GHIT 0344: Race Recap: GHIT’s Ladies Team Raced In our 1993 Honda Civic Our first ever race was at NJMP’s Thunderbolt track with 24 Hours of Lemons and seems to be a lifetime ago. We started out knowing nothing and that was probably being kind. At this year’s event, we entered our 1993 Honda Civic with its full theme to thank the Everyone Racers podcast for all their help getting us started and helping us ever since. Vicki and Jennifer raced with two of the hosts from the Shifting Points podcast...
Jun 29, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Season 5Ep. 344
DwD 0348: Coasting On Track - Allowed or Not One of the often quoted things that may have first come from Ross Bentley’s “Speed Secrets” book series is that you should never be coasting on track, but should either be on the gas pedal/throttle or on the brake. Ross has been on the podcast several times and we have discussed this aspect of racing with him a few times both on the podcast and at the track. We decided to get into it today and with Ben discuss whether there are any scenarios where “co...
Jun 28, 2022•39 min•Season 5Ep. 348
GHIT 0347: Jeremy Hall from Monkey House Racing Over the past few years, we had met Jeremy at many events, but it was more in passing. Jeremy usually races with his team called Monkey House Racing, but for the Pittsburgh event he was racing with the Skunk Oil Racing team and our team in a 1999 BMW 3 series, an E36 for all the cool dudes. Unfortunately, the event did not go well with two incidents, one Saturday and another Sunday, both at turn 2 of PittRace. Jeremy was driving for the second even...
Jun 27, 2022•1 hr 54 min•Season 5Ep. 347
DwD 346: Track Selection: The Impact on Learning On this episode of Dominating with Dawson, we wanted to discuss an aspect of racing education that can often be overlooked. The typical decision path to getting a racing license or going to an HPDE event or a track day is to find the closest track to you that has an event that fits within your schedule. This is likely to be what you do as well. However, one factor that is neglected in this methodology is the impact that the track design and layout...
Jun 22, 2022•27 min•Season 5Ep. 346
GHIT 0345: Race Recap: Bill Goes to Comp School Our first team member is trying to get his racing license at Gingerman with NASA Great Lakes. This is his third weekend in a row and boy does it show. Also, the hazards of prepping a car for a race weekend with a post-race hangover/zombie mechanic. Bill also was racing with Glenn and Tim in his first ever NASA TREC race at Gingerman. All race weekends are great fun but sometimes things just don’t go your way. What are the stories from this weekend?...
Jun 20, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 5Ep. 345
GHiT 0343: Live Race Update from the 2022 NJMP Thunderbolt Race with the 24 Hours of Lemons (We do plug in the microphone after ~5 minutes, lol) In a shortly, mostly live episode from the NJMP Thunderbolt paddock, Vicki and Jen are joined by Audra and Jess from the Shifting Points podcast to talk about day 1 of this years 24 Hours of Lemons race. The ladies were driving in our 1993 Honda Civic DX that had a tribute livery to our friends at the Everyone Racers podcast and the Three Pedal Mafia, a...
Jun 14, 2022•47 min•Season 5Ep. 343
GHIT 0342: The Tyler Stank After having better answers to several of our Dominating with Dawson’s, it was only appropriate that we invited him onto the podcast. We first met Tyler while iRacing and have since been paying attention as he has begun driving in the real world as well. His middle name really is Ayrton and there can be no better reason to have him on the podcast, but he is also notably the first person to drive each of the three versions of mini truck in the 24 Hours of Lemons enduran...
Jun 14, 2022•1 hr 32 min•Season 5Ep. 342
DwD 0341: The difference between building a car and developing a car Race Weekend Shuffle in place: We have talked a lot about building a race car and prepping a car for the track. But that Is only the beginning and just when you thought it was over, it has only begun. The best way to think about it is that you now have a ticket to enter the event and part of your future will be developing the car and improving it. There are things that will always need to be done. Some of these areas are to inc...
