GHIT 0408: Frank Schwartz – All About B Spec Racing and More Frank Schwartz is a racer and owner of Grass Paddock Motorsports that rents B Spec Honda Fits and Mini Coopers. He is also known online as the stepfather of B Spec racing and seems to be a proud father to be of a potential new class of C Spec racing for the SCCA. Frank seems to always be involved with getting people into the sport of performance driving and racing at a reasonable budget. We ended up talking a great deal about racing in...
Dec 19, 2022•1 hr 32 min•Season 6Ep. 408
GHIT 0407: Kyle Heyer The Voice of GridLife In our totally biased opinions, the GridLife live stream is the best motorsports events on TV/YouTube, and we lose so much time in the garage when they are on for the weekend. Kyle Heyer is the lead presenter and commentator for the GridLife series and has worked hosting other series including SRO on live streams and broadcast television. In addition, Kyle is involved with the GridLife team in setting up the time attack series to improve the presentati...
Dec 14, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 6Ep. 407
DwD 0406: Street Driving Practice and Bad Habits to Be Aware of for Track Driving Most of us are unfortunately unable to be on track as much as we would like and end up with a majority of our driving being on the streets and highways. During this episode, we try to talk about several things that you can do to legally improve your track driving, especially in the off season. We also go into a few areas where normal driving can create habits that would be bad to use on a track. We hope this will h...
Dec 13, 2022•24 min•Season 6Ep. 406
GHIT 0405: Adam Jabaay Reviews GridLife 2022 and Previews 2023 Adam Jabaay comes on the podcast before the 2023 announcements and talks about how 2022 went for GridLife and what he is looking forward to for 2023. We were finally able to get to our first GridLife events at NJMP this summer and short visit to the Lime Rock event. We also talk a good bit about the Lime Rock and several stories from the event, as well as several of the other highlights from the season including the first ever Enduro...
Dec 12, 2022•1 hr 36 min•Season 6Ep. 405
GHIT 0404: Race Review – NHMS 2022 Part 2: El Jeffe Long delayed due to schedule and sickness, here is part 2 of our teams 24 Hours of Lemons race at New Hampshire Motor Sports track in late October. We had planned to go over the race and how it went for the flying MooStang and the trophy truck El Jeffe/the Bad Hombre but we have now broken this up into two separate episodes. In this episode, Jeremy goes through the entire race weekend for the 2003 Chevy S10/Isuzu Hombre. Which team had a good r...
Dec 07, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 5Ep. 404
DwD 0403: Better Race Starts One of Ben’s favorite things to do is pass people and one of his favorite ways to accomplish this is at a race start or at a race restart from a yellow. In this DwD, Ben is very excited to talk about many of his tips and tricks that he has learned over his years of racing. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/RaceStartsAndRestarts If you would like to help grow our sport and this podcast: Awesome choice #1: Subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of...
Dec 06, 2022•23 min•Season 5Ep. 403
GHIT 0402: Race Review – NHMS 2022 Part 1: The MooStang Long delayed due to schedule and sickness, here is part 1 of our teams 24 Hours of Lemons race at New Hampshire Motor Sports track in late October. We had planned to go over the race and how it went for the flying MooStang and the trophy truck El Jeffe/the Bad Hombre but we have now broken this up into two separate episodes. Part two will release later this week. In this episode, Alan goes through the entire race weekend for the 1984 Mustan...
Dec 05, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 5Ep. 402
DwD 0401: How to Install Harness Straps On this Dominating with Dawson, we try to go over how to install and wrap harnesses in a race car. It turns out to be quite a challenge to describe this process without the help of any visuals. We start off with discussing the purchase of the racing harness and then proceed towards the installation of the racing harness into a car. We include things to do and things not to do. The installation is much easier than our description makes it seem, lol. Please ...
Nov 29, 2022•25 min•Season 5Ep. 401
GHIT 0400: Celebrate Episode 400 with ROSS BENTLEY Our streak continues with celebrating every fifty episodes with Ross Bentley returning to the podcast. During this episode, we have our traditional questions related to improving as drivers, but since it is near the end of the season, we wanted to go over some goals for the upcoming season. Ross not only assist us in coming up with a goal or two, but he provides a great process for you to come up for your own goals. In addition to goals, we also...
Nov 28, 2022•1 hr 49 min•Season 5Ep. 400
DwD 0399: Why You Need to Improve Driving Off Line In the beginning, everyone is obsessively concerned with driving on “the line” when on a track. During this Dominating with Dawson episode, we talk about the importance of driving off line and getting as good as possible at driving off line. There are many, many reasons why it is important, and we try to go into several of them including that this is the predominant way to pass other cars on track and how driving off line will augment your car c...
