Car
Mazda MX-5 Miata
The Mazda MX-5 Miata is a small sports car that's very fun to drive. It's known for being light and easy to handle, making it a favorite for racing and car shows.
Car
Mazda Miata
Term
turbo
A turbo is a part that helps the engine get more air, which makes the car go faster. It’s like giving the engine a boost.
Term
DCT
DCT is a kind of automatic transmission that can change gears very quickly, making the car feel faster and more responsive when you drive.
Term
carbon bodied
When a car is described as 'carbon bodied', it means parts of the car are made from a lightweight material called carbon fiber, which helps the car go faster and handle better.
Term
tire size 245
When someone talks about tire size like '245', they are referring to how wide the tire is. Wider tires can help the car grip the road better.
Term
pivot
When a car turns, it can rotate around a point in the middle, which helps it navigate the corner better. This is important for keeping the car stable and fast while turning.
Term
turn in
When a driver starts to steer the car into a corner, that's called 'turning in.' It's an important part of how the car navigates the turn.
Concept
Autobahn
The Autobahn is a type of highway in Germany where there are parts that don't have speed limits. People can drive really fast there, which is different from most highways in other countries.
Concept
endurance racing
Endurance racing is a type of racing where cars or bikes race for a long time, sometimes for hours. Teams take turns driving to see how long they can keep going without breaking down.
Concept
sprint racing
Sprint racing is a type of racing where the races are shorter and faster, usually lasting only a few minutes. Drivers try to go as fast as they can to finish first.
Part
header
A header is part of the exhaust system that helps direct the gases from the engine out of the car. It can help the engine run better by letting the exhaust flow out more easily.
Part
spark plug wire
A spark plug wire helps deliver electricity to the spark plug, which is necessary for starting the engine. If the wire gets damaged, the engine might not run properly.
Term
clutch
The clutch is a part of the car that helps change gears. If it's not working right, it can make it hard to shift smoothly between gears.
Term
endurance race
An endurance race is a long car race where teams try to keep their cars running well for a long time. It's not just about speed; it's also about making sure the car doesn't break down.
Term
time attack
In time attack, drivers try to complete a lap around a racetrack as quickly as possible. They race against the clock instead of against other cars, focusing on getting the best time they can in a set number of attempts.
Term
perfect lap
A perfect lap is when a driver completes a lap around a racetrack in the best time possible, making no mistakes. It's like hitting all the right notes in a song perfectly.
Concept
lemons racing
Lemons racing is a type of car racing where you can only spend a small amount of money on the car, usually $500. It's meant to be a fun and silly way for people to enjoy racing without needing expensive cars.
Concept
NASA
NASA is a group that organizes car racing events for people who want to race their cars. They help drivers of all skill levels to compete in a safe environment.
Concept
staggered start
In a staggered start, cars begin the race from different spots instead of all starting in a straight line. This helps make the start safer and more organized.
Concept
GLTC
GLTC is a racing series where many cars compete together. It focuses on having fun while racing and building a community of car enthusiasts.
Concept
Formula 1
Formula 1 is a top-level car racing series where teams compete in races called Grands Prix. It's known for fast cars and advanced technology, and it takes place on tracks around the world.
LIVE
Hi, I'm Scott.
And I'm Seth.
And we are Track Walking.
Tonight, we catch up from a couple of our weekends, and we talk about a quote, and we attempt to
answer a question intelligently.
Actually, we had a lot.
We do have a few.
Yeah.
Which is fun.
It's a fun thing.
Yeah, because we've been, because we can tell about your weekend, but like your weekend
went into Monday, so we couldn't record last week because you were such a busy boy.
So we've like, we've done extended track things, but I don't recall ever being at a track for
this long before.
So it is Audubon.
We got there late, like 9, 9.30 on Thursday night, and we were there until like 5 on Monday
night.
And Audubon, with its famous like, I live in an asphalt death hell parking lot.
Yeah.
That was, that was Sunday and Monday, actually.
Audubon's one of those places, like I want, like I really want to love it because driving
it is cool.
Yeah.
But existing at Audubon.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a thing.
Air conditioning in an enclosed space is really the way to get through that, I think.
Yeah.
Comfortably, anyway.
So talk about the weekend.
Like what, like what was going on, what was your part in it, how to go.
Yeah.
So I went there to do some coaching and some setup for a few people.
I ended up being more busy than I typically planned to be.
And it went okay.
I was very busy, though.
Like the, it was the kind of busy where after I got done with someone, I almost like jokingly
wanted to say out loud, next.
You need like some velvet ropes so that people can just line up to hang out with you.
Take a number.
No, but it's, it was good, it's just the downtime was little bits and pizzas here and
there.
Like hard to find time for a sandwich type thing.
Yeah.
Well, we got to do, we did some setup checks for actually a Miata got on the street mod podium
over the weekend.
Holy crap.
Yeah.
Wild times.
John Road, a long time buddy.
He drives a DCT swaps turbo case series carbon bodied Miata.
Well, that's a lot going on with that, isn't it?
It's just like the whole thing and how much tire can he shove under that if he's been playing
with carbon body and stuff?
That's been the big missing piece for him is up until this year.
