DwD 0467: How to Recover after Missing a Corner on Track We try to get Ben to imagine what he would do if he ever missed a corner on track. There are ways to minimize the impact and there are definitely ways to compound the mistake and lose more time or the race, or even your car. There are a ton of factors within the race that will also affect how you should recover or even if you can recover. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/BlowingACorner If you would like to help grow our sport ...
Jun 13, 2023•23 min•Season 6Ep. 467
GHiT 0466: Heyward Wagner from the SCCA We are joined on this episode by Heyward Wagner from the SCCA to talk (almost) all things SCCA in what we hope to be a first of many episodes. Heyward is a life long SCCA member, race driver, and now leads a variety of the aspects of the SCCA related to Rally Solo, and Experiential Programs associated with the having Fun With Cars, including autocross, rally, rallycross, Track Night In America. Fun With Cars as a mission. We couldn’t agree more. A link to ...
Jun 12, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 6Ep. 466
DwD 0465: Proper Use of a Handbrake On Track On this episode of Dominating with Dawson, we talk about what to do and what not to with your handbrake on track. We also talk about what a handbrake turn is and why drifters use the handbrake to help in their competitions. Many of our cars do not even have handbrakes, so it is easy to answer for those cars, lol. Plus we have a bit of story time from many years ago. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/HandbrakeTurns If you would like to help...
Jun 06, 2023•13 min•Season 6Ep. 465
GHiT 0464: Our Recap of the Lemons Rocky Mountain Breakdown Rally Finally Escapes From Editing Purgatory Long overdue, we finally finished editing the post Rocky Mountain Breakdown rally review with Rally Master Jeff Stobbs. Still not sure what happened to the original recording file, but we finally managed to resurrect another great rally review with Jeff. Apparently, we have an opening on the team in our editing department, lol. Sorry for the delay. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.co...
Jun 05, 2023•43 min•Season 6Ep. 464
DwD 0463: How to Pick a Racing Series There are a ton of racing series and types of racing and finding the best one for you can be daunting, especially if you are just getting started. In this episode of Dominating with Dawson, we talk about what some of the factors that should influence your decision and can save you a lot of time and money when getting started. We tried to cover everything we could, but undoubtedly, we may not have completely covered this topic and may return to it in the futu...
May 31, 2023•26 min•Season 6Ep. 463
GHiT 0462: Prepping for Their First Endurance Race What to Expect When You Are Unsuspecting with Angry Turtle Racing We love seeing new people and teams getting out on track and driving or racing. We especially love seeing friends enjoy themselves. Angry Turtle Racing is a new endurance racing team with two old friends (Audra and Lisa) and several new friends who are about to race in their first ever endurance race with us at NJMP in two weeks. We thought it might be helpful to go through some o...
May 30, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Season 6Ep. 462
DwD 0461: Transponders and Several of the Options and Tips We Have Learned On this episode we talk about the device that many organizations use to keep track of how quick your car is and how many laps you have completed during an event. We also go into the option of owning a transponder or renting. We then go into the often-argued area of where and how to position and charge your transponder to minimize any potential issues. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/PonderingTransponders If ...
May 23, 2023•19 min•Season 6Ep. 461
GHIT 0460: Hoopties Documentary Director Jeremy Berger In an earlier episode, we put out that we couldn’t wait to have Jeremy Berger on the podcast to discuss his award winning documentary film Hoopties. Obviously, he never listened to the podcast and was likely forced to come on the podcast by an unknown someone, thank you whoever you are. We start with a review of how the documentary came to be and what he found to be the biggest challenges with accurately capturing the weekend that is a 24 Ho...
May 22, 2023•57 min•Season 6Ep. 460
DwD 0459: Steering Wheel Grip Pressure – More is not Better On this episode of Dominating with Dawson, Jeremy joins in to discuss one of the aspects of driving that is often neglected and can be holding you back: the grip pressure that you use to hold the steering wheel. This can impact your response speed on track and create a lot of fatigue in your hands, forearms, and shoulders. Another aspect of this is the harder you grip something, the less sensitive you are to the inputs that you will rec...
May 16, 2023•27 min•Season 6Ep. 459
GHIT 0458: Passing Series – Part 2 of Many Sometimes life gets in the way of great podcasts. And sometimes it gets in the way of our podcasts. This is a long overdue part 2 of our series on passing with guest hosts Ben Dawson and returning guest Blake Fields. For this episode we approach the concepts related with passing cars that have a similar pace overall and some ideas on capitalizing on areas of relative weakness that always exist. We then cover several things that should be avoided when tr...