Nov 22, 2022•20 min•Season 5Ep. 399
GHIT 0398: Andrew Purvis and his Coyote Swapped Fox Body We met Andrew Purvis at our NY Safety Track track day with the brothers Korf. During the event, Alan was lusting after Andrew’s Coyote swapped Fox Body Mustang and we all had a great time. Even better, Andrew was able to catch Vicki’s spin intervention on video for us, lol. Andrew is a big time car guy and obviously knows his way around a car and especially his Fox body. We look forward to being passed by him at an upcoming event, likely w...
Nov 21, 2022•53 min•Season 5Ep. 398
DwD 0397: Tweed Motorsports Live from the AER Race at NJMP Thunderbolt We join Tweed Motorsports live from the season ending AER race at NJMP Thunderbolt. Gary from Tweed Motorsports raced with us at Thompson (and for some reason is still talking to us) and agreed to be adopted for the AER event at NJMP and provide updates throughout the 14 hour race. We hope this makes you feel like you were there or at least scratches the racing itch if your season is over. A link to the episode is: https://ti...
Nov 20, 2022•35 min
DwD 0396: Post Race Weekend Hangover Minimization The post race (weekend) hangover is real, and it has nothing to do with what your drink of choice was during the weekend. It often comes from a loss of sleep, a lot of activity, and the overuse of your adrenal glands during the weekend. In the end, Monday or often especially Tuesday, you usually are in a partial zombie state and are from performing at your peak. During this episode, we cover several ways that the weekends affect each of us and se...
Nov 15, 2022•24 min•Season 5Ep. 396
GHiT 0395: GHiT Team Update November 2022 On this latest team update, we go into our recent efforts related to racing and preparing our cars, as well as a few other weird things that have been happening in and around our team. This was recorded after the last Lemons race of 2022 at NHMS where Alan lead the Moostang team and where Jeremy and the boys competed in the El Jeffe race truck. The full race review is coming in another episode soon, as is our last HPDE of the season from NASA Northeast’s...
Nov 14, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 5Ep. 395
DwD 0394: How to Capitalize on Uphill and Downhill Areas of a Track In past Dominating with Dawsons, we have talked about the affect that camber has on track driving. During this episode, we go into the effect that uphill and downhill sections can have going into and coming out of turns. We also go into how to know when you are at the limit and what Vicki is concerned about when pushing toward the limit in various section on a track. I think we may have reached a new breakthrough for her and hop...
Nov 08, 2022•16 min•Season 5Ep. 394
GHIT 0393: Race Review - Lucky Dog Race at CMP with Read Tull and Ben Dawson We start the episode with Read Tull who races in the southeast and had Ben as his first HPDE instructor. Read entered his E36 into the last Lucky Dog event in the southeast for the 2022 season and we share some common pain. The weekend was a mixed bag of several highs and lows, but as always, Lucky Dog ran a great event, and everyone had a great weekend. Ben showed up late to this episode and therefore we learn a lot of...
Nov 07, 2022•2 hr 22 min•Season 5Ep. 393
GHIT 0391: Car Control with Nik Romano There are a few fundamental skills that truly separate drivers. The top two that come to mind are car control and race craft. Nik Romano owns FastSideways and also currently drives professionally for Toyota. FastSideways is a driving school that specializes in holding events that offer personal coaching to focus specifically on improving your car control on skid pads and track through a sequence of drills and tests. During the episode, we talk about a wide ...
Nov 01, 2022•2 hr 8 min•Season 5Ep. 391
DwD 0392: Balancing Min Distance vs Max Speed On this week’s Dominating with Dawson, we start a discussion on the competing priorities of maximizing speed and minimizing distance. Obviously, the balance of these will lead to the fastest lap times, but some areas of a track or sequences of a track will be optimized by sacrificing one or the other in certain areas to reduce lap time. This concept is more often spoken about in autocross but applies to road courses as well. This is especially challe...
Oct 31, 2022•16 min•Season 5Ep. 392
GHIT 0390: Race Update Live for NHMS with Jeremy Hall We caught up with Jeremy live front the paddock as Sunday morning was starting up Jeremy allows us to live vicariously through him as he provided a quick update to the weekend so far and how things were looking as the race started at New Hampshire Motor Sports this year. Saturday proved to be a challenging day for the El Jeffe Trophy truck team, as well as the MooStang. Details can be found here. It was the start of a three hour tour. A three...
Oct 30, 2022•23 min•Season 5Ep. 390
DwD 0389: Catching a Car – FWD vs RWD – This one goes way, way, way off topic While we often talk about car control, we have yet to really discuss the differences between catching a car that is front wheel drive vs catching a car that is rear wheel drive. During the discussion, something comes up that Vicki does on track that totally derails the rest of the discussion. We will likely have to come back to this topic in another DwD or a guest appearance. Stay tuned for the first ever intervention ...