Jun 13, 2022•31 min•Season 5Ep. 341
GHIT 0340: Getting the Most Out of Instruction at a Track Day or HPDE etc Track time is a precious commodity. It is often difficult to fit into your schedule, it takes a significant amount to prep for a weekend (both the car and the driver and often simply getting to the track). It is also not free to attend the event. We try to give some examples of what to do and what not to do before an at an event. Also, given this, one of Bill’s obsessions is in getting the absolute most he can from each ev...
Jun 07, 2022•31 min•Season 5Ep. 340
GHIT 0339: Late to Grid Podcast Host Bill Snow Our paths have crossed seemingly many times, but we have never met until now. The Late to Grid podcast is aimed at covering amateur racing and helping grow our sport. Since our podcast goals are almost identically aligned, we thought it would be great to have Bill on and share some stories and maybe we could learn from him some of his vast mechanical skills. We talk about all things racing, his home tracks of Mid O, PittRace, and Nelson Ledges. We a...
Jun 06, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Season 5Ep. 339
GHIT 0338: Jess From the Shifting Points podcast’s First Track Day We have an upcoming race at NJMP’s Thunderbolt track next weekend, so we took advantage of the NASA Northeast’s HPDE event this weekend to get a bit of track time for our friends from the Shifting Points podcast who will be racing with us. This will be Jess’s first ever race and today was her first ever track day and great preparation for the race. Vicki was going to explode if we made her wait any longer for a review of the day,...
Jun 05, 2022•1 hr 8 min
DwD 0337: Dashes, Switches, and Control Panels Vicki has been hard at work upgrading our dashboard and controls in our Honda Civic race car. She also has a favorite past time at a track by looking into each car and trailer set up to see what others have done and ideas that would improve our cars (and trailers). We thought it might be a good thing to discuss and provide a list of things that we like to see on a car and have found to be helpful in maintaining the car or preventing the car from hav...
May 31, 2022•22 min•Season 5Ep. 337
GHIT 0336: NASA’s TREC Endurance racing series with Bryan Lingruen As you know, we love endurance racing. Endurance racing allows us to get a huge amount of track time and competition in a single weekend. NASA has recently started an endurance racing series to compliment their sprint racing and HPDE weekend events. The TREC series currently races at the same tracks on a Friday and the races range from 3 hours to 8 hours depending on the event and the venue. We talk with Bryan Lingruen about the ...
May 30, 2022•1 hr 53 min•Season 5Ep. 336
DwD 0335: Bought Not Built? One of best things about racing is how welcoming racing has been to us and in general to everyone we see at the track. One related aspect of this is the application of a built not bought aspect to racing that is often used in jest, but can divide the paddock, either by accident or intent. However, just because you or your team may have mechanical experience and talent, which does not imply that a team or person that does not should be excluded from the sport. We discu...
May 24, 2022•19 min•Season 5Ep. 335
GHIT 0334: How to Test Your Car at the Track with Scott Robertson We often hear how important it is to test your car prior to racing. While listening to Scott’s Track Walking podcast (a can’t miss podcast), Scott was discussing how he and Becky were able to conduct a full track test and tune evaluation of their vehicle during a recent HPDE. Since Scott is a respected coach and offers a service to help a driver to dial in their car at the track, we thought he would be a perfect guest to discuss h...
May 23, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Season 5Ep. 334
GHIT 0333: One Lap of America 2022 – Marlon Sumlin – Sundae Cup Class In the first of a series, we reflect back on the 2022 One Lap of America with Marlon Sumlin who completed the event in his Mazda 2 Sundae Cup car. This was Marlon’s first One Lap of America, and it will not be his last. We talk about Marlon’s impressions from his first OLoA, how it is to compete in a low horsepower, Sundae Cup car, and what he learned from his first event. As always, it seems like the first OLoA event leads to...
May 18, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 5Ep. 333
DwD 0332: Pit Stops – Practicing and Some Best Practices Once you start to progress as drivers and as a team, one of the more important aspects of racing and one of the most overlooked and potentially ignored aspects of endurance racing is minimizing you time lost on track during the pit stops. As always, the over-riding most important aspects is to maintain focused on the safety of you, your team, your cars, and the fellow teams in the pit lane. We also offer a few of the lessons we have learne...