He's been stuck on two 45s.
That's not gonna tear.
That's just all that was available.
But of course the Vitur and now the Nan King come in much wider to 75 and 285.
And I think it's helping.
I've been wanting to talk to you about the state of tires because I'm sort of out of
the loop and I'm interested in it.
But I think that's a totally different show where we can sort of.
Yeah, probably.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But yeah, he did great.
So we checked his, checked a few other of the drivers I was coaching.
But honestly, overall, I kind of had a, you know, up on my white board kind of had a list
of everyone who is driving and just like some personal bests as like references and things
to focus on or, you know, for like Pete, who we do like weekend full setup stuff
for, you know, we've got his pressures and shock settings, wing angle, stuff like
that on the board.
And the number of times we got to cross off personal bests was pretty cool.
That's good.
So yeah, it was very drivers were excited.
It was good.
Pete had a bit of a disappointing end to the weekend and podium sprint.
He ended up going into turn four.
I think on his second hot lap and in high speed corners, you may not know this, but cars
actually like pivot on the middle point of the car.
Like the car just doesn't like dig in and turn in from wherever you are.
The front tires go in and the rear tires actually go out.
If you're like really maximizing that turn in.
And he was close enough to the edge of the track that when he turned in and pivoted
that right rear tire dipped off track and turn in it dipped off.
Yep, which happened to me at Heartland a few years ago that I was, I had just a little bit
of my tire hanging off at turn in and once I turned in that they just slid right off
and you know, you kind of long for the ride for a hot minute.
So that was a bummer.
But he, you know, he reset the overall record and then Mario, I think on that last morning
beat it by like a 10th.
No it wasn't even a 10th, it was some hundreds or something.
So that was cool.
Yeah, it was a good time.
And then that Sunday night was probably the most bizarre experience.
We've never stayed past a grid life event before.
Okay.
We've been there for like when the circus comes into town, but we've never been there
when the circus leaves town.
And boy, it gets quiet remarkably quickly.
So is anybody who's left just like scattered around?
Yeah.
There were a few people who stayed to Monday, but like a few, I'd say one, two, three or
four vehicles were still there.
And then, you know, a lot of the grid life staff were like packing up for a lot of the
night and stuff like that.
But you know, Becky and I installed her new race tech harness in her car and she
got some reading done and I stared at my phone for a while.
So you gotta have a little bit of downtime, gotta reset.
So kind of shouldn't, didn't realize how much downtime we'd have that evening.
I should have brought some of my books or something like that.
But there's the midwestern in you, like you can't just chill, you gotta be productive.
Well it's either reading or doom scrolling.
So it's like nice.
And there's moral judgments to be made about which one of those is better.
Well, yeah.
Yeah.
But it was good weekend.
And then Becky got to Monday.
We drove Autobahn full and that's really neat.
Like Autobahn full is cool.
And the event organizers did fine.
But I've never seen so many large incidents during a track day before.
Like people hitting things or?
Yes.
It was pretty wild.
We had two fairly major incidents.
One of which made it so that we couldn't do Autobahn full.
We had to switch to only doing north for a couple hours while they repaired three full sections
of Armco.
Yeah, there was a grass fire.
Another car hit a barrier.
And then there were multiple offs and fluid like it was just a strange.
And this was like on a Monday, like people have to go to work the next day, you know.
Was it just a group of guys out trying too hard or was?
I don't really know.
It was a strange one, though.
We jokingly said they were on like version 12 of the schedule by like one o'clock.
They're just winging it.
Yeah.
I mean, doing their best and they did, I think they did a good job with what they
had.
It was just, it was tough.
But yeah, Autobahn full is good fun.
My favorite part is the long connector from north to south.
It's like this very long duration, high radius left hander coming around the end of paddock.
It was pretty cool, so.
Becky almost got a sub three minute, which I don't know if that's a thing, but should
be.
Yeah.
I think it's an easy thing to do or a easy number anyway.
With the full course, though, like that's a lot to remember and it's yeah, it's so we
were actually thinking like in terms of a track this long, is there a more technical
track and like is there anywhere?
Is there anywhere else in the U.S. where you're sitting three minute lap times?
Well, and that's what we were trying to think like even NCM is mid twos and it's a shorter
track.
I mean, it's certainly more technical, but it's a shorter track.
Right.
This is a very long track that's not wrote America that has a lot of turns like it's
pretty unique.
It's cool.
I hadn't done it since grid life did it back in was it 19?
I think.
Yeah.
That was the weekend.
Yeah, long time.
It was really early.
Yeah.
That's when we did north.
No, we did south and north and then we switched to full on Sunday or something
like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Adam was just experimenting.
He was like, dude, I got an idea.
It'll be awesome.
And then they got done in there like, I mean, it was awesome, but what a pain
in the ass.
Yeah.
I mean, it reminds me of, you know, one lap when we, you know, when
we actually did configuration changes during the day and stuff.
Yeah.
When we used to do that at Crescent when we did big and little and then the 3.1.
Yeah.
We did that for NCM.
Yep.
It wasn't the same year, but it might have been the year after.
Yeah.
You go from one small course directly to the other one.
