DwD 0438: Fuel Conservation Methods When endurance racing, the race can often be won or lost by the pit stop strategy and sometimes the race breaks down in such a way that your team can be a few laps short from what is needed to avoid another pit stop and that can make or break the victory. Ben and Bill discuss some of their favorite ways to save a little gas and extend the number of laps and maybe sneak out a victory when you may not be the fastest in your class. A link to the episode is: https...
Mar 14, 2023•21 min•Season 6Ep. 438
GHIT 0437: Dion von Moltke Returns and We Talk All Things Racing Dion von Moltke has raced professionally at some of the highest levels and has started an online coaching and education coaching business that includes some of the best racing (and other) coaches across the globe. We have been subscribers since day one and never fail to see improvements after every session and know of nothing that can compare in value for the dollar and minute. During this episode Dion discusses topics including: 1...
Mar 13, 2023•1 hr 32 min•Season 6Ep. 437
DwD 0436: Blind Corners One of the things that a lot of beginners have trouble with is when they are approaching a corner of the track that does not allow the driver to see around the corner. While this can be disconcerting, this should not be a big deal for you on track. Ben offers up some great advice on dealing with blind corners and starts with the ever important topic of the safety of going through blind corners. We hope this helps you at you next rack event. A link to the episode is: https...
Mar 07, 2023•24 min•Season 6Ep. 436
GHiT 0435: Host of the Blind Apex Podcast and Honda Challenge Race Driver – Kaan Canturk Once we found the Blind Apex podcast, we knew we had to have Kaan on our podcast. Kaan competes primarily in the NASA Mid Atlantic Honda Challenge H2 series. He started a podcast that is aimed at helping everyone get better at racing and optimizing their racing program. During this episode we go over how Kaan started out in his racing and what he has learned to this point. Tons of tips, tricks and lessons le...
Mar 06, 2023•1 hr 41 min•Season 6Ep. 435
GHiT 0434: GHIT Builds an Engine and a Trans??? – With a Ton of help Our engine gave up at our last race and we needed to (finally) start prepping for real for the upcoming 2023 season. As everyone knows, we started knowing (less than) nothing about car repairs and this week we took on our biggest challenge to date, pull the entire drive train in our 1993 Honda Civic EG Hatchback, build an engine and transmission, and replace it into the chassis for a rapidly upcoming test day. Here how things w...
Mar 01, 2023•50 min•Season 6Ep. 434
DwD 0433: Turbo Charger vs a Super Charger On this week’s Dominating with Dawson, Ben and Bill go into what the differences are between a turbocharger and a super charger. We have received a few emails recently and seen some posts on the various social medias that indicate at least a few people seem to be confused about each and how they work. We thought we would take a shot at going into some of the key differences between each, especially pertaining to endurance racing. So on an episode with t...
Feb 28, 2023•20 min•Season 6Ep. 433
GHiT 0432: Track Insurance with Ryan Staub from Lockton Motorsports We were joined by Ryan Staub from Lockton Motorsports to discuss a topic we have never covered yet, track day insurance. This is an essential area to consider if you cannot afford to walk away from your car in case of an accident on track. Track insurance and off track insurance can vary quite widely and is almost always NOT covered by your normal car insurance. It should also be a consideration for where you choose to go for yo...
Feb 27, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 6Ep. 432
DwD 0431: Throttle Applications Tips As Ken Hill said in his past podcast, the fastest lap is created by the driver who is on wide open throttle the longest. So how do you get there best? Do you roll on the throttle or feather it, or slam it down to the floor, etc., etc., etc. Also, does it matter? Does it vary from turn to turn? Does it vary from car to car or turn to turn? How many times do we say Ross Bentley’s favorite answer of “it depends”. Come on in and find out how we each do this and w...
Feb 21, 2023•22 min
GHiT 0430: Nik Romano from Fast Sideway – Suspension 101 – Part 1 Nik Romano joins us to start to dig into the aspect of the race car that we know the least about, the suspension and suspension adjustments. In this episode, we go into the most common different types of suspensions and suspension design and how they work and how these designs and adjustments can lead to some of the biggest gains on track. This is a great starting point if you know or understand nothing about suspensions and suspe...
Feb 20, 2023•1 hr 25 min•Season 6Ep. 430
DwD 0429: How Best to Progress Your Car - Properly You find yourself with a car that you want to take to the track. What do you do? Where do you start? Who can you rely on to find good information? We didn’t know when we started. We have been doing this for a bit and offer up our suggestions on what to do, how to do it, and where to find information to assist you in getting your car prepared safely, quickly, and economically. What are some great places to go, websites, YouTube channels, forums, ...