May 17, 2022•24 min•Season 5Ep. 332
GHIT 0331: SCCA’s New Endurance Racing Series with Jon Krolewicz John Krolewicz has been racing for many years and helped start the Track Night In America Program for the SCCA. Now he is organizing the new SCCA Enduro series that is kicking of shortly with their first race at Nelson Ledges. The Sports Car Club of America is one of the oldest performance car organizations and hold nationwide races, autocross events (called Solo in SCCA lingo), and training and education events like Track Night in...
May 16, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 5Ep. 331
DwD 0330: CPR and Racing – Correct, Pause, and Recover) CPR is typically referred to in a medical emergency. But in racing, CPR is in reference to Correct, Pause, and Recover when you are out of sorts on the track. The thought behind the acronym is that when your car gets out of shape or out of control on a track, one of the things that should be taken into consideration is that this can often require a procedure where you not only correct for the issue/error, but you must wait an appropriate am...
May 10, 2022•23 min•Season 5Ep. 230
GHIT 0329: Lemons Rally Wrap Up of the Recent Four Corners Rally with Jeff Stobbs Rally Master Jeff Stobbs returns to summarize the recent Four Corners Rally. We missed the daily updates for this one due to a whole buffet of reasons, including multiple times zones, work travel, food sickness, etc. So instead of our nightly updates, we thought we would try a summary of the entire event. We will return to our previously scheduled daily updates on the next rally. Or at least we will try. It sounds ...
May 09, 2022•36 min•Season 5Ep. 329
DwD 0328: Best Car Mods to Go Faster – With Guest DwD Judge Tyler Ben is joined by honorary guest DwD Judge Tyler for a special Dominating with Dawson where we go over what are the best things you can modify in your car to perform better. Ben goes with brakes pads and brake fluid upgrades. Tyler goes with upgraded tires. While both of these are great additions, Bill and Vicki disagree slightly. If we were playing Family Feud, brake pads and fluid would be #2. Tires a close #3. We always like kee...
May 03, 2022•36 min•Season 5Ep. 328
GHIT 0327: John Kolesa on AER (American Endurance Racing) John Kolesa started American Endurance Racing several years ago and Bill had a great time racing with the series at PittRace, so we had to have him on to officially introduce everyone to the series if you are not already familiar with AER. Since starting the series in 2014, AER has assumed a position towards the more competitive/higher performance segment of the amateur endurance racing community. The series was desiring to be more open t...
May 02, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 5Ep. 327
DwD 0326: Driving What You Got On Track - Two Ways On this episode of Dominating with Dawson, we go over two aspects of driving on track with the “car” you have. This was originally intended to address the aspect of driving the car you have and adapting your driving to the car as it is during a weekend or a stint. Most of us are not fortunate enough to have the ability to dial in a car on the fly while on track and most times you have to make the best of it. The discussion also went into going t...
Apr 26, 2022•22 min•Season 5Ep. 326
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. The next weekend at PittRace was a 24 Hours of Lemons race and Alex drove with Dave and Jeremy for the we...
Apr 25, 2022•1 hr 49 min•Season 5Ep. 325
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 two pedal car. This will reduce the kinetic energy of the car, reduce the likelihood and severity of con...
Apr 19, 2022•14 min•Season 5Ep. 323
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 weekend. This was recorded right after we all returned from the race and the post-race hangover was clea...
Apr 18, 2022•1 hr 30 min•Season 5Ep. 324
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 critiques of the Lemons series and the field of cars and drivers at PittRace. This was our initial shakedown ...
Apr 13, 2022•2 hr 14 min•Season 5Ep. 322
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 he saw our race from the tower. We also cover the Flagger system that was in our car that we mistakenly ...
Apr 12, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Season 5Ep. 321
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 on track during a corner and what to do to get back into the rhythm and normal sequence. The core issue...
Apr 11, 2022•21 min•Season 5Ep. 320
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 came in second in class on Saturday. Bill on the other hand had his first ever bad track day and proba...
Apr 06, 2022•1 hr 21 min•Season 5Ep. 319