May 15, 2023•1 hr 32 min•Season 6Ep. 458
WOOT 0457: Guardians of the Galaxy and More In this non-racing Way Off Our Topic episode, we cover the recent release of Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and a few other recent and upcoming movies in our area of superheroes. We are joined by Jeff and Josh, but after this one, we may have a command performance for a part 2 by Benny and Alex who could not attend this WOOT episode. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/GotG3Plus If you would like to help grow our sport and this podcast: Awesome ch...
May 10, 2023•1 hr 52 min•Season 6Ep. 457
DwD 0456: The "Hoopties" Documentary On this episode of Dominating with Dawson, with no Dawson, we talk about the recently released award winning documentary "Hoopties". The documentary covers three race teams and compiles the results of three races, coincidentally the documentary kicks off at the first ever race for Garage Heroes In Training at NJMP Thunderbolt. Hopefully, we can have someone on to go into this a bit more. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/HooptiesDoc If you would l...
May 09, 2023•16 min•Season 6Ep. 456
GHiT 0455: Lisa Keyes Driving Scholarship Winner From Grid Life, GLTC, and Instructor We first met Lisa Keyes at last year’s GridLife event at NJMP where she was competing in GLTC, lead instructor for the entire event, and trying to survive the 100+F degree weekend. Luckily, we were able to lure her into a conversation or two over our much coveted Freezie Pop supply. During this episode, we go into her driving history and how she came to be driving in GLTC and lead instructor for many GridLife e...
May 08, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 6Ep. 455
GHiT 0454: Live From the Rocky Mountain Breakdown Rally 2023 On this episode, we talk with Rally Master Jeff Stobbs live from the 2023 Rocky Mountains Breakdown Lemons Rally. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/RMBR2023 If you would like to help grow our podcast and high-performance driving and racing: You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, YouTube etc. Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star...
May 06, 2023•24 min
DwD 0453: What to Do after a Racing Incident On this episode of Dominating with Dawson, we talk about what to do and what not to do after having an accident on track. You may be surprised by what we have seen and what has been done after an accident. There are many things to do while still being on the track and even more things that you should do after removing you and your car from the track. And a few good stories about what not to do, lol. Plus Ben calls out the Jabroni that may be inside yo...
May 02, 2023•33 min•Season 6Ep. 453
GHiT 0452: Fire Laps Converts Telemetry Data into Useful Actionable Information Easily and Quickly Do you collect data and never use it or have time to use it? Is data analysis almost another job at the track? Fire Laps may be what you need. Quick collection & automatic analysis. Enter “GHiT” and you will get a free 3-months onto your annual membership. David and Daniel from Fire Laps join us to discuss their new website that Bill is SOOOOO excited to use. Fire Laps allows the input of telem...
May 01, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Season 6Ep. 452
DwD 0451: Hand Signals for the Track On this Dominating with Dawson, we talk about several of the more common hand signals that are used on track. While hand signals are much more common, and usually required, at HPDE events, they can be used while racing to the advantage of both cars and drivers. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/HandSignalsOnTrack If you would like to help grow our sport and this podcast: Awesome choice #1: Subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your c...
Apr 25, 2023•16 min•Season 6Ep. 451
GHiT 0450: Ross Bentley Returns To Help Celebrate – Plus a PittRace Track Overview Ross Bentley returns to help us celebrate our 450th podcast episode. We talk all things racing, including the upcoming One Lap of America and several listeners questions. We end with a track walk overview of PittRace to help those of our listeners who will be going to NASA Nationals this year. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/RossBentley450 If you would like to help grow our podcast and high-performan...
Apr 24, 2023•1 hr 44 min•Season 6Ep. 450
GHIT 0449: Race Recap: PittRace 2023 with the 24 Hours of Lemons This is our first race of the year. This is our first race with the new rebuilt engine and transmission. It’s a race at a track we know and love. How did it go? Did it go? Who stole our Cookie? Its all in this episode, and more A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/PittRace2023 If you would like to help grow our podcast and high-performance driving and racing: You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your...
Apr 22, 2023•1 hr 32 min•Season 6Ep. 449
DwD 0448: How Best to Deal with Mistakes On Track On this Dominating with Dawson, Ben speculates on what to do if he were to ever make a mistake on track. Bill and Vicki speak from more direct personal experience. We discuss things from as small as momentary losses of time or traction on track, all the way up to and including a big incident with damage to the car or drivers. We also talk about the different driving styles between Ben and Bill and Vicki that reflects our individual skills and exp...
