Phil Wurz, fellow racing driver and the short straw drawing team member at BimmerWorld was kind enough to join us for a discussion on his racing history and add to our Usual Suspects discussion related to racing BMW, especially E36's and E46's, including a good amount about Spec E46. Phil has been with BimmerWorld since 2007 and conducted this interview from in front of his E30 race car, one of the best backgrounds we have had during our podcast. BimmerWorld supplies a very wide variety of parts...
Apr 28, 2020•1 hr 19 min•Season 3Ep. 107
Cathy McCause Fuss of the Lucky Dog racing series returns for the 8th or 9th time. Unfortunately, only one episode has ever been published due to connection errors and other computer issues. Why she puts up with us, we don't know, perhaps it's because she is one of the best people we have met since we started racing. During this episode, we go over a lot of the Cathy's history and her perspective of racing from the Series perspective. We also get into her thoughts of how racing and endurance rac...
Apr 21, 2020•2 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 106
Julian Cordle is our guest for this episode and celebrate Blursday! Julian races with the Snow Speeder Pilots Association racing team that races on the west coast, one of the original Lemons teams from the inaugural Altamont race. The episode starts off with all of our usual professionalism and then, well really, who are we kidding. The alphabet is apparently still a challenge for us. Julian started with Lemons in 2012 after he first heard about the 24 Hours of Lemons on Jalopnik. He met his tea...
Apr 17, 2020•1 hr 29 min•Season 3Ep. 105
On this episode, we finally talked Liam into coming on the podcast by making it in the style of one of his favorite shows on YouTube, Hot Ones. Since Bill has almost zero tolerance for spicy food, Vicki tagged in to assist with the interview and we also took advantage of the opportunity and covered several aspects of teenage driving, driver training, and racing. If you prefer, there is a live video recording on our YouTube channel, creatively named Garage Heroes In Training. B.R.A.K.E.S. website...
Apr 12, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Season 3Ep. 104
Sam Smith, Editor At Large for Road and Track and Co-host of the NBC Sports Proving Grounds television show joins us for this episode. We try to cover Sam's impressive history with the automotive and mainstream media, as well as his driving and racing history, but we only seem to have scratched the surface of Sam's great stories. You can quickly see his gift for storytelling and ability to recall details and intricacies, as well as his optimism and enviable modesty. It is quickly apparent that S...
Apr 06, 2020•2 hr 6 min•Season 3Ep. 102
With everyone quarantined or at least social distancing, we have had several requests to re-publish this episode on Sim Racing. On this episode, we had Scott Barton as our guest. Scott is a very accomplished racing driver and very knowledgeable in the area of Sim Racing. We thought we’d learn more about both on this episode. Sim racing can be great way to get cheap track time, especially in the off season or during the work week when you aren’t near a track. As with most aspects of racing, you c...
Apr 02, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 3Ep. 74
Rob Krider who is a driver and managing partner of the Double Nickel Nine Motorsports racing team joins us on this episode. Rob has a problem in that he and his team won’t let anyone else win, lol. His team is the reigning 4-time national champion in NASA’s Honda Challenge series, while also having both team cars on the podium each year. Our discussion covers not only their team history but what they have learned since starting in the 24 Hours of LeMons series and progressing through other racin...
Apr 02, 2020•2 hr 28 min•Season 3Ep. 101
Keith Tanner who has literally written the book on improving the performance of a Miata, actually three books, and works with the team at Flyin’ Miata joined us for this episode to discuss his driving history and he was also willing to add to our recent series on the “Usual Suspects” and addresses many aspects of the use and optimization of all four generations of Miata’s/MX-5’s. Since we have two MX-5’s on our team already and we are routinely passed by them at every race and HPDE event we have...
Apr 02, 2020•1 hr 31 min•Season 3Ep. 103
Ross Bentley was kind enough to come on as our guest and help celebrate our 100th episode. Ross is known throughout the racing world as a great driver, author, and coach about high performance driving and racing, where his racing experience at the highest levels is augmented by his passion for learning and sharing to help raise the knowledge base as a whole for the good of our sport. This discussion was aimed at learning more about Ross and his history, but when you have a chance to ask him a qu...
Mar 30, 2020•1 hr 59 min•Season 3Ep. 100
For our 99th Episode, Chrissy Mittura from the Three Pedal Mafia and the co-host of the Everyone Racers podcast was our guest for this week. Chrissy was one of the key influences that helped us to start our team, so we thank her all the time and blame her some of the time, lol. Chrissy is not only and excellent driver that we are passed by routinely but has also helped our team immeasurably not only at the track but preparing for the track and our various HPDE events. With Chrissy finally being ...