And then in the afternoon, they connect the two.
It's what we did with NCM too.
It's a wild good time.
It's fun.
I missed that.
I actually missed that at NCM when they stopped doing that and we're just doing full course.
I was like, oh, but I kind of missed the character changes and, you know, it's, it's a different
skill set to do.
Yes.
You know, instead of doing the same track twice, you do three different tracks during
the day.
And one of those years we did that, the autocross was there too.
So it was like four separate events in one day.
That was a lot.
So, yeah, it was good.
Mooncake's doing well.
I heard Mooncake's got a crapped on a camber right now.
It does.
It's got high fours.
Jesus.
And you want to know the crazy part?
Knees more.
Knees more.
Yeah.
So, yeah, so we're going to add some more and see how it does.
It's doing that, um, that women's day at Gingerman, I think it's called the empower her or empower
her.
Empower her.
I forget which one.
I want to say it's October 4th.
So if you are a woman or you know a woman who is interested or drives, uh, she came out
for that one.
I think it's going to be good.
So I'm going to play the role of crew chief and cheerleader.
Becky's just going to be awesome.
She's going to do her thing.
Red.
How about you?
You did some, you drove a long way from Michigan to Texas to do tiny bike things.
Yeah, I left, I left my cottage at 430 in the morning on Wednesday.
I got home.
It was just because I woke up.
It was like, well, I woke up.
I might as well turn the water off, turn the gas off, lock the doors and start driving.
You're getting old where like it just happens.
Yeah.
So it's like once I've slept for seven hours, my body's like, all right.
That's good.
The night's over.
Figure out something else to do.
Um, and so I ended up getting home mid, mid day on, on Thursday.
You know, it's, it's 20, basically 23 hours.
Um, so, uh, I flipped 32,000 miles on the car I bought in February.
Crazy.
Um, um, got some stuff done on Thursday, woke up on Friday.
Um, went to the track, made sure the motorcycle worked.
Um, definitely did was happy with that.
Got home packed everything up, made dinner for my wife, went to bed, woke up Saturday morning
at 430 so we could leave at five.
Okay.
Um, to drive to Denton, which is actually where my youngest goes to school.
Didn't see him all weekend.
Um, and, uh, went endurance racing on Saturday and sprint racing on Sunday.
Um, we had a new build, the, the father and son that I'm racing with, um, put together
a bike, another Honda 70, but put a different motor in it.
110 cc, uh, motor that goes in the Ovali race bikes.
And so it roughly doubles the horsepower that we had in the bike.
Geez.
Which is roughly four times the horsepower that the bike came with stock.
So it's, um, is a lot like, we're not really sure what the final result is going to be,
but the bike was running, was running well in the morning.
We went out and tested it.
Um, cause we weren't sure which bike we were going to ride because we had the bike
we've been running all year and we went out and ran it.
We're like, this is faster.
Let's run this.
Let's do this.
It's awesome.
And then right at the end of practice, a, the, the spark plug wire, which we had
zip tied back, flopped in a funny way, landed on the header and melted to the core.
It's a copper core spark plug wire.
You could see the copper.
Suboptimal.
Suboptimal.
Um, so we wrapped it up with electrical tape and zip tied it the rest of the way
out, went and did six laps by Cranfine.
We were like, all right.
I mean, if it works, it works.
Is this the fastest bike you've raced there?
No, the, the bike that we put together whatever three years ago that the boys
and I put together would have been faster than that would have had probably
two, two more horsepower than that.
Um, bigger chassis.
Um, that would have been faster than this by a couple of seconds.
Based on the lap times we put in at the beginning of the race, this bike
should be about three seconds a lap faster than the bike we've been running
all year.
So instead of running, we ran a lot of 54s, um, during the race, 54 second
laps and, um, for the, the 16 laps that the bike continued to run.
Um, put in, put in a fast lap of a, of a low 51.
Um, so like without even really getting used to the bike.
So we're, we're three, I think this new bike will be three to four seconds
a lap faster, which is like a lot.
Yeah.
Um, but it made it about 12 laps in started missing at about lap 16 came
in and he's like, it doesn't work.
Shit.
So cut the transponder off of it.
Um, and as I was zip tying it back to the leg of, of my bike, we went
to the organizer.
We, there's a, there's a thing where you can swap bikes during the
race, but you automatically go back to zero laps.
It's like starting over again.
So 20 minutes into the race, um, we started our race.
So we were, you know, roughly 20 laps down at that point.
Yeah.
Um, so that, that takes out any chance we have of doing particularly
well, but as far as the championship goes, you know, we still
got in 230 laps, something like that during the day, which is
better than, better than the bike running for like two hours
and then breaking.
And then we're like, crap, no, no, are you going to do?
So it's going to fail, fail early, fail hard, fail early.
Um, I did, um, I did see, I was invited and joined your little,
uh, bike Facebook group where they only occasionally post things.
Yeah.
And you were called out specifically first lap of one of the
races of causing a yellow flag.
Okay.
So I didn't cause the yellow flag.
Okay.
So, um, did you go down?
Yes.
I was going to get to that because that's what I saw.
So endurance races went fine.
It was fine.
Okay.