Feb 14, 2023•20 min•Season 6Ep. 429
GHiT 0428: Tom O’Gorman Returns for a Second Lap Tom O returns for a second lap and we catch up on what he has been up to since his last visit. This includes his new podcast with DJ Alessandrini called “Lizard Brains”. Did we talk about Tom’s recent IMSA pro race at Daytona? Yep. Did we talk about the twin autocross events last year in a brand new Acura NSX? Indeed. What about endurance racing, did Tom talk about his recent run at the national championship with ChampCar? Yes, yes we did. What ab...
Feb 13, 2023•1 hr 27 min•Season 6Ep. 428
DwD 0427: Top 5 Tracks that are Fun to Drive With the upcoming 2023 One lap of America coming up, Ben, Vicki, Jennifer, and Bill decided to have a lighter DwD episode and go over what are their Top 5 tracks that are fun to drive. We also go into some of the details of the track that make them so much fun. We then end with a review of some of our favorite turns we have driven so far. So what is your Top 5 favorite tracks, so far? Did we ever cover our 5? Tune in to find out. A link to the episode...
Feb 07, 2023•33 min•Season 6Ep. 427
GHiT 0426: Tom Thalmann and His 675,000+ mile 911 We read about Tom and his daily driven Porsche 911 Turbo and Ben said “I need to know more about this guy”. So we did. We talk about how Tom has bonded with his 996 turbo and many stories of the drives and what it has taken to keep the car on the street. Have not fear though, Tom also takes the car on track several times each year. So if you see an Artic Silver 911 Turbo on the roads, its probably Tom, lol. We also get into his upcoming cross cou...
Feb 06, 2023•57 min•Season 6Ep. 426
GHiT 0425: Retreat From Moscow 2023 - Day 2 and 3 We join Rally Master Jeff from the end of Day 3 of the 2023 Retreat From Moscow Lemons Rally. Rally Master Jeff was a bit under the weather but the rally must go on. Also, we will need a short moment of silence for last rally review guests red Thunderbird. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/RetreatFromMoscow2023Day2and3 If you would like to help grow our sport and this podcast: Awesome choice #1: Subscribe to our podcast on the podcast...
Feb 03, 2023•27 min•Season 6Ep. 425
WOOT 0424: Our Hero Related Preview of 2023 In our latest Way Off Our Topic episode, we successfully avoided talking about racing for most of the episode and focused on the upcoming hero related movies and tv shows for 2023 and even some further out. Unfortunately, we recorded this prior to updated plans for the DC universe shows and movies by James Gunn so that will have to be in a future show. Benny, Alex, Vicki, and Bill went into a bit of a geek deep dive, so strap in. So which ones are you ...
Feb 02, 2023•1 hr 59 min•Season 6Ep. 424
GHiT 0423: Retreat From Moscow 2023 - Day 1 We join Rally Master Jeff from the end of Day 1 of the 2023 Retreat From Moscow Lemons Rally. Vicki and Bill were able to meet the rally kickoff meetup last night and were assisting with pre-rally inspections this morning. We reviewed todays festivities and were joined by Mike and Ed, two friends from the Rally who are driving in their early 2000's T-Bird. THUNDERBIRD. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/RetreatFromMoscow2023Day1 If you would...
Feb 01, 2023•18 min•Season 6Ep. 423
DwD 0422: Defending a Pass Attempt We have a passing series that we started last year and will resume soon, but we have not talked a great deal about defending a pass. In this part one episode, we go over a few ideas of what to do and what not to do. It is very obvious that there are significant differences in our hosts approach that is reflected by their relative racing skill progression. There is so much to this topic, we have really only started. So, what is you favorite way to defend a pass ...
Jan 31, 2023•30 min•Season 6Ep. 422
GHIT 0421: Dillon “EJ2 Track Rat” Brennan Returns for a Second Lap We are long overdue in having Dillon back onto the podcast. Dillon was one of our early guests and is a staple at the local NASA Northeast events in Honda Challenge and as an instructor. Don’t forget to tune into Dillon’s YouTube channel and watch and learn how to prep a race car very well, yet quite frugally. During this episode we talk to Dillon about his plans for creating a race car for the NASA Northeast volunteers and frien...
Jan 30, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 6Ep. 421
DwD 0420: What Have We Learned Since DwD’s Started The scariest question Bill has ever attempted. We ask Jennifer, Vicki, and Ben what they have learned since we started the Dominating with Dawson series. Do we hear crickets? Did we help any of us? And the biggest concern, did Ben learn anything? This could be the shortest episode ever. Is it? What is the biggest thing that you have learned from the podcast? Cue the cricket sound machine. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/DwDLearning...
Jan 24, 2023•31 min•Season 6Ep. 420
GHIT 0419: WindShadow Studios Mike Woeller Want to take some better pictures of you or your team at the track? We do, so we asked for a few tips and tricks from Mike Woeller. Mike started as a journalist and then taught photography. He then gradually shifted his focus to motorsports photography and started WindShadow Studios. Mike can be seen at a variety of tracks in the northeast and is one of the primary sources of track photos for a variety of series in the region. While we aren’t ever going...