Mar 26, 2020•2 hr 20 min•Season 3Ep. 99
Ben Liaw from Rogue Engineering was kind enough to come on this week's podcast. Ben races and also supports his racing clients at Rogue Engineering in Upper Saddle River, NJ, where they not only assist with race car prep and on track support but design and manufacture many parts improvements for many BMW models. Also, on this week's Dominating with Dawson, we went over driving a new to you race car and what you should do prior to driving and how best to acclimate to the new vehicle. Highlights f...
Mar 23, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Season 3Ep. 98
Nathan Howe and Mike Howe, who talked with us all the way from New Zealand, are part of the Hooncorp racing team and our guests for this week’s episode. We had to learn about the racing, the tracks, and the amazing roads in New Zealand from some locals. New Zealand has been on our bucket list and has moved up several spots after this discussion. The team has been racing longer than many of our team has been alive, so there a several pearls of wisdom in here along with our usual off tangent bante...
Mar 18, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Season 3Ep. 97
GHiT 0096: Eric Rood is our Special Guest Eric Rood from the 24 Hours of Lemons racing series reviews his history and the upcoming Lemons series, especially the rally events. Eric Rood is our guest on this episode where we review his car history, the upcoming 2020 Lemons races and especially the Rally events. We first met Eric when he was judging one of our races. Alan quickly knew all about him after he visited him 4 times. In addition to being an awesome judge, he has written for several autom...
Mar 13, 2020•1 hr 29 min•Season 3Ep. 96
GHIT 0095: Nick Pon of the 24 Hours of Lemons team returns to kick off the 2020 season Nick Pon returns to our podcast to discuss the current 2020 season for the 24 Hours of Lemons series and the various new aspects of the series for 2020. As usual, we digress several times and wander around our subject, but Nick very kindly tolerates us for unknown reasons. We eventually go into what the series is about and how welcoming it can be to everyone who has an interest in racing and how to get started...
Mar 08, 2020•1 hr 41 min•Season 3Ep. 95
Trey Shannon from Podium Performance Fitness is our podcast guest for this episode, just in time for the local gym to be freeing up from all the failed New Year’s resolution people. This is our second annual episode with Trey, and we go over a variety of aspects of improving your fitness to help improve your driving, especially during the off season. Trey is located near Charlotte NC and is helping many high-level drivers and teams with their off track preparation both physically and mentally. D...
Feb 27, 2020•1 hr 30 min•Season 3Ep. 94
On this week’s podcast, we go over how we did for our 2019 goals and set new goals for the 2020 season. In addition, our Dominating With Dawson segment goes over most of the flags you may see when driving on a track. As always, if you have a topic or request for an upcoming show or a Dominating segment, please let us know within a podcast review or an email to GarageHeroesInTraining@gmail.com . Thanks again! Highlights include: 1) We continue to improve our intro skills, still in training, lol. ...
Feb 25, 2020•1 hr 32 min•Season 3Ep. 93
Dion von Moltke is our special guest for this week’s podcast. He is a professional racing driver who has won several major races including the Rolex at Daytona 24 Hours and the Sebring 12 Hour among many others. Dion is currently focused on an excellent online coaching website with several other professional drivers/coaches at Racers360. Racers360 provides many types of coaching to improve any level driver including track guides, technique improvement, webinars, as well as personalized driving r...
Feb 22, 2020•1 hr 15 min•Season 3Ep. 92
Jeff Bloch aka “Speedy Cop” was our guest for this week’s podcast. We discussed Jeff and his team’s history within racing and building some of the most memorable cars to race on a track of any type. Jeff and the Gang of Outlaws have been racing for more than a decade and have won 9 IOE’s and almost every other award in the 24 Hours of Lemons racing series, as well as success in most other series including Lucky Dog and AER. While most known for the design of the cars, some are also quite fast an...
Feb 14, 2020•1 hr 35 min•Season 3Ep. 91
A bit late on this episode, but we cover a ton of the various factors that can improve driver comfort. This will help with speed, lessen fatigue, and improve safety. We hope you enjoy this episode. Topics include: Pre-race preparation Seat position and size halo/containment seats Seat angle and seat size Seat Height and helmet height Seat range and angle of sliders Additional padding, Foam pads/risers and Expanding foam Air ducts, and helmet inlets Exhaust flow and no leaks Sound and noise reduc...
Feb 10, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 90
For this shorter episode of our podcast we thought it would be helpful and fun to go over our individual lists of the top ten things we have learned in our first two years of low budget endurance racing. We also had a few items added in from Kate as well as several thoughts from our Facebook and Instagram accounts. In addition to our top ten list, highlights include: 1) If its worth doing, it worth overdoing, again. 2) Bill’s math side is affecting his line and apex visualization and target, sti...