Oct 25, 2022•32 min•Season 5Ep. 389
GHIT 0388: Phil Wurz From Bimmerworld Returns For a Second Lap Phil Wurz is the Sales and Operations Manager for Bimmerworld and also races with the Bimmerworld team at track across the nation. We catch up with Phil on what has been going on with the Bimmerworld team's racing team this season. We also go into the SpecE46 series and the cars involved with them. Phil and the team at Bimmerworld had put together a list with several levels of builds for the SpecE46 series that are budget and perform...
Oct 24, 2022•55 min•Season 5Ep. 388
DwD 0387: Responding to an Incident On track In Front of You Sometimes when you are on track, another car in front of you may have a problem. It could be leaking fluids, losing parts, go off track, or have contact with another car or other object. For this episode, we go into some of the more common scenarios and several options to you as a driver to minimize the potential for making the incident worse. As always, safety is most important and making the least impact on your lap/race is a distant...
Oct 18, 2022•27 min
GHIT 0386: Brandon Wilson – NASA Great Lakes HPDE 4 Group Leader and Grassroots Racer Brandon Wilson was one of the first instructors to ride with Bill ever and has been with NASA Great Lakes for well over a decade and is now the HPDE 4 Group Leader. During this episode, we talk about how Brandon has worked his way into he driver that he is and where he would like to progress further, both as a driver and racer, as well as for the HPDE 4 group with NASA Great Lakes. We go through the HPDE ladder...
Oct 17, 2022•1 hr 25 min•Season 5Ep. 386
DwD 0385: Tire Mounting and Balancing - For The Track For this episode, we go over what to do and what to look out for when mounting and balancing your tires, especially for track use. As with most of high performance driving, we are pushing the tire and wheel/rim more than is “normal” and therefore we are more sensitive to certain aspects and maintenance practices than a normal, daily driven vehicle. We talk about several things to look for and look out for when having your tires mounted and ba...
Oct 11, 2022•19 min•Season 5Ep. 385
GHIT 0384: Justin Okamoto – JustinCFC on Instagram One of the highlights of the GridLife event at Lime Rock was finally meeting Justin Okamoto in person after many months of interacting online. Justin is relatively new to racing his own vehicles but has been associated with motorsports for well over a decade. He worked himself through the GridLife HPDE sessions and has recently began racing his BMW E36 3 Series car in their Club TR Time Attack series. Justin has also given back to the series and...
Oct 10, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Season 5Ep. 384
GHIT 0383: Our Fall Failage 2022 Lemons Rally Wrap Up Ryan, Matt, Audra, and Vicki go through their first ever Lemons rally that started in Boston, went to Albany, NY, Burlington, Vt, and eventually ended up near Boston. As with all things Lemons, it was a ton of fun and many, many laughs were had. On this episode, we try to summarize what the rally entails and then cover some of the many highlights during the long weekend. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/FallFailageWrapUp If you w...
Oct 06, 2022•50 min•Season 5Ep. 383
DwD 0382: Race Seat vs OEM Seats: Advantages/Disadvantages and When to Change to a Race Seat We talk about some of the key differences between a racing seat vs your OEM seat. This also includes the seat belt and harness differences. Obviously, there is a difference between the construction and installation of the race seat, but their use also makes a few “normal” use cases a bit more difficult. We cover several of the differences and advantages and disadvantages of the conversion. We also go wit...
Oct 04, 2022•21 min•Season 5Ep. 382
GHIT 0381: DJ Alessandrini - Race Driver and Sim Racer Bill first saw DJ Alessandrini when he was doing some friendly YouTube stalking of the GLTC series and has been following him ever since. DJ has also started a podcast (Lizard Brains Podcast) of his own with co-host Tom O’Gorman and it has become one of our can’t miss podcasts. We end up talking all things Sundae Cup, podcasting, driving and especially how best to learn and use SIM racing during the off season to improve our driving in the r...
Oct 03, 2022•1 hr 28 min•Season 5Ep. 381
GHIT 0380: Lemons Rally Wrap Up – Day 2 of the 2022 Fall Failage Rally Day two has concluded and we are reporting live from a restaurant arcade somewhere in either NY State or Vermont. It has been a long trip and another long day on the road. Spirits remain high and the rain has held off to this point. In addition, we have three entrants with birthdays today, so everyone wish them all a happy birthday. On this episode we are joined by Rally Master Jeff Stobbs and Tarl and Kirk, two entrants from...
Oct 02, 2022•31 min•Season 5Ep. 380
GHIT 0379: Lemons Rally Wrap Up – Day 1 of the 2022 Fall Failage Rally This episode is recorded live from the end point of day one for the Fall Failage Rally. The rally started near Boston and ended near Albany NY. We have a ton of photos posted to the Garage Heroes In Training podcast and many, many others can be found using the hashtag #lemonsrally on the IG. Sorry for a bit of the background noise but there is always a lot of rally activity. We plan on having a few more updates through the re...
Oct 01, 2022•32 min•Season 5Ep. 379