Sprint races, um, the, the clutch on my 70 is weird right
now.
Um, it's slipping under the two, three shift, but then it catches
back up and grabs.
Um, so the bike is suboptimal.
It did make it the entire endurance race, although the last
15 minutes, my, one of my teammates who was on it was like,
it's fucking broken.
It's like, finish the race.
Shut up.
And when the bike is cold, it works better.
So I spent as much as I could yesterday not riding the
bike, then going out and doing six or eight lab sprints
and then bringing it back in, turning it right off again
so it would get cold again.
And had a pretty good day.
Um, had some good battles.
Um, got to my last race.
Um, there was much bigger fields than usual.
There was probably half again as many riders as we've had
for most of the sprint races.
So instead of having four and five people per race,
we had a lot of races with like seven and eight people.
It's pretty cool.
Um, but it makes it a little more chaotic.
Last race, I think there was eight, eight people in the race.
Seemed like a lot.
Yeah.
Like it feels like a lot when you go through the first couple
corners and everybody's bunched up and things are
happening and, um, had a okay start, you know,
I have to paddle the bike to start because that's the,
the fastest way to do it is get two steps in help push
bike forward.
Um, still the slowest bike starting by far.
Are you allowed to like be off the bike and like jump on to
it and push?
Yeah, it's not really better doing that.
You just put it in gear and then you have like one foot
forward and one foot back and you go push, push.
And by then first gear catches up and it's okay.
Um, it's not a lot slower than the people around me,
but you know, it's, I always lose position on
starts just the way it is.
And then usually my corner speed by the time I get
to the first corner, my corner speed is higher than
the people in front of me and it's a whole thing.
And so typical corner one, which is this big banked
left-hander, big, fast banked left-hander.
You kind of, you know, it's first gear, second gear.
And if you didn't have people in front of you,
you wouldn't really have to let off.
You'd be kind of building speed through the whole
corner.
It passed a lot of people in that corner, didn't you?
I have passed a lot of people in that corner.
It was, it was a little chaotic.
Um, I didn't do as much this time.
Um, people are getting better throughout the year.
So a lot of the people that were not as good earlier
in the year have been getting better.
And so I'm, I'm, I'm being less awesome because
the people around me are less sucky.
It's just a proportion thing.
But good first corner, you know, went from,
you know, whenever position four to probably
position five second corner.
Um, there's a young rider.
I say young, I think he's eight.
And, um, he was inside and I took him outside.
And he takes a little bit of a funny line through
there and I knew he did.
Um, and he just, he takes a wide exit.
So I gave him room and he kept coming and I
gave him room and he kept coming and I kept
giving him room.
I was like, dude, if he takes this to the dirt,
then he's going to take me to the dirt.
And this is some kids eight year old and we're
both going to die.
And luckily he left me like not a lot of room.
So he's on my left.
We're going into, so we're like fifth and sixth
places.
There's four bikes in front of us.
We're going into the, the tightest, slowest
right-hander.
And in front of me is, uh, my teammate,
my 15 year old teammate from endurance racing.
And he tries to make an inside pass on this
right-hand corner that is never going to work.
On, on you?
No.
On a guy he was going into the corner with.
Um, a guy I really wanted to race today.
Uh, older gentleman in his early 60s that I
dearly love.
Um, he and I race, race close against
each other.
Have a good time.
This pass was never going to work.
Luckily he kind of realized it at the
last minute and dumped the bike up on the
curb rather than hit him.
Um, and bike goes up on the curb, bike
falls over.
I'm three bike lengths away.
There is an eight year old to my left.
And it was like, shit.
Like I need to try not to, to kill this
15 year old who just fell in front of me.
But I can't not hit him.
And so, um, I fall on the brakes kind of
aimed for more motorcycle than human.
It feels like that Sophie's choice.
Do you kill the 15 year old or the eight
year old?
And I didn't, because of how it was, I
just, I knew the eight year old was over
there.
Right.
But I would have had to bail really hard
left probably into him.
And it just would have been ugly.
Like it would have been bad.
And you know, you're trying to do all of
this in half a second.
You're trying to evaluate all of this
like immediately sort of based on, you
know, how you go into a corner and you
sort of like know where the chess pieces
are.
And then you're like, should I have to
make a move?
And you have to remember at that moment
where everything was.
And so I basically T boned a bike that
was on the ground.
Ass over T kettle tucked and rolled
landed on the 15 year old.
The bike came over and sort of like
rolled over me.
And I kicked the bike off.
You know, immediately was like, are
you okay?
He's like, yes.
Damn it.
I'm like, you're okay though.
Yeah.
Okay.
Cool.
And he picks his bike up.
He's got a broken bike brake lever.
I was like, good fuck you.
Kickstarted my bike.
Go to go straight.
And the handlebars are like 20 degrees
off straight.
It's like just all the way crooked.
And I'm like, no.
And you know, we're far enough behind.
We're a third of a lap behind at this
point.
It's not like I'm really going to catch
up.
Right.
But it was like, no.
So I just finished the lap and came
in.
Yeah.
But oddly, so the only thing that
hurt afterwards is my thumb, my left
thumb was sore.
