Garage Heroes In Training

On this issue of Dominating with Dawson, we talk through the common issues that many drivers have that some are much better setting the pace while leading another car and others are much faster trying to catch a car ahead of them.  Are you a better leader?  Or are you a better chaser or follower?  Does it matter?  Should it matter?  We discuss our opinions.  Please let us know your thoughts. If yo...

Kim Coffey has been a car girl from a very young age and has recently discovered her passion for driving her car at the limit.  It all started with a Supra Sunday with NASA and once the hook was set, she was off.  She loves and drives her 2020 Toyota Supra for HPDE events, autocrosses and has even started Sim racing.  If that wasn't enough, she often takes her lunch at a local go kart track.  We t...

On this issue of Dominating with Dawson, we talk through the importance of optimizing the pressure in your tires.  No doubt this is of great importance to the performance of the tire as well as affecting the wear characteristics of the tire.  We go through what you should try to target and several methods that can be used to determine the optimum tire pressure.  Each method is a balance of cost, e...

Tom Suddard is the Director of Marketing and Digital Assets at GRM.  Tom's first visit to our podcast was with zero notice and was at the invitation of Nine Live Racing's Johnny C on episode #209 when we had our first episode on Aero.  In spite of this, Tom decided to put up with us again in what we hope will be a long list of bad decisions in the future.  What do you ask of a prolific supplier of...

In this issue of Dominating with Dawson, we discuss when your track car has an antilock braking system.  We also discuss the other driver aides like stability control etc. being used on track.  If you would like to help the podcast, y ou can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice. This includes the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc. Also, if you coul...

Did you ever wonder what a driving coach does for their driver?  We were always curious.  Ross Bentley was kind enough to show us the start of the process.   Ross Bentley was kind enough to continue our tradition of having him on as a guest to help us celebrate every 50 episode anniversary.  And as long as he keeps saying yes, we will keep asking him, lol.  For this episode, Ross was kind enough t...

In this issue of Dominating with Dawson, we discuss the debate between fast hands and slow hands.  The natural tendency of each driver varies, often by how they grew up.  Go karters and autocrossers usually have a tendency to have faster hands.  Ben discusses with us the usefulness of both and what we think of as the "proper" hand speed.   Also, Ben stakes a very strong claim in the debate between...

Dave Peters started the HPDE Junkie website to help everyone to find a local HPDE track day by compiling every HPDE event across the United States at every track with every organization.  He is an HPDE Junkie himself and has even had Ben Dawson as his coach early in his driving progression.  The focus of this episode is on what an HPDE is and how to go about finding and preparing for a High Perfor...

On this issue of Dominating with Dawson, we are finally able to discuss what lift off oversteer is thanks to a recent article that Bill found on the internet.  At least we now know what it is and how we can address this potential issue on the track.  The fourth time is the charm.  Finally.  Lol. If you would like to help the podcast, y ou can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of you...

GHIT 0 246 :  Our Autobahn Country Club HPDE 2021 Vicki and Bill attended the recent NASA Great Lakes HPDE at the Autobahn Country Club.  It was the first time Vicki was on this track and she was in the HPDE 2 run group.  Bill was in HPDE 4 and instructed a HPDE 1 student Saturday and Sunday.  Bill also completed his MSF Level 2 instructor in car training on Friday and had a great time with the dr...

In this Dominating with Dawson episode, we go over how to apply the throttle on a track, what our default habits are and the various reasons for deviating the application of the throttle.  We also go into the various features of the track and the vehicle that may affect the application rate.  We also try to cover what the desired throttle application strategies and things you may want to try to av...

The 91 Octane podcast is hosted by our two guests, Randy and Jon.  The podcast focuses on car news and car culture, as well as their personal car passion related stories, including their projects and progression as drivers.  They are based in Southern California, a hot bed for the world's car culture.  They obviously love cars and we are excited to see what paths they choose to follow in the comin...

