GHiT 0588: Race Recap – NJMP Thunderbolt 2024 – Part 1 Our race season continues with a huge field at the newly resurfaced NJMP Thunderbolt track with the 24 Hours of Lemons. Our team had 4 cars at this event and on this podcast we review the 1993 Civic (EG for the home gamers) that was driven by Vicki, Jennifer, and Bill (with a pinch hit stint from Jeremy on Saturday). We had hurt the car a bit at PittRace, but how did it go for this event? Really well! A link to the episode is: https://tinyur...
Jun 12, 2024•54 min•Season 7Ep. 588
GHiT 0587: Team PGR Reviews their Second Overall Finish in the 2024 One Lap of America - Oh, Yes, It Was In Their EV On this episode, Team PGR returns to the podcast to talk about the 2024 One Lap of America. The last time Andrew DeKoning came on we talked about the plusses and minuses of competing in the OLoA in an electric vehicle. This time we talk about what its like to come in SECOND overall by less than a second after the entire event. Mission accomplished! A link to the episode is: https:...
Jun 11, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Season 7Ep. 587
DwD 0586: Understeer - Types and Potential Adjustments Ben and Bill discuss the different types of understeer and several options to improve your lap times. This includes things that you can do to the car setup. Often, you may not have time to change the setup of the car (during a race etc.) or the conditions of the tires, track etc. can change and we also cover options you may be able to use as a driver. Please let us know if we missed something. We love to learn and progress. Always in trainin...
Jun 06, 2024•24 min•Season 7Ep. 586
GHiT 0585: Rob Fields - One Lap of America and Building Original Race Cars Rob Fields has an amazing background in aerospace and other advanced technologies but now works and runs Fields Auto Works and has designed and manufactured several original race cars, one of which competed and completed the 2024 One Lap of America. The performance and value for these cars is amazing and honestly way too tempting. During this episode, we discuss Rob's background, the OLoA in one of his Cardinal preproduct...
Jun 03, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 7Ep. 585
DwD 0584: “Good” Coil Overs/Shocks – Are They Worth It In an effort to start yet another internet flame war, a listener asked us “Are the fancy coil overs really worth it”. We answer this question with a series of questions that lead to the answer. And for our next episode, we will answer what is the best brake pad and brake fluid, lol. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/CoiloversAreTheyWorthTheMoney
May 31, 2024•19 min•Season 7Ep. 584
GHiT 0583: Autocross with Audra We were so close to going to a local autocross that we thought it would be great to talk to Audra about what to do and expect. Autocross is a great way to start improving as a driver and helps with track driving as an excellent, low cost way to improve your skills, especially your car control skills. Audra has been autocross'ing for well over a decade and run many events with her team at her local autocross series. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/Aud...
May 29, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 7Ep. 583
DwD 0582: Weight Management On Track – AKA Friction Circle Take 6? We are looking to improve our track driving and one of the concepts that some of us are still working on is how best to manage the weight of the car on track to maximize grip and minimize our lap times. In other words, managing the friction circle. Yep, here we go for try number 6 or so. Did we do it this time? Does it make sense now? Do you have a better way of explaining it? Let us know. A link to the episode is: https://tinyur...
May 24, 2024•16 min•Season 7Ep. 582
GHiT 0581: Heyward Wagner on his One Lap of America Heyward Wagner is back after his recent adventure on the One Lap of America in his newly built Club Spec Mustang. As we discussed with Heyward on one of his earlier appearances, the Club Spec Mustang series was created to make a car that was competitive and fun to race in all types of motorsports, so naturally the OLoA was a great place to show the car’s capabilities. And to have “Fun With Cars”. How did it go? How did the car perform? Did they...
May 22, 2024•1 hr•Season 7Ep. 581
GHiT 0580: Bryan Lanham from the Adrenaline Chunkies Bryan Lanham hasn’t been racing with the 24 Hours of Lemons for a long time, but he and his team have had quite a lot happen in a relatively short time. Once we saw the latest theme, we knew we had to have him on. If you are thinking of racing Lemons, you can learn a lot from this team. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/NinjaTurtleMiata If you would like to help grow high-performance driving and racing and maybe even our podcast, l...
May 20, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 7Ep. 580
DwD 0582: Comp School Stories and Tips Ben, Vicki, and Bill talk about their comp school days, how things went, and some tips for attending Comp School. Ben and Bill went to two different NASA regions and Vicki attended hers at a recent SCCA event. Comp School is where you go to get qualified for a novice racing license and after several successful races, you can qualify for your full racing license. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/CompSchoolStorytime We hope you enjoy this episode...