Jan 23, 2023•1 hr 45 min•Season 6Ep. 419
DwD 0418: Jargon 101: What is Race Craft and Favorite Examples Ben, Jeremy, and Bill are unsupervised again this week, so why not end this session with a clean and simple Jargon episode. Ever wonder what race craft is? Much like defining “time”, race craft is often understood but difficult to describe. If you want to listen to us struggle, this may be the episode for you. Did we get it right? If not, let us know. Also, Read and Blake, you have been challenged. We also go into our favorite or bes...
Jan 17, 2023•29 min•Season 6Ep. 418
GHIT 0417: GHiT Goal Review – We Review 2022 and or Goals for 2023 Pre-Podcast Question: How was your 2022 season? Our team goes over our racing season for 2022 and how we did compared to our goals for the year. In this annual review, we often find out we did well in many areas and totally blew it in others. This year was no exception, lol. We had Alan, Jennifer, Vicki, and Bill, as always, but Jeremy decided to join in for the fun and plan his 2023 with us. We do this every year and find that i...
Jan 16, 2023•1 hr 42 min•Season 6Ep. 417
DwD 0416: Traveling to a Race - What to Bring, Especially if Flying While Jeremy was with us, Ben and Bill took advantage of his extensive travelling schedule to race and we discuss the best way to travel and pack for racing, especially if an airplane is involved. We get into what to bring and what not to bring, as well as how to bring the items. We also give a few options that may make things easier for the trip and minimize risk. This is another unshepherded episode. The story starts with “So ...
Jan 10, 2023•24 min
GHIT 0415: Ken Hill on The Fundamentals of Racing Pre-Pod Question of the episode: What is the fastest way around a race track? A second lap with Ken Hill. We return to Ken’s concepts of what are the 6 fundamentals of driving on track. Not only do we review what the fundamentals are, but we also go into the significance of the ordering of the fundamentals. This was initially based on the work that Ken did to learn the sport as quickly as possible, augmented with the learnings that he had as a dr...
Jan 09, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 6Ep. 415
DwD 0414: The Best Track Car On this episode, the first Dominating with Dawson of the new year, we try to start of with an easy one and not stir up the internet in any way. Naturally, we chose to define what is the best track car. We approach this from the perspective of a first timers’ ideal track car to an intermediate level track car. We also cover many of the more important considerations to take into account when choosing your car. If you think of a better car or cars, please let us know an...
Jan 03, 2023•36 min•Season 6Ep. 414
GHIT 0413: Jackie Andrews - Lo_Buk_Motorsports We start the year off with a guest Jackie Andrews. Jackie is not only a driver and a racing coach but also is the Motorsports Director for NASA Northeast Honda Challenge. Some of you may know them better as Lo_Buk_Motorsports on Instagram. During this episode we go into a great discussion of many things related to racing and setup optimization. This is very obviously part one of many. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/JackieAndrews If yo...
Jan 02, 2023•1 hr 37 min•Season 6Ep. 413
DwD 412: Jargon 101: What is a “Real Racer” of a “Try Hard” driver/racer Listener Warning: They left Bill and Ben unattended again. When in a paddock, you will often hear people talking about real racers or try hards on the track. While this is something most will look admirably towards being or becoming, in most cases this discussion is 100% facetious and derogatory. We discuss what brings upon this impression and alternative ways to think about driving and racing that we think will increase th...
Dec 27, 2022•24 min•Season 6Ep. 412
GHIT 0411: Adam Owens Rejoins Us For Another Lap Adam Owens is a friend we met a while back and he came on as a relatively newbie racer in our World Famous Racing 101 series two years ago. We catch up with how his racing has been going since then and especially how 2022 has progressed into at least Racing 201 or probably more. Adam has been consistently renting seats in endurance racing with the Boston Whiners and has been getting faster at every race. While most of his racing seat time is in wh...
Dec 26, 2022•1 hr 45 min•Season 6Ep. 411
GHIT 0410: Last Minute Gift Ideas for the Driver/Racers and Mechanics in Your Life We are so very late, but here are some of our ideas for the last minute gifts for the driver, racer, and mechanic in your life. We give a few ideas from stocking stuffers and gifts from the kids to pretty much every budget. If you think of others, please let us know and we can add them to the social media posts. If you have other gift ideas, please send to GarageHeroesInTraining@gmail.com and we can add them to th...
Dec 21, 2022•43 min•Season 6Ep. 410
DwD 0409: Tire Pressure Optimization to Track Conditions On this Dominating with Dawson, we try to go over how to adjust the pressure of your tires when on track and the conditions change. We also get into several of the factors that can impact the absolute tire pressure as well as the relative tire pressure. This is likely another subject that will require several visits, but we hope this would be a good review and potential resource for when your track visit is exceptionally hot, cold, or wet....
Dec 20, 2022•22 min•Season 6Ep. 409