And so I'm wiggling it.
My wife is like, why are you wiggling
your thumb?
And I'm like, making sure it's fine.
It's just not, it's not broken.
But I want to make sure it's not broken.
She's like, okay, because if it's broken
I was like, no, it's okay.
And I got up this morning and I have,
I have a big goose egg on my left shin.
Yeah.
I've got a big sore swollen spot
between my shoulder blades.
Maybe from where the bike hit you.
Yeah.
And my left thumb hurts.
It's like the weirdest rant.
And it feels like somebody threw me down
the stairs just in general.
Right.
Like not a lot of stairs, but like four
or five, somebody pushed you down
stairs and you're like, oh, I'm old
and that hurt.
It's a very specific number.
Yeah.
And that's, but not like a flight of
stairs.
A stoop.
Somebody pushes you off a stoop type
thing.
Like a split level.
Yeah.
Yeah, like that.
So I'm getting good at evaluating
how much it hurts when I do stuff
now.
So yeah, that was my last race of the
day.
And that's the last sprint races of
the year.
They changed the format.
So they're going to do an endurance
race at the last round of the year
instead of sprints at the last
round because they've been,
we had 22 endurance teams at this
last race.
Wow.
And they've just been for whatever
cultural reasons,
endurance races have been much
more well attended than sprint
races.
So they made a decision to do
that.
We've got one more sprint or one
more endurance race.
And then into the year trophies,
we should have the bike together
to race the fast bike at the last
endurance race.
So we're pretty hyped about that.
He has an extra motor, that same
motor, which is a story why he has
two of those motors because I
used to have two of those motors
and then he bought them from me
and then he was going to give me
one back.
So for next year, we're going to
have two of those bikes that make
way too much horsepower.
And we're going to go be a
horse and try to mess with people
who have better bikes than us.
So we'll see how that goes.
Sounds like a good time.
That was a good time.
The only thing that was,
that I felt bad about all weekend
because I didn't run over
anybody's kids so I didn't feel
bad about that.
My wonderful, loving, amazing wife
was like, I'll come with you.
I was like, do you want to come
with me?
She's like, no.
But I will come with you and
drive because driving back at the
end of a weekend like that by
yourself is unpleasant.
And so she came and she drove,
but that's just like sitting at a
racetrack for two days.
Yeah.
Is not awesome if you're not a
racer.
Yep.
So she's wonderful, but I felt
bad about her doing that.
So at least the next round is
an hour from home.
So she won't have to do that.
So that'll be nice.
And when is that?
That is the first weekend in
November.
Oh, thanks.
You got a minute.
Yeah, there was supposed to be
the six hour round in October
and they've had scheduling
problems and weren't able to get
that scheduled.
So this is the first year since
I started racing that we won't
do the six hour.
So that's kind of a bummer,
but it's one of those things
that happens when you're
living in a world where you're
the lowest priority series that
runs at any of these tracks.
Sometimes this happens.
Yeah.
Well,
I happened to upon a quote
a few weeks back that I sent
you.
Yeah.
And I thought it was pretty
deep and provocative.
And you're like, but no.
Because part of half of this
is silly.
And we want to talk about it
for a little bit.
The quote is,
there is no prize to perfection
only an end to pursuit.
There is no prize to perfection
only an end to pursuit.
And I want you to talk about
how you thought this was deep
and amazing.
And then I'll talk about how
it's
all right.
So here's the thing.
I
and I think this this is really
our only sticking point is that
it's presuming that perfection can
be attained.
Which
right.
Which
nobody here believes.
But
I think in the framing of it.
You know, say say you get this
thing that you've always been
chasing.
No, you you get the new car.
You get the new job.
The bigger house.
Perfect.
Perfect family.
Perfect life or perfect.
Whatever.
Perfect lap.
Let's say.
Let's just say it.
You get these things.
Nothing happens
except you
get to quit
trying.
You get to quit working at something
because you got it.
Like there's no reward.
There's no like enlightenment.
Because
the pursuit of perfection
is just effort.
Like that's that's what it is.
We don't like life doesn't have
an awards show.
Right.
I mean, I feel like it should
sometime.
Hey, you got through a Monday.
We want to do the normal people
Emmys this year.
Well, like, like Scott,
you've been nominated for like, you
put up some badass trim this year.
Thank you.
Today, Monday, hard to
so tired.
But yeah, so I just kind of
liked that I connected these two things.
The pursuit of perfection
and
the idea that like that's really
all there is to
perfection.
Because we I think
we agree that you just you can't
get it.
But it's the pursuit.
It's the effort.
The striving and the struggle
that that's like that's all
there is.
Right.
And that's I connected it to
to art.
There's artists who have a thing
like that who
who say something along the lines.
If I'm still making art, it's because
I'm not happy with it.
Because they'll make art
and they'll be like, you know, I can do
better.
And they'll make more art and they'll
be like, you know, I can do better.
Performance musicians will
perform something to be like I can do
like I can be better at this.
And so everything they do
is in pursuit of like making
the best art that they can make.
But in making a particular piece,
they realize there's something that they
could do better.
And so that requires them
to make more art in perfection
or in pursuit of doing
better than they did before.