May 17, 2024•39 min•Season 7Ep. 579
GHiT 0578: Brad Lee Finally Races Wheel to Wheel Brad Lee has been working with us for several years to get to race wheel to wheel on track with us. Obviously, he should aim much higher, but we get to hear how his first race went with us at PittRace. This is the last and 4th part of our PittRace event, and we hope you enjoy the episode as much as Brad did the race. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/BradFinallyRaces If you would like to help grow high-performance driving and racing an...
May 13, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 7Ep. 578
DwD 0577: Tool Organization - At Garage/Home and At the Track On a Ben-less Dominating with Dawson, we go over one of Bill's obsessions, tool organization. He has tested almost every style of tool organization and evaluated them for use in a garage/home, as well as when travelling to and from the race track. We initially go into several of the tool box solutions that we have tried and liked for different applications. Then we go into several of the different tool/drawer organization systems that...
May 09, 2024•28 min•Season 7Ep. 577
GHiT 0576: Bob Miller – Your Oil Needs for Racing Bob Miller joins us to talk about motor oil and oil analysis. Bob runs the Racers Oil Analysis Resource that will provide you with oil analysis and recommendations for your particular use case. Are you using the correct oil? Are you changing it too soon or not soon enough? That and more. Plus we talk about racing his Kia Rio in the One Lap of America, as well as a bunch of other areas of racing. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/OilFo...
May 06, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Season 7Ep. 576
DwD 0575: Car Livery - Part 1: Base Coat/Color Change Options In our first emergency episode of Dominating with Dawson, without Dawson, we tried to cover an area of racing that we have investigated repeatedly, the livery. In this episode, Vicki and Bill go over several ways to change your car’s color for a base to your livery. We also cover difficulty, costs, and other things that we have found to help with the process. This can be intimidating, but with a little practice and patience you can ge...
May 02, 2024•34 min•Season 7Ep. 575
GHiT 0574: Getting Our SCCA Racing Licenses Vicki, Audra, and Elizabeth went to Thompson for the Thursday/Friday event that if they passed would give them their novice racing license that becomes a full racing license after 5 more races without any incidents. How did the weekend go? Did anyone pass? What did we learn? What we would recommend before, during, and after the event? Its in here. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/OurSCCARacingLicenses Event Organizer was: www.scca.com http...
Apr 29, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 7Ep. 574
GHiT 0573: Race Recap – PittRace 2024 – Part 3 Pedal Mafia Our race season has begun with our kickoff race at PittRace with the 24 Hours of Lemons. We were joined by several members of the National Championship winning racing team, the Three Pedal Mafia. You all know them, they are the team we always refer to as our sister team and they refer to us as “Who”. Jeff, Jim, and Eric drove with us in our 1993 Honda Civic (EG for the home gamers) and shared in the hilarity of our Over the Top Gun Theme...
Apr 24, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 7Ep. 573
DwD 0572: How to Learn a Track As Quickly As Possible Bill is about to compete in the One Lap of America and will be visiting most of the tracks for the first time. Ben discusses several ways to learn a track more quickly and may be helpful for you at your next new to you track day. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/LearnATrackFast We hope you enjoy this episode! If you would like to help grow our podcast and high-performance driving and racing: You can subscribe to our podcast on th...
Apr 22, 2024•29 min•Season 7Ep. 572
GHiT 0571: Race Recap – PittRace 2024 – Part 2 Our race season has begun with our kickoff race at PittRace with the 24 Hours of Lemons. We were joined by the famous Slippery Slope racing team and shared a garage together. The drove their 1991 E34 5 series BMW in class A and made a great showing with much progress over their first year of endurance racing. We talk with Audra, Max, Larry, and Bill, and make fun of Ryan who was podcast shy. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/PittRace2024...
Apr 20, 2024•50 min•Season 7Ep. 571
GHiT 0570: Race Recap – PittRace 2024 – Part 1 Our race season has begun with our kickoff race at PittRace with the 24 Hours of Lemons. We had a large team and we over did our theming effort this time. The race was fantastic, until it wasn’t, but we made lemonade out of it in the end. Good racing Saturday was followed by some race ending issues, but we did end up taking home a bit of hardware. This is part one of the race review and it covers a lot of the theming related activities from the week...
Apr 19, 2024•42 min•Season 7Ep. 570
GHiT 0568: Tom Lomino Was Long Overdue Racing with Tom Lomino has been racing with us since we started and long before we arrived. He has a predisposition for VW’s and has raced a few since he started with great success and sometimes with great struggles. We review Tom’s racing history, his VW successes and struggles, and many of the various escapades Tom has been involved with since he began racing and wrenching. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/TomLomino If you would like to help ...
