to drive a slow car fast as he routinely passes many "better" cars in his Mazda 2 across the country.  Marlon instructs and races in Grid Life's Sundae Cup and B Spec.  This year...

GHIT 307:  Race Weekend Recap:  The Entire Team From Lucky Dog Racing at CMP You have only heard a few of the stories from our Lucky Dog race at Carolina Motorsports Park a few weeks ago.  Now we unveil the entire team that went to the race.  Car owner David as well as the rest of the team including Alex, Ryan, and Matt.  We think we have determined the root cause of the problem we had at the race...

GHIT 307:  Race Weekend Recap:  The Entire Team From Lucky Dog Racing at CMP You have only heard a few of the stories from our Lucky Dog race at Carolina Motorsports Park a few weeks ago.  Now we unveil the entire team that went to the race.  Car owner David as well as the rest of the team including Alex, Ryan, and Matt.  We think we have determined the root cause of the problem we had at the race...

DwD 0306:  Racing 101:  When and Why to Shift Your Car On Track On the latest issue of Dominating with Dawson, we talk about some of the details of both when and why to shift your transmission on track.  We start off with a bit of wandering, but eventually work our way towards a great discussion.  This will undoubtedly be the first of several episodes on this topic.  Quick Summary:  Ben Dominates....

GHIT 305:  Southern Fried Heaps Rally 2022 - Final Day The rally concludes today and Jeff Stobbs joins us again to summarize another great day.  Awards were given for several teams including the inaugural winner of the rental car class.  The teams were able to get to the NASA Kennedy space center and despite their valiant efforts, no one was able to successfully talk NASA into sending their car in...

GHIT 304:  Southern Fried Heaps Rally 2022 - Day 2 At the conclusion of day 2 of the rally, Jeff Stobbs joins us again from the Mellow Mushroom to summarize another great day.  We are then joined by pirate Phyllis who was driving and plundering in their yellow C2 Corvette.  Next up for this episode we talk with Jake who competes in the "big block" rental car class after a last minute mechanical pr...

GHIT 304:  Southern Fried Heaps Rally 2022 - Day 2 At the conclusion of day 2 of the rally, Jeff Stobbs joins us again from the Mellow Mushroom to summarize another great day.  We are then joined by pirate Phyllis who was driving and plundering in their yellow C2 Corvette.  Next up for this episode we talk with Jake who competes in the "big block" rental car class after a last minute mechanical pr...