On this issue of Dominating with Dawson, we talk about the two types of drivers we have on our team. Some of us approach track driving by overdriving the car and then backing down. Others of us approach the limit gradually working up to the limit. Both have their merits, but it is valuable to know what your default is and how to maximize your specific predilections, especially as an instructor or team captain. In this episode, we go into various indications of both under and over driving at a va...
Nov 16, 2021•24 min•Season 4Ep. 258
Joe Adams joins us for an in depth discussion of all the introductory questions that we had related to oil and what their analysis can reveal within your car’s engine. We start with what the oil is actually doing within your engine and how through use it can indicate either the oil degrading or the degradation of individual engine components. We also try to cover the individual components used within the oil formulations and what their function is. After this episode, we know that we learned a f...
Nov 15, 2021•50 min•Season 4Ep. 257
Part 1 of 2 On this episode, we cover our latest HPDE event at NJMP's Lightning track with NASA Northeast. The track and the weather was a bit cold but we had a great time and a large groups of drivers and cars. We even had all 4 levels of the HPDE groups covered with at least one driver in each. To make things even better, Jen and Vicki's sister Debbie was driving in her first event and first time ever on track. A quick rundown of who and in what is: HPDE 1 Drivers: Debbie in our 2019 ND Miata ...
Nov 10, 2021•1 hr 34 min•Season 4Ep. 256
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 you would be interested in helping grow our sport of high performance driving and our podcast: You can subsc...
Nov 09, 2021•18 min•Season 4Ep. 255
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 thought we would go over where she is this early in her driving journey and we are looking forward to see...
Nov 08, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 4Ep. 254
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, ease, and accuracy. There is no doubt we will revisit this topic again, probably more than once. If you ...
Nov 02, 2021•16 min•Season 4Ep. 253
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 articles and videos aimed at helping grass roots racers and drivers improve? Well, we choose to go int...
Nov 01, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Season 4Ep. 252
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, you 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 could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating. Even better, a podcast review. We would greatly appreciate it an...
Oct 26, 2021•19 min•Season 4Ep. 251
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 to offer to help coach Vicki and Jennifer. While the exact recommendations may vary between the two ladies,...
Oct 25, 2021•1 hr 49 min•Season 4Ep. 250
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 Eric Clapton and Eddie van Halen. If you would like to help the podcast, you can subscribe to our podcas...
Oct 19, 2021•11 min•Season 4Ep. 249
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 Performance Driving Education Event, especially if this is new to you or a friend. It is a great conversatio...
Oct 18, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 4Ep. 248
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, you 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 could ...
Oct 12, 2021•25 min•Season 4Ep. 247
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 drills and the mentors. We cover a lot of the Autobahn South track and here is a track map if you need it:...
Oct 11, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Season 4Ep. 246
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 avoid. We also describe the way that Ayrton Senna used to apply the gas to keep the car on the limit. Ay...
Oct 05, 2021•20 min•Season 4Ep. 245
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 coming years. You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple p...
Oct 04, 2021•1 hr 30 min•Season 4Ep. 244
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 his article as a basis for this episode. You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your...
Sep 28, 2021•32 min•Season 4Ep. 242
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 helping their listeners to find the car that matches their needs and maximizes the fun of driving ever...
Sep 27, 2021•1 hr 19 min•Season 4Ep. 242
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 prep was as always on point. Listen and learn about what can happen on a work weekend, especially early o...
Sep 24, 2021•37 min•Season 4Ep. 241
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, trying new lines, and utilizing coaching can help you to see an opportunity to improve. If you do the sa...
Sep 21, 2021•23 min•Season 4Ep. 240
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 target is competing in Honda Challenge in southern California. Further parallels between the podcasts ...
Sep 20, 2021•55 min•Season 4Ep. 239
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 of this event, we go into the prep and excitement of going into a track event and how things ended ...
Sep 15, 2021•1 hr 55 min•Season 4Ep. 238
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 even better, a podcast review, we would greatly appreciate it and it would help us to grow the passion and ...
Sep 14, 2021•9 min•Season 4Ep. 237
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 his prep weekend sessions for next month’s MSF Level 2 instructor certification weekend. During our d...
Sep 13, 2021•1 hr 34 min•Season 4Ep. 236
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 episode, but we have so many moving balls (people and cars) it may appear random or confusing at poin...
Sep 08, 2021•38 min•Season 4Ep. 235
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 vehicle. Ben even offers several of the potential knobs that can be turned to affect the degree and spe...
Sep 07, 2021•9 min•Season 4Ep. 234
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 track riding that Ken had developed to assist him in his personal progression as a competitive racer and t...
Sep 06, 2021•1 hr 38 min•Season 4Ep. 233
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 time to cover some of the other news from the recent rally. You are welcome. You can subscribe to our p...
Sep 01, 2021•23 min•Season 4Ep. 232
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 you when driving on track. You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, i...
Aug 31, 2021•15 min•Season 4Ep. 231
Tom O’Gorman is currently racing the Grid Life GLTC series with ASM and has competed and won at some of the highest levels as a professional driver for several teams. He is also a sought after racing coach for drivers at all levels. We talk with him about his entire career, remaining goals, as well as his driver coaching. Far be it from us to not ask him about a few coaching questions. You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple podcast app, Googl...
Aug 30, 2021•1 hr 29 min•Season 4Ep. 239
WOOT Stands for Way Off Our (normal) Topic so this is NOT a driving or racing episode What began as a simple review of James Gunn's new movie The Suicide Squad quickly became a debate of the DC Extended Universe and the MCU from Marvel. Benny and Alex return to their WOOT origin and feel Bill is biased against the DCEU. So we rank all the DCEU and the MCU movies to date and discuss the upcoming movies in both series. We also had a short discussion of the first three Marvel tv shows on Disney+. A...
Aug 25, 2021•2 hr 18 min•Season 4Ep. 229