And so like the only thing to do
is continue to hate what you're doing
just a little bit or quit.
Like those are your only options.
And I would
like when you started to talk about
the artist, my mind goes to
speech writers, orators,
authors, people like that
is that they talk about it as
then like things that need to be said
or things that they need to say.
And
it's interesting.
I'd have to think that their
version would be
that I've said everything
I need to say.
But I'm not sure
that's ever
accomplished.
No, I think there's certainly
people who
who write
like a write a book
and get out
all of
the good stuff they have in them.
You save up a life's worth of
of thinking and contemplating
and you pour out everything you can
into
into a work
and you send it out into the world
and you don't have anything
that beautiful and profound left in you.
I think that
happens.
God, that seems tragic to me though.
It's like
then
do you just die?
Like what
like the next step
it only seems like that's the thing.
Like if you if you write
and you're like it is done
and then you keel over
and that's it.
But the idea that like you
you get all these big ideas
out of you
and then you just kind of go
into stasis mode
for the rest of your life.
Like
keep experiencing
and like there's
there's got to be more
always
or something different.
There's a bunch of authors
the one that comes specifically to mind
and I can't remember his name
but I know the book.
There's a book called
The Confederacy of Dunces.
I've heard of this title.
It takes place in New Orleans
like
characters that you don't like at all
but fascinating characters.
Oddly brilliant book.
It was published posthumously
because he poured
everything into this book
and
killed himself.
In
I don't know if it's direct
somebody will have to correct me
if it was directly in you know
an effort to get it published
if it was just found afterwards
I don't know what's going on
but it was published after his death.
Brilliant piece of work.
But
I mean
that was it.
Like he
took
everything
into this work
years of writing
and then died
that's all you're ever going to get out of him.
Yeah.
And
think of
think of so many painters
like I think one of the reasons we don't
like live artists
is because there's always the potential for something new
but if you
if you can look at their whole body of work
is brilliant then you're like
cool they did that thing.
Well what have they done lately?
Yeah it's
I don't know we
we look at
a continuously creative process
different than we look at
work like I wasn't alive for
I don't know like Hemingway
doing his works but
certainly J.K. Rowling
we talk a lot about her personal stuff
but the books
the Harry Potter books that were written
are
really good pieces of literature
for the genre
like they're an
it's an outstanding series of books
the world building
the character development
all of its phenomenal
I don't think she had anything
left in her when that was done.
She's written some other stuff since then
that's not nearly as good.
Sure.
So
but
Yeah in
in context of
race cars
Yeah we just kind of what we do here.
Right.
Some of what we do.
Let's be real sometimes.
You know if you achieve perfection
like if you
won
time attack
Yep
which is
even in framing is
on its face feels absurd
well and there's different ways to win time attack
Right
but like
it was the perfect lap
it's
the fastest car
it's
nothing's gonna touch it
ever and ever and ever
etc
then
all that's left is
to
stop
Yeah
well to come off and go like
it can't be better than that
I can't think of
a single high level driver
that would ever make that statement
Yeah at least not in
with some
data and retrospect
and stuff like that
Right
Yeah
but even the notion of this
and
and so okay you do
the perfect
fast lap
like is the joy
like and I guess this is where
the crux of it is for me like
is the joy
in the getting
like is the joy in the
the achievement
or is the joy in the pursuit
and at least this quote
seems to suggest that if
the joy is in the perfection
in the getting
then once you get there
is nothing left
there's nothing else to do
then
something else
but I think what you and I
might suggest
is that if the joy is
in the pursuit itself
then there will always be
something else to do
something else to try
like even if you can't do
a better lap like you can
go drift it
you can
take up airplanes
like go try something else
Yeah and I
when you sent me that quote
I immediately looked at it as being
very sarcastic
Sarcastic
which is to say
like if you're
perfect the only thing
you have to do is quit
which is a deeply
sarcastic opinion on
trying to perfect
anything
to me anyway
at least that's how
I would be
if somebody did like I did that
perfectly I'm like cool go home
there's nothing left for you to do
that's for
and I think there is
I do think a lot of people
a lot of high level people
are
a bit sarcastic about the idea
of perfection
with any of that because they understand
the more you understand the nuances
of the thing that you're doing
the more you understand how
impossible it is
to achieve every one of those
nuances simultaneously
sure
and so the closer you get
to perfection
the more perfection is
impossible
or
now they're using the word
perfection so this I don't think this
would hold up but like
if perfection is your
goal
like if we replace the word
perfection with goal
and you achieve it
then maybe you just need better goals
like maybe your goals
aren't
lofty enough but again
they're using the word perfection
right not like
I'm gonna wake up and not die
today
it's a perfect day
it's a day
but does that qualify as perfect
I don't probably not
well if your goal is not dying
then it's a binary
yeah it's still hard
for me to say that's perfect
anyway
set binary goals
just yes or no
I mean
it's like past fail in school right
honestly that's how I do
a lot of the racing I do
like
the idea of a participation trophy
for the racing I do sounds amazing to me
because just getting
getting there and
and being one of the
people
who's racing motorcycles
is for me
a victory
I don't
I enjoy
winning races on the rare occasions that I do it
but it is far from being a necessity
I like
I enjoy a good battle
for sixth
absolutely as much as I enjoy winning a race
just being there
racing motorcycles is a success
for me