Apr 17, 2024•1 hr 39 min•Season 7Ep. 568
DwD 0569: How to Pass a Faster/More Powerful Car On Track An article by Randy Pobst in Grassroots Motorsports magazine stirred up this bit of conversation related to passing fast and more powerful cars on track. While this may initially seem to be impossible, it usually the only way we are able to pass cars on track, lol A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/PassingFasterCars We hope you enjoy this episode! If you would like to help grow our podcast and high-performance driving and racin...
Apr 15, 2024•18 min•Season 7Ep. 569
DwD 0567: Gripping your Steering Wheel We discuss the best way to grip a steering wheel and hand position with a bit more related topics. This may be one of the few times where more is not better. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/HulkNoSmash We hope you enjoy this episode! 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, Y...
Apr 12, 2024•15 min•Season 7Ep. 567
GHiT 0566: Elizabeth Jolly – Lap 3, Plus a New Plan for Vicki It had been too long since we had Elizabeth Jolly on the podcast. She was at our first ever All Ladies team endurance race at Thompson and has learned a considerable amount as a driver, a racer, and as a mechanic for her race cars. She has progressed her driving to securing her SCCA racing license and competes in her Spec E30 BMW. We talk about how things have been going and then make a new decision and plan that affects Vicki’s seaso...
Apr 08, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Season 7Ep. 566
DwD 0565: Car Setup Targets What is faster, setting up a car as fast as it can be or setting it up to maximize driver comfort with the car performance. This gets even more complicated when dealing with a team of drivers for an endurance race. Ben discusses this and provides a few examples of what to do and what will give the best performance for a given race. Did we miss something? Do you have a better suggestions? Please let us know. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/ CarSetupTarget...
Apr 05, 2024•22 min•Season 7Ep. 565
GHiT 0564: Johan Schwartz – All About Racing and Car Control We loved our car control clinic at CMP a few weeks ago and Johan Schwartz was kind enough to come onto the podcast this week. During the episode, we talk about a lot of Johan’s past and how he has progressed to this point in his racing career. We also talk about his car control clinic which was very helpful to us and well worth the trip. Johan also indulges us in going through each of his three World Records in drifting and we have a l...
Apr 01, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Season 7Ep. 564
DwD 0563: Proper Preseason Preparation Performed Perfectly With the season rapidly approaching, we wanted to go over some tips to prepare you and your team for the first event. The reduction in stress from beign prepared can actually make you perform better and safer. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/ProperPrep We hope you enjoy this episode! 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 o...
Mar 26, 2024•19 min•Season 7Ep. 563
GHiT 0562: Racing Subarus the Best way with Dewey Dewitt Dewey Dewitt, fresh off his 2023 Time Attack Championship with GridLife, joins us to go into the details for properly racing and preparing Subaru’s for racing and track use. We focus on addressing basic upgrades to protect the car during high performance driving. Then look at potential performance upgrades and the potential implications, both positives and potential negatives. If you have ever heard of “Subaru” issues, there are simple, re...
Mar 25, 2024•1 hr 37 min•Season 7Ep. 562
GHiT 0561: Recap of our Car Control Clinic at CMP At long last, Vicki’s Christmas training gift was here. We attended a Car Control Clinic at CMP’s skid pad with Johan Schwartz. Vicki and Bill both grew as drivers and improved their car control, car recovery, and even a bit of drifting was had. A great event that we try to summarize for you. If you can attend one of Johan’s events, you definitely should, and it will benefit all levels of drivers. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/Car...
Mar 20, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Season 7Ep. 561
DwD 0560: What Not to Do Before Going on Track for the First Time There are several things that can affect your starting up driving on track or autocrossing. In this episode, we go over many of the things that you should not wait far. Its almost a Jeff Foxworthy skit episode but in reverse. A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/WhatNotToWaitFor We hope you enjoy this episode! If you would like to help grow our podcast and high-performance driving and racing: You can subscribe to our podc...
Mar 19, 2024•14 min•Season 7Ep. 560
GHiT 0559: Trailer and Towing – Part 2 We start off with a quick review of some listener feedback. Apparently, some of our listeners have created some pretty amazing trailer and towing setups and we would love to see them and share with everyone. We would love nothing better than to help prevent any accidents, or even close calls, and hopefully improve everyone’s trailer and towing game to the point where we all can enjoy our time with our fellow racers and track day friends and soon to be frien...
Mar 18, 2024•1 hr 54 min•Season 7Ep. 559