Apr 18, 2023•18 min•Season 6Ep. 448
GHiT 0447: Tiffany and Justin Kelly Return for a Second Lap We catch up with Justin and Tiffany Kelly and learn all about what they have been up to since we last spoke. Their current focus is on shifter karts and instruction. We had never covered shifter karts to this point on the podcast and the performance of a shifter kart almost demands that you grow as a driver quickly. So if you are looking to improve your driving and get into a vehicle that is close to the performance of an Indy car or F1...
Apr 17, 2023•1 hr 32 min•Season 6Ep. 447
DwD 0446: Is Perfection Keeping You From Starting On this episode we talk about what we see as the second most frequent issue that we see that keeps people from going on track or from autocrossing etc. That is the pursuit of perfection in preparation. We go over the base level of driving and car preparation to get started and several of the most frequent “reasons” that the person can’t start until its done. This includes big brake kits, turbo additions, engine swaps, racing slicks, and many, man...
Apr 11, 2023•18 min•Season 6Ep. 446
GHiT 0445: Nik Romano from Fast Sideway – Suspension 101 – Part 2 We started our introduction to suspensions on episode 430 with Nik Romano. Nik rejoins for part 2 and we move on from suspension geometry and start to deal with the most important aspect of a suspension by shifting our focus to the interaction of the tire with the track. We go into a simple way to test how/if your suspension geometry changes are during its travel up and down (compression and rebound). We then go into some of the d...
Apr 10, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Season 6Ep. 445
DwD 0444: Dealing with a Bad Handling Car Despite all of our efforts to prepare the ideal car, some of us have had to deal with a car that is ill mannered or at least not ideal to what we as the driver would like. During this episode, we talk about a few of the times that we have been on track and the car was less than ideal. We then also go into some of the ways to deal with this or drive around some of the limitations of the car for that particular day and/or stint. A link to the episode is: h...
Apr 04, 2023•36 min•Season 6Ep. 444
GHIT 0443: Jim Tramontano from No Money Motorsports As everyone knows, you cannot even think about racing unless you are an independently wealthy multimillionaire. Nope. Jim Tramontano from No Money Motorsports runs full seasons of racing in one of the most competitive racing series of racing while working full time as a teacher. Jim not only competes in Spec Miata but wins races. His blog is focused on ways to save money and still be competitive and have a great time on track. We also talk abou...
Apr 03, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 6Ep. 443
DwD 0442: Track Markers – Their Use and Options On this episode of Dominating with Dawson, we go into how to determine what markers to use when on track and some of our personal preferences for selecting markers. Initially, Ben goes into the way that he prepares for an upcoming track and how he uses this preparation to get his markers ahead of even arriving at the track. The importance of markers can vary depending on the type of driver that you are, but even the most “feel” oriented driver can ...
Mar 28, 2023•28 min•Season 6Ep. 442
GHIT 0441: Skye Romanoff - On Rally Cross and Beyond Skye Romanoff has raced in a variety of disciplines and has promoted Rally Cross in California and nationwide. She has recently been invited by the Fern GP team for some test days in England (at Silverstone, how cool is that), with the potential of of driving driving in their Formula 3 cars in the future. If you aren't familiar with Rally Cross, this is a great introduction and we are already looking for a nearby event this summer. In addition...
Mar 27, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Season 6Ep. 441
DwD 0440: Antilock Braking Systems (ABS) On Track On this episode of Dominating with Dawson, Blake fills in for Ben and we discuss the proper use of ABS systems on a race track. There are several advantages to using ABS on track, especially when a track is wet, but there are also a few things to be aware of and even potentially better ways to drive than using the ABS system. Ben does make a guest appearance at the end to add to the discussion, so you still get your does of the Dominator. A link ...
Mar 21, 2023•31 min•Season 6Ep. 440
GHiT 0439: Mario Korf from the Occam’s Racers Mario Korf comes on the podcast, and we talk all things aero and beyond. Mario has a blog that is on our can't miss list. The blog is called Occam’s Racer and in it he tries to understand and explain aero for racing through tons of experiments to support or disprove theories. In addition, Mario was on the team that Ben raced with for his first Lemons race. It would seem that we would focus on racing aero, but that just wouldn’t be our way and we boun...
Mar 20, 2023•1 hr 55 min•Season 6Ep. 439
For anyone over 18 and who has any interest or especially if you love music, here is our first episode with an Explicit tag and not for the kiddies, but it just flowed naturally that we are releasing it as is (We are running it live). If there are kids in the car with you, you may want to listen to this episode later. In a long overdue Way Off Our Topic (WOOT) episode, we are joined by a special guest Christian James Hand who has a tremendous way to break down music into its component tracks (al...
Mar 14, 2023•2 hr•Season 3Ep. 128