and I know that sounds all wishy-washy
and like I'm not a real competitor
because you should want to win things
but
I'm over
I'm over trying to win
in that way I just
I want to be doing something enjoyable
with people
that I enjoy doing that thing with
I think you've just been beat out of that
drive
from a young age
yeah I mean there's some of that
mid-westerner part of
you know
but how did the other kids do type thing
like if you ever have a great
day and you're like oh my god I did amazing
and then you know the adults in your life are like
okay but how did the other kids do today
yeah comparison
the thief of joy in all that
yeah
all right well
I thought it was an interesting quote
I mean it's not a bad quote
I think it's a good
like
if you've got friends who are into this
sort of thing I think it's a good thing to like
throw out and be like what do you think
about that I think
it'll elicit a lot of
different perspectives
yeah and it's an extension
of the you know get
get four or five people together and like
what are we trying to do here
like what are you trying to do what are we
trying to do what's this all about
something to it's an
interesting group conversation to have
yes there is
no prize to perfection
only an end to pursuit
there you go
enjoy that
all right
we don't we had a question
yeah we don't have a lot of time
we don't have enough time
to just like chat about it don't we
we do
probably
we just don't do a good job answering
how's that
sure
I mean probably weren't anyway
but hey right
okay
how do you know when you're ready to
race wheel to wheel safely
and what mindset
preparation should you bring into
comp school or your first race
weekend
what do you think
I'm very curious
about what you say because we exist
in much different worlds
we both race well I race
wheel to wheel more than you do know ha
but it's true
but we were you know we've been
parallel racing
wheel to wheel for a couple years
now a fundamental difference
is
like on Saturday I was racing
against a literal eight year old
right
a gentleman in his
in his early sixties at the same time
15 year
old
we had in the endurance race
we had a guy
at least two guys
this was their very first time
on a motorcycle
on a racetrack
and they were in the endurance race
and they were making
questionable decisions
but they didn't hurt anybody
and so
the barrier
the barrier to entry
not just like
you have to buy leather you have to enter
you have to take this class
that's written you know with a test
that's written for eight year olds to pass
and
in the expectations for racing
in the series that I race in
is
can you make your way around a track
safely enough that you don't
cause other people to
be hurt
and if the answer to that is yes
this is an environment
where you can go get better
you know the only time I would say
don't go racing is if you're
because if you don't know how to race
and you want to be awesome
be like that's the complete wrong attitude
to have
you should want to be better
than you are be humble
and learn how to do that when you're well
in the presence of other people
and I think
it's a real like growth
learning mindset that you're talking about
yeah like it is
the bottom
of racing motorcycles
is where like this is the
lowest level of where you can
possibly start racing motorcycles
on a track we're all there
to
have a good time and to really
appreciate those people that are
starting we're going to be careful
around them we're going to give them room
we're going to hope that they pay attention to us
and you know learn and get better
but we really do like I said
all the a bunch of bikes have been getting faster this year it's amazing
there was people at the beginning of the year who were
really bad at racing motorcycles
and now I have a hard time keeping up with them
they've gotten better they've gotten
more aware they're safer to be around that's
beautiful beautiful part of racing
and I don't think that racing
tiny motorcycles is the only place that happens
I know people who have raced
lemons racing
and
there is that's another
place where I mean I don't think you want somebody who
doesn't know anything
lemons racing
but I think in that
world you you have
a low barrier
to entry and room for
growth within the series
you just need to go be safe
but you can learn
everything else while you're participating
true
yeah and I think for me that's
where the crux
of this question is because he asks
safely
how do you know when you're ready to race
go to wheel safely
but I think it's different in different places
I think being ready to race safely
in lemons
is different than being ready
to race safely in
gltc
I legitimately do and you can
argue with me and tell me that I'm wrong
maybe
I mean because I mean lemons takes
almost anyone
right and after the start
you tend to be spread out
you tend to be running your own
race amongst other people still very
much wheel to wheel racing
yeah I
know what you mean
and where my mind wants to go with this
is like skills but
I think if we're talking about
safely I think
fundamentally the skills
that are needed
is you need to know how
to handle a car when it's
out of sorts
because
if it's time attack this one to me would
kind of go away because
you're typically
much farther spread out so like
you'd be a
hazard to yourself
but maybe not to other cars but in wheel to wheel
like if the car gets sideways
you
should know largely how to handle that
if it's understeering into oblivion
you should know some of how to handle that
like there should be a decent
knowledge of car
control as a skill
to safely
be in wheel to wheel
I still think that's a
spectrum depending on
where you're going to be
if you're racing with NASA
and there's four cars in your class
and you're doing a staggered start
like you've got a lot more freedom
to learn as
you go
than lining up
with GLTC with 32 cars
on the grid
I'm not suggesting
perfection
as we just talked about
but
some competence
in this area
which would be hard to measure
for sure like what level
of competence
what would somebody
measure that against would be difficult
but outside of car control
I think
intuitive understanding
of flags
and communication
between cars and communication
with track staff
is
required
you need to know what the flags mean
and you need to
really be able to not have to think about it