Jan 30, 2020•45 min•Season 3Ep. 89
Jim Tramontano is a racing driver primarily in Spec Miata and the creative force behind the No Money Motorsports blog. He started racing and tries to balance a personal life and a racing hobby within the confines of a real-world budget and time availability. He has tried many things to save both time and money. Many have worked, but some, not so much. He shares our interest in spreading the word about how much fun can be had with our sport and how it can be accomplished by almost everyone while ...
Jan 28, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 88
On this episode, we had Greg Birch on from the SilverSleeves racing team from the west coast. We first met the team at Laguna Seca earlier this month but both of us had less than ideal racing weekends. It was great to catch up with Greg and we look forward to racing with them again. Highlights for this episode include: 1) What is a Wolseley Hornet, its history, and how to get one onto the track, as well as future plans 2) Greg’s Mini fascination and history with both classic Mini’s and modern Mi...
Jan 26, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Season 3Ep. 87
Another Way Off Our Topic (WOOT)) episode this time, where we review 1) the past year in movies and select our favorites. 2) We then go into the top movies of the decade. 3) We also go into the movies of 2020 we are most looking forward to and finally, 4) we cover the worst movies of the past year. While initially, it does not seem like we have any car talk, we did manage to get a few related car topics into the show. We hope you enjoy this episode where we cover a bit over 100 movies and shows....
Jan 22, 2020•1 hr 31 min•Season 3Ep. 86
On this week’s podcast, we had the pleasure of interviewing Amanda Baak of the Faster Farms team who we met at last week’s Lucky Dog race at Laguna Seca. Vicki and Amanda had some very exciting racing for a dozen laps or so until things ended poorly on our end. Their team races a Plymouth Belvedere, as everyone should. After repeatedly racing with them Saturday and Sunday, we had to have them on to find out more about the team, Amanda, and Adrian who made an impromptu appearance. We enjoyed our ...
Jan 16, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 85
We conclude our wrap up of our racing at Laguna Seca with the Lucky Dog racing series by summarizing our Sunday race and our overall thoughts and experiences. We had a great trip out to Laguna Seca and the track is wonderful. Did our Saturday continue into Sunday. Yes. Did our car give it everything it had? Yes. Did we finally break the podcast curse and finish a Lucky Dog race? Well……listen and find out. Highlights of our review include: 1) Race car status and prep review 2) Mental’s first roll...
Jan 09, 2020•1 hr 51 min•Season 3Ep. 84
On this episode, Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, Kate and Bill went over our 2019 season and our 2020 goals. Are we on the same page? Do we even belong in the same book? Listen in and find out. Some of it was news to us, lol. Areas covered included: 2019 Review: 1) How did our Team’s 2019 go in your opinion, Highlight and Lowlight 2) How did your personal season go? Highlight and Lowlight 3) Things you want to keep the same/similar and Things we need to change or improve 4) Biggest team weakness or missi...
Jan 08, 2020•1 hr 50 min•Season 3Ep. 83
This was a very quickly done episode by a bunch of very tired hosts and is recorded and unedited live from Laguna Seca after our first day of racing. Recording levels varied a bit more than normal but we all ended up with one of our sillier episodes. Hopefully, you will enjoy it as much as we did. 'Nuff Said With Vicki, Bill and special guest Mental Ward
Jan 05, 2020•54 min•Season 3Ep. 81
On this week’s podcast, we were finally able to interview Kate and Bennett Danvers and share with you a bit of their background and experiences with our team. Kate shared many words, Bennett, few. We hope you enjoy the weeks episode. Highlights from this episode include: 1) Overall background of each, including driving, racing, and car history of each and the family 2) How to power oversteer a John Deere tractor and the impact on the grass cut, as well as life with a Mark VI GTI first car 3) Tea...
Dec 28, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 81
SPOILER FILLED EPISODE: On this week’s Way Off Our Topic (WOOT) episode, we try to review the most recent Star Wars movie, “The Rise of Skywalker”. We try to get a broad range of opinions from relatively hard core Star Wars fans to fans who have seen the movies and we also range from 11 years old to over 50. In general, we all liked the movie. We had issues with some parts, but in general, the internet backlash is much stronger than any of us felt it should be. With us this week, we had returnin...
Dec 24, 2019•2 hr 9 min•Season 2Ep. 80
Zack Klapman is a car guy through and through and was our guest for this week’s episode. You may know him from the Smoking Tire podcast and YouTube channel or from seeing him on air on the NBC /Drive show or as a producer for /Drive as well as several other television shows like “Proving Grounds”. We were able to talk with Zack quite a bit about his overall car interests and how he began working in the area. As usual, he was a decade long in the making overnight success who made it through perse...
Dec 19, 2019•1 hr 25 min•Season 2Ep. 79