In this Dominating with Dawson episode, we use a recent article by podcast friend Ross Bentley for this first installment of the If-Then Game.  On this weeks episode, we focus on braking in track.  Join us and play along with our two contestants from the Garage Heroes In Training Team.  We are sure this will go into global syndication soon, lol. Special thanks to Ross Bentley for letting us use hi...

Everyday Driver started as one of the early YouTube channels in 2007 and again they started an early podcast in 2014 that Bill first discovered in late August.  The fundamental premise for Everyday Driver is that cars can and should be fun and they work tirelessly to help by testing virtually all types of new cars and many used cars.  In addition, a majority of their podcast segments are aimed at...

Alex Levinson has a ton or racing and wrenching experience, especially with Miatas of all vintages.  So when he "volunteered" to come over for a work weekend, we quickly lined up everything we could think of to finish up several projects on each of the team's 3 Miatas.  However, our best laid plans did not come together as we had hoped.  New car lift?  Worked great and a game changer!  Bribe/food...

In this Dominating with Dawson episode, Ben goes over his personal plateau story and what it means to be stuck at a driving plateau.  To this point, our team has not been at a plateau and has been slowly or quickly improving to this point.  One of the key areas to look at for breaking plateaus is to do something new or differently and learn from it.  This is where going to an HPDE, doing drills, t...

Jaime Garcia started the Race FF Podcast to share with everyone his racing and building progress and to help everyone get started in racing by showing them that it can be done.  Since we have essentially the same goals, it was natural to have him on the podcast.  As his podcast title indicates, Jaime races a Front engine Front wheel drive in both HPDE, time trials, and wheel to wheel.  His current...

It all started with a great idea, let's go to an HPDE event with the hosts of the Shifting Points podcast. Audra had raced with us at the Thompson race in August and Jess & Kathy had visited for moral support and wanted to try track driving.  There was a ladies event with MassTuning set for mid September.  Sounds like a blast.  Until it wasn't. In what was supposed to be a two episode celebration...

  On this issue of Dominating with Dawson, we play our jeopardy jargon game with Ben and go into the topic of (Bill lost his place) oppo lock or counter steer and how it can be used on track.   You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, and YouTube etc. Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating or eve...

Tim Fokine is a commercial pilot and also involved with the training of pilots, as such it was no surprise that he is involved with the training of drivers and instructors within NASA Great Lakes and a few other groups.  Bill first met Tim in HPDE 2 at Mid Ohio and Tim was further motivated to progress quickly, lol.  This past week however, like a bad penny, Bill was back and Tim was his mentor in...

The Garage Heroes In Training team has had quite a summer on the track so far and with our racing season beginning to wind down, but far from done on the track, we thought we would bring everyone up to speed with where we are with the podcast, how our driving and racing is progressing, and what our car related projects are going into the fall and winter repair and build programs.  This is a quick...

On this issue of Dominating with Dawson, we go over jargon again and cover what body roll is, how it affects your car, and how it can help and hurt you on track.  The physics of racing are consistent and not able to be broken, but knowing them allows you to use them to your benefit and minimize any deleterious impacts through driving accommodations and potentially in setting up or building your ve...

Ken Hill is an accomplished motorcycle racer and sought after coach.  Ken was kind enough to join us for a great discussion on track driving and riding.  While often thought of as very different, most of the skills and techniques translate fully between riding a motorcycle and driving a car on a track.  Ken has a podcast that goes into a lot of Ken's preferred techniques and philosophies about tra...

GHIT 0 237 :  Breaking News With Eric Rood - On the Saving Saturn Protest and Other Lemons Rally News As part of our journalistic responsibility, we caught up with Eric Rood from the 24 Hours of Lemons to discuss the recent protest at General Motors HQ that was aimed at resurrecting the legendary Saturn brand.  The rally was respectful but filled with lots of deep, deep emotion.  We also took the...

DwD 0 231 :  Breaking Down A Turn - One Approach On this issue of Dominating with Dawson, we go over a way that (hopefully future guest) Ken Hill breaks down a turn into entry turns and exit turns where you can prioritize either speed in, or speed out of a turn or balance of both.  The discussion goes into a few different directions than originally intended, but hopefully this discussion will help...