very much
outside of that
I think a lot of it like you said
is
an attitude
of
not coming into it like I'm hot shit
I'm God's gift
to racing sort of thing but like
I've got stuff
to learn
this is a good place that I can grow
and develop as a driver
and so there's
humility but like also the desire
to want to engage other
racers
not only racing on track but
in paddock
learning, watching video, watching data
that kind of stuff like a desire
to like want to
improve
even from the
if we're only talking about safety
why would you not want to
put your car here in this situation
why would you not want to
make your car
this move in this corner
you know that there's a way
to get safer
on track as well as be faster
and sometimes those are
the same thing
but yeah
right I think when we talked about
last year when we had the growth mindset thing
I think anybody
starting out racing
at any point in racing should go
should be able to look at a race
that they've just finished
and go how could I have done that better
sure
and if you like if you follow
Formula 1 and you read the comments
of any of the
the teams or the drivers
post-race it's always about
what we could have done better always
yeah
well went well
what can we do better yeah
if at the very tippy tapas level of
racing
they finish a race and one of their primary concerns
is how could we have done
today better
at the level of racing we're at
I should also certainly be
a thought process that we have
like and you would want people
coming into racing to come in
with that thought process like how
can I finish this weekend
of racing learning
more
about
this thing that I'm trying to do
than I was when I started it
that's what I would love to see
with anybody who's racing new right like
like how can I how can
I use this weekend to learn to be
better
I
the follow-up question that we had to this
exact one was what are some signs
that you're not quite ready yet
and how do you work to close
those gaps
this is a terrible place
for self-evaluation
yes
I when it
when it comes to racing cars
especially
I'm a huge fan of
the ladder systems the
the clubs and organizations that have a ladder system
and have
experienced people
that are literally going to tell
you whether you're ready or not
yeah
because I think we're
early on in our
track driving and racing career
we're crap at self-evaluation
not just our ability
but our ability and our awareness
and all of those things
I think the people around us the experienced people around us
are much better at seeing the truth
of that than we are
and so
trusting the people
around us is probably the hardest part
either somebody saying actually
you're not ready to race wheel to wheel yet
this is what you need to work on
and to have your ego go
alright fine
or with a lot of us
having somebody go
you know you're ready to do this right
and
that's scary when you're not
sure if you're ready
and somebody who's quite experienced
goes you're ready to make that
step this is the thing you can do now
that was me
I kind of had to
trust the confidence of people
I trusted
to be like
I mean they say I am
so I guess we're gonna try it
when I started time-trialing cars
it was the same thing
you know people were like no you're ready
you're going to be on time-telt grid now
go get a transponder
and I was like
oh okay
it's when the mama bird like pushes
the baby out of the nest and it's like
you're ready and you're falling
you're like but am I
I'm flying
yeah exactly
you either hit the ground or you
do some sort of arm movement
wing movement
so yeah no that's
that's good
the whole self-evaluation
versus seeking outside
perspective is
big
because often times like especially when you're
trying something new like
maybe even not radically new
but just like going into a whole
new thing your nerves
and your feelings
could cloud a lot of the
objective analysis
and
reflection on like
what actually is coming up
and what is actually happening
and so
you may feel like you did terrible but
now you've got people around you
experienced people
saying actually for your first weekend
you did pretty remarkably
and here's why
yeah so
an indirect answer to the question
but I do like the
outside perspective take
and to trust those people
that's a hard
it's a really hard thing to
to trust people
that are giving you positive
or negative feedback
that's why they're there in your life
is to do those things
and I think I see that better
not now that I'm an old man
and I've been on the side of giving that advice
it makes more sense to me
than when I was just on the end
of receiving it
so yeah
alright
ask us more questions though we like them
yeah
we still have a few to get through
but yeah get in
it's in discord or I mean
use the facebook page if you want send us a message
email
I don't know get in touch with us
since got a letter
yeah
I love getting mail
it'd be amazing
it'd be such a standout
it's my handwritten note holy crap
it'd be amazing
but yeah we're at trackwalking
podcast on facebook and instagram
the discord
which is in the show notes is kind of where
we're hanging out most
these days
trackwalking chats is still up on facebook
if you want to say hi there too
but yeah
that's going to do it for us this week
we've got an interview coming up next week
and it should be a good one
I'm looking forward to it
anyway thanks for listening
for the two of us
I'm Scott and I'm Seth
we'll talk to you next week
About this episode
Scott and Seth dive into their recent experiences at Autobahn, discussing coaching, personal bests, and the challenges of extended track events. They share stories about a Miata's podium finish and the unique atmosphere after a grid life event. The conversation shifts to the philosophical, exploring a thought-provoking quote about the pursuit of perfection in racing and life. They also tackle questions about readiness for wheel-to-wheel racing, emphasizing the importance of humility, self-evaluation, and seeking external feedback from experienced peers.
Original notes
Seth doesn't like hypotheticals... and Scott wants joy in the work.
We talk about a quote, catch up, and try and answer a listener question!
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Discord! Where we hang out
Robertson-Racing.com
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